A Voice for the Voiceless

Amid Unrest, Gabon Election Result Finally Released

By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

LIBREVILLE, Gabon – Ali Ben Bongo, the eldest son of former President Omar Bongo, was declared the new President of Gabon, extending the family’s 41-year reign.

Ben Bongo was up for election against Andre Mba Obame and Pierre Mamboundou.  Bongo was considered the heavy favorite because of the wealth and power that his family accumulated during his father’s time in power.

Since a young age Bongo has been involved in politics.  His father brought him into the country’s government as the foreign minister and his most recent position was as the defense minister, controlling the country’s army.

This week was tense as they all awaited the results.  After the election each of the three candidates had declared himself the winner.  Although the election was held on Sunday it was not until today that the actual results were released and Bongo was declared the winner.  The length of time between the election and the results led many to believe that the vote was rigged.  Bongo won with 47% of the vote, a considerably smaller margin of victory than those his father declared.

“If this man was elected fairly, would this city be dead like this?  Where are the crowds in joy?” Frederic Zomo asked.

This is no more than a military coup d’etat.  They have trampled democracy.  These results are false,” said Patrick Pambo.

Adelie Mengue called it “an electoral hold-up, a masquerade.”

According to Mamboundou, “It’s not just a possibility of fraud.  It’s fraud pure and simple.  The Gabonese people do not want a dynasty.  Forty-two years of President Bongo is enough.  They want change.”

Activists in support of the opposition have been causing disturbances since the election, breaking into a prison and freeing hundreds of inmates from Port Gentil.  They also looted shops and attacked journalists.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on the Gabonese people to be calm and restraint and to avoid disturbances so that tensions do not escalate.

“The Secretary General urges all the presidential candidates and their supporters to resolve any electoral grievances through legal and institutional channels, and calls for any such complaints to be reviewed and adjudicated in a fair and transparent manner.  He calls on the Gabonese political leaders to refrain from any action which could jeopardize the peaceful conclusion of the electoral process.”

For more information, please see:

AP – Unrest as Dictator’s Son Declared Winner in Gabon – 03 September 2009

BBC – Bongo Wins Disputed Gabon Ballot – 03 September 2009

CJP – Gabonese Media Under Attack Since Election – 03 September 2009

Forbes – Protesters Dispersed, Gabon Election Result Blocked – 03 September 2009

NY Times – Son of Late Gabon Leader Declared Winner in Vote – 03 September 2009

Reuters – Unrest in Gabon as Bongo Poll Win Disputed – 03 September 2009

UN News Service – Secretary-General Urges Calm Amid Reports of Post-Election Clashes in Gabon – 03 September 2009

Adjournment Until October for 26 Accused of Involvement with ‘Hezbollah Cell’

By Ann Flower Seyse
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt– The trial for twenty-six Egyptians accused of forming a terrorist cell in Egypt related to Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah has been adjourned until October. According to Nile TV, the delay will grant the defendants’ lawyers more time to review the cases.

The twenty-six men include nineteen Egyptians, two Lebanese, and five people from Palestinian territories. Some of the men appeared in court on August 23 to dispute claims that the defendants were smuggling weapons between Sinai and Gaza and plotting attacks against Israeli tourists in Egypt. 

Of the twenty-six accused, only twenty-two appeared in court. The remaining four are being tried in absentia, while they are still on the run. One man who appeared in court said that he had been tortured. He also added that he had been referred for medical check after the alleged torture.

The lawyer of the twenty-two men, Montaser al Zaiat has said that the charges are “absolutely not true,” and clarified that there was “never any question in this case of a plot for the assassination of figures in Egypt.”

Family members were not permitted to attend the hearing, many relatives braced high heat standing outside the courtroom to see their loved ones. The families are upset because they haven’t seen their loved-ones in months. One prisoner was arrested in December, and his family does not know the details of the charges that precipitated his arrest. The arrests of members of the alleged Hezbollah cell began in 2008.

