Just Foreign Policy News
July 13, 2011
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I) Actions and Featured Articles
Bxxxxxt the Sxxxxxxxxxs! Israeli Knesset Bans Free Speech for Jews
As Bertrand Russell would have observed, the Knesset law barring advocacy of boycotts against the occupation is likely to backfire.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/israel-boycott-ban_b_895661.html
Video: Israeli Navy Water Cannon Attack On CPSGaza boat "Olivia," inside 3 mile limit
The CPSGaza boats accompany Palestinian fishermen as they attempt to fish under threat from the Israeli Navy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSosYx_73FI
Video: Bil’in village joins Nabi Saleh in protesting the stealing of Nabi Saleh land and fresh water springs
On Saturday, 9th July 2011, the people of An Nabi Saleh staged a peaceful protest against the stealing of their land by the illegal colony of Halamish. Three Israeli solidarity activists were arrested.
http://nabisalehsolidarity.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/bilin-village-joins-nabi-saleh-in-protesting-the-stealing-of-nabi-saleh-land-and-fresh-water-springs/
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II) Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) Human Rights Watch said rebels in Libya’s west have looted and damaged four towns seized since last month from Libyan government forces, part of a series of abuses and apparent reprisals against suspected government loyalists that have chased residents of these towns away, the New York Times reports. Rebel fighters also beat people suspected of being loyalists and burned their homes, HRW said. HRW’s findings raise the prospect that NATO-backed rebel advances risk being accompanied by retaliatory crimes that could inflame tribal or factional grievances, endangering the civilians that NATO was mandated to protect, the Times says. Support for the war has waned in Europe and in Washington, the Times notes.
2) The French vessel Dignité-Al Karama is the only boat from the Freedom Flotilla II actually sailing for Gaza in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade, Inter Press Service reports. "We had to stop in Crete to refuel, as we did not have enough fuel to reach Gaza," French MEP Nicole Kiil-Nielsen said. "Now, the Dignité is free and we are organising another group of passengers, probably international, to go on to Gaza."
3) Lawyers charge that the US is involved in a "decentralized, out-sourced Guantánamo" in Somalia, Jeremy Scahill reports in The Nation. The lawyers say prisoners there are being denied the right to challenge their detention. Some have been detained for a year or more. US officials are involved in interrogations.
4) The UN torture investigator on Tuesday accused the US of violating U.N. rules by refusing him unfettered access to Bradley Manning, AP reports. Juan Mendez, the U.N.’s special rapporteur for torture, said he can’t do his job unless he has unmonitored access to detainees. He said the U.S. military’s insistence on monitoring conversations with Bradley Manning "violates long-standing rules" the U.N. follows for visits to inmates.
5) The US is viewed less favorably in much of the Arab world today than it was during the final year of the Bush administration, and President Obama is less popular in the region than Iranian President Ahmadinejad, the Boston Globe reports, citing an AAI poll. Just 5 percent of Egyptians view the US favorably. The poll shows that the policies of Iran are viewed more favorably than the policies of the US. US failure to make progress on the Israel-Palestine conflict created widespread disillusionment, says James Zogby of AAI.
Afghanistan
6) The killing of Ahmed Wali Karzai will reinforce the feeling among Afghans that the Taliban can strike anywhere at any time and are not weakening as US military commanders have claimed, Patrick Cockburn writes in The Independent. This will be the impact regardless of who killed Karzai because the assassination follows the attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul and the killing of top officials in northern Afghanistan, Cockburn writes.
Israel/Palestine
7) Two Australians who were detained for trying to visit the West Bank had their deportation orders overturned by an Israeli court, AAP reports. Supporters claimed the ruling set a precedent in asserting the rights of solidarity activists to visit the West Bank.
Colombia
8) Colombian trade unionists joined their American counterparts to lobby in Washington against the Colombia trade agreement, In These Times reports. Colombian trade unionists say that despite promises of reform, they are still getting death threats for engaging in trade union activity.
