OTP Weekly Briefing: Lubanga Case Establishes the Principles and Procedures in Reparations Process
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Thousands Gather in Bahrain’s First Authorized Protest Since June
By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
MANAMA, Bahrain — Tens of thousands of protesters marched along a three-kilometer stretch of highway west of Manama on Friday. It was the country’s first authorized protest in over a month since the government announced a ban on protests in June. The Interior Ministry said the ban was necessary to “restore order.”
Protesters chanted pro-democracy slogans, waved Bahraini flags, and demanded the release of Nabeel Rajab, a prominent human rights activist who was jailed two weeks ago for leading illegal protests. The Al-Wefak National Islamic Society and other opposition groups led the rally, which bore the slogan, “Liberty and Democracy.” The opposition parties voiced their demand for the elected parliament to have full powers and the ability to form governments. It was considered to be a peaceful demonstration, and there were no clashes between government authorities and protesters.
Even though Bahrain is mostly comprised of Shiite Muslims, the country’s government, whose current structure grants King Khalifa considerable power, is Sunni. Because of this, many Shiites in the country believe they are discriminated against by the ruling Sunni minority. They feel that their access to government positions and better jobs is restricted. In response to these complaints, the government has enacted some reforms, yet the opposition remains unsatisfied.
Pro-democracy protests have been ongoing since February 2011. Even when the ban was in place, many unauthorized protests occurred around the country, especially in Shiite villages. In an interview with Al Jazeera, journalist Reem Khalifa said that since the protests began, “[i]t has never been quiet…especially in the over-populated Shiite areas. Every day there is tension in various areas around the island.”
The Bahraini government believes that the protests have occurred under the direction of Iran, whose majority of the population is also Shiite.
On Friday, the Bahraini Ministry of Interior released a statement in which the Northern Governorate Police announced that public and private property was violated during the rally. The statement also claimed that participants chanted illegal political slogans and “that the case will be referred to the competent authorities.”
Joe Stork of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East Division told Al Jazeera that he would give Bahrain a “very bad review,” but that the criticism the country is facing must be “having an impact.”
“It’s also true that some members of the government are very sensitive to their international image. They’re concerned about their reputation that Bahrain has gotten over the last couple of years as a place that doesn’t tolerate any peaceful dissent,” said Stork from Washington.
For further information, please see:
Russia Today — Thousands Swamp Bahrain Highway in First Legal ‘Freedom and Democracy’ Demo in Weeks — 2 September 2012
Daily News Egypt — First Authorised Protest in Bahrain Gathers Thousands — 1 September 2012
Digital Journal — Op-Ed: Bahrain Demonstrators Call for Democracy and Release of Activist — 1 September 2012
Al Jazeera — Tens of Thousands Join Protest in Bahrain — 31 August 2012
Amnesty International Urges Slovak Government to Desegregate Schools
By Connie Hong
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Amnesty International is urging the Slovak government to address the issue of segregation that plagues the country’s schools and classrooms. Currently, thousands of Romani children living in Slovakia are forced to learn in classrooms separated from their Slovakian peers. Although the organization has urged the government for the past five years to provide reform to the country’s educational system, nothing has changed.
Roma students are being forced to learn in separate classrooms. (Photo Courtesy of Equality) Continue Reading
Sudan Withdraws its Candidacy From UN Human Rights Council
By Heba Girgis
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
KHARTOUM, Sudan—On Thursday, August 30, Sudan withdrew its candidacy on the United Nations Human Rights Council after receiving strong criticism from several human rights and pro-democracy groups around the world. Sudan’s representatives to the United Nations wrote a letter declaring its withdrawal and noted that, “it is no longer interested in taking up one of the vacancies available in the Human Rights Council.”
The current coordinator for East African countries at the United Nations, Djibouti, first received Sudan’s letter which gave no reason for the country’s decision to pull out of the election that will take place in November at the United Nations General Assembly.
The criticism from human rights groups and pro-democracy groups developed from human rights violations that took place in Sudan. Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, has been accused of genocide and other war crimes in Darfur, and his regime has been accused of other human rights violations in other parts of the country. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a U.S. congresswoman who heads the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, noted that “As Sudan appears poised to win a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, the United Nations has hit a new low. Allowing this genocidal dictatorship, which has killed thousands of its citizens, to serve on such a body is beyond hypocrisy, it is callous, dangerous and tragic.”
Despite these accusations, Sudan was almost guaranteed a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Council itself is made up of forty-seven members and Sudan would have been one of the five African candidates for the only five African seats available.
While Sudan gave no indication as to why the country has withdrawn its candidacy, Philippe Bolopion, the United Nations director for Human Rights Watch, was happy with Sudan’s decision and noted that, “the worst human rights offenders are slowly recognizing they are not welcome on the Human Rights Council.” He further commented saying, “Sudan joins notorious rights violators Syria, Iran, Belarus, Sri Lanka and Azerbaijan whose hypocritical aspirations to sit on the Council have properly let to embarrassing retreat.”
Eight years ago, in May 2004, the United States representative at the United Nations Human Rights Commission left the room after Sudan was elected to sit on the Commission at the peak of the Darfur conflict. Despite the growing animosity toward Sudan, one African ambassador noted that no African country wants to jeopardize their own relations with Sudan by telling them that they don’t qualify because of their own human rights problems. The Ambassador further added, “we will be sitting at the table with them in the future.”
