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Syria Peace Talks Begin, Opposition Group Waiting for Demands to be Met
By Brittani Howell
Impunity Watch Reporter, The Middle East
DAMASCUS, Syria – On Friday, the opposition group, High Negotiations Committee, agreed to attend the United Nations peace talks in Geneva, at the last minute. However, the HNC still refused to participate in peace talks until there is a reprieve in the bombings of civilians. The HNC went to Geneva to press their case to the United Nations as well as the public.
The opposition is only interested in discussing stopping bombings, releasing political prisoners, and lifting the government siege of towns. Civilian society activists supported the oppositions ban of peace talks and stood outside the United Nations holding flags and banners, one of which stated ” UN stop talking and start acting.”
Salma Kahale, a Syrian activist who works for Planet Syria, stated, “It’s not that we don’t want negotiations, but we want them to succeed.” The civil society groups urge that steps to relieve the suffering of civilians are taken before political negotiations.
One group of activists served “siege soup”, a wan recipe made of salted water, herbs, and bits of grass, which is eaten by Syrians in besieged towns to attempt to ward off starvation. They also dressed up as the world leaders they fault for the misery that Syrians suffer. The masks of the presidents of Russia and the United States; the foreign minister of Russia, Sergey V. Lavrov; United Nations Secretary General, Ben Kimoon; and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, donned beaming smiles.
Wael Mashati, a refugee dressed as Mr. Lavrov, stated that the masks represent the “laughing at the suffering of the Syrian people.”
The Syrian government delegations arrived for the third round of negotiations with the United Nations mediator on Friday. After two hours after talks with the United Nations special envoy, Steffen de Mistura, the delegation left the meeting room.
While the Syria government was meeting with the U.N. mediator, Syrian and Russian forces continued their siege on as many as 15 rebel held towns, furthering the starvation of civilians. Since the last peace talks in January 2014, the Syrian government has conducted chemical attacks, dropped barrel bombs – unguided, makeshift cylinders of explosives – on rebel towns and systematically starved civilians. In the same time frame, rebel groups have besieged government held towns and launched rockets into civilian neighborhoods.
Since the beginning of the conflict more than 250,000 have been killed, hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled to Europe and civilians have been displaced. Mohannad, a doctor in the besieged town of Moadhamiyeh, told the New York Times, that nine civilians in Moadhamiyeh have died as a result of malnutrition. In addition, he also stated that ” people are dying from barrels and from the cold. People in the street don’t know where to go some fled to another part of Moadhamiyeh and others are sleeping in the streets.”
For more information, please see:
Associated Press – UN Hosted Syria Peace Talks Begin in Geneva – 29 January 2016
Reuters – U.N. Launches Syria Peace Talks as Opposition Ends Boycott – 29 January 2016
The New York Times – Syria Peace Talks Begin, With Only One Side at the Table – 29 January 2016
The Washington Post – Syria Peace Talks Open in Disarray with Opposing Groups Staying Away – 29 January 2016
Adolf Eichmann’s, Nazi War Criminal, Pardon Plea is Made Public
By Brittani Howell
Impunity News Reporter, The Middle East
JERUSALEM, Israel – On Wednesday, Israel made public a letter written by Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi war criminal. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin presented the letter at a ceremony to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Eichmann who oversaw the lethal logistics during the Holocaust, had escaped from a prisoner of ware camp shortly after WWII and fled to Argentina in 1950. Eichmann lived in Argentina, under a pseudonym, where he was eventually found and captured by Mossad agents in the 1960 and smuggled into Israel.
In a letter dated May 29, 1962, the day his appeal was rejected by Israel’s supreme court, Eichmann pleaded, ” There is a need to draw a line between the leaders responsible and the people like me forced to serve as mere instruments in the hands of the leaders.”
The letter continued, “It is also incorrect that I never let myself be influenced by human emotions. He added, ” Specifically after having witnessed the outrageous human atrocities, I immediately asked to be transferred. Also, during the police investigation I voluntarily revealed horrors that had been unknown until then, in order to help establish the indisputable truth.”
