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Updated: 1 month 3 weeks ago

Where is Burundian Journalist Jean Bigirimana?

Thu, 25/08/2016 - 15:15

It is exactly one month since 37-year-old journalist Jean Bigirimana vanished after leaving his home in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, for Bugarama, a town about 40 kilometers away. There are unconfirmed reports that he was arrested there by members of the intelligence services, but his whereabouts remain unknown.

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Jean Bigirimana. 

© 2016 Iwacu

As the days passed without news, Jean’s young family, friends, and colleagues at Iwacu newspaper began wondering if he might be dead. The cruel nature of such cases means there’s no certainty about the victim’s fate, and no possibility of closure.

It wasn’t until Jean’s colleagues at Iwacu launched a campaign that the government ended its silence. Three days after he vanished, police spokesperson Pierre Nkurikiye flatly denied that the security forces had arrested Jean. A week later, the president’s communications advisor, Willy Nyamitwe, tweeted that the government was investigating and was deeply concerned. He implied the opposition might be responsible, and said he feared the worst.

Then, on August 5, a dead body was found in the Mubarazi river, in Muramvya – the province he’d been heading to when he vanished. There was speculation that it might be Jean’s. An intrepid team of Iwacu journalists went to the scene to investigate. Police, judicial, and intelligence officials joined them, but found nothing. On August 7, the journalists returned alone, and discovered a dead body in an inaccessible part of the river. Two days later, a second corpse was found in the river, while media reported that a third was discovered in neighboring Gitega province.

 

The two bodies were eventually fished out of the Mubarazi river but were badly decomposed. One had been decapitated, the other weighed down with stones. At the morgue, Jean’s wife was so overwhelmed that she was only able to look at the corpses’ hands and feet, and guessed that neither of them was Jean. The authorities made no further attempt to identify the victims or establish how they died. There were no autopsies, no DNA tests. Police simply announced that Jean was not among the two dead, and last week local officials buried the bodies.

Is that the end of the story? No. Jean’s family has the right to an investigation to determine what happened, and, if a crime took place, to see those responsible prosecuted – as do the families of the two victims, whoever they are. The Burundian authorities should launch thorough, independent investigations, if necessary calling on outside medical or scientific expertise.

Jean Bigirimana is not the only person to have been abducted or disappeared in Burundi in the past year. Let us not forget the human rights activist Marie-Claudette Kwizera, from the Burundian group Ligue Iteka, who was taken away by a vehicle thought to belong to the intelligence services last December, nor the scores of other Burundians who have disappeared or gone missing, or been found dead, with barely any reaction by the government.

All the families have a right to full, independent, and speedy investigations into what happened to their relatives. It is high time the authorities ensure this happens. 

Categories: Africa

Four Activists to be Released in DR Congo

Sat, 20/08/2016 - 03:09

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe announced at a press conference on Friday that some of the country’s political prisoners would be released. He also said bans on two media outlets close to the opposition would be lifted as part of an effort to ease political tensions.

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Composite photo showing, clockwise from upper left, activists Fred Bauma, Yves Makwambala, Jean-Marie Kalonji, and Christopher Ngoyi.

© 2016 Human Rights Watch

The list of prisoners includes activists Christopher Ngoyi, Fred Bauma, Yves Makwambala, and Jean-Marie Kalonji, as well as about 20 others who were released weeks or months earlier.

The government arrested scores of activists and opposition party leaders and supporters since January 2015, after they spoke out against attempts to extend President Joseph Kabila’s presidency beyond the constitutionally mandated two-term limit, which ends on December 19, 2016. Others were arrested after participating in peaceful demonstrations or other political activities.

Ngoyi was arrested on January 21, 2015, after he helped mobilize demonstrations against proposed changes to the electoral law. He was held secretly at the national intelligence agency without charge and without access to his family or lawyers for 20 days, before being transferred to Kinshasa’s central prison.

Bauma, a member of the citizens’ movement Lutte pour le Changement (LUCHA), and Makwambala, a webmaster, were arrested with over two dozen others during a March 2015 workshop in Kinshasa to launch Filimbi, a pro-democracy youth platform. The national intelligence agency held them for 50 and 40 days, respectively, before transferring them to Kinshasa’s central prison.

Kalonji, coordinator of the pro-democracy movement Quatrième Voix, was arrested on December 15, 2015, and detained by the intelligence agency for 132 days without charge or access to his family and lawyer before being transferred to Kinshasa’s central prison.

The government put all four activists on trial on trumped-up charges in an apparent politically motivated drive to silence dissent.

The announcement of their release, which comes the day after Kabila met with members of LUCHA in the eastern city of Goma, is a step in the right direction. It indicates a recognition by the Congolese government that the LUCHA and Filimbi youth movements are not “terrorist” organizations plotting “subversive activities,” as some officials have claimed.

But the government needs to do much more. Others held for political reasons remain in detention, including Bienvenu Matumo and Marc Héritier Kapitene from LUCHA, Jean de Dieu Kilima from Filimbi, opposition leader Jean-Claude Muyambo, opposition party member Victor Tesongo, and a number of associates of Moise Katumbi, the former governor of Katanga province who defected from Kabila’s party last September to join the opposition.

Congolese authorities should free all political prisoners and drop all charges against opposition figures and activists who have been targeted because of their political views or peaceful protests. They should also hold accountable those responsible for illegal and arbitrary detentions and political interference in the judicial system. 

Categories: Africa

US: Kerry’s Rights Priorities for Africa, Saudi Trip

Sat, 20/08/2016 - 03:09
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US Secretary of State John Kerry gestures as he speaks at a news conference at the Nairobi Sankara Hotel on May 4, 2015, in Nairobi, Kenya. © 2015 Reuters

(Washington, DC) - United States Secretary of State John Kerry should underscore respect for human rights and civilian protection during his upcoming trip to Kenya, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the secretary of state. Secretary Kerry will meet with senior government officials in Kenya on August 22, 2016, and in Nigeria on August 23-24. He will be in Saudi Arabia to discuss the armed conflict in Yemen on August 24-25.

“Secretary Kerry should press Kenya and Nigeria to ensure that security forces protect instead of prey on marginalized communities, including refugees,” said Sarah Margon, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “Kerry needs to tell the Saudis that unless unlawful coalition airstrikes in Yemen stop, US weapons sales will.”

In Kenya, Kerry should urge investigations into security force abuses including enforced disappearances and torture. He should also urge Kenya not to close Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, or forcibly repatriate Somali refugees to their embattled country. In Nigeria, Kerry should continue to press for meaningful reforms in the Nigerian military.

Kerry should also use his Africa visit to address widespread atrocities in South Sudan and urge leaders of countries in the region to impose targeted financial sanctions on individuals responsible for grave human rights abuses and to build international support for an arms embargo. Regarding Somalia, Kerry should push to strengthen accountability mechanisms within AMISOM, the international peacekeeping mission, with all troop-contributing countries.

In Saudi Arabia, Kerry should raise concerns about serious and repeated violations of the laws of war by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen that have killed many civilians. He should make clear that the Saudi government needs to end unlawful airstrikes or risk losing US sales of munitions and arms. He should also press the government to allow independent investigations into alleged war crimes by all parties to the conflict.

“The Obama administration will have few remaining opportunities to express its human rights concerns directly to leaders in the region,” Margon said. “It shouldn’t waste this one.”

Categories: Africa

Letter to Secretary Kerry on Trip to Kenya, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia

Sat, 20/08/2016 - 03:09

The Honorable John F. Kerry
US Department of State
2201 C Street Northwest
Washington, DC 20520

August 19, 2016

Dear Secretary Kerry,

We write to you regarding your upcoming visit to Kenya, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia. We appreciate the administration’s consistent and engaged policies for both African countries and believe the trip also offers an important opportunity to address challenges in South Sudan and Somalia. In the case of Saudi Arabia, we continue to have concerns about violations of the laws of war in the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen and believe the upcoming trip presents an important opportunity for you to emphasize the potential consequences if Saudi Arabia fails to improve its conduct.  

Throughout your trip in all three countries, we urge you to be clear that the United States expects its partners to protect the equal rights of all, including marginalized communities; to ensure security forces protect instead of prey on civilians; and to commit to, as President Obama said on his 2015 trip to Kenya, “uphold the rule of law, and respect … human rights, and … treat everybody who’s peaceful and law-abiding fairly and equally.” We urge you to reemphasize these sentiments clearly, both in your private meetings and in public commentary.

Kenya

During your visit in May 2015, you called attention to the fact that “President Kenyatta reinforced his agreement with us that human rights and the rule of law have to be respected in the counterterrorism efforts.” While there have been some efforts to move in this direction, they have been mostly cosmetic.

We continue to document serious abuses in counterterrorism operations in Kenya, including enforced disappearances and torture. Over an eight-month period, we documented at least 34 cases of extrajudicial killings and another 11 deaths of people last seen in state custody over alleged links or knowledge of Al-Shabab in Nairobi and the northeastern part of the country.

Our research showed that multiple security agencies, including the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), especially the Directorate of Military Intelligence, units of the Kenya Police, including the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit and the Administration Police, National Intelligence Service, and Kenya Wildlife Service rangers have played a significant role in these arrests and enforced disappearances. Currently civilian oversight mechanisms are either weak or lack the mandate to investigate abuse, particularly those carried out by the KDF. Thus far, senior Kenyan officials have not publicly acknowledged these abuses, not committed to any investigations, nor expressed concern for the whereabouts of those who are missing.

Given multiple units involved in the arrest and custody of people who have been forcibly disappeared, the numerous allegations of enforced disappearances and the government’s lack of commitment to investigate, we believe that the evidence indicates that these abuses are more than simply the work of rogue officers. Rather, we believe there is some level of coordination and control by government or security officials.

We hope you will raise these issues in your meetings with President Kenyatta and senior defense officials. Specifically, we hope you will urge President Kenyatta to publicly call for an end to extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and related abuses. In addition, he should urgently establish an independent and credible multiagency commission to investigate ongoing cases of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and torture in counterterrorism operations country-wide.

Last year, you called on Kenya to “not forcibly repatriate refugees.” However, the Kenyan government’s May 2016 termination of prima facie refugee recognition of Somalis, the dissolution of its Department of Refugee Affairs (DRA), and the announcement that it intends to close Dadaab refugee camp by November puts thousands of lives in jeopardy. Human Rights Watch has long documented Kenyan police abuse of Somali refugees, such as rape, beatings, arbitrary detention, and extortion of money and law enforcement operations marked by discrimination against Somalis. As a state party to the 1969 Africa Refugee Convention, Kenya has a legal obligation to ensure that anyone at risk of generalized violence, including Somali nationals, will not face unlawful forced return. In the specific case of Somali asylum seekers, we are deeply concerned that such returns will result in serious harm due to the ongoing conflict between Al-Shabab, government forces, and clan militia.

Given the government’s stated intention to close Dadaab, we also remain concerned that refugees and asylum seekers could face increased harassment and extortion if the returns process intensifies. Accordingly, we urge you to press the Kenyan government to rescind the decision to repatriate Somali refugees and close Dadaab. In addition, the Kenyan government should commit to uphold their obligations under international refugee law, and ensure that all asylum seekers have equal access to asylum processes. Given the dissolution of the DRA, the large number of unregistered Somali refugees, the high levels of generalized violence in Somalia, and the wider refugee definition in the Africa Refugee Convention, we recommend that you urge the Kenyan government to renew prima facie refugee recognition for Somali asylum seekers.

Finally, as we highlighted in our letter to you in April 2015, Kenyan civil society and the media operate in an increasingly difficult environment. We remain concerned that hostile official rhetoric, buttressed by efforts to enact restrictive new laws, could have a sharp impact on the availability of independent news and analysis and undermines freedom of expression and association, particularly in the run-up to the planned August 2017 elections. We believe you should continue to urge all members of the Kenyan government, both in public and in private, that the protection of civil society organizations – in line with the September 2014 Presidential Memorandum on Civil Society – is a top priority for the United States and that any new legislation should respect international standards on freedom of expression and association. 

Somalia

Given the cross border challenges, Kenya’s security will partly depend upon stability and increased security in Somalia. Your visit to Kenya and meetings with interlocutors of the African Union Forces in Somalia (AMISOM) offers the opportunity to make clear that the US is committed to supporting an international force in Somalia that is accountable for their conduct and that the presence of regional forces in Somalia does not contribute to further harm to civilians on the ground.

We continue to document abuses by AMISOM and associated troops, including sexual exploitation and abuse and unlawful attacks. Commitments to investigate abuses of civilians remain largely unfulfilled. For example, we are currently investigating an incident in which Ethiopian forces indiscriminately killed 14 civilians during an operation against Al-Shabab in Somalia’s Bay region in July. So far, despite public commitments by AMISOM’s leadership, there have been no investigations into the incident.

We hope you will raise this issue in all Somalia-related meetings and push for and support efforts to strengthen accountability mechanisms within AMISOM. Specifically, we encourage you to call on all troop-contributing countries operating in Somalia to deploy additional foreign military and civilian investigators, prosecutors and military courts inside the country, and greater information sharing within AMISOM forces and with the UN.

South Sudan

Your trip offers a timely opportunity to convene regional leaders on the crisis in South Sudan. Although sanctions action may be difficult to achieve multilaterally at the UN, we believe you should use this moment to push South Sudan’s neighbors to join coordinated bilateral sanctions against key human rights abusers. During a mission in July, our researchers documented how government and opposition forces soldiers used light and heavy weapons, used force indiscriminately in densely populated areas, and killed displaced people sheltering in UN camps, including two peacekeepers, and damaged a clinic.

We also found evidence that during and following the fighting in July, government soldiers deliberately killed, raped, and assaulted civilians, often along ethnic lines. Sexual violence was rampant, with the UN reporting more than 200 incidents during and after the fighting. In one brutal attack, soldiers executed a journalist and raped several foreign women working for international aid organizations. Soldiers also extensively looted humanitarian compounds, markets, and homes.

Commanders at the highest levels knew and should have known of these abuses and stopped them. Kenya, Ethiopia, and other regional partners host the assets of many of these individuals. We have urged the UN to impose targeted individual sanctions on those responsible, and hope you will also urge neighboring governments to consider bilateral sanctions.

The recent Juba violence and abuses underscore the need for accountability. We have urged South Sudan’s leaders to investigate and prosecute crimes, and have called on the African Union to proceed with preparations for the Hybrid Court envisioned in the 2015 peace agreement. That court would have jurisdiction over the most serious crimes committed since the beginning of the conflict, in December 2013, and over crimes committed in Juba in July. During your May 2015 visit, you pledged $5 million dollars. We urge you to make clear that some of those pledged funds will be used to assist the African Union Commission in its efforts to move forward with plans to take key steps towards setting the court up by October 2016.

