A Voice for the Voiceless

Yemen Refuses To Pursue Wanted Cleric For U.S.

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – Yemeni forces are not going after a radical U.S.-born cleric who has reportedly been added to the CIA’s list of targets to be killed or captured, the foreign minister said Saturday.

The United States has not handed over evidence to support allegations that Anwar al-Awlaki, 38, is recruiting for al-Qaeda’s offshoot in the impoverished country on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, the minister said.

“Anwar al-Awlaki has always been looked at as a preacher rather than a terrorist and shouldn’t be considered as a terrorist unless the Americans have evidence that he has been involved in terrorism,” Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi told reporters on Saturday, adding that the government was not hunting the US-born cleric believed to be living in Yemen. “The detailed information … and evidence gathered by US agencies has not been given to Yemen.”

However, al-Qirbi also told Al Jazeera television that al-Awlaki “is wanted by Yemeni justice for questioning, so that he can clear his name … or face trial.”

Though Al-Awlaki is a U.S. citizen, born in New Mexico, he lived in Yemen with his family for most of his early life. He returned to attend college and graduate school and it was during this period he began serving as an imam for various mosques around the country.

The US has sought in recent months to heighten cooperation with Yemen, where it believes a relatively new offshoot of Al Qaeda is gaining strength. It has also pledged to double its modest military aid to Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest state. The state’s ability to govern has been compromised by a secessionist movement in the south and a rebellion in the north that was only recently resolved.

The Barack Obama administration took a somewhat extraordinary step last week in authorizing the targeted killing of the cleric.

A handful of intelligence and counterterrorism officials briefed members of the press on the decision last week, during which Reuters quoted government officials as saying that “Al-Awlaki is a proven threat,” and that “he’s being targeted”.

Though known only as an Islamic scholar, espousing controversial views, U.S. intelligence officials cited new information on his direct involvement with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as justification for his targeting.

“He’s gotten involved in plots,” an unnamed official told the New York Times last week. “The danger al-Awlaki poses to this country is no longer confined to words,”

For more information, please see:

The Philadelphia Inquirer – Yemen Declines To Pursue Cleric Targeted By U.S. – 11 April 2010

The Christian Science Monitor – Yemen Balks At Possible U.S. Possible Strike On Cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki – 12 April 2010

IPS – Yemen Refuses To Hunt Al-Awlaki For U.S. – 13 April 2010

Immigrant Rights Advocates Concerned Arizona will become a Police State

By Brenda Lopez Romero
Impunity Watch reporter – North America desk

ARIZONA, United States – The state Congress passed today an immigration bill, SB 1070, which in essence criminalizes the physical presence of a human being.  The bill also allows local law enforcement to determine if a person is without legal immigration status.  The bill passed 35 to 21 on party lines.  Although in private some Republicans expressed concern about the bill they were reluctant to vote against it in an election year. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer is expected to sign the bill.

The state police chief’s association opposed the bill, but the police unions approved.  Immigrant rights advocates claim Arizona will be transformed into a police state.  Chris Newman, legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network said “it appears to mandate racial profiling.”

The bill makes it a misdemeanor to lack proper immigration paperwork in the state and requires police officers with a “reasonable suspicion” that someone is an undocumented immigrant, to determine the person’s immigration status, even when there is no suspicion of any other criminal activity.  There is an exemption if the immigration issue would be impractical or hinder another investigation.  The bill allows for a cause of action to compel local law enforcement to comply with the law and prevent sanctuary orders that restrict law enforcement from inquiring about people’s immigration status.

Mark Krikorian at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank that advocates tougher immigration enforcement, said “it makes sense that they would be the first to do it since they’re ground zero for illegal immigration … Obviously, their prosecutors aren’t going to go out and prosecute every illegal alien … It gives police and prosecutors another tool should they need it.”

“A lot of U.S. citizens are going to be swept up in the application of this law for something as simple as having an accent and leaving their wallet at home,” said Alessandra Soler Meetze, president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona.

The ACLU and immigrant rights groups will file a suit to block the bill from taking effect should Brewer sign it, because similar laws have been struck down declaring that only the federal government has the authority to enforce immigration.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio aready uses aggressive enforcement and is under civil rights investigation from the Department of Justice.

For more information, please see:

AZ Central – Arizona House passes wide-ranging immigration bill – 13 April 2010

L.A. Times – Arizona passes strict illegal immigration act – 13 April 2010

Phoenix Business Journal – Arizona House passes immigration bill – 13 April 2010

Pakistan Army Strike Kills Many Civilians

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PESHAWAR, Pakistan- When an army jet bombed a remote village in Pakistan’s tribal region of Khyber, at least 73 civilians were killed, local officials said.

The incident took place on Saturday, but because the news was slow in being reported because of the region’s inaccessibility.  Dilla Baz Khan, helping free a woman from the rubble an air raid when the Pakistani jets came back to the valley for another bombing run, killing scores of locals in a village that has been said to be supportive of army offensives against militants on the Afghan border.  On Tuesday Khan, along with other survivors said at least 68 were killed in the weekend airstrikes.  This contradicts initial army accounts that the majority of the dead were Islamists militants.  Officials have reportedly already paid compensation to families of victims.

