PAX GAEA WORLD POST HUMAN RIGHTS HEADLINES MONDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2007
TOPICS- Germany's refusal to prosecute accused Uzbek war criminal suspect appealed by rights group
- Appeals issued to Syria, world to assist refugees fleeing violence in Iraq
Former Chad dictator to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity in exile home Senegal - U.S. expands DNA collection program for all federal prisoners, detained immigrants
- Self government in works for Kosovo but not independence as part of compromise with Serbia
- Maoris win right to fly tribal flag from New Zealand capital city's One Tree Hill
Japan health minister under fire for referring to women as baby machines
Sinn Fein support of North Ireland police shows progress since days of 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' - Argentina's "Mothers of the Plaza" bringing hope, housing to slums
- Child soldiers still proliferate throughout much of world
Germany: Victims Appeal Decision on Uzbek Ex-MinisterFailure to Prosecute Undermines Commitment to International Justice
(Berlin, February 2, 2007) – Uzbek survivors of torture and the 2005 massacre of unarmed protesters in Andijan have appealed a decision by Germany’s federal prosecutor not to open an investigation against former Uzbek Interior Minister Zokir Almatov, Human Rights Watch said today. Germany’s federal prosecutor had rejected a December 2005 complaint by the victims, joined by Human Rights Watch, asking the prosecutor to open an investigation against Almatov and 11 other Uzbek government officials for crimes against humanity. The crimes related to the massacre of hundreds of unarmed protesters on May 13, 2005 in the eastern city of Andijan, and the widespread and systematic use of torture in Uzbekistan. The German government allowed Almatov to travel to Germany shortly before the complaint against him was filed, although the authorities knew he was on a visa ban list about to be announced by the European Union. The federal prosecutor then failed to open an investigation against Almatov as required by Germany’s universal jurisdiction law, the Code of Crimes against International Law. “Germany’s universal jurisdiction law was adopted to help survivors of serious atrocities who have no hope of getting justice at home,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “By refusing to use the law, Germany’s federal prosecutor has exacerbated the environment of impunity that exists for foreign officials accused of crimes against humanity.” Human Rights Watch (2/5)
Syria: Give Refuge to Palestinians Fleeing Threats in Iraq
US and Other Countries Should Help Resettle Refugees(New York, February 2, 2007) – Syria should immediately reopen its border to Iraqi Palestinian refugees fleeing deadly attacks against their community, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the international community, and the United States in particular, to provide financial assistance to Syria to help it host the Palestinian refugees, and to share the burden of this refugee problem by offering third-country resettlement opportunities to Palestinian refugees in Syria. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government, Palestinian refugees in Iraq have increasingly become targets of violence and persecution, with abductions of scores of Palestinian men in the past week. In recent months, Shi`a militant groups have murdered dozens of Palestinian refugees and have repeatedly leafleted Palestinian neighborhoods threatening further killings unless the Palestinians leave. On January 23, unidentified men, some in police uniforms, took 30 Palestinian men from their homes in Baghdad: 17 were taken from their homes in the Hai al-Nidal neighborhood, and a further 13 were abducted in the Baladiyet neighborhood. The men, who were released the same day, have refused to talk about their ordeal, but appear to have suffered physical abuse in custody. All have now left their homes in Baghdad, together with their families. As a result of this violence, scores of Palestinian families have attempted to flee to Syria. Over the past week, nearly 150 Palestinian refugees have arrived at the Iraq-Syria border, bringing the total to nearly 700. On January 24, a group of 73 Iraqi Palestinians arrived, and according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) a further group of about 50 Palestinians arrived at the Syrian border late on January 29. Human Rights Watch (2/5)
The Case Against Hissène Habré, an "African Pinochet"
Human Rights Watch has been working for seven years with the victims of Chad's exiled former president, Hissène Habré, to bring him to trial. In July 2006, at the request of the African Union, the president of Senegal, where Mr. Habré lives in exile, agreed to prosecute Mr. Habré. Mr. Habré was first indicted in Senegal in 2000 before courts ruled that he could not be tried there. His victims then turned to Belgium and, after a four-year investigation, a Belgian judge in September 2005 issued an international arrest warrant charging Mr. Habré with crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture committed during his 1982-90 rule. Pursuant to a Belgian extradition request, Senegalese authorities arrested Mr. Habré in November 2005. When a Senegalese court refused to rule on the extradition request, the Senegalese government announced that it had asked the African Union to recommend "the competent jurisdiction" for Mr. Habré’s trial. On July 2, 2006, the African Union, following the recommendation of a Committee of Eminent African Jurists, called on Senegal to prosecute Hissène Habré “in the name of Africa,” and President Abdoulaye Wade declared that Senegal would do so. Human Rights Watch (2/5)
U.S. Set to Begin a Vast Expansion of DNA Sampling
By JULIA PRESTON
