Obama’s Strategy to Disarm and Defeat the LRA

By Daniel M. Austin
Impunity Watch Reporter,  Africa

Lords Resistance Army Commander Joseph Kony. (Photo Courtesy of Central African Studies).
Lord's Resistance Army Commander Joseph Kony. (Photo Courtesy of Central African Studies).

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – On November 24, President Barack Obama presented the United States Congress with a comprehensive strategy to disarm and destroy Uganda’s Lord Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA is a rebel group that has terrorized innocent civilians in central Africa for more than two decades. Specifically, the rebel group has attacked isolated villages across southern Sudan, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), and western Uganda.President Obama’s strategy aims to decapitate the leadership of LRA, and provide support and logistics to communities affected by the rebel group’s actions. 

President Obama’s letter to Congress lays out four specific goals: protect civilians, apprehend or destroy the senior commanders of LRA including Mr. Joseph Kony, encourage current LRA members to lay down their arms and disband, and provide humanitarian aid to villagers who have been affected by the LRA’s violence. Mr. Kony, leader of the LRA, is wanted by the International Criminal Court and lives a transient existence crossing between Sudan and Central Africa Republic to evade capture.

 Although the United States is not sending soldiers to fight the LRA, the initiative is going to provide logistical, economic, political, and military support to countries where the LRA is operating.

 This is not the United States first attempt at trying to destroy the LRA. In 2008, the U.S. made a concerted effort to defeat the LRA through a Ugandan-led operation called Lightning Thunder. The operation flushed out members of the LRA, which were based in the Garamba National Park. However, this government led operation did not capture many LRA members. Instead many of members slipped through the government’s dragnet and crossed from southern Uganda into DR Congo. While in DR Congo, the LRA began a reign of terror that included attacking remote villages and churches.

 Uganda has been fighting the LRA for over twenty years. The LRA was initially established to overthrow the Ugandan government and install a theocracy based on the Bible’s Ten Commandments.  The LRA is known to take children from their families and employ them as child soldiers or sex slaves. Furthermore, the group is known for its brutality of raping, killing, and mutilating the villagers they attack.

 For more information, please see:

AFP — Obama presents plan to disarm Uganda’s LRA rebels—25 November 2010

 BBC Africa — Barack Obama’s plan to defeat Ugandan LRA rebels – 25 November 2010

 The Guardian — US reveals plan to disarm LRA fighters – 25 November 2010

 VOANEWS — Obama Presents Plan to Help Disarm LRA in Uganda –25 November 2010

Hunger-Striking Chilean Women Meet Accord With Government

By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

33 Women Protest End of Jobs Bill in Chile (photo courtesy of www.plenglish.com)
33 Women Protest End of Jobs Bill in Chile (photo courtesy of www.plenglish.com)

SANTIAGO, Chile – Last week, 33 Chilean women collectively entered a mine to protest the end of a jobs bill, which created thousands of jobs for citizens to rebuild infrastructure following a devastating earthquake.  Initially, regional officials vowed to have open dialogue with the protesters to peacefully end the demonstration.  Making good on their promise, government officials have reached an agreement with the hunger-striking women, bringing the ordeal to an end.

The women, who occupied the Chiflon del Diablo mine in Lota, were demanding reinstatement of the jobs bill; however, it was initially unclear whether this would be something that the government could realistically do.  Bio Bio’s regional governor Jacqueline van Rysselberghe reported that the women have given up their hunger strike after government officials promised to find them public-works jobs in the local municipalities.

In addition to the public-works jobs, the agreement includes job training for the women.  The agreement will also have ramifications that extend beyond the 33 women participating in the demonstration.  According to van Rysselberghe, 2,000 new jobs will be created to help those who lost their job with the ending of the jobs bill.

It is estimated that the February earthquake caused $30 billion in damage.  The jobs bill was created to put Chileans to work rebuilding homes and infrastructure.  It is also estimated that the legislature’s failure to reauthorize the jobs bill resulted in upwards of 12,000 people losing their government-created jobs.

It cannot be doubted that the 33 women made significant strides in helping those who lost their jobs; however, with only 2,000 new jobs being created, many Chileans are still left without a means of employment.

For more information, please see:

Latin American Herald Tribune – Jobless Hunger-Strikers Reach Accord with Chilean Governmen – 23 November 2010

Presna Latina – Chile: Women Abandon Hunger Strike – 23 November 2010

Monstersandcritics.com – Chilean Authorities Willing to Talk to 33 Hunger-Strikers in Mine – 19 November 2010

Nuremberg Trials Museum Opens To The Public

By Ricardo Zamora
Impunity Watch Reporter Europe

NUREMBERG, Germany – An exhibit commemorating the Nuremburg trials opened its doors to the public on Sunday.  The display is located at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, the building where several Nazis were sentenced to death between November 20, 1945 and October 1, 1946.

The exhibit, commemorating the 65th anniversary of the trials, features original documents and archival material including photo, video and audio displays.  Also on display are the original docks and seats where countless Nazi leaders such as Hermann Goering and Marin Bormann sat to face charges.

One of the major attractions is the famed Court Room 600, the room where some of the most significant trials were held 65 years ago.  The well-preserved and still-functioning court is open to the public when it is not presently in use.

Among those in attendance for the grand opening was 90 year-old Benjamin Ferencz, one of the original U.S. prosecutors at the trials.  In 1943, Ferencz, then 23 and  fresh out of Harvard Law School, began gathering evidence of Nazi crimes as the concentration camps were liberated.  Just four years later he found himself chief prosecutor at the trial of 22 Nazis.

