The leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband has pledged to continue to push for a "full and independent international investigation" into war crimes in Sri Lanka, in a video message to the British Tamil community marking the Tamil New Year.
Thanking the British Tamil community for the "incredible contribution" it has made to the UK, the opposition leader said the Labour Party has always been "a friend of the Tamil community".
See statement below:
"I want to wish everyone in the Tamil community a happy new year and I want to take this opportunity to thank the Tamil community for the incredible contribution you make to our country across every walk of life.
The Labour Party has always been a friend of the Tamil community and will continue to be so, and we will continue to push for the full and independent, international investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka. It’s something I raised with President Sirisena when I met him and we will continue to push this forward, we will continue to advocate for your cause.
We in the Labour Party know our responsibility to the Tamil community. So let me reiterate my wishes for a happy new year and I look forward to working with the Tamil community in the months and years ahead."
Theresa Villiers has confirmed her support for the Tamil community and joined her Conservative colleagues in calling for Sri Lanka's new Government to cooperate with the UN investigation into human rights abuses and war crimes committed during the military conflict in Sri Lanka:
Ms Villiers said: "I am a strong supporter of the British Tamil community and I have been working with them in their campaign for justice for the Tamil people.
A huge tragedy unfolded in the closing days of the military conflict in Sri Lanka. A UN Report concluded that 70,000 civilians were killed in the final phase of the war and it has been estimated that nearly 150,000 still remain unaccounted for. The total loss of the life during the war will of course have been much greater.
David Cameron was the first world leader since 1948 to visit Jaffna. I believe he was right to do that because it enabled him to meet and speak to those who have suffered directly as a result of the conflict in Sri Lanka. His visit focused the eyes of the world on the plight of the Tamil community in an unprecedented way.
This Conservative-led Government consistently pressed President Rajapaksa for a credible, thorough and independent investigation into war crimes; and the Prime Minister helped secure a mandate for the UN investigation. In January, Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire visited Sri Lanka. Conservative MPs such as Lee Scott have been staunch defenders of the Tamils and their fight for justice.
I and my Conservative colleagues want the new Sri Lankan government to cooperate with the UN investigation. The election of Mr Maithripala Sirisena as the President of Sri Lanka presents a renewed opportunity for the country to grow into an inclusive, stable and prosperous nation. I welcome the undertakings the new President has given to lead a more democratic and accountable government, but his administration will be judged on their actions in delivering on these promises. We cannot yet tell whether this change of Government will lead to real and lasting change in Sri Lanka.
The Conservatives are urging the new government to work with the international community, including at the UN Human Rights Council, to address matters of international concern. That must include credible processes for reconciliation and accountability to tackle the issues remaining from Sri Lanka’s long conflict.
We want to see long-term peace for Sri Lanka. This needs an inclusive political settlement which delivers equality of treatment and gives Tamils an effective voice in Government.
There is no doubt that the hard work and political activism of British Tamils has pushed issues regarding Sri Lanka up the political agenda. I warmly welcome the active engagement of Tamils in the UK democratic process. British Tamil voters could determine the outcome in many constituencies. I believe they will have a significant impact on who wins the election.
I pay tribute to the work of the British Tamil Conservatives. They played a key role in the outcome of last year's local elections in London and I am sure they will be just as influential in the general election. I thank all the members of community who are supporting me as the Conservative candidate in Chipping Barnet."
(Lanka-e-News -14.April.2015, 5.25AM) Ex minister Rohitha Bogallagama who was barred from foreign travel by the court on 1 st of April was captured by the Lanka e news camera roaming Oxford street , London on yesterday(13) evening.
It is the chief magistrate of Colombo Gihan Pilapitiya who imposed the foreign travel ban on the ex minister after hearing a plaint filed in the Commission of bribery and corruption against him. Based on the case filed by the bribery commission in relation to the misappropriation of funds amounting to Rs. 1.4 million of the ministry of investment and promotion when Bogallagama was its minister, the latter has got these funds passed by the ex Director general of the investment promotion board, Lakshman R. Watawala. That is, to attend an exhibition overseas , he had made the director general to illegally approve Rs. 1.4 million in excess.
The court enlarged Bogallagama on a cash bail of Rs. 50,000.00 and two personal bails in a sum of Rs. 1 million each , while also barring him from foreign travel.
It is a most vexatious question , how did this ex minister an accused in a fraud banned from traveling abroad by court , make his way to London? How did he kick out a court order and bail condition so cheekily ? Did he get permission later from the court? Based on the probe conducted into this by Lanka e news , the ex minister has not obtained such a permission from court. LeN checkd the passengers departure list of Katunayaka air port but Rohitha Bogollagama's name has not in there.
