China Sacks Another Top State Official in Corruption Crackdown

By Brian Lanciault

Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China — Chinese authorities have fired high-ranking economic official, Jiang Jiemin, in part of a growing crackdown on corruption. Analysts said the firing of Jiemin, who previously led an official body overseeing China’s state-owned enterprises, is also part of an effort by authorities to gain more control of state backed companies.

Jiang Jiemin, a top member of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, was fired earlier today as China continues to crackdown on corruption. (Photo courtesy of AP)

China’s central news agency, Xinhua said Jiang Jiemin was removed from his post as head of the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission for suspected “serious disciplinary violations,” a common phrase used to describe corruption.

 The decision comes only two days after authorities announced Jiang was under investigation. It also comes amid a growing probe into four other top executives at the state owned oil company, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Jiemin previously served as the chairman of CNPC and its subsidiary PetroChina. Jiemin has gradually risen up within the ranks of China’s state-run oil industry over the past two decades.

City University of Hong Kong political scientist, Joseph Cheng, said the decision to target Jiemin and other top oil executives is a signal that the government is trying to reign in state-owned companies as the government continues to promote substantial economic reform.

“The top officials of these very powerful state owned enterprises are more or less independent kingdoms, they are the targets, so these cases will create a sort of threatening affect, a deterrent effect, which hopefully will help the leadership to push through reform. The reform probably is to reduce the privileges of the state sector,” said Cheng. He believes the investigation provides a rare opportunity to promote economic reform of China’s state-owned enterprises, which have “too much influence on China’s economy and are too big a source of corruption.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping has promised to crack down on high- and low-ranking corrupt officials. Some believe the investigation into Jiang is a sign that the anti-corruption drive is deepening and that other high-ranking officials could be next. Only a few short months ago top political leader, Bo Xilai, was tried on charges of corruption, stemming from his wife’s murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood.

Jiang Jiemin sits on the Communist Party’s Central Committee, a top group of more than 200 officials. Jiemin is the first on the committee to be investigated and removed.

There has been speculation that former public security chief Zhou Yongkang could be the next official targeted. Yongkang previously served as a CNPC official and was an influential member of the petroleum clique. Nothing further has surfaced yet.

For more information, please see:

Xinhua — Jiang Jiemin removed from office — 3 September 2013

Reuters — China probes top official in latest anti-graft push — 3 September 2013

Chosun Ilbo — China Sacks State Enterprise Official — 4 September 2013

The Scotsman — China: Major scalp for corruption inquiry — 4 September 2013

Millions Face Food Shortage in Zimbabwe

By: Dan Krupinsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

HARARE, Zimbabwe – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday that Zimbabwe, following a drought and poor harvest, faces its worst food shortage in four years.

According to the agency, they will work with the government and other international aid organizations to provide food assistance to a portion of the nation’s 13 million people from October until March and April of 2014, when the next crop harvest will occur.

An estimated 2.2 million people, which is one fourth of the rural population of Zimbabwe, are expected to need food assistance in the time before the harvest period next year.

Food sits, ready for distribution to those in need. (Photo: WFP/R. Lee)

“Many districts, particularly in the south, harvested very little and people are already trying to stretch out their dwindling food stocks,” said WFP Country Director Sory Ouane. “WFP is working closely with the Government and partners to respond to the looming food crisis and will start food and cash distributions to the most vulnerable in October.”

Food prices in Zimbabwe are up by as much as 15% in some cases, and as the availability of foods like grain and cererals becomes even more scarce, the already inflated prices will rise even more.

The rising prices create obvious hardships for the citizens, especially in a country where the unemployment rate is as high as 70%, according to some estimates.

Erratic rains and the rising cost of harvesting goods, such as fertilizers, are just a couple of the numerous factors contributing to the crisis.

Critics blame President Robert Megabe’s policies for an economic crisis lasting over a decade and peaking in 2009, perhaps most notably land grabs of white-owned farms by the government for redistribution to blacks with no land. Magabe maintains that he was correcting ownership imbalances created by colonialism, but over the last 15 years, Zimbabwe has turned from a country that was self-sufficient into one desperately in need of help.

