Peruvian Terrorists Attack Private Airstrip

By Brendan Oliver Bergh
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru – Shining Path, making good on their threat to disrupt the flow of natural gas, have carried out an attack in the central region of Cusco that may threaten the nations gas production.

helicopter burnt down in a rebel attack in Peru
Destroyed Helicopter used to transfer gas personnel. (Photo Courtesy of the BBC)

Early Saturday morning, members of The Communist Party of Peru, more commonly known as the terrorist organization The Shining Path executed a daring raid on a private companies infrastructure and heli-transportation. Members axed through metal barriers and made their way directly to the airfield. Using crude explosive charges, the terrorists destroyed three helicopters, and a security control room before disappearing into the jungle.

These helicopters were used to transfer staff of “Transportadora de Gas del Peru,” (TGP) which monitors and operates the pipeline through Peru.

The attack seems to have had the desired effect as security personnel ran from the explosions terrified. Due to this destruction the TGP has announced that it has suspended all maintenance work on the pipeline until security can be reestablished.

Terrorist leader Martin Quispe Palomino took credit for the attack and announced that this was a reprisal for the companies’ refusal to pay “quotas” for working in the Cusco jungle.

While there have been reports that Shining Path has been severely weakened and a shell of its former 1980s self, their sudden surge of activity is giving the Peruvian military and government pause.  Despite the death of one of their leaders a few weeks ago, the Shining Path shows no signs of slowing down. As evident by this recent attack, and the kidnapping of dozens of gas workers in April, the organization seems to have branched out from merely ambushing and attacking the Peruvian army.

The US has remarked that the drug trade being pushed and pursued by the Shining Path are a detriment to Peruvian society and have offered any sort of assistance to the Peruvian government in their anti-terrorist crusade. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in a recent trip emphasized the need to work together on the issues of terrorism and drug trafficking. That the illegal drug business being conducted in the Peruvian valley has a detrimental effect on every country in the hemisphere. Leon Panetta reiterated his promise for the US to assist in protecting the inner security of the country.

It is unclear exactly what this damage will cause to the natural gas requirements and expectations of the Peruvian government, but what is known is this conflict is far from over.

 

For further information, please see:

La Republica – Helicopters Destroyed Three Businesses Operating in Camisea – 7 October 2012

La Republica – U.S. Reiterates That Drug Trafficking Is A Threat To Peru – 7 October 2012

The BBC – Peru Rebels Burn Helicopters At Jungle Airfield – 6 October 2012

The BBC – Peru Shining Path Rebel Comrade Williams Killed – 5 September 2012

Syrian Forces Advance into Rebel Areas

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria — Army and rebel sources said last Monday that Syrian forces attacked rebel controlled neighborhoods in Homs City and the nearby town of Qusayr in an effort to regain control of the Idlib and  Homs provinces.

Syrian forces expect to retake Homs City and Qusayr by the end of the week. (Photo Courtesy of Al Jazeera).

A Syrian security official said that the army now expects to take back the besieged areas by the end of the week, enabling troops to focus their attention towards northern cities such as the commercial capital of Aleppo.

“It is a huge operation, and we hope to finish it off by the end of the week,” he said, speaking under the condition of anonymity.  “After that, we will concentrate on the north of Syria.”

The revolt in Homs, Syria’s largest province, began as a peaceful protest that spiraled into warfare when Assad’s forces responded to the Sunni-led movement with force.  Activists refer to it as the “capital of the revolution.”  Located near both Lebanon and Damascus, Homs’ location is of strategic importance to the rebels. It is where they coordinated with sympathizers in northern Lebanon to smuggle supplies into the the province and wounded fighters into Lebanon.  Homs has seen some of the worst violence since the revolution to remove President Bashar Al-Assad began in March last year.  The army made numerous attempts to reclaim the region, but such sieges were unsuccessful.

On Friday, Syria deployed fighter jets in the Khalidiyeh neighborhood of Homs.  Videos posted online appeared to show the jets dropping barrels of explosives on the besieged areas.  Reinforcements were sent to Homs, where the army successfully stopped food and aid from reaching rebel-held areas.  Humanitarian conditions in the area are now worsening, and those who live there continue to lose hope.

“The siege is a huge problem for us.  We are dying every day, but nobody is paying attention to us,” said Raji Rahmet Rabou, an activist in Homs.

Meanwhile, clashes continue to take place in other provinces around Syria.  The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) told Al Jazeera that twenty people were killed, including at least five rebel fighters, in the town of Karak al-Sharqi.  SOHR also reports that Syrian troops are to blame for purposely targeting cars ferrying wounded people to field hospitals and clinics for treatment, but Al Jazeera has been unable to confirm this due to reporting restrictions.

