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By Mark O’Brien Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala — A former dictator who ruled during one of the bloodiest periods of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war will stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.
On Monday, a Guatemalan court ordered former dictator Efrain Rios Montt to face trial for genocide, accused of ordering the deaths of 1,700 indigenous people during a blood period of the country’s civil war. (Photo Courtesy of Latin American Herald Tribune)
A Guatemalan court ruled on Monday that the trial of Efrain Rios Montt would convene this week. Montt, 86, is accused of ordering the murder, torture, and displacement of more than 1,700 indigenous people between March 1982 and August 1983.
Judge Miguel Angel Galvez also threw out 13 appeals presented by Montt’s defense, finding sufficient evidence to prosecute Montt and retired Gen. Jose Mauricio Rodriguez for the killings. Rodriguez is accused of ordering the mass killings, known as the “scorched earth” campaign.
Neither defendant reacted to the judge’s ruling, but families of victims, along with human rights workers, cheered and applauded before setting off fireworks outside, according to the Latin American Herald Tribune.
Human rights advocates called the Montt’s prosecution a symbolic victory for victims of one of the most devastating and horrific conflicts in Central America.
“Until recently, the idea of a Guatemalan general being tried for these heinous crimes seemed utterly impossible,” said Jose Miguel Vivianco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “The fact that a judge has ordered the trial of a former head of state is a remarkable development in a country where impunity for past atrocities has long been the norm.”
Montt, who became de facto president during a coup in 1982 before being ousted in another coup in 1983, is the first former president to be charged with genocide by a Latin American court.
“It’s the beginning of a new phase of this struggle,” said Paul Seils in an interview with the Associated Press. Seils is vice president of the International Center for Transitional Justice, which has worked on war-crimes cases in Guatemala. He said the decision to prosecute was “a good step forward,” but he expected the trial would face stiff resistance from loyalists to government-allied forces during the civil war.
A United Nations commission estimated 200,000 people were killed during the war, which lasted from 1960 to 1996. The commission attributed 93 percent of the human rights abuses it documented to government forces, concluding the military committed “acts of genocide.”
Montt will stay under house arrest until his trial, according to the Judge Galvez’s order. He is currently in custody at a military hospital, where he was admitted last year for health problems.
By Alexandra Sandacz Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
MOSCOW, Russia – On January 3, Alexei Kabanova murdered his journalist wife, Irina, after a fight. Kabanov, a well-known opposition figure, confessed that during a state of anger, he murdered his wife, dismembered her body in the heat of passion, and could not remember anything of what he had done.
Irina Kabanova’s murder raised awareness for domestic violence victims all over Russia. (Photo Courtesy of RFE/RL)
Irina is just one of thousands of women in Russia who are killed in domestic violence incidents every year. An estimated 10,000 to 14,000 women die each year from spousal abuse.
Currently, Russia has no law concerning the issue of domestic violence. Specifically, police cannot intervene in a dispute until a crime has been committed. However, publicity of Irina’s murder generated awareness to an issue that is widely belittled and ignored.
Olga Kostina, head of the Moscow-based group Resistance, which advocates for domestic-violence victims, said, “The key is for us to battle for a law to defend the victims of these crimes and to provide them with social guarantees that in any case are supposed to be ensured by the Russian Constitution.”
A proposed legislation, which has been in creation since September, recognizes domestic violence as a crime, empowers police and courts to issue restraining orders, and requires offenders to undergo counseling.
Mari Davtian, an attorney with the ANNA Center, which assists victims of domestic violence, said, “A woman herself has to file a case to the court and prove that she was subjected to a crime. As you understand, that is practically impossible in conditions of domestic violence. If a woman lives with the person she is taking to court, then she is in danger.”
Although there have been few attempts to introduce domestic violence legislation in Russia over the past few decades, each time failed.
United Russia lawmaker Saliya Murzabayeva, believes each failure stemmed from a lack of understanding of domestic violence issues. She states, “There probably is not enough awareness of this problem. And there are those who believe that the government should not interfere in family matters.”
Kabanov is charged with murder and faces a maximum punishment of 15 years in prison. If convicted, Kabanov will also be deprived of his parental right.
By Brendan Oliver Bergh Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
CARACAS, Venezuela – 57 prisoners were killed in one of the bloodiest prisoner riots to strike Venezuela.in a routine and peaceful inspection prison guard met armed resistance from irate prisoners in the Uribana prison in Venezuela’s Lara province.
