Pakistan Accusses US Youths of Quest for Jihad

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia 

SARGODHA, Pakistan- On Wednesday, five Muslim American youths were arrested in Sargoha city of Punjab province.  They allegedly were on their way to the Taliban sanctuary in the tribal areas of Pakistan with the intention of training to fight in Afghanistan against American troops.

Pakistani officials said these men from the Washington suburbs whose ages range from their late teens to their early 20s, had been in contact through YouTube with a Pakistani militant with links to al-Qaida before their arrival in Karachi last month.  “They are believed to have come here to join jihad,” one Pakistani security official said.

In a statement released on Wednesday by the FBI said that it was in contact with the families of the five men, as well as law enforcement authorities in Pakistan.  A second Pakistani official said, “No charge has been framed against them.  Investigations are underway as to whether they have any links with extremist groups.”

Usman Anwar, police chief of Sargodha said after arriving in Karachi, they attempted to join an extremist Islamic school near Karachi and approached another school in the eastern city of Lahore.  They were refused in both places because of their Western demeanor and their inability to speak Urdu.  After arriving in Sargodha, they were arrested at a four-room home in a government housing complex.

Pakistani news reports said the suspects were being investigated for links with Jaish-e-Mohammed, a banned Islamic militant group with links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.  It is one of several factions that have for years been fighting Indian forces in the disputed region of Kashmir.  The group is also suspected of involvement in high-profile attacks, including the murder of US Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, and an assassination attempt of Pervez Musharraf, the former Pakistani president. One of their leaders, who allegedly hid the five men in his house in Sargodha, was also arrested.  

According to Pakistani security officials, in the past, young men of Muslim origin have travelled from the west to seek out training on the use of explosives and in suicide attack methods, notably in the South Waziristan region, near the Afghan border.  

The arrest comes on the heels of David Headly, a US national with Pakistani roots, accused of scouting targets for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, who pleaded not guilty in Chicago on Wednesday at his first hearing.

Officials said three Pakistanis had also been detained, one who is believed to have been linked to a suicide bomb attack on an air force bus outside a base in Sargodha two years ago, in which eight were killed.

For more information, please see:

Times of India-5 US Youth on Jihad Quest Held in Pak  – 11 December 2009

FT.com- Pakistan Accuses US Men of Quest for Jihad– – 11 December 2009

Aljazeera.net- US Men in Pakistan ‘Jihad Quest’– 11 December 2009

No Justice for Peruvian Protesters Killed by Police

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BAGUA, Peru-Human rights groups are calling on the Peruvian government to investigate the deaths of ten indigenous and local people killed in a violent clash at a Peruvian road blockade in June of this year. An inquiry is currently underway into the deaths of twenty-three police officers that occurred on the same day.

The violence took place after 400 police officers confronted a group of indigenous protesters staging a blockade in the town of Bagua, north of Lima. The protesters used tree trunks and boulders to block a highway to express their opposition to the lifting of restrictions on mining, oil drilling, and farming in the Amazon rain forest.

The death toll at what has been described as a peaceful protest is considered to be one of the worst in Peru in over twenty years. Amnesty International reports that in addition to the ten civilian deaths, over 200 people were injured. Amnesty International’s main concern is currently the lack of investigation into the deaths of the protesters. There have been arrests related to the deaths of police officers and indigenous leaders have reported harassment by police since the incident.

Over sixty-five indigenous groups staged a series of protests demanding to be consulted on behalf of more than 1,000 indigenous communities living in the rain forest. As a result two decrees lifting development restrictions were revoked.

Family members of protesters killed in the clash say that the government should acknowledge the protesters’ “defense of the Amazon Territory.” Amnesty International has called for reparations and justice for all of the victims, not just police officers.

