A Voice for the Voiceless

UN: Syrian President Assad Linked to Crimes Against Humanity

By Thomas Murphy
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria – An inquiry conducted by United Nations inspectors implicates Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other high level officials in war crimes committed during the Syrian conflict.

U.N. Human Rights Chief Pillay spoke to reporters on Monday about the evidence of war crimes in Syria and President Assad’s possible role. (Photo Courtesy of BBC)

On Monday, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stated that President Assad and other officials were also responsible for crimes against humanity. The U.N. Human Rights Chief later clarified her remarks stating that the report she received pointed to responsibility at the highest level and that she was not directly accusing President Assad.

However, Pillay said that the U.N.’s inquiry into Syria has produced “massive evidence… [of] very serious crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity. The scale of viciousness of the abuses being perpetrated by elements on both sides almost defies belief.”

Pillay urged world powers to make accountability for these crimes a priority ahead of the Syria peace talks scheduled for January 22. She has pushed the U.N. Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court, yet the Security Council has neglected to do so.

The inquiry and previous reports from U.N. investigators have stated that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been perpetrated by both sides. However, investigators have maintained that the Assad regime is responsible for the majority of reported offenses. Further, the inquiry points to a policy of abuse implemented by the government.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad disregarded the U.N. Human Rights Chief’s remarks. “She has been talking nonsense for a long time and we don’t listen to her,” he said.

Mekdad was in Geneva to lobby for more supplies and money to aid with Syria’s chemical weapons removal. He said that more trucks and armored vehicles were necessary to safely transport the chemicals to Latakia, where they will be loaded onto a U.S. naval vessel for destruction. He said that part of the risk was from terrorists that might attempt to steal the weapons.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is in charge of the chemical weapons removal. A spokesman for the organization stated that strict guidelines will be applied to any equipment and donations for the disarmament to ensure they are not abused by the Syrian government.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – UN: Evidence links Assad to Syria war crimes – 2 December 2013

BBC – UN implicates Bashar al-Assad in Syria war crimes – 2 December 2013

New York Times – Top U.N. Rights Official Links Assad to Crimes in Syria – 2 December 2013

Washington Post – UN: Syria crimes evidence ‘indicates’ Assad role – 2 December 2013

Guantanamo Bay Detainees Sue Poland over Alleged CIA-Affiliated Torture

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

STRASBOURG, France – Two terror suspects currently held at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba brought a case to the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday, alleging that Poland was contributing to human rights abuses against them by the United States.

The European Court of Human Rights heard the case on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy of Polskie Radio)

Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri claim that they were tortured at a secret prison in Poland affiliated with the CIA from 2002 to 2003. The two suspects allege that they were subjected to torture and isolated detention while in Poland. They claim that they were interrogated with waterboarding, and had mock executions performed on them while being told their family was going to be sexually abused.

Zubaydah, a 42-year-old Palestinian, was accused of coordinating travel arrangements for jihadis loyal to Osama Bin Laden, including those who carried out the September 2001 attacks in the U.S. al-Nashiri, 48, a Saudi, was accused of organizing the 2000 attack on the USS Cole warship in Yemen, in which 17 sailors died.

The U.S.’s war on terror allegedly included CIA operated detention centers in several European countries, according to reports by a Council of Europe investigator. The detention center at issue in Poland is known as Stare Kiejkuty, an intelligence training base near Szczytno in northern Poland.

The suspects were allegedly flown to Poland on the same rendition plane in December 2002. Former U.S. President George W. Bush authorized the rendition policy shortly after the 9/11 attacks to allow the CIA to interrogate terror suspects secretly outside the US.

Zubaydah and al-Nashiri’s lawyers are representing them in Strasbourg and a court statement said their submissions are based mainly on publicly available sources, because of the restrictions imposed on them at Guantanamo Bay.

An investigator at the human rights group Reprieve, stated, “European support for the CIA’s torture program is one of the darkest chapters of our recent history – it is encouraging that the court now looks set to bring it to light, where the [Polish] government has sought to sweep it under the carpet. We have now heard overwhelming and uncontested evidence that the CIA was running a secret torture prison on Polish soil, with the Polish government’s knowledge.”

“The Polish government has failed to contest that it knew prisoners were being held beyond the rule of law and tortured by the CIA inside their own country. It has also become clear that the Polish government’s investigation into the issue was in reality nothing more than a smoke-screen, which was neither designed nor intended to get to the truth,” the investigator stated.

