Saturday, May 30, 2009

Indian Government Permits British Company to Mine Tribe's Sacred Mountain

The Indian government decided to permit the British company Vedanta Resources to build an open-pit mine on the Dongria Kondh tribe's sacred mountain in Orissa, India. This week, protesters from the indigenous rights group Survival International targeted the Indian High Commission in London.

The Niyamgiri Hills are home to more than 8,000 Dongria Kondh who "lead a self-sufficient life, nurturing the forest-covered region and relying on it for their food, culture, and medicines," writes ActionAid UK, an international development organization. "They also worship the mountain as their god."

"The mine would devastate the ecology of the region and spell the end of the Dongria Kondh's independent way of life, polluting the streams and destroying the forests they rely on," adds Survival International. "Ill health, misery, and destitution already afflict many hundreds of other Kondh people in the area, thanks to the Vedanta [bauxite] refinery at the base of the Niyamgiri hills."

Many people have already lost their homes due to the construction of the refinery and, continues Survival, "the Orissa government's pollution control board has ruled that chemical emissions from the refinery are 'alarming' and 'continuous'."

Survival International has made a ten-minute film called "Mine: story of a sacred mountain" about the situation.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Concerns About Suu Kyi's Health

Aung San Suu Kyi's health is a cause for "grave concern," according to her organization, the National League for Democracy (NLD). She is on trial for violating the terms of her house arrest after an uninvited American man visited her home. Suu Kyi is suffering from cramping in her legs.

Ms Suu Kyi, who is being kept in Rangoon's notorious Insein prison, has suffered from ill-health in the past.

Shortly before her arrest on 14 May she was treated for dehydration and low blood pressure.

The NLD said she was "in desperate need of proper medical treatment".

"We are very much concerned about her health," it said in a statement.

Mark Canning, the British Ambassador to Burma, has been posting his observations about the trial. In his latest post he writes:
Suu Kyi has repeatedly made clear her willingness to work with the military government in a process of political reconciliation. She is viewed by them as a threat. But she's actually an opportunity, to the extent that she's declared herself willing to work with them towards the sort of future that the current direction of travel will never deliver.

Updates on Two Alien Tort Lawsuits

A new Alien Tort Statute (ATS) lawsuit has been filed against the Alabama coal firm, Drummond Co., alleging that it made payments to the Colombian paramilitary group, Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC). (This blog has had a post on the Alien Tort litigation against Chiquita Brands International for its payments to the AUC.)

The Alien Tort Statute allows non-US citizens to bring lawsuits for certain violations of international law. It has been used to successfully bring lawsuits or in settlement against other corporations (and individuals) including Chevron, Unocal and Yahoo!

According to the complaint in the new lawsuit:
Drummond Co. paid a Colombian death squad millions of dollars to murder and terrorize union workers at its coal mine, hundreds of people claim in Federal Court. They claim the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia used a "scorched earth policy ... torturing and murdering" and displacing thousands of peasants from their homes along Drummond's railroad line in Cesar and Magdalena provinces.
"Almost every family in these provinces lost a family member, a neighbor or friend to war crimes committed by the AUC during its brutal civil war with the FARC," the complaint states.
The plaintiffs also sued Alfredo Araujo Castro, Drummond's "manager of community relations" in Colombia, and James Atkins, its director of security in Colombia.
They claim, among other things, that Araujo committed perjury when he testified in June 2005, in Romero v. Drummond Co., that he had never met with "his childhood friend, Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias Jorge 40, the leader of the AUC's Northern Block ... or any other AUC members."
They claim that Atkins and Araujo were present at a meeting with death squad leaders in November 2000 "at the entrance to Drummond's mine in La Loma," and that "at this meeting, defendant Atkins, on behalf of Drummond, approved a payment to the AUC of the assassination of the top leaders of the Drummond union".
Second, on Tuesday, a jury is to be selected in the Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. case. From a previous post on this trial:
A trial against Royal Dutch Shell for its close relationship with the Nigerian military regime is set to begin in New York on May 26. It alleges that Shell was complicit in the Nigerian military's egregious campaign of human rights abuse, including the strategy that led to the executions.

Shell began oil production in the Niger Delta in 1958 and worked with the Nigerian government to suppress opposition to its presence. Nigerian soldiers used deadly force and massive, brutal raids against the Ogoni people (the ethnic group that lives in that region) throughout the early 1990s to repress a growing movement against the oil componsibilityany. This was done at the request of Shell, and with Shell’s assistance and financing.
Law.com has posted an excellent article on the Wiwa case and the state of the Alien Tort Statute when it comes to suing corporations.
"We know that corporations can in principle be liable but of course proving liability at trial is necessarily a different matter," [George Washington University Law School Professor Ralph] Steinhardt said. "We don't have very many examples of these cases going to trial because of very lengthy pretrial proceedings. There has been an effort to wear down the plaintiffs."

Steinhardt agrees that the rarity of cases going to trial also stems from the novelty of the claims and period of adjustment.

"Assuming everyone is working in good faith, it is true that this is the application of ancient principles in new settings and whenever you get ancient principles in new settings" it takes awhile for the law to develop, he said.

Adding to the uncertainty in lower courts, he said, is that, to this point, "the Supreme Court has looked out at this body of jurisprudence and let it stand."

There is another element at work: Plaintiffs' lawyers are gaining more experience and have gotten a much better feel as they have learned from their past success and their past failures.

Drimmer also said that fewer cases are being dismissed on forum non conveniens and other grounds as judges have made the adjustment. [Jonathan C. Drimmer is a partner at Steptoe & Johnson who lectures on the Alien Tort Statute at Georgetown Law School and advises multinational companies on compliance with the Alien Tort Statute.]

"Courts clearly are a lot more comfortable hearing alien tort cases that have no direct connection to United States than they were five years or 10 years ago," he said. "We are still in the nascent stages of litigation on the parameters of the ATS. Twenty years from now, we are going to look back at and see this as the period when the blocks were being built on how this law is going to be interpreted."

Sri Lanka Denies Times' Allegations About Civilian Deaths

Yesterday, I posted about an investigation by the Times that found that more than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed during the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war. This number is three times higher than the government's official figure.

The government of Sri Lanka has responded by denying these allegations.

A senior official from Sri Lanka's Centre for National Security, Laksham Hullegalle said there had been no shelling or killing in the zone, and that the photographs were "totally unbelievable".

"The decision was taken by the government not to use any heavy weapons from the beginning of this month," he said.

"From that time onwards there was no heavy shelling."

Mr Hullegalle said there was a possibility the photos were fake and that there had been no corroborating evidence from civilians who fled the area and no bodies discovered.

The Permanent Secretary to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr Palitha Kohona, also dismissed the report.

"I am bemused that The Times, like a jilted old woman, is continuing a bitter campaign against Sri Lanka based on unverified figures and unsubstantiated assertions," he said.

"The simple fact is that Sri Lanka eliminated a detestable terrorist group and in the process rescued over 250,000 hostages held as a human shield by the terrorists."

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Human Rights and the War on Terror

The UN Dispatch blog has been reacting to the UN Human Rights Council's resolution praising the Sri Lankan government and condemning only the Tamil Tigers for conduct during the Sri Lankan civil war.

Mark Leon Goldberg is hopeful that American participation will improve the Human Rights Council's legitimacy. John Boonstra is skeptical though.

By perversely casting proponents of a commission of inquiry as "trying to undermine Sri Lanka's efforts in countering terrorism," Sri Lanka has created an utterly false dichotomy between combating terrorism and protecting human rights. Its unwillingness to have potential human rights violations investigated only casts doubt on its wartime conduct, rather than exonerating its actions at a stroke, as the government absurdly claims.

