A Voice for the Voiceless

Displaced Rohingya Refugees Turned Away from Thailand

By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand – Over 600 displaced Rohingya Muslims were found by Thai authorities after police raided a warehouse in the town of Sadao in Songkhla province and a rubber plantation in a Malaysian border town of Pedang Besar.

Rohingya refugees awaiting deportation. (Photo Courtesy of Al Jazeera)

Police suspected that the raid sites were utilized by local human traffickers and discovered the refugees during their operations.  Among the Rohingya discovered in Pedang Besar, roughly 20 of the refugees were women and children.

The Thai landowner of the raid sites is now being sought by the local authorities on illegal human trafficking charges.  The charge of sheltering illegal migrants has also been tacked on by the officials seeking to prosecute the alleged traffickers.

Reports say that the Rohingya refugees had fled Myanmar and were passing through Thailand en route to a third destination.  The migration was entirely voluntary by the Rohingya refugees; however, the migrants had been housed in the warehouse for 3 months prior to discovery.

The refugees were reportedly travelling to a final destination in Malaysia and the camps were temporary holding facilities as they passed through.  The landowners were middlemen who were paid to help facilitate the refugees’ journey.

The migrations may have been voluntary because the Rohingya people are currently stateless.  The Myanmar government continues to deny the Rohingya people official citizenship status.  Myanmar also classifies them as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

Nearby Bangladesh also denies the Rohingya people official status creating hostility and persecution for the stateless refugees.  The Thai government has refused to grant asylum and plans to force the recently discovered refugees back onto rickety and overcrowded boats for departure, similar to the ones they utilized during their arrival.

Similar incidents in 2008, where Rohingya were forcibly deported from Thailand, generated tragic results.  The Thai military put roughly 1000 Rohingya refugees onto boats without food or water causing hundreds of deaths.

The violence in the Rakhine state of Myanmar last June has caused a large displacement of the Rohingya people.  Of the 800,000 Rohingya people, an estimated 110,000 people were displaced, many of which were Rohingya.

Rights groups have clamored to the international community about Thailand’s attitude toward the recently discovered Rohingya refugees in the two police raids.  Thailand’s refusal of asylum for the stateless refugees and sending them back to sea in rickety boats without food or water is seen as shameful.

Thailand had already deported 73 of the Rohingya people back to Myanmar last week, but the boat landed in the nearby Thai island of Phuket.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Myanmar Rohingya refugees rescued in Thailand – 11 January 2013

Breitbart – 700 ROHINGYA IN THAILAND TO BE DEPORTED TO MYANMAR – 11 January 2013

Reuters – Over 600 illegal Rohingya migrants held in Thai raids – 11 January 2013

San Jose Mercury News – Rohingya boat people found adrift near Thai resort – 1 January 2013

Women Granted Seats on Shura Council for First Time

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia, a ultraconservative Islamic country historically governed by men, has for the first time granted seats on the Shura council to women. The Shura council is Saudi Arabia’s top advisory board.

Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council will now be made up of twenty percent women. (Photo Courtesy of the Guardian)

The one hundred and fifty member council now seats thirty women. Furthermore, courtesy of First Amendment: Article 3 of the council’s statute, which King Abdullah introduced, women can never constitute less than twenty percent of the council. Previously, women were only permitted to be consultants to the council and only on topics such as family and women’s issues.

Members of the Shura council sit for four-year terms. Since the nature of the council is to serve in an advisory capacity, it has no legislative power. Members may review laws and question ministers.

The thirty women who were given seats on the council include human rights activists, university graduates, and two princesses. One such woman is Thuraya Obaid, a United Nations administrator who has previously served as the undersecretary general to the world body and as an executive director to the United Nations Development Programme.

Female Saudi novelist Baridya al-Bishr described the new class of councilwomen as “the cream of the crop.”

King Abdullah’s appointment of women to the council has been warmly welcomed by women’s rights activists. Well known activist Wajeha al-Hawaidar believes that, “men can finally respect women when they see them playing a male role.”

