Protesters Oppose Nicaraguan Canal

By Mridula Tirumalasetti

Impunity Watch Reporter

MANAGUA, Nicaragua—Protests have ensued opposing the construction of a $50 billion interoceanic shipping canal in Nicaragua, which has been backed by a Hong Kong-based company, HNKD. Road blocks were set up by protesters along the Pan-American Highway right after the official ceremony that marked the beginning of the construction of the canal, and along the Managua-San Carlos Highway.

Injuries associated with the violence pictured above (photo courtesy of Al Jazeera)

Protesters are concerned that their homes will be displaced and threatened by the implementation of the canal. The canal will run through the rain forest and at least 40 villages, which include those of El Tule and Nueva Guinea. The canal is expected to displace at least 30,000 Nicaraguans, many of whom are farmers and natives.

However, the canal could also be a financial boost for the economy of Nicaragua. “Nicaragua, with this great canal, aims to move five percent of international trade conducted on the seas today,” said Nicaraguan Vice President, Moises Omar Halleslevens. The canal is expected to be more than three times longer than the Panama Canal, and is projected to increase Nicaragua’s GDP between four and five percent to 10.8 percent in 2015, and then 15 percent in 2016.

Chinese businessman Wang Jing, the president of HKND Group, promised to compensate “according to market principles in a fair, open and transparent way,” but many people are left feeling uncertain because of a lack of information. Further, critics of the canal have pointed out that there has been little debate in the Nicaraguan parliament about possible environmental consequences to Lake Nicaragua, which the canal is expected to pass through and to lands of the Creole communities and Rama indigenous community.

Nicaragua’s Police Chief, Aminta Granera, reported 15 police officers and six civilians to have been injured, but organizers of the protest estimated at least 40 demonstrators to have been injured. Police used rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas to disperse the hundreds of demonstrators protesting at the roadblock in El Tule on the Pan-American Highway. Granera stated, the police were “Faced with the use of firearms, machetes, stones, and sticks by the protestors” and also said that 33 protestors in the Managua-San Carlos Highway roadblock were detained by police, who acted with ‘tolerance and peace.” Granera added that the protesters were affecting commerce and tourism by not allowing people to move through the country freely.

Organizers of the protest stated that the demonstration was a peaceful one, but according to The Guardian, one farmer said during an interview in November, “We’ll use machetes, stones, anything to protect our land. My grandparents were born here. They say they are going to pay me, but I never put the land up for sale.”

For more information, please see: 

Al Jazeera–Protest against Nicaragua canal turns violent–24 December 2014

The Guardian–Protests erupt in Nicaragua over interoceanic canal–24 December 2014

Latin American Herald Tribune–Nicaragua Starts Construction of Canal Despite Protests–23 December 2014

Reuters–At least 21 injured in protect against Nicaragua canal: police–24 December 2014

Freedom Of Speech Rights Tested By Anti-Police Protests And Threats

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C, – United States of America – In the wake of racially charged protests, instances of violence have erupted and police tactics in dealing with such protests have been scrutinized. The protests have reignited a longstanding debate about how police forces treat non-white citizens. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has asked protestors to suspend demonstrations after two New York City police officers were ambushed while sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn last week.

 

Protestors at 116th St. in New York (Photo Courtesy of Huffington Post)

However, some organizers of the protests, including Answer Coalition, the organization which led the march on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, stated that they would continue with their protests despite the mayor’s plea for a quell in demonstrations. The organization released a statement, which said, “[t]he mayor’s call for a suspension of democracy and the exercise of free speech rights in the face of ongoing injustice is outrageous.”

Marvin Knight, a 71-year-old African American from Brooklyn, expressed his disapproval of the Mayor’s request to suppress protests, stating, “[t]his is America,” “[w]hy should we stop doing what we know is right?” Knight argued that the call for a halt to demonstrations infringed on the protestor’s first amendment rights.

Compared with other countries the United States has a strong guarantee of speech rights, even if that speech displays racism or hatred. However, state laws make it a crime to communicate specific threats. Generally, a threat must have some degree of specificity regarding who or what is going to be attacked, or some other details of the threat. Context is important in threat cases, so much so that in 2003, the Supreme Court ruled that the burning of a cross was protected speech so long as it was done in an open field and not intended to intimidate a specific individual. The USSC on December 1, 2014 has decided to revisit the law of threats. The court intends to address the question of whether prosecutors must show that a person intended to threaten, or whether it is enough to show that a reasonable person would have felt threatened.

 

For more information, please see the following:

FOX NEWS – ‘To Protest is a First Amendment Right’: New Yorkers Defy Mayor’s Request to Pause Demonstrations– 23 Dec. 2014.

