Kurdish Forces Close To Regaining Kobani

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

DAMASCUS, Syria – Kurdish fighters, supported by U.S.-led air strikes targeting areas controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), are reportedly close to regaining full control of the embattled Syrian town of Kobani situated near the Turkish border. Kobani has largely been under the control of ISIS fighters, from Islamic State fighters. Kurdish officials as well as Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a human rights group based in the United Kingdom, reported the advance of Kurdish fighters on Monday.

 

Smoke rises from the Syrian city of Kobani, following an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition, seen from a hilltop outside Suruc, on the Turkey-Syria border. Syrian activists and Kurdish officials say the extremist Islamic State group has been nearly pushed out of the Syrian border town of Kobani. (Photo courtesy of Boston Herald)

Kobani was seen as a key strategic city for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The group saw the town’s location in relation to the Turkish border as part of a critical brought for the flow of weapons and fighters from Turkey, including several fighters from Europe, into the Islamic State controlled regions of the country. After declaring victory in reclaiming the city Kurdish fighters raised a Kurdish flag on a hill that once flew the Islamic State group’s black banner. For the Kurdish fighters The victory represents a key conquest both for the embattled Kurds as well as  the U.S.-led coalition, whose American coordinator had predicted that the Islamic State group would “impale itself” on Kobani.

Kobani, also called Ayn al-Arab, has become a symbol in the battle against ISIS and other insurgent’s movements in the region who have captured large expanses of both Syria and Iraq. ISIS first launched a campaign to capture the town and incorporate it within its self-proclaimed caliphate in July of Last year. “Our forces are making progress but until now the YPG has not declared that is has taken all of Kobani back. We think tomorrow Kobani will be free,” Kobani official Idris Nassan told reports from Reuters by telephone. Nassan said that as a result of the assault of ISIS half of the town has been completely destroyed and the rest of the town has suffered damage, leaving many people homeless. He also said the town now lacked water, electricity, hospitals and food needed to support the struggling population.

Syrian Kurdish YPG forces who have been attempting to win-back land from ISIS and protect the regions Kurdish population has often been supported by Iraqi Kurdish forces known as Peshmerga. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Kurdish forces in the town are still battling Islamic State on the eastern outskirts of the town. Since September of last year ISIS has captured some 300 Kurdish villages forcing tens of thousands of Kurds from Syria and Iraq to flee the Kurdistan region.

For more information, please see:

Boston Herald – Islamic State Group Nearly Pushed Out Of Syria’s Kobani – 26 January 2015

CNN International – Opposition Group: Kurdish Fighters Advance in Kobani, Syria – 26 January 2015

The Jerusalem Post – Kurds Drive ISIS Out Of Kobani after 4-Month Struggle – 26 January 2015

Reuters – Kurds Close to Driving Islamic State Out Of Syria’s Kobani: Monitor – 26 January 2015

Syria Deeply: The Executive Summary, 1/23

Syria Deeply

Syria: The Executive Summary, 1/23

To give you an overview of the latest news, we’ve organized the latest Syrian developments in a curated summary.

U.N.-Approved Cross-Border Aid Reaches 600,000 Syrians in Six Months

In the latest monthly report to the U.N. Security Council, U.N. Secretary General Ban ki-Moon said 54 cross-border aid shipments to Syria helped 600,000 Syrians in six months, Reuters reports.

“Food assistance had reached 596,000 people, non-food items had been delivered to 522,000, water and sanitation supplies had reached more than 280,000 and medical supplies some 262,000,” according to the report.

Despite the improved access, Ban warned that the situation inside Syria is continuing to “deteriorate rapidly.

“Widespread fighting across the country, administrative hurdles and lack of agreement from the parties continued to constrain humanitarian access across the country, affecting the humanitarian capacity to deliver at planned scaled,” Ban said.

12.2 million Syrians are in need of assistance, 7.6 million have been displaced, and an additional 3.8 million people have fled, according to the U.N. figures.

“It is completely unacceptable that the people of Syria continue to face grave abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law by the parties to the conflict and that they are denied access to the basic requirements for their survival,” Ban’s report said.

The report follows the renewal of a resolution allowing cross-border aid delivery in Syria for another 12 months. In July 2014 the Security Council authorized U.N. agencies to cross conflict lines using border crossings from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. It was an unprecedented decision to authorize delivery of aid into the country without the consent of the Syrian government.

United States Gives $6 Million to Syria’s Opposition Government

The United States has given $6 million to Syria’s opposition government, the first direct U.S. financial support for the group, AFP reports.

