Just Foreign Policy News
July 14, 2011
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I) Actions and Featured Articles
Call for Volunteers: International Women’s Peace Service
The International Women’s Peace Service is seeking women volunteers for training and travel to the West Bank for solidarity work.
http://iwps.info/?page_id=313
Video and Narrative: Israeli Navy Attack on Civil Peace Service
Fuller video and narrative account of the Israeli Navy attack on the Civil Peace Service, less than three nautical miles from Gaza’s coast (ie within the limit supposedly allowed to Palestinian fishermen by the Israeli government.)
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/07/international-solidarity-boat-crew-attacked-off-gaza-coast.html
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II) Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) The UN says the first six months of 2011 were the deadliest for civilians in Afghanistan since 2001, the BBC reports. Afghanistan saw 1,462 civilian deaths in January to June, a 15% increase on the same period last year.
2) A local government official in eastern Afghanistan says NATO troops killed seven civilians in an overnight raid, AP reports. A Khost provincial council member says international troops stormed into Matoon village around midnight and fired into the windows of houses. He says the dead were not connected to the insurgency. A spokesman for local schools says the dead included a teacher and two students.
3) The death of President Karzai’s half brother was only the latest in a series of blows to the stability of the government as the US and Afghanistan’s other international backers have made it clear they want to reduce their commitments, writes Alissa J. Rubin in the New York Times. Without his brother, who gave the president the assurance that he could count on the political and economic backing of at least a quarter of the country, Karzai’s government appears increasingly adrift, Rubin writes. In Parliament, many members are talking openly about impeaching Karzai. Karzai has not been able to form a full cabinet for nearly 18 months. The banking system is such a shambles that the IMF has refused to extend its program and the lack of one has meant the loss of at least $70 million in aid. Efforts to reconcile with the insurgency are barely moving, and Pakistan is firing artillery rounds over the border. It is widely believed that the Pakistanis are trying to make the point that the Afghan government is weak and cannot protect its own borders and should look to Pakistan, not the Americans, for support.
Some analysts say NATO lacks a strategy to handle the increasingly treacherous landscape, Rubin writes. "There is no plan," said Thomas Ruttig, a co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network. "What we have is a public relations strategy – ‘Everything is improving; it’s hard but we’re making progress,’ " Ruttig said, quoting Western officials. "But for the president, the picture is gloomy. For Afghanistan, the picture is gloomy."
4) The Arab League endorsed a Palestinian plan to seek full membership at the UN this fall, setting up a likely confrontation with the US in the U.N. Security Council, AP reports. Arab League foreign ministers pledged to "take all necessary measures and to rally needed support of all world countries, starting with members of the Security Council, to recognize the state of Palestine … and to win full membership of the United Nations." The US has strongly hinted it would veto a Palestinian membership request. [Many press accounts – including this one – suggest that is the end of the story, but international law Professor Francis Boyle says that the General Assembly can trump the Security Council on this issue by using the Uniting for Peace Resolution. See "Francis A. Boyle: Could Obama veto Palestine’s application to the United Nations?" http://bit.ly/kG8kFB – JFP.]
5) A former CIA officer who oversaw the agency’s interrogation program at Abu Ghraib and pushed for approval to use harsh tactics has come under scrutiny in a federal war crimes investigation involving the death of a prisoner, AP reports. Then CIA officer Steve Stormoen supervised a program unsanctioned by CIA headquarters in which the CIA imprisoned and interrogated men without entering their names in the Army’s books. He currently works for Pentagon contractor BAE Systems.
6) The ACLU is filing suit to force the government to release information it collected on blogger Juan Cole, Wired reports. The lawsuit comes after a former CIA official, Glenn Carle, told the New York Times his superiors at the agency asked after Cole in 2005, seemingly at the instructions of the Bush White House. "What do you think we might know about him, or could find out that could discredit him?" Carle remembered one of his bosses asking.
Afghanistan
7) After a string of recent attacks targeting top officials, Afghan political, military and business leaders have paralyzing concerns about their personal safety, the Washington Post reports. Increasingly, members of the ruling class are being forced to look to their inner circles for possible infiltrators. Many say the attacks were inside jobs – a sign of the Taliban’s growing ability to infiltrate the Afghan security establishment. "The enemy has changed its tactic and has focused now on infiltration, and there is no measure to stop this," said a top Afghan security official.