James Anaya, the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights called for a committee to investigate the incident and to monitor efforts to find individuals who have gone missing since the rallies against the decrees began. There are reports that since the since the violence, many Indigenous leaders have gone into hiding or fled Peru.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International-Victims of Peru Amazon Violence Deserve Justice Without Discrimination-10 December 2009

Huntington News-Human Rights Groups Condemn Criminal Repression of Indigenous Community in Peru-10 December 2009

National Indigenous Times-Amnesty Calls for Peru to Remember Indigenous Victims-10 December 2009

Constant Fighting Creating a Civilian Uprising in Mogadishu

By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – The latest round of heavy fighting between government forces and rebel fighters in the Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu has left at least 7 dead and 11 others injured.

The clashes started in the capital’s Abdiaziz district where forces loyal to rebel Hizbul Islam group fired a missile to a government troop vehicle, leading to heavy gun battle that killed the seven people, mostly combatants.

The latest clash compounded with last week’s deadly bombing of a medical school’s graduation ceremony, which killed 23 people, including three ministers in the Transitional Federal Government, parents, students, professors and journalists, has created extreme civilian unrest in a country already pervaded with disorder.

A civilian uprising against Al-Shabab seems to be under way, with street demonstrations in Mogadishu on 7 December, and in camps for the internally displaced (IDPs) on 8 December. On both occasions the group’s black flag was burned.

Abdi Mahad, a civil society activist who organized an anti-Al-Shabab demonstration on 7 December, told IRIN the attack was “a wake-up call for all. Up to that point, everybody assumed they were fighting foreigners and the government, but we realized on Thursday [3 December] that they are at war with us; it was the last straw.” Mahad, who is a member of a youth movement in Mogadishu, said his group was planning more demonstrations against Al-Shabab, including one by students. “We will do whatever it takes to stand up to them,” he said.

“Anti-Islamic” Mogadishu resident Ibado Abdi Mohamed did not take part in a demonstration but, on 7 December, was among hundreds of Somalis who took to the streets in protest against Al-Shabab. “I used to be afraid but no more; I am a mother and we have watched for far too long our children being killed senselessly,” she said. Mohamed said what Al-Shabab and allied groups are doing has nothing to do with Islam and accused the groups of being anti-Islamic. “Islam teaches us compassion and kindness,” she said. “What they did [on 3 December] and are doing is cruel and inhuman.”

Al-Shabab recently captured several strategic towns near Mogadishu and is in control of most of southern Somalia up to the Kenyan border. “In my opinion they are seen as occupiers in almost all areas they control, and the attack on Thursday [3 December] will only add to their isolation,” said one observer. “I think the demonstration was a clear signal to them that people have had enough of their violence and will not tolerate it any more.” The government now needs to organize and take the group on militarily, he said. “The people seem to be ready; it is now up to the government to show leadership and take the initiative.”

Somalia’s Prime Minister, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, has called for an international peace plan like the new US strategy for Afghanistan, saying it would be more effective and far cheaper than current efforts to combat the country’s problems of piracy and armed opposition. “What is so startling is that all the conclusions are as true about Somalia as they are about Afghanistan,” he said. Like the embattled government in Kabul, Sharmarke’s UN-backed administration controls only part of the capital, Mogadishu, and is battling to subdue anti-government fighters and pirates who prey on shipping in the Indian Ocean.

Somali powerful militants are bent on overthrowing the fragile UN-backed Somali transition government, which controls little more than a few blocks of Mogadishu. Al-Shabab and other anti-government groups regularly attack government troops and African Union peacekeepers, in efforts to force them out of the country. Al-Shabab and allied groups control much of southern and central Somalia and want to impose their version of Sharia, or Islamic law, in the country.

The prolonged conflict in the country has displaced more than 1.5 million people, while another 3.6 million need assistance.