Eichmann wrote that the judges that convicted him were ” not able to empathize with the time and situation” and that he had only been following orders. “I am not able to recognize the court’s ruling as just, and I ask, Your Honor Mr. President, to exercise your right to grant pardons and order that the death penalty not be carried out,”
Eichmann’s wife and his five brothers also appealed for a pardon for Eichmann. These documents were released with Eichmann’s letter, along with President Ben-Zvi’s response.
President Ben-Zvi’s letter to Dov Yosef, Israel’s justice minister, dated May 31, 1962, stated “After considering the pardon requests made on behalf of Adolf Eichmann and after having reviewed all the material presented to me, I came to the conclusion that there is no justification in giving Adolf Eichmann a pardon or easing the sentence imposed on him.” Eichmann was executed at midnight on June 1, 1962.
President Rivlin stated to the audience in the unveiling of the documents, ” Not a moment of kindness was given to those who suffered Eichmann’s evil,” He continued, ” Eichmann’s application for amnesty revealed here today proves that Eichmann and his family recognized that in the state of Israel, a murderer such as Eichmann would be convicted and that justice would be done.”
The documents had only been discovered within the last few weeks, when researchers were digitizing documents for the president’s archive.
For more information, please see:
The Guardian – Eichmann Claimed He was ‘A Mere Instrument’ in Holocaust, Appeal Reveals– 27 January 2016
The New York Times – Pardon Plea by Adolf Eichmann, Nazi War Criminal, is Made Public – 27 January 2016
Time – Nazi War Criminal’s Plea for Pardon is Made Public for the First Time – 27 January 2016
The Seattle Times – Israel Makes Public a Pardon Plea by Nazi Adolf Eichmann – 27 January 2016
Five Years after Tahrir Square
By Tyler Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
CAIRO, Egypt – It was January 11th, 2011 and the people of Egypt would no longer take the rule of president Mubarak. A month of protests, some of which turned violent, would end with the president Mubarak resignation and eventual life sentence. Five years later Egypt is faced with the realization that it has traded one repressive regime with multiple others in this short period of time.
On February 11th 2011, the people of Egypt had their victory and by June 2012 held their first real election in some 30 years. This victory was short lived. The newly elected Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was overthrown with in a year by the Egyptian Military because of massive public outcry. The military would then declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and wage a campaign against them.
Fast-forward to 2014, and Egypt has drafted a new constitution and elected the former Armed Forces chief, el-Sisi as their president. El-Sisi has held his presidency into 2016 but with a repressive hand. Many human right’s activists are calling el-Sisi’s regime the most repressive in decades. Egyptian human rights activist and reporter, Hossam Bahgat has said the levels of oppression are worse than the worst periods in ex-president Mubarak’s or Gamal Abdel Nasser’s regimes. Bahgat recently found himself victim of the regime’s oppressive nature, and was detained for a number of days for publishing false news harmful to national security.
Since el-Sisi took power, his regime has imprisoned a record amount of journalists according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Support of ex-president Morsi has also been outlawed. Not only has the Muslim Brotherhood been labeled a terrorist organization, but any political party with a religious base was also made unconstitutional by the 2014 constitution.
Most of the laws are focused on quieting any political dissidence. The country now has a protest law that criminalizes any unsanctioned march or rally. There have been reports that the regime is going so far to control the message that they are instructing preachers to declare any anti-government action a sin. Along with message control has also come increased surveillance around Cairo. Authorities have installed new surveillance equipment around Cairo especially in Tahrir Square. Authorities have also raided thousands of homes, taken political prisoners, and allegedly forced disappearances.
The joy and promise that was felt five years ago seems to be gone. The whole period of Arab Spring is merely a distant memory for the people of Egypt. Citizens and human rights activists must wonder how many more oppressive regimes must be toppled and replaced in Egypt until the that feeling of promise is not misplaced.
For more information, please see:
Bustle – It’s Been Five Years Since The Egyptian Revolution. Here’s What’s Changed – 25 Jan. 2016
The Guardian – State repression in Egypt worst in decades, says activist – 24 Jan. 2016
The Atlantic – A Revolution Devours Its Children – 23 Jan. 2016