“The money is for development and relief projects in “areas liberated by the moderate Syrian opposition,” the rebel group said in a statement.

Interim government chief Ahmed Tohme said $1.6 million would be used to used to strengthen local government in rebel-controlled areas and for emergency responses, and $4.4 million would be “devoted to reconstruction and the purchase of heavy equipment include generators, water pumps and tankers.

“Mamdouh Soud, operations manager for the programme dispersing the funds, said they would be spent mostly in northern Aleppo province and northwestern Idlib province for now.

“In the next two months, we hope to expand into northern Latakia and northern Hama provinces,” he told AFP.

Moderate rebel groups inside Syria are facing the prospect of complete annihilation as a result of internal challenges, a lack of resources and support, and the reality of a three-front fight against the regime, ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition and the interim government have been criticized forbeing out of touch with Syrians on the ground and with the militant groups fighting the Assad regime.

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Interpol Definitively Rejects Russia’s Request to Issue an International Arrest Warrant for Bill Browder

Press Release

For Immediate Distribution

 

Interpol Definitively Rejects Russia’s Request to Issue an International Arrest Warrant for Bill Browder

 

26 January 2014 – Interpol, the international police organization, has definitively rejected Russia’s attempt to add Bill Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, to its Red Notice international arrest warrant system. This is Russia’s third unsuccessful attempt to issue an Interpol Red Notice for Browder. A Red Notice would have meant that Browder would be arrested at any international border and potentially extradited back to Russia. Over the last eight weeks, Interpol’s Commission for the Control of Files has reviewed Russia’s application and concluded that the Russian warrant was illegitimate because it was “predominantly political.”

 

This attempt by the Russian government follows a long series of acts of retaliation against Browder for his role in the successful passage of the US Magnitsky Act, which imposes visa sanctions and asset freezes on Russian officials who killed Sergei Magnitsky, were involved in the $230 million theft he had uncovered, or perpetrated other human rights abuses.
Previously, Interpol refused two similar requests from Russia for Browder. In the summer of 2014, Interpol said Russia’s requests to arrest Browder were invalid because they violated Interpol’s Constitution which prohibits the organization to be used for political persecution.

 

Instead of complying with the previous two Interpol’s rulings, the Russian authorities began an intensive high-level lobbying campaign to influence Interpol to reverse their decision. In January 2014, the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office dispatched officials to Lyon, France, where Interpol is headquartered, who persuaded Interpol to re-open the Browder case. To help convince Interpol, Russian President Putin invited General Secretary of Interpol Ron Noble to his private residence near Moscow at the end of October 2014. Russian authorities also lobbied Interpol member states to elect their representative to Interpol’s governing body, the Executive Committee.

 

To make their latest application to Interpol for Browder, the Russian authorities used the posthumous trial against Browder’s murdered Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. This trial was condemned around the world as a gross abuse of justice.

 

“This latest episode with Interpol is an important example of how Putin applies Russia’s sovereign power to abuse its membership in international organizations. While the Interpol decision was the correct and right one, there are many other victims of the Russian regime in less high-profile cases who are being unjustly arrested in foreign countries as they flee political persecution in Russia. It’s time that Russia’s failing judicial system is taken into account by international organizations for their constant abuse for political or corrupt motives,” said Bill Browder.

 

Next week, on February 3rd 2015, Bill Browder will be responding with his own “Red Notice” on Putin’s Russia.

 

Browder’s book entitled, “Red Notice: A true story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice” (UK edition: “Red Notice, How I Became Putin’s Number One Enemy”) will be launched in the US and in the UK. Browder’s “Red Notice” will show that Putin is more akin to a crime boss than a legitimate world leader.

At Least 30 Killed by Rebel Rockets in Ukraine

By Kyle Herda

Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KIEV, Ukraine – Rebel shelling of the Ukrainian city Mariupol has reportedly killed at least 30 and injured over 100. Rebels have been recently increasing number and intensity of attacks, although this appears to have been the peak of the recent attacks. 

Smoke and fire in the streets of a residential part of Mariupol where rebel shelling killed dozens. (Photo courtesy of Reuters)

Ukrainian Prisdent Petro Poroshenko says that Kiev has confirmed the shelling came from Russian-backed separatists. Uragan and Grad rockets that pounded the city came from rebel-held territory within Eastern Ukraine, and Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said the Ukrainian military has destroyed four of the six Grad systems that were used to carry out the attack on Mariupol. President Poroshenko went as far as to call the attack “a crime against humanity,” and he subsequently sent more military men into the region.

