Northern Iraqi Minorities Face Human Rights “Catastrophe”

By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

ERBIL, Iraq – A report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) warns of a possible disaster for northern Iraqi minorities. The human rights organization released their analysis on November 10, declaring that the policies and tactics of the Kurdish authorities were posing a significant risk to the rights of the region’s minority groups.

The HRW report, released in the Kurdish region’s capital, Erbil, was focused on Christians, Shabaks and Yazidis located in the Nineveh Province. Members of these groups are singled out by insurgent groups. The minority groups are caught in the middle of a battle for land and resources. The battle has pitted the Arabs and the central government against the leaders of Iraq’s Kurdish region.

The Nineveh province of Iraq is one of the most ethnically diverse regions of the country with both Arab and Kurdish leaders laying claim to the territory. After decades of repression under Saddam Hussein, Kurdish groups have grown in strength since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion.

While the Kurdish Regional Government has offered financial inducements to win the support of minorities, the HRW says that they are simultaneously using repressive measures to control the groups. Among these measures include “arbitrary arrests and detentions, intimidation, and in some cases low-level violence.”

The HRW also reported that the extremist elements of the Sunni Arab insurgency views the minority groups as “crusaders” and “infidels.” The Sunni Arab insurgency is particularly strong in Nineveh and in August 2007 truck bombings, allegedly by Sunni Islamists, killed more than three hundred Yazidis. This marked the single worst attack against civilians since the beginning of the war.

Another attack on minorities occurred in late 2008, where “targeted killings and violence” resulted in the death of forty Chaldo-Assyrians. Human Rights Watch has urged Kurdish leaders and the central government of Iraq to attempt to improve the security of Iraqi minorities.

While the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) questioned the validity of the report, they promised to look into the allegations made. The KRG released a statement saying that they had “done more for protection of minorities than any other entity in Iraq.”

For more information, please see:

BBC – Iraq Minority Rights Fears Grow – 11 November 2009

New York Times – Minorities in Iraq’s North Seen as Threatened – 11 November 2009

AFP – Iraq’s minorities victim of northern conflict: HRW – 10 November 2009

AP – Rights Report Criticizes Kurds Over Minorities – 10 November 2009

Deadly Blast Rocks Pakistani Town

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia  

CHARSADDA, Pakistan- At least 24 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a car bombing in the town of Charsadda, police say.  The blast occurred as shoppers walked through the main market of the town, which lies north-east of Peshawar.  

More than 300 people have been killed in a number of attacks as Pakistani troops launched an assault against the Taliban in South Waziristan.

90 pounds of explosives were placed in a car which then exploded outside the busy market intersection.  So far no one has claimed responsibility, but authorities have blamed similar attacks in recent weeks on the Taliban.

Eyewitness said the vehicle blew up on a road lined with fruit and juice shops, leaving the ground littered with slippers, body parts, and broken push carts.  One witness told reporters “It was a terrible scene. There were injured and wounded everywhere… I joined the relief and rescue operation and myself removed about a dozen casualties.”  Early evidence points to a suicide attack, because body parts and sneakers of the suspected bomber were recovered from the site.

The attack is the third in as many days in the North West Province.  On Monday, a suicide bomber in a rickshaw killed at least three people and wounded five others near a police checkpoint in Peshawar.  On Sunday, at least 12 were killed in a suicide bomb attack near the city in the village of Mattani, including the mayor who had opposed the Taliban. Less than two weeks ago, a car bomb killed 112 people in a Peshawar market, the deadliest attack in more than two years in Pakistan.

Syed Shoaib Hasan of the BBC says ordinary citizens are becoming targets in bomb attacks at an increasing rate.  As the Pakistani army presses an offensive against Taliban militants in the border area with Afghanistan, suicide bombers have stepped attacks on civilians and police officers in northwest Pakistan in an attempt to shake the government. 

The government has pledged to press ahead with the offensive, stating that the recent atrocities against the citizens was evidence of the desperation of the militants. “They are not able to target freely, and that’s why they are targeting innocent people,” said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for North West Frontier.  “But we and the people of Pakistan are determined to continue this jihad against terrorists undeterred.”

For more information, please see;

BBC News- Deadly Blast Hits Pakistani Town – 10 November 2009

New York Times- Car Bomb Adds to Toll in Northwest Pakistan– 10 November 2009

MSNBC- Police: Bomb Kills 24 at Market in Pakistan– 10 November 2009

Azerbaijan Bloggers Receive Prison Sentences

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia 
 
 Azerbaijan law enforcement arrested two bloggers who posted an internet video depicting the nation’s president as a donkey delivering a press conference.  Police allegedly apprehended the two individuals for skirmishing at a restaurant.  The bloggers, however, claim that the hooliganism charge was a pretense for arresting them for their oppositional political statement.  

Emin Abdullayev and Adnan Hazhidzade were sentenced on Wednesday (Nov. 11) to two and two-and-a-half years in prison respectively.  The two have been in custody since the incident actually occurred in July.  The bloggers’ sentencing incited the criticism of numerous civil rights groups and U.S. officials, who claim that court’s decision signifies significant regression in the path towards democracy-based structure reform.  

