By Agence France-Presse
Raw Story, August 11, 2009
Musharraf imposed a state of emergency and sacked about 60 judges on November 3, 2007 when the supreme court appeared poised to declare him ineligible to contest a presidential election while in military uniform.
On a plea filed by lawyer Mohammad Aslam Ghuman, Islamabad district and sessions judge Mohammad Akmal directed police to register a case against Musharraf, who is currently in Europe.
A US drone strike into the South Waziristan Agency of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) struck a house in the village of Ladda, killing at least 14 people and wounding several others. The village was near last Wednesday’s drone strike, which officials claim killed TTP leader Baitullah Mehsud.
Pakistani officials say the house attacked today was a “militant hideout” or conversely a “training ground,” but a spokesman for an unnamed Taliban-style organization in the area insisted it was a civilian residence and only civilians were killed in the strike.
It was the first US attack in the region since last week’s strike, and the status of Baitullah Mehsud is still unknown. Pakistani and US officials insist they are certain he was killed, but they also claimed to be certain Hakimullah Mehsud, one of his aides, was killed in a battle days later. Hakimullah has since emerged to insisted that neither he nor Baitullah is actually dead.
TTP spokesman Maulvi Omar says that Baitullah is being held at an undisclosed relative’s house and that he is ill. Baitullah has diabetes and has sometimes been in failing health as a result.
| Al Jazeera, Aug 11, 2009 |
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The head of a Russian charity and her husband who were kidnapped in Chechnya have been found shot dead, the Interfax news agency has reported. The bodies of Zarema Sadulayeva and Alik Dzhabrailov, her partner, were found in Grozny, the Chechen capital, on Tuesday. “The rights activists were found in the boot of a car with gunshot wounds in the settlement of Chernorechye,” Interfax quoted an official government source as saying.
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By Sandy English | wsws.com, Aug 11, 2009
UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, has issued a report outlining the extensive damage caused by US occupation forces in Iraq to the archeological site of ancient Babylon, about 100 Km (60 miles) south of Baghdad.
The report was based on examinations of the site by prominent specialists, including John Curtis, John Russell and Elizabeth Stone.
It charges American and Polish forces with carrying out “a grave encroachment on this internationally known archaeological site.”
The Obama Administration has today asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court decision which would require the Pentagon to release dozens of heretofore unseen photos of the abuse of prisoners in US military custody, claiming the release would pose a significant risk to the military.
The photos of abuse at several prisons have been a matter of no small controversy. The Pentagon agreed with the judge that the photos could be safely released in April, but several weeks later President Obama insisted that the photos would have to remain secret because they might “further inflame anti-American opinion.”
Officials say that the reversal in the administration’s position came at the behest of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who reportedly predicted that “Baghdad will burn” if the photos ever see the light of day and warned it could delay the US pullout.
Though President Obama had previously claimed that the photos didn’t contain anything sensational, the Justice Department filing with the Supreme Court reveals that several of the photos include soldiers pointing guns at hooded prisoners and one includes a soldier “acting as if” he is anally raping a detainee with a broom handle. The ACLU has been spearheading the effort to secure the photos’ release.
Militarization of Kashmir with impunity
By Angana Chatterji | ZNet, Aug 8, 2009
On May 29, 2009, as has been variously attested, Asiya Jan and Neelofar Jan were subjected to rape, reportedly by more than one perpetrator, and murdered. Ms. Asiya Jan and Mrs. Neelofar Jan were Muslim residents of Shopian town, in Shopian district, in Indian-administered Kashmir, and 17 and 22 years of age, respectively.
The security forces of India were implicated in the brutalization and death of Asiya Jan and Neelofar Jan.
For our report, and related photographs, short video clip, map, and secondary resources, see:
http://www.kashmirprocess.org/shopian
The events in Shopian of May-July 2009 are contextualized within a continuum of past violences and violations by the Indian military and paramilitary, and reciprocal relations between heightened militarization and social and gendered violence in Indian-administered Kashmir. The population of Shopian district numbers 2,00,000-2,50,000. The population of Kashmir was recorded at approximately 69,00,000 in 2008, with Muslims constituting approximately 95 percent of the population. Across Jammu and Kashmir, which includes Ladakh, approximately 67 percent of the population was of Muslim descent. Shopian town is home to approximately 60,000-70,000 residents. The military and paramilitary are hyper-present in and outside the town. At its limits are the police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camps. Beyond, the locality is surrounded by the Rashtriya Rifles (military) and various camps of the CRPF, in Gagaran, Batpora, Balpora and on Mughal Road. The Rashtriya Rifles stage flag marches and the CRPF regularly patrols the area. Since May 29, 2009, the CRPF established another camp near the site of the incidents, close to the police residential quarters, across the Rambi-Ara nullah (a tributary of a stream) beyond the edge of Shopian town. Approximately 3,000 police and personnel of the Special Operations Group (SOG) monitor the area. Further, about 20,000+ security forces personnel are deployed across Shopian district.