The Juba violence is also a reminder that a comprehensive arms embargo is long overdue. An embargo would increase the cost of importing weapons, reduce civilian harm, immediately stop the maintenance of attack helicopters, and send a message that continued abuses against civilians and obstruction of the UN mission will not be tolerated. The United States has already said that it is prepared to support imposing an arms embargo on South Sudan if obstruction of the UN peacekeepers continues; while we believe that there is no need to wait any longer to move ahead with an arms embargo, it would help to get regional leaders to publicly back the prospect of an imminent arms embargo. Although both the African Union Peace and Security Council and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development have called for an arms embargo in the past, in recent days they have been silent on the issue. We hope that you can use this trip to ask regional leaders to express their public support for imposing a long overdue arms embargo on the country.

Nigeria

While there have been some notable efforts at reform by the Nigerian government in its fight to defeat the militant Islamic group Boko Haram, the group remains a serious threat to civilian security, and official reform has stalled. 

As you are aware, in responding to Boko Haram, government security forces have been implicated in grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including incommunicado detention, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances. The Nigerian police have also been credibly implicated in extrajudicial killings of Boko Haram members or suspects. The Nigerian government is taking steps to address the heavy-handed and abusive response to the insurgency by security forces, but much more needs to be done, especially if the military is to genuinely protect civilians in the northeast while also addressing ongoing Boko Haram threats.

The humanitarian situation in the northeast remains dire. Recent reports suggest that at least 500,000 people in Borno state are displaced or cut off from humanitarian aid. Human Rights Watch has documented a campaign of attacks on schools, students, and teachers by Boko Haram in the northeast, and the inadequate government response has led to over one million children without access to education.

Abusive conduct by security and police forces also extends beyond the northeast. Of particular concern is the attack in Zaria in December 2015, when Nigerian soldiers killed hundreds of Shia Muslims in an attack that appears to have been wholly unjustified. A recent report of an official inquiry into the clashes concluded that the military was involved in unlawful killings and that its response was “disproportionate” and “excessive.”

The United States should ensure that any further support to the Nigerian military – including any impending sales, like the Super Tucano aircraft sale – is tied to clear progress on implementing meaningful reforms. In addition, we hope you will make clear during your trip that a critical part of reform includes meaningful progress on accountability for previous abuses by security and police forces.

Saudi Arabia

Your visit to Saudi Arabia offers an important opportunity to raise concerns about the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen. Over the last year and a half of the conflict, Human Rights Watch has documented numerous violations of the laws of war by the Saudi-led coalition, including indiscriminate and disproportionate airstrikes that have caused high civilian casualties. These include repeated strikes on residential homes, markets, medical facilities, schools, civilian factories, and structures that did not appear to be military objectives. In the renewed fighting since the breakdown of peace talks, coalition airstrikes have hit homes, another hospital, a school, and a civilian factory.

Under the laws of war, the United States, by directly assisting coalition military operations such as by providing targeting intelligence and in-air refueling, is a party to the conflict in Yemen. As such, the US has a legal obligation to investigate alleged violations of the laws of war in which US forces may have been responsible and appropriate prosecute war crimes that may have been committed. We are unaware of US participation in any investigations of alleged laws of war violations committed in Yemen.  

The United States has also for many years sold munitions, including cluster munitions, weapons, and weapons platforms to Saudi Arabia. Human Rights Watch has documented that US-supplied munitions have been used in apparently unlawful airstrikes in Yemen.  As you know, members of Congress have made several attempts this year to condition or restrict US military sales and assistance to Saudi Arabia. They are also likely to do so with respect to the $1.15 billion shipment of tanks, guns, and related equipment and services that the Pentagon revealed last week. Human Rights Watch supports a full arms embargo against Saudi Arabia until it adopts serious measures to abide by the laws of war, including impartially investigating alleged violations by its forces. Suspending weapons shipments would encourage Saudi Arabia to improve its compliance with international law.

Given growing congressional concern, we urge you to make clear to the Saudi government that airstrikes and other attacks that violate the laws of war need to end, and to credibly and impartially investigate alleged violations, which to date they have failed to do.

By participating in attacks that violate the laws of war and by providing weapons and munitions to a military force that can be expected to use them unlawfully, the US risks complicity in violations by coalition forces. This would be damaging both for US long-term interests in Yemen, including counterterrorism concerns, and its standing in the region.

We urge you to press the Saudi government to support the presence of independent international observers with access to assist in investigations of alleged laws of war violations by all parties to the conflict. We also ask that you call upon the Saudi government to meet with independent human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, to discuss issues of concern. (To date, our letters seeking information and requests for meetings have gone unanswered.)

We look forward to discussing these and other issues with you or your staff.

Sincerely,

Sarah Margon
Washington Director

Annex:

Kenya

Report: Deaths and Disappearances: Abuses in Counterterrorism Operations in Nairobi and in Northeastern Kenya July 19, 2016: Kenyan security forces have forcibly disappeared at least 34 people in the past two years during abusive counterterrorism operations in Nairobi and in northeastern Kenya. Kenyan authorities should end the abuses in counterterrorism operations and promptly investigate the enforced disappearances and deaths of detainees in the northeast. The 87-page report, “Deaths and Disappearances: Abuses in Counterterrorism Operations in Nairobi and in Northeastern Kenya,” documents 34 instances in multi-agency security operations in which the military was actively involved in raiding homes and compounds to arrest people who were allegedly suspected of links with the armed Islamist group, Al-Shabab. But months, and in some cases over a year, later, suspects have not been charged with any crimes and families cannot locate them. In each case, although families reported the disappearance to the police and sought help from various authorities, the authorities failed to inform them of the detainees’ whereabouts or to properly investigate allegations of abuse.

Investigate Killings of Lawyer, Two Men: Bodies Dumped in River after Enforced Disappearance July 3, 2016: Kenyan authorities must urgently investigate the killing last week of three men, including a human rights lawyer, and ensure that those found responsible are held to account in fair trials, 34 Kenyan and international human rights organizations said.

Police Killings During Protests: Investigate Use of Excessive Force in Western Region June 20, 2016: At least 5 people died and 60 were wounded by gunfire as police tried to obstruct two recent protests in Nyanza region. Kenyan authorities should promptly investigate police use of excessive force during the demonstrations, on May 23 and June 6, 2016, in the Nyanza region of Western Kenya, and bring anyone responsible to account.

Ending Refugee Hosting, Closing Camps: Ensure Required Protections for Refugees May 6, 2016: Kenya’s announcement on May 6, 2016 that it would no longer host refugees is contrary to principles it has pledged to respect.

Report: "You Are All Terrorists": Kenyan Police Abuse of Refugees in Nairobi May 29, 2013: Kenyan police in Nairobi tortured, raped, and otherwise abused and arbitrarily detained at least 1,000 refugees between mid-November 2012 and late January 2013, Human Rights Watch said in a report. The Kenyan authorities should immediately open an independent public investigation, and the United Nations refugee agency – which has not spoken publicly about the abuses – should document and publicly report on any future abuses against refugees, Human Rights Watch said. The 68-page report, “‘You are All Terrorists:’ Kenyan Police Abuse of Refugees in Nairobi,”is based on interviews with 101 refugees, asylum seekers, and Kenyans of Somali ethnicity. The report documents how police used grenade and other attacks by unknown people in Nairobi’s mainly Somali suburb of Eastleigh and a government order to relocate urban refugees to refugee camps as an excuse to rape, beat, extort money from, and arbitrarily detain, at least 1,000 people. The police described their victims as “terrorists,” and demanded payments to free them. Human Rights Watch also documented 50 cases in which the abuses would amount to torture.

Somalia

Report: 'Like Fish in Poisonous Waters’: Attacks on Media Freedom in Somalia May 3, 2016: Both the Somali government and the Islamist armed group Al-Shabab are using abusive tactics to sway media coverage, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today, on World Press Freedom Day. The government should act decisively to end intimidation and violence against journalists by state security forces and Al-Shabab militants. Somalis’ need for a free and vibrant media is especially important in light of the electoral process planned for 2016. The 74-page report, “‘Like Fish in Poisonous Waters’: Attacks on Media Freedom in Somalia,” documents killings, threats, and arbitrary detention of journalists since 2014. The Somali federal government and regional authorities have used various abusive tactics to affect media coverage, including arrests and forced closures of media outlets, threats, and occasionally, criminal charges. Al-Shabab has targeted journalists as part of its campaign against the Somali government and for reporting deemed unfavorable. Government authorities have failed to adequately investigate and prosecute those responsible for abuses, leaving journalists to live in fear.

Forced Evictions of Displaced People: Tens of Thousands at Risk in Capital April 20, 2015: Somali state security forces forcibly evicted about 21,000 displaced people in the capital, Mogadishu, in early March 2015. The authorities beat some of those evicted on March 4 and 5, destroyed their shelters, and left them without water, food, or other assistance. Many of those affected had fled their homes during the 2011 famine and fighting, and have been repeatedly displaced since then. Somali authorities should cease forcibly evicting displaced people in Mogadishu, and adequately protect and assist them, Human Rights Watch said.

Report of the Secretary-General on Somalia May 9, 2016

Report: Hostages of the Gatekeepers: Abuses against Internally Displaced in Mogadishu, Somalia March 28, 2013: Members of state security forces and armed groups have raped, beaten, and otherwise abused displaced Somalis who have arrived in Somalia’s capital fleeing famine and armed conflict since 2011, Human Rights Watch said in a report. The new Somali government should urgently improve the protection and security of Mogadishu’s internally displaced population. The 80-page report, “Hostages of the Gatekeepers: Abuses against Internally Displaced in Mogadishu, Somalia,” details serious violations, including physical attacks, restrictions on movement and access to food and shelter, and clan-based discrimination against the displaced in Mogadishu from the height of the famine in mid-2011 through 2012. Interviews with 70 displaced people documented the ways in which government forces, affiliated militia, and private parties, notably camp managers known as “gatekeepers,” prey upon the vulnerable community.

South Sudan

Killings, Rapes, Looting in Juba: Arms Embargo, Additional UN Sanctions Needed August 145, 2016: Soldiers killed and raped civilians and extensively looted civilian property, including humanitarian goods, during and after clashes between government and opposition forces in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, in July, 2016, Human Rights Watch said. In many cases, government forces appeared to target non-Dinka civilians. As a result of indiscriminate attacks, including shooting and shelling, shells landed in camps for displaced people inside United Nations bases, and in other densely populated areas in the city, killing and wounding civilians. Human Rights Watch researchers visiting Juba in July after the clashes documented multiple crimes, most committed by government soldiers from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

Dispatches: Giving Justice the Slip in South Sudan June 8, 2016: Experience over the past two decades – including in Sierra Leone, the former Yugoslavia, and Chile – has shown that criminal trials for wartime atrocities have not undermined peace. On the contrary, the failure to pursue justice often fuels further crimes, such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo and, most recently, Syria. South Sudan is a prime example of how bad things can get. Despite years, even decades, of atrocities by commanders on all sides, peace deals – including from the North-South conflict – have repeatedly rewarded abusive leaders with plum positions and provided de facto blanket amnesties. Abuse of civilians has been a path to promotion and power.

Civilians Killed, Tortured in Western Region: Provide Justice for Army Abuses in Western Regions May 24, 2016: South Sudanese government soldiers have carried out a wide range of often-deadly attacks on civilians in and around the western town of Wau. Soldiers have killed, tortured, raped, and detained civilians and looted and burned down homes. The abuses in the Western Bahr el Ghazal region took place during government counterinsurgency operations that intensified after an August 2015 peace deal. The attacks underscore the need for the national unity government to take immediate steps toward accountability for crimes by all warring parties since the start of South Sudan’s conflict in December 2013.

Dispatches: Action, not Words, Needed to End Abuses in South Sudan April 27, 2016: South Sudan’s leaders may finally be ready to work toward peace, but they cannot gloss over the crimes with rhetorical niceties. They need to act. Both sides should investigate and prosecute human rights abuses and the government should order national security officials to charge or release the dozens of men arbitrarily detained in Juba. Finally, they need to show their commitment to justice and accountability by reaching out to the African Union Commission – tasked with setting up a hybrid court to try the most serious crimes – to establish the tribunal without delay. These steps, more powerfully than words, will signal their recognition that justice is necessary to redress “the situation we leaders have created.”

Dispatches: Missed Opportunity for an Arms Embargo on South Sudan April 8, 2016: The UN Security Council missed an opportunity this week to move forward with an embargo when the United States, which leads on the issue at the UN, chose to postpone the discussion until June.

Report: “We Can Die Too”: Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in South Sudan December 14, 2015: South Sudanese leaders should help end widespread use of child soldiers by suspending and investigating commanders who have recruited children, Human Rights Watch said in a report. Thousands of children have fought in the South Sudan conflict, including under commanders from both government and opposition forces. The 65-page report, “‘We Can Die Too’: Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in South Sudan,” names more than 15 commanders and officials from both the government Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the rebel SPLA-in Opposition and their allies who have used child soldiers. The report is based on interviews with 101 child soldiers who were either forcibly recruited or joined forces to protect themselves and their communities. They said they lived for months without enough food, far away from family, and were thrown into terrifying gun battles in which they were injured and saw friends killed. Children also expressed deep regret that they had lost time they should have spent in school.

Nigeria

Dispatches: Nigerian Military Used Excessive Force Against Shia Group August 1, 2016: An official inquiry into clashes between members of a Shia minority group and the Nigerian military has stated the Nigerian Army’s response to altercations in Zaria, Kaduna State, between December 12 and 14, 2015 was “disproportionate”.

Report: “They Set the Classrooms on Fire”: Attacks on Education in Northeast Nigeria April 11, 2016: Boko Haram’s attacks on schools, students, and teachers in northeast Nigeria have had a devastating impact on education. The conflict has left nearly 1 million children with little or no access to school, and Nigeria’s security forces have contributed to the problem by using schools as military bases, putting children at further risk of attack from the Islamist armed group. The 86-page report, “‘They Set the Classrooms on Fire’: Attacks on Education in Northeast Nigeria,” documents Boko Haram’s increasingly brutal assaults on schools, students, and teachers since 2009 in Borno, Yobe, and Kano states. Between 2009 and 2015, Boko Haram’s attacks destroyed more than 910 schools and forced at least 1,500 more to close. At least 611 teachers have been deliberately killed and another 19,000 forced to flee. The group has abducted more than 2,000 civilians, many of them women and girls, including large groups of students.

A Year On, No Word on 300 Abducted Children: Government Response to Damasak Attacks Woefully Inadequate March 29, 2016: The Nigerian government should take urgent steps to secure the release of about 400 women and children, including at least 300 elementary school students, abducted by Boko Haram from the town of Damasak in Borno State a year ago. It is unclear whether the Nigerian government has made any serious effort to secure their release.

Dispatches: Protect Lives, Not Just Territory, Against Attacks February 4, 2016: Boko Haram may no longer ‘hold’ key towns, but it continues to commit crimes against civilians. The desire of the government to return the northeast to normalcy cannot be an excuse to press civilians to return to their home areas when they feel these are not safe. Greater efforts to prevent deadly crimes against civilians in the northeast should be the focus of the government, not just the recovery of territory.