It is to be noted that the courts have these days issued a number of orders barring the foreign travel of individuals charged with corruption and frauds , many of whom are political heavyweights associated with the ex Rajapakse regime.
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by (2015-04-14 00:04:25)
Monday, April 13, 2015 (All day)
The Government's move to come down hard against purveyors of hate speech is most opportune given the increasingly strident forms the speeches made by both politicians and some members of Bhikkhu community, with communal undertones, have taken in recent times. Today minority bashing has become a fine art with certain politicians in the South so much so that they cannot make a speech without alluding to the dangers faced by the Sinhala race and of the imminent division of the country from minority backed external threats.
By such utterances they are hoping to address the baser instincts of a section of the Sinhala majority and at the same time obtain mileage for their political project. The same goes for those members of the Sangha who backed by certain defeated politicians are nevertheless attempting to keep the flame alight by rabble rousing, in the process bringing disrepute and harm to the religion. It goes without saying that communal politics has been the bane of this country and robbed it of its true potential due to the disruption and turbulence caused periodically by race riots. Sri Lanka which is emerging from a thirty-year civil war that was a result of communal politics cannot afford to see another setback to its journey to prosperity that is now underway. No room should be allowed for the ugly face of racism to raise its head again.
We say this because attempts are once again being made to stoke communal passions in not so subtle ways by the acolytes of politicians who were thrown out of power on January 8, in a bid to facilitate a comeback of their mentors or should we say handlers. We see this trend in the speeches made by these politicians. There is an attempt being made to show that but for the vote of the Tamils in the North who are all liberally described as LTTEers their man would still be in the seats of power. Those who make such claims seem to have conveniently forgotten that their political master campaigned vigorously and extensively in the North during the election campaign even making speeches in Tamil, all towards wooing these ‘LTTE votes’. This shows the extent to which hate politics have taken its stranglehold on the body politic of this country
Hence there should be a firm lid on communal politics and all right thinking people would no doubt endorse the Government moves in this direction. We are here not singling out any particular community or religious group. There have been incitements from all sides. But it is the duty of the Government the rein in the trend notwithstanding from what quarter this emanates. According to our weekend Sinhala Newspaper Silumina the Government is to bring in laws to prosecute those holding political rallies with a view to incite communal or religious possessions and those aiding and abetting such an exercise. It also states that the Government had already taken steps to enact laws banning publications carrying racist content and also to extend these laws to cover those holding political rallies with a view to inflaming communal or religious passions.
To say that Sri Lanka's post independence political history has been marred communal politics is to make an understatement. Politicians of all hues used the communal card at one time or another to ascend to power. 1956 marked a watershed in this regard. While S.W.R.D ushered in the People' revolution it also saw the birth of communal politics in a most virulent form. The "Sinhala Only" Act drove a wedge between the two main communities dividing them into two camps. Politicians in the South began tub thumping their chests to exhort their fidelity to their race and language brainwashing the entire polity in the process. The result- communal politics became the order of the day, with one trying to outdo the other on the political stage.
True, the later Premier was justified to some extent for the steps he took. Up to that point it was the anglicised elite who were ruling the roost depriving the educated Sinhala natives a place in the sun. It also ushered in a cultural revolution that saw the revival of local literature, arts and an entire transformation in the Sinhala Buddhist outlook. Besides Sri Lanka was only caught up in the winds of change where nationalism was sweeping through the newly independent states in the region.
However in Sri Lanka this nationalism that took off in 1956 seems to have taken on a communal colouration going by the events that have unfolded through the decades. Today we see the sad spectacle of members of the Sangha leading mobs attacking business establishments owned by minorities. At a time when all measures are being taken by the new Government to heal the festering wounds and bring about amity, brotherhood and concord between the two main communities no room should be left for persons with hidden political agendas to queer the pitch.
India's National Human Rights Commission has ordered an investigation into the killing of 20 alleged red sandalwood smugglers last week after hearing the testimony of two witnesses.
The two men have contested the police's account that the victims were shot in an exchange, suggesting instead the killings were staged encounter deaths.
The police have denied the claim.
The commission has ordered the men - local villagers - be given protection and an investigation be carried out.
Rights activists say more witnesses are willing to come forward to support the allegation that the men were killed in a staged encounter near the holy town of Tirupati in the state of Andhra Pradesh on 7 April.
The police say the killings took place after they challenged a group of 100 red sandalwood smugglers who attacked them with axes and stones.