Following the attack, both sides were once again quick to blame the other for escalating the conflict. The truce sworn to by all involved parties in Belarus last year seemingly has lost most of its weight and neither Eastern Ukraine, Western Ukraine, nor Russia is willing to take the blame for the breakdown. Last week, President Poroshenko accused Russia of having 10,000 Russian troops and 500 Russian tanks in Eastern Ukraine aiding the rebels, with as many as 2,000 of those troops and 200 of those tanks having recently entered.

In addition to Mariupol, four Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 17 injured over the past day at the hands of the rebels, and Debaltseve has seen strong rebel fighting. Alexander Zakharchenko, leader of the rebels, says they aim to surround the town. This would come in addition to increased fighting in Donetsk, particularly at the airport where shelling has once again become quite regular and casualties continue to rise. Altogether, the United Nations reports over 5,000 people have been killed in the Ukrainian conflict.

For more information, please see:

Reuters – Rebels launch ‘intense’ attacks on Ukraine government troops: Kiev military – 25 January 2015

ABC – Ukraine Says Calls Prove Rebels Attacked City, Killed 30 – 25 January 2015

BBC – Ukraine conflict: Poroshenko vows to ‘calm’ Mariupol fighting – 25 January 2015

LA Times – 30 killed, 102 injured in missile attack on Ukraine port city – 25 January 2015

The Wall Street Journal – Deadly Rebel Attack in Ukraine Signals Escalation – 25 January 2015

Reuters – Pro-Russian rebels attack key port; Ukraine says at least 30 dead – 24 January 2015

The New York Times – War Is Exploding Anew in Ukraine; Rebels Vow More – 23 January 2015

Nicaraguan Canal Project Shrouded in Secrecy and Controversy

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor 

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – At the end of 2014, construction began on the Grand Canal in Nicaragua, the Nicaraguan government has kept the details of the project secret since it was first proposed only 2.5 years ago. In return for a concession to the Chinese company HKND, the Nicaraguan government hopes the project will produce billions of dollars of investment and tens of thousands of jobs. The 278-km long canal system will take an estimated 5 years to complete. The canal project is the dream of the Nicaraguan government and Chinese business investors, the canal would transform the remove coastal regions of Nicaragua and would carry cargo too large for the Panama Canal, which celebrated its central last year. According to Pedro J. Alvarez, a editorialist for the peer-reviewed periodical Science, the Nicaraguan government failed to show sufficient evidence that it has appropriately accounted for the impact on the environment as well the potential effects of the project local residents who may lose their home or witness severe degradation of the environment they depend on to survive.

A boat on Lake Nicaragu (Photo courtesy of the Guardian)

If construction is completed the Canal would be three times as deep as the Panama Canal, a feat that would require the removal of more than 4.5 billion cubic meters of earth which the Guardian reports would be “enough to bury the entire island of Manhattan up to the 21st floor of the Empire State Building.” The project would also be a shock to local economies and communities bringing sudden development on of Central America’s most sparsely populated regions. Senior officials compare the scale of change that will be brought to the region to the regions first contact with colonizers. “It’s like when the Spanish came here, they brought a new culture. The same is coming with the canal,” said Manuel Coronel Kautz, the garrulous head of the canal authority. “It is very difficult to see what will happen later – just as it was difficult for the indigenous people to imagine what would happen when they saw the first [European] boats.”

Courtesy of The Guardian

Protesters have called the project a form of Chinese imperialism and the Taiwanese government has called on China to respect the independence of Nicaragua. “If the Chinese government is behind this project, it has to be responsible for everything,” said an official from Taiwan’s embassy in Nicaragua. “If it fails, that’s a bad image. They have to maintain their distance.”

The Nicaraguan government hopes the canal can help the nation achieve the Sandinista dream of eradicating poverty. However, when the groundbreaking ceremony took place on 22 December of last year protest against the project were held. Demonstrators cited concerns over the effects the canal project may ultimately have on indigenous and other local community and voiced doubts that the destructive project could even be finished considering the amount of capital needed for construction. Concerns have not been limited to those of protesters, Nicaragua’s neighbors, including Costa Rica have expressed concern that they have not been given enough information about that potential impacts of the large scale project, which will likely bring widespread consequences for the region.

For more information please see:

Science – Rethink the Nicaragua Canal – 23 January 2015

The Guardian – Land Of Opportunity – And Fear – Along Route of Nicaragua’s Giant New Canal – 20 January 2014

The Tico Times – Costa Rican Officials: We Still Have Little Information about Nicaragua’s Grand Canal Plans – 21 January 2015

Reuters – Doubts Deepen Over Chinese-Backed Nicaragua Canal As Work Starts – 26 December 2014