According to a report by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee, this shortage would constitute the highest level of hunger since early 2009, when more than half of the population required food support.

To combat the problem, WFP and its international aid partners will provide regionally-available cereals as well as imported vegetable oil and pulses. Cash transfers will be used in selected areas to afford people flexibility and help support local markets. The distributions will increase gradually from October until the new harvest period in March of next year.

 

For further information, please see:

All Africa – Zimbabwe: Hunger Looms in Rural Zimbabwe – 3 September 2013

News 24 – Hunger on rise in Zimbabwe – 3 September 2013

Reuters – U.N. agency says 2.2 million Zimbabweans face food shortages – 3 September 2013

UN News Centre – Over 2 million people in Zimbabwe to require food assistance, warns UN agency – 3 September 2013

Council of Europe’s Committee Will Debate How to Punish Sergei Magnitsky’s Killers

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Distribution

2 September 2013 – This Wednesday, 4 September 2013, between 9 am and 1 pm, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), will consider a draft resolution entitled “Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky”(http://www.assembly.coe.int/Communication/ajdoc24_2013.pdf).

Since the report’s publication earlier in June, Russian officials have been struggling to find ways of diluting the conclusions of the report.

Russia is one of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe. The draft resolution and the report on the impunity of Russian officials in the Magnitsky case have been prepared by Swiss MP, Rapporteur Andreas Gross under his Council of Europe mandate from November 2012 to carry out an independent review of Magnitsky’s death in Russian custody.

On 25 June 2013, Mr Gross presented his findings to the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the Council of Europe. Even before the report was released, the Russian delegation expressed its dissatisfaction and pledged to “influence” the content of the report before the 4 September 2013 vote.

Alexei Pushkov, MP from the Pro-Putin United Russia and head of the Russian delegation to the Council of Europe,(http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/AL_MemberDetails.asp?MemberID=6889), said prior to the 25 June 2013 meeting on the draftMagnitsky resolution:

“We will try to influence its content. The first page of the resolution announces Magnitsky as a fighter with corruption which he never was, because he was a finansist, specialist in creating schemes to avoid taxes”(http://www.er-duma.ru/news/59702).

Pushkov also said that the draft report presented to the Council of Europe’s Committee by Mr Gross “repeated the political imprints which have been accepted by the Western approach to the ‘Magnitsky case.”

Pushkov denied that Magnitsky died from beating, saying: “I repeat. This has not been determined.”

After these remarks were made, Mr Magnitsky’s mother publicly confronted Mr Pushkov with a statement that she and other relatives were eyewitnesses to the injuries her son had suffered before his death.

“The statements you have made have offended the feelings of Sergei Magnitsky’s relatives, who had the misfortune to witness first hand the injuries on his body pointing towards a violent death,” said Mrs Magnitskaya in a letter addressed to Mr Pushkov.

Mr Magnitsky’s mother demanded a public apology from Mr Pushkov over his remarks: “You have made statements over a long period of time about a deceased person, which are impermissible both from the point of view of the morality and law. In spite of this, you have never asked for the clarification of the position from the family of Sergei Magnitsky,” said Mrs Magnitskaya.

 

Natalia Magnitskaya’s letter was published by Novaya Gazeta (http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/66840.html). No response from Mr Pushkov was forthcoming so far.

 

Another Russian delegate to the Council of Europe, Alexander Sidyakin (http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/AL_MemberDetails.asp?MemberID=6899) said  the report by Rapporteur Gross was “not accounting for the position of the official structures of Russia” and implied that the death of Mr Magnitsky was similar to the death of the former Serbian President Mr  Milošević.

“Our objection is that the report is biased. We proposed to them [PACE Committee] to examine the death of the particular person in detention, but this is a banal topic. Milošević also died in detention, because help was not provided to him,” said Mr Sidyakin in comments published bygazeta.ru on 26 June 2013 (http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2013/06/26_a_5394273.shtml).