Sandalwood smuggling is rampant in southern India, with a tonne selling for tens of thousands of dollars on the international black market.
Red sandalwood or red sanders is a species of tree endemic to the Western Ghats of India.
The tree is prized for its rich red wood, mainly for making furniture, and is not to be confused with the highly aromatic sandalwood trees that are native to southern India.
Most of those killed are believed to be Tamils and there was an angry reaction in Tamil Nadu to the killing.
Correspondents say the loggers are often tribespeople or other poor migrant workers from Tamil Nadu.
Union Minister of State for External Affairs General (retd) V K Singh said in Raipur on Tuesday that the decision to send the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka in 1987 was "a high level policy failure".
Tuesday, 14 April 2015
Union Minister of State for External Affairs General (retd) V K Singh said in Raipur on Tuesday that the decision to send the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Sri Lanka in 1987 was "a high level policy failure".
"The decision to deploy the IPKF in Sri Lanka was a high-level policy failure," the former Army chief said at an event to discuss his autobiography titled 'Courage and Conviction' here. "It was a policy failure that the Government of India and Sri Lanka had entered into an agreement, while the fight was between Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government. Neither there was control over the LTTE nor did they owe any responsibility," he said.
"It was a policy failure and it was due to several reasons. You (Indian Army) went there for peace keeping but got entangled in the war," he said. The Union Minister claimed that during IPKF operations in Sri Lanka, Indian forces got several opportunities to nab LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran but every time there were "instructions", which ensured him a safe passage.
Singh also claimed that at one point, none other than late Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa had sought to help the LTTE fight the IPKF. On improving ties between India and Pakistan, Singh said an initiative has been taken with the neighbouring nation, which has been asked to ensure a good atmosphere there.
"We have been expressing our concern to them (Pakistan). I believe that several things are hampering the development of Pakistan. Amidst all these things, they have to chalk out a solution. We can't impose our own solution on them. We hope that they will deliberate on those issues about which we have expressed our concern," he said.
He said that China has settled border issues with all its neighbouring countries, but not with India. "Trouble erupted since the day China started calling Arunachal as 'South Tibet'. China has settled its border disputes with all neighbouring countries, but not with India. The issue needs to be resolved. However, we can't fix a time frame for that," he said.
If Yemeni artillery and rockets start blasting shipping of the “Saudi led coalition”, a demand being expressed by massive Yemeni demonstrations, Egypt won’t have much choice. The “Bab al Mandeb” (so aptly named “the gate of tears”) is so narrow that all shipping traveling through this strategic choke point between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea have to pass well within range of even light artillery. President Al Sisi has already raised the alarm of the danger if such a disaster should strike, though preventing such is easier said than done.
by Thomas C. Mountain
( April 13, 2015, Eretria, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Saudi military is almost entirely staffed by mercenaries. The Saudi jets bombing an air defenseless Yemen are piloted by Pakistanis. Its mid and low level officers are mainly from Jordan and most ominously for its ability to actually launch a ground invasion, its rank and file soldiers are almost entirely from Yemen.
That’s right, the Saudi army is packed full of Yemeni cannon fodder, which helps explains its ignominious failure in its war with Yemen’s Houthi’s in 2009.
Does anyone really believe that the Yemeni soldiers for hire in the Saudi army are going to willingly, never mind effectively, invade their own country, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake all the while killing, and being killed by, their Yemeni brothers and sisters?
This may explain the reluctance of the Saudi leadership to launch their promised invasion, especially while the Houthi militia’s are still an effective fighting force on the ground.
Supposedly Egypt is going to send its army to help invade Yemen, never mind Yemen being the graveyard for thousands of Egyptian soldiers in what the late President Nasser called Egypt’s Vietnam in the early-mid 1960’s.
The Egyptian army is made up of mostly illiterate conscripts dragooned from the poorest sectors of Egyptian society and has been particularly inept at suppressing the vicious insurgency being waged again President Al Sisi’s regime in the Sinai. If the Egyptian army can’t even control its own territory it certainly doesn’t bode well for any foreign misadventures it may undertake.
Of course it takes time to prepare the logistics needed to send a large fighting force to invade another country so Egyptian boots on the ground in Yemen may yet happen, but don’t hold your breath.
If Yemeni artillery and rockets start blasting shipping of the “Saudi led coalition”, a demand being expressed by massive Yemeni demonstrations, Egypt won’t have much choice. The “Bab al Mandeb” (so aptly named “the gate of tears”) is so narrow that all shipping traveling through this strategic choke point between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea have to pass well within range of even light artillery. President Al Sisi has already raised the alarm of the danger if such a disaster should strike, though preventing such is easier said than done.
