ICTY Prosecutor Urges Continued Pressure On Serbia To Arrest Mladic

By Christina Berger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Serge Brammertz, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), told reporters on Monday that it is vital to keep pressure on Serbia to hunt down former military chief, Ratko Mladic, who is wanted by ICTY for war crimes and genocide. Brammertz is worried about the implications for future war crimes prosecutions and international criminal justice if Mladic is not arrested and forced to stand trial for his crimes before the ICTY finishes its work in three years.

”The non-arrest of Mladic would be the worst signal you could give to all future tribunals,” Brammertz said to members of the Foreign Press Association in The Hague.  ”It would somehow give the signal to perpetrators that you can sit out international justice; that political interest is diminishing over time and that at the end of the day impunity prevails.”

He also stressed that that “those who are politically responsible” must “ensure the incentives are maintained.”  These remarks were geared toward the European Union, urging the EU to put continued pressure on Serbia to arrest Mladic.  Serbia applied to join the EU in December.  In June, Brammertz filed a report with the EU in which he criticized Serbia’s failure to find and arrest Mladic, and the EU then decided to wait before beginning review of Serbia’s application to join.  Serbia’s full compliance with the ICTY is a key condition, but there is a growing sense that Serbia’s bid to join the EU should be moved along as a reward for Serbia’s softening stance concerning Kosovo.

Stefan Fuele, the EU’s Commissioner for Enlargement, said that following the Kosovo resolution ”the time has come for the EU to tackle seriously the application of Serbia to join the European Union.”

Mladic has been indicted for the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995, as well as for the 44-month siege of Sarajevo in which 10,000 people died. He has been on the run since 1995.

For more information, please see:

AFP – UN Court laments failure to arrest Serbia’s Mladic – 20 September 2010

NEW YORK TIMES – Mladic Arrest Vital For War Crimes Courts: Prosecutor – 20 September 2010

NEW YORK TIMES – War Crimes Prosecutor: Keep Pressure on Serbia – 20 September 2010

RADIO FREE EUROPE – Prosecutor: Mladic Arrest Vital For War Crimes Courts – 20 September 2010

Winnipeg Woman Forced into Prostitution

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WINNIPEG, Canada—For the first time in Manitoba, human trafficking charges have been laid after a young aboriginal woman was forced into prostitution.  Police rescued the victim Monday night after she created a disturbance.

Theresa Peebles, a 38-year-old woman, has been charged with forcible confinement, assault and three counts of human trafficking.  According to Jason Michalyshen, a police spokesman, the 21-year-old victim had recently moved to Winnipeg from northern Manitoba and was quickly befriended by Peebles.  The older woman is said to have stolen the victim’s identification and clothing before confining her against her will, beating her, and forcing her to have sex for money.

“We have a [victim] whose human rights were violated to the extreme,” Michalyshen said.

While she was under Peebles’ control, the younger woman was given meals, shelter, alcohol and illegal drugs.  The money that the victim made performing sex acts was taken by Peebles.

Police became aware of the situation after the victim became intoxicated and began screaming from the roof of the duplex where she was being held.  The fire department responded and rescued her with a ladder.

Grand Chief Ron Evans of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is convinced that there are many more cases of forced prostitution in the area.  “It’s probably happening more frequently than we are aware,” he said.  He believes that aboriginal females are especially at-risk of being victimized.

Michalyshen expressed hope that this case will make people realize that human trafficking can be closer to home than people assume.  “In this particular case,” he said, “it becomes very localized.  It’s happening in our own backyard.”

Benjamin Perrin, an expert on human trafficking at the University of British Columbia, said he knows of at least 36 similar cases in Canada.  “We can only hope that the young woman who was exploited is getting the help that she needs,” he said, adding that Canada should institute a national action plan and create more safe houses while focusing on education and prevention.

The section of the Criminal Code against human trafficking was added in 2005 and describes traffickers as those who exploit “another person if they cause the victim to provide labour or service for fear of their safety or the safety of someone known to them.”