 

Notably, when Andreas Gross MP was first appointed as Rapporteur on the Magntisky case, the Russian officials welcomed his candidacy. According to comments made in November 2012 by the Russian delegate to the Council of Europe, Leonid Slutsky MP (http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/AL_MemberDetails.asp?MemberID=4380), “Gross was one of the co-rapporteurs on the monitoring file on the Russian Federation and had shown himself as a constructive partner” and his appointment would help avoid an “openly biased approach” (http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/20121112184851.shtml).

 

The motion “Refusing Impunity for the Killers of Sergei Magnitsky” calling for an independent review of the Magnitsky case by the Council of Europe was tasked to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in October 2012 following a recommendation of the Council of Europe’s Bureau. At the meeting on 12 November 2012, the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee designated Mr Gross to prepare a report on the Magnitsky case.

 

The draft resolution before the Committee’s vote on 4 September 2013 prepared by Rapporteur Gross on the impunity of officials in the Magnitsky case calls for the Council of Europe member states to hold to account all those who share responsibility in Mr Magnitsky’s death, ensure that his posthumous prosecution and the persecution of other lawyers who represented Hermitage in Russia is ended, and urges Russian authorities to cooperate with criminal investigations launched by European countries into the $230 million funds stolen by the group of Russian officials and criminals exposed by Sergei Magnitsky.

 

The draft resolution summarises the details of the corrupt criminal conspiracy exposed by Mr Magnitsky (see, for instance, Mr Magnitsky’s testimonies from 5 June 2008 and 7 October 2008 given before his arrest, his testimonies from detention from 14 October 2009 and 12 November 2009 at http://russian-untouchables.com/eng/testimonies/). In spite of the evidence, the Russian authorities attempt to argue that Mr Magnitsky did not discover their corruption, and instead posthumously blamed Mr Magnitsky himself for the $230 million theft he had exposed.

The draft resolution before the Council of Europe’s Committee describes Mr Magnitsky’s beating before his death (see the prison records evidencing the use of hand-cuffs and rubber batons, the signs of violence on Magnitsky’s body discovered at the funeral, the act of death referring to his suspected head injury, and the findings by the Russian President’s Human Rights Council in: http://russian-untouchables.com/eng/cover-up-presentation/).

Even the official Russian medical experts referred to rubber batons as a likely cause of injuries on Magnitsky’s body, yet the official position of the Russian government remains that of denial that beatings took place. In March 2013, the Russian Investigative Committee formally closed the investigation into the death of Sergei Magnitsky finding that “no event of crime” had occurred. In April 2013, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the Kremlin had “no reason to doubt the competency of those who conducted the investigation”(http://www.interfax.ru/russia/news.asp?id=301437). Mr Peskov insisted that the Magnitsky case must not be discussed outside of Russia, calling such discussions “impermissible” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/russia/2013/04/130415_peskov_interview.shtml).

The official agenda of the 4 September 2013 meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights which will take place in Paris, France, includes the consideration of the draft report on the impunity in the Magnitsky case, the addendum and the draft resolution (http://assembly.coe.int/Committee/Agenda/20130904JUR3932_E.PDF).

For further information, please see:

Law and Order in Russia

International Criminal Justice News Roundup: August 2013

Dear all,

Please find below the news headlines on international criminal justice from August. You can find past headlines and other relevant resources on the International Association of Prosecutors’ (IAP) Forum for International Criminal Justice (FICJ) website.

The FICJ is password protected and only IAP members have access. This is meant to facilitate open and frank dialogue between prosecutors. Please contact Evie Sardeman, Office Manager (OM@iap-association.org) or Janne Holst Hübner, Communication Manager (CM@iap-association.org) with questions about IAP membership and website access.

