Darfur Peacekeepers Abducted; Two Missing

By Kylie M Tsudama

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KHARTOUM, Sudan – A joint African Union-United Nations patrol was ambushed on Friday while on patrol in Darfur.  A total of 60 men were abducted.  The patrol included police and military from UNAMID, the UN Mission in Darfur, and was headed to the Jebel Marra region where there have been recent clashes.

“Although the mission had received assurances by belligerents that the UNAMID patrol could carry out its task,” armed men ambushed the patrol and held them overnight, said officials.  They were taken to a nearby settlement before being released on Saturday morning.

The attackers released the peacekeepers with their three armored personnel carriers but kept all other vehicles and equipment.

“It was then they found [out] two peacekeepers were unaccounted for,” said UNAMID Communications Chief Kemal Saiki.  “We don’t know their whereabouts or how they came to be missing … Did they flee during the ambush trying to make their way back to base? We don’t know.”

The identity of the attackers is still unknown.

“The only thing we know for sure is that it happened in an area that the [Sudan Liberation Army] was claiming under its control.  But that does not signify anything,” Saiki said.  “We are putting all our efforts into trying to determine (the two peacekeepers’) whereabouts.”

The United Nations continues to call for peace in Darfur, calling on all parties not to disrupt ongoing peace efforts.  The government and JEM (the Justice and Equality Movement) have already reached a “cessation of hostilities” agreement in an effort to help end the conflict.

“UNAMID strongly condemns this unprovoked attack on its peacekeepers who were carrying out an important security and humanitarian mission for the benefit of the people of Jebel Marra,” a UNAMID statement said.

At least 300,000 people have been killed and another 2.7 million have been driven from their homes in the past seven years of fighting.

For more information, please see:

The Nation – Darfur Mission for Respected Thai Peacekeepers – 07 March 2010

AFP – Two Darfur Peacekeepers Missing After Abduction: UN – 06 March 2010

Reuters – Two Peacekeepers Missing After Darfur Ambush – 06 March 2010

UN News Centre – Darfur: Two Peacekeepers Missing After Ambush on UN-African Union Patrol – 06 March 2010

“Dress Code” Laws Challenged in Guyana

By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Photo Courtesy of International Research Group
Photo Courtesy of International Research Group

GEORGETOWN, Guyana-Guyana’s Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination is challenging the country’s ban on cross-dressing in the Supreme Court, stating that the law is  “irrational, discriminatory, and undemocratic” and therefore unconstitutional. The six individuals behind the suit were born male but now identify as women. They were arrested and fined for crossdressing.

In a statement, one individual called the experience “one of the must humiliating experiences of my life. I felt like I was less than human.”  Those bringing the suit are also challenging the sexual orientation laws that make homosexual sex a crime. An international team of lawyers is working on the case.

International rights groups have increased their criticism of the laws as the government began a recent crackdown. Last year Guyanese police arrested and convicted several individuals under the law and fined them up to 7,500 Guyanese dollars each. The judge told the individuals to go to church and give their lives to Christ. Efforts to overturn the laws are strongly opposed by Christian, Hindu, and Muslim clergy.

There are laws banning homosexual activity and cross-dressing in many of the former British colonies in the Caribbean. The movement to overturn in the laws is gaining steam accross the region, with various allied groups working together. The first transgender human rights and health conference took place last September. One participant remarked that the case “goes to the heart of freedom of expression, our freedom to express our gender identity.”

A landmark case in Trinidad and Tobago created wider awareness about transgender issues in the Caribbean. In that case a police officer arrested and tried to strip search a transgender woman. Since that time dialogue has led to intergovernmental planning on strategies for sexual orientation and gender identity legal reforms.  However, in Guyana the calls for reform have not resulted in any changes and that is why rights groups are now using the courts.

For more information, please see:

PrideSource–Transgenders File Suit Against Guyana Crossdressing Ban-6 March 2010

Trinidad News-T&T Activists Say of Guyana Crossdressing Lawsuit: Just the First of Step to Bring Changes-28 February 2010

Rueters-Transgender Group Seeks End to Dress Code Laws-24 February 2010

Obama Administration Examines Civilian Trials of Terrorism Suspects

By Stephen Kopko

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON D.C., United States – Facing relentless pressure from both human rights groups and national security groups, the Obama Administration is reassessing their decision to try some September 11, 2001 suspects in civilian courts.  The Administration is examining whether military commissions would be a better place to try the suspects.

In November, Attorney General Eric Holder recommended that five suspects being held at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility be tried in Article III courts.  Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks, was one of the suspects to be tried in a civilian court.  Since the Attorney General’s decision, the Administration has been pressured by those favoring civilian trials and those who support trying the suspects in military commissions.  Facing congressional and local government opposition to civilian trials, the Obama administration is focusing the costs and benefits of trying the suspects in military commissions.

Many groups still believe that the suspects should be tried in civilian courts.  Three former military officers believe that holding military commissions would negatively impact the image of the United States overseas.  Also supporting civilian trials is the September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.  Donna Connor, spokeswoman for the organizations, said “military commissions are an illegitimate system that undermines the rule of law.”

Opponents of civilian trials cite different reasons for their opinion.  Local governments in the places where the trials could be held were concerned with the high cost of trying terrorism suspects.  They also were worried about the amount of security that would be needed to try the suspects.  Citing security concerns, some members of Congress threatened to cut funding for civilian trials.

Assessing the opinions and concerns of both camps, the Obama Administration has been negotiating with Senator Lindsey Graham.  According to those negotiations, the suspects would be tried in military commissions.  There would be more procedural protections in the new commissions than what traditional military commissions have afforded.  Also, a new supermax prison would be built in Illinois to house the terrorism suspects.  The military commissions would be held at this prison.

