NIGERIA – Instability Despite an Amnesty Deal
Hundreds of militants in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, including one of the main rebels group’s (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND) top commanders Ebikabowei Victor Ben, have begun to hand over their weapons as part of an amnesty deal offered by Nigerian president Umaru Yar’Adua. According to the BBC, the weapons handed over included hundreds of assault rifles, several rocket launchers and at least 12 gunboats.

However, factions of MEND have rejected the government’s amnesty offer and have pledged to resume attacks once the ceasefire is over on September 15. Security analysts warn that the Nigerian military will likely launch another major offensive against militants who do not accept the amnesty deal once the 60-day offer period officially ends on October 4.

In a separate development, Reuters reports that Nigerian police broke up an Islamic community in the western part of Nigeria and deported dozens of its members to avert renewed violence, such as last month’s clashes with the Boko Haram Islamic sect which reportedly took the lives of 800 people. The Darul Islam community was reported to be forcibly holding women to be wives.

• Must Reads
  Reuters AlertNet Q&A: The Humanitarian Impact of Niger Delta Offensive
• Amnesty International Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta
• Human Rights Watch: Arbitrary Killings by Security Forces

Overheard

We also support the Nigerian Government’s comprehensive political framework approach toward resolving the conflict in the Niger Delta. This process […] is incorporating the region’s stakeholders as absolutely essential, focusing on the region’s development needs, separating out the militants and the unreconcilables from those who deserve amnesty and want to be part of building a better future for that part of Nigeria – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, August 12, 2009

[MEND] should reconsider their stand and join the amnesty boat because the boat is about to sail –  Timiebi Koripamo, Agary, Spokeswoman for the Presidential Panel on Amnesty. 

YEMEN – Renewed Violence in the North
Over 100,000 people have been forced to flee and scores killed due to renewed fighting in the north of the country between government troops and Shi’ite rebels. The United Nations reported on Friday that at least 35,000 fled their homes in the past two weeks alone , while UNICEF reports that thousands of families remain trapped inside the conflict zone and are in urgent need of humanitarian support.

The BBC reports that Operation Scorched Earth, which begun two weeks ago, is aimed at crushing the rebels and recapturing the town of Harf Sufyan. But analysts argue that this latest assault is unlikely to end this 5-year long conflict and may only deepen instability in Yemen. 
 
The rebels, known as the Houthis after their present leader Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, are adherents of the Zaydi branch of Shi’ite Islam and claim the government is oppressing the Zaydis. The rebels also oppose the Yemeni government’s support for the US-led “war on terror.” The Yemeni government enlisted  the support of the US after September 11, accusing the Houthis of having links to al Qaeda, Iran and Hezbollah. Although Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh unilaterally declared the war over in July 2008, full-scale fighting resumed late last month.

• Must Reads
  Reuters AlertNet FactBox: Roots of Yemen’s Conflict with Northern Rebels
• International Crisis Group: Defusing the Saada Time Bomb
• Human Rights Watch: Invisible Civilians: The Challenge of Humanitarian Access in Yemen’s Forgotten War

Overheard

We call on both parties to return to the cease fire that was established last year. In the meantime, both parties should avoid any action that would endanger the civilian population in the affected area. We also call on both parties to ensure the security of local and international relief workers in the region, and the safe passage of emergency relief supplies to camps housing internally displaced persons – Statement of U.S. Embassy in Yemen, August 22, 2009

UNICEF stands ready to assist the civilian population. It is essential that we gain immediate and secure access to provide urgently needed humanitarian assistance. Children cannot be the innocent victims of conflict – Ann M. Veneman, UNICEF Executive Director, August 24, 2009

Coming This Week

• August 24-28: Kenya holds its first national census in 10 years.
• August 25: Independent Election Commission expected to release partial results of Afghan elections.
• August 26: Celebrations in the breakaway region of South Ossetia to mark the one year anniversary Russian recognition of its independence following the war with Georgia
• August 27: South African President and SADC chairman Jacob Zuma makes his first state visit to Zimbabwe.

Juliette Rousselot contributed to this post.

Human Rights Flashpoints is a weekly column about countries at risk of escalating human rights violations and is brought to you by AIUSA’s Crisis Prevention and Response team

To our deep disappointment, Leonard Peltier was denied parole on Friday, nearly a month after his July 28 parole hearing. In addition to our online action, Amnesty International had sent an open letter to the parole board in early July urging that Peltier be granted parole, and Amnesty continues to call for his immediate release on parole. You can read more about Leonard’s case in this blog post, and in the full AI press relase. The US Department of Justice also issued a lengthy press release on Friday.

You may not have been aware of it, but this past Wednesday, Aug. 19, was the first World Humanitarian Day.  August 19 was designated by the U.N. General Assembly last December as a day each year to honor aid workers around the world, especially those who have given their lives in the line of duty.

The UN website about the World Humanitarian Day noted that in Sri Lanka, 17 staff of the French aid agency Action contre la Faim (ACF) (Action Against Hunger) were killed in August 2006.  While the Sri Lankan government has blamed the opposition Tamil Tigers for the killings, a recent report by the Sri Lankan human rights group, University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), provides evidence pointing to the security forces as the killers.  And Amnesty International’s report, “Twenty Years of Make-Believe:  Sri Lanka’s Commissions of Inquiry, details serious deficiencies of subsequent government investigations into the massacre.

