Obama Accepts Nobel Peace Prize

10 December 2009

Obama Accepts Nobel Peace Prize

By Stephen Kopko

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C. – United States President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Prize for Peace in Norway today. Obama accepted the award after asking Congress for an additional thirty thousand troops to fight the war in Afghanistan. During his acceptance speech, Obama gave his reasons for increasing the number of troops to continue the war in Afghanistan.

In October, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the President the Nobel Prize for Peace. The award surprised many people around the world. Obama had only been in office less than a year before he was awarded the coveted prize. Obama was also surprised by the committee’s decision. After being notified of the recognition, Obama stated that he did not deserve to be in the company of past Peace Prize winners. He was humbled by the selection and would use it to promote important international objectives. These objectives include nuclear nonproliferation, settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and correcting the downturn in the global economy.

Obama’s acceptance speech today focused on the current conflict in Afghanistan. Obama began his speech by saying that he was honored and humbled by being considered and recognized for the Peace Prize. He then stated that he admired past winners of the award that promoted nonviolent movements including Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi. Obama then turned attention to the situation in Afghanistan. He stated that evil exists in the word and that he must defend the people of the United States against that evil, stating: “A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince Al-Qaida’s leaders to lay down their arms.”

Obama’s speech also outlined his definition of just war. He stated that the use of force is not cynical, but is a “recognition of history.” He then outlined three ways in which war is just. According to Obama, when a nation acts in self defense, in helping or aiding an invaded nation, and when acting in a humanitarian capacity after a nation murders its own citizens, force could be used. Obama also stressed how the United States should act when it is faced with using force. Wars should be fought according to the “rules of conduct.” He rejected the use of practices such as torture and the murder of innocent people.

For more information, please see:

Christian Science Monitor – Left and Right, Pundits Applaud Obama Nobel Peace Prize Speech – 10 December 2009

MSNBC – Accepting Peace Prize, Obama Defends War – 10 December 2009

CNN – Nobel Peace Prize is “Call to Action” – 9 October 2009

Over One Hundred Killed in Coordinated Baghdad Bombings

By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq – On December 8 five car bombings took place near government institutions in Baghdad. The car bombings killed one hundred twenty seven individuals, including many women and children. More than four hundred people were wounded in the attacks. This incident was the third coordinated attack in Baghdad since August. The attacks came after Iraqi officials agreed after months of negotiations to set a date in March for a national election.

At least three of the five bombs were set off by suicide attackers. The first bomb went off at 10:25 in central Baghdad and appeared to be targeting a police patrol. The four others followed minutes later. The bombings struck a courthouse, two colleges, a mosque and a bank. The chaos forced the locking down of entire neighborhoods, overwhelming of police and rescue workers, and filling of hospitals with the wounded.

The attacks appeared to be intended the severely damage the government’s basic ability to function. Two government institutions struck on Tuesday, the Finance Ministry and an appeals court, had recently relocated to new buildings after attacks destroyed their old offices in August and October.

The new attacks undermined the Iraqi government’s claims of improved security. Many victims of the attacks blamed the Iraqi army and police force for what took place. The Iraqi security force has been under increased scrutiny as they have taken charge of security as American forces have withdrawn from cities. Victims also linked the attacks to the lengthy political battle over the election. Candidates in the election, in turn, blamed security forces and the government for failing to protect the “heart of Baghdad.”

The attacks follow the patern of multiple bombings in the Iraqi capital. This incident marked the worst attack in Iraq since a twin suicide bombing that killed on hundred fifty five people and destroyed three government agencies in October. Also, in August, two suicide car bombs killed one hundred twenty individuals when then struck the Finance and Foreign Ministries. The United States, UN, Arab League and United Kingdom led and international condemnation of the  most recent bombings. United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon called the bombings “horrendous” and “unacceptable.”

For more information, please see:

AFP – 127 Killed in Spate of Baghdad Blasts – 8 December 2009

Al Jazeera – Scores dead in Iraq Bomb Blasts – 8 December 2009

BBC – Baghdad Car Bombs Cause Carnage – 8 December 2009

New York Times – Election Day Set in Iraq as Bombs Kill Scores – 8 December 2009

Sri Lankan Asylum Seekers Threatened

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia 

MERAK, Indonesia – A group of Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic minorities have been subject to threats and oppression by the Indonesian Navy.  Approximately 250 Sri Lankan nationals have asserted an absolute refusal to leave the ports of Merak until Australia concedes to giving them asylum.