Haiti
9) Human rights lawyers submitted a petition to the Haitian parliament for the High Court of Justice to indict and try President Michel Martelly’s nominee for Prime Minister, Bernard Gousse, for the crimes committed during his tenure as Justice Minister under Haiti’s 2004–2006 de facto regime, IJDH reports. Prime Minister Gerard Latortue’s dictatorship following the 2004 coup d’état murdered thousands and illegally detained hundreds of political dissidents.
Guatemala
10) US immigration officials said Pedro Pimentel Rios, who was allegedly a member of a Guatemalan commando unit that massacred dozens of men, women and children, was deported to Guatemala Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reports. "This is a great day for justice," said John Woods, the deputy assistant director of ICE’s national security investigations division. The U.S., he said, "is not going be the conduit for people who commit these atrocities to live out their lives in peace."
Mexico
11) Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that Mexican soldiers accused of rights abuses can face civil trials instead of closed-door military tribunals, Reuters reports. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered Mexico to reform the military justice system last year. [Civil trials of soldiers accused of abuses of civilians has been a longstanding demand of human rights groups – JFP.]
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Libyan Rebels Accused of Pillage and Beatings
C. J. Chivers, New York Times, July 12, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/world/africa/13libya.html
Zintan, Libya – Rebels in the mountains in Libya’s west have looted and damaged four towns seized since last month from the forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, part of a series of abuses and apparent reprisals against suspected loyalists that have chased residents of these towns away, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.
The looting included many businesses and at least two medical centers that, like the towns, are now deserted and bare.
Rebel fighters also beat people suspected of being loyalists and burned their homes, the organization said.
The towns that have suffered the abuses are Qawalish, which rebels seized last week, Awaniya, Rayaniyah and Zawiyat al-Bagul, which fell to the rebels last month. Some of the abuses, Human Rights Watch said, were directed against members of the Mashaashia tribe, which has long supported Colonel Qaddafi.
The organization’s findings come as support for the war has waned in Europe and in Washington, where Republicans and Democrats alike have questioned American participation on budgetary and legal grounds.
They also raise the prospect that the NATO-backed rebel advances, which have stalled or slowed to a crawl, risk being accompanied by further retaliatory crimes that could inflame tribal or factional grievances, endangering the civilians that NATO was mandated to protect.
[…]
2) French Ship Carries Freedom Flotilla’s "Dignity" to Gaza
Begoña Astigarraga, Inter Press Service, Jul 12
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=56455
Athens – The French vessel Dignité-Al Karama is the only boat from the Freedom Flotilla II actually sailing for Gaza in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade imposed in 2006. At the same time, six Spanish members of the humanitarian aid mission went on hunger strike in the Greek capital.
The hunger strikers, who have occupied the Spanish embassy in Athens since Jul. 5, were travelling on the Spanish ship Gernika (Guernica) that was part of the flotilla carrying 500 activists from 45 different countries, and 5,000 tonnes of aid, bound for the Gaza Strip.
Nearly all the ships have been confined to port in Greece for the last 10 days, except for the Dignité-Al Karama which sailed from the French island of Corsica Jun. 25, evaded the Greek blockade on more than one occasion and remains the only vessel of the flotilla still sailing freely.
With 10 representatives of several delegations of the humanitarian coalition on board, the Dignité received permission Jul. 9 to sail for the island of Rhodes, Manolis Plionis, a member of the Greek delegation of the Freedom Flotilla II – "Stay Human", confirmed to IPS.
From on board the Dignité, French Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Nicole Kiil-Nielsen told IPS that after having been stopped last week in Ormos Kouremenos, in Crete, they were taken to Sitia by the Greek coast guard and eventually allowed to sail from there.
"We had to stop in Crete to refuel, as we did not have enough fuel to reach Gaza," Kiil-Nielsen said. "Now, the Dignité is free and we are organising another group of passengers, probably international, to go on to Gaza."
Manuel Tapial, coordinator of Rumbo a Gaza (Sailing to Gaza) Spain, told IPS that "the Dignité-Al Karama is heading for Gaza on its own, representing the dignity of the flotilla, and carrying representatives of the international coalition delegations."
In addition to the crew and MEP Kiil-Nielsen, passengers include Vangelis Pissias, the coordinator of the Greek delegation, Swedish-Israeli musician Dror Feiler and actor Guillermo "Willy" Toledo, representing the Spanish delegation.