Hezbollah is a Shiite backed group, which is at odds with Sunni dominated Egypt. Hezbollah believes that the charges are politically motivated, and based upon Egypt’s support for the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

For more information, please see:

AFP – ‘Hezbollah’ Accused Allege Torture in Egypt Jail’ – 23 August 2009

BBC – Egypt ‘Hezbollah Cell’ on Trial – 23 August 2009

LA Times – Egypt: How Guilty are Those in ‘Hezbollah Cell’ – 23 August 2009

Xinhua – Egyptian Court Postpones Trial of Hezbollah Cell to October 24 – 23 August 2009

International Outcry Over Sri Lanka Execution Video

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

UNITED NATIONS – A graphic video footage of a naked, blindfolded Tamil civilian sitting on dirt ground who is kicked and then shot in the back of his head by a Sri Lankan soldier aired on British television last week and has outraged the international community. 

The Tamils have been fighting for independence from Sri Lanka but were defeated this May.  The decades-long conflict killed at least 70,000 people, and the Sri Lankan government has been accused of extrajudicial killings in violation of international law in the past.  However, the government had prevented the international media from covering the conflict zone, but this video clip could be the most graphic evidence of Sri Lanka’s war crime allegations.

The High Commission of Sri Lanka claims the video is a fabrication and released a statement saying that they “categorically deny that the Sri Lankan armed forces engaged in atrocities against Sri Lankan Tamil community.”  Nonetheless, the UN wants an independent investigation to verify the authenticity of the video.

UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston said, “These images are horrendous and, if authentic, would indicate a serious violation of international law.”  He added, “The government clearly has nothing to lose and everything to gain by inviting an independent international investigation…and say look, these are fabrications….”

Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, who holds the presidency of the UN Security Council during September, also expressed her concerns saying, “These reports are very disturbing….”  Rice said the allegation against Sri Lanka is not currently on the Security Council’s agenda, but this could change.

Sri Lanka has repeatedly denied that its military has committed war crimes or breached international human rights laws during the fighting.  Nevertheless, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the UN takes all human rights violation reports seriously and the recent execution video will not be an exception.
For more information, please see:

CNN – U.N. envoy seeks probe into ‘horrendous’ Sri Lanka video – 2 September 2009

Reuters – U.S. voices “grave concern” about Sri Lanka video – 2 September 2009

Telegraph – Sri Lanka accused of war crimes after ‘Tamil execution’ videos emerge – 25 August 2009

Scandal over Alleged Bribe Scheme that may Involve Presidency in Ecuador Lawsuit

By Mario A. Flores
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

QUITO, Ecuador — Chevron announced that it obtained recordings of meetings in Ecuador this year that appear to reveal a bribery scheme connected to a $27 billion 16-year-old lawsuit the company has been battling over environmental damage at oil fields it operated in the Amazon forest in Ecuador.

The audio and video recordings reveal a $3 million bribe scheme implicating the judge presiding over the environmental lawsuit currently pending against Chevron, Juan Núñez, and individuals who identify themselves as representatives of the Ecuadorean government and its ruling party, including possibly Pierina Correa, the sister of Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa.

Judge Núñez appears in the video released by Chevron explaining that he plans to rule against the oil giant later in the year or in January at the latest for an award of $27 billion, “more or less.” In that part of the video, the Judge says he will only discuss the verdict, not “the other stuff,” which Chevron contends is a $3 million payoff request. The video later implies that Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa will benefit from the bribe amount.

Correa, a left-wing economist who rose from obscurity to become Ecuador’s strongest president in recent years, has sided with the plaintiffs in the case, prompting Chevron to lobby Washington to strip Ecuador of American trade preferences. But the Obama administration allowed the preferences to continue as a chance to improve ties with Correa.

The release of the recordings is sure to focus more scrutiny on Correa, who has come under pressure over his clashes with the media and accusations of corruption involving another family member, his brother Fabricio Correa, a prominent businessman.