Israel/Palestine
8) Three dozen eminent Israeli law professors, some affiliated with the political right, have said in a petition that Israel’s new law effectively banning boycotts of the occupation is unconstitutional and does grievous harm to freedom of expression and protest, the Guardian reports. The British ambassador to Israel said the UK was concerned about the law. Another bill is to be brought before the Knesset next week which allows the investigation of the funding of human and civil rights groups in Israel. Many groups claim this is part of a wider campaign of harassment and an attempt to restrict their actions.
Guatemala
9) Guatemala’s apparent failure to protect union workers has prompted the US to take unprecedented steps to force Guatemala to respond under its trade agreement with the US, the Christian Science Monitor reports. "Union leaders continue to be assassinated," says Carlos Mancilla, secretary general of the CUSG union organization, whose home was riddled with bullets in 2007, presumably due to his union activities. Mancilla says the government has taken very little action since the AFL-CIO lodged a complaint in 2008. That document contained five cases in which the Guatemalan government failed to enforce labor laws after it signed the DR-CAFTA. The complaint includes assassinations of union officers, firing of union organizers, and cases of company executives refusing to negotiate with unions.
Mexico
10) Several NGOs hailed Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling limiting military jurisdiction in rights cases, EFE reports. "It’s a milestone in the history of the human rights struggle," the director of the group Tlachinollan, Abel Barrera, told MVS radio. Barrera said the high court’s unanimous ruling obligates the government to comply and that the legislative branch now has the challenge of modifying the Code of Military Justice. HRW applauded the ruling, saying it was legally impeccable and reflects tremendous "moral courage."
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Afghanistan: ‘Deadliest six months’ for civilians
BBC, 14 July 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14149692
The first six months of 2011 were the deadliest for civilians in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001, a UN report has found.
The country saw 1,462 civilian deaths in January to June, a 15% increase on the same period last year.
[…]
2) Afghan official says NATO killed 7 civilians
AP, July 14, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/afghan-official-says-nato-killed-7-civilians-061940465.html
Kabul, Afghanistan – A local government official in eastern Afghanistan says NATO troops killed seven civilians in an overnight raid.
Khost provincial council member, Gul Mohammad Zazi, says international troops stormed into Matoon village on the outskirts of Khost city around midnight and fired into the windows of houses. He says the dead were not connected to the insurgency.
A neighbor, Asif Khan, says six people were killed and all were civilians. A spokesman for local schools, Sayed Musa Majro, says the dead included a teacher and two students.
[…]
3) Clouds Around Karzai Darken The Road Ahead
Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times, July 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/world/asia/14kabul.html
Kabul, Afghanistan – At midday, the glare and dust obscures Afghanistan’s horizon in what seems a metaphor for the position of the Afghan president as political and economic crises mount on every front: it is increasingly hard to see how he will find his way.
The death of President Hamid Karzai’s half brother, who was shot by a police commander on Tuesday, was only the latest in a series of blows to the stability of the government as the United States and Afghanistan’s other international backers have made it clear they want to reduce their commitments here.
Without his brother, who gave the president the assurance that he could count on the political and economic backing of at least a quarter of the country – the south – Mr. Karzai’s government appears increasingly adrift.
[…] In Parliament, many members are talking openly about impeaching Mr. Karzai, who wants to dismiss a quarter of the assembly’s members over allegations that they gained their seats through electoral fraud. Their deadlock with Mr. Karzai has meant that he has not been able to form a full cabinet for nearly 18 months.
The banking system is such a shambles that the International Monetary Fund has refused to extend its program here and the lack of one has meant the loss of at least $70 million in aid. More is likely to be lost this summer and fall; another Afghan bank appears to be mired in fraud and is likely to need a cash infusion.
Meanwhile, efforts to reconcile with the insurgency are barely moving, and Pakistan is firing artillery rounds over the border, even as it professes to support a peace plan between Afghanistan and Taliban insurgents, many of whom live in the Pakistan’s tribal areas.
The Pakistani bombardment is said to be an effort to repel Taliban insurgents who have taken refuge in Afghanistan. However, it is widely believed that the Pakistanis are trying to make the point that the Afghan government is weak and cannot protect its own borders and should look to Pakistan, not the Americans, for support.
[…] In the meantime, Afghanistan is without an I.M.F. program and has lost at least $70 million because some of the money in the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, administered by the World Bank, can be doled out only if there is a working I.M.F. program.
As the problems mount, NATO’s military commanders and civilian officials express cautious optimism that there will be "Afghan solutions."