Army Attack on Shia Unjustified: Independent, Impartial Probes Essential December 22, 2015: The killing of hundreds of Shia Muslim members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), by Nigerian army soldiers from December 12 to 14, 2015, appears to have been wholly unjustified. The Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the government should be sufficiently independent and impartial to hold those responsible to account.

Saudi Arabia/Yemen

Report: Bombing Businesses: Saudi Coalition Airstrikes on Yemen's Civilian Economic Structures July 10, 2016: Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrikes have unlawfully hit numerous factories, warehouses, and other civilian economic structures in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. In the absence of credible and impartial investigations in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and other coalition members should agree to an independent international inquiry into these and other allegedly unlawful attacks. The 59-page report, “Bombing Businesses: Saudi Coalition Airstrikes on Yemen’s Civilian Economic Structures,” examines in detail 17 apparently unlawful airstrikes on 13 civilian economic sites, including factories, commercial warehouses, a farm, and two power facilities. These strikes killed 130 civilians and injured 171 more. Collectively, the facilities employed over 2,500 people; following the attacks, many of the factories ended their production and hundreds of workers lost their livelihoods. Further, with more than 20 million people in desperate need of humanitarian aid, the strikes on factories are contributing to the shortages of food, medicine, and other critical needs of Yemen’s civilians.

Suspend Saudi Arabia from UN Human Rights Council June 29, 2016: Saudi Arabia has committed gross and systematic violations of human rights during its time as a Council member, and it has used its position on the Council to shield itself from accountability for its violations in Yemen. Saudi Arabia leads the military coalition fighting in Yemen, with Riyadh hosting its command control structure. Since 26 March 2015, the coalition has carried out numerous attacks that have violated international humanitarian law, including indiscriminate and disproportionate airstrikes that have killed and injured many civilians. It has repeatedly used internationally banned cluster munitions, including in civilian populated areas.

US Bombs Used in Deadliest Market Strike: Coalition Allies Should Stop Selling Weapons to Saudi Arabia  Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrikes using United States-supplied bombs killed at least 97 civilians, including 25 children, in northwestern Yemen on March 15, 2016, Human Rights Watch said today. The two strikes, on a crowded market in the village of Mastaba that may have also killed about 10 Houthi fighters, caused indiscriminate or foreseeably disproportionate loss of civilian life, in violation of the laws of war. Such unlawful attacks when carried out deliberately or recklessly are war crimes.

Embargo Arms to Saudi Arabia: US, UK, France Risk Complicity in Unlawful Airstrikes March 21, 2016: The United States, United Kingdom, France, and others should suspend all weapon sales to Saudi Arabia until it not only curtails its unlawful airstrikes in Yemen but also credibly investigates alleged violations.

Categories: Africa

Ethiopia’s Bloody Crackdown: The Case for International Justice

Sat, 20/08/2016 - 03:09

Ethiopian security forces gunned down at least 100 people a week ago in the bloodiest weekend in the ninth month of anti-government protests. Unlike previous protests, which have been largely confined to the Oromia region, the protests on August 6 and 7 were also in the northern Amhara region. Altogether at least 500 people have been killed since November and tens of thousands have been detained during the largely peaceful protests.

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Protesters chant slogans during a demonstration over what they say is unfair distribution of wealth in the country at Meskel Square in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, August 6, 2016.

© 2016 Reuters

The protests in Oromia started in November over the government’s approach to development, but as the crackdown intensified, protester grievances focused on longstanding abuses and discrimination. In the Amhara region, protesters have voiced concerns over the dominance of those connected to the ruling party in economic and political affairs, complex questions of ethnic identity, and other historic grievances. Protesters vow to continue, and there is no indication of a letup from security forces or new concessions from the government.

Security force torture of people in detention has been pervasive. Girma (not his real name), an 18-year-old student, was released last week from an Ethiopian military camp seven months after he was arrested at a protest with his classmates. He told me when I talked with him after his release that the nightly beatings left him with permanent injuries that make it hard for him to walk. He is banned from returning to school and afraid he will be arrested again if he seeks medical care. He still hears the screams of the “hundreds of protesters still there who were tortured every night.”

Donor countries to Ethiopia have been largely silent about the brutal crackdown, presumably in part due to the Ethiopian government’s strategic relationships on security, peacekeeping, migration, and development. For years, the US, the UK and other influential governments have basically rejected public condemnation of the Ethiopian government’s repressive practices. But a strategy of “quiet diplomacy” is increasingly limited as Ethiopia’s human rights situation declines and its heavy-handed response to the largely peaceful protests is fueling more anger and frustration.

The small bit of good news is that the international silence on Ethiopia was broken on August 10 when the UN’s top human rights official, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, told Reuters that an international investigation and accountability are needed for the killings of protesters.

The protesters I spoke with in recent weeks have been increasingly reassessing the effectiveness of their peaceful protests in the absence of justice, accountability, and international condemnation of the government’s killing, torture and arbitrary arrests. They told me they are losing faith in Western governments to offer even the mildest criticism of their government.

There are few opportunities inside the country to monitor the government’s human rights record, to hold officials to account, or to access justice. After elections in 2015 that did not meet international standards, the government holds 100 percent of the seats in federal and regional parliaments, preventing any serious parliamentary debate. The courts have little independence on politically sensitive cases and the misuse of the anti-terrorism law is illustrated through the ongoing trial of an opposition leader and advocate for non-violence, Bekele Gerba, the ongoing trial of a former World Bank translator, Pastor Omot Agwa, and the conviction of numerous journalists on trumped-up charges. Numerous restrictions on independent media and nongovernmental organizations result in little scrutiny of abusive security forces. International journalists also face restrictions as three journalists detained during the recent protests can attest to.

Ethiopia’s Human Rights Commission should be investigating abuses by security forces. But its lack of independence was underscored by its oral report on the protests to parliament in June. It concluded that the lethal force used by security forces in Oromia was proportionate to the risk they faced from the protesters. It is not known whether a written version of the report is available to justify such a seemingly politicized conclusion. The briefing was issued just a few days before Human Rights Watch issued a report describing the excessive use of force that resulted in the killing of an estimated 400 people during the first six months of the protests.

International scrutiny of Ethiopia’s rights record has also been lacking despite its June election to the UN Security Council, and its membership on the UN Human Rights Council – which requires it to uphold the “highest standards of human rights” and cooperate with UN monitors. Ethiopia has refused entry to all UN special rapporteurs since 2007. Among the outstanding requests are from the special rapporteurs on torture, freedom of opinion and expression, and peaceful assembly.

Ethiopia’s allies should back the call from the UN human rights high commissioner and press for an international investigation. Such a move will send a powerful and overdue message to the Ethiopian government that its security forces cannot shoot and kill peaceful protesters with impunity. And it will also send an important message to the victims and families that their pleas for justice are being heard.

Ethiopia’s allies need to urgently embark on a new approach to Ethiopia before the current situation descends into an even more dangerous and irreversible political and human rights crisis. They could play a leading role in pushing for investigative or monitoring mechanisms to hold the government to account for its brutal response to citizens exercising their fundamental rights to expression and assembly -- or the toll of the dead and the tortured will continue to rise.

Girma, the young student, says he wants to flee the country once his health improves. “I’m leaving because there will never be justice in my country for what happened to me and the world will not do anything,” he told me. “So I will leave rather than wait for death.”

Categories: Africa

South Sudan: Killings, Rapes, Looting in Juba

Tue, 16/08/2016 - 14:45

(Nairobi) – Soldiers killed and raped civilians and extensively looted civilian property, including humanitarian goods, during and after clashes between government and opposition forces in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, in July, 2016, Human Rights Watch said today. In many cases, government forces appeared to target non-Dinka civilians.

As a result of indiscriminate attacks, including shooting and shelling, shells landed in camps for displaced people inside United Nations bases, and in other densely populated areas in the city, killing and wounding civilians. Human Rights Watch researchers visiting Juba in July after the clashes documented multiple crimes, most committed by government soldiers from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
 

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“A year after South Sudan’s leaders signed a peace deal, civilians are dying, women are being raped, and millions of people are afraid to go home,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “On August 12, the UN decided to send more peacekeepers to Juba but put off a long-overdue arms embargo. The continued supply of arms only helps fuel the abuses on a larger scale.”

The UN and member countries should also impose targeted sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, on those responsible for serious human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said. The African Union Commission and donors should proceed without delay with preparations for a hybrid court to investigate and try the most serious crimes committed since the start of South Sudan’s new war in December 2013 – including during the recent fighting.

Launch Gallery

Under a peace agreement signed one year ago, on August 15, 2015, the two sides agreed to form a national unity government, integrate their forces, and establish the hybrid court, among other steps. Under the agreement, the African Union Commission was to set up the court, with South Sudanese and other African judges and staff. Key steps to create the court are to be completed by October 2016, but concrete progress has yet to occur.

On July 8, 2016 fighting started between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, and those of his first vice-president, Riek Machar, a Nuer, during a cabinet meeting at the presidential compound. The violent gun battle was preceded by weeks of heightened tensions between the forces in the capital surrounding lingering delays in implementing the peace agreement.

Over a four-day period, the two sides battled in several locations around Juba. Human Rights Watch researchers in Juba heard accounts of soldiers firing indiscriminately, hitting densely populated areas or displaced people’s camps inside UN bases. At least a dozen civilians who had sought safety in the UN camps died and scores were wounded.

Researchers also documented targeted killings, rapes and gang rapes, beatings, looting, and harassment, often along ethnic lines, in several areas of Juba. The Thongpiny, Munuki, Mangaten, Gudele, and Jebel neighborhoods were particularly affected. Due to security restrictions to some affected areas, researchers could not establish the full scale of abuse. Soldiers, operating under the formal command of General Paul Malong and President Kiir committed most of the crimes.

 

 

Human Rights Watch also received reports of abuses committed by the SPLA-in-Opposition (IO), Machar’s forces, but could not independently verify them.

In the fighting at least 73 civilians were killed according to the UN, and 36,000 people sought refuge at UN and aid group compounds during or directly after the fighting. A July 11 ceasefire halted the fighting in Juba but the government’s army, SPLA, and the armed opposition, IO, continued to fight around Juba and elsewhere in South Sudan.

In some cases, government forces directly targeted civilians on the basis of their ethnicity. A 35-year-old man said that two SPLA pick-ups full of soldiers surrounded the Bedale hotel in the Atlabara neighborhood where he hid with 27 other Nuer men shortly before the ceasefire on July 11:

The soldiers knocked at the door and asked whether any Nuer were staying at the hotel. “We urged the guard not to open. They asked, ‘Why are you hiding the Nuer!’ and then they started to shoot with their heavy machine guns through the doors and wall. That’s how my friend Mading Chan was killed.”

On the same day, a large number of soldiers belonging to contingents of government forces overran a compound that housed a number of international organizations’ staff. During their rampage, the soldiers executed a Nuer journalist, raped and gang raped several women, beat and assaulted dozens of staff, and ransacked and looted the entire compound.

Soldiers continued to attack civilians and commit other crimes after the July 11 ceasefire. Human Rights Watch documented repeated incidents in which government soldiers stopped women who ventured out of protection of civilians (POC) camps inside UN bases to get food, confiscating their goods, and raping them. In several cases, researchers heard that soldiers made statements about the victims’ ethnicity or perceived allegiance to the IO. The UN reported more than 200 cases of sexual violence by opposition and government forces during and after the recent fighting in Juba.

A 27-year-old woman returning to her POC site on July 18 with food from town said five soldiers stopped her: “They said: ‘you are carrying bullets to Riek Machar,’ and then they took me to a compound but I resisted. They beat me in the head, and in the chest. As I was in pain, they raped me. I was two months pregnant, but I lost that baby after what happened.”

Peacekeepers guarding the UN base did not do enough to protect women from rape in surrounding areas. In one example reported by media, on July 17 soldiers dragged a woman away. Peacekeepers saw what was happening but did not take action. Increased patrolling or stationary patrols in key areas could have prevented some rapes. On July 18, an aid worker managed to rescue a woman who had just been raped.

The SPLA restricted the movement of UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), leading peacekeepers to stay in their bases during the fighting. On July 12, the mission urged government security forces to lift the restrictions, but it took several days before the peacekeepers began any movement or patrols. UNMISS promised to investigate its response to sexual violence, and should also investigate why it was so unprepared and ineffectual in protecting civilians when fighting broke out, fix the problems, and make the results of such investigation public, Human Rights Watch said.

During and after the fighting, as people tried to flee, government forces restricted movement of civilians by road and air, increasing tension and fear. Security forces also beat up an opposition minister in Juba on July 12, and on July 16 national security officers (NSS) detained the editor of Juba Monitor, Alfred Taban, after he published editorials criticizing both sides, and calling on Kiir and Machar to step down. He was released on grounds of ill heath on July 29 and is awaiting trial.

On August 12, the UN Security Council authorized a new Regional Protection Force as a part of UNMISS. These 4,000 new troops are mandated to protect the airport and other key installations and “engage any actor that is preparing attacks or engages in attacks against United Nations protection of civilians sites, other United Nations premises, United Nations personnel, international and national humanitarian actors, or civilians.” Better and improved protection of civilians should remain the primary task of the peacekeeping mission as a whole, Human Rights Watch said.

“South Sudanese leaders have time and again failed to end abuses against civilians, been unwilling to rein in abusive forces or ensure justice for crimes by those under their command,” Bekele said. “There is no more excuse for delay: top leaders need to be sanctioned and an arms embargo imposed. The UN has to be more effective in protecting civilians and the AU should move ahead with the hybrid court.”

For additional information and accounts from eyewitnesses and victims, please see below.

Human Rights Watch researchers visited Juba between July 14 and 27 and interviewed more than 85 victims and witnesses of the recent violence, as well as aid and government officials. Researchers met with the South Sudan Human Rights Commission, the president’s spokesperson, and SPLA officials. Because of ongoing insecurity, researchers were unable to reach some of the neighborhoods most affected by the fighting but were able to interview residents who had fled the areas.

Tenuous Peace and Failed Security Arrangements

South Sudan’s current civil war began in December 2013 amid rumors that Vice President Machar was attempting a coup. Fighting and abuses quickly spread along ethnic lines.

Despite the August 2015 peace deal, fighting and abuses continued, including in previously peaceful parts of the country. The parties disagreed over a number of key issues, such as Kiir’s unilateral creation, in December 2015, of 28 new states and the government’s refusal to allocate cantonment sites for opposition fighters in parts of the country outside the greater Upper Nile region. The government submitted a number of reservations on several points of the agreement.

However, diplomats and the UN supported the deal. Machar returned to Juba on April 26, welcomed by hundreds of SPLA-in-Opposition (IO) fighters who had been ferried there on UN planes and by the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), the international body in charge of monitoring the peace deal.

Both sides flouted the agreement from the start. Under the transitional security arrangements, the IO and government would respectively be allowed 1,470 and 3,420 soldiers in Juba, and would have to move all other forces 25 kilometers out of Juba. Yet as of early July, about 10,000 to 12,000 SPLA soldiers were estimated to be in Juba, many hiding in residential areas dressed as civilians, credible sources told Human Rights Watch. The opposition may also have received reinforcements from various sympathizers and fighters in and around Juba.