HUFFINGTON POST – Protestors Flood New York City Streets Despite Mayor’s Call For Moratorium – 24 Dec. 2014

REUTERS – NY Protesters Reject Plea For Hiatus Despite Police Slayings – 23 Dec. 2014.

REUTERS – Talk of ‘Wings on Pigs’ Threats on Police Tests U.S. Speech Rights – 23 Dec. 2014.

Threats Directed Toward Police Officers Are Met With Arrests

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States of America – Following the murders of two New York City police officers last week, New York as well as the rest of the nation have erupted in both anti-police and pro-police protests. There has also been a drastic rise in threats against police officers, resulting in at least six arrests. The New York City police department has received more than 40 threats since the death of officers Ramos and Liu.

A NYPD logo was placed on a memorial at the site were officers Ramos and Liu were murdered last week (Photo Courtesy of Reuters).

On Wednesday, Tyrone Melville, a 41-year-old Manhattan native, called the switchboard of Brooklyn’s 84th Precinct, requesting to speak to Ramos, one of the slain officers, asking if the bullets had been removed from the dead officer’s head so he “could kill more cops,” according to Sergeant Carlos Nieves. Melville has since been charged with making terroristic threats and aggravated harassment. Another incident occurred through Facebook where, Jose Maldonado, 26, posted pictures of weapons and made threatening statements regarding the killing of police officers.While the United States has a strong guarantee of free speech, state laws generally make it a crime to communicate a specific threat against a police officer or anyone else.

The Sergeants Benevolent Association tweeted late Tuesday night that a threat was communicated to the organization by a confidential informant regarding a Baltimore street gang called the Black Guerilla Family who planned to storm New York City precincts for a shootout with police. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has denounced the various threats stating that the city “will protect the men and women who protect us,” and that security measures “will be assessed and police resources will be deployed accordingly.”

Other political figures are speaking out against the threats, including former New York governor George Pataki. Pataki has blamed the outspoken Al Sharpton for using rhetoric that has created incitement and fostered an anti-police environment. Additionally, former New York City police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, said that Sharpton and others had “blood on their hands.” However, Sharpton has presented himself as a peacemaker, and has publicly condemned the killings, while still defending the rights of the protestors to decry perceived racist police tactics.

 

For more information, please see the following:

CBS NEWS – At Least 4 Arrested For Threatening Police After NYPD Officers Killed – 24 Dec. 2014.

CNN – NYC Mayor Meets With Families Of Slain Police Officers – 22 Dec. 2014.

REUTERS- Two More NY Men Arrested For Threatening Police After Officers Killed – 25 Dec. 2014.

WASHINGTON POST- Sharpton Faces Criticism After NYC Officers’ Deaths – 23 Dec. 2014.

Weeks after Oil Spill Bangladeshi Government Response Draws Criticism

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Bangladeshi civilians continue to attempt to clean massive amounts of oil from the waters of the Sundarbans where an oil tanker rammed a cargo ship during the early morning hours of December on the Sela River causing 66,000 and 92,000 barrels to spill into the pristine waters of the Sundarbans, which means “beautiful forest.” So far the government and the oil industry itself has largely failed to manage the cleanup operation in the region where civilians, even children, have been pulling toxic oil from the water by hand without any protective equipment.  The Bangladeshi government’s chief forestry official for the region, Amir Hossain, said on December 16 that “the catastrophe is unprecedented in the Sundarbans, and we don’t know how to tackle this.”

Villagers carry oil in a barrel after removing it from the river surface, after an oil tanker sank in one of the world’s largest mangrove forests. (Photo courtesy of Think Progress)

Even as fisherman and children from the local fishing villages have taken to the waters and mangrove forests of the region to clean the oil by hand Bangladeshi Officials said the damage had already been done. Rubayat Mansur, Bangladesh head of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, said most of the oil appeared to have already leaked out of the tinkered and surrounding area by December 12 and spread to adjoining rivers and canals where it spread to surrounding mangrove forests. “I visited the sunken trawler this morning. Only few hundred liters of oil remain inside, so almost all the oil has spilled into the Sundarbans,” he said.

“This catastrophe is unprecedented in the Sundarbans, and we don’t know how to tackle this,” Amir Hossain, chief forest official of the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, told the press. The Bangladeshi government has come under fire for its response to the disaster. Critics have said that the government, which has allowed oil shipping and exportation in the region for more than a decade, should have had a plan in place to deal with such a disaster and protect the environment and fishing communities from the threat posed by spilled oil.

Oil from the tankers has created an environmental catastrophe in the waters of Bangladesh’s Sundarbans, the largest contiguous tidal mangrove forest in the world, which are home to several rare species of animals including the rare Irrawaddy and Gangetic dolphins and the highly endangered Bengal tiger. The Sundarbans are also home to fishing communities who depend on the rich waters of the region for economic survival. The Sundarbans delta is a UNESCO World Heritage site that encompasses some 3,850 square miles 1,000 square kilometers. The mangrove forests of the delta are a critical ecosystems, not only supporting thousands of unique species but also performing several important ecosystems functions including acting as one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, absorbing atmospheric carbon-dioxide which helps combat global climate change.