"Afghans have shown innovation and the capacity to overcome crises," said Vygaudas Usackas, the European Union’s ambassador here. "I’m hopeful it will bring a new pattern of political culture – instead of fighting each other, finding a political solution."
However, other analysts are far more doubtful and say that NATO lacks a strategy to handle the increasingly treacherous landscape. "There is no plan," said Thomas Ruttig, a co-director of the Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network, a research group.
"What we have is a public relations strategy – ‘Everything is improving; it’s hard but we’re making progress,’ " Mr. Ruttig said, quoting Western officials here. "But for the president, the picture is gloomy. For Afghanistan, the picture is gloomy."
4) Arab League endorses Palestinian bid to seek recognition of independence at United Nations
Associated Press, Thursday, July 14, 1:55 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/arab-league-endorses-palestinian-bid-to-seek-recognition-of-independence-at-united-nations/2011/07/14/gIQARW7xDI_story.html
Ramallah, West Bank – The Arab League on Thursday endorsed a Palestinian plan to seek full membership at the United Nations this fall, setting up a likely confrontation with the United States in the powerful U.N. Security Council.
Negotiations with Israel on the terms of Palestinian statehood have been frozen since 2008. As an alternative, the Palestinians have decided to seek U.N. recognition of an independent "Palestine" in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Arab League foreign ministers, meeting Thursday in Doha, Qatar, said they would support the Palestinian bid.
The ministers pledged in a statement to "take all necessary measures and to rally needed support of all world countries, starting with members of the Security Council, to recognize the state of Palestine … and to win full membership of the United Nations."
"Comprehensive and just peace with Israel will not be accomplished unless Israel withdraws from all occupied Arab territories," it said.
There was no immediate official reaction from Israel or the United States to the decision. However, the United States, one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, has strongly hinted it would veto a Palestinian membership request. A U.S. veto would derail a quest for full U.N. recognition.
As an alternative, the Palestinians could go to the General Assembly and seek recognition there as a non-member observer state, a largely symbolic nod. Still, widespread support in the General Assembly would signal that a majority of countries support Palestinian statehood in the pre-1967 lines.
After Thursday’s announcement, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians would appeal to both bodies, beginning with the council. "We hope the United States will not use its veto against this decision," he said.
Speaking from Doha, Erekat said the Arab ministers decided to form two committees – one to work on procedural matters and the second to rally international support for the Palestinians.
Taking on the U.S. is potentially risky for the Palestinians, since Washington is the main Mideast mediator. Already, there is a move in Congress to cut off funds millions of dollars in aid if an emerging Palestinian unity government includes the militant Hamas group, which is considered a terrorist organization by the West.
[…]
5) Feds eye CIA officer in prisoner death
Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo, AP, Wed, Jul 13, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/ap-sources-feds-eye-cia-officer-prisoner-death-070722901.html
Washington – A CIA officer who oversaw the agency’s interrogation program at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and pushed for approval to use increasingly harsh tactics has come under scrutiny in a federal war crimes investigation involving the death of a prisoner, witnesses told The Associated Press.
Steve Stormoen, who is now retired from the CIA, supervised an unofficial program in which the CIA imprisoned and interrogated men without entering their names in the Army’s books.
The so-called "ghosting" program was unsanctioned by CIA headquarters. In fact, in early 2003, CIA lawyers expressly prohibited the agency from running its own interrogations, current and former intelligence officials said. The lawyers said agency officers could be present during military interrogations and add their expertise but, under the laws of war, the military must always have the lead.
Yet, in November 2003, CIA officers brought a prisoner, Manadel al-Jamadi, to Abu Ghraib and, instead of turning him over to the Army, took him to a shower stall. They put a sandbag over his head, handcuffed him behind his back and chained his arms to a barred window. When he leaned forward, his arms stretched painfully behind and above his back.
The CIA interrogated al-Jamadi alone. Within an hour, he was dead.
Now, nearly eight years after a photo of an Army officer grinning over al-Jamadi’s body became an indelible image in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, federal prosecutors are investigating whether al-Jamadi’s death amounted to a war crime.
[…] Stormoen, 56, was part of the CIA’s paramilitary arm, the Special Activities Division, after leaving the Army. He retired after al-Jamadi’s death and received a letter of reprimand for his role in Abu Ghraib. He has since rejoined the intelligence community as a contractor working for a company called SpecTal, which was bought last year by BAE Systems, a leading defense contractor.
