Peace Talks Leads to Release of Child Soldiers

By Cintia Garcia

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Bogota, Colombia— On Sunday March 15 in Havana, Cuba, the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed forces of Colombia (FARC) reached an agreement to release child soldiers from the FARC’s ranks. Both parties have agreed to release all children under the age of 15 from FARC, and FARC has agreed that they will no longer recruit children within this age range. In addition, the government of Colombia and FARC will develop a plan to release child soldiers under the age of 18. Furthermore, the agreement also proposes the creation of a reintegration plan that will assist in transitioning the child soldiers into society.

Child Soldier in Colombia. (Photo Courtesy of Colombia Reports)

The priority of the government of Colombia is to ensure the safety and the release of any child under the age of 15. FARC will assist the government of Colombia in finding and identifying any child who falls within this age group for their departure from the non-state military. Although FARC claimed it only had knowledge of 20 children under age 15 currently serving FARC, it has been confirmed that 170 children will be released. Upon the release of the child soldiers, FARC has asked the government of Colombia to not prosecute the child soldiers for crimes they have committed and provide them with “Victim Status.” About 100 boys and 70 girls will be released to UNICEF.

According to UNICEF, since 2013, the number of children soldiers that have been killed or injured under FARC has dropped by 40%. Additionally, in the past 17 years 60% of the 6,000 children that have left the rebel military belong to FARC.

UNICEF has been an integral partner during the peace talks in ensuring the children of FARC are reintegrated with their families and into society. UNICEF representative, Roberto de Bernardi, announced that UNICEF “stands ready to support the release of all children and their reintegration into their families and communities, in accordance with national and international law.”

The historic announcement comes amidst three years of peace talks between the government of Colombia and FARC. The peace talks are being held in Havana, Cuba with the goal of reaching a cease fire by the end of this year. FARC is the most mobilized rebel group in Colombia. Since the peace talks began, the number of fighters within FARC has reduced to about 8,000 through the voluntary disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program.

For more information, please see: 

BBC – Colombia and Farc Rebels Agreed Child Soldier Deal—16 May 2016

Colombia Reports—Farc to Release 170 Child Soldiers: Colombia’s Defense Minister—19 May 2016

New York Times—Colombia and FARC Rebels Reach a Deal to Free Child Soldiers—15 May 2016

Newsweek—FARC Rebel Rehab Hopes to Create Lasting Peace in Colombia—24 April 2016

UNICEF—UNICEF Welcomes FARC’s Announcement to Release all Children in its Rank—16 May 2016

Iraqi Forces Retake Rutba; Battle for Fallujah Next

By Zachary Lucas

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq — After a two-day battle with the Islamic State, Iraqi forces reported that they had retaken the remote town of Rutba in the Andar Province. This comes on the heels of other military victories against IS in the northern and western regions of Iraq. This string of victories has been followed by some Iraq military officials stating that plans are being made to retake Fallujah next.

Iraqi Forces Have a String of Military Victories Against IS (Photo courtesy of the BBC)

Iraqi forces, backed by United States led coalition airstrikes, entered Rutba on Tuesday. These forces were helped by elite commandos and local tribal fighters to retake the city within two days. Coalition spokesperson, Colonel Steve Warren, stated that there were approximately 200 IS fighters in the town. Colonel Warren and Iraqi military officials added that little resistance was made by IS to defend the city.

Rutba was captured by IS in June 2014 and quickly became a home for IS training grounds and bases due to its remoteness. IS used Rutba as staging grounds for attacks in both Syria and Iraq. Colonel Warren stated that the retaking of Rutba will deny IS a “critical support zone” for future attacks against military forces and civilians.

Retaking Rutba is one of a few victories that the Iraqi military has seen in the last few months. In February, the Iraq military retook Ramadi from IS and last month they retook the town of Hit in Anbar province. Coalition forces estimate that IS has lost more than 30 percent of its territory in Iraq and Syria. Some officials have stated that the loss of territory and supplies has led IS to put up less military resistance and instead focus attacks on civilian populations like the recent bombings in Baghdad.

These recent victories and the strategic victory in Rutba, lead many into thinking that Fallujah is next. Both Iraqi military officials and local, allied militia leaders stated plans for retaking Fallujah are in the works. Fallujah was the first city to fall to IS control in 2014 and was later followed by numerous Iraqi military defeats, including losing the second largest city Mosul. Fallujah and Mosul, where IS has headquartered military operations, attacks on civilians, and sex trafficking of women, have been IS strongholds for almost two years.