Ferencz noted, “When I left Germany for the first time after World War II and left Nuremberg, my biggest regret was that I never heard from any German saying ‘I’m sorry.’  I would never have believed that I would come back 60 years later and would hear a completely difference voice and a different plan in the same country.”

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, also in attendance, expressed how the trials set a precedent for the development of international law.  Indeed, not only were the trials the first to establish the legal precedent of crimes against humanity, they also made way for the International Criminal Court.

“Because a lot was risked here in Nuremberg – politically, legally and personally – international law was able to develop and rules could be set out for future cases,” Westerwelle said.

In his closing remarks Ferencz emphasized that prevention is the goal, not punishment.  “By the time you are punishing you have failed,” he warned.  Before stepping down, Ferencz left the audience with a final question: “How far have we come?”

For more information please see:

CBC – Nuremberg Trials Explored in Museum Exhibit – November 22, 2010

DEUTSCHE WELLE – How Far Have We Come? Nuremberg Trials Museum Opens – November 21, 2010

RIANOVOSTI – Museum on Nuremberg Trials Opens Doors in Germany – November 21, 2010

Strike Continues at World’s No. 3 Copper Mine

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
 

A sign calls the mine Champion of the Labor Exploitation. (Photo courtesy of Reuters)
A sign calls the mine "Champion of the Labor Exploitation". (Photo courtesy of Reuters)

IQUIQUE, Chile—On Tuesday, a strike at the world’s third largest copper mine entered its nineteenth day. As of yet, production at that mine has not been substantially altered, according to a company spokesperson.

Workers have been on strike at the Dona Ines de Collahuasi mine and have refused to return to work until the mining company meets their demands and continues to negotiate. Labor leaders dispute the company’s claims that production at the mine has not been disrupted. They say that only 20% of production has been maintained during the strike.

Labor leaders also deny the company’s statement that 120 workers stopped striking and returned to work at the mine. The leaders declare, instead, that a much smaller number of miners, about 36, have broken the strike so far. There is a Chilean labor law that states that if half of the workers break a strike, then the strike must end at that moment. The miners that went back to work were responding favorably to an offer that the mining company presented to them last week.

Bernardita Fernandez, a spokesperson for the Collahuasi mine, expressed little worry about the strike’s implications, saying, “the company will meet all of its commercial obligations” even as the strike marches on. Fernandez has remarked that negotiations between the workers and the company have not been resumed this week. According to the company, collective talks had to be discontinued because the union was “intransigent”; therefore, only negotiations with individual workers will be pursued.

The 1,430 remaining strikers have been given a deadline of late Tuesday night to accept or decline the company’s most recent wage and benefits offer. This offer includes a signing bonus of roughly $30,000 per worker. The union representing the workers has announced that wage talks will have to continue because most of the strikers will reject the company’s offer.

“We are strong and united,” said Manuel Munoz, a union leader. “Right now they are just trying to break up our movement and that’s suicide. They have to discuss a new offer with us to resolve this conflict.”

Most of the striking miners have been living in tents in the port city of Iquique while the strike continues.

For more information, please see:

Bloomberg Businessweek-Collahuasi Union Says Company Must Resume Talks-23 November 2010

Reuters-Chile’s Collahuasi strike faces crucial test-23 November 2010

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

UPDATE: Iranian Woman May Avoid Stoning Sentence After All

By Eric C. Sigmund
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran – The head of Iran’s High Human Rights Council announced today that Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, an Iranian women sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery, “could be saved.”  It appears that the judiciary’s latest review of Ashtiani’s case precipitated the announcement although no details about its review were provided.  Ashtiani’s case has drawn significant international criticism from numerous governments and human rights organizations urging Iran to set aside the stoning verdict.

Ashtiani’s sentence has been stayed since July, pending the resolution of the judiciary’s final review.  She has been on death row for four years and has already dodged one death sentence.  In 2006, Ashtiani was found guilty for her involvement in the murder of her husband and received a sentence of death by hanging.  This sentence was reduced however, to a 10 year prison term.   

Ashtiani has already suffered 100 lashes as punishment for her crime.  Reports indicated that she has also been beaten up and tortured on a number of occasions.  Some fear that she may be tried a second time for the murder of her husband despite already being found guilty of complicity in his death.  If she is found guilty, she may again be sentenced to death. 

Since 1983, stoning has been the traditional punishment for the crime of adultery under Iran’s Islamic Penal Code.  Although the government has imposed a moratorium on the use of this punishment, the government has yet to officially abandon the practice and courts continue to issue stoning sentences.  According to Farshad Hoseini, head of the International Committee against Execution, at least 150 people have been stoned to death in Iran since 1980.  The majority of the victims were women.   Although the government denies any correlation between today’s announcement and the political pressure it has faced from this case, it seems likely that the international community’s efforts are a significant factor in the process to commute Ashtiani’s sentence.

For more information, please see:

Agence France Presse – Iran Stoning woman’s Life ‘Could be Spared’ – 22 Nov. 2010

Jerusalem Post –Life of Woman in Iran Stoning Case May be Saved – 22 Nov. 2010

National Post – Iran’s Stone-Age Justice system – 19 Nov. 2010

CBS News – Case of Sakineh Ashtiani Reflects Iran’s internal Divisions – 18 Nov. 2010