Nkurunziza Sole Candidate in Upcoming Burundi Elections

By Laura Hirahara
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

Bujumbura, Burundi – Pierre Nkunrunziza, incumbent president of Burundi. Observers are concerned that Burundi’s elections scheduled for Monday will throw the country back into violence just 5 years after a civil war that lasted 12 years and claimed an estimated 300,000 lives.  Currently, incumbent president Pierre Nkurunziza is the only candidate in the upcoming presidential race and as such is poised to win.  All opposing candidates have withdrawn from the race alleging election fraud at the local level in spite of requests from the international community for them to rejoin.  Among the candidates who have dropped out is Agathon Rwasa who is rumored to be in hiding in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Rwasa is the former rebel leader of the National Liberation Forces which surrendered last year, five years after the other warring groups agreed to create a power sharing government.

African Union head, Jean Ping, issued a statement urging those in Burundi who would protest the elections to use only legal means to do so.  “He is appealing urgently to all the political actors to refrain from any action likely to lead Burundi back to the horrors of the past and that could jeopardise the political and democratic progress of the past few years,” the statement continued.

Despite Ping’s plea, almost forty grenade attacks have occurred in the past two weeks alone.  The worst of these, a grenade attack at a bar that injured twenty people, took place in Kayanza in northern Burundi.  Another grenade attack in Muramvya left one child injured.  In addition, numerous political offices across the country have been set on fire.  While suspects are in custody, the tension created by the local elections is only serving to escalate acts of violence throughout Burundi.  Defence Minister Germain Niyoyankana acknowledged the increase in grenade attacks following the opposition’s rejection of the local election results saying, “The situation is still under control . . .[but t]he same Burundians who were responsible for the crisis we went through are still around. They may still have they same mindset.”

For more information please see:

American Free Press, AU concerned about Burundi poll, 25 June, 2010

American Free Press, 21 hurt in new Burundi grenade attacks: police, 19 June, 2010

BBC News, African Union warns Burundi politicians ahead of vote, 25 June, 2010

BBC News, Burundi mystery over ex-rebel chief Rwasa’s whereabouts, 24 June, 2010

Ecuador Summit for Diversity Protested by Indigenous Group

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

OTAVALO, Ecuador—New goals for social justice and diversity have been set in Ecuador.  A declaration to promote indigenous rights was signed by Latin American leaders at a summit in Otavalo.  The hope is that culturally diverse and environmentally responsible societies will be defended and encouraged.  Efforts were focused on integration and recognition of black and indigenous cultures.

The 10th Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) concluded Friday.  About 300 government delegates and representatives from ALBA discussed “plurinational states” and efforts to avoid use of history that “remains written from the European or the Anglo-Saxon point of view.”  Another concern was to ensure that “countries have environmental policies to protect ecosystems.”

The text of the Declaration of Otavalo illustrates the commitment of ALBA member states to fight against racism, xenophobia and intolerance.  It also includes plans to construct an alternative model of economic sovereignty and promotes the concept of a multinational state.  The document has items on climate change and a promotion of a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth within the framework of the United Nations.  Among those signing the final document were the presidents of Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia and the vice-president of Cuba.

The Declaration of Otavalo promises that “the State will guarantee social participation and a fair and equitable distribution of benefits and the management, administration and exploitation of non-renewable natural resources.”

Outside the summit’s venue, Ecuador’s main indigenous organization protested.  Members angrily complained that their views were not being represented.  Indigenous leaders had attempted to enter the summit but were blocked by police.  The leaders had wanted to hand a written statement to Bolivia’s President Morales, who is an indigenous Aymara.

The organization, Conaie (the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador), had been an important ally to Ecuador’s President Correa during elections.  Along with other indigenous organizations, Conaie represents about 40% of the country’s population.

The relationship between Correa and Conaie has been strained lately because of concerns over mining, oil development and water rights.  Conaie accuses the president of backing a mining law that would allow foreign companies to open mines on their ancestral territories.  They would like Correa to give indigenous communities in the Andes mountains and Amazon rainforest more control over their own affairs.

The presidents of Ecuador, Venezuela, and Bolivia ended the summit with a call for indigenous unity.