For more information, please see:

The Washington Post — Iraqi forces retake Rutba from ISIS and eye Fallujah for next battle — 19 May 2016

BBC — IS conflict: Iraq forces retake remote western town of Rutba — 19 May 2016

Radio Free Europe — Iraqi Forces Retake Remote Western Town From Islamic State — 19 May 2016

Reuters — Iraq says it retakes western town of Rutba from Islamic State — 19 May 2016

Justice for Sergei Magnitsky: German TV Station ZDF Confirmed It Will Not Show Nekrasov’s Anti-Magnitsky Propaganda Film

Ger­man TV Sta­tion ZDF Con­firmed It Will Not Show Nekrasov’s Anti-Magnitsky Pro­pa­ganda Film

16 May 2016 – ZDF, a Ger­man public-service tele­vi­sion broad­caster, has con­firmed that they will not show Andrei Nerkrasov’s anti-Magnitsky pro­pa­ganda film. Pre­vi­ously, Sergei Magnitsky’s widow and mother expressed their cat­e­gor­i­cal objec­tion to dis­tri­b­u­tion in any form of the Nekrasov’s film about Sergei Mag­nit­sky because of its false and slan­der­ous content.

ZDF has now for­mally con­firmed its com­mit­ment to not broad­cast Nekrasov’s film. This fol­lows a sim­i­lar com­mit­ment by the French TV net­work ARTE.

“This film is full of lies and mis­in­for­ma­tion about the Mag­nit­sky case,” said William Brow­der, leader of the global Jus­tice cam­paign for Sergei Mag­nit­sky and author of the New York Times best-seller “Red Notice: How I Became Putin’s No 1 Enemy.”

“It is my duty to Sergei’s mem­ory and to his fam­ily to pre­serve the truth and pro­tect his legacy,” con­tin­ued Browder.

Nekrasov’s film con­tains false state­ments about Sergei Mag­nit­sky, which are refuted by inde­pen­dent inter­na­tional bod­ies, includ­ing the Par­lia­men­tary Assem­bly of the Coun­cil of Europe, com­pris­ing del­e­gates from 47 states, the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, the US Depart­ment, and the US Con­gress, among others.

Russ­ian human rights activists, includ­ing vet­eran dis­si­dent and head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lud­mila Alex­eeva and Valery Borschev, head of the Moscow human rights com­mis­sion, who inves­ti­gated Magnitsky’s death, spoke out against the attempts by Andrei Nekrasov to spread the lies in this case for the ben­e­fit of those who have been exposed by Magnitsky’s tes­ti­mony of involve­ment in the fraud and broader cor­rup­tion aris­ing out of Panama Papers, and are being affected by Mag­nit­sky sanc­tions (State­ment by Lud­mila Alex­eeva:http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/72940.html; State­ment by Valery Borschev:http://www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/72931.html).

Nekrasov’s anti-Magnitsky film was sched­uled for broad­cast on ARTE, a Franco-German cul­tural TV net­work, on 3 May 2016. ARTE has can­celled the sched­uled broad­cast of Nekrasov’s anti-Magnitsky film, and ZDF has now con­firmed that it will not show this film.

The deci­sion not to broad­cast Nekrasov’s film by ZDF and ARTE fol­low the ear­lier deci­sion not to air the Nekrasov’s film at the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment for sim­i­lar rea­sons. The screen­ing of Nekrasov’s film was orig­i­nally sched­uled there as a pri­vate ini­tia­tive of Heidi Hau­tala, Andrei Nekrasov’s girl­friend and a mem­ber of the Euro­pean par­lia­ment from Finland.

ZDF is based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an inde­pen­dent non-profit insti­tu­tion, which was founded by all fed­eral states of Germany.

For more infor­ma­tion, please contact:

Jus­tice for Sergei Magnitsky

+44 207 440 1777

e-mail: info@lawandorderinrussia.org 

www.lawandorderinrussia.org

Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect: R2P Monitor, Issue 27, 15 May 2016

15 May 2016
Web Version

R2P Monitor, Issue 27

Dear colleague,

I would like to draw your attention to the latest issue of our publication, R2P Monitor.

R2P Monitor is a bimonthly bulletin applying the Responsibility to Protect lens to populations at risk of mass atrocities around the world. Issue 27 looks at developments in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Burma/Myanmar, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Burundi, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Central African Republic and South Sudan. To read R2P Monitor please access the document via the following link: R2P Monitor, Issue 27.

I hope you will find this edition a useful tool as we work together to prevent and halt mass atrocity crimes.

Dr Simon Adams
Executive Director

European Union – EEAS (European External Action Service): Statement by the Spokesperson on Uganda and the International Criminal Court

Committed to preventing crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, and to avoiding impunity for the perpetrators of such crimes, the EU confirms its continuing support for the ICC and its work.

Full cooperation with the ICC is a prerequisite for the Court’s effective functioning.

In accordance with established approach of the EU and its Member States, the EU regrets that Uganda, a State Party of the Court, did not fulfil this week its legal obligation, in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 1593, to execute the arrest warrant against any ICC indictee present in the country.