Meanwhile, six Rumbo a Gaza activists began a hunger strike at the Spanish embassy in Greece Monday Jul. 11, after medical checks. Two other members of the group participated in the protest from Madrid.
In a communiqué released Monday, the activists said they would fast until "the Spanish government shows some sign that it will intercede (with the Greek authorities) so that the Gernika may sail freely across the Mediterranean."
The six hunger strikers are among a score of activists who occupied the Spanish embassy in Athens with the declared intent of remaining there until their country’s Foreign Ministry responded to their demands, and until their ship, held by the Greek authorities in Kolymbari, Crete, was released and allowed to go to a safe port or return to Spain.
[…] The Gernika is still confined to port in Greece, in spite of having resubmitted to the authorities all the necessary documentation for permission to set sail, said Elvira Souto, one of the hunger strikers.
Eight other vessels, including two cargo ships, are still blocked in various Greek ports, while an Irish ship is in a Turkish port undergoing repairs for alleged sabotage suffered two weeks ago.
The crew of the Canadian vessel Tahrir has decided to give up plans to sail to Gaza for the moment; the U.S. ship Audacity of Hope is still in custody in Athens; and the other French boat, the Louise Michel, the Italian vessel Stefano Chiarini, the Freedom for All, the Methimus II and the Gernika are regrouping, ready to form a new flotilla, columnist Eric Verlo wrote in his blog at www.notmytribe.com.
[…]
3) The CIA’s Secret Sites in Somalia
Jeremy Scahill, The Nation, July 12, 2011
http://www.thenation.com/article/161936/cias-secret-sites-somalia
Nestled in a back corner of Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport is a sprawling walled compound run by the Central Intelligence Agency. Set on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the facility looks like a small gated community, with more than a dozen buildings behind large protective walls and secured by guard towers at each of its four corners. Adjacent to the compound are eight large metal hangars, and the CIA has its own aircraft at the airport. The site, which airport officials and Somali intelligence sources say was completed four months ago, is guarded by Somali soldiers, but the Americans control access. At the facility, the CIA runs a counterterrorism training program for Somali intelligence agents and operatives aimed at building an indigenous strike force capable of snatch operations and targeted "combat" operations against members of Al Shabab, an Islamic militant group with close ties to Al Qaeda.
As part of its expanding counterterrorism program in Somalia, the CIA also uses a secret prison buried in the basement of Somalia’s National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters, where prisoners suspected of being Shabab members or of having links to the group are held. Some of the prisoners have been snatched off the streets of Kenya and rendered by plane to Mogadishu. While the underground prison is officially run by the Somali NSA, US intelligence personnel pay the salaries of intelligence agents and also directly interrogate prisoners. The existence of both facilities and the CIA role was uncovered by The Nation during an extensive on-the-ground investigation in Mogadishu. Among the sources who provided information for this story are senior Somali intelligence officials; senior members of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG); former prisoners held at the underground prison; and several well-connected Somali analysts and militia leaders, some of whom have worked with US agents, including those from the CIA. A US official, who confirmed the existence of both sites, told The Nation, "It makes complete sense to have a strong counterterrorism partnership" with the Somali government.
The CIA presence in Mogadishu is part of Washington’s intensifying counterterrorism focus on Somalia, which includes targeted strikes by US Special Operations forces, drone attacks and expanded surveillance operations. The US agents "are here full time," a senior Somali intelligence official told me. At times, he said, there are as many as thirty of them in Mogadishu, but he stressed that those working with the Somali NSA do not conduct operations; rather, they advise and train Somali agents. "In this environment, it’s very tricky. They want to help us, but the situation is not allowing them to do [it] however they want. They are not in control of the politics, they are not in control of the security," he adds. "They are not controlling the environment like Afghanistan and Iraq. In Somalia, the situation is fluid, the situation is changing, personalities changing."
