Switzerland: Nigerian Asylum Seeker Dies During Deportation Process

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe Desk

ZURICH, Switzerland – Swiss authorities have halted special deportation flights after a Nigerian asylum seeker died on the tarmac of the Zurich airport on Wednesday, March 17, 2010. The twenty-nine-year-old deportee, a convicted drug dealer, was one of sixteen Nigerians whose asylum petitions had been denied by the Swiss government. The unnamed man had reportedly been on a hunger strike in protest of his deportation.

Swiss police said that they had shackled the man because he had resisted deportation. The shackles were removed after he fell ill that Wednesday.

Swiss authorities said that they have launched an investigation into the death, and reported that independent observers will, henceforth, monitor deportation flights.  The measure to monitor flights is part of a  larger European Union effort to regulate deportations.

 BBC reported that a man named Emmanuel who was among the Nigerians to be deported said: “They treated us like animals . . . They shackled our feet, knees, hands, hips, arms and torso and made us wear a helmet like those worn by boxers. It was simply impossible to move.”

The deportee’s death is the third such death reported in Switzerland since 1999. In 2009, forty three special flights from Switzerland repatriated roughly 360 people, largely from the Balkans or Africa.

Swiss voters have supported measures in a recent referendum which would tighten the country’s already stringent immigration laws. The United Nations Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) called the vote “regrettable.” In particular, the UNCHCR pointed to the Swiss requirement that asylum seekers provide authorities with identity documents within forty eight hours or face deportation as too stringent, adding that many refugees were deprived of identification from the countries they fled from.

For more information, please see:

Swissinfo.ch – Observers to monitor deportation flights – 21 March 2010

NZ Herald – Hunger striker dies in Swiss shackles – 20 March 2010

BBC – Swiss investigate death of Nigerian asylum seeker – 19 March 2010

Swissinfo.ch – Nigerian dies shortly before deportation flight – 18 March 2010

Rockets Launched from Gaza into Southern Israel

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

THE NEGEV, Israel – Multiple Qassam rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip and into Southern Israel during the past week. On March 19, a rocket fired by Palestinian militants killed a foreign migrant worker, reportedly a man from Thailand working on a farm, and the first casualty in Israel by rocket fire since the massive fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip during the winter of 2008-2009. Eighty-eight Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in the same period because of Israeli military operations and border clashes, according to the United Nations.

The rocket attacks are not, however, from Hamas, the ruling political party in Gaza. Since the end of the fighting in January 2009, Hamas has observed a de facto cease-fire with Israel. Rather, the rockets have been launched by some of the many disparate extremist militant groups in the Gaza Strip who have criticized Hamas for what they believe is its increasingly moderate stance toward Israel.

“These types of attacks from other groups in Gaza…anger Hamas, because Hamas wants to show the entire world they are in control here,” said Haidar Eid, a Gaza-based political analyst. “Hamas wants to govern and rebuild, but it’s not giving an alternative to the other groups who want to continue to fight Israel.”

Israel responded to the rocket attacks with airstrikes, attacking what Israel has characterized as a militant smuggling tunnel used to bring weapons into the Gaza Strip from Egypt. The airstrikes also targeted a workshop in Gaza City and an open field, according to Palestinian security officials and eyewitnesses.

Since Israel began its blockade on the Gaza Strip, Palestinians in Gaza have built a network of tunnels, used to bring in weapons as well as much-needed humanitarian supplies. During a recent trip to the Gaza Strip, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon condemned the blockade, saying it has caused “unnecessary suffering.”

As Israel ramped up military operations on the Gaza border, an Israeli soldier was killed on March 22, reportedly as a result of friendly fire.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Israel Raid Strikes Gaza Tunnel – 22 March 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Israeli Soldier Killed on Gaza Border – 22 March 2010

Ha’aretz – Gaza Rocket Fired at South Israel, Days After Deadly Strike – 21 March 2010

Christian Science Monitor – Hamas Fails to Rein in Rocket Attacks, Prompting Israel Strike – 19 March 2010

BBC News – Rocket Fire From Gaza Kills Man in Southern Israel – 18 March 2010

U.S. Warns Ships of Possible Al Qaeda Attack

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SANAA, Yemen– The United States is warning ships sailing off the coast of Yemen that al Qaeda is planning attacks similar to that of the USS Cole in 2000 that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

The Office of Naval Intelligence posted the warning in order to promote security for shipping companies and other vessels.  According to the warning, the exact method of a planned attack is not known but it “may be similar in nature to the attacks against the USS Cole in October 2000 and the M/V Limburg in October 2002, where a small to mid-size boat laden with explosives was detonated.”

The warning further noted that “Although the time and location of such an attack are unknown, ships in the Red Sea, Bab-al-Mandeb Strait, and the Gulf of Aden along the coast of Yemen are at the greatest risk of becoming targets of such an attack.”

The Naval Intelligence posting comes in an area that has been one of the most active for Somali based pirate attacks in recent months.  According to a number of government anti-piracy reports, there have been 23 pirate attacks or suspected pirate incidents against ships in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Bab-al-Mandeb Strait, and western Indian Ocean over the past two months.