The U.S. State Department also expressed concern and disfavor towards the two young men’s sentencing.  The Department’s spokesperson, Ian Kelly, blatantly berated apparent denial of the bloggers’ rights to a fair hearing, relating that the Azerbaijan courts used questionable investigations and secretive hearings to fabricate the crimes against the bloggers.  The U.S. State Department further criticized the disproportionately harsh legal penalties the two bloggers faced, particularly considering a supposed failure to properly detain and charge the two bloggers.  Ian Kelly also expressed his concern for the speech rights of Azerbaijan’s citizens. 

By disallowing its citizens the right to demonstrate disagreement with the current governmental structure, Azerbaijan denies a fundamental means of expression conducive to sociopolitical reform.  Opposition to such speech demonstrates a state’s unwillingness to accept shifts in the dynamic between citizens and the state, which promotes stagnation in political progress.  

The defense attorneys for Abdullayev and Hazhidzade assert that the State merely wants to condemn the two youths for their involvement in political activism and dissent groups.  Abdullayev himself admitted to experiencing a feeling of profound honor in enduring state sanctions for his beliefs.  Despite this pride in accepting punishment, though, the bloggers’ lawyers announced that they will immediately appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.  

Activist groups voiced concerns that the arrest of the two bloggers represents the Azerbaijan government’s minor agenda to eliminate political protest within the state.  Azerbaijan officials have yet to release statements addressing these allegations.     


For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – Bloggers jailed in Azerbaijan – 11 November 2009

BBC News – Azerri bloggers given prison terms – 11 November 2009

Worldwide AP – Azerbaijan opposition bloggers sentenced to jail – 11 November 2009

BP Oil Pipeline Threatens Colombian Farmers

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LONDON, England-Colombian farmers are suing the oil company BP for damages arising from the construction of a 450-mile pipeline. The lawsuit alleges that the Ocensa pipeline caused landslides and damage to soil and groundwater, caused crops to fail, livestock to die, contaminated water supplies and made fish ponds unsustainable.

The pipeline was laid from the Cusian-Cupiagua oilfields, to the port of Covenas. The region has a significant amount of paramilitary activity. Farmers say that they have been harassed and intimidated by paramilitaries employed by the Colombian government to guard the pipeline. Colombian lawyers who initially were a part of the lawsuit claim that they were intimidated by paramilitaries as well.  One lawyer fled to Britain when she found out that her name was on a paramilitary hit list. She was granted asylum in 2002.

In this case, the environmental impact assessment, which BP conducted prior to pipeline construction, allegedly showed significant risk of damage to the land. However, mostly illiterate farmers were not informed about the risk. BP expressly promised compensation to the farmers for damages caused by the pipeline and that there would be no long-term environmental damage.

The lawsuit claims damages for breach of contract and negligence. If the court accepts evidence of environmental damage, advocates believe that that would allow similar claims by other communities in developing countries who say they have been adversely affected by oil pipelines.

One farmer stated, “Now that my land has been destroyed I realize that the money I was paid for the pipeline to be build across my farm was a mere pittance and that BP took advantage of my inability to read and write and my lack of understanding of technical language.”

BP denies all of the farmers’ allegations. It argues that the main cause of soil erosion and sediment is the removal of forests by farmers for cattle grazing. BP settled outside of court in a similar lawsuit in 2002. A court hearing date has not yet been set.

For more information, please see:

Business and Human Rights Resource Center-Case Profile:BP Lawsuit(Re: Colombia)-11 November 2009

Colombia Solidarity Campaign-BP and Pipeline Damage in Colombia-11 November 2009

The Guardian-BP Faces Damages Claim Over Pipeline Through Colombia Farmland-11 November 2009

Most Recent Clash in Mogadishu Leaves 6 Dead and Thousands More Searching for Solace

By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Heavy fighting between Somali transitional government forces and rebel Al Shabaab militants have left at least six people dead and another 12 injured in Mogadishu.

The fighting broke out Saturday afternoon when heavily armed Al Shabaab militant fighters carried out attacks on government bases in the Mogadishu districts of Bondhere and Abdiaziz.

Residents said that most of the people who were killed and wounded were civilians. Those people who were killed died when mortar shelling and heavy weapons artillery landed in their Mogadishu neighborhoods.

The Somali capital has been ravaged in recent months by a string of deadly clashes between the Al Shabaab rebels and government troops backed by African Union troops. The Al Shabaab militants are intent on overthrowing the fragile UN-backed transitional government. Al-Shabaab and its allies currently control most of southern and central Somalia, while the government, helped by the AU force, just runs parts of Mogadishu.

Somalia has been crippled by over 18 years of civil war and has had no functioning government since the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991. The years of fighting and anarchy have left some three million people, more than half of the country’s population, dependent on humanitarian aid, with nearly 300,000 refugees crammed into a few square kilometers at the Dadaab camp in northeastern Kenya alone.

Al-Shabaab wants foreign peacekeepers out of the country while Somalia’s transitional government wants more foreign support. Should the AU forces leave, thousands of Somali’s will suffer with out the AU’s humanitarian aid. Should the AU forces stay and maintain their foreign fortification against the Al-Shabaab insurgents, Al-Shabaab will continue its attacks.

For more information, please see:

Garowe Online – Civilians Killed in Fresh Mogadishu Clashes – 8 November 2009

PressTv – At least 6 dead in latest clashes in Mogadishu – 8 November 2009

Shabelle Media Network – Fighting Kills Two, Wounds Five Others in North Mogadishu – 7 November 2009