For the United States to make a difference in changing this dynamic on the Council, it goes without saying that it will have to accept and embrace what should be an uncontested truism: that effectively countering terrorism not only allows for, but in fact requires, wholehearted defense of human rights. This means, once again, fully renouncing torture and working to undo years of policy and rhetoric that make it little surprise where Sri Lanka's leaders incubated such a supreme self-confidence in their own war on terrorism.

UPDATE: The State Department held a roundtable discussion on strategies for US participation in the Human Rights Council. It was attended by representatives human rights NGOs and US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice. Vital Voices has a blog post about it; I'll post more information if I can find any.

"Hidden Massacre"

An investigation by The Times revealed that in the final phases of the Sri Lankan civil war, more than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed. This number is three times the government's official figure and most of these deaths were the result of government shelling. The Times was able to establish this through aerial photographs, official documents, witness accounts and expert testimony.
The Sri Lankan authorities have insisted that their forces stopped using heavy weapons on April 27 and observed the no-fire zone where 100,000 Tamil men, women and children were sheltering. They have blamed all civilian casualties on Tamil Tiger rebels concealed among the civilians.
This makes the UN Human Rights Council unwillingness to investigate the Sri Lankan government even more outrageous.

Do the Detainee Abuse Photos Show Rape?

According to Ret. Major General Antonio Taguba, the author of the Abu Ghraib report, the photos that the Obama Administration decided not to release "show rape." (Foreign Policy's Passport blog has some background.)

Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

The graphic nature of some of the images may explain the US President’s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published.

Maj Gen Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the President’s decision, adding: “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.

“I am not sure what purpose their release would serve other than a legal one and the consequence would be to imperil our troops, the only protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them, and British troops who are trying to build security in Afghanistan.

“The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it.”

Blogger Larisa Alexandrovna notes that pictures like these have already been released. On UN Dispatch, Mark Leon Goldberg thinks the victims' right to privacy should be taken into account as well.

Amnesty International's Annual Report is Out

Amnesty International's 2009 Report on the State of the World's Human Rights is now available. Irene Khan, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, has written a foreword.
By the end of 2008, it was clear that our two-tier world of deprivation and gluttony – the impoverishment of many to satisfy the greed of a few – was collapsing into a deep hole.

As with the case of climate change, so too with global economic recession: the rich are responsible for most of the damaging action, but it is the poor who suffer the worst consequences. While no one is being spared the sharp bite of the recession, the woes of the rich countries are nothing compared with the disasters unfolding in poorer ones. From migrant workers in China to miners in Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), people desperately trying to drag themselves out of poverty are feeling the brunt sharply. The World Bank has predicted 53 million more people will be thrown into poverty this year, on top of the 150 million hit by the food crisis last year, wiping out the gains of the last decade. International Labour Organization figures suggest that between 18 and 51 million people could lose their jobs. Skyrocketing food prices are leading to more hunger and disease, forced evictions and foreclosures to more homelessness and destitution.

While it is too early to predict the full impact on human rights of the profligacy of recent years, it is clear that the human rights costs and consequences of the economic crisis will cast long shadows. It is also clear that not only have governments abdicated economic and financial regulation to market forces, they have failed abysmally to protect human rights, lives and livelihoods.

Billions of people are suffering from insecurity, injustice and indignity. This is a human rights crisis.

Conflict Minerals

Most people are familiar with "conflict diamonds" or "blood diamonds." An article on The Root calls attention to "conflict minerals" that are found in our computers and cell phones. Tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold ores are tied to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has left over five million people dead.

The mining of the minerals is dangerous enough, but the real casualties are the countless civilians caught in the middle of half a dozen armed groups that vie for control over the lucrative trade in black market minerals, including, at various times, the Rwandan, Ugandan and Congolese armies. These groups are responsible for murder, torture, mutilation, the rape of hundreds of thousands of women and countless other human rights atrocities.

What should electronics companies be doing to stem the violence? Cell phone manufacturers like Samsung, Motorola, Apple and Nokia have long had official policies against the use of conflict minerals in their products. However, supply chains are notoriously difficult to trace; conflict minerals and the electronic components that use them may pass through dozens of middlemen before reaching American consumers, and most manufacturers simply take their suppliers' word for it. (This is particularly problematic given that much of the ore is used for parts made in China, a country hardly known for its transparency.)

This is why NGOs such as the Enough Project, launched by the Center for American Progress, and Global Witness are calling for the new bill to provide for independent audits. However, audits take money, will and capacity that quite simply does not exist in most poor countries. Imperfect monitoring mechanisms have meant that nine years after the Kimberly Certification Process, blood diamonds still seep across Africa's porous borders.

There are no quick or certain solutions. With complex origins in the Rwandan genocide and the long absence of a functioning government in the region, ending the conflict, which has involved, at various times, two dozen different rebel groups, armies and their various factions, is much more than a matter of cleaning up the supply chain. Moreover, complete sanctions and boycotts would likely do more harm than good, a recent UN report concluded. Two million informal workers and their families rely on their earnings from the mines, however meager, and armed groups, although motivated by greed, are also often motivated by necessity. The poverty, disease and starvation that would result from walling off the trade completely would be as devastating as the carnage of bullets and machetes.

--------------------------------

The Congo Conflict Minerals Act, a bill introduced last month by Sens. Sam Brownback, Dick Durbin and Russ Feingold, aims to suppress this trade by making the supply chain more transparent. The bill, if passed, would map rebel-controlled mines and require U.S.-registered companies whose products use minerals from Congo and neighboring countries to report the mines of origin to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Genocide Intervention Network's latest newsletter also mentions Congo Conflict Minerals Act and suggests reading ENOUGH's strategy paper, "A Comprehensive Approach to Congo's Conflict Minerals."

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Guantanamo and Prison Reform

Marc Ambinder, in a post on the prospect of moving Guantanamo detainees to supermax prisons, says:
The issue isn't whether terrorists or detainees will escape from Supermax prisons. They won't.

Here's a real issue: the supermax facilities aren't generally accepting new clients these days. They're full. And none are expanding.

And -- there's a real question about dignity (assuming you believe that terrorists ought to be treated like humans) in supermax facilities that is just now gaining the attention of policy-makers. The answer may be that isolation may be the only way to prevent Al Qaeda from forming cells inside the prison, and there may be no other place to put them.

This is one of those occasions when both Democratic and Republican partisans oversimplify and don't do justice to the complexity of the question at hand.
That last link is to an excellent article from the New Yorker that examines whether solitary confinement is torture. Dr. Atul Gawande, the author, begins by discussing the developmental importance social contact for baby rhesus monkeys and human children. He goes on to discuss the experiences of hostages, like John McCain and Terry Anderson, who spent seven years as a prisoner of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
He missed people terribly, especially his fiancée and his family. He was despondent and depressed. Then, with time, he began to feel something more. He felt himself disintegrating. It was as if his brain were grinding down. A month into his confinement, he recalled in his memoir, “The mind is a blank. Jesus, I always thought I was smart. Where are all the things I learned, the books I read, the poems I memorized? There’s nothing there, just a formless, gray-black misery. My mind’s gone dead. God, help me.”

He was stiff from lying in bed day and night, yet tired all the time. He dozed off and on constantly, sleeping twelve hours a day. He craved activity of almost any kind. He would watch the daylight wax and wane on the ceiling, or roaches creep slowly up the wall. He had a Bible and tried to read, but he often found that he lacked the concentration to do so. He observed himself becoming neurotically possessive about his little space, at times putting his life in jeopardy by flying into a rage if a guard happened to step on his bed. He brooded incessantly, thinking back on all the mistakes he’d made in life, his regrets, his offenses against God and family.

