Thousands Evacuated as Chile Volcano Erupts
By Delisa Morris
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
SANTIAGO, Chile– Just in time for Earth Day Volcano Calbuco erupted last night in Chile for the first time in more than four decades. The sudden eruption sent a thick plume of ash and smoke several kilometers into the sky.
By night, almost 4,000 people had been moved from the area, an evacuation radius of 20 kilometers was established and schools in the area and the classes were cancelled in surrounding towns, authorities noted.
Chile’s Onemi emergency office declared a red alert following the sudden eruption at around 6 p.m. local time. Calibuco lies about 1,000 km south of the capital, Santiago, near the tourist town of Puerto Varas.
President Michelle Bachelet is scheduled to travel to the affected area on Thursday.
According to Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo there were no reports of deaths, missing persons or injuries. Penailillo urged residents to evacuate the area and warned of possible lahars, a mix of water and rock fragments that flow down a volcano’s slopes and river valleys.
The column of ash and smoke is being pushed northeast towards Argentina, by winds.
“In this situation, with the eruption column so high, the main risk is that it collapses, falls due to gravity because of its own weight and causes a pyroclastic flow,” Gabriel Orozco, a vulcanologist with Chile’s geological and mining service, said on local TV.
Video courtesy of Informaciones Chile
A pyroclastic flow is a superheated current of gas and rock that can destroy nearly everything in its path and travel at speeds upwards of 200 to 300 kilometres per hour.
The volcanic ash has caused flights to be cancelled in Argentina and Chile due to the ash making it dangerous to fly. The ash can cause damage to an airplane.
Canadian-born Trevor Moffat, who lives in Ensenada, some 10 kilometres from the volcano, said the eruption happened without warning. Volcano Calbuco’s last known eruption was in 1972 and the most recent major eruption happened in 1961.
“It sounded like a big tractor trailer passing by the road, rattling and shaking, guttural rumbling … we left everything there, grabbed my kid, my dog, got in the car with my wife,” said Moffat, who was driving to nearby Puerto Varas at the time.
“All the neighbours were outside, a lot of young people crying. Armageddon-type reaction.”
For more information, please see:
CBC News – Calibuco Volcano Eruption in Chile Forces Evacuation of 4,000 People from the Region – 23 Apr. 2015
LA Times – Hiker Found as Ash from Calibuco Volcano Closes Borders in Chile – 23 Apr. 2015
Aljazeera – Thousands Evacuated as Chile Volcano Erupts – 23 Apr. 2015
Reuters – Flights Canceled as Ash Cloud Pours from Chile Volcano – 23 Apr. 2015
Earth Day: Action Needed to Clear Deadly Toxins in the World’s Most Polluted City
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor
New Delhi, India –According to a study of air quality conducted by the World Health Organization in 2014, New Delhi, The capital of the world’s second most populous country, was found to be the most polluted city on earth. According to the study, New Delhi was found to have the highest levels of particulate matter or PM 2.5, which refers to small solid or liquid particles floating in the ambient air that are known to be harmful to human health. New Delhi’s average PM2.5 level was 153, compared to 14 in New York City and 56 in Beijing, the city that has become famous around the globe for high pollution levels. The WHO’s safety threshold for humans is 10. High levels of particulate pollution are extremely hazardous to human health. The pollution problem in India is not limited to the nation’s capital. India is home to 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world and air-pollution related deaths have become the fifth largest killer in the country.
Delhi’s air is consistently more toxic than that in Beijing, rigorous statistical comparison of two years’ worth of data from both cities has demonstrated. According to US air quality standards, the air quality in the Indian capital was considered healthy for only 7 out of 730 days. Professor Douw Steyn of the University of British Columbia, an air pollution expert who performed the analysis of New Delhi air said the city’s air was considered health less than 1% of the time.
The data shows that in New Delhi, PM 2.5 levels are above the “hazardous” level 17% of the time, or nearly one out of every five. At these levels, according to the US definition, “everyone may experience serious health effects”. Steyn argued “the cost of pollution reduction is far smaller than the costs of pollution damage and simple technological solutions are easily available. What is needed is political will, which can only come from an informed and engaged population.”
Kamal Meattle, a Delhi-based air pollution activist says the government must do more to respond to the pollution crisis in India’s cities and beyond. “I think the first people to be convinced are the politicians, the bureaucrats and the judges … people who really matter in the sense that they understand the problem is going to create a major health issue and major costs,” he said. India’s newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched a national Air Quality Index (AQI) to monitor pollution levels in major urban cities on a real-time basis. AQI data is currently available in 10 cities across the country including New Delhi. Air pollution in India is a reminder of the high costs of economic development and globalization, especially when industry is left unregulated. Urbanization is also a massive problem in India and a challenge to environmental regulators as the country’s poor continue to move into large, overcrowded urban areas in search of work.