For more information, please see:

Toronto Sun-Alleged pimp ‘trafficking in persons’-24 September 2010

Winnipeg Free Press-Human trafficking count laid-24 September 2010

CBC News-Winnipeg woman charged with human trafficking-23 September 2010

Bahrain Threatens Legal Action Against Human Rights Activists

By Eric C. Sigmund
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

MANAMA, Bahrain – Representatives of the Bahrain government reported Thursday that as many as 75 foreign human rights activists will be subject to legal action.  The government charges that these activists received “unauthorized training” from human rights groups in the country.  Officials declared these activists to be persona non grata, meaning “an unwelcome person,” and may seek to expel them from the Kingdom.  This is just the latest move in an intense country-wide security crackdown sponsored by the government in the run up to the parliamentary elections on October 13th. 

Government Cracks Down on Human Rights Activists (Photo Courtesy of Bahrain Human Rights Society)
Government Cracks Down on Human Rights Activists (Photo Courtesy of Bahrain Human Rights Society)

The government contends that the Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS), the country’s first human rights non-governmental organization, unlawfully offered training to human rights activists within the region.  BHRS hosts regional training sessions for those interest in monitoring human rights violations by government actors.  During these sessions, activists are taught how to monitor unlawful detentions and the principles of international law regarding detentions.   In 2009 BHRS conducted training sessions in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.  

Earlier this month, the government took over BHRS in order to quell potential opposition to the country’s leadership.  BHRS members were prohibited from commenting about Thursday’s allegations however, one member told the press that the group had always operated transparently.  Amnesty International has urged the government to rescind its decision to exercise control over BHRS, claiming that it “undermines the basic rights to freedom of expression and association.”  Responding to opposition, Government officials stated that it continues to welcome “all citizens of brotherly and friendly countries” as long as they do not “carry out wrongdoings that (are) detrimental to the Kingdom of Bahrain.”

Critics contend that the government’s recent security operations are designed primarily to disenfranchise the country’s minority Shia population in order to ensure Sunni dominance in the parliament.  International watchdog groups continue to pressure Bahrain to improve its poor human rights record and fear that political conflict may be a catalyst for a human rights crisis.  Just last month over 250 activists were detained by authorities and reports indicate that some detainees may have been tortured.  The government also continues its campaign to shut down media outlets reporting on security crackdowns.   

As the election draws near, one can only wonder if it will reinvigorate Bahrain’s democracy or whether the country will continue to spiral into authoritarian rule.  

To read press releases and statements issued by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Federation for Human Rights click here. 

For more information, please see:

Counterpunch – Constitutional Monarchy or Police State: A Blurred Line in Bahrain – 24 Sept. 2010

Deutsche Presse-Agentur – Bahrain Declares Activists Persona Non Grata – 24 Sept. 2010

Bahrain News Agency – Interior Ministry to Take Action Against Illegal Trainees – 23 Sept. 2010

Commonwealth Games: Reported Child Labor Laws Broken in India

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NEW DELHI, India –“Not just kids playing in the dirt or using a hammer as a toy”, Harvard fellow and trafficking expert Siddharth Kara told Becky Anderson of CNN.

Children are working for as little as three dollars a day on Commonwealth Games construction sites in Delhi.
Children are working for as little as three dollars a day on Commonwealth Games construction sites in Delhi.

As the Commonwealth games approach, the Indian government has been marred by construction delays, corruption scandals, a fever outbreak due to sweltering temperatures, the failure of a footbridge near the main stadium and security concern after last weekend’s shooting where two tourists outside Delhi’s Jama Masjid mosque, reported John Coats of the BBC

New evidence has surfaced showing children from age seven being used in the preparation stage of building.

In the exclusive interview with CNN International, Harvard fellow and trafficking expert Siddharth Kara reported that child labor was a widespread and well known issue in New Delhi. He also stated that he tried numerous attempts to contact the Dehli department of labor, with no success.

In a few day of observation Kara documented 32 cases of forced labor and 14 cases of child labor, all for production interconnected with the Commonwealth Games.

Kara, a renowned expert on the subject of human trafficking, also outlined the harsh conditions these children were forced to work under. “The children I saw were the ones where I felt I had documented child labor — where children were working, picking up hammers, banging stones, paving entry ways and planting grass along the roads to beautify them, hours and hours at a time. I documented children aged seven, eight, nine, ten years old working alongside their families in this mad rush to get the construction completed.”

