ISLAMABAD, Pakistan–Rimsha Masih, a fourteen year old Pakistani Christian girl who was falsely accused of burning pages from the Koran, has fled to Canada with her family.
Rimsha and her family being released from prison.
The case attracted widespread international concern after Rimsha was detained in a maximum security prison for several weeks in August 2012. Charges against the girl were subsequently dropped, yet she and her family were forced into hiding after receiving several death threats. If convicted, the teenager could have faced life in prison.
Along with the young girl’s release, Cleric Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti has been detained on suspicion of planting evidence to create resentment against Christians.
The teenager, who is believed to have learning difficulties, has now settled in Canada although the family’s exact location has not been made public.
According to Peter Bhatti, the leader of a Christian organization in Canada, Rimsha and her family are doing well.
“She is doing wonderful. She is studying in school, every day, she [is] going to school, she is learning, she is starting to talk more.” Bhatti said.
In Pakistan, where 97% of the population is Muslim, blasphemy has become an overwhelmingly sensitive issue. In 2011 politicians Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti were assassinated for attempting to reform blasphemy law.
Campaigners allege that the law is frequently used to target religious minorities or settle personal scores. Suspects can face the fury of lynch mobs and judges soft on sentencing those convicted of the crime have even been murdered.
However, there seems to be little change in the law. Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five, was sentenced to death in November 2010 and remains in prison after numerous women claimed she made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed.
CONAKRY, Guinea – A court in Guinea has charged Col Claude Pivi with murder, rape, and destruction of property for his alleged role in the 2009 massacre of opposition supporters in a stadium in Conakry.
2009 Stadium Massacre (Photo courtesy of Voice of America)
On September 28, 2009, security forces entered and opened fire on peaceful pro- democracy demonstrators gathered in the stadium to protest the military junta. At least 150 people were shot, trampled, and stabbed and about 100 women were publicly raped, and tortured during the attack. A subsequent U.N. investigation concluded that the events at the stadium likely constitute crime against humanity and the violence was believed to be a factor in the ending of the junta. Eyewitness accounts place Col Pivi in the stadium during the attack.
Col Pivi was a leading figure in the CNDD military junta at the time of the massacre and is now minister for presidential security. He is the highest ranking official to be charged thus far and is one of seven leaders from the junta to be charged for the massacre.
There were fears that Pivi would never be charged for his role in the attack because he still has a loyal following among the army. Human rights groups have appluaded the action taken by the court, but are concerned that a trial may never take place. “Our concern is that this must not just be a situation whereby people are indicted and then are left to go about their business as normal. We want to see some further advancement on this issue…we welcome this indictment as it should help us get to the truth. However, we call on this government to make sure that all those indicted persons still in the country should be removed from their posts until they face justice.” Asmaou Diallo, who runs a victims’ support group told BBC news.
Rights groups have also criticized President Alpha Conde, elected in 2010 in Guinea’s first democratic power hand over since the end of colonialism in 1958, for not moving fast enough to prosecute those responsible for the 2009 attack.
QUETTA, Pakistan–Sunni militants in Quetta, Balochistan have claimed responsibility for attacks carried out on a bus carrying women students and on a hospital treating the injured victims on the bus, claiming at least 25 lives.
People in the Pakistani city of Quetta are in shock after Saturday’s double attacks. Her, civilians are seen emerging from the hospital which was attacked.
The follow up attack on the hospital, where survivors of the bus attack were being treated, led to a prolonged gun battle between security forces and militants. The standoff ended when security forces stormed the building, freeing 35 people that had been taken hostage.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks. “The secretary general notes with dismay that violence against women and educators has increased in recent years, the aim to keep girls from attaining the basic rights of education.” Ki-moon’s spokesperson said.
Abubakar Siddiq, a spokesman for Lashkar-e- Jhangvi, claimed that the attacks were revenge for an earlier raid by security forces against the group in the Kharotabad neighborhood of Quetta, where a woman and child were killed. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is known for its close ties with the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
“The suicide attack on the bus was carried out by one of our sisters.” said Siddiq. “She boarded the student bus and blew herself up. Then we carried out a second suicide attack at the hospital and our fighters killed several people.”
On June 6th, Pakistani security forces killed at least three militants and two women belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban during a raid at a house in Kharotabad.
Quetta has been a stronghold for violence, some relating to a separatist insurgency, but much of it carried out by Taliban fighters or other militants. A giant bomb planted in a water tanker being towed by a tractor killed 90 Shiite Hazaras in February, while another suicide bombing at a snooker club in January killed 92. Responsibility for both attacks was claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
Funerals are being planned for the victims of the bus and hospital attacks. An official day of mourning will be observed throughout Balochistan.
Citizens of Pakistan are outraged at both the perpetrators and the security forces who have failed to prevent the three deadly attacks in Quetta in the past six months.