For more information, please see:

BBC-Protests challenge Ecuador indigenous summit-26 June 2010

Radio Cadena Agramonet-The ALBA Summit: New Goals of Social Justice-26 June 2010

El Universal-Chavez, Morales and Correa close 10th ALBA summit-25 June 2010

Beating Death of Young Man Illuminates Culture of Police Impunity in Egypt, Sparks Public Uproar

By Dallas Steele
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

[Warning: Graphic photo at the end of the article.]

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt– Twenty-eight-year-old Khaled Said was forcibly dragged from an internet café and savagely beaten to death by two plainclothes police officers in broad daylight. Although Khaled’s death occurred on June 6, 2010, public prosecutors have not yet summoned for interrogation any of the key players involved in the incident, including the two plainclothes officers involved in the death.  The lack of accountability by investigators, and allegations that Khaled was intentionally murdered by the police have sparked a wave of demonstrations across Alexandria.

One of the nine witnesses that came forward as witnesses to the beating, Haitham Misbah, the son of the internet café owner, told investigators how the plainclothes officers did not ask Khaled any questions before they began to beat him. Misbah described how the officers continually smashed Khaled’s head against a marble wall and iron wrought fence before he fell to the ground and was continually kicked long after he stopped moving. Numerous witnesses say Khaled’s last words were, “I am dying. I am going to die.” Allegedly, the plainclothes officers replied:“You’re already dead.”

Misbah said that when he attempted to intervene, the officers told him to stay out and threatened to shut down the café. Other witnesses have only recently come forward for fear of reprisal from law enforcement authorities in the area.

The initial investigation by the local prosecutor concluded that Khaled died of asphyxiation after swallowing a packet of drugs when he saw the plainclothes officers approaching him. The investigation into Khaled’s death reportedly failed to gather any evidence from the scene of the crime or interview any witnesses. The two plainclothes officers allegedly responsible for Khaled’s death remain on active duty and have yet to be questioned by the prosecutor. Furthermore, reports have emerged that the officers responsible for Khaled’s death returned to the area of the incident days later and threatened people not to cause trouble for them.

After public protest over the incompetence of the first inquisition, a second, higher-level investigation was conducted. The forensic medical investigation in the second inquest also said that the cause of Khaled’s death was asphyxiation. However, the second medical report also stated that Khaled suffered numerous injuries from the beatings and concluded that there was “nothing to prevent the injuries from having occurred as a result of beating during the arrest of the victim.”

The entire incident has caused a public uproar in Egypt, and has resulted in various demonstrations. Certain individuals protesting Khaled’s death and the two inquests are claiming that Khaled was targeted for trying to expose official corruption in the area. Others are claiming that Khaled’s death is direct evidence that Egypt’s emergency law, created thirty years ago following President Sadat’s assassination by an Islamic militant, has created a culture of police impunity in Egypt.

Khaled Said apparently died of asphyxiation
Photographs of Khaled Said from the Facebook group organized to protest his death. (Photo Courtesy of Facebook)

For more information, please see:

BBC – Mohamed ElBaradei leads Egypt ‘police death’ protest – 25 June 2010

CNN – Demonstrators in Egypt rail against brutality, man’s death – 25 June 2010

Human Rights Watch – Egypt: Prosecute Police in Beating Death – 24 June 2010

Swedish Oil Company Accused Of Crimes Against Humanity

By Tristan Simoneau
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

Swedens Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt, who left Lundins board of directors in 2006, is the focus of accusations. Photo courtesy of The Christian Science Monitor
Photo: Swedens Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt, who left Lundins board of directors in 2006, is the focus of accusations. Source: Christian Science Monitor
STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Sweden’s public prosecutor, Magnus Evling, opened a criminal investigation on June 21st after a report was published alleging possible complicity in atrocities in Sudan by Swedish firm Lundin Petroleum.

The report stated that Lundin Petroleum may have been complicit in “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”  According to Mr. Evling, “the purpose of the inquiry is to investigate whether there are individuals with ties to Sweden who are suspected of involvement in crime.”  Carl Bildt, who left Lundin’s board of directors in 2006 to become Sweden’s minister of foreign affairs, is currently the focus of accusations.  This case raises questions about international obligations of corporations to safeguard human rights in conflict zones.