This move was one of many changes King Abdullah has made to advance women since he became king. In 2009, Norah al-Fayez was the first woman ever named to a ministerial post. Then in 2011 he granted women the right to vote and run as candidates in local elections. Most recently, two Saudi Arabian women were permitted to be the first women to partake in the Olympics.

Nevertheless, there are still many more changes female activists wish to see implemented. Women are still not allowed to marry, divorce, work, travel, or be taken care of in a hospital without the permission. Women who are permitted to travel are still electronically tracked, and automatic text messages are sent to her male guardian informing him of her whereabouts.

Ultimately, the council appointments signify great progress for women in Saudi Arabia. The change, however, does not come without limitations. Women still must be segregated from men once inside the council in a special area, and must also enter through a separate door.

For further information, please see:

Al-Akhbar – In Historic First, 30 Women Appointed to Saudi Shura Council – 11 January 2013

Guardian – Saudi King Allows Women on top Advisory Council – 11 January 2013

Middle East Online – Precedent: Saudi Women Named to Shura Council – 11 January 2013

Ya Libnan – Women Named to the Saudi Shura Council for First Time – 11 January 2013

Three Politically Active Kurdish Women Mysteriously Murdered in Paris

By Alexandra Sandacz
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe 

PARIS, France – The Kurdish community was stunned this past Thursday when three politically active Kurdish women were brutally murdered. The three bodies were found around 2 a.m. inside the Kurdish Information Center. The center was used to promote Kurds’ political and cultural agendas.

The community watches as the three bodies were removed from the inconspicuous building. (Photo Courtesy of NBC News)

Although there are no claims of responsibility or any suggestion of suspects, it is quite clear that the killings were carefully planned. Since the building is not marked, investigators believe someone would have to know where the office was. Furthermore, the front door could not be opened without a digital code.

Center employee, Berivan Akvol, stated, “There is no doubt this was politically motivated.” Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, stated, “No hypothesis can be excluded at this stage” as per the motive. However, Kurdish activists believe Turkish forces committed the murders.

One woman who was killed is one of the founders of the Kurdish Workers’ Party, the PKK. Multiple nations, such as Turkey, believe the PKK is a terror organization because of their 28-year rebellion against the Turkish state, one of Middle East’s longest-running conflicts.

The PKK, a pan-Kurdish nationalist movement, is internationally known for the three decade war against the government of Turkey. As a result, an estimated 40,000 people were killed. However, suspiciously, the killings happened around the time the Turkish government entered into peace talks with Kurdish leaders.

French Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, told reporters that the three women were “without doubt executed” and described the killings as “totally unacceptable.”

Roj Welat, a spokesman for the PKK leadership in northern Iraq, said “It is an assassination, it is terror, it is ideological and political assassination, a terror attack against the Kurdish people. Sakine Cansiz has been actively involved in the peace and democracy struggle, freedom struggle, of the Kurdish people for a long time. She was one of the women who participated in the formation of the PKK.”

However, although many believe the Turkish government is behind the killings, Turkish political leaders were quick to express their shock and disgust. Additionally, Turkish government spokesman, Bulent Arinc, said the “savage” killing of the women was “utterly wrong.”

The BDP, the Turkish parliament, also stated, “We expect the French government to enlighten this massacre beyond a shadow of doubt. We want it known that these murders committed overtly in the busiest part of Paris cannot be covered up.”

For further information, please see:

BBC News – PKK Paris deaths: Turkey PM Erdogan blames ‘internal feud’ – 11 January 2013

CNN – 3 Kurdish women political activists shot dead in Paris – 11 January 2013

NBC News – Three women shot dead in ‘politically motivated’ Paris slayings – 10 January 2013

The New York Times — 3 Kurds Are Killed in Paris, in Locked-Door Mystery – 10 January 2013

UN Human Rights Group Calls for Release of American Prisoner

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

HAVANA, Cuba — A human rights group at the United Nations urged Cuba this week to free an American held captive for more than three years.