And all the while starvation spreads through out Yemen, a country already one of the hungriest in the world. Yemen is one of the most food aid dependent countries on the planet importing by some accounts up to 90% of its food.
The Saudi leadership must figure if they can’t defeat the Yemeni resistance with their airpower they will cut off all food supplies and wait for starvation to bring Yemen to its knees?
To help hurry this process up Saudi war planes have already begun bombing major grain depots in Yemen, as all the while the “Saudi led coalition” has prevented all but the equivalent of a couple of truck loads of supplies flown in by the Red Cross. A couple of truck loads to feed a food aid dependent country of almost 25 million in the midst of a barbaric air bombardment?
As the Saudi air force continues to terrorize the Yemeni population with bombs marked “made in the USA” and malnutrition turns to outright starvation the immediate future for the people of Yemen grows darker by the day.
One thing is certain and that is our world operates under “the rule of law”, the law of the jungle that is, and any crime, including imposing mass starvation will only be met with acquiescence, if not assistance,
as Saudi Arabia’s mercenary army continues its aerial onslaught and enforced starvation against the people of Yemen.
Thomas C. Mountain has been living and reporting from Eritrea, next door to Yemen, since 2006. He can be reached at thomascmountain at gmail dot com or when he is away from the internet, at 2917175665.
The nightmare of 12-year-old “Jalila” began when Islamic State fighters abducted her, along with her family, in northern Iraq. They separated her from her family and imprisoned her in a house in northeastern Syria with other abducted Yazidi women and girls. Then the jihadi fighters came, one after another, to inspect them. One singled Jalila out, took her home, and proceeded to rape her for three days. Six other Islamic State fighters eventually took possession of Jalila during her captivity, she told me recently — three of them raped her.
This was not an isolated act. When the Islamic State attacked towns in northwestern Iraq in August and abducted thousands of fleeing Yazidis, its forces systematically separated young women and girls from their families and other captives. They then moved the women and girls from place to place inside Iraq and Syria, raping and beating many of them, and forcing them into sexual slavery.
Jalila eventually escaped, but her ordeal is far from over. When I visited Iraq in January and February to interview Yazidi women and girls about their experiences, I found that many of them desperately need psychological counseling and other medical care, which is often unavailable or inaccessible.
“I can’t sleep at night because I remember how they were raping me,” Jalila told me in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk. “I want to do something to forget about my psychological problems. I want to leave Iraq until things get better; I don’t want to be captured again.”
As an investigator of human rights violations, I have documented many atrocious acts of sectarian violence and wanton bloodshed over the last decade. But the Islamic State’s targeting of Yazidi women and girls is unique in its ferociousness. This apparently systematic abuse constitutes war crimes, and may well amount to crimes against humanity.
Islamic State leaders have attempted to use religion to legitimize the enslavement and rape of Yazidi women. In a document apparently issued by its Research and Fatwa Department, the group puts forward its extreme interpretation of Islamic law, saying it permits sex with non-Muslim “slaves” — including young girls who have yet to reach puberty — as long as they are “fit” for intercourse. The same document refers to female slaves as property, thus sanctioning their sale and disciplinary beating.
Former captives told me that Islamic State fighters had sold girls and women to one another for as much as $2,000.
Overwhelmed Kurdish officials and community groups have made valiant efforts to provide health services to the Yazidi women and girls, but major gaps in the available programs remain. Some women received treatment immediately after returning, while others were only able to obtain essential medical care weeks after escaping from captivity. Some women who received treatment and tests for pregnancy and infections were neither aware of the purpose of those tests nor informed of the results.
Some women became pregnant. Their access to reproductive health services — including safe abortion — is crucial, but it is provided inconsistently. International organizations and nongovernmental groups have told me that there is not only a lack of psychosocial support, but also reluctance by the women and girls to accept such help. Even when help was available, therapists and organizations were often not adequately trained or equipped to assess the psychological needs of former captives.
The Kurdistan Regional Government — with assistance from Iraq’s central government, the United Nations, and international donors — should ensure these women and girls have access to necessary medical and psychosocial services, including trauma support and ongoing counseling. This should include immediate treatment for injuries sustained during attacks, access to emergency contraception and safe and legal abortion services where medically appropriate, preventive measures and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, prenatal and maternal health services, financial assistance, education, and employment-skills training to help reintegrate them into the broader community.