The investigation into the alleged activity, which occurred between 1997 and 2003, is the product of a report by the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan(ECOS), a group of 50 European NGOs.  ECOS claims that the problems began in 1997 when Lundin Consortium signed a 1997 agreement with Sudan’s government for the exploitation of oil in an area where the government lacked “full control.”

ECOS claims that the civilian population was forcibly displaced and victimized during the government’s efforts to secure the oil fields.  It is estimated that 12,000 people died and 160,000 were forcibly displaced through the efforts of the Sudanese government. According to Said Mahmoudi, professor of International Law at Stockholm University, “there is evidence that Lundin knew about what was happening, and they just closed their eyes simply because it was a question of millions and millions of dollars.”  Lundin Petroleum denies any violation of international law.

One of the goals of ECOS in producing the report is the creation of effective “limits for companies working in these types of conflict areas with regimes that are committing human rights violations.”  ECOS Coordinator Egbert Wesselink stated that “in some parts of the world, many companies are effectively working in a legal void because there is no functioning legal system.”  ECOS suggests that a possible remedy for this would be the enforcement of national laws by corporations’ home countries.  Mr. Wesselink noted that enforcement mechanisms are already in place, citing the Rome Statute and the International Criminal Court, but the idea “has to be transferred to corporations and the people leading them.”

Concerning  Sudanese victims, there is precedent from the Bosnian conflict, where an international commission was set up to compensate victims.  Furthermore, the Sudanese Constitution states that signatories to oil agreements are responsible for providing compensation.  Even if compensation is provided at some point, it is likely that fair allocation of will be logistically impossible.


For more information, please see:

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR – Swedish oil company under scrutiny after Sudan war crimes report – 22 June 2010

REUTERS – Prosecutor probes Swedish link in Sudan crimes – 21 June 2010

STOCKHOLM NEWS – Oil company accused of war crimes – 6 June 2010

Police Open Fire on protesters In Kashmir

By David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KASHMIR, India – “We want freedom” was the resonating chant as protests in Kashmir turned deadly when troops open fired on hundreds of demonstrators on Sunday, killing one person and wounding at least five.

A defiant protester shouts slogans in Jammu on Monday
A defiant protester shouts slogans in Jammu on Monday

Hundreds of people took to the streets, throwing rocks at security forces and surrounding an armored vehicle belonging to paramilitary soldiers, in a protest against the death of Mohammed Rafiq Bangroo, a 25-year-old who died Saturday after being beaten by troops in an earlier demonstration last week.  After the demonstrators tried to light a bunker on fire, the officers fired as an act of self defense, authorities say.

“We exercised maximum restraint.  Our soldiers opened fire only in self-defense after the protesters tried to torch the bunker,” Prabhakar Tripathi, spokesman for the Central Reserve Police Force, told the AP.  Tensions in the Muslim-majority region have been running high since local police accused the military of killing three civilians in April, and officials now say they are clamping down by enforcing a tight curfew and other restrictions.

Despite a decline in violence in Kashmir in recent years, there are fears that militants are trying to regroup in the region.  Hundreds of thousands of Indian troops are based in Kashmir to fight a two decade-old insurgency against Indian rule.

A senior Indian army officer has been killed in a gun battle with separatist militants in Indian-administered Kashmir.  Colonel Neeraj Sood was “leading his troops” when he was gunned down by militants in Lolab area, the army said.  He was the highest ranking officer to be killed by militants in Kashmir in 2010.

It is not clear whether the militants have suffered any casualties in the clashes.

Many know this re-birth of violence comes at the worst time, Al Jazeera’s Prerna Suri reports from Srinagar, said: “The violence couldn’t have come at a worse time for the people of Kashmir.  It’s peak tourist season and families live entirely on tourism.  They say if violence spreads, the only ones to suffer will be them.”

The demonstration swelled after the shots were fired, when hundreds more people poured into the streets, chanting “Indian forces leave Kashmir”.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Muslim-majority Kashmir.  Opposition groups have been fighting since 1989 for the Himalayan region’s independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera English – Police on Kashmir protestors – 20 June 2010

BBC news – Indian army officer killed in Kashmir clash – 23 June 2010

The Huffington Post – Kashmir Police Open Fire On Protesters – 21 June 2010