His captors moved him every few months. For unpredictable stretches of time, he was granted the salvation of a companion—sometimes he shared a cell with as many as four other hostages—and he noticed that his thinking recovered rapidly when this occurred. He could read and concentrate longer, avoid hallucinations, and better control his emotions. “I would rather have had the worst companion than no companion at all,” he noted.

In September, 1986, after several months of sharing a cell with another hostage, Anderson was, for no apparent reason, returned to solitary confinement, this time in a six-by-six-foot cell, with no windows, and light from only a flickering fluorescent lamp in an outside corridor. The guards refused to say how long he would be there. After a few weeks, he felt his mind slipping away again.

“I find myself trembling sometimes for no reason,” he wrote. “I’m afraid I’m beginning to lose my mind, to lose control completely.”

One day, three years into his ordeal, he snapped. He walked over to a wall and began beating his forehead against it, dozens of times. His head was smashed and bleeding before the guards were able to stop him.

Dr. Gawande asks, "If prolonged isolation is—as research and experience have confirmed for decades—so objectively horrifying, so intrinsically cruel, how did we end up with a prison system that may subject more of our own citizens to it than any other country in history has?" Proponents of prolonged isolation claim that it provides discipline and controls prison violence. They see isolation as a necessary evil. However, the evidence suggests that the use of solitary confinement does not reduce prison violence, which, according to Dr. Gawande, is caused by the overcrowded conditions in US prisons and by the cancellation of work and education programs "out of a belief that the pursuit of rehabilitation is pointless." The combination of overcrowding and idleness are a "nice formula for violence." Dr. Gawande points to the experience of Great Britain as a promising alternative:

Beginning in the nineteen-eighties, they gradually adopted a strategy that focused on preventing prison violence rather than on delivering an ever more brutal series of punishments for it. The approach starts with the simple observation that prisoners who are unmanageable in one setting often behave perfectly reasonably in another. This suggested that violence might, to a critical extent, be a function of the conditions of incarceration. The British noticed that problem prisoners were usually people for whom avoiding humiliation and saving face were fundamental and instinctive. When conditions maximized humiliation and confrontation, every interaction escalated into a trial of strength. Violence became a predictable consequence.

So the British decided to give their most dangerous prisoners more control, rather than less. They reduced isolation and offered them opportunities for work, education, and special programming to increase social ties and skills. The prisoners were housed in small, stable units of fewer than ten people in individual cells, to avoid conditions of social chaos and unpredictability. In these reformed “Close Supervision Centres,” prisoners could receive mental-health treatment and earn rights for more exercise, more phone calls, “contact visits,” and even access to cooking facilities. They were allowed to air grievances. And the government set up an independent body of inspectors to track the results and enable adjustments based on the data.

The results have been impressive. The use of long-term isolation in England is now negligible. In all of England, there are now fewer prisoners in “extreme custody” than there are in the state of Maine. And the other countries of Europe have, with a similar focus on small units and violence prevention, achieved a similar outcome.

Fortunately, the movement for prison reform is gaining some political traction in the US. In March, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) introduced legislation that would reform the entire criminal justice system in the United States, including prisons.

UN Human Rights Council Praises Sri Lanka, Condemns Tamil Tigers

(UPDATED BELOW)

The UN Human Rights Council held a special session on Sri Lanka, and Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for an independent investigation into possible war crimes committed by both sides during Sri Lanka's civil war. As Mark Leon Goldberg pointed out on UN Dispatch, "For that to happen, however, a simple majority of the 47 member council would have to approve. Unlike the security council, no country has a veto over this process. There is a lot riding on this vote. Both for the people of Sri Lanka and for the Human Rights Council itself."
So, in all, this meeting is an important test of the Human Rights Council. A few weeks ago it proved able to authorize an investigation of alleged human rights abuses in Gaza committed by Israel and Hamas during Operation Caste Lead. Should the council vote against action on Sri Lanka it opens itself to familiar accusations that there are double standards when it comes to Israel--which is a charge that may become more resonant should member states maintain that the situation in Sri Lanka is a wholly internal matter undeserving of the attention of the Human Rights Council.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened. Of the 47 members of the council, 29 voted for a resolution that called the conflict a "domestic" matter.

(More on criticism of the UN Human Rights Council.)

UPDATE: The UN Watch blog has a detailed chronology of the session. (The link hasn't been working so I'm posting the whole thing here.)
At the close of today’s special session to address the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka proposed an updated revised text of its self-congratulatory resolution. Though it incorporated some of the non-contentious proposals of the Swiss-EU draft, the resolution failed on a number of accounts.

The EU responded by proposing amendments that would express grave concern at the situation, call for the respect of international law, call on Sri Lanka to ensure “full, rapid and unimpeded access of humanitarian assistance,” and demand accountability and follow-up to the situation in Sri Lanka.

Cuba then took the floor to call for a “No-action” motion to prevent debate on the amendments. This motion is based on rule 117 of the General Assembly’s Rules of Procedure, which states that “A representative may at any time move the closure of the debate on the item under discussion.”

The ensuing vote on this motion passed with 22 in favor, 17 against, and 7 abstaining (Jordan did not vote). Voting no were the 6 EU members, along with Argentina, Bosnia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mauritius, Mexico, South Korea, Switzerland. Abstaining were Azerbaijan, Brazil, Gabon, Nigeria, Senegal, Ukraine, and Zambia.

Switzerland then called for a vote on Sri Lanka’s text, which passed with 29 in favor (including Brazil and Uruguay), 12 against (the EU, Bosnia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, and Switzerland), and 6 abstaining (Argentina, Gabon, Japan, Mauritius, South Korea, and Ukraine).

Just before the final vote, Sri Lanka made a shocking dig at the EU. It happened after Germany’s speech on behalf of the European Union when there was a problem with the speaker system. It was soon discovered that Germany had forgotten to turn off its microphone so the President of the Human Rights Council told Germany to do so. When the ambassador of Sri Lanka took the floor, he arrogantly said, “My headphones must have malfunctioned. For a moment I thought I heard the president tell Germany to turn off its megaphone, not its microphone.”

"Even after peace arrives, rape persists"

On a visit to Liberia, Nicholas Kristof investigates child rape in Liberia and measures being taken to prevent it and to prosecute the perpetrators.

Of course, children are raped everywhere, but what is happening in Liberia is different. The war seems to have shattered norms and trained some men to think that when they want sex, they need simply to overpower a girl. Or at school, girls sometimes find that to get good grades, they must have sex with their teachers.

“Rape is a scar that the war left behind,” said Dixon Jlateh, an officer in the national police unit dealing with sexual violence. “Sexual violence is a direct product of the war.”



Hundreds of Minors Prosecuted as "Terrorists" in Turkey

In Turkey, hundreds of minors have been arrested and jailed under new antiterrorism laws that allow for them to be tried as adults and even be accused of "committing crimes in the name of a terrorist organization" for participating in demonstrations.

"There is a lack of proportionality between the crime and the sentence," says Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researcher for the New York-based watchdog group Human Rights Watch. "Counting what these children do, such as throwing stones or damaging property, as a terrorism offense is a problem."

"You are subject to a court system that doesn't see you as a child," adds Ms. Sinclair-Webb.

----------------------------
As part of its European Union membership drive, Turkey has updated its penal code to more closely reflect European and international standards. But observers say the country took a step backward with a 2006 amendment to the country's antiterror law that made it possible to try minors between the ages of 15 and 18 as adults when the crime is deemed to involve terrorism.

