Human Rights Watch Presses UK to End Torture, Rendition

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

LONDON, United Kingdom – In a report published on Friday May 14, Human Rights Watch criticized the United Kingdom’s treatment of terrorists and pressed for the new coalition government to undertake a judicial inquiry to uncover the truth about such abusive practices and officially break from past policies of torture and rendition.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said that such an inquiry and break from past policies is necessary to meet the UK’s domestic and international legal obligations and restore the UK’s reputation as a champion of human rights in the global community.

Just last week, the Tories and Liberal Democrats took power by forming a coalition in the United Kingdom, ending over a decade of Labor Party rule. Both parties ran on promises to end abusive counter-terrorism tactics, including kidnapping and torturing terrorist suspects, including several UK nationals.

Despite these promises, many believe that the new government will continue to allow M15 and M16 to work with overseas intelligence agencies to facilitate torture and illegal rendition for those alleged of terrorist activities.

The London director of Human Rights Watch, Tom Porteous, pressed the new government to end the impunity by “mak[ing] clean break with the previous government’s abusive approach to counterterrorism.”

Equally importantly, Mr. Porteous said a judicial inquiry to uncover the illegal techniques used by M15 and M16 during Labor rule would “strengthen the UK’s role in bringing to justice those responsible for international crimes at home and abroad.”

The inquiry, according to the Human Rights Watch report, should focus on identifying the members of the Labor Party government who specifically authorized torture and other illegal actions taken against terrorist suspects. The inquiry would also ideally uncover those M15 and M16 officers who tortured after being authorized by government officials.

While the new government has made public statements indicating its willingness to undertaken an inquiry into the actions, Tories and Liberal Democrats are extremely unlikely to prosecute M15 and M16 officers that undertook actions that government lawyers had deemed legal under UK law.

For more information, please see:

COMMON DREAMS – New Government Should Open Inquiry Into Allegations of Complicity and Torture – 14 May 2010

GUARDIAN – Human Rights Watch calls for inquiry into Britain’s role in torture – 14 May 2010

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH – UK: Make Rights a Priority at Home and Abroad – 14 May 2010

Serbian Government Pledges To Investigate Newly Found Mass Grave Tied To Kosovo War

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BELGRADE, Serbia – Serbia announced today that it has unearthed a mass grave of Albanians killed in Kosovo during that region’s independence war in 1998.

The grave was found in the southern Serbian town of Raska during the early stages of construction on a new parking lot and building.  Based on the conditions of the ground where the grave was found, it is likely that the bodies were moved to their current location from another spot inside of Kosovo.  The grave was initially found as a result of efforts by the European Union Rule of Law Mission In Kosovo.

Bruno Vekaric, the Serbian Deputy War Crimes prosecutor, indicated that an investigation would be opened in the new grave site.  Vekaric estimated that there were somewhere between 150 and 350 bodies.  “Serbia is for the first time openly facing its bad past.”

Another prosecutor, Vladimir Vukecevic, also noted the importance the pending investigation held for Serbia in coming to terms with its role in the Kosovo war.  “This is more proof that Serbia does not shy away from its dark past and is ready to bring to justice all those who have committed crimes.”

Initial conclusions from investigators indicated that the persons found in this grave, mostly ethnic Albanians, were killed by Serbian soldiers during the war.  Slobodan Milosevic was President of Yugoslavia at the time of the killings.

The Raska location is not the first mass grave that can be traced to victims of the Kosovo war.  Five others were found in recent years, two in Kosovo and three inside of Serbia.

For more information, please see:

AP – Serbia plans to open mass grave – 14 May 2010

BOSNEWLIFE – Serbia Discovers Largest Mass Grave In Years – 13 May 2010

AFP – Serbia uncovers Kosovo Albanian mass grave – 10 May 2010

BBC – Mass grave find shows Serbia slowly facing up to past – 10 May 2010

Implications of U.S. Policy Toward Sudan Elections

Courtesy of Enough: The Project to End Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

With Sudan’s voting period now over, and preliminary assessments on the conduct of elections out from the U.S., and international and domestic observers, many policy questions still remain. The White House statement released Tuesday, found here, was certainly more forthright than prior equivocations on what the administration expected of the exercise, but fell short of issuing any final judgment on the process.

Enough’s John Prendergast and Omer Ismail recently sat down with Jimmy Mulla of Voices for Sudan for an engaging policy discussion over the implications of U.S. policy toward Sudan’s elections and how the Obama administration should proceed. Sudan’s election, the three policy experts emphasized, was not just a means to an end, but an important exercise unto itself, one that was meant to empower the Sudanese people with deciding who would govern their country:

Some in the international community argue that taking the deeply flawed elections in stride paves the way for a smoother southern referendum on self-determination next year. By permitting Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party its victory, the NCP will be less inclined to meddle with South Sudan’s milestone vote next January, so the quid pro quo argument goes.  Prendergast, Ismail, and Mulla disagree:  http://www.enoughproject.org/blogs/implications-us-policy-toward-sudan-elections

Street Rallies in Thailand Intensify as Shots Fired

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch SDO, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand – The red-shirt political rallies against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajajiva ongoing in central Bangkok over the past couple months attained new peaks of violence recently.  An explosion and subsequent gunshots were heard ringing throughout the the protesters’ camp out zone, killing at least one protester.  Thailand military troops invaded the vicinity after the red-shirts failed to adhere to a threat asserting that if they did not cease their rallying, essential utilities such as water and electricity for the region of the camp would be terminated.  However, after the Thai government decided against fulfilling their warning for fear of the ramifications for surrounding, non-occupied areas.

Witnesses among the red-shirts claimed that droves of troops started moving into their camp after the explosions and gunshots began.  There were also reports of numerous casualties and a severe head injury incurred by former General Khattiya Sawasdipol after receiving a bullet during an interview.  The ex-General may have been a specified target, as Sawasdipol has been a vocal red-shirt protester and has even advocated more radical means of expressing discontent with the current governmental regime.  Sawasdipol is also notorious for representing a polarizing figure within the red-shirt protesters themselves.  Sawasdipol has often articulated his belief that the less radical red-shirts are an inadequate arm of their cause, alienating many of his own previous supporters and deterring others from joining his own, more extreme rally.

Following the initial strike against the red-shirt protesters, military forces have been creating an armed barricade surrounding the camp with army tanks and other armaments.  Although no further violence seems to have occurred since the initial incident, tensions in the center of the capital city have increased as the government proliferates its presence.  Moreover, although the government did not cut off services in the protesters’ camp area as declared, lighting in particular parts of the city have been cut off.  The lack of electricity running through the streets has cast a great darkness over the streets, further pushing the red-shirts into a corner and perpetuating animosities.

The Thai government claims that the military barricade around the red-shirt camp is meant to allow innocent protesters to leave, but not let anyone else into  the camp.  However, the imposition still creates an overall deterrence for a peaceable situation that makes the goal of tranquility difficult to reach.

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – Gunfire heard in the Thai capital area – 13 May 2010

BBC – Thai red-shirt supporter Gen Khattiya shot – 13 May 2010

CNN – Thai protester shot, killed… – 13 May 2010