******

30 August
UN SG: Cambodia Khmer Rouge tribunal needs funding
(Source: Jurist)
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), is running out of money, threatening its survival. Ban urged international donors to provide financial support to keep the tribunal running. Due to the financial strain, some staff have not been paid in months and are now threatening to strike…

29 August
ICTY removes judge from Vojislav Seselj’s war crimes trial
(Source: Deutsche Welle)
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced on Thursday that it had disqualified Danish Judge Frederik Harhoff from adjudicating at the trial of Serbian ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj. It said a special panel or chamber of three judges appointed to consider Sesejl’s request for Harhoff’s removal had voted 2-1 in favor of the disqualification. “The Chamber found… that Judge Frederik Harhoff had demonstrated an unacceptable appearance of bias in favour of conviction,” a statement posted on the ICTY’s website said…

It’s Time for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi to Go to The Hague
(Source: Human Rights Watch)
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former Libyan leader, has been held under guard by a militia in Zintan in western Libya for close to two years, as the new Libyan authorities and the International Criminal Court (ICC) argue over who will try him. After failing in a bid to prosecute the ICC’s allegations against Gaddafi, it’s time for Libya to follow its legal obligations and turn him over to the ICC…

28 August
Bosnia police chief sentenced to 14 years for war crimes
(Source: Jurist)
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday sentenced Goran Saric, a former police chief, to 14 years for crimes against humanity. His charges specifically involved detention, forced transfer and murder of civilian Bosniak population of Sarajevo’s Centar municipality between June and July 1992 during the Bosnian Civil War in violation of Article 172(1)(h) of BiH’s Criminal Code…

27 August
Rwanda Tribunal digs up partial truth
(Source: Radio Netherlands)
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) based in Arusha, Tanzania, is due to conclude at the end of 2014 following several deferrals. Analysts have globally recognised the ICTR’s role in bringing perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandese genocide to justice. However, for a variety of reasons, analysts also believe that the tribunal has not entirely fulfilled its mandate…

UN failed to investigate Kosovo war crimes: AI
(Source: Jurist)
The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) failed to adequately investigate missing person reports in the aftermath of the 1998-99 Kosovo war with Serbia, Amnesty International (AI) reported Tuesday…

26 August
UN rights chief visits Sri Lanka to investigate war crimes allegations
(Source: Jurist)
At the beginning of a week-long visit to Sri Lanka, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay pledged to raise concerns with the government’s human rights record, particularly with regard to alleged war crimes against ethnic Tamils…

19 August
Chad: Investigation Starts in Habre Case
(Source: allAfrica)
The special court charged with trying former Chadian president Hissène Habré this Monday launched its investigations with a two-week mission to Chad, reports Radio France Internationale. Habré, who has been living in exile in Senegal for 22 years, was arrested on June 30 at his home in Dakar and charged two days later with crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture committed between 1982 and 1990 when he was in power in Chad…

18 August
Jailed general cleared of contempt of court
(Source: WDTN)
The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal has acquitted a jailed Bosnian Serb army general of contempt of court, saying his post-traumatic stress disorder was a reasonable excuse for refusing to testify in the trial of his former commander-in-chief, Radovan Karadzic. Gen. Radislav Krstic, who is serving a 35-year sentence for aiding and abetting genocide, was subpoenaed last year to testify at Karadzic’s long-running trial, but repeatedly refused to give evidence, citing ill health…

16 August
ICC Seeks to Reassure Kenyan Violence Victims
(Source: IWPR)
Ahead of two trials due to start in The Hague in the coming months, the prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court, ICC, has sought to reassure Kenyans about the strength of its case against the country’s leaders. Despite significant challenges surrounding its investigations in Kenya the Office of the Prosecutor, OTP, has said the public “should not read too much into” revelations that certain witnesses who were due to testify before the court have recently been replaced…

15 August
Israel extradites Serb-Israeli to Bosnia-Herzegovina for genocide
(Source: Jerusalem Post)
The government of Bosnia- Herzegovina submitted the request for his extradition on August 29, 2010…Extraditions are a rare proceeding where a defendant can both go before the Supreme Court as an appeals court and later appeal to the same court in its capacity as the High Court of Justice on different grounds. Zvtkovic is suspected of involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which as many as 8,000 Muslims were executed after Serb forces overran the town during the civil war in Bosnia…