In addition, the parties agreed to position the IO bases close to civilian areas, including UNMISS headquarters and its protection of civilians (POC) sites. Locating a military base there clearly put the civilians at risk.

On July 2, government forces killed a senior opposition military intelligence officer, and on July 7, five SPLA soldiers were killed in a skirmish at a checkpoint. On the afternoon of July 8, a large-scale firefight between Kiir and Machar’s bodyguards in the presidential complex J-1 led to further clashes near the IO bases and the airport, which continued despite a lull on July 9, until a ceasefire on the evening of July 11.

On July 23, Kiir dismissed Machar and replaced him with another Nuer politician, Taban Deng Gai, despite objections from Machar and his allies. Fighting has continued in areas outside Juba and the fate of the peace deal is unclear.

Abuses against Civilians by Government Forces

Targeting of Non-Dinka

Many of the people Human Rights Watch interviewed said that government soldiers in various neighborhoods of Juba arbitrarily arrested, beat, and killed civilians and destroyed and looted property. Some civilian Nuer men said that uniformed Dinka security forces from either the army, police, or national security stopped them as they fled areas surrounding the presidential compound after the gun battle the evening of July 8, and demanded their identification cards, or spoke to them in Dinka to determine if they understood the language. Then the men tried to steal the Nuer men’s money and phones, sometimes attempting to kill them.

“When the incident happened at J-1, I was near Juba University with colleagues of mine,” said a man in his 30s. “I tried to run, but soldiers stopped me on the street and asked something in Dinka language. I was unable to answer. They said ‘Are you Nuer?’ in Arabic. I said yes and then they started to shoot me, I had seven bullets in my body. The soldiers left me for dead but I survived.”

Others were luckier. A journalist said: “When we heard the gunshots on July 8, I was at my office near the national security headquarters. As I tried to flee with colleagues, I was stopped by national security officers who asked me for my ID. I think they knew I was a Nuer. I was arguing with them when the car of a general pulled over and told them to leave me alone.”

On July 10, tanks and a large group of soldiers attacked and shelled the undefended house of the Shilluk king – a traditional leader who is not officially affiliated with either side – in the Munuki neighborhood.

“The tank shot three times towards our house, where we hosted about 100 Shilluk civilians, but missed,” a relative of the king said. “Then they used their heavy machine guns and started to spray bullets on the house. One of the rooms caught on fire. From inside the compound, I could hear them shout: ‘We need to destroy this house!’”

SPLA soldiers also targeted the house of Joseph Monytuel, the Bul Nuer governor of Bentiu – another non-Dinka government ally living in Munuki – where hundreds of Nuer civilians from the area had sought refuge. The governor’s bodyguards fended off the attackers a relative who fled to a UN base said.

In other areas known to be populated by non-Dinka such as Thongpiny and Mangaten, government forces on foot and in vehicles also attacked civilians, arrested men, and looted homes. Fighting and fear of abuses led at least 2,500 civilians to flee into a nearby UN base between July 8 and 12.

On the morning of July 10, in Thongpiny, soldiers killed a policeman and rounded up other men who looked or spoke Nuer. A 25-year-old Nuer woman who witnessed the events said: “They were deployed throughout my street. Some wore SPLA uniforms; others wore the fatigues of the Wildlife Guards. They killed a policeman in front of my eyes and I saw them arresting people who looked Nuer. They were putting them in the back of their pick-ups. When we saw this, we decided to flee.”

Another young displaced Nuer woman said that four Dinka soldiers forced their way into her family house in Thongpiny on July 10 and looted their belongings: “They put a gun to my head and asked: ‘Is your husband home?’ My husband was hiding under the bed but I said no. They said, ‘Whatever you have you give us, or we will kill you.’”

Some members of the security forces helped rescue civilians endangered by government troops. Witnesses, including staff at a nongovernmental group’s compound that was attacked, said national security officers rescued them from areas deemed unsafe, or from direct SPLA aggression. In one instance, national security officers hid about 40 Nuer in the office of Thomas Duoth, a senior Nuer officer commanding the NSS’ external security bureau.

Government forces also restricted the movement of non-Dinka men. As nongovernmental organizations and expatriates evacuated Juba following the ceasefire, authorities stopped non-Dinka men from leaving the country. On July 13, a Nuer worker for an organization had to pay a US$100 bribe to a security official to be allowed to enter the airport and was then refused permission to board the evacuation plane his organization had chartered.

“As I stood in the line for the customs, a national security officer pulled me aside and took my passport away,” he said. “He led me to the NSS’ airport office and there they took my name off the plane’s manifest. They would not explain why.”

Sexual Violence and Rape

Human Rights Watch found a clear pattern of rape against civilian women and girls by government soldiers during and after the fighting. Some government soldiers repeatedly gang raped or raped women and girls in areas surrounding the main UN base at Jebel, where the victims had taken shelter, during and after the fighting. In many of the cases, victims told Human Rights Watch that their attackers made statements suggested they were targeting the women for rape because of their ethnicity or presumed allegiance to Machar.

On August 4, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that UNMISS had received reports of “widespread sexual violence, including rape and gang rape by soldiers in uniform and men in plain clothes,” and noted more than 200 alleged cases since July 8 at various locations in Juba, including near the UN House. The Office of the High Commissioner noted that both SLPA and IO soldiers raped women and girls.

Human Rights Watch also found evidence that government soldiers stationed in an area known as “Checkpoint” along the road to Yei raped dozens of women sheltering at a protection of civilians camp at the UN base at Jebel who ventured out of the camp in search of food – in some cases raping them just a few hundred meters away from the UN peacekeepers’ base.

“I was walking with a group of 10 women when soldiers in green uniforms and red berets stopped us,” a 20-year-old woman said. “They took phones and money from some, and then took four women away to a store and raped them.”

In other cases, soldiers transported women to compounds they occupied and raped them there. Two survivors in their twenties said that a group of several dozen soldiers stopped them in the checkpoint area on July 21, and beat, abducted, and raped them, along with a third woman. One said:

“They cut our clothes with knives. They beat us using rifle butts. They were talking about Riek Machar, they said things in Dinka language. Then they took us by car to another compound. They raped us there, in front of everybody. I’m sorry to say this, but this is what happened. They even raped her [the other survivor], who is pregnant,”

One 24-year-old woman said that government soldiers raped her on July 18 when she left the camp for town to look for food: “When I reached Checkpoint on my way back, there was a large group of soldiers who stopped me. Half of them wanted to rape me, the others wanted to kill me. Four of them raped me. Then they took my things and told me to go.”

Health authorities and aid groups should ensure that post-rape care for victims meets at least minimum standards, including post-exposure prophylactics to help prevent HIV infection, emergency contraception, and access to psychosocial services or other mental health care services.

Gang rapes in the Yei Road Compound

On July 11, fighting moved toward Jebel, where SPLA soldiers fought to capture the IO base near UN House. That afternoon, a large number of government forces attacked the Yei Road compound, which housed about 50 employees of several international organizations.

Witnesses said the soldiers arrived around 3 p.m., divided into groups, and immediately began breaking into structures, looting supplies, and entering residential areas and an apartment building, where they killed a prominent journalist, raped or gang raped several international and national staff of organizations, and destroyed, and extensively looted property.

They killed the journalist, 32-year-old John Gatluak, in front of the apartments, presumably because of his Nuer ethnicity, visible from his scarification. Witnesses said that the soldiers shot him in front of his colleagues, at close range. His body was seen lying face up, hands above his head, as if in surrender.

The soldiers also raped or gang raped several foreign women. “He told me I had to have sex with him or else I would have to have sex with all the other soldiers – so I didn’t have a choice,” said one survivor of multiple rapes. Another woman said: “He beat me and ordered me to take off my pants,” then raped her in front of other people.

Some witnesses said soldiers cheered as they took turns raping a woman or two women in a room. Soldiers often threatened the women with death if they did not comply. In one case of attempted rape, a soldier beat the woman with the butt of his gun, then another shot a bullet next to her head.

During the first day of the attack, which lasted until about 7 p.m., soldiers also beat many of the compound residents, sometimes demanding to know their nationalities or affiliations, broke into apartments, destroyed property and looted goods including satellite dishes, televisions, money, clothes, food, computers, and alcohol.

Many residents were not rescued for several hours, despite repeated calls to various organizations and security forces. During and after the rescues, the soldiers continued to ransack and loot the compound leaving nothing intact. Gatluak’s body was not retrieved for several days.

Other Looting

Starting after the ceasefire, large groups of government soldiers stationed near UN House, later joined by Dinka civilians looted the entire contents of the World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warehouses located in the vicinity, witnesses said. At the WFP warehouse alone, they stole 4,500 metric tons of food – enough to feed 220,000 people – as well as generators, air-conditioning, and other equipment.

Soldiers also looted the markets at Jebel and “Checkpoint” in the hours following the ceasefire.

Indiscriminate Attacks in Densely Populated Areas

During the four-day fight, both forces used a variety of weapons, including mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and, in the case of government troops, helicopter gunships acquired from Ukraine equipped with unguided rockets, and battle tanks. Ukrainian contractors also maintain the helicopters in Juba. Both forces used artillery in densely populated areas and in close proximity to poorly fortified UN bases and civilian protection sites.

International humanitarian law prohibits the use of indiscriminate force in densely populated civilian areas as the risk of harm to civilians outweighs any anticipated military advantage gained from the attack.

Human Rights Watch researchers found evidence that fighters fired mortars and artillery at or over POC sites. The use of these weapons in such circumstances is at least reckless and probably indiscriminate. Witnesses and humanitarian sources told Human Rights Watch that at least five shells hit the POC site 1 at the main UN base in Jebel on July 11.

One shell hit and damaged a medical clinic run by the international non-governmental medical organization International Medical Corps (IMC) at the site. Another killed two Chinese peacekeepers and prompted the retreat of all UN police and soldiers from the outer fences of the site, causing residents to panic and flee. Shells also fell into the adjacent and larger POC site 3, where about 30,000 mostly Nuer displaced civilians were taking shelter.

At least a dozen civilians who had sought safety in the protection of civilians sites at the main UN base in Jebel died from the injuries caused by shooting at and shelling inside the camps. Many dozens more were wounded.

On July 10, a stray bullet killed a 10-year-old boy in site 3. “He was hiding inside the ditch with other people, and the bullet came,” his aunt said. “He was shot inside the camp, “A 3-year-old boy was also hit by a stray bullet well inside the site. “He was hiding under the bed when the bullet hit him,” his mother said. “He’s now in the hospital.”

Soldiers also fought around another UN base at Thongpiny, near Juba international airport. At least one shell also hit an impromptu POC site inside the UN base at Thongpiny on July 11. Although the UN had closed the site in December 2014, people started seeking refuge from the fighting there on July 8 and by July 11 about 2,500 were inside the base, mostly displaced Nuer and Shilluk.”

A 22-year-old displaced woman said she witnessed a shell explode in the Thongpiny UN base: “I saw so many people wounded, bleeding, they were taken to the hospital. I saw one woman injured in the back. Another person was hit on the head, one on the leg.”

Ten civilians, including six children, were also wounded well inside the displaced persons’ site at the UN base at Thongpiny by bullets shot on the morning of July 11 from a nearby building, under construction, that had been occupied by soldiers and changed hands over the course of the fighting. Human Rights Watch received reports that the building was under control of government forces at the time of the shootings.

While Human Rights Watch was unable to establish with certainty whether the soldiers shot at civilians intentionally, some civilians said government forces aimed at them, with no clear military target nearby. A 28-year-old woman who witnessed the incidents said the shooters could see them: “The soldiers were on the roof of the building 300 meters away and they could see us. They were shooting at us. There were no other soldiers for them to shoot at, just us.”

Government forces also used helicopter gunships armed with unguided rockets against opposition positions, and tanks in some densely populated neighborhoods such as Gudele and Jebel, near the IO bases, and in Thongpiny, Munuki, and Mangaten near the airport and known to host sizable Nuer and Shilluk populations. The use of tanks by government forces in densely populated civilian areas significantly endangered civilian lives and structures.

Although it’s not the only factor, the ability to purchase arms and ammunition as well as the maintenance of military equipment by other countries since the conflict began are enabling both sides to continue to commit abuses in South Sudan, Human Rights Watch said. An arms embargo should help reduce these ongoing and unlawful attacks on civilians.

UN Response

At the onset of the fighting, the army ordered UNMISS staff and peacekeepers to stay inside their bases. The mission stated that its peacekeepers were seriously hampered in protecting civilians inside and outside its bases as a result. Nevertheless, UNMISS responses to the fighting were often inadequate or delayed.

At the Thongpiny base, UNMISS peacekeepers took more than six hours to open their doors to civilians who had fled the violence on July 10. “We were many people hiding in the sewage canals outside to the base because they would not open the doors,” said a 25-year-old woman resident of Thongpiny. “I was dirty but I was so afraid of the sound of the guns.”

The peacekeepers did not venture out of the bases to protect civilians under imminent threat even after the ceasefire. On July 17 peacekeepers guarding a POC site did not intervene when SPLA soldiers meters away abducted a woman. Although rapes took place in their line of sight, they did not increase patrols for several days.

On July 11, UNMISS did not respond to direct calls for protection by aid workers at the Yei Road compound, a kilometer from their base, where Gatluak was killed and several women were raped or gang raped. Witnesses said the UN’s rapid response team abandoned their rescue mission after learning NSS would rescue the residents.

While the South Sudanese government has accepted the idea of a Regional Protection Force, as outlined in an August 5 communiqué of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development group working on South Sudan, known as IGAD Plus, it is imperative for the mission to address existing concerns regarding the efficiency of its current troops. The UN Security Council authorized a Regional Protection Force on August 12, but increased numbers are unlikely to make the mission more effective on its own, without improvements in other areas.

Under the Status of Forces Agreement between UNMISS and the government, peacekeeping forces have a right to patrol and move throughout the country, as well as to use lethal force to protect civilians, regardless of whether they have prior SPLA or government approval. UNMISS has promised to investigate its response to sexual and gender-based violence during the recent crisis, but the UN needs to investigate and effectively identify the factors that are incapacitating their response to threats against civilians, limiting their operational effectiveness, and causing a crisis of faith in the mission.

The UN mission should also increase its public reporting of abuses including attacks on the UN and international agencies. The lack of public reporting on attacks against UNMISS bases and personnel may have contributed to more violations of the status of forces agreement and decreased the mission’s capacity to act on its mandate.

Hold Abusers Accountable

Those responsible for the abuses documented, including commanders, should be held to account, either through hybrid, international, or national prosecutions. More immediately, and with the objective of compelling leaders to bring abuses to an end, individual UN sanctions such as travel bans and asset freezes should be imposed on top civilian and military leaders.

