Mexican Government Struggles To Control Violence: 10 Decapitated Bodies Found
By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
MEXICO CITY, Mexico – Mexico has seen a recent surge in violence that the Mexican government has been unable to quell. On 26 September, several students were abducted by corrupt police officers that were in concert with a drug gang located in Iguala, the biggest city in Guerrero. The Mexican government is still investigating the occurrence. However, Attorney General Jesus Murillo has gone on record to state that the evidence strongly suggests that police officers handed the students over to the cartel members who later incinerated them. The remains of only one of the missing 43 students has been identified.
The tragic occurrence, which took the lived of so many students, has sparked major protests throughout Mexico. In protest, citizens have began to seize city hall and occupy various other government buildings. Mexican President, Enrique Pena Nieto, has faced harsh criticisms from the public in failing to solve the case and ultimately end the violence in the country, the majority of which stems from drug gangs.
A more recent occurrence of violence had Mexican police finding 10 decapitated corpses and 11 heads in a southwestern state. The headless corpses were found in graves about 31 miles east of the Guerrero state capital Chilpancingo. The bodies showed signs of torture as their hands had been tied, according to local security officials. On the same day as the violence, President Pena Nieto was meeting with the President of the United States, Barack Obama, in Washington.
During his meeting with Pena Nieto at the White House, President Barack Obama said that he was committed to helping Mexico eradicate the drug cartels that are plaguing the country with violence. However, Obama made sure to inform President Pena Nieto that it was ultimately the responsibility of the Mexican government to resolve the problems created by the cartel. President Obama did however state that the United States was committed to being a “friend and supporter of Mexico in its efforts to eliminate the scourge of violence and the drug cartels that are responsible for so much tragedy inside of Mexico.”
For more information, please see the following:
REUTERS – Ten Bodies And 11 Heads Found In Violent Mexican State – 7 Jan. 2015.
STAR TRIBUNE – Mexico: 10 Bodies, 11 heads Found In Clandestein Graves In Violence- Plagued Guerrero State – 7 Jan. 2015.
THE GUARDIAN – 10 Decapitated Bodies Found In Troubled Mexican State Of Gurrero – 7 Jan. 2015.
WASHINGTON POST – Who’s In Charge In Michoacan? Mexican Government And Militias Struggle For Control – 7 Jan. 2015.
13th Century Tomb Destroyed by Syrian Militants in act of Ethnocide
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor
DAMASCUS, Syria – Militant fighters loyal to the Jabhat al-Nusra, an al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, destroyed the tomb of Imam Nawawi, a revered Islamic scholar, on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK based Human Rights agency. Imam Nawawi, born in 1233 AD, is believed to have written several books on Islamic studies and Quranic verses. After his death in 1277 AD, he was buried in his hometown of Nawa. The tomb was built in the thirteenth-century and is only the latest significant cultural and historical site to be destroyed in the practiced civil war in Syria. A report published by the United Nations last year said that satellite images showed alarming damage to nearly 300 significant historical sites including never UNESCO World Heritage Sites last year. “The alarming level of damage to many of these areas do call for increased international and national attention to better protect the rich cultural heritage of Syria,” the U.N. said, in its report. One of these sites was located in the city of Raqqa, a city that was invaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which subsequently declared the city its headquarters, where the Sufi Muslim Uwais al-Qarni Mosque and a shrine to Ammar ibn Yasir, believed to be one of Prophet Muhammad’s companions was destroyed by the militant group. The act of destroying these historic sites is often seen as an attempt to destroy any cultural heritage and even erase the historical identity of any culture or idea that is contrary the extremist ideologies of groups like the Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, these actions may be considered acts of Genocide or Ethnocide under International Law.
Under the language of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, “genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” the term “ethnocide” is not specifically referenced in the Genocide Convention, Raphael Lemkin intended the term to refer to the cultural or ethnic aspects of genocide; which involved not only the destruction of human life but the destruction of people, their identity and way of life. In terms of cultural genocide and ethnocide, the objectives of such a plan would be destruction of the elements that make up the identity of the group. Such a plan may be carried out with intent to disintegrate the “political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.”
Militant groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, al Qaeda and the Islamic State group follow a puritanical Salafist doctrine that prohibits the construction and veneration of tombs and shrines, which are viewed as un-Islamic and sacrilegious by these extremists. A number of Salafist groups have also been implicated in attacks on Sufi shrines in Libya and Tunisia, according to media reports. These actions are an attempt to eradicate historic and cultural symbols that are seen as contrary to the ideology of the militant groups. As groups like Al Nursra and ISIS fight to establish an Islamic State in Syria and the region, based only on their own interoperations of the Quran, are not only attack other faiths, ideologies, cultures and views through violence today but by wiping out the long, diverse history that predates their extremist views.
