Human Rights Watch Releases Annual World Report

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

A couple of days ago, Human Rights Watch issued its twenty-third annual world report for 2013. A large portion of the six-hundred and sixty-five page report centered around the Arab Spring and its effects on the Middle East.

In the wake of the Arab Spring, Human Rights Watch hopes that the newly implemented governments will not fail their human rights obligations. (Photo Courtesy of the Daily Star Lebanon)

When the Arab Spring started, the initial hope was that the uprisings would lead to the beginning of legitimate democracies. Presently, in many states there is a fear that the ousting of the old authoritarian regimes will only lead to authoritarian regimes of different forms.

It is far too early to judge exactly what the spring has given birth to yet. The world must wait to see how these new governments will respect their citizens human rights. Appropriate efforts would include the installation of a professional police force, creation of independent courts, and the prudence of the majority not to abuse the rights of minority factions.

The report highlights the difficulty for these new governments to develop the necessary institutions for a successful democracy. The executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, stated that, “[t]he path ahead may be treacherous, but the alternative is to consign entire countries to a grim future of oppression.”

The report specifically looks at several countries in its exposé on human rights. A few of such countries include Egypt, Syria, and Libya.

Human Rights Watch analyzed the effect that Egypt’s new constitution has on the countries future. It praised its efforts to clearly terminate the practices of arbitrary detention and torture, but feared that far too many of its provisions pertaining to family, religion, and speech were vague. Such undisciplined drafting may allow for abuses against women and minority religious groups who should be protected under international law.

Over the past year, Syria has provided the perfect example for what may happen when sectarian factions cannot co-exist. Syria has been a hot bed for war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture, and summary executions. The United Nations Security Council has referred the situation to the International Criminal Court but Russia and China have vetoed the referral.

Libya is a prime example of a government unprepared to govern itself after its abusive regime was ousted. Gaddafi intentionally insured that government institutions were weak so that no one could challenge his law. As a result, much of the country is ruled by militias and government who has no problem to detain dissidents and without any likelihood of a future trial.

A further common theme exists amongst most of these Middle Eastern countries. The overwhelming majority of these countries are ruled by Islamic powers. In such situations, it is not uncommon under conservative rule for women to be viewed as second class citizens. Many of these ruling powers consider expanding the rights of women as a western imposition opposed to a natural right codified through international law. Additionally, in these religious states, it is not uncommon for those who offend the religion to be treated improperly. Such countries claim to allow free speech, but do not practice what they preach. Countries that the report criticize for acting in the aforementioned ways include Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Arab Spring uprisings took place because citizens were fed up with their governments’ treatment of its people. As Kenneth Roth declared, “[i]t turns out, in fact, the toppling of a dictator may have been the easy part. The difficult part is replacing that repressive regime with a rights-respecting democracy.” Hopefully a year from now the 24th annual Human Rights Watch World Report will show a stable Middle East that is routed in democracy and a concern for human rights.

For further information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – World Report 2013: Challenges for Rights After Arab Spring – 1 February 2013

Radio France International – Human Rights Watch Focuses on Arab Spring Fallout – 1 February 2013

Daily Star Lebanon – Arab Spring States Must Respect Rights: Human Rights Watch – 31 January 2013

United Press International – Human Rights Watch Issues Annual Report – 31 January 2013

DRC: The UN Denounces M23’s Human Rights Violations

By Hannah Stewart
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo — The Movement of March 23 (M23) rebels have been fighting the DRC army since May in the country’s fertile but highly unstable North Kivu province.  The UN published a report late last year that accused the rebels of serious atrocities: rape, murder, human rights violations, and forced recruitment.  M23 has dismissed the allegations at “cruelly biased.”

M23 Rebel Leader Jean-Marie Runiga. (Photo Courtesy of In2EastAfrica)

In April 2012, the M23 rebels launched an offensive against the army after accusing President Joseph Kabila of reneging on the terms of a March 2009 peace agreement.  Now the M23 rebels state they wish to remove Kabila from office and liberate the entire Congo.  The M23 rebels engagement in the in the eastern province has the region back into war and displaced an estimated 500,000 people.

M23 released its response via a report on Wednesday.  The political leader of M23, Jean-Marie Runiga Lugerero, charged that the UN experts of harboring a “visceral hatred of M23.”  Runiga said the UN document “seems to us cruelly biased and hardly professional because it contains incompatible and incoherent elements.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported that M23 receives significant support from Rwanda.  Moreover, HRW reported that “Rwandan military officials have planned and commanded M23 military operations; supplied weapons, ammunition, uniforms and other equipment; and recruited at least 600 young men and boys in Rwanda to join the rebellion.”