No judgment was issued on Tuesday, however one will be issued at an undisclosed future date.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Two Terror Suspects Sue Poland Over “CIA Torture” – 3 December 2013

The Guardian – Guantanamo Bay Detainees Claim Poland Allowed CIA Torture – 3 December 2013

Polskie Radio – Human Rights Court Examines CIA Prison in Poland Allegations – 3 December 2013

The Voice of Russia – Terror Suspects Sue Poland For Conniving in CIA Torture – 3 December 2013

North Korea Ousts Another Top Official

By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PYONGYANG, North Korea–In another sign of an escalating power struggle amongst North Korea’s elite, South Korea’s intelligence agency reported Tuesday the “No. 2 man” in the isolated North appeared to have been disposed from power.

Former Vice Chairman of the North’s National Defense Commission, Jang Seong-thek has been ousted from his powerful position according to South Korean intelligence sources. (Photo Courtesy of AP)

 

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) told South Korean lawmakers that Jang Song Thaek, uncle of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, was “recently ousted from his position” as Vice Chairman of North Korea’s powerful National Defense Commission, and that “two of his closest confidantes — Ri Yong Ha and Jang Soo-Kil — were publicly executed in mid-November,” according to opposition lawmaker Jung Cheong Rae.

Still unverified, Jang’s ousting could represent the most serious political shakeup in North Korea since former leader Kim Jong-Il’s death in December 2011.

Jang was widely regarded as second in command in the North Korean leadership, owing to his blood-link to the ruling family, and his visible presence abroad. He married the daughter of North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung in the early 1970s and was a close confidant of late leader Kim Jong-il.

“The NIS has assessed the cause of Jang’s fallout to be an internal power struggle,” Cho Won-jin, a conservative lawmaker who was briefed by the NIS, told reporters. “It was a power struggle to consolidate Kim Jong-un’s one man rule.”

Jang was known to have played a critical role in ensuring the smooth succession of his nephew into his role as the head of North Korea’s intelligence and police agencies. Jang was also known as one of the more pro-market reformers among North Korea’s powerful elite.

His influence was on display during a state visit to China in August 2012, on which he brought along fifty North Korean representatives to discuss the two countries’ cooperation in special economic zones near the border. He was received by the then-Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabo.

Some South Korean experts suggest the instability created by this alleged power struggle could lead the isolated nuclear-armed state to take even greater provocative actions on the world stage, in an effort to quell discord and reinforce unity, and reinvigorate the North’s international perception.

“In looking at past cases, when the North Korean regime becomes unstable, there could be more frequent provocations directed against the South,” Yang Moo-jin, a North Korean expert at the University of North Korean studies in Seoul, told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. “If so, then the South-North Korean relations could worsen and the tension on the Korean peninsula will heighten.”

Other experts were not surprised by the reports of Jang’s ouster.

“The signs have been there for some time that Jang was fading. He has been appearing less and less frequently in Kim Jong Un’s presence, or indeed, at all. If that change in his previously high-profile visibility was not caused by health problems, it suggested a political problem,” said one expert, who spoke to CBS News. 

The expert also suggested that Jang’s appearance as a “top leader” was hyperbolic, and indicated that the regime is, and always has been, top-centric.

“There is no power in North Korea except that at the top. From the moment Kim Jong Il died almost two years ago, Jang was vulnerable. He probably had a lot of enemies, but he no longer had any top cover,” said the expert. “It wouldn’t be surprising if Kim Jong Il had told his son to watch Jang carefully, and to cut him down when the time came.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News–North Korea powerbroker ‘dismissed’— 3 December 2013

Washington Post–Kim Jong Un’s uncle ‘very likely’ removed from power— 3 December 2013

Bangkok Post–N. Korean leader’s powerbroker uncle ousted, says South Korea— 3 December 2013

CBS News–North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un reportedly sacks his uncle Jang Seong-thaek, No. 2 man in regime— 3 December 2013

Al Jazeera–N Korean leader’s powerbroker uncle ‘sacked’— 3 December 2013

SNHR: November 2013 Death Toll: Increase in Civilian Causalities Exceeding 100,000 Victims, 277 Children Killed, 194 Women Killed

Period covered:  November 2013
Subject: death toll of civilians and armed rebels in November 2013
Prepared by Syrian Network for Human Rights

Syrian Network for Human Rights is independent of any government and political ideology.  We have more than 100 members, distributed in all Syrian provinces and neighboring countries.

SNHR documents human rights violations and victims killed during the Syria Revolution.