The SPLA’s chain of command appears to be heavily divided along ethnic lines, with ethnic Dinka commanders in charge of most decisions. Nonetheless, the coordinated manner in which the SPLA was able to deploy helicopters and tanks indicates an efficient command structure, and the success of the ceasefire declared by chief of staff Paul Malong on July 11 also indicates that he is substantially in control and command of the numerous troops active on the ground.

Malong, as well as Kiir and Machar, who formally are the commanders-in-chief of their respective forces, should be among those investigated for their role in these abuses. Military and civilian leaders both bear responsibility to ensure that operations are conducted in a manner that limits risks to civilians. When military and civilian leaders decide to use poorly trained and undisciplined troops with a poor human rights record, they may bear a responsibility for abuses.

Government commanders may be responsible for knowingly deploying abusive soldiers. Human Rights Watch researchers found that some of the government soldiers deployed at “Checkpoint” and involved in rapes were from SPLA Division 4, which has been singled out by Human Rights Watch and UN reports for committing grave human rights abuses, including rapes, during a 2015 offensive in Unity state.

South Sudan’s government has publicly announced that it would investigate the recent events and, on July 29, the council of ministers announced a court martial to try suspected offenders. But the government has a dismal track record for ensuring justice for human rights abuses or fair, public processes, or effective mechanisms for civilians to file complaints. Researchers were told that commanders would be expected to report soldiers who had committed crimes. Twenty-four soldiers have been charged with random shooting and looting, a UN source reported. None were accused of rape or killing.

South Sudanese authorities should also cooperate with the African Union to create the hybrid court envisioned in the 2015 peace agreement, to investigate and try the most serious crimes since the start of the conflict.

Finally, the UN should impose more targeted sanctions on individuals. Members of the UN Security Council have in the past been urged to sanction Malong, Kiir, and Machar. The two top leaders have yet to be added to the list of those proposed for sanctioning. Malong and Johnson Olony – an IO commander – were proposed by the United States in September 2015 but Russia, Angola and China objected.

Categories: Africa

South Sudan Presser +

Tue, 16/08/2016 - 14:45
Categories: Africa

Ethiopian Forces Kill ‘Up to 100’ Protesters

Tue, 16/08/2016 - 14:45

As anti-government protests spread across Ethiopia’s Amhara and Oromia regions last weekend, state security forces once again used lethal force to break them up – killing as many as 100 unarmed protesters.

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Protesters chant slogans during a demonstration over what they say is unfair distribution of wealth in the country at Meskel Square in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, August 6, 2016.

© 2016 Reuters

More than 500 demonstrators are now estimated to have been killed by security forces in largely peaceful protests since November 2015. Demonstrators are protesting against alleged abuses and discrimination by the government.

The authorities have detained thousands during the demonstrations, and charged opposition political leaders with terrorism. The government’s heavy-handed response is likely to fuel growing anger and frustration.

On Wednesday, the United Nations’ top human rights official stressed the need for an international investigation into the killings. Ethiopia’s government immediately rejected this, stating to Al Jazeera that it would be responsible for the safety of its own people.

Some governments, including the United Kingdom, have decided to wait for the outcome of an investigation by Ethiopia’s national Human Rights Commission into the government’s response to protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions before deciding how to act. In its oral report to parliament in June, however, the commission concluded that the level of force used by security forces in Oromia was proportionate to the risk they faced from protesters.

Days earlier, Human Rights Watch had reported that excessive use of force resulted in the killing of an estimated 400 people during the protests in Oromia – and that the response was anything but proportionate.

The Human Rights Commission has a history of close ties to the government.

That combined with the well-established absence of accountability for security forces underscores the need for an international investigation.

One now-former federal police officer involved in quelling the protests laughed when I asked him in May if he knew of any officers held to account. “We can do whatever we want to stop the protests,” he said. “It is only our families and communities who shame us and make us feel guilty for how we act against our people.”

Ethiopia has been hostile to outside scrutiny of its rights record. Despite its June election to the UN Security Council and its membership of the Human Rights Council, it has refused entry to all UN special rapporteurs since 2007 – including the UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.

The United Nations and allied governments should press Ethiopia to stop using excessive force against protesters, and to hold those responsible to account, regardless of rank. They should press the Ethiopian government to allow international observers to investigate abuses before Ethiopia slides into an even more dangerous and irreversible political and human rights crisis.

Categories: Africa

Angola: Military Fatally Shoots Boy at Protest

Tue, 16/08/2016 - 14:45
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Some of the more than 600 houses demolished by the government in the Zango II area of Luanda, Angola since July 31, 2016.

© 2016 Ampe Rogério/Rede Angola

(Johannesburg) – Angolan authorities should promptly and impartially investigate the shooting death of a 14-year-old boy during a peaceful protest in Luanda on August 6, 2016. The government’s deployment of military police during a demonstration against the demolition of homes for a development project raises serious concerns about the security forces’ unnecessary use of lethal force.

“Angolan soldiers fired live ammunition during a peaceful protest and the unsurprising result is the death of a teenage boy,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities need to promptly investigate why the soldiers opened fire, prosecute those responsible for any wrongdoing, and take steps to avoid such bloodshed in the future.”

By about 3 p.m. on August 6, military police had arrived to help demolish homes for a commercial project in the Walale, Zango II neighborhood of the capital, Luanda, according to two witnesses and media reports. The soldiers were met by a group of residents peacefully demonstrating against the demolitions. Without warning, the witnesses said, the soldiers fired live ammunition in the air and at protesters’ feet to disperse the crowd.

“I think they [the military police] got irritated by the number of people who were waiting for them,” said one of the protesters, Dinho, whose surname is not being used for his security. “They loaded the guns and started firing at our feet. We ran away.”

One bullet fatally struck 14-year-old Rufino Antonio in his neck. No other demonstrators were reported injured by gunfire.

“One of the soldiers was listening to us as we begged them not to demolish the houses,” said Lucas, another protester. “Then, this other soldier just pointed his gun at me. The boy was right behind me and I told him to run. We ran to hide behind a mango tree. That shot was directed at me. It missed me, it missed the mango tree, and unfortunately struck the boy.”

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Student card of Rufino Antonio, 14, who was killed by gunfire from the military police during a peaceful protest against home demolitions on August 6, 2016 in Zango II, Luanda, Angola.

© 2016 Human Rights Watch

Rufino’s uncle, Rui Domingos, told Human Rights Watch that his nephew was playing with other children when the military police arrived, and that Rufino went to join the demonstration. Domingos said that neighbors who witnessed the shooting called him and Rufino’s parents to the scene at about 5 p.m. When they arrived, Rufino was already dead.

“The neighbors told us that a military officer had shot him.” Domingos said. “We immediately called the soba (local chief) and police.”

Domingos said that minutes after the local police came, army officials arrived, threatening the police commander and removing Rufino’s body without explanation. The family located the boy’s body in the morgue of Maria Pia Hospital the following day.

A graphic video taken just after the shooting and posted on social media by Angolan activists shows Rufino lying on the ground under a mango tree with blood flowing behind his head or neck. A crowd is gathered around, and a man says, “Get their mother, get their mother.” Shortly thereafter a shot is heard but no security forces are visible.

The protest was organized by local residents against the planned demolition of about 625 houses in the neighborhood for a commercial, industrial, and agriculture development project by the Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Zone.

An activist from OMUNGA, an organization that monitors forced evictions in Angola, told Human Rights Watch that the demolitions began on July 31, and were met by repeated protests, none of which involved violence. The law enforcement operation was being conducted by a military unit of the Posto Comando Unificado (PCU), a new force consisting of construction inspectors, army soldiers, and the police, tasked with protecting government infrastructure and land.

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A man in the Zango II area of Luanda, Angola after security forces demolished his house.

© 2016 Ampe Rogério/Rede Angola

A lieutenant-general leading the PCU operations, Simão Carlitos Wala, told Voice of America that the incident was under investigation, but he declined to provide details.

“The Angolan authorities should be using police, not soldiers, for law enforcement during demonstrations,” Bekele said. “Soldiers, including military police, are trained to use their guns first.”

The United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials state that nonviolent means should be used as far as possible before resorting to the use of force. Whenever the lawful use of force is unavoidable, the authorities should use restraint and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense. Law enforcement officials should not use firearms against people except in self-defense or defense of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury.

Angolan law permits security forces to use lethal force only as a last resort to counter a threat to life or serious injury. However, Human Rights Watch and other groups have documented many cases in which security forces have unjustifiably killed or injured protesters.

In April, police gunfire wounded at least three people during a student demonstration against an increase in school fees in Caluquembe, Huila province. The police initially denied firing live ammunition but later admitted that one officer had opened fire and said he would be punished. It is not known what steps were taken to punish this officer or others for their role in the incident.

“Angolan authorities should demonstrate that they are serious about curtailing excessive use of force by fully investigating the death of Rufino Antonio and bringing those responsible to justice,” Bekele said. “The government should ensure that its security forces abide by international standards and respond nonviolently to peaceful protests.”

Categories: Africa

Uganda: Police Attack LGBT Pride Event

Sat, 06/08/2016 - 02:15
(Kampala) – Ugandan police unlawfully raided an event late in the evening of August 4, 2016, the third night of a week of Ugandan LGBTI Pride celebrations, brutally assaulting participants, seven human rights groups said today.   Expand

The venue for Uganda’s Pride 2016 pageant that police raided  on August 4, 2016.

© Edward Echwalu 2016 The event was a pageant in Kampala’s Club Venom to crown Mr/Ms/Mx Uganda Pride. Police claimed that they had been told a “gay wedding” was taking place and that the celebration was “unlawful” because police had not been informed of the event. However, police had been duly informed, and the prior two Pride events, on August 2 and 3, were conducted without incident.

“We strongly condemn these violations of Ugandans’ rights to peaceful association and assembly,” said Nicholas Opiyo, a human rights lawyer and executive director at Chapter Four Uganda. “These brutal actions by police are unacceptable and must face the full force of Ugandan law.”

The police locked the gates of the club, arrested more than 16 people – the majority of whom are Ugandan LGBT rights activists – and detained hundreds more for over 90 minutes, beating and humiliating people; taking pictures of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) Ugandans and threatening to publish them; and confiscating cameras. Witnesses reported that the police assaulted many participants, in particular transgender women and men, in some cases groping and fondling them. One person jumped from a sixth-floor window to avoid police abuse and is in a hospital in critical condition.

By approximately 1:20 a.m., all those arrested had been released without charge from the Kabalagala Police Station. This episode of police brutality did not happen in isolation, the groups said. It comes at a time of escalating police violence targeting media, independent organizations, and the political opposition.

“Any force by Ugandan police targeting a peaceful and lawful assembly is outrageous,” said Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), who was among those arrested. “The LGBTI community stands with all Ugandan civil society movements against police brutality.”

“The Ugandan government should condemn violent illegal actions by police targeting the LGBTI community and all Ugandans,” said Asia Russell at Health GAP. “The US and all governments should challenge President Museveni to intervene immediately and hold his police force accountable.”

LGBTI Ugandans routinely face violence, discrimination, bigotry, blackmail, and extortion. The unlawful government raid on a spirited celebration displays the impunity under which Ugandan police are operating. “The state has a duty to protect all citizens’ enjoyment of their rights, including the right to peacefully assemble to celebrate Pride Uganda,” said Hassan Shire, executive director at Defend Defenders. “A swift and transparent investigation should be conducted into last night’s unacceptable demonstration of police brutality.”

Activists called on the governments to immediately and publicly condemn the raid and to take swift disciplinary action against those responsible for the gross violations of rights and freedoms. The organizers said that Pride Uganda celebrations will continue as planned, with a celebration on August 6.

“Our pride and resilience remain steadfast despite these horrible and shameful actions by Ugandan police,” said Clare Byarugaba of Chapter Four Uganda.

“Celebrating with LGBTI people and demonstrating solidarity in calling for their rights to be respected is as basic a show of free expression and association under human rights law as you can get,” said Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Ugandan authorities should not only refrain from trying to stop such activities, but they have binding legal obligations to ensure others do not interfere in this fundamental exercise of basic rights.”

Signatories:
Chapter Four Uganda
Defend Defenders
Health GAP
Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum
Human Rights Watch
Sexual Minorities Uganda
Uganda Pride Committee

 

Categories: Africa

Gambia: Opposition Politician’s Death Must Prompt Human Rights Reform

Sat, 06/08/2016 - 02:15
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Opposition supporters demonstrate on April 16, 2016 in the Gambian capital, Banjul, following the death in custody of opposition activist Solo Sandeng. Gambian security forces broke up the protest and arrested more than 20 demonstrators, including opposition leader Ousainou Darboe.

© 2016 Getty Images

Gathered together on the floor of a dusty house, Solo Sandeng’s children remember their father with a mix of sadness, anger and pride. “We want him to be remembered for what he did,” Aminata, 24, tells me, “But we also want justice.”

Her sister, Fatoumatta, 22, listens to my questions with her eyes fixed to the floor, her head wrapped in a black headscarf. When she looks up, the calm authority in her voice suggests she will continue her father’s struggle. “The Gambian government wants to silence us,” she says. “But what they did to Solo, they created an anger that will not relent.”

Sandeng, a prominent Gambian opposition politician, was allegedly beaten to death by members of the Gambian security services within hours of his arrest on April 14. That day, he and a small group of activists had taken part in a demonstration calling for electoral reform ahead of December’s presidential election.

The protest was a rare example of dissent in a country that a former army officer, Yahya Jammeh, has ruled with an iron fist since coming to power in a 1994 coup. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented how Jammeh’s regime uses arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and torture to create a climate of fear that suppresses opposition.

The government’s response to the protest in April was a stark reminder of the risks that opposition parties face in the run-up to elections. “In a country where there was any sort of democracy, my father’s actions would have been taken with grace,” Fatoumatta told me. Instead, Gambian police quickly descended on the protest, arrested Sandeng and his fellow protesters and eventually charged 25 with public order offenses. Several allege that, like Sandeng, they were badly beaten while in detention.

Upon hearing media reports of her father’s death in the early hours of April 16, Fatoumatta and her brother, 19-year-old Muhammed, marched with leaders of Sandeng’s political party, the United Democratic Party (UDP), toward the police headquarters where Sandeng had initially been detained. The demonstrators chanted, “Release Solo Sandeng, Dead or Alive.”

Fatoumatta recalled that as they walked, she kept thinking that “after all they did to Solo, they will leave us alone.” But the police fired teargas to disperse the crowd and beat protesters with batons. Fatoumatta escaped after being ushered hastily into a taxi. Muhammed was chased by police officers and struck on the arm, but eventually got away. More than 20 other protesters, including UDP leader Ousainou Darboe and several UDP executive members, were arrested.

News of Sandeng’s death and the arrest of the UDP leadership led to widespread condemnation from African human rights bodies, the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States. President Jammeh responded in May, saying that human rights groups and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon could “go to hell.”  On June 22, Saihou Omar Jeng, a senior official at Gambia’s National Intelligence Agency, stated that Sandeng had died in custody of “shock” and “respiratory failure” but provided no explanation of the circumstances that led to his death.

