DCHRS Newsletter: Friday, 18 October 2013
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India Police Arrest Crew of U.S. Ship
By Kevin M. Mathewson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
NEW DELHI, India — Police in southern India say they have arrested the crew of a US-owned ship accused of illegally entering Indian waters with a huge cache of weapons on board.
Eight crew and 25 security guards aboard the MV Seaman Guard Ohio were arrested after they failed to produce documents allowing them to carry the weapons, Foreign Secretary Sujata Singh told reporters. The men were charged with illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, and entering India’s territorial waters without permission, Singh said.
“The crew and security guards are cooperating with the investigators,” Singh said, adding that information about the case had been shared with representatives from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.
The ship’s owner, AdvanFort, claim the vessel was involved in supporting anti-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean.
The Indian authorities say they intercepted the American ship last weekend when it was reportedly sailing off the coast of Tamil Nadu.
However, in a statement released on Monday, AdvanFort said India’s coast guard and police allowed the vessel to enter the port to refuel and shelter from a cyclone which hit India’s eastern coast last weekend. The company even thanked officials.
“The Indian coast guard approached us and asked us to follow them into the port. We would never have entered Indian waters otherwise,” the ship’s captain said.
In recent years piracy has emerged as a major threat to merchant ships in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea, with ships and their crews sometimes hijacked for ransom. Last year two fisherman were shot to death by armed Italian marines. The marines were part of a military security team on a cargo ship when they fired at the fishermen, mistaking them for pirates. The two Italians are facing trial in India for the deaths.
For further information, please see:
BBC News – MV Seaman Guard Ohio: India police arrest crew of US ship – 18 October 2013
Huffington Post – MV Seaman Guard Ohio Arrests: Crew Of U.S. Owned Ship Held In India For Illegally Transporting Weapons – 18 October 2013
Aljazeera – India arrests US ship crew over weapons – 18 October 2013
Bloomberg News – India Arrests Crew of U.S.-Owned Ship Over Weapons, PTI Reports – 18 October 2013
Four Chilean Men Convicted for Murder and Torture of Young Gay Man
By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
SANTIAGO, Chile – Four men in Chile have been convicted of first-degree murder for torturing and beating to death a young gay man and carving swastikas into his body.
Daniel Zamudio, a 24 year-old clothing store salesman was attacked on the night of March 2, 2012 at the San Borja de Alameda park in the Chilean capital, Santiago. The attackers burned Daniel Zamudio with cigarettes, broke his right leg with a heavy stone, beat him with glass bottles and carved swastikas into his body with broken glass before walking away. He died of his injuries 25 days later.
Judge Juan Carlos Urrutia said Patricio Ahumada Garay, Alejandro Angulo Tapia, Raul Lopez Fuentes and Fabian Mora Mora, who were between the ages of 19 and 25 at the time, were guilty of a crime of “extreme cruelty” and “total disrespect for human life.” The four are due to be sentenced on October 28th. Prosecutors are asking for jail terms ranging from eight years to life in prison.
Daniel Zamudio’s death set off a national debate in the country about hate crimes that led Congress to approve the nation’s first anti-discrimination law targeting hate crimes. The law adopted last year, named the “Zamudio law,” allows people to file anti-discrimination lawsuits and adds hate-crime sentences for violent crimes.
“It is typical of us, Chileans, that an accident has to happen for us to approve a law. My son will not come back, but this case may end up being good for Chile,” said Daniel’s father, Ivan Zamudio. He was in court to hear the verdict, alongside Daniel’s mother, Jacqueline Vera.
The law had been stuck in Congress for seven years after the initiative was stalled by conservative legislators, but President Sebastian Pinera put it on the fast track after Zamudio’s murder.
“We’re satisfied with this ruling. There’s a before and an after the Zamudio case,” said Rolando Jiménez, president of the Gay Liberation and Integration Movement. “It generated such outrage because of the brutality, the hate, that it helped raised awareness,” he said. “We’ve witnessed a cultural change that finally led to an anti-discrimination law.”
For more information please see:
The Guardian – Chilean men carved swastikas into body of gay man they killed – 18 October 2013
ABC News – 4 Guilty in Chile Gay Murder That Led to Hate Law – 17 October 2013
The Washington Post – Chilean court convicts 4 in murder of gay man that prompted Chile to adopt hate crime law – 17 October 2013
BBC – Four Chileans convicted over murder of gay man Daniel Zamudio – 17 October 2013
Deadly Shooting on Wedding Guests Outside a Cairo Christian Church
By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
CAIRO, Egypt-Three people, including an eight year-old girl, were shot dead by gunmen on motorcycles who opened fire on wedding guests outside a Coptic Christian church in Cairo. At least nine others were wounded in the attack.