The Bangladeshi and Indian governments have come under fire for ongoing plans to expand fossil fuel exportation in the region, despite the threat to the mangrove ecosystem. Last year, Bangladeshi and Indian lawmakers initiated a plan to build a 1,320-megawatt coal plant 5.5 miles downstream from the Sundarbans. The plant would require a massive quantities of water to be desalinated, threating the region with an estimated half a million metric tons of “sludge and liquid waste” each year.

For more information please see:

Bangladesh News 24 Hours – BNP Probe Faults Government ‘Apathy’ For Sundarbans Oil Spill – 26 December 2014

Think Progress – Experts Arrive To Help Barehanded Children Clean Up Massive Bangladeshi Oil Spill – 24 December 2014

National Geographic – After Oil Spill in Bangladesh’s Unique Mangrove Forest, Fears About Rare Animals – 16 December 2014

Al Jazeera America – Bangladesh Oil Clean-Up Begins Amid Fears of Ecological ‘Catastrophe’ – 12 December 2014

Pope Frances Condemns Violence Carried Out ‘In The Name of God’

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

THE VATICAN, VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis, leader of the 1.2 billion members of the Catholic Church, condemned murder and violence carried out by religious extremists in the name of god. During his annual Christmas message the pope condemned the “brutal persecution” of minorities carried out by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and said the joy of Christmas was blemished by the suffering of children in the Middle East and around the world. “I ask him, the savior of the world, to look upon our brothers and sisters in Iraq and Syria, who for too long now have suffered the effects of ongoing conflict, and who, together with those belonging to other ethnic and religious groups, are suffering a brutal persecution,” Pope Francis said during his Christmas message on Thursday. The Pope spoke emotionally of “children displaced due to war and persecution, abused and taken advantage of before our very eyes and our complicit silence.”

In his Christmas message Pope Francis spoke emotionally of “children displaced due to war and persecution.” (Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera)

He alluded to the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Syria as well as the recent war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in the Palestinian Authority, he said “I think also of those infants massacred in bomb attacks, also those where the Son of God was born,” Christians believe Jesus Christ was born in a manger in the town of Bethlehem in modern day Palestine.

Not far from the small town where Christians believe Jesus was born, Christmas has been a difficult time for Gaza’s Christian community, like all Gazans. The community is struggling to provide for their families after the summer’s devastating war with Israel “This Christmas is not like last year,” said, 24-year-old Hussam Abu Shaban, “Most Christians just take a small tree for the kids. They’ve lost a lot of family members, some from the war, some not.” More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed during Israel’s ground offensive against Hamas this summer. Several months after the violence buildings remain demolished and rubble remains where homes once stood. “There were a lot of Christians killed in this war. Christian homes were destroyed,” Nabeel al-Salfiti, 62, said, “Every year it’s been tougher.”

“Christmas is inevitably coming with its decoration, its finery and its celebrations, but our inner souls are still affected, in all respects, by the devastating effects of war,” Nahed al-Dabbagh, 25 said after attending Christmas Eve ceremonies at the Latin Church in central Gaza City. “We hope that the next Christmas will be a feast of goodness and peace on the Palestinian people.”

The Pope condemned violence and murder, especially violence that targets children. Without elaborating, the Holy Pontiff Spoke of the horrific murders of children committed during biblical times, possibly referring to the recent brutal and horrific attack carried out by the Pakistani Taliban at a school in Peshawar which took the lives of more than 100 children. He spoke of “contemporary Herods,” with blood on their hands, referring to the Biblical king who ordered children to be murdered because he saw the birth of Jesus as a threat to his power.

Speaking of world’s refugees who have been displaced by conflict and tragedy he asked that “indifference be changed into closeness and rejection into hospitality, so that all who now are suffering may receive the necessary humanitarian help to overcome the rigorous of winter, return to their countries and live with dignity”.

The Holy Pontiff also appealed for an end to conflicts in African countries, called for dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, condemned the attack by Taliban fighters that killed more than 130 students in Pakistan last week, and thanked those helping to fight the Ebola epidemic and help the victims of the historic outbreak.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera – A Muted Christmas in Gaza – 25 December 2014

Al Jazeera – Pope Decries Violence in God’s Name – 25 December 2014

CNN – Pope’s Christmas Message: Iraq and Syria Have Suffered Too Long – 25 December 2014

The New York Times – Francis, In Christmas Day Message, Focuses On Children in Peril – 25 December 2014