http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/04/20/under-cover-war-0
Report: Hamas killed, maimed dozens of opponents
By KARIN LAUB – 4 hours ago
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Gunmen with suspected links to Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip killed at least 32 Palestinians and wounded dozens in attacks on political opponents and alleged informers during and after Israel's recent war in the coastal territory, an international human rights group said Monday.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch urged Gaza's Hamas rulers to halt what it described as a pattern of arbitrary arrests, torture and summary executions by the Islamic militant group.
Human Rights Watch portrayed the attacks as the worst outbreak of internal violence since Hamas militants violently seized control of Gaza in June 2007 and expelled rivals in the more moderate Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who now controls only the West Bank.
Such practices are aimed, in part, at quashing dissent in Gaza and make a mockery of Hamas' claim it upholds the law, the group said.
During the war, "Hamas authorities ... took extraordinary steps to control, intimidate, punish and at times eliminate their internal political rivals as well as persons suspected of collaborating with Israel," the report said.
Eighteen Palestinians were killed by Hamas during the three-week war, which ended Jan. 18, and 14 others were killed afterward, the report said. In addition, 49 Gazans were shot in the legs by masked gunmen between Dec. 28 and Jan. 31, and 73 had their arms or legs broken, the report said, citing a rights group linked to Abbas.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum dismissed the Human Rights Watch report as unbalanced. He said Hamas was willing to investigate any complaints, and denied the group is going after political opponents.
He said suspected collaborators with Israel who fled Gaza's central prison after it was destroyed in Israeli bombing raids in December were killed by relatives of people they had harmed, not by security forces.
Human Rights Watch said repressive measures are also on the rise in the Abbas-controlled West Bank.
Abbas' security forces have been cracking down on Hamas in the West Bank since the militants seized Gaza. Hamas detainees in West Bank prisons have complained of mistreatment, including beatings and being tied up in painful positions. In January and February, one detainee died in custody, and 31 complained of mistreatment, Human Rights Watch said.
The report about the Gaza abuses is based on interviews with witnesses and victims, as well as reports by Palestinian human rights groups, Human Rights Watch said.
It reviewed killings and shootings since Dec. 27, when Israel launched its Gaza offensive, meant to weaken Hamas and halt rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel.
Hamas has begun investigations into four deaths, dismissing and detaining members of the security forces involved in two killings, said Bill Van Esveld, a Human Rights Watch researcher.
"What we have not seen is accountability for (the killing of) collaborators and Fatah guys getting shot in the legs," he said.
In a recent case under investigation, gunmen wearing headbands of Hamas' military wing, Izzedine al-Qassam, reportedly opened fire Thursday on three cousins loyal to Abbas' Fatah movement in the Gaza town of Jebaliya.
The three men were each hit by several bullets in the legs and remain hospitalized, the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights said.
Associated Press writer Ibrahim Barzak contributed to this report from Gaza City.
Study warns against current approach to LRA insecurity
Friday 17 April 2009.
April 15, 2009 (WASHINGTON) - A recent study by the non-governmental
organization IKV Pax Christi critiques the international offensive
launched against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in December 2008, and
warns against half-hearted responses to the insecurity that followed
this event.
The report, authored by Joost van Puijenbroek and Nico Plooijer, is
titled "How EnLightning is the Thunder?" - a heading which implicitly
questions the effectiveness and rationale behind the so-called
"Operation Lightning Thunder" carried out jointly by Southern Sudan,
Uganda and DR Congo with US backing.
If the current situation is prolonged, it could result in further arming
of local self-defence units and "disastrous" humanitarian and security
consequences, says the NGO.
IKV Pax Christi's involvement with LRA issues started in 1997, seeking
ways to bring the conflict in Northern Uganda to an end. The NGO
organized a cross-border conference on security held in Arua, Northwest
Uganda in September-October 2008.