One source reported that the masked gunmen opened fire on the crowd randomly as guests were leaving the church. It was not immediately clear if the three who were killed were Christians.
Coptic Christians make up 10 percent of the 85 million people who inhabit Egypt, and have generally coexisted peacefully with majority Sunni Muslims for centuries. However, the army’s overthrow of Islamist President Morsi on July 3 has sparked the worst attacks on churches and Christian properties in years.
When General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the chief of the army, went on television to announce that President Morsi had been removed from power, Pope Tawadros II appeared by his side. The Pope has said that the “roadmap” laid out for by the general had been devised by “honourable people who had Egypt’s best interests at heart.”
Pope Tawadros’ II statement led many Islamists to believe that the church was somehow behind the overthrow of Morsi. The Pope has received numerous death threats while many Christians have been killed while targeting Christian shops, homes, and businesses.
Bishop Angelos, from the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, stated: “It’s terrible to see that in the light of recent attacks where Christians and Muslims are trying to get on with life, regardless of antagonism and violence, that even on a night like this, when people are trying to celebrate, people can lose loved ones.”
The Bishop went on to further say, “There are still some who wrongly accuse the Christians to be responsible for the ousting of the former president,” addressing the heightened tension and increased attacks on Christians in recent months due to the political situation.
Amnesty International reported that as of October 9, more than 200 Christian-owned properties were targeted and 43 churches seriously damaged across Egypt since the August 14 crack down on Morsi supporters in Cairo.
For more information, please the following:
Al Arabiya-Gunmen open fire at Egyptian Christian wedding-20 October 2013
Aljazeera-Deadly attack on Cairo church wedding-20 October 2013
BBC-Egypt gunmen open fire on Coptic Christian wedding in Cairo-20 October 2013
Reuters-Egyptian gunmen kill three outside church in Cairo suburb-20 October 2013
Suicide Bomber Kills Soldiers in Somalia
By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa
MOGADISHU, Somalia – At least 16 people have been killed and more than 30 people injured after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded restaurant in the central Somalia town of Beledweyne.
Al-Shabab said it had carried out the bombing targeting troops in an African Union peacekeeping force fighting the Somali Islamist group.
The bombing happened at a restaurant near a military base around 210 miles north of Mogadishu. The city is under control of the central government and AU peacekeepers from Djibouti.
“Our main target was Ethiopian and Djibouti troops who invaded our country. They were sitting there,” al-Shabab’s military operation spokesman, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, said.
But witnesses have reported that most of those killed by the bomb were civilians.
“There is a lack of medicine in the hospital and they can’t cope with the flood of wounded patients, so we asked the central government to send us planes to evacuate patients,” Mr Jessow said by phone.
“A man with an explosives jacket entered unexpectedly in the tea shop where soldiers and civilians sat . . . and blew himself up,” local elder Ahmed Nur said from the scene of the blast.
“I could see the bodies of several soldiers being carried, but I could not make out whether they were dead or injured.” Al-Shabaab frequently attacks political targets, as well as restaurants, and other recreational spaces popular with foreigners and government soldiers.
Al-Shabab militants have been driven out of Somalia’s major towns, including Mogadishu and the key southern port of Kismayo, by a UN-mandated AU force of some 18,000 soldiers.
But the militants still control large parts of southern Somalia.
Last month the group claimed the attack on the Westgate shopping center in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in which 72 people died in a four day siege.
Straddling a major highway that links south-western Somalia to southern and northern parts of the country, Beledweyne is the maine gateway to the Ogaden region in Ethiopia and a strategically vital area that Addis Ababa has often controlled.
“In a way this attack is also a message of weakness as al Shabaab are not able to carry out a conventional assault on the town in the way they use to two years ago,” analyst Abdi said.
Ethiopian troops have been fighting Islamist militants in neighbouring Somalia for much of the past decade.
For more information, please visit:
BBC News – Somali suicide bombing kills AU soldiers in Beledweyne – 19 October 2013
The Frontier Post – Somali bombing kills AU soldiers – 20 October 2013
Yahoo! News – Suicide bomber kills 16 in Somali cafe attack aimed at foreign troops – 19 October 2013
The Guardian – Al-Shabaab suicide bomber attacks restaurant in Somalia – 19 October 2013
Standard Media – Al Shabaab claims responsibility, says AU forces were the target – 19 October 2013