Massive Bomb Plot Uncovered in Iraq

By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq – On January 12 Iraqi security forces arrested twenty five people suspected of plotting attacks throughout Baghdad . They then imposed a temporary curfew on parts of Iraqi capital as they conducted raids and seized explosives. The raid followed a tip-off that a series of car bombings were planned in Baghdad. Security forces were already on heightened alert ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for March 7.

Iraqi police confiscated four hundred forty pounds of C4 explosives, the same amount of TNT and sixty other explosives of different types. Additionally, according to Baghdad security forces spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, a quantity of ammonium nitrate was found. Ammonium nitrate can be used as an ingredient in bombs.

According to Moussawi, the twenty five men who were arrested “were planning to implement terrorist acts.” Authorities in Iraq also said that at least four, and as many as ten, suicide car bombers were on their way to government buildings on the morning of January 12 when there were stopped by police and arrested.

The raids that followed brought much of Baghdad to a virtual standstill. Hundreds of checkpoints were set up throughout the city. The lockdowns caused gridlock of vehicles on roads into Baghdad. People were forced to travel by foot. Bridges into the center of the city were closed due to the alleged bomb plot, but were later reopened.

Government officials said that the far-reaching plot involved sending suicide bombers with vehicles packed with explosives to blow themselves up at the Ministries of Defense, Health and Trade. Other areas that were to be targeted included public places such as markets. Other insurgents were to be sent to assassinate political and tribal leaders. Mohammed al Askari, a defense ministry spokesman, said that the Iraqi forces received “tips about places (where people were making) car and vest bombs.” This led to the raids by security forces.

American and Iraqi forces have said that there is an expectation that violence will increase sharply as the date of the Iraqi elections grows nearer. The outcome of the Iraqi elections could determine whether American forces are able to withdraw from the country on schedule by the end of 2011.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Arrests, Explosives Seized as Baghdad Car Bombs Foiled – 12 January 2010

Al Jazeera – Bomb Plot Prompts Baghdad Lockdown – 12 January 2010

New York Times – Iraq Says Raid Uncovered Plot to Bomb Ministries – 12 January 2010

Reuters – Iraqi Forces Seize Explosives, Arrest 25 in Raids – 12 January 2010

Israel to Build Wall on Egyptian Border

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – In an effort to keep out illegal migrants, Israel will build a barrier wall in two sections along its southern border with Egypt. The announcement was made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference on January 10.

 

Israel has become a new “promised land” of opportunity for many refugees from war-torn countries in northeast Africa, with border crossings increasing over the past several weeks. In recent years, thousands of undocumented migrants have crossed in Israel through its southern border. Eritrea is the most common country of origin for migrants crossing into Israel from Egypt, followed by Ethiopia and Sudan.

 

International human rights observers have strongly criticized practices by Egyptian border officials; many migrants attempting to cross into Israel have either been shot dead by Egyptian border guards or detained in Egyptian prisons before being sent back to their home countries. This violates the standards set out in the United Nations Convention on Refugees.

 

Israel’s border with Egypt spans 226 kilometers, and Israeli officials estimate the construction will take approximately two years to complete. The border wall will not cover the length of the Israeli-Egyptian border, the initial construction will focus on the area near the Israeli city of Eilat and the area near the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip near the town of Rafah.

 

Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Israel would “remain open to refugees” but said that Israel “cannot let tens of thousands of illegal workers infiltrate into Israel through the southern border and inundate our country with illegal aliens.” Netanyahu added the decision was one “to secure Israel’s Jewish and democratic character.”

 

Egyptian officials said they had not been notified of Israel’s decision to build a wall, but that they did not object, so long as the wall was built on Israeli soil.

 

Approximately fifty to sixty percent of Israel’s borders are already walled in, according to Alon Liel, a professor at the University of Tel Aviv. Israel has built walls along its borders with Lebanon, Jordan, most of the West Bank, and all of the Gaza Strip.

 

“It is a very unpleasant feeling, but for the Israeli public the alternative to not having a fence seems worse,” said Professor Liel.