Officials declined to say how many dead were civilians.  The top official in Khyber, Shafiullah Khan, apologized to local tribesman and admitted the victims were “mostly” innocent villagers.  The facts point to this being one of the most serious incidents of civilian casualties inflicted by Pakistan’s military in the border region in recent years.  These attacks will likely hurt efforts to get the backing of local tribesman tribesman for offensives against insurgents behind bloody bombings in Pakistan, as well as attacks on international troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

Many people have died in the area in the last year and a half.  Villagers say another strike by a U.S. drone missile killed 13 people on Monday, contesting accounts by Pakistani officials that the dead were four militants. Major General Athar Abbas said those killed in the air strike were attacked because it had intelligence that militants were gathering at the site.

Correspondents say that the army is under pressure from the U.S. to move forcefully against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants in the north-west.  The army consistently reports killing militants in air strikes, but rarely admits responsibility for civilian deaths.

Relief agencies say the attacks against militants in Pakistan and in neighboring Afghanistan have displaced more than one million people.

For more information, please see:

BBC News- Pakistan ‘Army Air Strike Kills Dozens of Civilians’– 13 April 2010

Associated Press- Pakistani AirStrike Kills Many Civilians: Official– 13 April 2010

The Washington Post-Ire Grows Deadly Pakistan Airstrike– 13 April 2010

Amnesty Condemns Deportation Policies of Several European Nations

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

In a report released on Monday April 12, London-based Amnesty International has documented and criticized the “no-torture” assurance policies of several European countries, and called for the European Union to prohibit member countries from continuing the practice.

Several European countries, including the United Kingdom, require assurances from countries that they will not torture individuals that are deported.

The assurances are used by the deporting European countries to assuage domestic and international concerns over sending individuals to countries that often have egregious human rights records.

The problem with these well-intentioned deals, according to the Amnesty report, is that they do nothing to guarantee compliance. Amnesty described the assurances as both “unenforceable” and “unreliable”, and characterized the practice used in at least half a dozen European countries as a “failed experiment”.

Moreover, Amnesty claims that governments are merely using the practice “to rid themselves of” alleged terrorists in lieu of prosecuting these individuals in domestic courts or releasing them.

The United Kingdom, in particular, was condemned by Amnesty, since the UK uses this method frequently to deport any individual deemed to be a “substantial threat” to national security.

In addition to the general assurance policy required for individual deportaitons, the UK has more formal “memorandums of understanding” with Ethiopia, Jordan, Lebanon, and Libya. These memorandums of understanding preclude individualized assurances for each separate deportee.

The UK responded vociferously to the report. In particular, officials claimed that no deportees were sent to any country where there was a “significant risk of torture”.

Denmark, Germany, France, and Italy also have used and continue to use “no-torture” assurance policies and were implicated in the report.

The report is available online at Amnesty’s website.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Amnesty International criticise government on torture – 12 April 2010

INDEPENDENT – Diplomatic deals expose deportees to torture risk – 12 April 2010

JURIST – Amnesty condemns use of ‘no-torture’ deals in European deportations – 12 April 2010

Palestinian Militants, Israeli Forces Clash at Gaza Border

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

THE NEGEV, Israel/Gaza – “Heavily armed” Islamic Jihad operatives were reportedly killed after a firefight with Israeli military forces near the Al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, early on April 13. Varying reports bring the total of dead to between two and four. Two other Islamic Jihad militants were also reportedly injured, according to Israeli forces and Palestinian medics.

The Israeli military has reported that the militants were planting explosives near the Gaza/Israel border, and that Israeli forces found substantial weaponry on the bodies of two of those killed, including explosive devices, assault rifles, hand grenades, and other weapons.

Islamic Jihad’s militant wing, the Al-Quds Brigade, later issued a statement saying that its fighters had engaged Israeli forces when the Israelis attempted to cross the border into Gaza. Israel has denied that its forces attempted to make any such crossing. Residents of the Al-Bureij camp reported that tanks crossed into the area when patrols found the militants planting explosives, and that the Israelis also used machine guns, artillery, and missiles.

The clash comes as Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza, attempts to assert its legitimacy and control of Gaza by holding together a shaky ceasefire with Israel. Hamas has controlled Gaza since it won a parliamentary election ousting Fatah, its rival Palestinian party that currently controls both the Palestinian presidency and the West Bank. In recent months, other militant factions, such as Islamic Jihad, have threatened the tenuous ceasefire that has existed between Hamas and Israel since the end of the open fighting in Gaza during the winter of 2008-2009. On April 11, Hamas security officials detained several Islamic Jihadists accused of trying to fire rockets into southern Israel. According to those detained, Hamas police made the militants sign pledges that they would not attack Israel. Many of the more extremist factions in Gaza have accused Hamas of “going soft” on Israel.

Since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel went into effect in January 2009, international human rights groups estimate that ninety Palestinians have died in Gaza as a result of fighting with Israeli forces, and one migrant farmworker from Thailand was killed in Israel from a rocket fired from Gaza.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Palestinian Fighter Killed in Gaza – 13 April 2010

BBC News – Palestinian Militants Killed in Clashes in Gaza – 13 April 2010

Ha’aretz – Gaza Militants Fire on Israelis After IDF Foils Attack on Border – 13 April 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Israel Army: 4 Targeted in Gaza Were Heavily Armed – 13 April 2010

New York Times – Israeli Troops Kill 2 Palestinian Militants at Gaza Border – 13 April 2010