The Justice Department is completing rules to allow the collection of DNA from most people arrested or detained by federal authorities, a vast expansion of DNA gathering that will include hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, by far the largest group affected. The new forensic DNA sampling was authorized by Congress in a little-noticed amendment to a January 2006 renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which provides protections and assistance for victims of sexual crimes. The amendment permits DNA collecting from anyone under criminal arrest by federal authorities, and also from illegal immigrants detained by federal agents. Over the last year, the Justice Department has been conducting an internal review and consulting with other agencies to prepare regulations to carry out the law. The goal, justice officials said, is to make the practice of DNA sampling as routine as fingerprinting for anyone detained by federal agents, including illegal immigrants. Until now, federal authorities have taken DNA samples only from convicted felons.The law has strong support from crime victims’ organizations and some women’s groups, who say it will help law enforcement identify sexual predators and also detect dangerous criminals among illegal immigrants. “Obviously, the bigger the DNA database, the better,” said Lynn Parrish, the spokeswoman for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, based in Washington. “If this had been implemented years ago, it could have prevented many crimes. Rapists are generalists. They don’t just rape, they also murder.” Peter Neufeld, a lawyer who is a co-director of the Innocence Project, which has exonerated dozens of prison inmates using DNA evidence, said the government was overreaching by seeking to apply DNA sampling as universally as fingerprinting. “Whereas fingerprints merely identify the person who left them,” Mr. Neufeld said, “DNA profiles have the potential to reveal our physical diseases and mental disorders. It becomes intrusive when the government begins to mine our most intimate matters.” New York Times (2/5)
Kosovo to have right to govern itself, join international bodies under UN plan
The Albanian-majority Serbian province of Kosovo will have the right to govern itself and conclude international agreements, including membership in international bodies, with an international civilian and military presence supervising the new arrangements and helping to ensure peace and stability, under United Nations plans released today. But the executive summary of the plan, presented today to the Serbian and ethnic Albanian Kosovo authorities by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Envoy for the future status process, Martti Ahtisaari, does not specifically mention independence for the province, which the UN has run since Western forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 amid brutal ethnic fighting. Serbia rejects independence, a goal sought by many Albanians in Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs and others by 9 to 1. Mr. Ahtisaari will now discuss his plan with the parties before finalizing it and sending it to the Security Council. “The settlement package that I have presented to both parties today represents a compromise proposal,” he told news conferences in Belgrade and Pristina, the Serbian and Kosovo capitals. “I am willing to consider constructive amendments and I’m willing to integrate compromise solutions that the parties might reach.” MaximsNews (United Nations) (2/5)
One Tree Hill flag-raiser - This is only the beginning
By James Ihaka
A Maori flag can fly from One Tree Hill - with conditions attached - after days of wrangling over whether one could be hoisted from the Auckland landmark. The Auckland City Council and Ngati Whatua yesterday reached an agreement with Ngapuhi kaumatua Kingi Taurua allowing him to fly the 1834 flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand - Te Hakituatahi o Aotearoa flag. "All he intends to do is hold the flag on One Tree Hill [this morning]," said deputy mayor Bruce Hucker. "He is not intending to raise a structure or to damage the mountain in any way." One Tree Hill was last week chosen as a more appropriate site after Transit would not allow Maori sovereignty group Te Ata Tino Toa to hoist the tino rangatiratanga flag on the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Dr Hucker said his concerns were about the protocols the council had with Ngati Whatua, who have mana whenua, or customary authority, over One Tree Hill which is administered by the city council. Key Ngati Whatua figures were unavailable for a hui to discuss the matter. "I'm not endorsing the decision but I'm not going to intervene," said Dr Hucker. But Mr Taurua, who is also a broadcaster for Radio Waatea, said he was delighted with the decision. "I think it's a bi-cultural perspective and they realised Transit had made a bad decision in terms of keeping us off the harbour bridge," he said. "I think they are trying to accommodate us to bring peace and tranquillity to our nation." New Zealand Herald (4/5)
Health minister hit for calling women baby machines
Hakuo Yanagisawa, minister of health, labor and welfare, felt the wrath of women and the opposition parties Sunday after he labeled women "birth-giving machines" in a speech. The 71-year-old member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Lower House made the comment at a meeting in Matsue of LDP supporters of the Shimane prefectural assembly. He admitted his remark on Saturday was inappropriate. According to several witnesses at the meeting, Yanagisawa used the metaphor in reference to the declining birth rate in a 30-minute speech on the future of pension, welfare and medical systems. "The number of women aged 15 to 50 is fixed. As we have a fixed number of birth-giving machines and devices, all we can ask of them is that each do their best," Yanagisawa said. Yanagisawa then repeated that he was sorry to compare women to baby-making machines, according to the sources. Mizuho Fukushima, leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party, called Sunday for Yanagisawa to step down. "I demand the resignation of the welfare minister because he made awful remarks that he should have never made," she said. Fukushima is currently the only female leader among the major parties. She told The Asahi Shimbun that women are not merely machines for producing future sources of revenue for the pension program. "Yanagisawa's remarks were tantamount to telling women to give birth for the nation," Fukushima said. Asahi Shimbun (2/5)