Furthermore, an increased al Qaeda presence in Yemen and Somalia as of late has contributed to the growing piracy problem.  Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen based affiliate of Osama Bin Laden’s terrorist network, announced in late December that it was calling on Muslims to wage a “mast media campaign of gathering information on U.S. Navy ships, their crews, how they are serviced by other nations, and data on possible nuclear weapons on board.”

The Yemen based statement said that al Qaeda had targeted the Navy in the past by bombing the Cole and that “every American naval vessel in the seas and oceans: aircraft carriers, submarines, and all of its war machines within range of al Qaeda will be destroyed.”

As one counterterrorism official explained “Extremists on the Arabian Peninsula continue to look to maritime interests as possible terrorist targets.”

For more information, please see:

CNN- U.S. Intelligence: Al Qaeda May Target Ships off Yemen– 22 March 2010

Reuters- U.S. Warns Ships off Yemen of Possible Al Qaeda Attack– 22 March 2010

The Washington Times- Navy Warns Ships About Al Qaeda Risk Near Yemen– 22 March 2010

First Trial in China for Illegal Organ Transplants

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Four men in China were charged with the criminal offense of paying living people for their organs with the intent to resell them to citizens in need of organ transplants. For the first time, a Chinese trial is scheduled to take place in April to hear the suspects on the laws governing organ transplants.

The four charged awaiting trial are believed to be part of a criminal ring that sells organs on the black market.  The group is led by a former organ donor surnamed Liu. The named suspects suspects allegedly organized four liver and kidney donations. China Daily reported that their new business foundered, however, when the suspects were taken to court in December by a “donor” claiming back pay, according to the Haidian District Procuratorate in Beijing, which is handling the case. 

If the four men are found guilty, they would be sentenced to at least five years in prison according to current laws regulating organ transplants.  Present regulations on human organ transplants ban organ trade. This was set forth by law in May 2007, and restricted living organ donations to spouses, blood relatives or people sharing family bonds through mutual support.

Despite these legal limitations to organ donations, there has been a recent increase in the illegal businesses of organ trade has become a rampant enterprise. Over the last few years, the number of illicit sales of organs in China has skyrocketed. This is especially true with the rise in living organ transplants, which are transplants which use organs that are donated by living individuals, predominantly by those in dire need of money immediately. Li Ning, president of Beijing Youan Hospital and a liver transplant surgeon, added, “Driven by a huge demand for the life-saving procedure, the lack of a proper and sustainable organ donation system and poor law enforcement, the black market became huge.”

According to China Daily, about a third of 10,000 organ transplants in China involved living donors last year – a figure almost six times the number in 2008. Vice health minister Huang Jiefu, who is also a leading liver transplant expert, stated, “A considerable number of them were done with fake identities from hired donors.”  Jiefu also expressed the concern that, “Without intervention, China will become the biggest black market for living human organs, which will seriously affect the country’s reputation and threaten patients’ health.”

 

For more information, please see:

New York Times – China: 4 Face Trial on Organ Trafficking Charges – 22 March 2010

China Daily – Four face a minimum of five years in jail if convicted – 22 March 2010

People’s Daily – Organ trafficking ring to go on trial – 22 March 2010

Media Rights Group Files Court Action Challenging Italian Prime Minister’s Control of Nation’s Press

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ROME, Italy – A media watchdog organization, headed by wealthy financier George Soros, filed to begin a legal action with the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of a Italian television station challenging the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s control over the Italian media .

The Open Society Justice Initiative’s action claims that the Berlusconi government violated standards established by the European Union’s Parliament when it withdrew television frequency rights from Centro Europa 7 and give control over that frequency to Rete 4.  Rete 4 is a media outlet owned by Mediaset, a parent media company controlled by Berlusconi.  The Initiative claims that one of the purposes of Berlusconi’s actions against Europea 7 has been to limit the public’s ability to gain access to information on important policy matters.

A spokesman for Europea 7 is also claiming that the transfer of the frequency, which had been controlled by Europea since 1999, was unlawful.

Prior to rising to the position of Prime Minister, Berlusconi headed a media company that now controls the three largest private television stations in the nation.  In addition to this significant segment of the private market, the Prime Minister’s supporters also have control over the state television outlets.  In all, approximately ninety percent of Italy’s television market is controlled by Berlusconi.

The Italian government’s transfer of the frequency to one of Berlusconi’s television station has once again raised concerns of the possible conflicts of interest between a head of state and that individual’s overwhelming control of that state’s media.

James A. Goldston, of the Open Society Justice Initiative, has noted that “this case highlights the failure of successive Italian governments to deal with the twin problems of concentrated control and conflict of interest in broadcasting.”  Goldston went on to comment that “the Italian situation is unacceptable for a democracy.”

European Union courts have condemned Berlusconi’s media control in the past.  In 2004 the European Parliament criticized the growing conflicting interests between the Italian government and the country’s supposedly independent media.

For more information, please see:

C21Media – Berlusconi TV influence ‘undemocratic’ – 12 March 2010

BUSINESSWEEK – Berlusconi’s Control of Italian TV Is Criticizes by Soros Group – 11 March 2010

ITNEWS – Legality of Berlusconi’s Television Monopoly Challenged – 11 March 2010

REUTERS – Group takes Berlusconi to rights court on TV control – 11 March 2010