Licenses of Beijing Human Rights Lawyers Threatened

According to Human Rights Watch and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Beijing legal authorities are threatening to deny renewal of the legal licenses of some of the city’s high profile civil-rights lawyers.

“It is unprecedented to have so many prominent lawyers facing difficulties with their license renewal,” Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher with Human Rights Watch, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “This is a sort of backhand retaliation by judicial authorities in Beijing to warn the firms that employ these lawyers that there might be consequences to their business if they don’t keep their distance.”

The authorities in rural China have frequently sought to silence or intimidate activist lawyers by holding up the annual renewal of their licenses to practice law. But in Beijing, the renewal process, which involves filling out a form and paying a fee, has generally been trouble-free until now.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Iraqi Refugees in The US

LA Weekly has a feature on the large community of Iraqi refugees in El Cajon, California and the struggles they face.
“Danger, bombings,” Silewa says, “everyday killings.” Denho explains that his parents, who are Christian, still live in Baghdad and receive threats because of their religion. “Now they can’t [step] outside,” he says. “They can’t buy anything.” A Muslim militia member killed a friend who lived near his parents. I ask Denho if he wants to bring his parents to the United States. “I wish,” he says, “but how?”

Silewa came to America in order to gain permanent residency and bring his wife and two sons, who ended up in Germany. But he hasn’t seen his family in three years. The family-reunification process can stretch on for many years, and even if all their papers were in order, Silewa says, he has no idea how he would pay for their airfare from Germany. With no car and no job, Silewa sits in his apartment and thinks about his family.

“I still can’t sleep,” he says through a translator from the local Chaldean Middle Eastern Social Services office. “I am still thinking a lot about my family. What really makes it worse is that I’m not finding a job to support myself and to help my family [come here].” He and Denho, Silewa says, “both sit all night and just cry. I really want to cry just to release it.” Almost every night is the same, their American dreams just out of reach.
As Mark Leon Goldberg points out on UN Dispatch:
As opposed to other western countries that have received large numbers of Iraqi asylum seekers, the United States has a smaller social safety net. . . . [R]efugee families in the United States face the double hurdles of chronic poverty and adapting to life in a country in which they do not speak the language. It is a pretty tragic situation.

UN Human Rights Council's Special Session on Sri Lanka


Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is calling for an independent investigation into possible war crimes committed by both sides during Sri Lanka's civil war. Her comments came during a special session of UN Human Rights Council.

From the High Commissioner's Website:

“The images of terrified and emaciated women, men and children fleeing the battle zone ought to be etched in our collective memory. They must spur us into action,” Pillay said in an opening address to the special session.

She said there were “strong reasons to believe” that both sides in the long conflict, the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), had “grossly disregarded the fundamental principle of the inviolability of civilians.”

“An independent and credible international investigation into recent events should be dispatched to ascertain the occurrence, nature and scale of violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as specific responsibilities.”

Pillay emphasized that victims and the survivors have a right to justice and remedies, and establishing the facts is crucial to set the record straight regarding the conduct of all parties in the conflict.

Independent human rights monitors and the media should be given “unfettered access to verify reports of serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law which have consequently surfaced in the course of the fighting,” she said.

The Special Procedures mandate holders of the Human Rights Council also recommended the establishment of “an effective mechanism to impartially inquire into all violations committed” throughout the conflict.

“A true reconciliation process requires an assessment of what has happened and must ensure accountability and an end to impunity,” said Magdalena Sepúlveda, Independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty, who delivered a joint statement to the special session on behalf of all Special Procedures mandate holders of the Human Rights Council.

The High Commissioner also echoed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s call for immediate and unimpeded access to the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. “Unrestricted humanitarian aid will make the difference between life, illness or even death to many, and yet access for the UN and NGOs to the IDP camps continues to be hampered,” she said.

The Secretary-General, who visited Sri Lanka from 22 to 23 May, also underscored that “full transparency and full respect for human rights are essential” to the process of national recovery and reconciliation.

At the opening of the special session, Human Rights Council President Martin Uhomoibhi spoke of the “untold hardships” suffered by millions throughout this conflict and expressed hope that the special session would contribute towards the cause of peace in Sri Lanka.

By convening the session, the Human Rights Council sent “a message of readiness and willingness to work with the Government and people of Sri Lanka towards reconstruction and development,” he said.

The special session took place following a request by Germany on behalf 17 members of the Human Rights Council, including Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Mauritius, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Uruguay.

This is the eleventh special session of the Human Rights Council. Its previous special sessions concerned Lebanon, Darfur, Myanmar, the global food crisis, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the global economic and financial crises.


[Image: AP file photo from Voice of America story]

Event in DC: Colombian Senator Cecilia López Montaño

The Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) are conducting a roundtable discussion with Colombian Senator Cecilia López Montaño. Senator López will discuss the human rights situation in Colombia and her human rights platform as a presidential candidate for the Liberal Party on Wednesday, May 27th at 11:30 a.m. in the offices of CEJIL at

1630 Connecticut Avenue N.W.
Suite 401
Washington, DC 20009

Sen. López's remarks will be in Spanish. To attend, contact Tim Ryan at tryan [at] cejil.org

ASEAN Urged to Suspend Burma

Politicians from Southeast Asian are urging the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to suspend Burma's membership if it refuses to release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Charles Chong, a Singaporean lawmaker and member of the caucus, told journalists in Bangkok that dealing with Burma has bogged down ASEAN, making it harder for them to accomplish anything.

"More and more parliamentarians within ASEAN are beginning to lose their patience with Burma. And, we are calling upon our governments to do more than just expressions of dismay, regret, grave concern and so on, and seriously look at suspending Burma's membership of ASEAN," he said.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Ex-Detainee on Guantanamo

Lakhdar Boumediene, an Algerian who spent 7 years in Guantanamo Bay, talks about his detention and returning to a normal life. He was the plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case, Boumediene v. Bush, that gave detainees the right to seek judicial review of their imprisonment and he was released to France earlier this month.

On Christmas in 2006, Boumediene recalled, he started a hunger strike in an effort to get someone to listen to his pleas of innocence. Twice a day, about 6 a.m. and 1 p.m., he was strapped to an iron chair and force-fed through a tube in his nose that reached into his stomach.

Until a meal with his lawyers as he was about to leave Guantanamo, Boumediene said, he broke his fast only twice, once when he learned of President Obama's election and again when the judge ordered his release.

"I have no idea why this happened to me," he said. "I'm a Muslim like any other. I pray and I observe Ramadan. But I don't have any hatred against anybody."

Grateful to be settling in France with government help, his first goal is to draw close to his family again, Boumediene said. But down the road, he added, he wants to sue the U.S. government or its senior officials to hold them accountable.

"I don't know whether it will be possible," he said. "But even if it takes 100 years, I am determined to bring suit."

Taliban Urge Displaced Pakistanis to Return to Swat Valley

The Taliban in Pakistan urged civilians displaced by fighting to return to the city of Mingora in Swat Valley. According to Pakistan's military the gesture was a ploy that would allow the militants to blend in with civilian. The military does not intend to hold off on its offensive in Swat Valley.

Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told The Associated Press late Sunday and Monday afternoon that the Taliban's pledge was not a formal cease-fire offer and that the Islamist militia's "aides" would stay in the city.

"I would like to appeal to the people of Mingora to get back to their homes and start their routine life as we will not fire even a single shot," Khan said in a phone call from an undisclosed location.

Facebook Blocked in Iran

In the weeks leading up to the election in Iran, Facebook has been banned. President Ahmadinejad denies calling for the ban.

Asked whether he would order that access to Facebook be reinstated, Ahmadinejad responded that he would "see if there is a complaint" that may be presented to the judiciary.

The semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency reported over the weekend that the Iranian government had blocked Facebook amid political jockeying for the June 12 presidential election.

Reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi -- a former prime minister considered a threat to Ahmadinejad -- has created a Facebook page for his campaign and has more than 5,000 supporters on the site.

Those attempting to visit Facebook were receiving a message in Farsi saying, "Access to this site is not possible," according to CNN personnel in Tehran.

The news agency reported the Masadiq Committee, made up of representatives from Iran's intelligence ministry, judiciary and others, had ordered the action. After a few hours, the block was lifted, but then reinstated later, the agency said. No reason was given.

"We are disappointed to learn of reports that users in Iran may not have access to Facebook, especially at a time when voters are turning to the Internet as a source of information about election candidates and their positions," a Facebook spokesperson said in a written statement. "We are investigating these reports.

"We believe that people around the world should be able to use Facebook to communicate and share information with their friends, family and co-workers. It is always a shame when a countries' cultural and political concerns lead to limits being placed on the opportunity for sharing and expression that the Internet provides."



UPDATE, 5/26: Iran has reportedly restored access.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Rehabilitation for Sri Lankan Child Soldiers

In a joint statement between the United Nations and the Sri Lankan government, the government has said that it will rehabilitate child soldiers who were involved in the Sri Lankan civil war.
"(President (Mahinda) Rajapakse reiterated his firm policy of zero tolerance in relation to child recruitment. In cooperation with the UNICEF, child-friendly procedures have been established for release, surrender and rehabilitation of the child soldiers," the government said in a joint statement at the end of Ban Ki-moon's two-day visit to the island nation on Saturday.

"The objective of the rehabilitation process, presently underway, is to reintegrate former child soldiers into society as productive citizens," the statement said.

"The secretary-general (Ban Ki-moon) expressed satisfaction on the progress already made by the government in cooperation with the UNICEF," it added.
Foreign Policy has a short article outlining some of the myths regarding child soldiers. For instance:

"Our Current Approach to Ending Child Soldiering Is Working."

You wish. The international community primarily deals with child soldiers through deterrence (prosecuting the adult recruiters) and demobilization (taking away the children's guns and sending them home). Neither approach goes far enough.

In the first case, prosecutors hope to set an example for future would-be offenders. But most recruiters think they will not get caught. Others, knowing that only those who lose the fight get hauled before international courts, desperately employ child soldiers to avoid defeat. Still others assume they will be granted amnesty after a cease-fire. The Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda is a perfect example. Elusive warlord Joseph Kony has employed child soldiers since the 1990s without being captured, and Ugandan officials privately admit that they might need every carrot they can get (including amnesty) to negotiate a successful peace agreement.

Sending children home via disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs is another favorite method of post-conflict planners. These programs are meant to get children and adolescents out of armies and back where they belong -- in schools or in jobs. But here again, results are mixed. Many organizers make the mistake of excluding girls from their programs. They often fail to understand the local economy and therefore train children for the wrong professions. In Liberia, for example, too many ex-combatants were educated as carpenters and hairdressers. Nor do the programs target the roots of intergenerational violence that will long outlast the active fighting. DDR initiatives are often too short term to do much more than superficial training, as even officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development will admit.

The biggest challenge of all in ending child soldiering lies in the types of conflicts that employ the young. Children tend to be recruited in brutal, long-running civil wars, the kind that simmer for years or even decades. Unfortunately, these wars constitute the main form of armed conflict today. Until they stop, the recruitment of children never will.

The article is by Scott Gates and Simon Reich, co-editors of the forthcoming book Child Soldiers in the Age of Fractured States.

Military Commissions as a Compromise?

Time's Joe Klein things hybrid military commission are a good "middle ground" between the lawyers and the soldiers dealing with respect to Guantánamo detainees.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Ban Ki-Moon in Sri Lanka

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon toured the Sri Lankan war zone today.

In a Sri Lankan military helicopter, Ban flew over the ravaged northeastern coast where the final battles were fought. Buses were overturned, rooftops were blown off and bunkers were dug into the red earth. Debris was strewn across vast stretches of empty villages, which looked like a tornado had hit.

"As I was flying over the war zone, I thought the fighting must have been very severe and inhumane for the people trapped," Ban later said. "Quite a number of people lost their lives during the course of military fighting."

Afterward, Ban meet with Rajapaksa at his presidential home in the spiritual capital of Kandy. The hilly town is the site of a 1998 Tamil Tiger bombing at the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. Thirty people were killed in the bombing at the historic temple, which is said to contain a tooth allegedly snatched from Buddha's funeral pyre.

Both sides in Sri Lanka's conflict have been accused of war crimes, especially during the past few months, when government troops cornered the Tamil Tigers on a narrow ribbon of land on the northeastern coast. Aid agencies say that the Tigers used terrified civilians, including children, as human shields, and that the government indiscriminately shelled hospitals and areas where civilians huddled in trenches. The government denies that claim.

"I'll convey the concerns and aspirations and expectations of the international community to Sri Lankan leadership," Ban said at the airport on his arrival. "Wherever there are serious violations of human rights as well as international humanitarian law, proper investigation should be instituted."

The UN Human Rights Council will be meeting in Geneva on Tuesday (Based on information from Amnesty International, I originally posted that they would be meeting on Monday). Amnesty International has recommendations for dealing with the humanitarian crisis and for investigating and monitoring human rights abuses.

The Human Rights Council should note that the human rights issues in Sri Lanka go beyond the current humanitarian crisis. They stem from a breakdown in the rule of law and a pervasive climate of impunity which has seen human rights violations by the security forces go unpunished for decades. I should also mention that the Tamil Tigers have over the years been responsible for gross human rights abuses, including deliberate and indiscriminate killings of civilians, torture of prisoners, and the forced recruitment and use of child soldiers.

AU Asks UN Security Council to Impose Sanctions on Eritrea

In an unprecedented move, the African Union is calling for sanctions against one of its own members. Eritrea has been accused of arming Islamist insurgents in Somalia. On Friday, 45 people were killed in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia; over half were civilians.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Universal Jurisdiction on the Decline?

Universal jurisdiction is a principle of international law under which a state can exercise jurisdiction over alleged crimes that were committed outside of the state's national boundaries. According to proponents of universal jurisdiction, like Amnesty International, some crimes under international law, like genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances are so serious that "the national criminal and civil justice systems of all countries [should] step in to prosecute the crimes on behalf of the international community and award reparations to victims."

Universal jurisdiction is controversial, especially when international comity and political considerations make its exercise less attractive.

Spanish law recognizes universal jurisdiction and it is under this principle that a Spanish investigating magistrate, Baltasar Garzon, ordered an investigation into whether six senior Bush administration officials, including his Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, were responsible for "an authorized and systematic plan for torture."

However, on Tuesday, the Spanish legislature voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution that would limit the application of universal jurisdiction to cases in which Spain has a substantial link.

While only one person has ever been convicted in Spain in a case brought under universal jurisdiction, proponents point out that simply investigating conduct draws attention to it and those who engage in it. This certainly seems to be the case in the US as Judge Garzon's investigation has sparked extensive national debate and dialogue about the role of torture in national security policy and the appropriate means of investigating its use thus far.

Gonzalo Boye is a human rights lawyer who brought the initial case against the Bush administration officials. He thinks his actions helped move the U.S. debate over harsh interrogation techniques at Guantanamo.

"Well, I think in America this was something that was on the agenda, and people were talking about that but until they saw really that there is a problem and that they may face charges outside the U.S., then they took it seriously," he says.

Americans should embrace universal jurisdiction, he says, because America was once one of the early proponents of the idea — at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War II.