Likewise, according to research by HRW and the UN Group of Experts on Congo several hundred Rwandan army troops were sent to Congo to support the M23 in its military offensives.  In September, HRW accused the rebels of “war crimes committed on a large scale.”

In its Wednesday report, M23 rejected all the foregoing allegations.  The rebel leader, Runiga, calling the UN and the HRW reports “politicized” and “erroneous,” and the production of biased rapporteurs.

However, independent UN experts say the M23 insurgency receives cross-border support from Rwanda and Uganda.  Both governments strongly deny these allegations.

In December the UN sanctions committee blacklisted two key M23 leaders, Eric Badege and Jean-Marie Runiga Lugerero on grounds the rebel group has been complicit in “killing and maiming, sexual violence, abduction, and forced displacement” of people in eastern Congo. They now face international travel bans and asset freezes.

M23 said they expect to sign a peace deal with the government by the end of February to end their ten-month revolt; however, Kinshasa said “capricious” demands from the rebels could cause delays.

For more information, please see:

All Africa – Congo-Kinshasa: How M23 Peace Deal was Missed – 1 February 2013

Global Post – DR Congo Rebels Dismiss “Biased” UN Rights Report – 31 January 2013

IOL News – DRC Rebels Dismiss UN Rights Report – 31 January 2013

Reuters – Congo’s M23 Rebels say Peace Deal Possible by end-February – 1 February 2013

Somali Rape Victim Charged Over Rape Report

By Ryan Aliman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – On Tuesday, the Somali government prosecuted a woman who accused members of the army of raping her.

Somali journalists protest as they demand for the release of a colleague who wrote about women who were allegedly raped by Somali soldiers. (Photo courtesy of Human Rights Watch/Badri Media)

Since then, the United Nations and various international human rights groups have demanded that the charges against her be dropped.

Earlier this month, Al-Jazeera English published a story about government soldiers raping internally displaced women in Mogadishu camps. Several days after the publication, the Somali police’s Central Investigation Department (CID) in Mogadishu arrested the reporters involved in writing the story.

2 weeks later, a Mogadishu court charged one of the women interviewed for the Al-Jazeera report. She was charged of insulting the government on the basis of false evidence. According to the court’s decision, she fabricated the rape allegations against the Somali soldiers making her guilty of spreading false accusations. Doing so, she effectively “insulted and lowered the dignity of a National Institution,” said the court.

The woman’s husband was also charged and arrested. He was accused of helping his wife evade investigation and secure a profit for the rape allegation. The government claimed that he and his wife agreed to the Al-Jazeera interview, not only with the intention of discrediting the administration, but also of profiting from it.

After the couple’s arrest, the alleged rape victim recanted her story. She later admitted that all the accusations she made against the Somali security forces were “bogus”.

Her conviction sparked outrage among human rights advocacy groups. They believe that it will deter rape victims from coming forward in spite of recent efforts of trying to empower them.

“Allegations of rape should be met with objective investigations by the proper authorities, not detention for victims who come forward or arrest for journalists who report on such crimes,” insisted Zainab Hawa Bangura, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Fartuun Adan, a volunteer who runs a shelter for abused women in the country, expressed her concern and fear about the consequences of the woman’s prosecution. “Women are now asking me, ‘Who’s going to protect us?’ ” she told local newspapers. “They’re saying, ‘What are we supposed to do?’ ”

According to Daniel Bekele, the Africa director at Human Rights Watch, the case is “politically motivated”. “The police ‘investigation’ in this case was a politically motivated attempt to blame and silence those who report on the pervasive problem of sexual violence by Somali security forces,” he said. “Bringing charges against a woman who alleges rape makes a mockery of the new Somali government’s priorities,” Bekele added.

 

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Somali journalist charged over rape report – 31 January 2013

Huffington Post – Somalia: Government Charges Woman Who Says She Was Raped By Security Forces – 31 January 2013

All Africa – Somalia: Somali Authorities Lay Charges Against Alleged Rape Victim and Journalist – 30 January 2013

The New York Times – Somalia Moves to Prosecute Woman Who Accused Soldiers of Rape – 30 January 2013

Kremlin Opens New Posthumous Case Against Magnitsky Holding him Responsible for Russian Default in 1998

Press Release
Hermitage Capital

1 February 2013 – Today it was reported by RIA-Novosti Russian news service that Russian law enforcement agencies have begun investigating Sergei Magnitsky for allegedly being responsible for the Russian default during the 1998 financial crisis. This is the fourth posthumous accusation put forward by Russian authorities, who refuse to investigate officials responsible for the thefts uncovered by Mr Magnitsky, his arrest, ill-treatment and death in custody. Mr Magnitsky died more than three years ago, on 16 November 2009 when he was found dead on the cell floor after the use of rubber batons and handcuffs.

