A Voice for the Voiceless

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

Poison Gas Inflicts Afghan School Girls

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch SDO,  Asia

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan – Female students in Kabul and the Kunduz province of Afghanistan recently began falling ill and hospitalized after what is now being suspected as a poison attack.  Victims were admitted to the hospital after manifesting symptoms such as vomiting  and blinking in and out of consciousness.  The exact number of affected girls has not yet been confirmed, but  female students continue to enter hospitals demonstrating similar symptoms.  Although the illness contracted from the apparent poison attacks does not seem severe and the inflicted girls are being released from the hospital after only a few days, these attacks do have grave implications concerning the state of Afghanistan and the manner in which anti-government forces are willing to illustrate their beliefs.

Young students reported seeing their classmates suddenly begin to vomit and pass out on the floors after catching a strange odor in the hallways of their schools.  Some reported that the teachers pardoned the small as nothing to worry about.  However, the girls themselves took initiative to alert the police after witnessing their classmates fall ill and collapse.

The poison attacks have been considered a terror tactic to express the idea that females should have no right to education.  The purpose of the attacks seem to be to scare the families of the students and refuse to send them to school because of the constant present dangers.  This terror tactic also has the effect of suggesting that even places of education which house young girls are not safe from the subjugation of those who oppose the Afghan government and its collaboration with other governments.

The Taliban has explicitly denied responsibility for the poison attacks on the students.  Authorities themselves do not seem to know as of yet whether or not the destructive actions signify a poison gas attack or food poisoning.  However, this instance represents one of a continual chain of similar attacks on girls schools over the past couple years, taking place in numerous areas of Afghanistan.  One particularly notorious trend of strikes occurred in Kandahar two years ago, in which male motorbike riders drove by students and splashed their faces with acid.  The attacks on females students have caused many schools to close down.  Also, as a  condition of the Taliban rule from 1996-2001, education for women was legally prohibited.

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – ‘Gas attack’ targets Afghan girls – 12  May 2010

BBC – “Mass illness’ hits Afghan girls in Kunduz – 25 April 2010

The Huffington Post – Afghan Schoolgirls Fall Ill, Poison Feared – 25 April 2010


Yemen Refuses To Extradite Cleric If Captured

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Yemen’s government has announced it will not extradite Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born jihadist cleric who is credited with inspiring the recent wave of anti-American terrorist plots by al Qaeda recruits.

Over the weekend, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al Qirbi said Mr. al-Awlaki would be tried in the Arabian Peninsula state once he is captured.

“The man the U.S. wants to be extradited will stand trial in Yemen under the national law,” Mr. al Qirbi was quoted as saying in the Yemen state news agency, al Saba.

“Because of his recent terrorist activity, Awlaki is now wanted by the Yemeni government. Hence, he must be tried … in his homeland but never by other governments,” Qirbi was quoted as telling Kuwait’s al-Dar newspaper.

U.S. officials said in April President Barack Obama’s administration had authorized operations to capture or kill U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki — a leading figure linked to al Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing, which claimed responsibility for a failed bombing of a Detroit-bound plane in December.

On Christmas Eve, the United States launched an armed drone attack on a compound in Yemen where Mr. al-Awlaki was thought to be staying. The attack missed him.

Mr. al-Awlaki is the spiritual leader of the group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda. The group is thought to have several thousand armed followers and operates in areas of Yemen that are not under the full control of the San’a government.

Awlaki has said he had contacts with a Nigerian suspect in the attempted bombing of the transatlantic passenger plane and with a U.S. army psychiatrist accused of shooting dead 13 people at a military base in Texas in November.

Andy Johnson, a former staff director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in an interview that Mr. al-Awlaki is like Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, because of his success in radicalizing recruits.

“Awlaki clearly is a driving force in the effort to recruit and radicalize people to carry out jihadist or extremist attacks,” said Mr. Johnson, who is now director of national security programs for the think tank Third Way.

Mr. al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico, was in e-mail contact with Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is charged in the killings of 13 people and woundings of 30 others at Fort Hood, Texas, on Nov. 5.

For more information, please see:

The Washington Times – Yemen Refuses To Let U.S. Try Cleric – 12 May 201

Reuters – Yemen Says Will Not Turn Over Militant Cleric To U.S. – 12 May 2010

Jawa Report – Yemen Refuses To Extradite Awlaki – 12 May 2010

Egypt Extends Emergency Law

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – The Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has issued a decree renewing the country’s emergency laws for a further two years.

Parliament approved the law while opponents protested outside amid rows of riot police. The government sought to defuse criticism by emphasizing that the measure would cover only terrorism and drug-related crimes. But critics accused authorities of making cosmetic changes to a 29-year-old system that gives police sweeping discretionary powers against political opponents.

The decision has led to criticism from political opponents and human rights groups, who say the laws stifle political freedom in the country.

“The new law is very ambiguous and can easily be manipulated,” said Hafez abu Seada, secretary-general of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. “The law still persecutes freedoms like gathering in public, which doesn’t fall under terrorism. We will also still have military tribunals and the government’s right to issue military orders.”

Extension of the emergency law, which was passed in 1981 after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, comes as the government is under widespread pressure. Public anger is high, protests over low wages and for constitutional revisions are increasing, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei is enlivening the opposition with his new National Front for Change.

President Hosni Mubarak, 82 and in frail health, has yet to strike the right tone or inspire policies to calm the furor. Renewing the emergency law, but narrowing its powers, allows the ruling National Democratic Party to claim support for press freedom and human rights while simultaneously keeping mechanisms in place to combat dissent before this year’s parliamentary elections.

“We do not deny that we still have issues, but we are working to resolve them,” said Moufid Shehab, minister of state for legal and parliamentary affairs, acknowledging violations of civil liberties under the emergency law. “We aspire to one day have an end to emergency law.”

Shehab said the two-year extension, which passed by a wide majority, was needed to counter terrorism. He suggested that cases against bloggers and activists who have been jailed in recent years under the act for crimes unrelated to terrorism may be reviewed. The extension also will prohibit security forces from shutting newspapers and confiscating property. But security forces can still rely on an array of other laws to silence critics.

Shebab said the new emergency law means: “No trial, no indictment unless it’s a terrorist act.”

The government had promised to repeal the emergency law once it passed an anti-terrorism act, which has been bottled up in parliament for years. Emergency law has allowed authorities to detain suspects for long periods without formal charges. It has been used frequently against members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other opponents of the regime, many of whom have been tortured.

The opposition fears the law will be used to crack down on regime opponents ahead of parliamentary elections later this year. Egypt is also to hold presidential elections in 2011.

For more information, please see:

ABC – Egypt Extends Controversial Emergency Law – 12 May 2010

BBC – Egypt Renews Tough Emergency Laws – 12 May 2010

LA Times – Egypt Extends Emergency Rule – 12 May 2010