For more information please see:
Al Jazeera – Syrian Fighters Destroy Historic Muslim Tomb –8 January 2015
Al Arabiya – Extremists Destroy 13th Century Muslim Tomb in Syria – 8 January 2015
International Business Times – Al-Nusra Rebels Demolish 13th Century Tomb in Southern Syria Deemed Un-Islamic By Salafists – 8 January 2015
Economic Times of India – Al Qaeda-Linked Militants Blow Up 13th Century Muslim Tomb in Syria – 8 January 2015
Maryland Gov. O’Malley Commutes Remaining Death Row Inmates’ Sentences
By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – Recently Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley commuted the death sentences of the last four inmates remaining on death row in the state. Such action will effectively end capital punishment in the state of Maryland, after lawmakers voted in 2013 to abolish the death sentence for future offenders. O’Mally, a potential 2016 White House candidate, said that leaving the last four prisoners to await the death penalty “does not serve the public good.”
All four inmates were convicted of murder. One inmate, Heath Burch was convicted of the 1995 murders of Robert and Cleo Davis. The victims’ family has repeatedly asked the governor not to remove Burch from death row. However, O’Mally has commuted the four prisoners’ sentences, including Burch’s, to life without the possibility of parole. All four men are currently housed at the maximum-security North Branch Correctional institution near Cumberland, however the inmates will now be eligible for transfer to a medium-security prison.
There are currently 3,054 inmates on death row in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which compiles statistics published by the Bureau of Justice. Maryland was one of six states to ban the death penalty between 2007 and 2013. In recent years, Connecticut and New Mexico have also abolished the death penalty, but those laws were not made retroactive. In 2014, the United States executed 35 inmates, the fewest in two decades, and sentenced only 72 to death.
The abolishment of the death penalty was one of O’Mally’s progressive accomplishments during his time in office, others included the legalization of same-sex marriage, and sweeping gun-control measures. O’Mally has lobbied lawmakers since 2007, his first term, to abolish capital punishment. He claims that the executions are not cost-effective, do not have any deterrent effect, and are at odds with “our values as a people.” However, A Washington Post – ABC News poll in June found that 60 percent of Americans favor the availability of the death penalty.
For more information, please see:
BALTIMORE SUN – 4 Former MD. Death Row Inmates Could Get Medium Security – 6 Jan. 2015.
REUTERS – Maryland Governor Commutes Sentences For Remaining Death Row Inmates – 31 Dec. 2015.
US NEWS – Maryland Governor Commutes Sentences For Remaining Death Row Inmates – 31 Dec. 2015.
WASHINGTON POST – Gov. O’Mally to Commute Sentences of Maryland’s Remaining Death-Row Inmates – 31. Dec. 2015.
At Least 12 Shot Dead at French Satirical Paper
By Kyle Herda
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
PARIS, France – Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical newspaper known for publishing the Prophet Mohammed twice over the past few years and causing an international stir, was attacked today by multiple gunmen armed with AK-47’s and possibly a rocket launcher. The gunmen, still on the run, stormed the building and began firing indiscriminately into the crowd for several minutes before an ensuing shootout with police outside. The gunmen eventually escaped into a rental car.
The attack came shortly after the newspaper released a tweet mocking Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. A few mocking releases by the paper in the past of the Prophet Mohammed have caused violent reactions. Following a 2011 “Shariah Hebdo” edition, a firebomb badly damaged the office after the paper claimed the Prophet Mohammed guest edited an edition to salute the victory of an Islamist party in Tunisian elections. In 2012, the magazine showed the Prophet Muhammed and forced French embassies and schools closed. Stephane Charbonnier, chief editor since 2009, has been on an al Qaeda hit list.
The paper, which has depicted many different religions and political figures in dissatisfactory manners, has been targeted by al Qaeda and affiliates in the past. This time has been the most severe, prompting French President Francois Hollande to visit the scene and report this is “undoubtedly a terrorist attack,” and that “several terrorist attacks were thwarted in recent weeks.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel also condemned the shooting as an “attack on freedom of speech and the press, core elements of our free democratic culture.” The United States, whom France was the first to join in striking IS targets in Iraq and Syria last year, also pledged assistance and condemned the attack.
France joins a few other nations in having suffered this type of lone-wolf attack. In May, a lone gunman shot four dead at a Jewish Museum in Brussels, Belgium. In October, Canada had a gunman storm Parliament after shooting dead a soldier at a monument across the street. In December, a lone gunman and two hostages were killed in Sydney, Australia after a long hostage crisis. All of these attacks have been linked to ISIS, although today’s attack has not yet been formally linked to any particular group.
For more information, please see:
NBC – Paris Terror Attack: What You Need to Know about Charlie Hebdo – 7 January 2015
France 24 – Live: Deadly shooting at Paris HQ of French satirical magazine – 7 January 2015
The Jerusalem Post – Merkel says shooting in France attack on core democratic freedoms – 7 January 2015
The New York Times – Terror Attack on Charlie Hebdo Newspaper in Paris Kills 12 – 7 January 2015
Mediaite – Charlie Hebdo’s Last Tweet Spoofed ISIS Leader Al-Baghdadi – 7 January 2015