LRA is responsible for simultaneous Christmas day 2008 massacres in the
towns of Faradje, Doruma and Gurba in DR Congo, carried out in concert
before the guerillas fanned out in small groups across a wide area.
The study says that the operation bears a "striking resemblance" to the
Ugandan army's Operation Iron Fist of 2002, in that neither operation
planned adequately for protection of civilian populations which were
particularly vulnerable to reprisals.
"The humanitarian situation in the region affected by the LRA is
dramatic," explains the report. "In Congo over a 130,000 people are
internally displaced, 896 killed and 711 people abducted, among whom 540
children. As far as we know, more than a hundred people among whom
children have been abducted in the Central African Republic and an
unknown number have been killed. In Sudan over a hundred people have
been killed, over 60 people abducted and 30,000 people have fled their
homes."
In the period of months prior to the Christmas Massacres, security
worsened day by day resulting in a near total depopulation of an area
close to 10,000 square kilometers. During the same period, local defense
groups ballooned as they even demanded the departure of ineffective
national and UN forces, according to the report.
However, Operation Lightning Thunder commenced on December 14 in
northeastern DR Congo, relying heavily on air strikes and spearheaded by
Ugandan forces. When the LRA camps were taken, no casualties were found.
As the international military operation faded and the guerillas
scattered, retaliatory massacres soon extended into Southern Sudan.
According to figures cited by IKV Pax Christi, the LRA killed over 40
people and abducted others near Mboroko Payam, abducted 13 at Payam Tore
Wandi, and killed four and abducted ten at Bangolo,
By January 2009, 7000 Congolese fleeing the LRA had sought refuge in
Western Equatoria State (WES), with the highest concentration of them
being hosted in Gangura, Yambio Town and Sakure. In addition, a
cumulative total of 22,527 Sudanese were displaced by the LRA attacks in
Southern Sudan.
IKV Pax Christi claims that Vice President Machar was presented with
pleas from WES authorities to arm a local security unit, but that he
rejected the proposal, as it contradicts the government policy of
disarming the civilian population of Sudan.
"The SPLM deputy secretary general voiced extreme caution on arming
civilians, citing negative security repercussions. This is most probably
linked to the very tense relationship between different groups within
the states of Equatoria, especially Azande versus Dinka in this
context," says the report.
Western Equatoria does not have a long history of armed militias, unlike
other states of South Sudan. One historian has posited that the ferocity
of SPLA raiding against other areas hosting militias discouraged the
same development in WES.
Meanwhile, in its conclusion the NGO recommends trying to pursue a peace
agreement that builds upon the Juba Peace Process, noting that a
second-best scenario would be effectively executing the warrants of the
International Criminal Court against LRA leaders.
According to the study, Uganda should unilaterally implement some
elements of the Juba Peace Agreement, especially the provision for the
Northern Uganda Peace Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP).
Finally, the NGO says that an international contact group should be
established comprised of the nations whose military forces are pursuing
the LRA. The contact group would include Uganda, DR Congo, Sudan and
Central African Republic, the United States, the United Kingdom, France,
the UN envoy for the LRA-affected areas, the UN envoy for the Great
Lakes, the AU envoy and the EU envoy.
(ST)
Copyright (c) 2003-2008 SudanTribune - All rights reserved.
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/04/16/service-life-0
Service for Life
State Repression and Indefinite Conscription in Eritrea
April 16, 2009
The 95-page report documents serious human rights violations by the Eritrean government, including arbitrary arrest, torture, appalling detention conditions, forced labor, and severe restrictions on freedom of movement, expression, and worship. It also analyzes the difficult situation faced by Eritreans who succeed in escaping to other countries such as Libya, Sudan, Egypt, and Italy.
http://www.iranhumanrights.org/wp-content/uploads/english-womens-report-final.pdf
(16 April 2009) A new report by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran documents that the persecution of women’s rights advocates has intensified in the past year.