This particular group of refugees from Sri Lanka are among many more Tamils who fled from Sri Lanka to escape persecution by the government.  After the defeat of the Tamil Tigers insurgency organization earlier this Spring, the Sri Lankan government has continually mistreated Tamils, causing many of them to resort to migrating away from their home land into less hostile territories.  

Thousands of Tamils began fleeing Sri Lanka seeking asylum in Australia.  Christmas Island, a landform off the coast of Australia, has been the desired destination from refugees of many war-torn nations in the middle-east.  However, due to the abrupt influx of refugees, causing  inundation of the island with myriad, refugees, the Australian government called upon the Indonesian government to send vessels to intercept Sri Lankan goats.  

The Sri Lankan Tamils’ desire to leave for Australian territory has produced numerous human rights violations both on the Australian and Sri Lankan ends.  Human smuggling, as colored by the Australian and Indonesian governments, has created a lucrative opportunity for boat operators to exploit many impoverished nationals.  

Further issues have risen concerning the safety peoples on these boat.  In one instance, passengers on a refugee vessel have threatened to detonate their vessel if the Indonesian border patrol came any close to the ship.  

At another point, Tamils on a refugee ship escorted to an Indonesian border engaged in a hunger strike to convey their desperation for achieving asylum in Australia.   

An organization based in Australia called Refugee Action Coalition recently made statements concerning the assurance of the Tamil refugees’ well-being.  Indonesian naval vessels have slowly been approaching the Tamils’ vessels.  The Indonesian forces intend to physically remove the Tamils from their current position along the Merak port city

The Tamils, however, fear being taken off their ships under the belief of facing persecution by the Indonesian government.  They also have expressed apprehensions about being sent back to Sri Lanka, where they will face abuses from the government there.

The Tamils face a situation in which they cannot be safe in either lands, making it more significant that the Australian government grant them asylum.  



For more information, please see:

 Al-Jazeera – Sri Lanka asylum boat ‘threatened’ – 3 December 2009  

 

New York Times – Australia Puts Its Refugree Problem on a Remote Island… – 5 November 2009

Sydney Morning Herald – Rudd took Indonesia for granted over asylum seekers – 17 November 2009

Hundreds of Children Abducted in South Sudan as part of Tribal Conflict

By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

POCHALLA, Sudan — Hundreds of girls and boys in south Sudan continue to be abducted and forced into slavery as part of a serious of bloody clashes between rival groups. The United Nations estimates that at least 370 children have been snatched in south Sudan during inter-ethnic violence this year alone, but other officials warn the total could be far larger.

“The numbers of children taken over the years could go into thousands,” said Kuol Manyang, the governor of Jonglei, one of the hardest-hit areas. “Often there are over 200 children abducted every year.” Clashes between cow-herding neighbors in south Sudan erupt frequently, often sparked by cattle rustling disputes over grazing or in revenge for previous attacks. Boys are stolen to herd the cattle, while girls are valuable for the future dowry of cows they will earn, the communities say.

“They come with guns and steal our children, then kill the rest of us,” said Aballa Abich, a tired-looking mother waiting for food aid deliveries in the troubled state of Jonglei. “Day or night they can attack. We are frightened to let our children out of our sight,” added Abich, who comes from the Anyuak people of Pochalla, one of several peoples in the ethnically divided region. Some grieving parents even fear the gunmen might include their own children, snatched years earlier and now used as expendable foot soldiers.

These small-scale battles have grown in frequency and size in the remote and swampy Southern Sudan region which remains rich with automatic weapons from the 22-year civil war between north and south Sudan. A series of bloody raids this year has left many people in shock, and there has been a sharp increase in attacks apparently deliberately targeting children.

The civil war ended in January 2005, but two decades of conflict bequeathed a legacy of bitter ethnic divisions between those who fought for the south’s splintered rebel factions, and those used as proxy militiamen by the north. Some two million people died and four million were left homeless in a conflict that often shattered traditional hierarchies of authority.

Young men who grew up in conflict want the herds of cattle for their marriage dowry. “If you don’t have cattle you can’t marry, and the amount the families demand has been growing higher since the war ended,” said Othow Okoti, a youth leader in Pochalla. “So the easy way is to abduct children, then sell them on for cows,” he added, shaking his head in disgust.