For further information, please see:

Al Jazeera — Syrian Forces Step up Attacks on Rebel Areas — 8 October 2012

The Business Recorder — Syria Army Steps up Homs Assault — 8 October 2012

The Daily Star — Syria Army Steps up bid to Crush Homs Rebels — 8 October 2012

Reuters — Syrian Forces Advance Into Rebel-Held Part of Homs — 8 October 2012

Human Rights Watch Researcher’s Life Threatened

By Alexandra Sandacz
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe 

MOSCOW, Russia –Tanya Lokshina, a researcher in the Human Rights Watch’s office in Moscow, received anonymous life-threatening texts last week. The texts not only threatened her life, but also focused on her pregnancy. Lokshina believes the latest threats are related to her work in the North Caucasus region, calling it an example of pressure against rights and civic groups in Russia.

Tanya Lokshina, a HRW Reporter, receives life-threatening anonymous texts. (Photo Courtesy of RFE/RL)

Kenneth Roth, HRW executive director, said, “These threats demonstrate that the sender clearly was following Tanya’s every move. They knew where she lived, what she was doing. They made explicit reference to the fact of her pregnancy. They threatened harm to herself and to her unborn baby. They were clearly made with the intent of scaring Tanya and Human Rights Watch to stop our monitoring and reporting on human rights in Russia.”

Furthermore, Roth states, “Human Rights Watch worked in the Soviet Union in the darkest days. We certainly are not going to allow a cheap set of vile and depraved threats of the sort that were sent to Tanya to stand in the way of our continued work today.”

The threats consisted of confidential information, such as her due date, her unregistered home address and her relatives’ travel plans. Lokshina and a small group of friends would be the only individuals to know this information.

According to Human Rights Watch, this suggests that the information was acquired through surveillance, with potential involvement of law enforcement and security officials.

Lokshina’s recent death threats are not the first of threats activists and independent journalists received.

In 2006, Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, critical of Kremlin and its policy of Chechnya, was gunned down in the elevator of her apartment building. In 2009, Natalya Estemirova, who collected evidence of rights abuses by security forces in Chechnya, was abducted and found dead the same day. Last December, Khadzhimurad Kamalov, founder of a newspaper that was critical of authorities in Dagestan and that reported on police abuses was gunned down outside his office.

Lokshina is a leading expert on human rights abuses in the North Caucasus area. Unaffected by the recent threats, she vows to continue her work. Moreover, Lokshina attributes her recent threats to the new atmosphere that the new Kremlin-controlled parliament restrictions on non-government organizations’ activities created in Russia.

For further information, please see:

The Huffington Post — Russian activist blames officials for threats – 4 October 2012

The New York Times — Rights Group Says Its Researcher in Moscow Threatened – 4 October 2012

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — HRW Says Dangerous For Rights Workers In Russia – 4 October 2012

The Washington Post — Pregnant Russian rights activist blames security officials for anonymous text threats – 4 October 2012

Syrian Revolution Digest – Sunday 7 October 2012

The Rebel Moment!

Coming under increased scrutiny, rebels prove no less fractious than the traditional political opposition. Much of their fractiousness, however, can be traced back to continued dabbling by said opposition, as well as the shifting demands and whims of external sponsors. Still, and so many reporters embedded with them have reported, the rebels’ daily experiences with death and suffering make them far more reliable as partners, especially when they work in cooperation with local political activists.

Sunday October 7, 2012

Today’s Death toll: 121. The Breakdown:  toll includes 7 children and 3 women. 62 in Damascus and Suburbs (38 found field-executed in Hameh), 23 in Aleppo, 15 in Homs, 8 in Idlib, 7 in Hama, 3 in Daraa and 3 in Deir Ezzor (LCC).

News

Special Reports

Amid the hodgepodge of groups that make up the armed opposition to Bashar Assad, one organization is coming dramatically to the fore

Across from Hermel and inside Syrian territory, a string of villages inhabited by Lebanese Shiites has been clashing with majority-Sunni villages that back the opposition in the countryside of Qusayr, on the outskirts of Homs. There have been a series of tit for tat kidnappings between the groups, and some have suggested that Hezbollah is providing military support to the Shiite villagers.

Allowing Syria’s chaos to continue will damage too many strategic American interests and, perhaps more importantly, squander an opportunity to affect precisely the kind of change that will make the world a safer place as America’s ability to “police it” inevitably fades.