2,583 Syrian citizens were killed; including 663 armed rebels and 1,920 civilians.  Among the civilians, there are 227 children, 194 women, and 123 tortured to death including 2 media activists and 1 child.

In November: the civilian causalities exceeded 100,000 victims, including more than 12,000 children and 11,000 women.

The daily average of killings this month was 92 people a day, 4 people an hour.

The rate of children killed was so high this month: 277 child-victims with an average of 9 children a day, and the proportion of the children killed relative to the death toll is 14%, which is a very high rate and strict evidence that the Government Forces are targeting the civilians.

194 female victims killed at an average of 6 women a day, and the proportion of the women killed to the death toll is 8%, which is a very high rate and strict evidence that the Government Forces are targeting the civilians.

123 victims tortured to death at an average of 7 victims a day tortured to death in formal and informal detention centers.

The proportion of women killed, children, and victims tortured to death is 28%.  This clearly shows the invalidity of the Syrian government’s claims that it is fighting al-Qaeda, extremists and terrorists.  These figures clearly show that they are killing the Syrian people.

SNHR would like to indicate that what we could document by our deployed members in all of the Syrian provinces are classified by names date and place, photo or video.

We couldn’t document many cases of massacres and killing for many reasons, including procedures repeatedly and systematically used by the Syrian Government’s Armed Forces, like communications disconnection and blockading areas for many days. Such acts make the actual number higher than the one provided.  Not to mention that the Syrian government has prevented any of the human rights organizations from performing their duty in its territory.

It should be mentioned that work mechanism of Syrian Network for Human Rights’ Group is based on precise verification and documentation methods, and on our members deployed in the Syrian territory to gather facts and take written testimonies, live images and videos, oral and registered interviews audio, and video interviews so as to complement the efforts exerted to document human rights violations under the restrictions imposed by the Syrian government on the network members or any other Human Rights organization to work on Syrian territory.  The real number may exceed the one provided by dozens, especially in the case of massacres where they imposed blockage and cut communications.

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Legal conclusions

1-     SNHR is assured that the Syrian Government’s Armed Groups and Shabiha violated Previsions of Human Rights International Law which protect the right of life, in addition to dozens of cases considered as a war crimes (murder cases).

Undoubted Evidence of hundreds of eyewitness stories reveal that more than 90% of expanded and individual attacks were directed against civilians, and that’s all contrary to the Syrian Government’s claims that they are fighting Al-Qaeda and terrorists.

2-     SNHR also indicates that the documented events are also crimes against humanity, where the condition of widespread and systematically directed attacks against civilian population groups in most cases of murder was achieved.

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Condemnation and Responsibilities:

Responsibility of states for internationally wrongful acts, similarly, Customary IHL provides that the state is responsible for all acts committed by a member of its military and security forces.  Thus, the state is responsible for wrongful acts committed by its military and security forces, including crimes against humanity.

SNHR holds the Syrian President Commander in Chief of the Syrian army, Bashar al-Assad, responsible for all acts of homicide, torture and massacres perpetrated in Syria as he holds the primary responsibility for giving the orders for these acts.  SNHR considers all Syrian regime members and heads of the security and military bodies directly complicit in those acts.  By the same token, SNHR considers the Iranian government and Hezbullah as direct partners in the acts of homicide who shall legally and judicially be held liable for those acts along with all those funding and supporting the Syrian regime which is systematically committing massacres on a daily basis.  SNHR holds all the above mentioned parties responsible for all consequences and potential reactions from the Syrian people in general and the families of the victims in particular.

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Recommendations:

Human right council

1-    Call upon the Security Council and relevant organizations to take upon their responsibility towards what’s happening to the Syrian children who are and have been affected from the constant killings.

2-    Exert pressure on the Syrian government to stop the random and deliberate shelling of civilians.

3-    Hold the allies and supporters of the Syrian government: Russia, Iran, and China, morally and physically responsible for the killings in Syria.

4-    Serious attention of the disastrous situation and give it a high priority, and try to take care of victims’ children and families.

Security Council:

1-    Decision to refer all the criminals and the involved to the ICC.

2-    Warn and send a clear message to the Syrian Government about the repercussions of using brutal methods and systematic killing.

Arab League:

1-    Demand the Human Rights Council and United Nations to give this serious issue the right attention and follow up.

2-    Political and diplomatic pressure on the Syrian Government Troops’  main allies-Russia, Iran, and China -to prevent them from continuously providing cover and international and political protection for all the crimes committed against the Syrian people, and hold them morally and physically responsible for all the excesses of the Syrian Government Troops.