Secretary Gates on Closing Guantanamo

Robert Gates defends the decision to close it.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the Obama administration had no choice but to order the shutdown of the prison at Guantanamo because "the name itself is a condemnation" of U.S. anti-terrorism strategy.

In an interview broadcast Friday on NBC's "Today" show, Gates called the facility on the island of Cuba "probably one of the finest prisons in the world today." But at the same time, he said it had become "a taint" on the reputation of America.

Joint Offensive in DR Congo

Experts are warning that a new joint offensive by Congolese troops and UN peacekeepers against rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo will make the country's humanitarian crisis even worse.

The military action planned against the rebel Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), "will lead to more atrocities against Congolese civilians, create greater numbers of displaced and desperate people and, because of the [United Nations'] involvement, do lasting damage to its peacekeeping," said Colin Thomas-Jensen, a policy advisor to the Enough project to end genocide, and Rebecca Feeley, an Enough field researcher based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The three-month joint military operation will aim to dislodge the rebels from the towns and villages they currently occupy in eastern DRC. However, the FDLR -- whose leadership includes masterminds of the 1994 Rwandan genocide -- have adeptly evaded previous military assaults only to retaliate by attacking civilians, burning and looting their villages, and raping and murdering hundreds.


VP Biden in Lebanon

US Vice President Joe Biden supports Lebanese democracy.

"I urge those who think about standing with the spoilers of peace not to miss this opportunity to walk away," he said.

The White House said the visit by the vice-president was meant to reinforce US support for "an independent and sovereign Lebanon".

Gitmo's Youngest Prisoner

In 2006, Jeff Tietz profiled Omar Khadr, a Canadian-born teenager detained at Guantanamo Bay. He revisits Khadr's story. "He has spent the entirety of the vulnerable, transformative period between adolescence and adulthood in its cellblocks and interrogation chambers."

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Reactions Obama's National Security Speech

The Atlantic politics blog has collected some human rights and civil liberties groups' reactions to President Obama speech at the National Archives today. "Despite strong statements on the Constitution and national identity, President Obama did little to assuage the concerns of human rights and civil liberties groups when he laid out his national security doctrine at the National Archives today."
"We welcome President Obama's stated commitment to the Constitution, the rule of law and the unequivocal rejection of torture. But unlike the president, we believe that continuing with the failed military commissions and creating a new system of indefinite detention without charge is inconsistent with the values that he expressed so eloquently at the National Archives today," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said, in a press release sent out after the speech.
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"He wraps himself in the Constitution and then, in our view, proceeds to undermine it," Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) President Michael Ratner said. Obama spoke this morning in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom at the National Archives, where the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are displayed.

"If his legacy is preventive detention and military commissions, that's a real step backwards," Ratner said. "It would be a legacy for the future that I think will cause untold damage to constitutional rights in this country...it's very sad to me."

UN Human Rights Council Special Session on Sri Lanka

On Monday, May 25, the UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. Amnesty International has some recommendations.

"Wussification"

The Atlantic Correspondents blog has a chilling post by Alex Gibney, who made the film "Taxi to the Dark Side" about an Afghan taxi driver who died in American custody at Bagram. He is responding to the way in which some pundits have attempted to equate treatment of detainees with harmless fraternity hijinks.

Well, Ms. Coulter, work on this: is murder a frat prank?

There has been a lot of arcane talk about the memos produced by the Office of Legal Counsel about specific "no-touch" torture techniques which, out-of-context, can sound harmless, if a bit weird. (In one of Office of Legal Counsel memos written by Stephen Bradley, he notes that, while it's OK to strip a detainee naked and make him wear a diaper, one must be careful not to chafe the skin with the Velcro straps when taking them on and off.)

What has been mostly missing from the recent debate about detainee abuse is that over 100 detainees died in custody during the war on terror. Nearly half of those deaths have been classified as homicides. For all sorts of reasons, it's worth looking at one case in particular. It's the story of Dilawar, a 22-year old taxi driver whose murder was at the center of my film, "Taxi to the Dark Side."

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What could have caused such trauma? A criminal investigation revealed that the Military Police at Bagram had pummeled Dilawar's legs with peroneal strikes, an "approved" control measure that the MPs had learned one day in their guard training. It involved slamming their knees into the nerve endings on Dilawar's thighs. "It drops 'em pretty good," said one MP.

At first, soldiers told me, they used strikes to control the 122-pound Dilawar because he would often try to take off his hood, perhaps because he suffered from severe asthma. Later, as Dilawar continued to moan and cry out for his mother and father - which MPs, who couldn't understand him, may have mistaken for the signs of a troublemaker - the guards would pummel him with knee strikes over and over again, just to shut him up, or sometimes, for their amusement, just to hear him scream "allah."

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Now, let's move on to the results of Dilawar's interrogation. After all, the "torture-is-tough-but-necessary" crowd maintains that torture always delivers the goods. Let's see what actionable intelligence was obtained: After the third day of trying to find out about the rocket attack, Dilawar's interrogators concluded that he was utterly innocent. Yet the beatings continued for another two days until Dilawar was dead.

To cover-up the fact that the Army had murdered an innocent man, the Army sent his passengers (who had also been incarcerated at Bagram) to Guantanamo. There they sat until March 2004, when military officials concluded that the unlucky passengers "posed no threat" to American forces and sent them, without explanation, back home to the peanut fields of Yakubi. Upon further investigation, it turned out that Afgans who had originally detained Dilawar and his passengers were the very ones who were actually responsible for the rocket attacks on Camp Salerno. They had a record of arresting innocents, proclaiming them guilty and turning them over to US troops in order to curry favor with the Americans.

The level of the public debate is sickening. I'm glad Alex Gibney is pointing that out and moving the focus in a more constructive and meaningful direction. The entire film can be view online. It is heartbreaking but necessary.

Pressure from Thai Army Forces Closure of Refugee camp

Medicins Sans Frontieres has closed a refugee camp in Thailand that was serving about 5,000 Hmong asylum seekers from Laos. The group cited pressure and intimidation by the Thai army.

MSF says this was a difficult decision to make.

It is the sole international organisation allowed to work in the camp in northern Thailand which still houses nearly 5,000 ethnic Hmong who fled from Laos four years ago.

It provides most of the food and medical treatment for them.

But, says Gilles Isard, who heads the MSF mission in Thailand, the increasing restrictions imposed by the Thai military on its activities and the army's harassment of the Hmong have forced it to pull out.

"More and more, the Thai army is trying to use coercive measure to force the people to return to Laos. Also they are pressuring MSF.

"For instance they have been trying to demand MSF stop providing food distribution to the people in order to punish them," he told the BBC.

Thailand is notorious for its treatment of refugees. In its 2008 World Refugee Survey, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) named Thailand one of the "Worst Places for Refugees." According to the organization's report,

Thailand returned thousands of Myanmarese directly over to authorities in their home country, and informally forced nearly 25,400 more back across the border. Thailand does not recognize most of the Myanmarese refugees in its territories, and those that it does it warehouses in camps without the right to work. It allowed notorious Or Sor militia to administer some of these camps, provoking a riot when one shot and killed a refugee in December. On its website, the Ministry of Interior listed “to intercept and drive back refugees” among its key functions. Officials also confined nearly 8,000 Hmong refugees from Laos to a camp and vowed to force them back to Laos, “no matter how many bullet wounds they have.”

Suu Kyi Trial: Diplomats Barred

Just one day after Burmese authorities allowed diplomats to be present at democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's trial, they reversed their decision and barred international observers.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Predicting Democracy

Richard Florida, guest blogging for Andrew Sullivan, comments on a study that examines 59 factors and whether they predict emergence and success of democracy. The study found that just five factors predict that democracy will emerge and only four predict that it will survive.