Half an hour after Fatoumatta and Muhammed arrived home on April 16, a police convoy drove up to their gate. They understood what it meant. “Family members of people involved in the April 14 and 16 protests were being targeted,” Fatoumatta says. “So we knew it wasn’t safe, we never went back to our house.” A subsequent protest on May 9 in solidarity with those arrested on April 14 and 16 was quickly suppressed.

Now in exile, Sandeng’s children hope that people remember the call for electoral reform that led to their father’s death. On July 20, Darboe and several UDP executives were sentenced to three years in prison, meaning the UDP’s leadership will remain in detention during the upcoming presidential elections. Eleven protesters arrested with Sandeng were also sentenced, on July 21, to three years in prison.

Gambian government officials told HRW that opposition groups are able to operate without restrictions. But leaders from opposition parties decry their lack of access to media, with state radio and television dominated by Jammeh and the ruling party. An inter-party dialogue intended as a forum to discuss electoral reform has stalled.

As the elections approach, the U.S. and EU should consider imposing targeted sanctions—such as travel bans and asset freezes—on senior officials implicated in human rights violations unless the government begins an impartial and transparent investigation into Sandeng’s death, releases all peaceful protesters, and engages in a genuine dialogue over electoral reform. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) should consider suspending Gambia from ECOWAS decision-making bodies if the human rights situation does not improve, and improve quickly.

Fatoumatta hopes that her father’s death will be a turning point for Gambia. But she acknowledges that the threat of arrest still stifles independent voices. “Fear still rules in Gambia,” says Fatoumatta. “Only if that changes can we really talk about free elections.”

Jim Wormington is an Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. He tweets @jwormington.

Categories: Africa

Dispatches: Small Step Towards Prosecutions for Abuses in Somalia

Sat, 06/08/2016 - 02:15

In 2014, I spoke to several military lawyers and judges from Uganda, Burundi and Kenya to understand how Somalis abused by soldiers from the African Union forces in Somalia (AMISOM) could seek justice. I was told the best chance was to hold prosecutions in Somalia itself, not hundreds of miles away in Uganda, Kenya, or Burundi, which would make it more difficult for witnesses to appear. “Without witnesses, the cases will be easy to throw out,” one Ugandan judge advocate said.

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A commuter taxi drives past an African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) armoured vehicle, December 2010.

AU-UN IST PHOTO / STUART PRICE

On Tuesday, Uganda’s military justice system held a court martial in Mogadishu. and for the first time ever, the media was invited to cover the hearings.

Despite serious concerns about the fairness of trials before Uganda’s military court, holding public hearings in Mogadishu is an important step in bringing greater transparency to the process and providing a model of in-country proceedings. The military court is currently trying military offences and not abuses against civilians, but the example of access to proceedings for victims and witnesses and the court presence inside Somalia offers AMISOM and troop-contributing countries the opportunity to press ahead with setting up a jurisdiction for cases of crimes against civilians as well.

The countries that contribute troops to AMISOM have exclusive jurisdiction over their personnel for any criminal offenses they commit in Somalia and so are in charge of investigations and all criminal prosecutions. These countries are bound by memorandums of understanding signed with the AU, and international human rights and humanitarian obligations to investigate and if established, prosecute, allegations of serious violations and crimes.

We have documented abuses by Ugandan forces as part of AMISOM on a number of occasions, including sexual exploitation and abuse of Somali women and girls, and indiscriminate killings of civilians. But the Ugandan forces are not the only ones implicated in abuses; and yet, so far, the others have shown little interest in holding their troops accountable.

In our 2014 report, we called on the AU to urge all troop-contributing countries to look at sending their military courts either permanently or on a rotating basis to Somalia. The AU had considered the recommendation, and in an April 2015 investigation report said that with one exception, all contributing countries agreed in principle to holding ad hoc court martials in Somalia.

Uganda has now shown this is possible when there is political will to get it done. The AU, international supporters to AMISOM, and the Somali government should now push other troop contributors to follow suit. All victims of AMISOM abuses should be given the equal opportunities to access redress and justice.

Categories: Africa

Dispatches: Why is Burundi Ducking Questions About Torture?

Wed, 03/08/2016 - 02:05

In response to the human rights crisis in Burundi, the UN Committee Against Torture held a special session last week to review allegations of torture and other abuses in the country. But the Burundian government shocked everyone in the room by failing to turn up for the review’s second day – apparently the first country ever to do so.

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A Burundian artist’s drawing of a fictional case of policemen and an intelligence agent torturing a detainee.

© 2016 Private

On July 28, a government delegation, headed by Justice Minister Aimée Laurentine Kanyana, had attended the first part of the UN Committee Against Torture’s (CAT) review. In her opening speech, she stated that Burundian law prohibits torture and that anyone responsible for torture would be prosecuted. She attempted to discredit “tendentious” reports based on anonymous sources or originating from political opponents, and asked the CAT to disqualify reports to which the Burundian government had not had the opportunity to react.

She then listened as CAT members raised serious concerns – including torture, extrajudicial executions, disappearances, rape, and crackdowns on human rights defenders and opposition party members – and asked numerous, precise questions about the Burundian government’s actions. CAT members spoke scathingly about the Burundian justice system’s lack of independence and the authorities’ failure to end impunity.

It was clear Burundi’s minister would have a hard time answering their questions.

When the CAT reconvened on July 29, the Burundian delegation was nowhere to be seen. Eventually, the chair announced that the delegation had sent a written statement, asking for more time to respond. In the statement, the Burundian delegation complained that the CAT had raised questions which allegedly went beyond the issues it had set out beforehand. It also claimed the CAT was largely basing its questions on an alternative report, submitted by Burundian civil society organizations, which, it said, had not shared the report with the government.

In fact, the CAT had submitted its concerns well in advance. Furthermore, reports by Burundian and international human rights organizations documenting torture were already in the public domain. In July 2016 alone, Human Rights Watch published two reports, one on torture of suspected government opponents by the Burundian intelligence services and police and another on rape by members of the youth league of the ruling party. The concerns documented go to the core of the CAT’s review, and the Burundian government should not have been surprised by the issues raised.

The CAT decided to proceed to its concluding observations and not reward the Burundian government’s non-cooperation by delaying the hearing.

The Burundian government’s message last week was clear: it prefers to duck tough questions rather than engage with the UN on human rights, or take meaningful action to prevent torture. 

Categories: Africa

Dispatches: Nigerian Military Used Excessive Force Against Shia Group

Wed, 03/08/2016 - 02:05

An official inquiry into clashes between members of a Shia minority group and the Nigerian military has stated the Nigerian Army’s response to altercations in Zaria, Kaduna State, between December 12 and 14, 2015 was “disproportionate”.

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Members of Islamic Movement of Nigeria, a Shia group, demand the release of the group’s leader, Sheik Ibrahim Zakzaky, who was arrested on December 14, 2015. 

© AP Photo/Muhammed Giginyu

The report of the Kaduna State Judicial Commission of Inquiry, which was released on July 31, found that 349 members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) were killed during the clashes. This confirms earlier findings by Human Rights Watch that more than 300 IMN members were killed by soldiers in a heavy-handed, unjustifiable use of lethal force.

While the Commission criticized the IMN for “widespread and habitual acts of lawlessness and defiance of constituted authorities across the nation”, it condemned the army’s response as excessive. Soldiers, it found, had “shot their way through the blockade” set up by IMN members along the road to the group’s Hussainniya Baqiyyatullah mosque complex, killing seven IMN members, and injuring 11.

At least 342 IMN members were killed during violent clashes that followed the deployment of soldiers to other IMN sites in Kaduna over the course of the next three days. A soldier, Corporal Dan Kaduna Yakubu, was also killed during those clashes.

Contrary to the army’s claims, the report states that no large cache of arms was found at any the five properties belonging to the IMN and its leader Sheik Ibrahim El Zakzaky. According to the report, what was found were bows and arrows, catapults, sticks, and a few dane (local hunting) guns.

The Commission recommended that members of the military involved in unlawful killings and IMN members who participated in the soldier’s death should be brought to trial.

So far, only IMN members have been arrested and prosecuted for causing the killing of Corporal Yakubu during the December events. The group’s leader, Sheik El Zakzaky and his wife Zeenat were arrested on December 14, 2015, and are still being held in what the secret police describe as “protective custody” in Abuja.

Political and military authorities in Nigeria should heed the Commission’s recommendations and take immediate steps to hold those responsible for the illegal use of lethal force to account and to pay compensation to the victims. The authorities should release El Zakzaky and Zeenat from detention, or bring credible charges against the couple in a properly constituted court.

Categories: Africa

Dispatches: Speaking Truth to Power Is a Crime in South Sudan

Wed, 03/08/2016 - 02:05

On July 16, South Sudanese national security agents arrested Alfred Taban, editor in chief of the Juba Monitor, for two editorials calling for removal of President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, respectively, in the wake of renewed fighting around Juba.

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Alfred Taban.

© S. Foltyn

The July 7 fighting began much as it did in December 2013, between forces loyal to the political rivals. It escalated into a four-day battle. Hundreds were killed and soldiers committed serious abuses, attacking civilians, raping women, and looting – including food for 220,000 people in a World Food Program warehouse.

Taban did not mince words, saying the two leaders had “completely failed” to implement the terms of the August 2015 peace agreement. “Instead of Juba being demilitarized, it was completely militarized,” he wrote.

In today’s South Sudan, voicing any critical opinion is treated as a crime, a bitter irony in a country where actual crimes desperately need justice. Human Rights Watch and other groups have documented a string of attacks on the media, including killings, harassment, arbitrary detentions, and closure of newspapers. Nhial Bol, editor of the Citizen daily and one of the country’s most outspoken pundits, gave up journalism altogether. At least two journalists are in detention, one for over two years without charge.

On July 22, authorities transferred Taban into police custody and charged him with publishing false information and undermining the president, and denied him bail. He suffers from medical conditions and has already spent a night in a hospital.

Meanwhile, Kiir has dismissed Machar, whose whereabouts remain unknown, and replaced him with another politician, Taban Deng Gai, sparking huge controversy and deepening cynicism about the peace agreement. The United Nations is once again debating whether to impose an arms embargo, which could make it harder for cash-strapped forces on both sides to rearm and perpetuate their abusive tactics.

At this precipitous moment, the Taban case gains even more urgency and symbolic importance. He devoted much of his career, as editor in chief of the Khartoum Monitor, to speaking truth to power about injustices, especially against southerners during the long civil war. South Sudan’s people have never been in such need of his voice. That its current leaders, employing a national security apparatus that eerily resembles the one in Sudan, have thrown Taban in jail, speaks volumes about where this government is heading.

 

Categories: Africa

Dispatches: Ethiopia’s Opposition Leaders on Hunger Strike

Wed, 03/08/2016 - 02:05

It has been nine days since prominent Ethiopian opposition leader Bekele Gerba and several other senior members of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) went on a hunger strike to protest their treatment in detention. Bekele, who is the deputy chairman of the OFC, and his colleagues are currently being held in Kilinto prison near Addis Ababa on terrorism charges. Their health has reportedly deteriorated significantly in recent days.

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Bekele Gerba in Washington DC, August 2015. 

© 2015 Bonnie Holcomb

Bekele and his associates were detained on December 23, 2015 and later charged under Ethiopia’s terrorism law for allegedly belonging to the banned Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – a charge that is regularly used to silence ethnic Oromos who are critical of the government. They were first taken to the notorious Maekalawi prison, where torture and other ill-treatment are routine. Since moving to Kilinto, Bekele and his colleagues have repeatedly petitioned the courts to investigate their mistreatment in detention, to allow their families visiting rights, and to provide them with proper medication.

Bekele is a staunch advocate of non-violence and is one of tens of thousands who were detained during the mostly peaceful protests that have swept through Oromia since November. Many of those who have since been released reported being tortured in custody.

Since the protests began, the security forces have killed over 400 people, most of them students. Yet, there has been no meaningful investigation into the killings and no effort to hold security forces accountable. Instead, the state-affiliated Human Rights Commission in an oral report to parliament in June concluded that the level of force used by security forces was proportionate to the risk the forces faced, sending an ominous message to Ethiopians that security force members can shoot unarmed protesters with impunity.

As it is clear that the Ethiopian government is either not willing or not able to conduct a credible investigation into the conduct of its security forces, there is increasing need for international involvement in any investigation.

Unfortunately, the authorities’ failure to treat Bekele and his colleagues with the most basic respect for their rights is indicative of a government that shows little willingness to right the wrongs it has committed. Their continued detention sends a message to young Ethiopians that the government equates peaceful protest with terrorism, putting Ethiopia on a dangerous trajectory. 

Categories: Africa

Burundi: Gang Rapes by Ruling Party Youth

Wed, 27/07/2016 - 09:34

(Nairobi) – Members of Burundi ruling party’s youth league, the Imbonerakure, have repeatedly gang-raped women since a wave of political protests began in 2015. Many of the rapes appear to have been aimed at family members of perceived government opponents. Policemen or men wearing police uniforms have also committed rape.

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Burundian refugees gather on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Kagunga village, Kigoma, in western Tanzania on May 17, 2015. 

© 2015 Reuters

In a pattern of abuse in many locations and in several provinces, men armed with guns, sticks, or knives have raped women during attacks on their homes, most often at night. Male family members, some of them members of opposition parties, were also targeted and some killed or abducted. Survivors reported both immediate injuries and longer-term consequences, including sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies, anxiety, and depression. Women have not been safe from rape in refugee camps, and services to assist them are inadequate and need to be better funded. Tanzanian police working in the camp should ensure they fully investigate all rape cases.

“Attackers from Burundi’s ruling party youth league tied up, brutally beat, and gang-raped women, often with their children nearby,” said Skye Wheeler, women’s rights emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Many of the women have suffered long-term physical and psychological consequences.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 70 rape victims in May 2016, in the Nduta refugee camp in western Tanzania. Nduta is one of three Tanzanian camps sheltering 140,000 Burundian refugees.

Dozens of women said they were raped in or close to their homes. Fourteen said they recognized at least one of the attackers as an Imbonerakure. In some other cases, they said the rapists wore police uniforms. In other cases, they could not determine who the attackers were.

Attackers from Burundi’s ruling party youth league tied up, brutally beat, and gang-raped women, often with their children nearby. Many of the women have suffered long-term physical and psychological consequences. Skye Wheeler

women’s rights emergencies researcher

A 36-year-old woman said she was raped in the Mutakura neighborhood of Bujumbura, the capital, in October 2015: “I was held by the arms and legs. [An attacker] said: ‘Let’s kill her, she is an [opposition National Liberation Forces] FNL wife’ as they raped me.”

Three Imbonerakure raped her, she said, one of whom she said she recognized from his patrols in the neighborhood. Imbonerakure had verbally harassed her husband, an FNL member, during visits to their home on several occasions before the attack during which the men took him away. His body was found in a nearby ditch the following day. Like many others Human Rights Watch interviewed, the victim said she still has trouble sleeping and has flashbacks of the attack.