However the conflict against the Islamic State plays out, the needs of the survivors and their communities should be addressed. While, in many ways, Jalila is lucky to have escaped captivity, her family is still missing and she is ensnared by her harrowing past. By ensuring that girls like Jalila receive the psychological help that they need, the world can rehabilitate former captives, restore broken communities, and prevent the Islamic State’s misogynist cruelties from ruining lives forever.
Three ships being monitored as MoD finds no evidence to support Russian claims that vessels are engaged in military exercises
The Royal Navy frigate HMS Argyll, above, has been monitoring three Russian ships in the Channel. Photograph: Royal Navy/MoD/PA
Ewen MacAskill Defence correspondent-Tuesday 14 April 2015
The Royal Navy is monitoring a Russian warship that entered the Channel on Tuesday morning.
The Ministry of Defence deployed Plymouth-based HMS Argyll to track the Russian Udaloy-class destroyer Severomorsk and two support ships, including a tanker.
The MoD, contrary to Russian claims, said there was no evidence the ships were engaged in any military exercises.
The passage of Russian naval vessels through the Channel was until last year regarded as routine. But the west-east tension as a result of the Ukrainian crisis has added an edge to such voyages.
Since the Russian takeover of Crimea, Nato forces have stepped up military exercises along the Russian border, in particular in the Baltics. In response, Russian armed forces have increased sorties, with its pilots flying close to British airspace.
There was a minor row in November when a Russian naval squadron, led by a destroyer, anchored in the Channel. Russia claimed they were conducting military exercises at the time, though Nato denied this.
The Russian news agency Interfax on Tuesday quoted Russia’s defence ministry as saying the ships that entered the Channel would hold anti-aircraft and anti-submarine drills.
The MoD tweeted: “No exercises seen.”
A Lynx helicopter from the Argyll helped monitor the Russian ships, which were returning from the Mediterranean. According to the MoD, the ships are due to leave the Channel later.
(Reuters) - Recent shifts in exchange rates should help the global economy, boosting Japan and Europe in particular, amid increasing divergence in the growth paths of the world's major economies, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.
The Washington-based institution kept its global growth forecasts unchanged, with faster economic expansion in the euro zone and India expected to be offset by diminished prospects in other key emerging markets such as Russia and Brazil.
But it cautioned that the economic recovery remains "moderate and uneven," beset by greater uncertainty and a host of risks, including geopolitical tensions and financial volatility.
In its flagship World Economic Outlook, the IMF kept its forecast for global growth this year at 3.5 percent. For 2016, the IMF expects global gross domestic product to expand 3.8 percent, up from the 3.7 percent it forecast in January.
The headline figures mask a growing split among major economies, in part due to the varying impacts of currency fluctuations and lower oil prices.
The sharp rise of the dollar against the euro and yen is expected to be a major theme at the meeting of the world's top economic policymakers in Washington later this week. The currency moves have exposed some emerging economies as well.
The IMF said monetary policies are driving most of the currency movements, as the U.S. Federal Reserve prepares to raise rates while the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan maintain their monetary stimulus.
The currency effects should boost global GDP, supporting demand in the still-troubled economies of the euro zone and Japan, the IMF said, raising its forecasts for both regions.
The IMF also cut its outlook for the United States, as a 10 percent appreciation in the dollar over the last six months dragged down net exports. But it said both the United States and China, whose yuan is linked to the dollar, have some policy space to offset the appreciation of their currencies.
The IMF said China, however, could still face a greater economic slowdown as its rebalances away from investment toward consumption-led growth.
The Fund also reiterated that many of the risks it highlighted in October, including geopolitical tensions and disruptive shifts in financial markets, could still derail the sluggish recovery.
"A world in which you have large movements in exchange rates ... is a more risky world, from a financial point of view," the IMF's chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, told reporters.
The Fund also highlighted the potential for shocks around the first U.S. interest rate hike in nearly nine years, which could prompt capital outflows from emerging markets.
The IMF said lower oil prices should add more than 0.5 percentage point to global economic growth by next year, but warned they could rise more quickly than expected and hurt global demand.
The IMF's managing director, Christine Lagarde, last week called the current level of growth "just not good enough" to help millions of people stuck without jobs, and again urged policymakers to pursue deeper reforms to boost economies' growth potential.
(Reporting by Anna Yukhananov, additional reporting by Krista Hughes; Editing by Leslie Adler and Dan Grebler)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has lifted an overseas travel ban on a Japanese journalist charged with defaming the South Korean president.
Tatsuya Kato had been banned from leaving South Korea since last August while prosecutors investigated his article about rumors that President Park Geun-hye was absent for seven hours during last year’s ferry disaster because she was with a man.