[…] Much of the public attention in the al-Jamadi case has been on interrogator Mark Swanner, who was in the shower room when al-Jamadi died. Another CIA officer, who goes by the nickname "Chili," also came up at the grand jury, one witness said. Chili continues to work with the agency and his name is classified. The witness, who was at the prison, told prosecutors that Chili was at Abu Ghraib the day al-Jamadi died.
[…] Al-Jamadi’s death has twice been reviewed by the Justice Department and prosecutors have declined to bring charges. Attorney General Eric Holder has appointed a new prosecutor, John Durham, to investigate CIA interrogation tactics. Durham is now re-investigating the al-Jamadi death, and Holder said the investigation has uncovered new information, though he did not say what it was.
[…]
6) Blogger Sues To See If Government Kept a File on Him
Spencer Ackerman, Wired, July 13, 2011
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/blogger-sues-to-see-if-government-kept-a-file-on-him/
The intelligence community may have had a file on a liberal blogger and academic. Now he wants to see what, if anything, was in it.
Danger Room has learned that lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union will file a lawsuit Wednesday morning in a federal court in Michigan to compel the government to release any information it collected on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who blogs on Mideast issues at Informed Comment.
The suit seeks disclosure of "federal government discussions of, correspondence regarding, inquiries about, and investigations of Professor Cole," the ACLU’s filing says. That disclosure is "urgently needed to inform the national debate about U.S. accountability with respect to the unlawful investigation and surveillance of its citizens."
Cole’s lawsuit comes after a former CIA official, Glenn Carle, told the New York Times that his superiors at the agency asked after Cole, an American citizen, in 2005, seemingly at the instructions of the Bush White House. "What do you think we might know about him, or could find out that could discredit him?" an offended Carle remembered one of his bosses asking.
All Cole is alleged to have done to prompt the attention of the spy community is… blog. "My guess is that there were people in the White House upset by my writing at my blog and elsewhere on the course of the Iraq War, which they consistently attempted to depict in a positive light," Cole tells Danger Room. "They also seem to have been angry that I was taken seriously by intelligence analysts in some of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, and presumably one of their goals was to find ways of discouraging analysts from taking me seriously."
The lawsuit seeks to determine "whether or not [the government] in fact investigated an American citizen merely for speaking out and voicing his opinion," says ACLU attorney Zachary Katznelson. "If they did, that’s completely illegal."
[…]
Afghanistan
7) Afghan politicians rethink personal security
Kevin Sieff, Washington Post, July 13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/afghan-politicians-rethink-personal-security/2011/07/13/gIQA88hxCI_story.html
Kabul – Among those offering eulogies for Ahmed Wali Karzai on Wednesday, Fauzia Kofi kept her condolences brief, preoccupied by a thought that had kept her awake the previous night. "If they can kill Ahmed Wali, then they can kill any of us," said Kofi, a member of Afghanistan’s parliament. "What does this mean for our security?"
Kofi frantically rearranged her 10-member security detail Wednesday, replacing several bodyguards she considered questionable. "The longer they’re here," she said, "the more time the Taliban has to recruit them."
After a string of recent attacks targeting top officials, Afghan political, military and business leaders who are responsible for establishing a stable democracy in their country have more immediate – and more paralyzing – concerns about their personal safety. Afghanistan has long been a land of shifting alliances and uncertain loyalties, but increasingly, members of the ruling class are being forced to look to their inner circles for possible infiltrators.
In the past several months, Gen. Mohammad Daud Daud, northern Afghanistan’s top police commander; Gen. Khan Mohammad Mujahid, the police chief of the southern province of Kandahar; and Gen. Abdul Rahman Sayedkhili, the police chief of the northern province of Kunduz, were killed in attacks for which the Taliban has taken credit.
Many say the targeted attacks, including the one Tuesday on the president’s powerful and divisive half brother, were inside jobs – a sign of the Taliban’s growing ability to infiltrate the Afghan security establishment. The man accused of killing Karzai, Sardar Mohammad, had built trust with the family for many years, working as a guard and police commander. The Taliban has asserted responsibility for Karzai’s killing, but Mohammad’s motives are not known.
"The enemy has changed its tactic and has focused now on infiltration, and there is no measure to stop this," said a top Afghan security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In recent months, insurgents who have penetrated Afghan police and military ranks have also targeted Americans, a strategy that has created friction between U.S. troops and the Afghan security forces they are training.