13 August
Hague war crimes ruling threatens to undermine future prosecutions
(Source: The Guardian)
Generals and politicians could evade responsibility for war crimes in future because of a ruling requiring proof that they “specifically directed” atrocities, say some international lawyers and senior judges. A series of acquittals by the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have created a novel judicial precedent that human rights groups fear will make it difficult to deliver justice in the wake of massacres…

11 August
HRW states July 29 Iraq bombings were crimes against humanity
(Source: Jurist)
Human Rights Watch stated on Sunday that the Islamic State of Iraq, a suspected al Qaeda branch, had committed crimes against humanity during the July 29 bombings in Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for a series of car bombs implemented to aid a prison raid. The July 29 bombings killed over 60 people, and July was the bloodiest month in Iraq in over five years according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) estimates…

8 August
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s lawyer calls for UK intervention over execution fears
(Source: The Guardian)
The British lawyer representing Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has called on the UK to intervene on his client’s behalf amid fears that the son of the former Libyan dictator will be sentenced to death in a trial expected later in August…

7 August
ICC Prosecutor voices concern about ongoing serious crimes in Central African Republic
(Source: UN News Centre)
The prosecutor of the world’s first permanent court set up to try those accused of genocide and war crimes today voiced her deep concern about the worsening security situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) and reports of serious crimes being committed there…

5 August
International prosecutor accuses Nigerian Islamist group of possible crimes against humanity
(Source: Montreal Gazette)
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says that after a preliminary investigation she believes that acts attributed to the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram are likely crimes against humanity. “Information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that since July 2009 Boko Haram has launched a widespread and systematic attack that has resulted in the killing of more than 1,200 Christian and Muslim civilians in different locations throughout Nigeria,” Fatou Bensouda wrote in a report issued Monday…

ICC moves witnesses to Europe ahead of Hague trial
(Source: The Star)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has relocated five top witnesses from an African country ahead of the start of hearings for the post election violence cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta, his Deputy William Ruto and journalist Joshua Arap Sang…Before they were flown out by officials from the ICC Witness Protection Unit there were fears about their security which led to the relocation on a night flight two days ago. ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is expected to use the witnesses to testify during the hearings…

Liberia: Taylor Complains From Prison
(Source: allAfrica)
Detained ex-President Charles Taylor has written the African Union, complaining about the prison condition and the discrimination being meted out against him and other African detainees there, describing it as racist…

2 August
Special Tribunal for Lebanon sets provisional date for Hariri murder trial
(Source: Middle East Online)
The UN-backed tribunal set up to try the killers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri on Friday set a provisional January start date for the trial. “The pre-trial Judge at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon today issued an order setting 13 January 2014 as a new tentative date for the start of the trial,” the court said in a statement…

Syria: UN human rights chief urges probe into alleged execution of Government soldiers
(Source: UN News Centre)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay today urged an independent investigation into whether war crimes had been committed when armed opposition groups in Syria allegedly executed dozens of captured Government soldiers in the northern province of Aleppo last month…

SNHR: SNHR Receives a Certificate of Thanks and Appreciation from the Human Rights Data Analysis Group

The Syrian Network for Human Rights received a certificate of thanks and appreciation from the Human Rights Data analysis group (HRDNG): an Organization that analyzes conflict-victims around the world, and whose research is depended on by the United Nations.

On the back of cooperation and constant communication between Syrian Network for Human Rights and HRDNG and also the United Nations, and provides them with all required statistics and files using the highest global standards in all objectivity, perseverance and continuity,  and also provides the answers to all questions in all detail.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights, considered one of the most prominent sources for the United Nation, in documenting non-international armed conflict’s victims in Syrian, depended on by many human rights organizations, and Arab and international news agency.

Please view the message’s text via following attachment:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Bj18tlYYKBRnZNNi1URzJWUDQ/edit

The Syrian Network for Human Rights will keep working professionally and in high credibility, and we thank the SNHR’s members, especially the members deployed inside Syrian governorates, who risks their lives in order to document the ongoing violations committed against Syrian citizens.

Founder and Director of the Syrian Human Rights Network,

Fadel Abudl Ghany