[…] According to former detainees, the underground prison, which is staffed by Somali guards, consists of a long corridor lined with filthy small cells infested with bedbugs and mosquitoes. One said that when he arrived in February, he saw two white men wearing military boots, combat trousers, gray tucked-in shirts and black sunglasses. The former prisoners described the cells as windowless and the air thick, moist and disgusting. Prisoners, they said, are not allowed outside. Many have developed rashes and scratch themselves incessantly. Some have been detained for a year or more. According to one former prisoner, inmates who had been there for long periods would pace around constantly, while others leaned against walls rocking.
A Somali who was arrested in Mogadishu and taken to the prison told The Nation that he was held in a windowless underground cell. Among the prisoners he met during his time there was a man who held a Western passport (he declined to identify the man’s nationality). Some of the prisoners told him they were picked up in Nairobi and rendered on small aircraft to Mogadishu, where they were handed over to Somali intelligence agents. Once in custody, according to the senior Somali intelligence official and former prisoners, some detainees are freely interrogated by US and French agents. "Our goal is to please our partners, so we get more [out] of them, like any relationship," said the Somali intelligence official in describing the policy of allowing foreign agents, including from the CIA, to interrogate prisoners. The Americans, according to the Somali official, operate unilaterally in the country, while the French agents are embedded within the African Union force known as AMISOM.
Among the men believed to be held in the secret underground prison is Ahmed Abdullahi Hassan, a 25- or 26-year-old Kenyan citizen who disappeared from the congested Somali slum of Eastleigh in Nairobi around July 2009. After he went missing, Hassan’s family retained Mbugua Mureithi, a well-known Kenyan human rights lawyer, who filed a habeas petition on his behalf. The Kenyan government responded that Hassan was not being held in Kenya and said it had no knowledge of his whereabouts. His fate remained a mystery until this spring, when another man who had been held in the Mogadishu prison contacted Clara Gutteridge, a veteran human rights investigator with the British legal organization Reprieve, and told her he had met Hassan in the prison. Hassan, he said, had told him how Kenyan police had knocked down his door, snatched him and taken him to a secret location in Nairobi. The next night, Hassan had said, he was rendered to Mogadishu.
According to the former fellow prisoner, Hassan told him that his captors took him to Wilson Airport: "’They put a bag on my head, Guantánamo style. They tied my hands behind my back and put me on a plane. In the early hours we landed in Mogadishu. The way I realized I was in Mogadishu was because of the smell of the sea-the runway is just next to the seashore. The plane lands and touches the sea. They took me to this prison, where I have been up to now. I have been here for one year, seven months. I have been interrogated so many times. Interrogated by Somali men and white men. Every day. New faces show up. They have nothing on me. I have never seen a lawyer, never seen an outsider. Only other prisoners, interrogators, guards. Here there is no court or tribunal.’"
[…] Hassan’s lawyers are preparing to file a habeas petition on his behalf in US courts. "Hassan’s case suggests that the US may be involved in a decentralized, out-sourced Guantánamo Bay in central Mogadishu," his legal team asserted in a statement to The Nation. "Mr. Hassan must be given the opportunity to challenge both his rendition and continued detention as a matter of urgency. The US must urgently confirm exactly what has been done to Mr. Hassan, why he is being held, and when he will be given a fair hearing."
[…]
4) UN official says US breaks rules on access to detainee in torture probe
Associated Press, July 12
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/un-official-says-us-breaks-rules-on-access-to-detainee-in-torture-probe/2011/07/12/gIQA20CGAI_story.html
Geneva – The United Nations’ torture investigator on Tuesday accused the United States of violating U.N. rules by refusing him unfettered access to the Army private accused of passing classified documents to WikiLeaks.
Juan Mendez, the U.N.’s special rapporteur for torture, said he can’t do his job unless he has unmonitored access to detainees. He said the U.S. military’s insistence on monitoring conversations with Bradley Manning "violates long-standing rules" the U.N. follows for visits to inmates.
Manning has been detained by the U.S. military for most of the past year in a case pitting the U.S. government against advocates of transparency in government. The Army private stands accused of being the source of a trove of sensitive documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
He was transferred to a Kansas military prison in April after being confined alone in a cell for 23 hours a day in a Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Virginia, for eight months after his arrest. He faces about two dozen charges, including aiding the enemy. That charge can bring the death penalty or life in prison.