According to the study, the strongest predictors of a transition to democracy are past transitions, Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) membership and GDP growth; the study found a negative correlation between the latter and the emergence of democracy. As Florida puts it, "contrary to 'modernization theory', the study finds that richer countries are not more likely to become democracies. Richer countries are more likely to remain democracies once they become one." While there was also evidence that fuel exporters and Muslim countries are less likely to see a transition to democracy, the finding with respect to Muslim countries was entirely driven by oil producing Muslim countries.

The strongest predictors of the survival of democracy are GDP per capita, which has a positive eff ect, and past transitions, which has a negative e ffect. There was also evidence that having a former military leader as the chief executive has a negative e ffect and that having other democracies as neighbors has a positive eff ect.

UPDATE: There is a new post, indicating that Florida may have made a mistake in his initial analysis.

French Film on Illegal Migrants in Calais

From NPR's Morning Edition:
In France, illegal migrants often congregate in the port city of Calais hoping to hitch a covert ride across the Channel. A new French film about their situation has put the government on the defensive and provoked a public outcry over a law that makes it a crime to help them.

Cambodia's "Day of Anger"

From AFP: "Cambodians staged a re-enactment of Khmer Rouge crimes at a notorious 'killing field' Wednesday as the country marked its annual 'Day of Anger' for those who died under the regime."

"Corporations on Trial"

People and Power is presenting "Corporations on Trial," a five-part series on the many lawsuits against multi-national corporations. The series, on Al Jazeera English, begins today with "Dumping Ground," which examines "how ordinary residents of the Ivory Coast are taking on one of the world's largest oil traders." An interview with People & Power presenter and reporter, Juliana Ruhfus provides some background.
Why is it that countries where the doctrines of corporate law and the associated legal procedures are not well developed, are places where multinational corporations can sometimes act with impunity?

This is probably a problem which goes beyond the law. Many of the worst abuses take place in the world's poorest countries. These are often countries which generate most of their income from natural resource exploitation rather than manufacturing or services.

They have the least educated and least empowered populations as well as the fiercest concentration of economic and political power in the hands of small elites.

Consequently they usually post very high scores on corruption indices. This is a bad combination and easily exploited by deal-makers inside and outside the country.Why is there such a big number of cases involving US companies?

This is not necessarily due to the fact that US companies behave worse than others.

Indeed it can be argued that it is because the US has legislation which allows lawyers to bring such cases in the first place.

For example the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) allows cases to be brought in the US even if they involve US-registered companies committing abuses in other countries.

ATCA is a centuries old law which was originally created to bring pirates to justice when operating outside US waters.

Ironically it is now being used by lawyers to bring claims against US companies such as the Chiquita Brands fruit organisation – currently being sued for its involvement with illegal Colombian paramilitary organisations.




Check out previous blog posts on corporate social responsibility and the Alien Tort Statute: Pfizer Settles Medical Experimentation Case in Nigeria, Independent Review of Chiquita's Payments to Paramilitaries in Colombia, Book About Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Releasing the Detained Uighurs into the US

Blogger Hilzoy has completed a multi-part series on the Uighur detainees from Guantanamo Bay into the US. (Links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Compilation, Coda)

The Uighurs are a moderate-Muslim ethnic group from Central Asia and western China. They call their homeland East Turkestan but it was renamed Xinjiang by the Chinese when they took over. The US military conducted Combatant Status Review Tribunals and determined that 15 of the 18 detained Uighurs were not enemy combatants. Currently, 17 of them remain incarcerated, despite the fact that all but one have been approved for release. They have now been detained for over 7 years.

Hilzoy is responding to Newt Gingrich's May 15th column, which claims
Seventeen of the 241 terrorist detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay are Chinese Muslims known as Uighurs. These Uighurs have been allied with and trained by al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist groups. The goal of the Uighurs is to establish a separate sharia state.
As part of their ongoing effort to close Guantanamo Bay, the Obama administration has had to figure out what to do with the Uighurs. Officials believe that if they’re sent back to China they will be persecuted, and no third country will take them.
So the Obama administration has decided to set the Uighurs loose in America. Most likely, the lucky community that will soon be hosting the Uighurs is a neighborhood near you: Fairfax Country Virginia, where there is already a sizable (non-terrorist) Uighur community.

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By their own admission, Uighurs being held at Guantanamo Bay are members of or associated with the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an al Qaeda-affiliated group designated as a terrorist organization under U.S law.

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Even if you accept the argument made by their defenders that the Uighurs’ true targets are Chinese, not Americans, it does nothing to change the fact that they are trained mass killers instructed by the same terrorists responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001.
In the series of posts, Hilzoy debunks these and other myths about the Uighurs. She quotes an FBI agent who interviewed the Uighurs early during their incarceration and concluded that:
The Uighurs considered themselves to be fighting for democracy, and they idolized the United States. Although the Uighurs are Muslim their agenda did not appear to include Islamic radicalism. They claimed to have no political connection to Islamic terrorists or the Taliban. However, their camp in Afghanistan was bombed, and they fled to Pakistan. The Uighurs were captured by the Pakistanis, with half being transferred to US custody, and half being remanded directly to Chinese officials. It was alleged that the Uighurs who were transferred directly to the Chinese were immediately executed. At the time of my TDY, US officials were considering whether to return the Uighurs to the Chinese, possibly to gain support for anticipated US action in the Middle East. The Uighur detainees at GTMO were convinced that they would be immediately executed if they were returned to China.

The Uighurs themselves are pushing back against Gingrich.

No, they have never admitted that [they are associated with ETIM], says [their translator Rushan] Abbas, adding that the Uighurs call the claim "baseless, factless slander against them." Abbas returned from Guantanamo Monday. She now works with the Uighurs' defense attorneys, but said that her comments to the Huffington Post were not intended as advocacy on their behalf.

The Uighurs call relatives in the United States and Europe often, she says, so stay up on the news. They were surprised to hear the accusation from the former Speaker of the House.

"Why does he hate us so much and say those kinds of things? He doesn't know us. He should talk to our attorneys if he's curious about our background," Abbas relates. "How could he speak in such major media with nothing based in fact? They were very disappointed how Newt Gingrich was linking them to ETIM which they never even heard of the name ETIM until they came to Guantanamo Bay."

Text SWAT to 20222 to Donate $5 to UNHCR's Efforts in Pakistan

An announcement from UNHCR on making donations to help displaced people from Pakistan's Swat Valley.
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asked the American people to join in the world-wide humanitarian effort in Pakistan:

"Now, Americans can use technology to help, as well. Using your cell phones, Americans can text the word "swat" -- to the number 20222 and make a $5 contribution that will help the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees provide tents, clothing, food, and medicine to hundreds of thousands of affected people. And before I came over here, we did that in the State Department. So we are making some of the first donations to this fund."

As the number of men, women and children uprooted this month by the current conflict in north-west Pakistan is now greater than 1.45 million, the UN Refugee Agency stated that it is "absolutely essential" that the international community mount an immediate and massive humanitarian response.

Text the word SWAT to the number 20222 to make an immediate $5 donation to the UN Refugee Agency's life-saving work in Pakistan.

The UN Refugee Agency has been quick to respond to the crisis, but the unfolding emergency requires a quick response by donors. Tents, sleeping mats, and blankets are desperately needed to shelter those innocents whose homes and possessions have been destroyed by war.

The 1.5 million displaced people so far registered this month by authorities and UNHCR are in addition to another 550,000 uprooted people who have fled fighting since last August. According to the latest figures, 987,140 people have been registered from the current influx, including 907,298 outside camps and 79,842 in camps.