 

For more information, please see:

 

Al Jazeera – Israel Plans Wall for Egypt Border – 11 January 2010

 

Ma’an News Agency – Israel to Build Wall Along Egyptian Border – 11 January 2010

 

Palestine News Network – Israel to Construct Barrier Along Egyptian Border – 11 January 2010

 

Ha’aretz – Israel to Build NIS 1.5b Fence Along Egypt Border – 10 January 2010

Human Trafficking Violates Antislavery Convention, Says European Human Rights Court

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

STRASBOURG, France – The outcome of a human trafficking case involving a Russian woman transported to Cyprus has resulted in a significant change in the definition of human slavery and the protection of immigrants for many nations in Europe.

In its ruling on Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) determined that the act of human trafficking violates the antislavery provisions of the treaty for which all nations who are party to the European Convention on Human Rights are subject to.  Under this new application of the Court’s jurisdiction, each member nation that is the destination or origin of a sex trafficking case is required to independently investigate this matter.

The events that brought about this change in law centered on Oxana Rancheva, a young Russian woman who died after she had been transported to Cyprus in 2001 for the purpose of working in a cabaret.  Rancheva died while attempting to flee in March of 2001 from an apartment building in which she had been held against her while.  Following her death, her father brought her case before the ECHR.  In review of the facts of this case, the ECHR concluded that both Russia and Cyprus had failed to properly investigate the parties that had engaged in the human trafficking in their respective countries.

The Court found Russia and Cyprus to have violated Article Four of the European Convention on slavery.  Cyprus also “violated the girl’s right to life and right to protection under the law” by failing to determine how Rancheva had arrived in Cyprus and what she was doing there, while Russia should have done more to determine how Rancheva was originally recruited to perform in a foreign cabaret.  The Court ordered the government of Cyprus to pay damages to the family of the woman involved.

The Court decision was welcomed by immigrant rights groups.  Doros Polycarpou, the leader of one such group in Cyrus, commented that the Court’s ruling was significant because “the Republic of Cyprus must finally get the message that we are no longer an isolated village where whatever we do stays between us.”

Rancheva had arrived in Cyprus on an artist visa, a bureaucratic instrument that the Court commented had been used in recent years to allow for the importation of women to the island nation to be exploited.  Three thousand such visas were issued in 2007.  Calls from international organizations for the elimination of this type of visa loophole resulted in its recent discontinuance.

Prior to the Court’s decision, the national government of Cyprus had publicly acknowledged its violations of international law in regards to this case.  However, the ECHR decided to rule on this case anyway, breaking with the court’s past tradition on not hearing cases in which “the defendant admits guilt”.

For more information, please see:

CYPRUS MAIL – ‘Handed over as if she was his possession’ – 9 January 2010

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Rights Court Raises Sex-Trafficking Oversight – 8 January 2010

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE – Cyprus and Russia violated human trafficking laws: court – 7 January 2010

Female Rights to Abortion Debate Continues in South Korea

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea –Discussion in South Korea surrounding the topic of abortion has taken on new found importance and public debate despite the being traditionally only talked about privately.

Presently, South Korea has a declining birthrate. Two doctors willing to speak about the issue, Dr. Choi and Dr. Shim, are hoping to force South Korea’s first serious public discussion of the ethics of the procedure. In November, they and dozens of other obstetricians held a news conference at which they asked for “forgiveness” for having performed illegal abortions.

Dr. Choi and Dr. Shim helped form a group, Gynob, that has reached out to other doctors to indicate whether they have performed similar illegal abortions. They formed another group this past December, Pro-Life Doctors, that tries to discourage women from having abortions and instead promotes adoption. The group also has a hot line that reports clinics that perform the procedure illegally. The group hopes to start to report individual practitioners who engage in illegal abortions to police to take further action.