In some cases, rape appeared to be used to try to deter people from fleeing Burundi. Six women said they were raped on the Burundian side of the Tanzanian border by people they believed to be Imbonerakure or knew to be Burundian police, between mid-2015 and early 2016. The attackers ordered the victims to return home, or verbally harassed them for attempting to leave. Sixteen others who tried to leave reported extortion, beatings, verbal harassment, or detention by Imbonerakure or police. Other rapes may have been opportunistic.

Human Rights Watch wrote to the president of the ruling party, Pascal Nyabenda, on July 12, 2016, seeking his response to allegations of rape by Imbonerakure, but did not receive a reply.

Many women fled Burundi immediately after they were raped, before they were able to get emergency medical services. Human Rights Watch found that in many cases women were not identified as rape victims when they arrived at humanitarian transit camps on the Tanzanian side of the border and so did not get emergency care for HIV exposure or emergency contraception, which are among World Health Organization minimum standards for post-rape care.

One woman who did not receive such emergency care became pregnant from the rape. Another found out later she was HIV positive. Both said there was no obvious way to report the rapes at the transit camps. Humanitarians told Human Rights Watch that they were continuing to train staff at the border points, had stockpiled drugs at the border, and were trying to increase the number of female staff there, to encourage women to report sexual violence.

People who fled to Tanzania are not safe from sexual violence in refugee camps, where the numbers of rapes are alarmingly high, including of children. Women and girls have been raped both inside the camps and in areas outside where they collect firewood or goods for market, often as many as three or four cases a week. Women said the attackers included both other Burundian refugees and Tanzanians. Humanitarians told Human Rights Watch they are concerned about high numbers of rapes of children.

Victims said that aid groups providing services in the camps do not provide adequate psychological services and trauma care. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that donor countries have provided less than 40 percent of funds requested in aid to Burundi refugees in Tanzania.

From May through September 2015, 323 (264 women and 59 girls) reported cases of rape or sexual assault that occurred in Burundi, including as they were trying to flee, to humanitarians in Nyaragusu, the first and biggest refugee Tanzanian camp hosting Burundians, according to UNHCR. UNHCR said that of all incidents reported from June to October 2015, according to the women, 16 were allegedly perpetrated by the police and 177 were allegedly perpetrated by other members of the security forces or Imbonerakure.

Over 170 people have reported rapes in Burundi or during their flight to humanitarians in the two newest Tanzanian camps, Nduta and Mtendeli, since they opened late last year, according to UNHCR. It is possible that some women may have reported rapes twice if they moved from Nyaragusu to the newer camps. Reported rape cases may only represent a percentage of the total. Medical staff of aid organizations told Human Rights Watch they believe many women do not report rape unless they seek treatment for continuing medical problems.

Some women interviewed described tense relations between Tutsis and Hutus in the camp and often between or within families. Some said they feared possible attacks from Imbonerakure whom they claimed were in Nduta to target and harass people. Human Rights Watch did not verify these claims.

UNHCR funds Tanzanian police in the refugee camps. The police station in Nduta camp is staffed by least three female police who work at a “gender desk” that encourages women to report abuse. Several interviewees said they appreciated efforts by Tanzanian police, including detaining alleged perpetrators, although sometimes only for short periods.

In other cases, however, women said the Tanzanian police did not seem interested in finding those responsible if the women had been attacked outside Nduta camp, or had not seriously tried to arrest attackers in the camp. A legal assistance organization, the Women’s Legal Aid Center (WILAC), which works in Nduta, said that five people have been officially charged with rape since Nduta opened in October. Four were found not guilty, and one case was ongoing in late May. There have been two convictions for domestic violence.

Abortion services are only legally available in Tanzania to save a woman’s life. This highly restrictive law means that women pregnant as a result of rape are forced to have the children. Medical service providers should use the ban’s exception to the greatest extent possible and should consider whether a woman choosing a dangerous illegal abortion or committing suicide as a result presents a risk to life. The Tanzanian government should change its laws to make abortion available to all women, or at a minimum, to rape victims.

In 2015 and 2016, Human Rights Watch documented how the Burundian police and intelligence services, along with Imbonerakure, targeted perceived opponents with killings, disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrests. President Pierre Nkurunziza should publicly denounce security force and Imbonerakure abuses and ensure that rapists and other abusers are held to account.

The UN Security Council should authorize a strong international police force for Burundi, including women officers, to deter abuses, including rape. The UN and countries that provide police should ensure that they have training and expertise in investigating these crimes, and that providing security and support to survivors of sexual violence is among their priorities.

The UN Security Council should urgently set up an independent, international commission of inquiry with judicial, forensic, and medical expertise, as well as expertise in investigating torture and sexual violence. The commission should produce a timely public report that includes recommendations on accountability, possible financial reparations for victims, and improved access to health services. The commission would build on the work of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights and other UN and African Union initiatives in Burundi, and could contribute to the International Criminal Court’s preliminary examination of the situation in Burundi.

Identification of victims of sexual violence at Tanzanian transit camps should be improved, including by increasing female staff and ensuring victims have a safe and confidential place to report rape. Rape victims should have access to post-rape care that meets World Health Organization standards, including, if needed, emergency HIV prophylaxis and contraception.

“More and more people globally are living in displacement, or as refugees, for increasingly long periods,” Wheeler said. “In Tanzania, as elsewhere, aid groups, host governments, and wealthier donor countries need to ramp up services provision to meet their obligations to protect the health and safety of rape victims and to ensure that their most basic rights are met.”

Crisis in Burundi
In April 2015, President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi announced that he would run for a third term, setting off a political and human rights crisis. Police violently repressed demonstrations and the government cracked down on perceived opponents and critics. Targeted killings and attacks by government forces and armed opposition groups escalated. By December, several hundred people had been killed. Serious abuses in Burundi, including torture and enforced disappearances, have continued throughout the first half of 2016.

Hundreds of thousands of Burundians fled to surrounding countries, most to Tanzania, where three refugee camps were set up, but also to Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Human Rights Watch has not conducted research into rape of Burundian refugees in these other countries.

Rape by Imbonerakure
Burundi has a long history of rape, including during periods of conflict or political crisis. There are indications there may be high rates of this crime even in times of relative stability. In June 2015, for example, Centre Seruka, a Burundian organization that helps victims of sexual violence, said that between 120 and 130 victims of sexual violence sought help at their facilities each month. The majority were children.

The survivors interviewed said that in some cases, they had been raped by men they knew to be Imbonerakure, who sometimes worked with the police. Many could not identify their rapist by name, but believed they were raped because of a family member’s link to an opposition party or a grievance against their husband. The Imbonerakure, who are the members of the youth league of the ruling party, the Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), are organized across Burundi, down to the local level, and have long been used to target government opponents. Their role in the repression has increased since April 2015.

More than 10 women interviewed said that local Imbonerakure had harassed them even before April 2015, although this worsened after Nzurunziza’s announcement that he would run again. Several women said that Imbonerakure had started carrying weapons and had taken on a more prominent security role in their villages or towns.

Imbonerakure known to victims, men in police uniforms, and unidentified armed men, some of whom accused the victims of supporting an opposition party or being married to an opposition supporter, were among those responsible for rapes or gang-rapes of 38 women interviewed by Human Rights Watch. In two cases, girls were gang-raped during attacks in or near their homes. The attacks, almost always at night, were by a group of men with guns, sticks, grenades, or knives. In the majority of cases, more than one man raped the victim.

In 23 cases, the victims did not recognize the people who attacked them, but said some of the men were dressed in ruling party T-shirts or police uniforms, which Imbonerakure sometimes wear. The victims said that Imbonerakure either had previously threatened family members, or that the attackers had attacked or asked for male relatives and made derogatory comments about their political beliefs.

Some women also said they believed their attackers were Imbonerakure because the group controlled the victims’ neighborhoods and there were no other armed groups in their area. In one case, the attackers took a mobile phone, and in two other cases, they extorted money from the women, but robbery did not appear to be their main motivation.

In several attacks the women described, the attackers either killed a male family member or took him away. In three cases, the attackers beat a husband or other male relative. In four cases, the male relative fled at the beginning of the attack.

A group of Imbonerakure raped O.P.’s 8-year-old daughter after they attacked her family home, in Karusi province, in late April 2015. O.P. saw a local Imbonerakure leader enter the house with other men before she ran away, leaving her daughter behind. She returned to find her daughter sitting in bloody sheets. O.P.’s daughter told her that four men had raped her. O.P.’s husband left the country the following day because he feared the attack was directed at him. He had already been arrested twice and detained for short periods by local Imbonerakure for not joining the ruling party, O.P. said.

Several rapes reported to Human Rights Watch took place at the end of 2015, when human rights abuses escalated in Burundi, especially in Bujumbura.

N.B.’s husband, a policeman and member of the FNL, was shot dead while on duty. On December 13, 2015, N.B., 22, said, a group of Imbonerakure forced their way into her home, beat her with sticks, and two of them raped her. She said that men, who had told her they were Imbonerakure, had repeatedly forced their way into her home in the three months prior to the attack looking for her husband, verbally harassing her and accusing her of hiding him. In five cases, the women interviewed said the dead bodies of men who were abducted were found dumped near the site of the attack.

Others did not know the whereabouts of family members for many weeks. Seventeen-year-old S.W. did not know where her father was for months after her family was attacked in August 2015, in Bujumbura’s Kinama neighborhood. Four Imbonerakure, dressed in ruling party T-shirts, dragged her to a banana grove near her house and raped her after other men in their group took away her father, a member of the opposition Movement for Solidarity and Democracy (MSD). A neighbor who was an Imbonerakure eventually told the family her father had been killed.

Women said that if the man wanted by the attackers was not there, they would demand to know his whereabouts and would sometimes tell the victim that they were raping her because they could not find the man. In nine cases, women said the men had fled before the rape took place, or had begun habitually sleeping elsewhere because of threats. 

M.N.’s husband, she said, had been harassed for his membership in an opposition party since his family returned to Muyinga province in Burundi in 2012, from exile in Tanzania, and had begun sleeping in friends’ houses for safety. In December 2015, a group of Imbonerakure told her neighbors to stay indoors and forced their way into her house. Two of them picked M.N. up from her bed, threw her on the ground, and raped her, she said. She recognized one of them as an Imbonerakure.

In three other cases, the rape took place weeks or months after a husband or other male relative had been killed or disappeared in an earlier attack.

In many cases, known Imbonerakure had threatened or attacked the targeted male member before the attack, often during daytime house visits. Women often continued to receive threats after a male relative was attacked and sometimes after the woman had been raped.

Eleven of the reported cases of rapes and other abuses took place in Bujumbura, mostly in Mutakura, Cibitoke, and Musaga neighborhoods, where police had clashed with protesters over President Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term. However, similar attacks were reported in other locations. Many women in the refugee camps were from border areas such as Makamba, Ruyigi, and Muyinga provinces.

In some cases, the attackers’ comments during the attacks, as well as harassment before and afterward, would appear to indicate that the leading motivation behind the abuses was political, connected to the victim’s relatives being members of opposition parties. However, there may have been other motivations. Many of the women who had been attacked had returned to Burundi between 2010 and 2012, after living in Tanzania for many years. Many found themselves embroiled in land conflicts when they returned, with neighbors or other family members occupying their homes. In several cases, women said that the attacks by Imbonerakure appeared to be connected to long-standing disputes over land in their communities.

Some women believed ethnicity may have been a factor. Two Tutsi women said the attackers made ethnic slurs during the attack. Others believed the ethnic dimension was a more prominent factor in communities with few Tutsi families. Human Rights Watch did not ask interviewees for their ethnicity.

Some attacks may also have been linked to personal disputes or grievances. In July 2015, two men raped 33-year-old J.N. in Muyinga province, she said, while three Imbonerakure watched, including a local leader whose face she recognized. The men beat her husband and then took him from the house during the attack. She said that she believes she was raped because she and her husband were FNL members, but also because her husband, a local neighborhood leader, reported carousing at a prostitute’s house by some local men to the police and some of the men were arrested. J.N. reported that the men who attacked her said, “he stopped us from using their prostitute, so we’re [having sex with] you instead.”

Rape by Security Forces
In several cases, groups of men who attacked homes included one or more men in police or army uniforms. These may have been members of security forces or Imbonerakure, who often dress in police or military uniform. Members of the police or army have also attacked and raped women. Human Rights Watch documented several cases in which police raped women.

A group of policemen, all in blue police uniform, visited and harassed 28-year-old F.P., she said, at her house in the town of Nyanza Lac three times – in April, July, and September 2015, when two of them raped her. In April, the policemen took some of her belongings and in July, they stole bank account documents that had belonged to her husband, who had been a soldier and peacekeeper in Somalia before he died there in 2014. Local Imbonerakure also harassed her frequently, saying her husband had only managed to get rich by bribing his way into peacekeeping posts.

Two women said they were raped in police detention. A 26-year-old local leader of an opposition party was detained for a night in a police station in late February 2016, after she was accused of holding political meetings and refusing to join the CNDD-FDD. A senior policeman working in the detention center raped her, she said.

Few women feel safe reporting rapes or other abuses to the police, especially in view of the close relationship between some Imbonerakure and the police. Many of those interviewed said they feared they would have been killed had they done so. Fear of further attacks as well as the desire to leave the country quickly also prevented women from seeking emergency health care in Burundi, including emergency contraception and post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV infections.

Four soldiers took 27-year-old M.D. from her house in Kamenge, in Bujumbura, after they failed to find her husband, a MSD member who had been detained several times, in mid-December 2015. They held her for a day in the barracks in Kamenge, where two of the soldiers raped and beat her.

Rape, Harassment During Flight
Women have been raped on both sides of the border as they fled to Tanzania, part of a broader pattern of harassment and extortion of people trying to leave Burundi.

Some of the rapes on the Burundi side appeared to be attempts by members of the security forces and Imbonerakure to prevent people from leaving Burundi. Burundian police raped H.S., 24, in mid-May 2015, when she tried to cross at an official border point in Kabonga, Makamba province. She said the men called her a dog and told her she was crazy to try to leave the country when there was no war. They beat her and dragged her to some bushes, where two of the men raped her before a group of soldiers intervened.

In another case, three men in police uniform raped R.N. in October 2015, in Makamba province on a path through the bush as she was about to reach the Muragarazi river on the border.

In other cases, women said that they were raped by unknown men. A group of men in the Murama village area of Muyinga province stopped a group of women trying to cross the border in August 2015, and demanded to know why they were trying to leave the country. Three of the men tied up B.K., 45, and her adult daughter and raped them. The men let them go, she said, after they promised not to tell anyone. Twenty-seven-year-old G.O. said two of a group of men in CNDD-FDD T-shirts raped her at night in the Gatwe area of Makamba province in late October 2015.

In some cases, rapes appear to have been opportunistic. Four women reported that they were raped on the Tanzanian side of the border by unknown men who spoke Kiha, a language local to the Kigoma area of Tanzania, or Kiswahili.