[…] Other prominent Afghans have come to rely on private security companies that boast vetting processes more stringent than the government’s.
Kabul-based White Eagle Security coordinates with tribal leaders, police chiefs and provincial officials before hiring its guards. That system has been largely effective, but in Afghanistan, said Ian Hall, a White Eagle official, no vetting process is without problems. "In the current situation, you can’t trust anyone," he said.
Israel/Palestine
8) Israel’s boycott ban draws fire from law professors
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu defends controversial measure but legal experts, including some rightwingers, say it damages freedom of expression
Harriet Sherwood, Guardian, Thursday 14 July 2011 15.20 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/14/israel-boycott-ban-criticised
Jerusalem – Israel’s new law effectively banning political boycotts is unconstitutional and does grievous harm to freedom of expression and protest, three dozen eminent Israeli law professors have said in a petition.
The move followed prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s robust defence of the law in the Knesset (parliament) on Wednesday in which he said he was "against boycotts aimed at the Jewish state".
The petition, sent to attorney-general Yehuda Weinstein, was signed by the deans of many of Israel’s law schools, including some associated with the political right.
"This law is a classic case of the tyranny of the majority," said Alon Harel of Hebrew University, one of the instigators of the petition. "The majority aims at silencing, persecuting and threatening the minority. It conflicts directly with the principles established in Israel in the 1990s that entrench the right to freedom of speech in the legal system. It is the most cherished right in the Israeli legal system."
Under the Law for Prevention of Damage to the State of Israel through Boycott, an individual or organisation proposing a boycott may be sued for compensation by any individual or institution facing possible damage as a result. Evidence of actual damage will not be required.
It bans consumer boycotts of goods and services produced in West Bank settlements and the blacklisting of cultural and academic institutions in settlements. It also bars the government from doing business with companies that comply with boycotts.
Boycotts were a standard form of protest in Israel, Harel said. But the new law was a "non-neutral restriction".
"Speech or action which promotes one viewpoint is protected and sanctioned, yet speech which promotes another viewpoint is prohibited," he said.
Boycotts by ultra-orthodox Jews against the Israeli national airline El Al over flying on the sabbath or by Israeli tourists against Turkey following last year’s flotilla had not been targeted, he said.
[…] Another bill is to be brought before the Knesset next week which allows the investigation of the funding of human and civil rights groups in Israel. Many groups say this is unnecessary as their funding is totally transparent and they claim it is part of a wider campaign of harassment and an attempt to restrict their actions.
[…] Despite being absent for Monday night’s vote in favour of the law, Netanyahu told the Knesset: "I don’t want anyone to be confused. I approved the law. If I hadn’t backed it, it wouldn’t have passed."
[…] Matthew Gould, the British ambassador to Israel, came under fire for saying in an interview with Israeli newspaper Maariv that the UK was concerned about the law.
[…]
Guatemala
9) US leans on Guatemala to enforce trade pact
The Obama administration’s case against Guatemala, over its failure to protect unions within its borders, is seen as an attempt to garner US union support for stalled trade agreements.
Matthew Walter, Christian Science Monitor, July 13, 2011
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2011/0713/US-leans-on-Guatemala-to-enforce-trade-pact
Guatemala City – Trade agreements are increasingly difficult to pass in the United States, and their future may rest on a strategy the Obama administration is testing in the tiny Central American nation of Guatemala.
Seven years after Guatemala signed a free-trade pact with the US that included an agreement to enforce its labor laws, Guatemalan union leaders complain that they are still assassination targets, and that businessmen still illegally fire workers.
The apparent failure to protect union workers has prompted the US to take unprecedented steps to force Guatemala to respond, in what may be part of President Obama’s broader strategy to win support from US unions and Democrats in Congress for stalled trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. Those deals are key to his bid to boost job creation via trade.
"It’s an effort to send a signal to Obama’s labor allies that the administration will enforce the labor provisions that are in trade agreements," says Christopher Sabatini, senior director of policy at the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas in New York.
‘An anti-labor culture’
Despite the increased external pressure, Guatemalan union leaders say their government continues to exclude them from talks with the US. The country has a long history of aggression against organized labor, which is a common theme cited by opponents of new trade agreements, especially in Latin America.
"Union leaders continue to be assassinated," says Carlos Mancilla, secretary general of the CUSG union organization, whose home was riddled with bullets in 2007, presumably due to his union activities. He said investigators let 27 days pass before coming to inspect the scene, and no one was ever charged. "In Guatemala, there’s an anti-union culture."