“The Russian authorities look like they have gone completely mad,” said a Hermitage Capital representative. “In their attempt to escape from US and EU visa and financial sanctions for the death of Mr Magnitsky, they are coming up with crazier and crazier attacks against Magnitsky in the hope of clouding the debate about who killed him and why.”

RIA Novosti reported that a source in the Russian law enforcement agencies said “We can talk about fraudulent schemes before the default in Russia in 1998, when the Federal Reserve Bank of New York wired $4.8 billion intended for the stabilization of operations of the Central Bank of Russia to the account of Republic National Bank of a Browder’s companion Edmond Safra. Subsequently, it was not possible to trace the money, Safra died in the fire in Monaco in 1999,” (http://russian.rt.com/Russia/3721/)

The same source told RIA Novosti that the Russian law enforcement agencies are initiating a further posthumous case against Magnitsky for “illegal purchasing of Gazprom shares”. The trading of Gazprom shares by locally-held branches of foreign firms was reviewed at the time by the Russian Federal Securities Commission, who found that those purchases were in compliance with Russian law. The purchase of Gazprom local shares by foreigners was organized by Gazprom’s own bank as well as dozens of market participants.

“Following the ban on adopting orphan’s, the expulsion of USAID, the termination of cooperation in drug trafficking, the Russian government is now issuing multiple posthumous accusations against Sergei Magnitsky, one more outrageous than  the next, and clearly following a political order from the very top,” said a Hermitage Capital representative.

 

For further information please contact:

Hermitage Capital
Phone:             +44 207 440 1777
Email:              info@lawandorderinrussia.org
Website:          http://lawandorderinrussia.org
Facebook:        http://on.fb.me/hvIuVI
Twitter:           @KatieFisher__
Livejournal:     //hermitagecap.livejournal.com/

Syrian Revolution Digest: Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Impossible Dialogue, Improbable Politics!

In the absence of leaders, no dialogue is possible, and in the absence of dialogue no salvation is possible for a state crumbling along ethnic and regional lines. But with killers representing one side and nincompoops the other, our tragedy is bound to drag on for many months to come, and Syria’s fate might have already been sealed. Our only hope lies in having those few voices of rationality out there, represented by the like of opposition leader Moaz Al-Khatib and the Revolution’s top thinker, Yassin Al-Haj Saleh, finding enough soulmates in time to enable the opposition to project a strong alternative that can be embraced and empowered both by the international community and rebel leaders. Perhaps when one side finally stumbles on capable leadership and a viable program, the other side will be compelled to do the same to stave off defeat.

Today’s Death Toll: 144 martyrs, including 7 children and 3 women: 39 in Aleppo, 42 in Damascus and suburbs, 27 in Homs, 13 in Idlib, 7 in Hama, 6 in Hasakeh, 3 in each of Raqqah, Deir Ezzor, and Dara’a, and 1 in Qunteira(LCCs).

Points of Random Shelling: 374 points, including 13 points from warplane shelling, 2 points have been recorded from the use of phosphorus bombs, and 1 point each from cluster bombs, Thermobaric bombs, and TNT barrel. Artillery shelling has been recorded as 146 points and was most violent in Damascus, followed by 130 points of mortar shelling, and 80 points of missile strikes (LCCs).

Clashes: 133 locations. Successful operations included the downing of two warplanes in Karnaz and Kafar Nabouda in Hama, liberating the military Gas Station on Aleppo-Latakia Highway, and hitting various loyalist checkpoints in Harran Al-Awamid and Qadam neighborhoods in Damascus (LCCs).

 

News

Israeli Jets Blast Arms Shipment Inside Syria The early-morning strike in a border area west of Damascus targeted a convoy of trucks carrying Russian-made SA-17 missiles to Hezbollah, the anti-Israel Shiite militant and political group in Lebanon, according to a Western official briefed on the raid.

Syria Opposition Leader Would Talk to Assad Regime Al-Khatib was chosen in November to head the Syrian National Coalition, a new umbrella group designed to represent most of the rebels and soothe Western concerns about the ability of the opposition to pull together and present a viable alternative to Assad’s rule. His offer to talk to regime officials threatened to fracture the opposition once again. After an outcry, al-Khatib said he was just expressing his own opinion.