The National Guard taking action against rioters in Venezuela’s Uribana prison. (Photo Courtesy of CNN)
Early Friday prison guards and the National Guard planned an operation in an attempt to disarm prisoners from the violent prison facility. Sparked by a surge of prison violence earlier in the week as internal gangs battled for control, the guards had hoped for a peaceful inspection. Instead, as the sun rose Guardsmen were met with gunfire from an entrenched inmate position. When the dust settled and the National Guard had quelled the riot Nearly 60 people were dead, with another 120 wounded. While the official reason for this uprising is being investigated, human rights experts note that Venezuelan prisoners are notoriously overcrowded and filled weapons and drugs that have been smuggled in by corrupt prison guards and gang ‘mafias.’ Beyond the dead inmates, two protestant pastors and one soldier was killed in firefight.
Originally designed in 1997, the model prison of Uribana was built to hold 850 prisons, however when violence erupted the 23,500 square meter penal colony was holding 2,400.
Criticism has been levied on the nature of the inspections and the administration itself. Humberto Prado, leader of the activist group Venezuelan Prisons Observatory stated “It’s clear that the inspection wasn’t coordinated or put into practice as it should have been. It was evidently a disproportionate use of force.” He continued that while necessary, they should not be carried out in the warlike attitude that they have been.
Since peace has been restored, the surviving 2003 male and 132 female inmates have been moved to nearby prisons, and while another 49 inmates were discharged, 46 prisoners remain hospitalized.
The National Assembly has since begun investigating the causes of the riot at Uribana and what protocol steps can be taken in the future.
With allegations from abuse from prisoners, Correctional Service Minister Iris Varela has officially denied any allegations that inmates were run over by the National Guard, or that the population was naked while the National Guard was hitting them. Henrique Capriles, opposition leader against President Chavez’s levied heavy criticism on the administration. Stating that the vice-president ordered an investigation and then went to summit in Chile in contrast to President Rousseff of Brazil cancelled his trip. Taking advantage of the situation Capriles continued “Here, they go away to a summit. They dispose of it as if it were one more matter, one more little problem.”
By Ali Al-Bassam Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
JERUSALEM, Israel — The Israeli Health Ministry recently came under heavy criticism for giving Ethiopian Jewish Women an injectable contraceptive called Depo Provera unknowingly and without their consent.
The Israeli Health Ministry recently ceased the distribution of Depo Provera to Ethiopian Jewish women after allegations arose that they were being distributed to them without their knowledge or consent. (Photo Courtesy of Jerusalem Post)
Suspicions of the act’s occurence arose a few years ago and most recently after a television documentary, “Vacuum,” linked the community’s declining birth rate to an over-prescription of the drug. The population of Ethiopian Israelis has declined by 50 percent in the last decade. According to a report by the women’s rights organization, Isha le’Isha, Ethiopian Jews makeup the majority of people given Depo-Provera in Israel.
After falling under scrutiny, Israel’s Health Ministry on Sunday ordered four public health maintenance organizations to cease providing Ethiopian Israelis the drug without the administration’s explicit consent. It is the first time that an Israeli official acknowledged that Ethiopian Israelis were being given the drug. The order came after The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) investigated the allegations.
The letter written by the Health Ministry asks doctors “why contraception is being used in general and this one in particular (Depo Provera) and if she (the patient) is asking of her own free will to prevent pregnancy and if she understands the side-effects.” No where in the letter does the Health Ministry admit to administering Depo Provera to Ethiopian Israelis without their consent, however, the ACRI found the ministry’s order to cease the administration of the drug to be an implicit admission of guilt.
“We believe it is a method of reducing the number of births in a community that is black and mostly poor,” said Hedva Eyal, who authored a report which revealed that 57 percent of all Depo Provera users in Israel were of Ethiopian origin even though their community accounted for less than two percent of the population. “It is indeed the first time that the state actually acknowledged that this procedure of injecting immigrant women with this drug, when they do not know the side effects and are given no other choice, is wrong.”
Allegations of racism in Israel have been made not just by the Ethiopian community in the country, but also by other African migrants and asylum seekers. In May, dozens of asylum seekers were injured during the Tel Aviv riots, which were encouraged by politicians who blamed Sudanese and Eritrean communities in Tel Aviv who entered the country illegally.
Claims of illegal discrimination against Ethiopian Israelis specifically reached a boiling point in 2006, when it was made public that blood donations by the community were being routinely disposed of out of fear of disease. Complaints were also raised about discrimination in jobs and education.