For more information, please see:

Garowe Online – Somalia: Fighting Rocks Mogadishu, Seven Dead – 10 Dec 2009

IRIN – Attack on Graduation Ceremony the “Last Straw” – 10 Dec 2009

Aljazeera – Somalia Seeks Afghan-Style Strategy – 5 December 2009

Mexico Condemned for Femicide in Juarez

11 December 2009

Mexico Condemned for Femicide in Juarez

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 By Brenda Lopez Romero
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

(PHOTO: Courtesy of Los Angeles Times – Not a Single Female More)

Juarez

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ruled today that the Mexican State is responsible for the triple femicides that occurred in 2001 in Juarez and Chihuahua. Mexico was legally sanctioned for damages and reparations in the amount of of $847,000 for the victims families.

The Mexican government was accused of the murders of Esmeralda Herrera Monreal, fifteen years old; Laura Berenice Ramos Monárrez, seventeen years old, and Claudia Ivette González, twenty years old.

Additionally, the Court ruled that Mexico must remove the barriers to the suit for these three murders and was ordered to raise a monument within a year in memory of the victims and maintain a permanent website with information on all the women, teenagers, and girls that have disappeared since 1993.

IACHR also condemned Mexico for the killing and disappearance of women that have occurred since 1993.  The Court considered the homicides as “alarming” and ruled that Mexico violated anti-discrimination rights of women and children, the right to life, integrity, personal liberty, integrity of the victims families, and did not meet its duty and obligation to protect its citizens.

The Court acknowledged that Mexico had “realized a recognition of partial responsibility … but had not adopted reasonable measures, in accordance to the circumstances of the case, to find the victims alive.”  Furthermore, the Court stated that there was a common denominator in all the cases, the fact that all the victims were females. Mexico attributed the homicides to various motives, but conceded that the overriding factor was the “influence of the culture of discrimination against women.”

The Secretary of State stated “that it was worth mentioning that most of the orders of the judgment refer to actions that the fed and state government have already implemented.”

For more information, please see:

Los Angeles Times – Court Cites Rights Failure by Mexico in Juarez Killings of Women – 11 December 2009

The Associated Press – OAS Court Condemns Mexico Probes of Women Slayings – 11 December 2009

The New York Times – Mexico: Rebuke on Investigation of Murders – 11 December 2009

Voided Votes in Romanian Presidential Runoff Election To Be Recounted

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BUCHAREST, Romania – The Romanian Constitutional Court announced, amid allegations of voting fraud, that 138,000 previously voided votes from Sunday’s presidential runoff election will be recounted.

The Constitutional Court, in a released statement, explained that “the court decided by a majority of votes to re-examine the annulled votes and have the [Romanian] Central Election Bureau recount them to establish whether there are any differences between the signed ballots and reality.”

The final vote initially indicated that Romanian President Triain Basescu had defeated the Social Democratic Party candidate Mircea Geoana by approximately 70,000 votes, less than 1% of the 10.4 million votes cast.  Geoana and the Social Democratic Party have called for a new election as a result of alleged ballot stuffing, multiple voting and bribing.  Following the election results were announced, both leading candidates claimed victory.

It is unlikely that the results of the recount will overturn Basescu’s victory in a election that was called following the collapse of the coalition government of Prime Minister Emil Boc since October.  Until a victor is named in this presidential election, however, a new prime minister can’t be named or a federal government formed.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a regional election monitoring group, initially approved of the election practices.  “The conduct of the second round confirms our initial assessment that this election was held generally in line with OSCE commitments.”

Nevertheless, immediately following the election, Geoana called for the recount.  “The required democratic solution is to contest the outcome of election at the Constitutional Court.”

For more information, please see:

AP – Romania’s court orders void votes re-examined – 12 December 2009

FINANCIAL TIMES – Romanian Court orders recount of votes – 12 December 2009

BBC – Romania court orders recount of void votes – 11 December 2009

NEW YORK TIMES – Romania: Court Rules on Vote – 11 December 2009

REUTERS – Romanian court calls partial recount in runoff – 11 December 2009

REUTERS – Basescu wins Romanian election, rivals cry foul – 7 December 2009