Business groups say violence against union members is a symptom of a surge in violence that has affected companies as well, but given the high levels of impunity in Guatemala, it is impossible to say exactly who is behind the assassinations and threats. The Public Ministry, comparable to an attorney general’s office, rarely carries out a proper investigation into union murders, Mr. Mancilla says, and an AFL-CIO complaint says there is evidence that the government itself may have even been involved in at least one assassination.
US Trade Representative Ron Kirk requested a trade commission meeting with Guatemala in May under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), which is the final step before bringing the matter before a settlement panel that has the authority to impose fines. This is the first labor case the US has ever brought against a trade partner.
The issue has the potential to affect the US presidential campaign, as Mr. Obama struggles to balance his strategy of creating more jobs through trade against his need to energize unions to support his reelection. It may also be a sign that the US labor movement has found a way to exert more influence in trade negotiations.
[…] Mancilla says the government has taken very little action since the AFL-CIO lodged its original complaint in 2008. That document contained five cases in which the Guatemalan government failed to enforce labor laws after it signed the DR-CAFTA. The complaint includes assassinations of union officers, firing of union organizers, and cases of company executives refusing to negotiate with unions.
"From the labor inspectorate, to the labor minister, to the courts, fundamentally it’s broken down at every single level," said Jeff Vogt, the deputy director of the AFL-CIO, who helped write the Guatemala complaint.
[…] Mancilla says he’s certain that violence carried out against union leaders isn’t just a symptom of the country’s spike in crime. "They say this is all a product of generalized delinquency," he says. "If that’s so, then [let them] prove it. The Public Ministry should determine who is responsible."
Mexico
10) Mexico High Court Limits Military Jurisdiction in Rights Cases
EFE, July 12, 2011
http://laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=406805&CategoryId=14091
Mexico City – Mexico’s Supreme Court has reduced the armed forces’ privilege to have cases involving alleged abuses by soldiers heard in military courts.
The 10 justices present voted unanimously to adjust Mexican legal practice in obedience to a 2009 ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in a case brought on behalf of Rosendo Radilla, who was "disappeared" by Mexico’s military in 1974.
In the 2009 decision, the Inter-American tribunal urged the Mexican government to modify its Code of Military Justice to ensure it is compatible with "international standards on the subject" and the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights.
The Mexican justices ruled that, in the event of a jurisdictional dispute between civilian and military tribunals in a specific case, it will be up to the Supreme Court to decide where it should be heard.
Previously, in another ruling linked to the Radilla decision, the Supreme Court had ordered all Mexican judges to ensure their sentences are consistent with international human rights treaties ratified by Mexico.
Based on criteria that had been in place since the 1940s, only some federal courts had taken the international legal obligations assumed by Mexico into account in their proceedings.
Handed down in the context of a recent constitutional reform – in effect since June 10 – the high court’s ruling puts international treaties signed by Mexico on an equal legal footing with the constitution.
[…] Several non-governmental organizations hailed Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling limiting military jurisdiction in rights cases.
"It’s a milestone in the history of the human rights struggle," the director of the group Tlachinollan, Abel Barrera, told MVS radio.
Barrera said the high court’s unanimous ruling obligates the government to comply and that the legislative branch now has the challenge of modifying the Code of Military Justice.
In statements to the same radio station, the director of New York-based Human Rights Watch’s Americas division, Jose Miguel Vivanco, applauded the ruling, saying it was legally impeccable and reflects tremendous "moral courage."
He said the Mexican military justice system has a very poor record of punishing soldiers for rights crimes and that the defense department is "impenetrable" and provides little information about rights abuse cases.
"In its latest report they show only that over the past 12 years they’ve convicted one soldier to nine months (in prison) for killing a civilian. Of all the allegations that exist … this is reduced to just one conviction of a soldier who killed a civilian because he didn’t stop at a checkpoint?" Vivanco asked rhetorically.
[…] The issue of rights abuses by the Mexican military has taken on special urgency since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon deployed tens of thousands of army soldiers and other federal forces to battle heavily armed, well-funded drug cartels.
That strategy was adopted in part because of his administration’s distrust of notoriously corrupt local police forces.
But HRW said in March that the National Human Rights Commission – Mexico’s equivalent of an Ombud’s Office – had received close to 5,000 allegations of human rights violations by the military, including killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and rape dating back to 2007.
[…]
–
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