A United Nations human rights group is calling on the Cuban government to free American prisoner Alan Gross. (Photo Courtesy of CBS Baltimore)

The lawyer for Alan Gross publicly released a 12-page report by the U.N. Human Rights Council imprisonment watchdog on Tuesday.  The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called Gross’s imprisonment arbitrary and Cuba’s judicial system biased.

Gross, an American contractor, is serving a 15-year sentence for delivering computer and communications equipment to Cuba’s Jewish community.  The equipment was used to access the Internet by bypassing government controls.  U.S. government programs paid for the tools, which were aimed at spreading democracy across the communist country.

The island nation outlawed all cooperation with the American programs, describing them as designed to snuff out communism.  Gross was charged with a crime against the state by acting against the country’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

But the report criticized Cuba’s judiciary as lacking independence, and it said that the nature of the alleged crime was imprecise.  And while the report said the failure of the courts to grant bail to Gross rendered his punishment arbitrary, it rejected complaints by Gross’s attorney that the process violated Gross’s due process rights or that the charges violated Gross’s free speech rights.

“By virtue of what has been set out, the Working Group asks the Government of Cuba to immediately release Mr. Alan Phillip Gross,” the report stated.

The Working Group has no enforcement powers; however, the ruling could pressure Cuban leaders to release Gross.

The Cuban government arrested Gross in December 2009 and convicted him in 2011.  Some have called his arrest an obstacle in efforts to improve relations between the United States and Cuba.

Gross’s family hired Jared Genser, an international human rights lawyer, to argue that both Gross’s arrest and conviction amounted to human rights abuse.

Cuba scoffed at the report’s conclusion last month, blaming the U.S. government for pressuring the UN group to take action.  The Cuban government reiterated that Gross received a fair trial.

Efforts to free Gross have been ongoing since his arrest.  Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), now President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of State, reportedly had a secret meeting in 2010 with Cuba’s foreign minister in New York.

According to Havana Times.org, Gross’s release was to be conditioned on ending the pro-democracy destabilization programs.  The Cuban-American Florida lobby, however, reportedly blocked those plans.

For further information, please see:

The Miami Herald — A U.N. Human Rights Group Has Urged Cuba to Free Alan Gross — 10 January 2013

CBS Local — UN Report Calls on Cuba to Release Alan Gross — 9 January 2013

Havana Times.org — Cuba: Failed Attempts to Free Alan Gross — 9 January 2013

JTA — U.N. Imprisonment Watchdog Calls on Cuba to Release Alan Gross — 8 January 2013

Syrian Revolution Digest: Wednesday, 9 January 2013

The Swap!

Syrian Revolution Digest – January 9, 2013 

Since the beginning of the armed phase of the revolution, Assad never bothered trying to get his own captured soldiers, irrespective of their backgrounds, but, today, he was willing to release over 2,100 prisoners in exchange for 48 Iranian captives. These priorities of his might give us a “hint” as to who is really in charge in Syria at this stage. The demons within are legion, so are the demons without. Snowfall notwithstanding, we are already in the lowest depths of hell, and we’re fighting our way out.

Today’s Death Toll:92 (including 9 children and 4 women)

29 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its Suburbs, 27 martyrs in Aleppo, 14 martyrs in Hama, 7 martyrs in Idlib, 8 martyrs in Homs, 4 martyrs in Daraa and 3 martyrs in Deir Ezzor (LCCs).

Points of Random Shelling: 180

2 points were shelled by warplanes, Cluster Bombs were used in Taftanaz and Omar Oil Field in Deir Ezzor, 86 points were shelled by artillery (the fiercest was reported in Damascus Suburbs), 51 points by missiles and 42 points by mortars (LCCs).

Clashes: The FSA clashed with regime forces in 77 locations (the fiercest clashes were reported in Damascus Suburbs, Idlib and Aleppo), the FSA stormed several buildings in Taftanaz Military Airport and targeted its main building, the FSA blocked many attempts by the regime forces to storm Daraya and Mouadamiya in Damascus Suburbs and Basr Al-Harir in Daraa(LCCs).