Mendez said the U.S. government assured him Manning is better treated now than he was in Quantico, but the government must allow the U.N. investigator to check that for himself.
Mendez said he needs to assess whether the conditions Manning experienced amounted to "torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" while at Quantico. "For that, it is imperative that I talk to Mr. Manning under conditions where I can be assured that he is being absolutely candid," Mendez said.
[…]
5) Obama, US viewed less favorably in Arab world, poll shows
Farah Stockman, Boston Globe, July 13, 2011 4:15 PM
http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2011/07/obama-viewed-less-favorably-arab-world-poll-shows/yIVn6f6PueWbdhZutglhoJ/index.html
The United States is viewed less favorably in much of the Arab world today than it was during the final year of the Bush administration, and President Obama is less popular in the region than Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to a poll released today by the Arab American Institute, a nonpartisan research and advocacy group.
Attitudes towards the US president and the United States as a whole have been growing increasingly negative over the past ten years due to the invasion of Iraq, outrage over Guantanamo Bay, and continued frustration over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, which has been tracking attitudes for a decade.
But the current poll is striking in that is illustrates how far Obama’s favorability has fallen in the region, after an initial optimistic spike when he took office. "It’s because expectations were created that were not met," Zogby said.
In 2008, the final year of the Bush administration, only 9 percent of Egyptians had a favorable attitude towards the United States. A year later, after Obama took office, that number jumped to 30 percent. But now it has plummeted to just 5 percent of Egyptians who view the United States favorably.
Similar figures in Morocco, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates show that the United States is viewed less favorably now than the final year of the Bush administration.
In a worrisome sign for US policymakers who would like to enlist the region’s support in isolating the Iranian regime, the poll shows that the policies of Iran are viewed more favorably than the policies of the United States.
In Egypt and Jordan, only 3 percent of people polled said they agreed with Obama’s policies in the region, compared to 31 percent and 20 percent who said they agreed with the Iranian president’s. In Saudi Arabia, only 10 percent agreed with Obama’s policies, compared to 4 percent who said they agreed with the Iranian president.
Zogby said Obama’s appointment of a special ambassador to work on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – by far the most important issue to people in the region, according to the poll – raised initial expectations. But then the US failure to make progress on the issue created widespread disillusionment.
[…]
Afghanistan
6) Attacks show Taliban are not as weak as the US claims
Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, Wednesday, 13 July 2011
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-attacks-show-taliban-are-not-as-weak-as-the-us-claims-2312660.html
The killing of Ahmed Wali Karzai, the most powerful Afghan in the south of the country, will reinforce the feeling among Afghans that the Taliban can strike anywhere at any time and are not weakening as American military commanders have claimed.
This will be the impact regardless of who killed Mr Karzai because the assassination follows the attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul and the killing of top officials in northern Afghanistan.
These spectacular and highly publicised attacks are typical of developments in the war since the United States launched its troop surge in 2009, which is now in the process of being reversed. The Taliban reportedly killed and wounded 56 per cent more US soldiers in the nine months leading up to May, compared with a similar period a year earlier. When they have come under pressure in one valley, they move to another one.
If necessary, they can also take temporary refuge in Pakistan, which shares a 1,550-mile border with Afghanistan – about the same distance from London to Moscow. Also in the Taliban’s favour is the deteriorating relationship between the US and Pakistan since the killing of Osama bin Laden.
There are other signs the Taliban remain a well-organised military group, such as the spectacular escape from Kandahar prison of 541 prisoners down a 1,200ft tunnel dug over five months in April this year. The US claim to have killed many mid-level Taliban commanders is probably true, but they are being replaced by vengeful cousins and brothers who are less likely to support local or national peace agreements than their predecessors.
The overall problems of the Afghan government and its foreign allies remain the same. The central government is weak and is regarded as a collection of racketeers by much of the population. The Taliban may not be very popular, but the total alienation of so many Afghans from the government gives it undiminished political and military strength.