Lack of Services in Tanzania Transit Camps
The border between Burundi and Tanzania is porous, with numerous crossings. Aid organizations have established a number of transit points and transit centers in Tanzania where refugees can register and receive food and shelter before being taken to refugee camps.

Human Rights Watch found that in the majority of cases, women interviewed who had been raped a few days before reaching transit camps were not identified as victims by staff there. Women said that they sometimes felt too shy to say they had been raped, especially if only male staff were present. Others said that the staff seemed too busy or that they did not report the rape because they were not asked.

As a result, unless women were quickly transported to a refugee camp, they missed an opportunity to access emergency HIV post-exposure prophylaxis, which must be taken within 72 hours of exposure, or emergency contraception, which should be administered within 120 hours. Of 20 victims interviewed who arrived at transit camps within the five-day window, aid workers identified only two as rape victims and referred them for urgent assistance. Five were lucky enough to get on a bus quickly to a camp, but 13 missed the window altogether, with some of them left in the transit camps for more than a week.

One became pregnant after a rape that took place less than 24 hours before she arrived at a transit center. Another who had been raped for the second time since 2015, while crossing the border, was not identified as a rape victim at a transit camp. She, like two other interviewees, later found out she was HIV positive. She did not know whether she contracted the virus during the first or second rape.

Aid workers have made efforts to put in place a system to identify rape victims at border crossings and to help them get care. It is not clear why the procedures are not always working. UNHCR told Human Rights Watch in a letter that aid workers at border points have been trained to screen new arrivals to try to find out if they have experienced sexual violence and if so, expedite their referral for emergency health care. The also said that border point staff coordinate with aid workers in the camps to help ensure victims receive care in the camps. UNHCR also said that in May and June 2016, they supplied staff of nongovernmental groups at border entry points with emergency HIV and contraceptive care.

The International Rescue Committee, which provides services at 10 border crossings, said in a letter that they had made specific efforts to increase their numbers of female staff in accordance with best practices so that female victims of rape feel more comfortable reporting it. However, the group said that because of security concerns in these isolated places, they struggled to retain female staff. It appears from the interviews that women found fewer barriers to reporting rape at Nduta than at border points.

While the primary responsibility to provide services rests with the government, in countries where the government is unwilling or unable to meet these needs and where UN agencies are operating, these agencies have a clear human rights obligation to ensure that urgent needs are met to fulfil basic rights to health and life.

Rape in Nduta Camp
There have been many reports of rape in both Nduta and the older Nyaragusu refugee camp, further south, in the Kigoma area of Tanzania. Women, men, and children have been raped both inside and outside the camps. Tanzanian camp authorities and UNHCR have taken important steps to prevent rape but should do more to ensure protection, including through enforcing greater accountability for attackers. To fully meet their obligations, humanitarians will need to be better funded.

Human Rights Watch was especially concerned to find that large numbers of children have been raped in Nduta. Human Rights Watch interviewed three girls under 18 and the close relatives of five other children, all under 12, including three under 5, who had been raped since the camp opened in October 2015.

Eight women or girls interviewed had been raped outside the camp, while collecting firewood or buying produce to sell in Nduta market. No one was arrested and the attackers have not been identified. Two 11-year-old girls were raped in the same incident in February 2016, by men they believed were Tanzanian who chased a group of children collecting firewood behind the police station, about a 10-minute walk from the camp. No one has been arrested, and a parent of one of the girls said that the police did not go to the nearby village to investigate.

Rape of women outside of refugee camps occurs in many displacement sites in the region. However, in Nduta, this appears to be only part of the problem. Human Rights Watch interviewed more women and girls who had been raped inside than outside the camp.

In April 2016, two young men raped 15-year-old F.N. in a tent in the camp. F.N. said that as a result, she has chronic hip and back pain and suffered trauma and depression. Her mother said she was afraid to report the case or seek justice, even though they know one of the rapists because she fears retribution from his family.

Similar fears led the parents of 4-year-old S.A. not to report the rape of their daughter by a 16-year-old boy, although in this case her parents were also concerned that the police would beat the boy, or his father. A 14-year-old boy raped another 4-year-old, D.C., who lived in a nearby tent, in early May 2016. The mother decided not to press charges as the father would likely be jailed in his son’s place, which she thought would be unfair.

The Need for Greater Protection, Counseling Services in Nduta
The Nduta police have not always made serious efforts to arrest rapists. For example, a church leader raped 27-year-old H.N. in January 2016, after he entered her tent to, he said, pray for her. H.N. told the police but the man has not been arrested. Camp zone leaders who work in close cooperation with the police told her that her rapist appeared to have magical powers of disappearance when they tried to find him. The man also threatened her after the rape. S.K., 15, made several trips to the police to report her rape in January 2016, and told the police where the rapist lived, but as of May he had still not been arrested.

The Tanzanian police, including those based in and around Nduta, should thoroughly investigate rapes both outside and inside the camp. They should actively encourage women to report rapes and work with women’s groups to investigate, even if the victim cannot identify the attacker.

Human Rights Watch wrote a letter to the Tanzanian Ministry of Home Affairs on July 1, 2016, but did not receive a reply.

Tanzania has historically provided tens of thousands of refugees’ legal residency, including 162,000 people between 2008 and 2010, and has allowed hundreds of thousands more to enter and stay in camps in Tanzania. However, Tanzanian authorities made tens of thousands of other refugees return to Burundi in 2011 and 2012. Tanzania’s current encampment policy restricts refugees’ movements to four miles from the camp. Because authorities sometimes punish refugees who break this rule, women raped further afield are afraid to report rapes.

More concerted efforts by the Tanzanian police to identify, investigate, and prosecute alleged perpetrators could help reduce rape in Nduta. Aid groups should also continue to support survivors with medical, including psychosocial, and legal services and monitor to protect victims and their families from revenge attacks. UNHCR and IRC should continue training for police as well as community meetings and advocacy by leaders to encourage reporting. UNHCR has provided the camp police with vehicles and motorbikes so they can patrol inside and outside the camp.

Together with the Tanzanian government, UNHCR oversees protection activities in all the refugee camps. However, Human Rights Watch found that victims were often unable to access UNHCR staff or had to wait for long periods for an appointment. In four cases, women said they had repeatedly visited the Nduta UNHCR office to request an appointment, but had been unable to make an appointment or told to go away. One was looking for assistance after her 4-year-old child had been raped in the camp. Another woman, who visited the UNHCR office in April 2016, said she had been given an appointment in June. UNHCR told Human Rights Watch in its letter that it is improving its protection counseling services and hope to expand them further, but that staffing shortages mean that such services are more limited in Nduta than, for example, in Nyaragusu.

Officials responsible for running the camp should continue to carry out concrete measures to reduce attacks on women, such as improving lighting in the camp and ensuring all latrines can be locked. Several women said that they urinated in plastic bottles cut in half to avoid using unlit latrines at night. Some had received solar lamps, but several had been stolen. Many women said that their personal belongings had been stolen from their tents, including medical documentation of rapes which would be important in efforts to seek justice.

UNHCR is working with Tanzania’s Home Affairs Ministry on a pilot project to produce bio-mass briquettes as an alternative to firewood. The use of improved mud-stoves has been promoted in the camps. UNHCR told Human Rights Watch that group firewood collection times have also been established and daily security messages are shared in the camp through community outreach teams. IRC conducts weekly community campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers and how women and girls can minimize risk.

Some special efforts have been made by aid groups to protect children from rape, including establishing child protection groups, drop-off child care centers, and campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers of leaving children unattended.

Five women said they had seen the Imbonerakure who allegedly raped them, or other Imbonerakure, in the refugee camp. Two said the men had threatened them. Several Tutsi women also said that they felt unsafe because of their ethnicity and that other refugees harassed and insulted them. One woman said men had called her a “cockroach” – a term used to insult Tutsi during the 1994 Rwandan genocide – and told her she should have fled to Rwanda instead. The woman reported the case to the police, who intervened. The men apologized and promised they would not insult her again.

It is not clear how UNHCR plans on tackling threats to security in the camp, but increasing efforts are being made, the agency said, to support efforts by refugees to improve their security. A more grassroots approach to prevention and response to rape could be effective, such as a community-led effort in the 1990s that used refugee “crisis intervention teams,” who identified rape victims, helped them access services, and worked within their communities to address risks.

IRC is engaging religious leaders and others to promote nonviolence and has initiated a large program with some 400 women and men to examine and change attitudes and practices.

The long term consequences of rape are often devastating. Only two women out of more than 70 interviewed said that they felt largely unchanged emotionally or physically since the rapes. The others described experiencing chronic problems they said were a result of the rape, including poor physical health, infections, and continuing problems with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Women with HIV said that they were struggling to find enough nutritious food to stay healthy, and two said they were not able to maintain a regime of HIV prophylaxis medications because they could not get enough to eat.

A large proportion of the women said that they still felt pain in their hips, back or stomach and several women said they were struggling to carry water or perform other activities. They reported persistent problems with sleeping, waking up suddenly screaming in the night, and nightmares. Emotional pain, a feeling of disconnection from others including their children, self-disgust, and shame were common. Two women said that they feared that the rape has made them worse mothers. Women also reported constantly thinking about the rapes, experiencing reoccurring flashbacks of the rape or killings, depression, or feeling no peace or happiness. There was a widespread – and in Human Rights Watch’s view, an accurate – perception that not enough was being done to assist to rape victims, although many women did not know that psychosocial – mental health – care should be key parts of government or aid agency responses to rape and are included in all global standards.

Human Rights Watch spoke to five women who had become pregnant or had had children as a result of rape. In all cases, the pregnancy had brought discord. Women reported ambiguous feelings for the children and family problems. In some cases, the women’s husband had refused to accept the pregnancy or the child. In other cases, the husband had forbidden the woman to get an abortion. In two cases, women said aid staff told them they had a religious and moral duty to keep the child. In all cases, the women were not able to choose what is best for them and their families after suffering a gross human rights abuse, not least because of Tanzania’s highly restrictive abortion laws.

More services from aid agencies or the government are needed to provide ongoing case management for victims, especially psychosocial and psychological support. Women interviewed were grateful for counseling, legal, and other support from IRC, but they said it this tended to be short-term and inadequate.

A handful of women interviewed had been invited to join an IRC women’s basket weaving group, which they described as helpful. A large number said that they would love to participate in group activities. UNHCR and IRC told Human Rights Watch that group counseling sessions were initiated in May and that three groups are now meeting. This may help meet a great hunger for healing.

About half the women interviewed had one or two counseling sessions at the IRC center in the camp. Some women said they benefitted from confidential dialogue and would have liked more sessions but were not given further appointments. Instead, women were told they could return if they had problems – confusing for victims experiencing depression, chronic shame, or low self-esteem. Although some women received further counseling, this was generally not the case even for children or survivors who became pregnant from rape, contracted HIV, or faced domestic discord or abuse because of the rapes.

A lack of funding has restricted IRC’s capacity to assist. IRC told Human Rights Watch that they have faced up to 90 new reported cases per month, in part because its outreach to tell women about their services and encourage women to report rapes had created a great demand for the services of the three people providing care. Some emergency cases are especially time-consuming. IRC is continuing apply for more funds to increase services and has improved its system for prioritizing cases and hired refugees to provide support in less complicated cases.

Many women took advantage of other services provided by IRC, including accompaniment to the hospital and to police to report crimes and said these were extremely useful.

All the parents of the child survivors said their children were still affected by the rape, exhibiting withdrawal or moodiness. IRC has a child counseling room and in two cases had provided child survivors with long-term counseling support and space in their shelter. UNHCR said that targeted and comprehensive training on working with child survivors has been planned for IRC staff who already have general training, as has equipping IRC’s child care room for play therapy. Aid organizations should ensure services are equally available to male victims.

Three of the women interviewed, including two children, had stayed in a small IRC shelter in the camp. But it only had space for five women at a time, and they are only meant to stay for a few days. Improving this service could present an important option for women facing domestic violence or other abuse in the camp. 

Categories: Africa

Senegal Talibés: Mario Cruz

Wed, 27/07/2016 - 09:34
Categories: Africa

Joint Letter to UN Security Council Members on South Sudan

Wed, 27/07/2016 - 09:34

Dear Ambassador,

As human rights, humanitarian, and peacebuilding organizations, we call on the UN Security Council to impose an immediate arms embargo on South Sudan. 

The Transitional Government of National Unity, led by President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Machar, is failing to uphold its responsibility to protect populations in South Sudan from mass atrocities. The UN Security Council must act now to protect civilians.

In line with the UN Secretary-General’s recommendations, the UN Security Council should impose a comprehensive global arms embargo on the country. This should include the supply, sale, transfer, maintenance, and operation of all weapons, ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, and related services. This will help reduce unlawful attacks on civilians. It will send a strong message that the international community will not enable those fighters who have shown a complete disregard for the laws of war easy access to weapons and ammunition with which they can rearm and commit or facilitate further abuses.

We encourage the UN Security Council to adhere to the Code of Conduct, endorsed by 112 governments, which calls upon all members of the Council not to vote against a credible draft resolution aimed at preventing or halting mass atrocities.

As you know, on 7 July violence resumed in Juba between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the SPLA in Opposition (SPLA-IO). The UN has reported that hundreds of people were killed, including two UN peacekeepers, in five days of fierce fighting before a cessation of hostilities was called by both sides. Tanks, helicopter gunships and heavy weaponry were used; civilian neighborhoods were shelled, during which a maternity ward was hit. Thousands of civilians fled to UN compounds which were also hit by mortar and heavy artillery. Indiscriminate attacks and attacks on UN personnel are serious violations of international humanitarian law and may constitute war crimes.

A comprehensive global arms embargo on South Sudan would help secure the safety of South Sudanese civilians. We urge you to put one in place urgently, and we would be pleased to discuss these issues further. 

Sincerely,

  1. African Centre for Transitional Justice
  2. Agency for Independent Media
  3. Amnesty International
  4. Assistance Mission for Africa
  5. Citizens for Peace and Justice                                                    
  6. CIVIC
  7. Community Empowerment for Rehabilitation and Development
  8. Control Arms
  9. End Impunity Organization
  10. Enough
  11. Federation of Women Lawyers-South Sudan
  12. Foundation for Youth Initiative
  13. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
  14. Human Rights Development Organization
  15. Human Rights Watch
  16. International Youth for Africa
  17. Manna Development Agency
  18. Organization for Nonviolence and Development
  19. Oxfam
  20. PAX
  21. Peace and Development Collaborative Organization
  22. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
  23. Resolve LRA Crisis Initiative
  24. Refugees International
  25. South Sudan Action Network on Small Arms
  26. South Sudan Human Rights Society for Advocacy
  27. South Sudan Youth Peace and Development Organization
  28. Soweto Community-Based Organization
  29. Standard Action Liaison Focus
  30. Waging Peace
Categories: Africa

Four Transit Centers in Rwanda

Wed, 27/07/2016 - 09:34

Four transit centers in Rwanda

Categories: Africa

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