 

News

Syria releases 2,130 captives to rebels in exchange for 48 Iranian prisoners “Assad proved he is an Iranian puppet because he agreed to release over 2,000 in return for 48 Iranians,” said Louay Moqdad, a Free Syrian Army spokesman. “He did not care about Syrian officers who are also detained with us.”

Syria opposition welcomes Brahimi comments criticizing Assad Brahimi earlier told the BBC a speech by Assad on Sunday was a “lost opportunity” to end the crisis in Syria and that Assad’s initiatives to end the violence were “sectarian and one-sided”. He also said the Assad family’s more than 40-year rule was “too long”.

U.S. Government Assistance to Syria U.S. assistance includes vigorous diplomatic support of the newly formed Syrian Opposition Coalition, humanitarian assistance to help those affected by the conflict, and non-lethal support for local councils and civil society inside Syria.

 

Special Reports

The Humanitarian Front
Cry for food in Syria may be opening for peace
The UN warns it cannot feed some 1 million displaced Syrians, many in war zones with few bread supplies. A global response to this humanitarian crisis might help diffuse differences over political solutions.

Surviving in Aleppo
The rebels’ hope for a quick victory in Aleppo has given way to the reality that there is no end in sight to this war. Though the rebels recently seized the Sheikh Suleiman Air Base and the Infantry School on the outskirts of Aleppo, the regime still controls large swaths of the city itself and regularly shells rebel-held zones. The creation of a new government-in-exile and a unified military command means little to families on the front lines, fervently hoping the next shell will not land in their living room. The new National Coalition offers them neither the necessities or the security they pine for.

Winter, Food Shortages, Descend on Syria’s Refugees
In a crowded makeshift camp, tens of thousands of exiles face an ever more dire existence as temperatures plummet. Mike Giglio reports from Syria. Plus, see exclusive photos from Syrian refugee camps.

The misery of Syria’s displaced Kurds
It is a very cold winter at the Domiz camp in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. It has been raining for hours. The place is muddy and very cold… From a vantage point, the camp looks more like a settlement of tents. Around 30,000 people live in the camp alone. An average of 500 people come in every day, so you can predict that the influx is only growing. The UN refugee agency is stretched. It provides waterproof tents and non-food items. It has different phases to house the refugees after the transit in tents.

Geopolitics 
For Obama, the Key to Damascus May Lie in Ankara
Although Turkey and the United States both want Assad to go, the two countries are in different places. For Washington, Syria is a smoldering conflict, and Americans abhor the Assad regime. But Washington fears the unknown after Assad, and is reluctant to get dragged into a war in another Muslim country…. For Ankara, the Syrian conflict is a conflagration next door that needs to be extinguished now. Assad has to go, and fast. Many reasons drive the Turkish calculus. First, there is the uptick in Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) attacks. As soon as Ankara took sides against the Assad regime in August 2011, Damascus retaliated, allowing the Turks’ archenemy, the PKK, and its Syrian franchise, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), to operate on its territory again.

Syria’s neighbors fear escalation
The Syrian civil war threatens the country’s neighbors. Turkey plans to protect itself with Patriot missiles, but other countries are also worried about the potential collapse of the Syrian state.

Syria sectarianism spills into Lebanon
Sheik Ahmad Assir’s skyrocketing popularity is threatening to turn some members of Lebanon’s primarily moderate Sunni population more extreme, forcing the country’s long simmering sectarian tensions to a boil. Assir is the most high-profile of Lebanon’s Salafists — an ultra-orthodox branch of Sunni Islam. His status is buoyed by the neighbouring war in Syria, which has devolved into a mostly sectarian fight between Sunnis and Shiites.

The Cultural Front
Another casualty of Syria’s war: Its cultural heritage
Sites in Syria dating as far back as Christ as are being leveled at alarming rates.