In South Korea, the country has a, Mother and Child Health Law, which permits abortion only when the mother’s health is in serious danger, or in cases of rape, incest or severe hereditary disorders. It is never allowed after the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. As punishment when illegally performed, the woman faces up to a year in prison, and the doctor could be sentenced up to two years in jail. Part of Gynob’s mission is to illustrate the hypocrisy of having such a law that is loosely enforced. The group intends to protest and begin a campaign to end abortion altogether. Prior to the interest generated by these doctors and coalition they have formed, for decades, the South Korean government tended to look the other way, seeing a high birthrate as an impediment to economic growth. In the 1970s and ’80s, families with more that two children were denounced as unpatriotic, with official posters in South Korean villages driving the point home. Until the early 1990s, men could be exempted from mandatory army reserve duty if they had vasectomies.

However, this mindset has changed. Now, the government has concluded that this policy was too successful. South Korea’s fertility rate, which stood at 4.5 children per woman in the 1970s, had fallen to 1.19 children by 2008, and was one of the lowest in the world. The government fears that the recent financial downturn may have lowered it further. There is also the fear that the country’s rapidly aging population will undercut the economy’s viability even more.

In a recent statement, Health Minister, Jeon Jae-hee said, “Even if we don’t intend to hold anyone accountable for all those illegal abortions in the past, we must crack down on them from now on.” Ms. Jeon added that any crackdown should be coupled with an increase in medical fees. The government cap on payments for medical services is thought to have encouraged doctors to perform off-the-books, and potentially far more lucrative, services like illegal abortions.

The campaign to end abortion by Gynob faces resistance from doctors who believe women should be afforded the freedom of choice, and many of these doctors think that a crackdown that does not address the causes of abortion will only cause greater problems. In response, Baik Eun-jeong, an obstetrician who runs a clinic in Seoul’s upscale Kangnam district and speaker for the Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said, “We credit them for bringing a widespread but hushed-up social anomaly to the surface, but we can’t go along with their radical tactics.”

In the present state of debate, the discussion will continue as those in support of the anti-abortion law attempt to sway the opinions of abortion supporters.

For more information, please see:

New York Times –South Korea Confronts Open Secret of Abortion – January 5, 2010

Los Angeles Times – In South Korea, abortion foes gain ground – November 29, 2009

Chicago Tribune – Rights for the Unborn Dead: Abortion in Korea – December 3, 2009

CAR Rebel Leader Imprisoned

By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

BANGUI, Central African Republic – The leader of the only rebel group still fighting in Central African Republic (CAR) has been captured.

Charles Massi formerly served under Centrafrican President Ange-Felix Patasse as Minister of Mines, according to current president Francois Bozize. Massi is now the leader of the rebel Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP).

According to his wife, Denise Massi, he had been captured and beaten by soldiers of the presidential guard.  He was captured in the border area of Chad, Cameroon, and CAR, although she did not specify which country.

“He was beaten up and he’s in a lamentable…condition,” she said.

Massi is being detained at a prison in the capital Bangui after being turned over to Central African authorities.  He was arrested between January 1 and 2, said a military source.

“Charles Massi is not dead like some people are saying,” said the military source.  “When he was transferred across the border between Chad and Central Africa, one person with him was shot for refusing to comply with the instructions of those transferring him to Bangui.”

He was previously arrested in southern Chad in May 2009.  He was charged with “fraudulent entry and attempted destabilization of a neighboring country” and imprisoned, according to Chad’s Interior Minister Ahmat Mahamat Bachir.  He was released in July.

Massi’s arrest came just days after CPJP rebels and the Centrafrican army clashed in CAR near the Chadian border.  CPJP rebels had several clashes with government forces in 2009 in the Ndele region.

The army ordered the operation after learning of a fresh assault on the Ndele region was being prepared by the CPJP.

A CPJP statement has accused Bangui of ignoring an offer of negotiations and “mistakenly pursuing a logic of war.”

“The launch of hostilities against us will only needlessly weaken the country,” it said.

The fighting has led to the creation of a refugee camp in Daha, on Chad’s side of the border, because of the number of displaced people.

For more information, please see:

AFP – C.Africa Imprisons Rebel Leader – 10 January 2010

AFP – C.Africa Rebel Chief Captured:Wife – 09 January 2010

News 24 – CAR Rebel Chief Captured – 09 January 2010