A long way from Dublin's bloody past
Following the recent decision of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing, to support the police in Northern Ireland for the first time, Kevin Connolly reflects on the dark days when Britain fought the IRA to keep Ireland within its empire
There is a cold hour just before dawn, when the light is the colour of lead, when the past seems a little closer and a lot more real than it does in the clearer light that comes later in the day. The familiar signs of modern life have yet to seep back into the streets: the cars and buses, the tourists with iPods and the busy pedestrians with places to be. Dublin is still a city of graceful Georgian terraces and, at this time of day, the scrubbed-pale stone staircases that sweep up from the street to the imposing front doors look just as they must have looked around this time in the last century. To complete the illusion, the only sign of movement on the chilly landscape came from the frock-coated doorman of my hotel who is dressed, as is the way of it in such places, like a Hapsburg Dragoons officer. I alone, heading for the Sinn Fein conference centre, struck a jarringly contemporary note, swaddled against the early morning cold in cheap, lumpy layers of fleece, like a scarecrow whose run of financial good fortune has come to an end. There is a good chance I suppose that the morning of 21 November 1920 (the first "Bloody Sunday") dawned in the same atmosphere of chilly damp - winter days in Dublin often do. BBC (2/5)
ARGENTINA: Madres de Plaza de Mayo Bring Housing Hope to Slums
Luciana Peker
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 5 (IPS) - Wearing blue coveralls with a picture of a white scarf, the symbol of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, some 300 men and women from a slum in the Argentine capital are building new homes -- and new lives -- for themselves. The activists in the Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo have been working tirelessly in Argentina for three decades to find out what happened to their sons and daughters who were "disappeared" by the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Internationally renowned for their work in defence of human rights, the Madres (mothers) have branched out in their activities. Last year, they undertook the mission of building decent housing in slum neighbourhoods, known in Argentina as "villas miserias". The first project was launched on Oct. 16 in Villa 15, better known as Ciudad Oculta (Hidden City), located in the southern Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Villa Lugano, with the participation of 280 workers, half of whom are women. They are building two complexes of 36 housing units each. The three-bedroom units are 62 square metres in size, and are fully equipped with a bathroom, kitchen, hot water and central heating. The partially built homes stand out in the midst of the precarious dwellings and dirt roads of the slum, where proper sanitation does not exist. The men and women involved in the project wear coveralls that sport the phrase "decent housing" and a drawing of the trademark white scarf of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, which the activists have traditionally worn on their heads since they began to hold silent walking vigils every Thursday in the plaza outside of the seat of government in Buenos Aires in the 1970s, demanding that their "disappeared" sons and daughters be returned to them. (According to human rights groups, some 30,000 leftists and others opposed to the regime fell victim to forced disappearance during the dictatorship). Argentina Star (2/5)
Child soldiers: 'The situation is dire'
Nick Tattersall
Dakar, Senegal- Child soldiers are still being recruited in at least 13 countries from Afghanistan to Uganda, 10 years after international guidelines were agreed to eradicate their use, a British-based charity said on Monday. Save the Children said hundreds of thousands of under-age soldiers are being forced to fight around the world despite guidelines laid down in the Cape Town Principles, agreed in 1997, which established 18 as the minimum age for recruitment. "The situation is still dire. Hundreds of thousands of children are still living in misery due to association with armed groups and forces," Save the Children said in a statement. "Child soldiers are subjected to brutal intimidation, often forced to commit atrocities as military 'training', and then used on the frontline," it said. Many of those forced to fight are in Africa, held by rebel groups such as the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda -- infamous for abducting thousands of children -- or by militia groups including those wreaking havoc in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Child soldiers are often abducted in their villages and begin their fighting careers as forced labourers, carrying out looting raids and transporting booty to their seniors, before being forced to kill. "If you did not do it they would kill you. That was the first killing I saw. That made me silent and made me obey orders," said one former child soldier, Abubakar, who was forced to fight by rebels in Sierra Leone's 1991 to 2002 civil war. "Then they taught us to fight. That was my first time to cock an AK47 and fire it. It was just some hours of training ... but we did not do it with a willing heart," Abubakar, who said he killed for the first time aged 13, told Reuters. He declined to have his surname published. Mail & Guardian (South Africa) (2/5)
posted by Dave Carroll @ 2/05/2007 05:03:00 PM
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