Kato, a former Seoul bureau chief of the conservative Sankei Shimbun newspaper, was indicted in October.
A Seoul prosecutors’ office said Tuesday that the Justice Ministry had accepted its request to lift the travel ban. It said the decision was made after judges determined that Kato’s report was inaccurate and that he promised to attend trial proceedings in Seoul.
Kato’s indictment raised questions about South Korea’s press freedom.
In the wake of Iran’s historic agreement with the United States on its nuclear programme, Reporters Without Borders calls on President Hassan Rouhani to keep another campaign promise – the immediate release of all detained journalists and online activists, many of whom are very ill and are being denied appropriate treatment.
After the international community hailed the 2 April accord, President Rouhani said on 3 April: “We have had tension and even hostility towards certain countries and we now hope for the end of this tension and hostility (...) The framework agreement envisages new cooperation with the world.”
“An agreement with the international community on nuclear issues and the lifting of sanctions was one of Rouhani’s main promises during his election campaign, but he also repeatedly promised the release of prisoners of conscience, including journalists and online activists, and he has yet to keep this pledge,” said Reza Moini, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Iran-Afghanistan desk.
“President Rouhani, we call for the immediate and unconditional release of all imprisoned journalists and Internet activists. The ‘cooperation’ you refer to needs above all unconditional cooperation with the United Nations and compliance with your international obligations, especially the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party. It is vital that you request the unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience in Iran.”
Iran continues to be one of the world’s five biggest prisons for news and information providers, with a total of 46 journalists and Internet activists currently detained. Arrested arbitrarily, convicted in unfair trials and held in inhuman and degrading conditions, many of these detainees are in danger.
Reporters Without Borders is especially concerned about the health of these journalists and online activists: Atena Ferghdani, who is awaiting trial, Said Razavi Faghih, who was sentenced to a year in prison and should have been freed in mid-March, Masoud Bastani, who has been held since July 2008 and who was sentenced to a total of six years in prison, Hossien Ronaghi Malki, who was arrested in 2010 and was sentenced to a total of 17 years in prison, and Saraj Mirdamadi, who has been held since March 2013 and is serving a three-year jail term.
Bastani and Malki should have been released months ago under article 134 of the new Islamic penal code (as amended in 2013), which says that defendants who are given more than one sentence should serve only the main one.
After visiting Rajaishahr prison on 1 March, health minister Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi said: “This prison is holding twice as many detainees as its capacity permits and cannot guarantee the required hygiene and health conditions (...) This is the first time I have come to this prison and the situation is really bad. People should not commit crimes, or else they will be incarcerated in this prison and will get ill and have lots of problems.”
The minister was referring to conditions in what is one of Iran’s worst prisons in terms of cases of torture, rape and murder. Its official capacity is 1,100 inmates but it is currently holding more than 5,000 detainees, including around 100 prisoners of conscience, of whom 20 are journalists or online activists. This prison has been criticized in several reports including the UN Secretary-General’s report of 12 August 2014 on the human rights situation in Iran.
At least 2,000 women and girls have been abducted by Boko Haram since the start of 2014 and many have been forced into sexual slavery and trained to fight, said Amnesty International on the first anniversary of the abduction of the Chibok school girls.
Based on nearly 200 witness accounts, including 28 with abducted women and girls who escaped captivity, a new 90-page report, 'Our job is to shoot, slaughter and kill': Boko Haram’s reign of terror, documents multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Boko Haram, including the killing of at least 5,500 civilians, as it rampaged across north-east Nigeria during 2014 and early 2015.
The Amnesty International report sheds new light on the brutal methods used by the armed group in north-east Nigeria where men and boys are regularly conscripted or systematically executed and young women and girls are abducted, imprisoned and in some cases raped, forcibly married and made to participate in armed attacks, sometimes on their own towns and villages.
“The evidence presented in this shocking report, one year after the horrific abduction of the Chibok girls, underlines the scale and depravity of Boko Haram’s methods,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“Men and women, boys and girls, Christians and Muslims, have been killed, abducted and brutalized by Boko Haram during a reign of terror which has affected millions. Recent military successes might spell the beginning of the end for Boko Haram, but there is a huge amount to be done to protect civilians, resolve the humanitarian crisis and begin the healing process.”
The report contains graphic evidence, including new satellite images, of the scale of devastation that Boko Haram have left in their wake.
Hear Aisha’s story
Abductions
The 276 schoolgirls abducted from Chibok gained global attention with the help of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. But the missing schoolgirls are only a small proportion of the women, girls, young men and boys abducted by Boko Haram.