BEIJING, China– Violence erupted Wednesday in China’s western Xinjiang region, and continued through Friday with reports of at least 35 dead. Beijing officials reported through state-run media outlet Xinhua Saturday that the two incidents were “terrorist attacks.” This is the deadliest attack in the area since a 2009 clash between ethnic minority Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese left over 200 people dead. President Xi Jinping has authorized a security crackdown in the area, stationing riot police, armored tanks, and other security military personnel throughout the region.
Armed police officers stationed in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region. (Photo Courtesy of Reuters)
Wednesday’s incidents took place in Lukqun township in Turpan prefecture, a fairly remote area of the vast western region. Reports state that some 11 armed assailants attacked a police station with knives and set fire to nearby police cars. The initial violence culminated in the deaths of 24 people, at least two were police officers. The police forces squashed the brief uprising, however, killing 10 of the assailants and severely wounding one, who died later in the week.
The rioting continued on Friday in the desert city of Hotan, a remote area heavily populated by minority Uighur. According to Xinhua News Agency, approximately 100 people, armed with knives and riding motorcycles, gathered outside of mosques and other local religious venues, before launching an attack on a police station near Moyu county. Additionally, some 200 people, reportedly unaffiliated with the motorcycle group, attempted to “incite trouble” at a nearby shopping mall.
While little information has been uncovered describing any causes or reasons for the incidents, reports suggest that they reflect a continual strife in the region between the minority Uighurs and majority Han.
Uighurs make up approximately 45% of the regions population, the remainder being Han Chinese. The Uighurs are an ethnically diverse group, largely muslim and speaking Turkic, that have inhabited the area for decades. The most recent decade has seen a massive influx of Han Chinese to the area. The Uyghur American Association, a Washington-based advocacy group, argues that the Chinese government has cracked down intensely on religious practice by Uighurs, and restricted their cultural heritage under a guise of trying to eradicate “poverty” from the Xinjiang region.
The Chinese government has dumped billions of dollars into the region in order to decrease poverty, which it perceives as the legitimate source of unrest between Uighurs and the Han settlers. In pursuit of these investments, the government policy has been to foster religious and cultural identity which is legitimate. The government has since taken a harsh stance against most Uighurs whom it believes use Islam to incite violence and repel the Communist regime.
In July of 2009 a massive, seven day riot broke out between Uighurs and Han Chinese in Urumqi, the regional capital. The events began with a relatively peaceful march by approximately 1,000 Uighurs, but quickly degenerated into a violent riot, with a reported death toll of 197, although UAA and Human Rights Watch suspect that this number is a severe under-estimate. Since these riots, the Chinese government has suspiciously watched Uighurs, suspecting them as “separatists” and believing many Uighur groups to be connected with the Taliban in Pakistan. Beijing has issued several reports that connect some violent Uighur groups with terrorist training under the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) based in Pakistan. ETIM affiliations are banned in China, and the UAA disputes claims that Islamic extremists and fundamentalists exist in the Uighur population of Xinjiang.
The latest incidents took place just one week before the four year anniversary of the Urumqi riots.
The Chinese government has vowed to resolve the issues and extinguish any further unrest or terrorist acts. Yu Zhengsheng, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, pledged to “step up action to crack down upon terrorist groups and extremist organizations,” at a meeting of government officials in Urumqi.
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Middle East
JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited a controversial Israeli settlement in the West Bank on Monday where he dedicated a school named for his late father. The Netanyahu visit to the West Bank was played down by Israeli officials; however, the visit drew the Israeli settlement program into the limelight just ahead of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to the Middle East. The Secretary of State’s visit to the region is an attempt to reignite peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Jerusalem construction prepares new homes in two Palestinian-populated districts. (Photo courtesy of Aljazeera)
An Israeli planning committee has introduced a plan to build an additional sixty-nine housing units in Har Homa, a Jewish settlement of East Jerusalem originally constructed more than a decade ago with a population of roughly twelve thousand Israelis. The municipality has said that this plan is not new and has already been passed through initial planning stages.
Kerry’s visit will be his fifth to the region since being sworn in as Secretary of State in February. Kerry is expected to visit Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramalhal. Patrick Ventral, acting deputy spoken for the State Department decided to answer any questions about the announced settlements, but stated that on his trip Kerry will “sit down with both sides.” Kerry mentioned that he is not concerned with setting any deadlines for specific actions to be taken by either side, including limits on settlement development.
Kerry said “I’m not setting any deadlines. We purposefully wanted to avoid deadlines. Deadlines can become self-imposed hurdles and, in fact, impediments to actually making progress.” However, Kerry stated that this is an urgent time in the Middle East peace process and a critical moment to make difficult decisions because ultimately “time is the enemy of a peace process.”
Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be recognized as the Palestinian state, which was annexed by Israel but never recognized by the international community. Palestine also feels that Israel must stop the development of new Jewish settlements in the occupied regions of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, lands that Palestinian hope will encompass the new Palestinian state. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of the state they seek in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. They say that Israel must stop building settlements before peace talks resume.
Palestinian officials condemned Netanyahu’s controversial visit to a Jewish Settlement and plans for continued construction in Har Homa as “message” to Secretary of State John Kerry intended to underpin the Israeli government’s possession in regard to continued settlement development in the West Bank.