Despite the pressure facing the Obama Administration, the President will make a decision in the coming weeks whether military commissions will be used to try the suspects.

For more information, please see:

Wall Street Journal – White House Considers Military Trial for Alleged Sept. 11 Plotters – 6 March 2010

MSNBC – Military trials ahead for 9/11 suspects? – 5 March 2010

NY Times – White House Postpones Picking Site of 9/11 Trial – 5 March 2010

Dutch Local Elections Return Big Results for Xenophobic, anti-Islam Party

 By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe Desk

 Dutch far-right politcian Geert Wilder speaking to supporters in Almere. [Source: Robin Van Lonkhuijsen/AFP/Getty Images]

Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilder speaking to supporters in Almere. / Source: Robin Van Lonkhuijsen/AFP/Getty Images

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands – Wednesday’s local elections in the Netherlands brought major gains for Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV).  The PVV, which ran in two cities, came in first in election results in Almere, and second in in The Hague, where the Labour Party retained a slight lead.

Just days before the elections, Wilders said that a ban on Muslim headscarves in public places would be a non-negotiable facet of the PVV’s platform. In response, dozens of protesters, men and women, Muslim and non-Muslim, wore head scarves as they turned out to vote in Almere and The Hague.  

A third of the city of Almere, with its population of  190,000,  is of immigrant origin. Thirty-five-year old Kadriye Kacar, a Dutch-born resident of Almere of Turkish descent, said: “People are looking at us in a new way today as if they are thinking, ‘We won and you are leaving’.”

Wilders, visibly jubilant by election returns, told his supporters in Almere: “Today Almere and The Hague, tomorrow the whole Netherlands . . . We are going to win back the Netherlands from the leftist elite that believes in cuddling criminals, that believes in Islam and multiculturalism and the idiocy of development aid and the European superstate.”

Wilders has called for an immediate stop to immigration from Muslim countries, a ban on mosque construction, and the imposition of €1,000 a year tax on Muslim women who choose to wear headscarves. He has also likened the Qur’an to Mein Kampf, and wants Muslim immigrants deported.

Two weeks ago the ruling Christian Democrat-Labour coalition government collapsed after a disagreement about prolonging the Dutch military presence in Afghanistan beyond August.  The collapse of the ruling coalition prompted the local elections, which were the starting point of an intense three-month national campaign period which will end in June.  The latest opinion polls have indicated that the PVV is likely to take twenty-seven of the one hundred and fifty seats in the Dutch parliament.

Wilders has indicated that he is willing to make the compromises necessary to form partnerships with other parties, but it is yet unclear as to whether other parties will be willing to work with the extremist PVV.

The PVV gains reflect a drift to the right in Dutch politics which has been underway since the anti-immigration and anti-Islam politics of Pim Fortuyn, who was murdered during the 2002 Dutch national election campaign. Fortuyn’s assassin, animal rights activist Volkert van der Graaf, claimed that he had assassinated Fortuyn to prevent him from carrying out his anti-immigration agenda.

Agnes Kant of the Dutch Socialist Party stated that Wilders is a threat to samenleving, Dutch society’s history of allowing diverse ethnic and religious groups to live together. Wilders retorted:  “Agnes, thanks very much!”

Muslims now make up six percent, or one million, of the Netherland’s population of sixteen million.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Anti-Islamists gain in Dutch poll – 6 March 2010

The Sydney Morning Herald – Foothold for far right in Dutch local elections – 6 March 2010

Reuters – Dutch concerns over Islam, globalisation drive Wilders’ support – 5 March 2010

RNW – Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam party makes major gains – 4 March 2010

The Guardian – Geert Wilders’s party wins seat in Dutch elections – early results – 4 March 2010

Financial Times – Gains for far-right in Dutch elections – 3 March 2010

Pakistani Workers Killed in Afghan Attack

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan- On Thursday gunman on motorcycles shot dead four Pakistanis and an Afghan working for a company building roads in southern Afghanistan, officials said.  The Afghan interior ministry said the trio of gunman opened fire on the group of laborers, killing five and wounding another Pakistani and an Afghan.

The ambush took place in the Kobi area of Panjwayi district in Kandahar province.  This area has been a center for the Taliban-led insurgency since late 2001 in their efforts bring down the Western-backed Afghan government.  The ministry said the laborers were attacked at 7:30 am while on their way to work at a site by the SAITA road construction company.  In addition they identified the attacked only as “terrorists”.

The SAITA road construction company employs around 1,000 Pakistanis in Afghanistan.  These laborers work mainly on road construction projects funded by grants from Japan and Europe, said Ajmal Farooqi, a company executive, who confirmed the deaths of the four Pakistanis.  He said “They were going to work when this incident took place.  We are arranging transportation of their bodies back to Pakistan.”

Last August a truck bomb exploded in front of SAITA’s office in central Kandahar city during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, leaving 40 people dead and at least another 80 injured.  Though the recent attack bore resemblance of the Taliban, the militants did not claim responsibility, possibly because the dead did not include foreigners and were civilians.

A Taliban spokesman said he was unaware of the incident.  Yousuf Ahmadi, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location said “Our friends did not say anything about it, we don’t have information about the incident.”

A Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman said Pakistan had asked the Afghan authorities to investigate Thursday’s incident and improve security for its nationals in the country.  Pakistanis arouse particular suspicion in Afghanistan, where many accuse the country of harboring links with the Taliban.  Kandahar shares a border with Pakistan and was the spiritual capital for the Taliban when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until their ouster in 2001.

For more information, please see:
Gulf Times- Pakistani Workers Shot Dead in Afghanistan– 4 March 2010