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This Week in Syria Deeply September 11, 2015
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North and South Korea to Allow Reunion of Some Families Split up During Korean War
By Christine Khamis
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
SEOUL, South Korea –
Authorities in both North and South Korea have agreed to allow reunions of families split up during the Korean War. 100 people from each side will be allowed to reunite with their family members and other relatives from October 20-26 in North Korea.
During talks on Tuesday in the border village of Panmunjom, Red Cross Delegates from both Koreas discussed an agreement allowing families to reunite. The agreement states that North and South Korea will work to resolve humanitarian issues, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry. The agreement was part of a deal ending the Koreas’ military standoff, which began when South Korea blamed North Korea for the deaths of two South Koreans in a land mine explosion.
There are many in North and South Korea who do not know whether their family members and other relatives are still alive because they are prohibited by their respective governments from attempting communication.
200 people were allowed to reunite for six days in February 2014 as a result of a previous agreement between North and South Korea. Emotions ran high as family members were reunited with each other. However, the meetings were brief, limited to just a few days. Families also had little privacy due to North Korean workers listening to their conversations.
It is not clear how North Korea chooses the people who will meet their families. There is a great deal of uncertainty for those in South Korea because they are required to participate in a lottery for the chance to meet their families. The South Korea Unification Ministry reports on its website that around 130,000 South Koreans have registered for the chance to meet their families since 1988. Out of that number, only 66,000 people are believed to still be alive. Many of the 66,000 are in their 80s and 90s. In the past, many older Koreans have died before they have the chance to reunite with their families.
During the Korean War, the Korean peninsula was split into North and South Korea. The war is technically still ongoing because instead of a formal peace treaty, the two sides agreed to a truce through the Korean Armistice Agreement of 1953.
Since the Korean Armistice Agreement, there have been other reunions in which around 22,500 Koreans have participated. Out of that number, around 18,822 people met with family members in person, while the remaining people reunited through video conferencing. None of the 22,500 have been allowed a second chance to see their relatives, according to South Korea’s Red Cross Delegation.
For more information, please see:
International Business Times – North and South Korea Agree to Hold Family Reunion for the Second Time After Split – 9 September 2015
CNN – North and South Korea Agree to Family Reunions in October – 8 September 2015
Reuters – North, South Agree to Hold Family Reunions in October: South – 8 September 2015
The New York Times – South Korea: North Agrees to Reunions – 7 September 2015
Reuters – North Korea Agrees to Talks With South on Family Reunions – 29 August 2015
UN Authorizes Investigation of Alleged Chemical Attacks
By Brittani Howell
Impunity Watch News Desk Reporter
DAMASCUS, Syria – On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council announced it will authorize an international body to investigate who is behind the chemical warfare in Syria and Iraq. Prior to this announcement, the United Nations has only been able to investigate without assessing blame for the attacks.
Russia decided to not use its veto power and had its U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, deliver a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in support of the joint investigative unit. The investigative unit will be able to go anywhere in Syria to conduct its investigation.
U.N. disarmament chief Kim Won-soo stated that “access will be a very challenging issue” particularly because of the Islamic State’s involvement in Syria.
The Iraqi government, on Monday, stated they were sending a team of experts to investigate the allegations that chemical weapons had been used on the Kurdish Forces. It is suspected that the Islamic State has access to chemical weapons, which have not been used in fighting conflicts in Iraq since 2003.
Kurdistan Regional Government officials stated that lab tests showed positive for the chemical agent chlorine. The use of Chlorine as a weapon is forbidden under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Chlorine is lethal if inhaled, as it turns into hydrochloric acid and causes an individual’s lungs to burn which causes a build up of fluids and results in the drowning of the individual.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has destroyed known stockpiles of chemical weapons in both Syria and Iraq.
According to a United States official, the Islamic State has been using mustard agents in both Iraq and Syria.
The United Nations investigative body will begin in the next few weeks and will have its first report within 90 days of being operational. The investigative body is authorized for one year with the possibility for extensions.
For more information, please see:
BBC News – US Official: ‘IS Making and Using Chemical Weapons in Iraq and Syria’ – 10 September 2015
The Associated Press – UN Security Council OKS Syria Chemical Probe – 10 September 2015
The Los Angeles Times – New U.N. Probe of Syrian Chemical Weapons use to Name Perpetrators – 10 September 2015
Reuters – Iraqi team to Probe Alleged IS Chemical Attacks on Kurds – Diplomats – 7 September 2015
The Atrocities of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces
By Tyler Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
KHARTOUM, Sudan – This Friday Human Rights Watch reported that the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF) significantly violated international human rights and humanitarian law. This report was based on two counterinsurgency campaigns that took place in 2014 and 2015. The first campaign was called Operation Decisive Summer and took place in February to May of 2014. The second campaign was called Operation Decisive Summer II and took place from January till June 2015.
The report form Human Right Watch contained quotes from 212 victims and RSF defectors who could no longer continue what they were being ordered to do. Here is the alarming quote that opened the report:
[The government soldiers] confiscated our belongings. They took our livestock. They beat the men. And then they raped us. They raped us in a group. Some women were raped by 8 or 10 men. Seventeen women were raped together. All of us were raped. Even the underage girls were raped.
– “Men With No Mercy” Human Rights Watch
Even more worrying is that these men actually had orders to go about their occupations this way. Four of the defected soldiers said that their commanding officers had ordered them to carry out their operations this way.
The list of human rights violations is as long as it is startling. There have been instances of forced displacement of communities from their homes. There are also reports of the destruction of certain necessities needed to live, including wells, food supplies, and the plunder of wealth. Finally, Human Rights Watch has reported “systematic attacks on civilian populations,” which including torture, killings and mass rapes.
The RSF was first created in 2013 by Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir. It is part of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services and is usually sent to rebel controlled areas, such as Darfur. These horrors are sadly not a new occurrence in Darfur. The fight between Sudan’s government and multiple rebel groups has been an ongoing story for 12 years. Even though the International Criminal Court indicted president Al Bashir in 2009. Little seems likely to change without heavy influence from the outside world.
Documentation of these atrocities is certainly a necessary step. However, it is slowly becoming a record of terrible events while the rest of the world is content to let it continue. Sadly, groups set up by the U.N. like UNAMID, the African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur, has been relatively ineffective at providing any aid or curtailing the RSF’s practices. The U.N. has continued to blame the Sudanese government for these less than optimal results. Claiming that the group’s access has been all but denied since they tried to gain access to Thabit in 2014.
For more information, please see:
Human Rights Watch – Men With No Mercy – 9 September 2015
allAfrica – Sudan: Background – Who Are the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan? – 9 September 2015