Authorities recently freed 29 children and jailed four men for abducting them. “I was forced to work with the cattle for four months,” said Omot Ochalla, a 12-year-old boy grabbed in a cross-border raid in the Gambella region of Ethiopia. “I was not treated well,” he added quietly, now safe in a child trauma centre in Juba, the capital of semi-autonomous south Sudan, waiting with others for their families to be traced.

Some people accuse the Murle tribe of leading the abductions, claiming that members of the warlike but marginalized group are infertile because of sexually transmitted diseases, a myth based on ignorance and fear rather than evidence. Officials however have warned that the practice is spreading to other groups, in a worrying spiral of revenge attacks. “The Nuer are now taking the children of the Murle, because they think that will make the Murle release their children back,” said Manyang. “We are working to stop this, and we will launch a disarmament campaign to take the guns out of the hands of the people.”

More than 2,000 people have died and 250,000 have been displaced in inter-tribal violence across the south this year, the United Nations says. It is a higher rate of violent deaths than in Sudan’s war-torn western region of Darfur. “We have survived war and hunger for many, many years,” Mary Ojulo said. “But taking the children is the worst thing someone can do.”

For more information, please see:

AFP – Terror of the Child Snatchers of South Sudan – 8 December 2009

The International – Sudanese People’s Liberation Army Agrees to End Use of Child Soldiers – 8 December 2009

Arab times- Terror of the Child Snatchers of South Sudan – 7 December 2009

Jonglei State News – Gun Men Kill Three, Abduct Six Children in Jonglei’s Bor County – 21 November 2009

U.S. Moves to Settle Longstanding Indian Cobell Case for $3.4 Billion

09 December 2009

U.S. Moves to Settle Longstanding Indian Cobell Case for $3.4 Billion

By Brenda Lopez Romero
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Obama Administration moved to settle a contentious case as “an important step towards reconciliation … I heard from many in Indian Country that the Cobell suit remained a stain on the nation-to-nation relationship I value so much” stated President Obama. He also said that he was proud the step had been taken. The Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said “this is an historic, positive development for Indian country.”

The Native American plaintiffs alleged the Interior Department mismanaged billions of dollars in national resources income from their lands. The Cobell class action lawsuit was filed in 1996. The government deal would provide $1.4 billion for 300,000 tribe members as compensation and set up a $2 billion fund to buy land from them.
The issue began with the 1887 Dawes General Allotment Act, which divided reservations into individually allotted parcels per Indian family, creating massive amounts of “surplus” land, usually very rich in natural resources, that was then handed over to white-owned industries. The federal government promised to compensate for the land loss. However, private land ownership is largely a foreign concept within Indigenous societies, peoples that generally view land as a communal asset.

Given that history, issues eventually arose over the adequate compensation that was promised. The class argued that the government, which was to oversee the Indian trust, actually mismanaged billions of dollars in oil, gas, grazing, and timber royalties.

(PHOTO: Ms. Cobell, Courtesy of BBC News)

Cobell The named plaintiff, Elouise Cobell (citizen of the Blackfoot Nation) welcomed the settlement, but she said there was “no doubt” the final amount was “significantly” less than what was actually deserved by Native Americans.  Based on their calculations, they estimate that they are owed $47 billion. Nonetheless, Cobell stated: “today is a monumental day for all of the people in Indian Country that have waited so long for justice.” Cobell also remarked, “did we get all the money that was due us? Probably not… but there are too many individual Indian beneficiaries that are dying every single day without their money.”

The Department of Interior plans, as part of the settlement, to buy back individual trust interest from individuals to free up lands for the benefit of tribal communities, but conceded that some class members would likely be distrustful of selling their interests. As an incentive to sell, the deal includes funding set aside up for to five percent of the value of the interests to go to higher education and vocational scholarships for Indigenous students.

In order for the settlement funds to become available Congress must pass legislation appropriating funds and approving the deal. Salazar said he hoped that this would occur before the end of the year.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – US to Pay $3.4bn to Settle Native Americans Land Case – 8 December 2009

Bozeman Daily Chronicle – American Indians at MSU Praise Cobell Settlement – 8 December 2009

Indian Country Today – Obama Administration Moves to Settle Cobell – 8 December 2009