In one of the recordings made in June, the political operative negotiating the bribe identifies himself as an official in Correa’s political party, and refers to $3 million in bribes to be split equally among the judge, the presidency and the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

In the same meeting, the operative explains how to approach the president’s sister about the bribe. “Tell Pierina clearly, ‘Madam Pierina, what we came to do beyond anything else is to participate, participate in the remediation. That’s why I want to make you part of this,’” he said.

The recordings, obtained by businessmen using spy watches and pens implanted with bugging devices, are not clear on whether any bribes discussed were actually paid or whether Judge Núñez was even aware of plans to try to bribe him. The tapes are also unclear as to whether the president’s sister was aware of the scheme or had participated in it. Nor is there confirmation that the political operative was in fact in contact with her.

Alexis Mera, a legal adviser to the president, dismissed the recordings as “approaching the level of defamatory libel,” and said Chevron’s was a “terrible legal strategy.”

This is not the first time Correa is plagued by accusations of alleged bribes. Earlier this year, the Colombian military seized a set of three laptops from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which were alleged to contain at least one video with evidence that the guerrilla group may have contributed money to Correa’s first election campaign in 2006.

President Correa has vehemently denied allegations that he received election funds from the Marxist FARC rebels. He has said evidence had been fabricated to destabilize his left-wing government.

For more information, please see:

San Francisco Chronicle – Chevron Ecuador Judge Nunez bribery scandal – implications – 31 August 2009

The New York Times – Chevron Offers Evidence of Bribery Scheme in Ecuador Lawsuit – 31 August 2009

Los Angeles Times – Chevron, Ecuador and a clash of cultures – 29 August 2009

The Wall Street Journal – Report: Chevron seeking probe of judge in Ecuador suit – 1 September 2009

Human Rights Watch Issues Report on Zimbabwe’s Inability to Implement Reforms

By Jennifer M. Haralambides
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

Zimbabwe – Human Rights Watch has issued a report declaring that South African leaders need to press Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government to end the ongoing human rights violations and to implement legal reforms.

This report, titled “False Dawn: The Zimbabwe Power-Sharing Government’s Failure to Deliver Human Rights Improvements,” focuses on the new government’s lack of progress in the many areas of human rights where reform is needed.

More than six months after the formation of a transitional, power-sharing government in Zimbabwe between the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), there has been little progress in instituting any promised human rights reforms and in demonstrating respect for the rule of law.

Human Rights Watch reports that his transitional government has demonstrated a lack of political will to create change. Police, prosecuting authorities, and court officials who are aligned with ZANU-PF continue to conduct politically motivated prosecutions of MDC legislators and activists.  MDC is the former opposition party and is now a partner in the government.

Local sources say that President Zuma, who was inaugurated six months ago, has failed to satisfy the expectations of both the public and the politicians alike because no agreements have been reached from the negotiations between President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and the two MDC’s led by Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.

“Southern African leaders should stop looking at Zimbabwe through rose-colored glasses…The region’s leaders need to press Zimbabwe openly and publicly for human rights reforms to prevent the country from backsliding into state-sponsored violence and chaos,” said Georgette Gagnon, the Africa director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In order to fulfill the demands of human rights groups, heads of state from members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are holding a summit meeting in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, on September 7th, 2009.  At the summit meeting they are exptected to assess Zimbabwe’s compliance with a number of rulings by the SADC Tribunal on illegal actions.  President Zuma of South Africa, SADC’s current chairman, is also expected to update leaders on the progress made by the power-sharing government.

“Without these necessary changes, Zimbabwe’s inclusive government will continue to be built on sand,” says Gagnon.

The HWR report recommends a range of fundamental reforms that the power-sharing government should undertake to improve the human rights situation in Zimbabwe.

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – False Dawn: The Zimbabwe Power-Sharing Government’s Failure to Deliver Human Rights Improvements – 31 August 2009

Reuters – SADC: Press Zimbabwe to Implement Human Rights Reforms – 31 August 2009

The Zimbabwe Times – Mutambara is Correct on Zuma’s Role – 31 August 2009