According to Guterres "Most of [the displaced] are currently depending on relatives and friends for help and are not in camps, thus creating huge social and economic pressures. But if these people - both the displaced and the many Pakistanis trying to help them - do not receive rapid international support, I fear there is a very real possibility of further destabilization."

$5 can register 15 displaced Pakistanis for assistance and protection.
$50 can register 150 displaced Pakistanis for assistance and protection.
$100 can pay for a survival kit including blankets and cooking stoves.
$200 can provide an all-weather tent to shelter a displaced family.
$500 can sink two wells to provide clean water for refugees.

On Tuesday, May 12 UNHCR airlifted 120 tons of additional relief supplies from its regional stockpile in Dubai. The chartered aircraft carried 10,000 mosquito nets, 14,000 plastic sheets for emergency shelters, 1,500 plastic rolls to build walls and privacy screens in camps, and two portable warehouses.

But, for these nearly 1.5 million displaced persons, the needs are far greater.

Check out Secretary Clinton's comments at: http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entries/text_disaster_relief/
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A previous post that mentions the donation system is here.

Islamist "Justice" in Somalia

Earlier this month, Sharia court in Somalia found a man found guilty of stealing clothing worth about $90. He was punished by having his right hand cut off. It is believed to be the second amputation this year in Somalia. Hardliners from al-Shabaab, a group of Somali Islamists that has been linked to Al-Qaeda, follow the Wahhabi school of Islam, which is based on a very strict reading of Islamic texts. Most Somalis practice the mainstream Sunni faith and al-Shabaab's rules have created an "alien culture" in areas that are controlled by the group.

Michelle Kagari, of Amnesty International's Africa programme, said: "Punishments like these illustrate the extent to which violence still substitutes for the rule of law in many areas of Somalia."

She said she wanted the United Nations to take concrete steps to stop such human rights abuses, and that an independent commission of inquiry or similar mechanism should be set up to investigate.


Amnesty International has also called on the fragile Somali transitional government - and the militias which currently run Kismayo and other parts of the south - to publicly condemn all human rights abuses, including punishments carried out without due process of law.

Suu Kyi at Trial


Diplomats and journalists have been permitted to observe the trial of Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (Previous posts on the charges are here and here.) UK ambassador Mark Canning spoke to BBC about the trial.

"She was composed, upright, crackling with energy," he said. "Very much in charge of her defence team."

Afterwards, she spoke briefly to diplomats to welcome their presence and say she hoped she would meet them in better times, he said.

She then held a separate meeting with three foreign officials: the ambassador of Singapore - the longest serving envoy in Burma - and representatives from Russia, which currently chairs the UN Security Council, and Thailand.

Ms Suu Kyi told the officials that she and her two housekeepers were being treated well and that "it was not too late for something good to come out of this unfortunate incident", Singapore's foreign ministry reported.

Mr Canning said it was not clear whether access to the trial would continue.

"I think this is a story where the conclusion is already scripted," he said.

"I don't have any confidence in the outcome. While the access we had today was very welcome, it doesn't change the fundamental problem."


(Image from BBC story.)

"The Heart of the Matter: The Security of Women and the Security of States"

(Via The Atlantic)

Researchers have found a strong positive correlation between the physical security of women in a country and state security and peacefulness. "Although these results are preliminary, it is still possible to conclude that the security of women must not be overlooked in the study of state security, especially given that the research questions to be raised and the policy initiatives to be considered in the promotion of security will differ markedly if the security of women is seriously considered as a significant influence on state security."

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Peace for Sri Lanka?

According to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country is "liberated."

"Today we have been able to liberate the entire country from the clutches of terrorism," he said. "We have been able to defeat one of the most heinous terrorist groups in the world."

As he walked into parliament, schoolgirls sang an ancient song of praise, while lawmakers held up the national flag.

After speaking in his native Sinhala, President Rajapaksa switched to the language of the Tamil minority, saying ethnic and religious divisions should end.

"We must find a homegrown solution to this conflict. That solution should be acceptable to all the communities."

It's not time for celebration yet:
Sri Lanka is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe as the Government blocks access by the United Nations and other aid agencies to nearly 300,000 civilians displaced by the army’s victory over the Tamil Tigers.

In the north, an estimated 80,000 people — mostly Tamil, many of them sick, malnourished or suffering from battlefield wounds — were making their way on foot from the war zone to government-run camps that are already swamped. The UN is not being allowed any access to them, The Times has learnt.

Accounts of conditions inside the camps — gained from testimony recorded covertly by aid workers — and the journey to them are horrifying.


Event in DC: "Uprooted"

Global Rights, AFRODES (Asociación de Afrocolombianos Desplazados) USA, the U.S. Office on Colombia and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) are screening the film "Uprooted" this Thursday, May 21 at 5:45 PM at the WOLA office at 1666 Connecticut Ave, 4th Floor conference room. Guest speakers from AFRODES will be present as well.
"Uprooted" is a film that explores the plight of Noris Mosquera, one of the more than 1 million Afro Colombians violently displaced since 1990. Her son dreams of leaving the refugee shelter for a burgeoning soccer academy in the capital city of Bogotá, and Noris will do all he can to make his dream a reality. Through his day-to-day plight, we delve into the tragedy of uprooting and discover the power of resilience.
Space is limited so RSVP by the end of the day on May 20 by emailing rrobb [at] wola.org or calling 202-797-2171.

$110 Million in Aid from US for Pakistan

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the US is providing $110 million in emergency aid for people (as many as 2 million) who have fled the Swat Valley.

"We face a common threat, a common challenge, and now a common task," Clinton said in a White House briefing. "We have seen an enormous amount of support and determination out of the Pakistani government, military, and people in the last weeks to tackle the extremist challenge."

At least since last year, some members of Congress and a growing number of Pakistan and counterterrorism experts have concluded that a crucial missing ingredient in US policy was closer contact with the Pakistani people. This new aid package, while addressing a particular crisis, is also a "first step" in that new policy, some experts in the region say.

"For the last year, the consensus in Washington has been that we needed to create a stronger link to the Pakistani people, that that was in fact the missing link in our relations with a critical part of the world," says Frederick Barton, co-director of the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. "This is a terrific first step to show we do care about the Pakistani people and not just about Afghanistan or terror."

America's image suffers from particularly low ratings in Pakistan. That has put the Pakistani government in a tight spot as it has come under US pressure for action against the Taliban, which this year has advanced beyond its traditional strongholds along the Afghan border. The Swat Valley, where fighting is now concentrated, is 70 miles outside the capital of Islamabad.

Americans can also get in the act, she said. By texting the word "swat" to the number 20222, anyone can make a $5 donation to the UN High Commissioner's Office for Refugees for use in the Swat Valley crisis. Clinton said she tested the donation system before announcing it, and it worked.

"Prabhakaran: The Life and Death of a Tiger"

A biography of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, from Time's Jyothi Thottam.
The rest of the world might never understand the violence Prabhakaran stood for, but its imprint on Sri Lanka is wide and deep. At the height of his power, just before the 2002 ceasefire, Prabhakaran was the unquestioned leader of a de facto government that controlled more than 15,000 square kilometers of territory in the north and east of Sri Lanka and had its own system of taxes, roads and courts. By the final weeks of conflict, he was believed to be using thousands of Tamil civilians as human shields against the advance of the Sri Lankan military. At the time of his death, 250 core LTTE members stood with him. Few will mourn the end of a man who ruthlessly ordered the murder of his opponents, demanded absolute fealty and pioneered the use of suicide bombings.