Boko Haram would take the women and girls they abducted directly to camps in remote communities or to makeshift transits camps such as one established in Ngoshe prison. From transit camps Boko Haram would move them to houses in towns and villages and indoctrinate them with their version of Islam in preparation for marriage.
Aisha, aged 19, spoke to Amnesty International about how she was abducted from a friend’s wedding in September 2014 along with her sister, the bride and the bride’s sister. Boko Haram took them to a camp in Gullak, Adamawa state, home to approximately 100 abducted girls. One week later, Boko Haram forced the bride and the bride’s sister to marry their fighters. They also taught Aisha and the other women and girls how to fight.
“They used to train girls how to shoot guns. I was among the girls trained to shoot. I was also trained how to use bombs and how to attack a village,” Aisha told Amnesty International. “This training went on for three weeks after we arrived. Then they started sending some of us to operations. I went on one operation to my own village.”
Aisha said that during the three months that she was held captive, she was raped repeatedly, sometimes by groups of up to six fighters. She also saw more than 50 people killed by Boko Haram, including her sister. “Some of them refused to convert. Some refused to learn how to kill others. They were buried in a mass grave in the bush. They’ll just pack the dead bodies and dump them in a big hole, but not deep enough. I didn’t see the hole, but we used to get the smell from the dead bodies when they start getting rotten.”
Mass killings
Since the start of 2014, Amnesty International documented at least 300 raids and attacks carried out by Boko Haram against civilians. During their attacks on towns, they would systematically target the military or police first, capturing arms and ammunition, before turning on the civilian population. They would shoot anyone trying to escape, rounding up and executing men of fighting age.
Ahmed and Alhaji, aged 20 and 18, were seated with other men, waiting for their throats to be cut after Boko Haram took over Madagali on 14 December 2014. Ahmed told Amnesty International that even though his instinct told him to run, he could not. “They were slaughtering them with knives. Two men were doing the killing...We all sat on the ground and waited our turn.” Alhaji only managed to escape when a Boko Haram executioner’s blade became too dull to slit more throats. “Before they got to my group, they killed 27 people in front of me. I was counting every one of them because I wanted to know when my turn would come.” He said that at least 100 men who refused to join Boko Haram were executed in Madagali on that day.
In Gwoza, Boko Haram killed at least 600 people during an attack on 6 August 2014. Witnesses told Amnesty International how anyone trying to escape would be pursued. “The motorcycles went to surrounding areas, each street corner, where they will shoot you. They are only shooting the men.”
Thousands fled to nearby mountains where Boko Haram fighters hunted them down and forced them out of the caves where they were hiding with tear gas canisters. The women were then abducted. The men were killed.
Burning and looting: new satellite images of the destruction of Bama
Satellite imagery commissioned by Amnesty International has enabled the organization to document the scale of devastation wreaked by Boko Haram. This includes new before and after images of Bama commissioned for the report. These show that at least 5,900 structures, approximately 70 percent of the town, were either damaged or destroyed, including the hospital, by retreating Boko Haram fighters as the Nigerian military regained control of the town in March 2015.
Witnesses interviewed by Amnesty International described how Bama’s streets were littered with bodies and how people were burned alive in buildings. One woman said: “When the military got close to the barracks [in Bama] and almost took over, they [the military] later withdrew. Then the insurgents started killing people and burning houses.”
Life under Boko Haram
The report documents the reign of terror for those under Boko Haram rule. Soon after taking control of a town, Boko Haram would assemble the population and announce new rules with restrictions of movement, particularly on women. Most households became dependent on children to collect food or on visits by Boko Haram members who offered assistance, distributing looted food.
Boko Haram enforced its rules with harsh punishments. Failure to attend daily prayers was punishable by public flogging. A woman who spent five months under Boko Haram control in Gamborou told Amnesty International how she had seen a woman given 30 lashes for selling children’s clothes and a couple executed publicly for adultery.
A 15-year-old boy from Bama, spared by Boko Haram due to his disability, told Amnesty International that he had witnessed 10 stonings. “They stone them to death on Fridays. They will gather all the children and ask them to stone. I participated in the stoning… They will dig a hole, bury all the body and stone the head. When the person dies, they will leave the stones until the body decays.”
The report also highlights growing tensions between Christians and Muslims. Many Christians interviewed by Amnesty International believe that Muslims have informed Boko Haram of their whereabouts or failed to share information about impending attacks and this has left a legacy of distrust between some communities that previously lived harmoniously side-by-side. Whilst Boko Haram has destroyed churches and killed Christians who refuse to convert to Islam, they have also targeted moderate Muslims.