The famous actress Mia Farrow has been a leading campaigner for victims in Darfur. Farrow has also been campaigning against the Sudanese government and sought to have the country’s United Nations candidacy disqualified because of al-Bashir’s crimes. The Sudanese government has refused to arrest the president and the African group will now have to choose a replacement for Sudan in order to fill the fifth seat on the Council.
For further information, please see:
The Journal – Sudan Withdraws Candidacy for UN Rights Council – 1 September 2012
Zee News – Sudan Withdraws Candidacy for UN Rights Council – 1 September 2012
Boston News – Sudan Withdraws Candidacy for UN Rights Council – 31 August 2012
Sudan Tribune – Sudan Quietly Withdraws Controversial UNHRC Candidacy – 31 August 2012
Reports of (Another) Massacre of Yanomami Indians by Brazilian Gold Miners
By Margaret Janelle R. Hutchinson
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
CARACAS, Venezuela – Dozens of members of the Yanomami indigenous group were reportedly massacred back in July, according to a document released on Wednesday by various indigenous rights organizations. Reports of the incident are only now reaching Venezuelan authorities due to the remoteness of the indigenous villages. The killing may be the latest tragedy in a pattern of vicious encounters between Yanomami and Brazilian gold miners.
Residents of the Hokomawe village said they discovered charred bodies and the torched “shabono” or communal house during a visit to the indigenous community of Irotatheri in early July. Of the approximately eighty residents of Irotatheri, only three survivors were discovered hiding in the forest.
The survivors reported that they had been out hunting at the time of the attack, which they blamed on miners from nearby Brazil. The hunters said they heard gunshots, explosions and the sound of a helicopter, which miners sometimes use to ferry supplies.
According to the survivors’ account, the miners attacked because some in the community had been “rescuing Yanomami women” from miners.
The Yanomami have often had to contend with Brazilian gold miners, known in Portuguese as garimpeiros, who for years have crossed into Venezuela and torn up the forest, leaving pits of water laced with mercury.
In 1993, activists say, 16 people were killed by Brazilian miners in a Yanomami community in the area of Haximu. In 2010, Venezuelan authorities said four people in an indigenous community died after drinking water contaminated by miners.
The Yanomami are one of the largest isolated indigenous groups in the Amazon, with a population estimated at roughly 30,000 on both sides of the Venezuela-Brazil border. They have maintained their language as well as traditions that include face paint and wooden facial ornaments piercing their noses, cheeks and lips.
The isolation of the Yanomami caused the delay in reporting. The account of villagers from Hokomawe who saw the victims’ remains and talked with the three survivors was later relayed to others in the village of Momoi after days of walking through the forest. Others then took the news to the larger community of Parima.
The site where the attack is alleged to have happened, in the Venezuelan municipality of Alto Orinoco, near the Brazilian border, is a five-hour helicopter ride, or 15 days on foot, from Puerto Ayacucho, the main Venezuelan city in the Amazon.
Prosecutors were appointed to investigate after leaders of the Yanomami organisation Horonami alerted them to the account, Venezuela’s Public Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
As of Friday, no headway had been made in the investigation.
Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday its embassy in Caracas had asked the Venezuelan government to provide it with any information that could help it determine whether the attack had happened and whether Brazilians had been involved.
Brazil’s National Indian Foundation, a government body that oversees indigenous affairs, said it would seek a joint investigation by officials from both countries at the site.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Tareck Al Aissami said in televised comments on Friday that officials had managed to speak with seven of the nine known groups of the Yanomami tribe and thus far had no proof of an attack in any of their settlements.
There has been an outcry from native rights groups across the globe.
Stephen Corry, Director of Survival International said, “This is another appalling tragedy for the Yanomami – heaping crime upon crime. All Amazonian governments must stop the rampant illegal mining, logging and settlement in indigenous territories. It inevitably leads to massacres of Indian men, women and children. The Venezuelan authorities must now bring the killers to swift justice, and send a signal throughout the region that Indians can no longer be killed with impunity. The mining and logging must be stopped.”
The Yanomami have complained of increasing encroachment by the miners.
“The presence of garimpeiros in this area has been documented since at least four years ago, and complaints have been made various times,” said Aime Tillett, an activist with the indigenous rights organization Wataniba in Caracas. “What we’re asking is for the government to take sufficient measures to control the garimpeiros.”
Though the exact death toll is unknown, Linda Manaka, a representative of the Venezuelan Association of Indigenous People in Puerto Ayacucho, said that based on the account she believes dozens died.
“Generally a ‘shabono’ is made up of dozens of people,” she said. “At least there are about four, five dozen people.”
For further information, please see:
The Guardian – Brazil asks Venezuela to investigate village massacre claims – 1 September 2012
Chicago Tribune – Brazil presses Venezuela on alleged Amazon massacre – 31 August 2012
CNN – Venezuela to investigate reports of massacre of Indians by gold miners – 30 August 2012
Fox News – Indigenous Amazon Reports Massacre in Venezuela – 30 August 2012
Survival International – Yanomami Indians ‘massacred’ by goldminers in Venezuela – 29 August 2012