[…]
Israel/Palestine
7) Former MP to stay in Israel
Lema Samandar, Australian Associated Press, July 13, 2011 – 11:34PM
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/former-mp-to-stay-in-israel-20110713-1hd0o.html
Former Greens MP Sylvia Hale and another Australian woman who were detained by Israeli authorities had a court overturn their deportation orders, NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge says.
Ms Hale, a former member of the NSW upper house, and activist Vivienne Porzsolt flew to Tel Aviv on Tuesday to participate in the Welcome to Palestine initiative before being arrested, NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said.
They were detained in the early hours of Wednesday (AEST) after they tried to enter Bethlehem, a Palestinian city in the West Bank.
"Her local lawyer has obtained a stay on the deportation order and the matter will come before the district court in Tel Aviv at midday (1910 AEST), Israeli time," Mr Shoebridge told AAP earlier on Wednesday.
But late on Wednesday night, Mr Shoebridge tweeted: "Sylvia Hale and Vivienne Porszholt win appeal against Israeli Interior Minister and overturn deportation orders! New precedent is set".
Travel in and out of Bethlehem is restricted while Israeli authorities construct the West Bank barrier, an eight-metre-high security wall designed to fence Israel off from Palestine.
The blockade also extends to parts of the coast.
Both Ms Porzsolt, who represents a group called Jews Against the Occupation, and Ms Hale were unharmed and being represented by the same lawyer, Iftach Cohen, Mr Shoebridge said.
The pair were detained four hours after arriving in the country on Tuesday morning as part of a Welcome to Palestine protest by an international organisation of activist groups.
[…]
Colombia
8) Embattled Colombian Unionists Rally Against ‘Free Trade’
Michelle Chen, In These Times, July 12, 2011
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/11619/colombian_unionists_rally_against_free_trade_in_washington/
Gathering with fellow unionists in Washington, D.C., Jose Hugo Yanini speaks firmly about labor rights in Colombia. But a few weeks ago, the industrial janitor and shop steward feared that he soon might never utter another word.
Yanini, who is campaigning with SEIU and other groups against the pending U.S.-Colombia trade agreement, is a typical target in his home country. Last month, on his way home from collective bargaining talks, labor activists report, he got the anonymous phone message that every Colombian union activist dreads: "Tell that man that he should be careful with his tongue or we will cut it out."
So far, the case hasn’t been fully investigated and the public doesn’t know who was behind the menacing call. But people do know Yanini’s boss: the multinational company Sodexo, a major provider of food and custodial services in the U.S. and other countries, and a notorious union-buster at home and abroad.
What brought Yanini and other Colombian unionists to Washington is a simple demand that the U.S. simply not continue to do business with a country where speaking out for labor rights can be a death sentence.
[…] Earlier this year, the Obama administration touted the Labor Action Plan, a joint agreement to enhance labor laws and regulatory mechanisms. Though the plan contains provisions that look good on paper-such as legal reforms to bar certain labor abuses and anti-union activities-advocates fear that it’s just window dressing for a deal designed to enrich the companies that keep workers impoverished and silenced.
According to U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project (US LEAP), the LAP does meet some of the demands of labor unions by promising stonger enforcement of labor law and preventing employers from undermining organized labor by exploiting contract and cooperative systems. But in an April statement, the group concluded:
(1) does not require an actual reduction in violence against trade unionists or advances on impunity, (2) is limited only to labor issues and does not address a wide range of other concerns, including human rights violations, militarization, impact on agriculture, internal displacement and the rights of Afro-Colombians, and (3) provides no way to ensure compliance once the Colombia FTA is implemented. Consequently, prominent labor and human rights groups have joined leading Colombian trade union organizations in denouncing the agreement as woefully inadequate as a sufficient condition for approval of the FTA.
[…] In 2010 alone, according to US LEAP, 51 trade unionists were murdered-a considerable increase since 2007, when the Colombian Congress initially approved the pact. Between 2006 and 2010, a staggering 239 trade unionists were killed in Colombia, compared with 265 unionists killed in all other countries combined. The vast majority of cases documented over a quarter century have not resulted in convictions.