Kara reported that, “[t]he conditions are sub-human and that’s really the only word I can apply,”…”[t]hey live in the dirt, they go to the toilet behind bushes and trees …[t]he children, especially the young ones, don’t have a sense of what’s going on. They’re told to do the work and they just do the work. They don’t know that they should be in school or that they should be playing.” 

Several Indian unions have launched attacks against the government in effort to stop the dangerous labor practices done in preparation for the Games. Many of the same Indian unions have ruled out claims about child labor being used at the construction sites.

Based on government figures there is an estimated 13 million child laborers currently in India. Earlier this week Thursday, as part of an international commitment to eliminate child labor, India announced it had prepared a roadmap to eliminate the worst forms of “bonded labor, hazardous work, drugs, prostitution, trafficking by 2016”.

The Australian Olympic committee President John Coates, expressed on the Australian radio Friday that, “the Games shouldn’t have been awarded to New Dehi”. And due to an under resourced Federation, they don’t have the man power to monitor progress.

Athletes have withdrawn their Commonwealth participation because of health and safety concerns. Notable athletes include Australian world discus champion Dani Samuels and English world triple jump champion Phillips Idowu.

Delhi has had seven years to prepare, though very little work was done until 2008.

For more information, please see:

TIME – Let the Games Not Begin – 24 September 2010

CNN – Hard Evidence of Child Labor at 2010 Commonwealth Games – 24 September 2010

BBC – Games should not have gone to Delhi, says Australia – 24 September 2010

AFP- CGames: Child Labor Help ‘beautify’ Dehhi streets – 24 September 2010

Former Guatemalan Soldier Receives Maximum Sentence For Role in 1982 Massacre

By Erica Laster

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

FORT LAUDERDALE, United States – Former Guatemalan soldier Gilberto Jordan received the maximum sentence possible for lying on United States citizenship forms and was sentenced to 10 years in U.S. prison by a federal court in Florida last Thursday.  Prosecutors say that the 54 year-old pled guilty to taking part in the 1982 massacre of men, women and children in the Guatemalan village of Dos Erres.  Jordan acknowledged that he personally was also involved in throwing an infant down a well.   Allegedly, around 162 people were killed by gunfire or by being hit with sledgehammers.

Gilberto Jordan, a 54 year-old Ex-Guatemalan Soldier receives the maximum sentence for falsifying citizenship forms after admitting to his role in the 1982 massacre of men women and children in Dos Erres in Guatemala. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.
Gilberto Jordan, a 54 year-old Ex-Guatemalan Soldier receives the maximum sentence for falsifying citizenship forms after admitting to his role in the 1982 massacre of men, women and children in Dos Erres in Guatemala. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.

“He never should have been allowed to live here peacefully for many years,” said U.S. Department of Justice senior trial attorney Hillary Davidson.  As a sergeant in an elite infantry unit known as the Kabildes , Jordan’s group was responsible for the control of opposition groups that rejected the military government currently in power in 1982.   The Guatemalan civil war lasted for decades before ending in 1996, claiming over 200,000 lives. 

At trial, Jordan insisted that the killings were committed out of duress, fearful for his own life after being told to follow orders or risk death as well.  He later asked for forgiveness for his actions in brief comments to the judge.  

Jordan was quoted as saying, “This is an incident in my life that I never expected to happen.”

Jordan illegally entered the United States in 1985, settling in Boca Raton, Florida.  Since 2004, he worked at a country club as a cook until his May arrest by U.S. agents. 14 arrest warrants have been issued for other suspects including 3 more awaiting trial for the Dos Erres Massacre.

District Court Judge William Zloch refused leniency and rather than impose the minimum 6 month sentence for lying on citizenship forms, gave Jordan the maximum 10 year sentence.  Judge Zloch commented that Jordan attempted to hide “his background as a mass murder,” indicating that “Anything less would be totally inadequate as just punishment for this crime and its accompanying heinous acts.”  

Jordan’s citizenship has been revoked and he will face prosecution for his crimes in Guatemala upon completion of his ten year sentence.

For More Information Please See:

Associated Press – Ex-Guatemalan Soldier Gets 10 Years In US Prison – 16 September 2010

Reuters – Ex-Guatemalan Soldier Gets Maximum Prison Term – 16 September 2010 

CBS News – US Seeks Max Sentence For Ex-Guatemalan Soldier – 15 September 2010