For the first time, a women’s rights advocate, Alieh Eghdamdoust, has been jailed for three years solely for participating in a peaceful demonstration on behalf of equal rights for women in 2006, in which 70 others were also arrested.
“Publicly expressing support for women’s rights has effectively been criminalized in Iran, as the authorities felt no need to cite trumped-up security or other charges in the case,” said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesperson for the Campaign. “If Alieh Eghdamdoust can be jailed for simply exercising her internationally guaranteed human rights, hundreds of others may meet the same fate.”
Iranian authorities arbitrarily shut down the Defenders of Human Rights Center, the main supplier of bro-bono legal defense and other support for the women’s rights movement. Attacks on Nobel Peace Laureate and human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, the Center’s founder, and confiscation of her files, indicate a more aggressive crackdown on the women’s rights movement.
Over the past year, numerous members of the Million Signatures Campaign and other groups working peacefully and legally to change Iran’s discriminatory laws have been arrested, searched, interrogated, prevented from meeting, and subjected to travel bans preventing them from traveling abroad.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran’s full report is available at:
http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2009/04/whrdreport/
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/uae0409.pdf
Just the Good News, Please
New UAE Media Law Continues to Stifle Press
April 6, 2009
Executive Summary
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is currently considering revisions to its media law. On January 20 2009, the UAE's legislature, the Federal National Council, passed the draft law, which was drawn up by the National Media Council. It now awaits the signature of President Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
While the pending law is a significant improvement over the existing law, it still suffers from unlawful content-based restrictions on speech, as well as unlawful and onerous government controls on licensing, registration, operation and management of the media.
The UAE's current media law was adopted in 1980 and is a harsh regime whose selective enforcement does little to temper its ill-effects. The law regulates publication of all films, scientific articles, musical compositions, news documents and most other forms of recorded public expression. The law restricts expression through registration requirements and content-based limitations, providing for incarceration of offenders. It has instilled fear of punishment for speaking against the government's position on political, moral and economic concerns, and has pushed UAE journalists and other media organizations into a protracted period of self-censorship and anxiety.
Provisions in the pending media law address some of the problematic aspects of the existing law, and to a certain extent, reflect the government's stated vision and ambition to develop a free media in the country. Thus, a number of the provisions in the pending media law are an important step forward in the reform process. For example, the pending law does not subject journalists to criminal penalties (such as imprisonment). This is indeed an improvement, but the government should go further by providing a preamble to the law that includes an explicit disavowal of criminal penalties for journalists' media activities. In addition, the pending law decreases the number of infractions for which media organizations can be liable. The pending law also instructs government institutions to facilitate information flow to the media and to respond to their requests for information. More significantly, the pending law provides journalists freedom from coercion to reveal sources, reflecting the government's commitment to the journalistic right to protect sources; in this particular regard, the pending law's protection exceeds that of many advanced democracies, including the United States.
However, a number of problematic provisions and omissions plague the new pending law. It inadequately addresses the failings of the current law and fails to conform to international free speech standards. It includes troubling content-based restrictions on speech, draconian fines, and harsh registration requirements. The content-based restrictions are aimed at stymieing criticism of the government: in ambiguous, overbroad provisions, the pending law prohibits communication that misleads the public and "harms the national economy," or "disparages" government officials. This insulation of public officials from criticism violates the fundamental principle in international human rights law that press freedoms should be wider, not narrower, with respect to speech about politicians and government officials. Also troubling are ambiguous sections setting out who is governed by the law and what standards they must adhere to, provisions laying out a troubling registration regime for certain media (including a provision that requires media organizations to provide a large security deposit to the government), and provisions providing the government supervisory power over the hiring of journalists and editors. These provisions are not only unlawful intrusions by the government into the right of journalists in the UAE to freely express their thoughts and opinions on any subject of their choosing, but also an unjustified attempt to control the independence of the media.
The President should insist that the legislature revise the pending law to conform to the requirements of international law. This is a necessary step in the UAE's development of a free media.