Piecing Together Accounts of a Massacre in Syria The rebels and the government have blamed each other for the mass killing, but Ms. Sherlock, of The Daily Telegraph, reported that many of the dead were residents of rebel-held areas whose families said they disappeared after traveling to government-held areas. “It was impossible to be certain who was responsible for their deaths. But those identified, at least half the total by nightfall, were from rebel-held districts, and locals blamed government checkpoints on the other side of the river.”

 

Special Reports

The Battle for Syria’s Minakh Air Base
Located on flatlands and ringed by wheat and potato fields that offer little cover or concealment, the base and the village at its eastern side have even been nigh unapproachable. To venture near has been to risk machine-gun and rifle fire, as well as high-explosive ordnance from armored vehicles and tanks or an attack from one of the patrolling aircraft that serve as the lifeline for entrapped soldiers within. The rebels hope to change that this winter. In recent weeks they have rejoined the battle for Minakh with greater intensity, driven in part by a sense that the government garrison on the base – thinned by casualties and defections – is significantly weaker than what it was.

Will Syria Bleed Hezbollah Dry?
Reports indicate that Hezbollah recently expanded its actions in Syria to include its most valued resource — its highly trained and strategically irreplaceable special forces units. Hezbollah’s secretive military wing is reportedly composed of 2,000 to 4,000 professional soldiers and thousands of reservists hailing from Shiite villages south of the Litani river and the Bekaa Valley, meant to be called into action to repel a future Israeli invasion. During the 2006 conflict with Israel, the loss of roughly one quarter of Hezbollah’s special forces was assumed to constitute the group’s most severe setback. Varying reports from Syria suggest that the direct participation of these special forces units in combat zones nationwide has increased, and additional forces may be on the way.

Impossible Dialogue, Improbable Politics
The willingness of Syrian opposition leader Moaz Al-Khatib to dialog with the Assad regime was misrepresented and misinterpreted by all. For in order to conduct such dialog with regime figures, Mr. Al-Khatib stipulated the release of all 160,000 political prisoners currently languishing in regime jails, granting Syrian passports to all Syrian exiles, and holding the talks somewhere outside Syria. A regime that has already failed to honor its commitment to release 2,300 detainees as part of a much publicized prisoner exchange program that led to the release of 50 Iranian hostages held by rebels, the regime released only 200 detainees to date, is unlikely to accept these conditions, and Mr. Al-Khatib knows it. So, why even make the overture, one might ask? Smart politics.

Rejecting dialog outright when international leaders are calling for a political solution is simply not smart politics, entering dialog without any conditions as some opposition groups who recently met in Geneva seem willing to do is equally dumb. But asking for something that makes sense, sch as freedom for all political detainees so they can take part in monitoring the dialogue, and so that conditions on the ground for making dialogue possible are created, now that’s smart politics. That’s brave politics, and Mr. Al-Khatib has shown to be a capable leaders. Unfortunately though, he has also shown himself to be a lone voice in a political wilderness. The criticism he has received from the very coalition he is leading proves it.

 

Video Highlights

The regime pound the city of Tabaqa, Raqqa Province, with barrel bombs http://youtu.be/Kql50ylJHsI  Rebels try to take down the planes with their heavy guns http://youtu.be/TPeuzf38y0Y

I have commented on this leaked video before, but now it comes with English subtitles: Soldiers of Al Assad’s army arrest a civilian and torture him to entertain themselves. They try not to hit him hard in order to keep him alive so that they can have more fun. He begs them to let him see his kids one last time, but they insult him by agreeing on one condition which is letting them sleep with his wife. At the end of this footage, some of them get angry and sad because he died and they lost their enjoyment! http://youtu.be/XGcQoScTWn8

Sounds of clashes in Ariha, Idlib http://youtu.be/ZM6puYOfEMg , http://youtu.be/Iqshyo4vWdc

Rebels in Deir Ezzor City celebrate the liberation of the political security headquarters http://youtu.be/DpCdnu50d-w

Rebels in Al-Qadam Neighborhood, Damascus City keep repelling attempts by regime forces to storm the neighborhood http://youtu.be/bobI6rme95U , http://youtu.be/JlWP2gqB1xA , http://youtu.be/Zp6T29uHhF8 The pounding of the nearby Yarmouk Camp continues http://youtu.be/_92HRVUSWpc In Eastern Ghoutah, this goes for a quiet day in the suburb of Harasta http://youtu.be/cmZXt-kJfPo

Rebels in Salaheddine Neighborhood, Aleppo City, stand by a no-man’s land separating them from positions of regime loyalists http://youtu.be/u7uj67yevu0