For more information please see:
Hindustan Times – Beijing better than Delhi: Only 7 days of good air in national capital in 2 years – 22 April 2015
BBC News – Breathing poison in the world’s most polluted city – 18 April 2015
The Weather Network – New Delhi has the world’s worst air pollution – 14 April 2015
CNN Money – This Indian city has the world’s worst air – 13 April 2015
Amnesty International Claims Obama Administration’s Failure To Address CIA Torture Report Furthers Impunity
By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
WASHINGTON, D.C., United States of America – Recently, Amnesty International accused U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration of granting “de facto amnesty” to members of the CIA involved in the detention and torture of militants captured after the September 11, 2001 attacks. A recent Senate Intelligence Committee report found that the CIA had a program in place from 2002 to 2006, which involved torturing captives in secret facilities.
It has been four months since the declassification of the report summary, and the United States has yet to take active steps toward ending the impunity associated with the CIA’s detention program.
The human rights group accused the administration of failing to take active measures in addressing the issues contained in the “advanced interrogation techniques.” Amnesty researcher Naureen Shah has claimed the administration’s failure to address these problems is essentially granting immunity to all those involved from prosecution. Amnesty is urging the Justice Department to “reopen and expand its investigation” into the CIA’s secret detention and interrogation program. In addition, the group demanded that the White House disclose the names, locations and dates of operations of all secret prisons involved in the CIA’s program.
However, in a report to Reuters, Shah said that the Justice Department told the media that it has reviewed the Senate committee report and has found no new evidence of any U.S. criminal laws that were violated. Seven w. Hawkins, executive director of Amnesty International USA responded to the Justice Department’s claims, stating, “Unless the U.S. government makes a concerted effort to end the impunity associated with this secret detention program, the United States’ human rights record will remain tarnished.”
The international community has shared Amnesty International’s concerns over the failure of the United States to address the torture report. The United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emerson, has stated that the US government officials involved in the program should be prosecuted. He further stated, “The fact that the policies revealed in this report were authorized at a high level within the U.S. Government, provides no excuse whatsoever.”
For more information, please see the following:
AMNESTY USA – U.S. Inaction Following CIA Torture Report is De Facto Amnesty for Perpetrators – 21 April 2015.
THE GUARDIAN – CIA Report: ‘Torture is a Crime and Those Responsible Must be Brought to Justice‘ – 10 December 2014
REUTERS – Amnesty International Condemns U.S. Failure to Act on Torture Report – 21 April 2015.
Saudi Arabia Scaling Back Intervention in Yemen
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor
SANAA, Yemen — Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that it is scaling back its military operations in neighboring Yemen, after more than three weeks of airstrikes that have so far failed to drive back the Shiite rebels who ousted President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, President of the Revolutionary Committee, assumed power. The announcement could single the end of the largest military operation ever conducted by Saudi Arabia.
The Gulf State’s Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri announced that the coalition led by Saudi Arabia would transition to a new operation in Yemen that focuses on addressing a worsening humanitarian crisis, combating terrorism and finding a political solution to end the conflict. Despite the failure of the airstrikes to drive away the Houthi rebels the General claimed the operation was a success and that the campaign had achieved its military objectives by successfully eliminating threats to Saudi security, including the destruction of the Iranian backed Houthi rebels’ supply of missiles and heavy weapons. General Asiri said the objectives of the opposition were achieved”by a very good planning, very precise execution, by the courage of our pilots, our sailors, our soldiers.”
Supporters of Mohammed Ali al-Houthi remained defiant after the announcement from Saudi Arabia. “This announcement of a halt to this operation is nothing but a shameful defeat for Saudi,” said Mohammed Meftah, a pro-Houthis politician. He added that Saudi Arabian government would have to pay billions of dollars in reparations for the damage caused by the airstrikes, saying that state is criminally responsible for the damage.”
United States National Security Council spokesperson Alistair Baskey, said that “the United States welcomes” the Saudi announcement. He added, “we continue to support the resumption of a U.N.-facilitated political process and the facilitation of humanitarian assistance.” officials in the United States have grown uneasy about the Saudi coalition’s objectives and have become concerned that the airstrikes have shifted the security focus away al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen and has taken advantage of the chaos in the gulf state.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest would not make any direct comments on any Navy movements in Yemeni waters, but said the United States has concerns over Iran’s support for the Houthis rebels. Earnest said; “we have seen evidence that the Iranians are supplying weapons and other armed support to the Houthis in Yemen. That support will only contribute to greater violence in that country. These are exactly the kind of destabilizing activities that we have in mind when we raise concerns about Iran’s destabilizing activities in the Middle East.” He added “the Iranians are acutely aware of our concerns for their continued support of the Houthis by sending them large shipments of weapons.”
For more information please see:
BBC News – Yemen conflict: Saudi Arabia ends air campaign – 21 April 2015
CNN International – Saudi Arabia launching political solution campaign in Yemen – 21 April 2015
The New York Times – Middle East Advertisement 63 Comments Middle East Saudis Announce Halt to Yemen Bombing Campaign – 21 April 2015
The Washington Post – Saudi Arabia says it will scale back its military campaign in Yemen – 21 April 2015