Update from an aid worker based in Beirut
We still go a couple of days a week to Damascus unless the situation is too bad. Actually it is getting pretty bad also inside Damascus now, they were firing rockets from helicopters right over us last time I was in and the rockets they fire on Daraya and Mu’adamiyah among other places sometimes fly right over us. I saw some of the effects of the carpet bombing of Harasta from the old city – SANA ran a great article about how “Damascus lovers” still go the restaurants in the old city to hang out – they just forgot to mention that the whole town closes down to checkpoints at sunset, that traffic effectively closes down after 7 and they take away young men for the army at the checkpoints, that shooting is heard from places all over the centre when it is dark and there are army snipers on the roofs, and that the shabiha roam the streets of the old city for fear of FSA infiltration. Not exactly the romantic atmosphere for “Damascus lovers”….

Terrorist group fills power vacuum among Syria rebels
Nada Bakos, a former Central Intelligence Agency, has this to say about Al-Nusra’s plans in Syria:

Al-Nusra is using some of the same tactics as al Qaeda in Iraq (e.g., suicide bombings, kidnappings and car bombs), but it appears to be trying to strike a balance Zarqawi was unwilling to make: Not only does it seem to be avoiding alienating—if not antagonizing—the larger population, but it also is providing the people of Syria with a range of goods and services such as food, water and medical care—basic necessities that people need to survive in the best of times, let alone when their country is in the throes of a civil war.

If this becomes a trend, it might signal that al-Nusra aspires to be more like Hezbollah or Hamas, organizations that defy neat categorization based on the range of social, political and military activities they engage in and the resultant legitimacy they have in the eyes of their constituencies…

My read of al-Nusra, however, is that, like Zarqawi, it does not aspire to be a political player and is unlikely to settle for a political role in the new government. Instead, it may aim to play the spoiler for any transitional government and use its resources and political violence to empower and encourage other like-minded extremists. With time and opportunity, al-Nusra could not only add to regional instability in the Middle East, but also rekindle global jihad.

However, information obtained from a variety of local activists in Syria indicates that Al-Nusra is seriously establishing its own political council with representatives in the local government emerging throughout the liberated territories in the north and the northeast. As such, the recommendation made by Bakos to use the “designation of al-Nusra [as a terrorist group] as both a stick and carrot, cajoling and encouraging it to enter into mainstream politics when (or if) the Assad regime falls” sounds like something that the Obama Administration could try soon, considering that “the opportunity for meaningful U.S. intervention might have passed.”

 

Video Highlights

As snow falls, Syrian families in Damascus wait for the release of their loved ones in accordance with the prisoners swap agreement between rebels and authorities http://youtu.be/2A91LMqNRBE The first few are released http://youtu.be/v2FEfkTrIv0 , http://youtu.be/whnXryohVKY

Rebels from Jabhat Al-Nusra bring down a helicopter gunship n the town of Alboukamal on the Iraqi borders, and arrest its 6-member crew http://youtu.be/R_nORNTHaOM Meanwhile, an affiliate of Al-Nusra distributes gas cylinders in the village of Shmeitiyeh http://youtu.be/QwlvhRyO3P8

Clashes around the military airport in Deir Ezzor continue http://youtu.be/hDN4BxLphNE

Rebels take control of Wadi Obeid oilfield in Raqqah Province http://youtu.be/wD2iEsv8mdI

Rebels affiliated with Ahrar Al-Sham attack the military airport at Taftanaz in Idlib Province http://youtu.be/-hqq3_sP0oQ , http://youtu.be/G2qFSeJ97a8Rebels use a confiscated armored vehicles to storm over the airport fence http://youtu.be/QFhr8zVGJqY

Intense clashes between FSA rebels and loyalist militias continue in Basr Al-Harir, Daraa http://youtu.be/li9L5VuwUIc , http://youtu.be/23kuh7HeQpM

FSA rebels in Aleppo continue their siege of the police academy http://youtu.be/MyTZ2y8x_Uw

Snow http://youtu.be/_IMwo6OPPz0 does not prevent the continuing pounding of restive neighborhoods in Old Homs http://youtu.be/4Pe_HPV8hiI

Snowfall http://youtu.be/JVXtD36EpJU does not prevent clashes in parts ofDamascus City http://youtu.be/HzDrqs-bpsc

Children in Al-Zaatari Camp in Jordan try to fix their fallen tent http://youtu.be/Biko44LrpeI