Amnesty International is calling on Boko Haram to stop killing civilians and for the Nigerian government to take all possible legal steps to ensure their protection and restore security in the north-east. The international community should also continue to assist the new government of Nigeria in addressing the threat posed by Boko Haram.
“The change of government in Nigeria provides an opportunity for a new approach to security in Nigeria after the dismal failure of recent years,” said Salil Shetty.
“The abducted must be rescued, war crimes and crimes against humanity must be investigated. Bodies must be disinterred from mass graves, further killings must be prevented and those guilty of inflicting this unspeakable suffering must be brought to justice.”
The information on Boko Haram documented by Amnesty International should be considered by the International Criminal Court to as part of its ongoing preliminary examination of the situation in north-east Nigeria.
Background
Amnesty International has raised concerns on a number of occasions that security forces are not doing enough to protect civilians from human rights abuses committed by Boko Haram. There have been very few effective investigations and prosecutions of Boko Haram members for crimes under international law.
The report draws on 377 interviews, including 189 with victims and eye-witnesses to attacks by Boko Haram; 22 with local officials; 22 with military sources; and 102 with human rights defenders. The testimony comes from women, men and children, both Muslims and Christians. Almost all people interviewed asked not to be identified for security reasons; therefore all names used in the report are pseudonyms.
Amnesty International collected this evidence in the course of four research trips in 2014 and 2015 to Maiduguri, camps for internally displaced people in north-east Nigeria and a refugee camp in northern Cameroon. Numerous interviews were also conducted by phone from London.
Amnesty International has documented 38 cases of abduction by Boko Haram. It has gathered 77 testimonies on abductions, including with 31 eyewitnesses and with 28 women and girls who were abducted by Boko Haram and escaped.
Ceremonies are held to mark the anniversary of the kidnappings of 219 girls from a secondary school in Nigeria.
TUESDAY14 APRIL 2015
Girls and young women in Nigeria's capital Abuja marched through the city to draw attention to their plight. Among them was Reverend Enoch Mark, whose daughter Monica was kidnapped.
He said his life had been turned upside down since she was taken. "We feel so bad, we feel so sad. My wife is under treatment," he said. "We chew drugs like food now, we take drugs now more than the food or water we take since our daughter was abducted."
#BringBackOurGirls
The campaign to free the girls has been boosted by the support of US First Lady Michelle Obama and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai - with supporters using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls on Twitter to highlight their disappearance.
But the 219 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamists in Chibok in north eastern Nigeria remain in captivity.
Some 276 girls were initially seized when gunmen turned up at their school, but 57 managed to escaped. Little has been heard about the remaining 219, although there have been reported sightings.
BringBackOurGirls has published the names of the 219 Chibok girls, along with a composite photo of 60 of them. It has also tweeted pictures of Lugina Samuel and Lugwa Abuga, who are among the 219, but it has no information about them.
BringBackOurGirls told Channel 4 News that most of the girls were from very poor backgrounds, with parents "struggling to make ends meet".
In total, more than 2,000 women and girls have been seized by Boko Haram militants since the start of 2014, according to an Amnesty International report published today, with captives forced to become sex slaves or soldiers.
Execution
The report, Our Job Is To Shoot, Slaughter And Kill: Boko Haram's Reign Of Terror, also found evidence of regular conscription and systematic execution of men and boys, claiming the Muslim extremists have killed around 5,500 civilians since the start of last year.
Last year, Mausi Segum, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, interviewed 30 people who had been adbucted by Boko Haram, including 12 Chibok students who escaped.
Abuse
In a report published in October 2014, she wrote:"The women and girls told Human Rights Watch that for refusing to convert to Islam, they and many others they saw in the camps were subjected to physical and psychological abuse; forced labour; forced participation in military operations, including carrying ammunition or luring men into ambush; forced marriage to their captors; and sexual abuse, including rape."
Most of the women were targeted because they were Christians, students, or both. The name Boko Haram means western education is forbidden.
"The victims appear to have been targeted either because of their presumed religious affiliation or for attending western-styled schools. Some of the victims were threatened with death if they refused to convert to Islam."
13 April 2015
13 April 2015
( April 13, 2015, Eretria, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Saudi military is almost entirely staffed by mercenaries. The Saudi jets bombing an air defenseless Yemen are piloted by Pakistanis. Its mid and low level officers are mainly from Jordan and most ominously for its ability to actually launch a ground invasion, its rank and file soldiers are almost entirely from Yemen.