[…]
Haiti
9) Human Rights Lawyers File Petition Against President Martelly’s Pick for Prime Minister
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, July 13, 2011
http://ijdh.org/archives/20041
Port-au-Prince, – On Monday, the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) submitted a petition before the Haitian parliament for the High Court of Justice to indict and try President Michel Martelly’s nominee for Prime Minister, Bernard Gousse, for the crimes committed during his tenure as Justice Minister under Haiti’s 2004–2006 de facto regime.
Prime Minister Gerard Latortue’s dictatorship following the 2004 coup d’état murdered thousands and illegally detained hundreds of political dissidents. Mr. Gousse served as the architect of the campaign of political repression, whose victims included Catholic priest and political activist, Father Gerard Jean-Juste. When Judge Jean-Sénat Fleury threw out the false charges against Father Jean-Juste, Mr. Gousse forced Judge Fleury off the bench, flagrantly disrespecting Haiti’s separation of powers.
The BAI is requesting the Senate to seize the High Court of Justice on the assassinations committed by Prime Minister Gerard Latortue’s regime including those of: Abdias Jean, a journalist, who was killed in a slum called the "Village of God" on January 14, 2005; Ederson Joseph, a school child, who was killed by a hooded police officer in the yard of his home on Rue Estimé at Fort National on January 17, 2005; and Jimmy Charles, an employee of the state-operated telecommunications company, Teleco, and member of Fanmi Lavalas, whose family found his body in the morgue of the General Hospital on January 13, 2005, 8 days after he was illegally arrested and taken to a holding cell in Antigang.
[…]
Guatemala
10) Santa Ana man suspected in Guatemalan massacre is deported
Los Angeles Times, July 12, 2011 | 1:19 pm
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/07/santa-ana-man-suspected-in-guatemalan-massacre-deported-.html
A Santa Ana maintenance worker who was allegedly a member of a Guatemalan commando unit that massacred dozens of men, women and children during that country’s civil war was deported Tuesday, immigration officials said.
Pedro Pimentel Rios was accused of being among some 20 members of an elite Guatemalan army unit known as the Kaibiles that murdered at least 160 villagers – including nearly 70 children under the age of 12 — in the village of Las Dos Erres in December 1982.
Rios, 54, was ordered deported in May by a federal immigration judge. He landed in Guatemala on Tuesday afternoon on an ICE charter removal flight and was turned over to authorities to face charges in that country.
Earlier this year, Jorge Sosa, 52, of Moreno Valley, another alleged member of the Kaibiles, was arrested in Canada. He is awaiting extradition to the United States to face criminal charges for naturalization fraud for allegedly lying on his citizenship application about his military service.
Another member of the unit, Gilberto Jordan of South Florida, was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison for lying about his role in the massacre to procure citizenship.
"This is a great day for justice," said John Woods, the deputy assistant director of ICE’s national security investigations division. The U.S., he said, "is not going be the conduit for people who commit these atrocities to live out their lives in peace."
Mexico
11) Mexico court rules soldiers can face civil trials
Miguel Angel Gutierrez and Mica Rosenberg, Reuters, Wed Jul 13, 2011
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/13/us-mexico-court-idUSTRE76C0DP20110713
Mexico City – Mexican soldiers accused of rights abuses in the army-backed fight against drug cartels can face civil trials instead of closed-door military tribunals, the nation’s highest court ruled Tuesday.
Human rights groups say some Mexican soldiers battling traffickers have arbitrarily detained suspects, subjected them to beatings or torture and even mistakenly shot innocent civilians.
Military courts handle the cases in a process activists say limits transparency, but Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision could change that. "If a civilian’s rights have been violated by the armed forces, the jurisdiction will be in civil courts not military courts," Supreme Court Justice Arturo Zaldivar said.
President Felipe Calderon deployed tens of thousands of troops to the streets to take on powerful traffickers shortly after taking office in late 2006. Violence has spiraled since then, with more than 40,000 people killed across Mexico.
Calderon’s government, in joint statement from the marines, the armed forces and the interior ministry, said it would work to implement the court’s ruling while also strengthening military courts.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered Mexico to reform the military justice system last year based on a 1970s-era case of left-wing activist Rosendo Radilla, detained by the army in southern Mexico and never heard from again.
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