What is the ‘truth’ of the matter, who are in the know, and what is being shielded? While investigations into the events of May-June 2009 in Shopian have emphasized the procedural conduct of the police in their handling of the investigation, they failed to focus on the actual crimes that were committed, or the conduct of state institutions. The investigations in Shopian have not focused on the identification and prosecution of perpetrators or on addressing structural realities of militarization in Kashmir that foster and perpetuate gendered and sexualized violences, and undermine rule of law and justice. The investigations have instead concentrated on locating ‘collaborators’ and manufacturing scapegoats to subdue public outcry. ‘Control’ rather than ‘justice’ has organized the focus of the state apparatus, including all processes related to civic, criminal, and judicial matters.
Beginning May 30, 2009, throughout June, until July 16, 2009, for forty-seven consecutive days, civil society protests continued in Shopian town, led by the Majlis-e-Mushawarat and other groups, seeking justice, joined, in solidarity, by others across Kashmir. Daily life remained interrupted, economic and social life overrun. Through non-violent means, civil society continued to dissent the horrific events that transpired, the relationship of these events to military and paramilitary forces, the actions and impassivity of security forces and institutions, and those of the state. Civil society members reiterated that civil disobedience was the sole mechanism available to them via which to seek justice.
The events in Shopian and the broader structural and sustained context of militarization portray the reach of the security apparatus in Kashmir under what is not termed ‘military rule’. The conflict in Jammu and Kashmir has been ongoing since October 1947. A will to peace in Kashmir requires an attested commitment to justice, palpably absent in the exchanges undertaken by the Government of India and its attendant institutions with Kashmir civil society. The premise and structure of impunity connected to militarization, and corresponding human rights abuses, bear witness to the absence of accountability inherent to the dominion of Kashmir by the Indian state, and a refusal to take seriously the imperative of addressing these issues as the only way forward to a just peace. The international community continues to engage India in trade, commerce, military, nuclear, and cultural relations, without insisting on answerability for the violations committed by its government and military and paramilitary forces.
The events in Shopian marked the inability of the state apparatus to deliver justice in Kashmir. It remained incumbent on civil society institutions and international human rights groups and those working with issues of social justice to seek accountability.
Angana Chatterji is Convener of the International People’s Tribunal in Indian-administered Kashmir and Professor, Anthropology, California Institute of Integral Studies.
Nato needs to change its strategy in Afghanistan, says Anthony Cordesman, a military adviser
There has been “no torture and no complicity in torture” by the MI6, according to its head Sir John Scarlett
The government and MI6 head Sir John Scarlett have been accused of hiding behind ambiguities in their claims that British secret service agents were not complicit in torture.
Senior government figures and the spy chief have attempted to distance themselves from allegations of involvement in the torture of terror suspects in foreign countries.
The government currently faces a number of legal actions from torture victims who maintain that MI5 or MI6 agents were involved in their interrogation.
Yesterday, Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Home Secretary Alan Johnson wrote in a joint article for a national newspaper that there was no policy “to collude in, solicit or directly participate in abuses of prisoners” or to cover up alleged wrongdoing, although they added that it was not possible to “eradicate all risk.”
And in a highly unusual development, Mr Scarlett, who is usually content to remain in the shadows, emerged today in a bid to deflect criticism from MI6, stating that there was “no torture and no complicity in torture” by the British secret service.
He added that “our officers are as committed to the values and the human rights values of liberal democracy as anybody else.”
But responding to the comments, a spokesman for legal action charity Reprieve, which represents a number of torture victims, accused the spy chief and the government of a deliberate cover-up.
He said: “Like our government, the head of MI6 John Scarlett is hiding behind general statements rather than addressing specific allegations. This is simply not good enough.
“Failure to report torture is a serious crime. We would expect any citizen mixed up in such a crime to face the courts and governments should do the same.
“In the High Court case of Binyam Mohamed, the UK government has attempted to evade court scrutiny at every turn and behave increasingly as if they are above the law.”
Scotland Yard is conducting a criminal investigation into claims that MI5 was complicit in the abuse of Mr Mohamed, a British resident who alleges that he was tortured while being held at sites in Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan.
“The Foreign Secretary denies covering up evidence of involvement in torture. Why then is he refusing to release a summary, written by High Court judges and stripped of all security-sensitive information, of what happened to Binyam Mohamed?” demanded the spokesman.
Today also saw an influential Westminster committee demand that torture victims be granted the right to sue foreign states through the British legal system.
The joint committee on human rights, chaired by Labour MP Andrew Dismore, called on ministers to lift state immunity, rejecting government claims that the decision would breach international obligations.
The committee concluded: “The practical questions of foreign relations, enforcement and litigation procedure are important, but they are secondary to the issue we are examining, which is, should there be a civil remedy available in the UK to victims of torture at the hands of foreign states?
“We are of the strong opinion that there should.”
The committee has also called for a full public inquiry into the allegations, a demand which has been backed by campaign groups such as Amnesty International and Liberty.
A Number 10 spokesman rejected the demands.
PCHR Condemns Harassment of Palestinian Civilians at Military Checkpoints
August 12, 2009PCHR – Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Uruknet.info, August 11, 2009
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the harassment and cruel and degrading treatment inflicted upon Palestinian civilians by Israeli troops positioned at military checkpoint throughout the West Bank.
PCHR field workers documents three cases of harassment against Palestinian civilians in the first three days of the week.
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Tags: degrading treatment, Israeli troops, Palestinian civilians, PCHR, Tha'er Bader Jaradat, victims
Posted in Commentary, crime, Human rights, Palestine, Uncategorized, Zionist Israel | 1 Comment »