People whose lives have been decimated by conflict should receive as much assistance as we can give them. Yet Palestinian refugees from Syria, escaping the same violence, destruction and dangers and seeking the same protection, relief and refuge as their Syrian counterparts, are being excluded on grounds of nationality.

Ammar Abdulhamid & Khawla Yusuf: The Shredded Tapestry: The State of Syria Today

Rania Abouzeid offers another great article on rebel groups in Syria. With this report, yesterday’s diagram by the Turkish newspaper Hurrieyt, the New Republic article on rebel groups, the study on armed opposition prepared by Joseph Holliday of the Institute for the Study of war, and my recent report andop-ed, a good and accurate picture of rebel groups is finally emerging.

Video Highlights

Shelling leaves many children dead in Ma’arrat Al-Nouman, Idlib Provincehttp://youtu.be/lfHeK0iJYjw

MIGs continue to pound the suburbs of Eastern Ghoutah, Damascus Province:Hamouriyeh http://youtu.be/1AvX77CjehU Pulling the dead from under the rubblehttp://youtu.be/NeL2H6cidso Kafar Batna http://youtu.be/0DXpODoI76Q ,http://youtu.be/avwawbqV3v4 , http://youtu.be/OYYC1MU_aTM Saqbahttp://youtu.be/F5KxHYXM39M The nearby neighborhood of Al-Qadam inside Damascus City is also targeted http://youtu.be/U8hUBAihkwY

A video showing Kurdish fighters training to defend Kurdish-majority towns in Syria, to which they refer as Western Kurdistan http://youtu.be/LKU79Uuegys

Pakistani Men Detained in Liberia Without Charge and Trial

By Ryan Aliman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MONROVIA, Liberia – Five Pakistani men are being held by the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN) in Monrovia. One of them, Mohammed Llyass, was accused of human trafficking. Meanwhile, the other four Pakistanis, namely, Arajd Ali, Saif-Ullab, Mohammed Tufail and Abbas-Ali are said to be victims of Llyass. These four men are allegedly among those Llyass has trafficked into the country.

The Pakistani men waiting for the Court’s decision on their petition for writ of habeas corpus. (Photo courtesy of FrontPageAfrica)

On September 10 all five of them were arrested on the same ground that they violated Liberian immigration laws.

Two weeks after their arrest, the four Pakistanis’ lawyer, Atty. Edwin K. Martin, filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus before Criminal Court “A” at the Temple of Justice. The petition mainly prayed for the Court to order the BIN to produce the four men in open court to justify their detention.

Atty. Martin argued that his clients have been under illegal detention at the immigration bureau for over 48 hours since their arrest. Such prolonged detention, according to him, is “illegal and oppressive” as it goes beyond the statutory period mandated by the constitution. Also, Atty. Martin asserted that his clients were never formally charged of any crime up to the filing of the petition. He contended that the four Pakistanis, along with Llyass, were arrested and brought to the BIN office on Broad Street without being charged of any crime. “No attempt was made by the BIN to bring my clients before a court to have due process of law afforded to them as required by law in this jurisdiction,” Atty. Martin said during the hearing of the writ petition.

Yet, the court, under Judge James Zotaa, denied the petition.

In his ruling, Judge Zotaa ordered the BIN to keep all five Pakistanis in custody. He held that, although only Llyass was charged with human trafficking, the other four failed to prove that they were in the country lawfully. They should have established before the court that they are living in the country with valid documents, noted the Judge. “This Court will not allow the continued violation of the immigration laws of the country. What would happen if the five cannot establish before the Court that they are legal aliens in the country? They go and commit hideous crimes that jeopardize the public security and welfare,” Judge Zotaa stressed as he read out his decision.

After Judge Zotaa delivered his ruling, the Solicitor General, Cllr. Wilkin Wrights, clarified to the press that the four Pakistanis are actually being kept in safe homes acknowledging their status as “human trafficking victims”. According to Cllr. Wrights, it is only Llyass, among the five Pakistanis, who is detained at the Monrovia Central Prison.

 

For further information, please see:

The Nation – Five Pakistanis detained in Liberia without trial – 6 October 2012

All Africa – Liberia: Five Pakistanis Detained Without Trial – 5 October 2012

Daily Observer – Judge Denies Pakistanis “Writ of Habeas Corpus” – 29 September 2012

FrontPageAfrica – Pakistani in Liberia Booked for Human Trafficking – 27 September 2012

The New Dawn – Five Pakistanis Sue BIN – 27 September 2012