It’s been more than 3 years, and still the killers of the 17 ACF staff have not been brought to justice.  One more example of the continuing impunity enjoyed by the Sri Lankan security forces.  I hope that by next year’s World Humanitarian Day, I won’t be able to make the same statement.

by Lillian Tan, Corporate Action Network Intern

September 16, 2009 will be the second anniversary of the Nisour Square shootings, in which six Blackwater (now Xe) personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians outside Baghdad’s green zone. The bad media which surrounded the incident galvanized the U.S. Government to take some steps towards ensuring that the Department of Defense (DOD) and Department of State (DOS) better regulate PMSC operations in Iraq. But was it enough?

The six Blackwater guards who allegedly indiscriminately opened fire in Nisour Square on September 16, 2007 were finally indicted late last year. The trial hasn’t even started but Blackwater/XE personnel are already implicated in another incident. On May 5, 2009, four Blackwater/Xe personnel reportedly shot and killed two Afghan civilians in Kabul. So much for lessons learned in Iraq; so much for regulation, oversight, and accountability.

However, the U.S. government should not keep pushing aside the questions of how to effectively regulate and where to set the limits on using PMSCs — especially with the increased number of contractors flooding into Afghanistan in the wake of the planned surge in troops. The longer it takes for the U.S. government to finally take a position and answer these questions, the longer PMSCs operate in a legal limbo, in which they may commit human rights abuses with impunity.

Just recently, it has been reported that the CIA contracted Blackwater/Xe to assist in a secret assassination program of which the Congress was not even aware. According to the August 20, 2009 New York Times, “it is unclear if the CIA planned to use Blackwater/Xe to actually capture and kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance in the program.”

The article also mentions that government officials are concerned about serious issues of accountability when contractors are brought into covert and lethal operations. Where there is no transparency, accountability will be near impossible if a crime were committed during those operations. The past administration has been quick to invoke several legal reasons to withhold sensitive information from the public — from the Glomar response to claiming that releasing detainee abuse photos would be against the Geneva Conventions. When the same photos were about to be released in May 2009, the Obama administration sought to block their release arguing that the images could further inflame anti-American opinion. If it is already this difficult to get information out of government agencies, then imagine the difficulty of obtaining information for the purpose of accountability when there’s a private contract involved in a sensitive national operation.

Another area of great concern that the New York Times article briefly touches upon is whether, aside from the concerns about accountability for PMSCs in such a program, PMSCs should be involved in the first place? As Senator Diane Feinstein (CA) aptly states, “It is too easy to contract out work that you don’t want to accept responsibility for”. In the debate about the use of PMSCs in modern warfare, there is the pressing question of what functions a government can and cannot outsource. In U.S. statute and policy, inherently governmental functions are loosely defined as “a function so intimately related to the public interest” that it must be performed by Federal employees. The list of functions that fall under “inherently governmental” is also extremely inconsistent, varying from agency to agency. Because of this lack of a clear and consistent definition, PMSCs are contracted to perform duties in highly sensitive areas such as intelligence and now, even assassinations.

To better regulate the industry, Congress also needs to pass legislation that will close the legal vacuum in which PMSCs are operating and appropriate more resources to regulation and oversight. The U.S. government currently does not adequately regulate the industry and its statutes to hold PMSCs accountable for crimes overseas are few. In its June 2009 Interim Report, the Commission on Wartime Contracting finds that U.S. government oversight of PMSCs is inadequate. Because they mostly operate transnationally, jurisdiction can become a problem. While PMSCs contracted by the DOD can be held accountable under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act (MEJA) and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), contractors hired by other agencies such as the DOS often fall through legal gaps.

The foundation to improve regulation, oversight and accountability of PMSCs has already been set. To close legal gaps such as the one in MEJA, legislation has been proposed in the past and we look forward to similar legislation in the 111^th Session of Congress. As for clarifying definitions of “inherently governmental functions”, a bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting was established in Public Law 110-181 to recommend among other things improvements in its Final Report on the “process for determining which functions are inherently governmental and which functions are appropriate for performance by contractors in a contingency operation, especially whether providing security in an area of combat operations is inherently governmental.” On an international level, the UN Working Group on Mercenaries (UNWGM) completed its two-week visit to the U.S. on August 3^rd, 2009. During that time, the UNWGM met with the DOJ, members of Congress, governmental officials and public interest groups to discuss how PMSCs can be regulated on international, regional, national and local levels. Such efforts are all a step in the right direction.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said last Tuesday that no one should be above the law, including members of the police or armed forces.  This follows a widely publicized incident last week in Sri Lanka:  two youths were arrested by the police on August 12 and their bullet-ridden bodies were discovered the next day.  The killings sparked public anger and riots against the police.  Several police officers have since been arrested in connection with the murders.

I dearly hope justice is done in this case and the killers held accountable.  But there remain thousands of cases of human rights violations by the Sri Lankan security forces, including the police, where no one has been prosecuted or convicted.  The recent Amnesty International report on presidential commissions of inquiry in Sri Lanka details the government’s failure to deliver justice for serious human rights violations for decades.  I hope President Rajapaksa’s recent statement will lead to a serious, sustained effort by the Sri Lankan government to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice at last.  The ongoing impunity enjoyed by the security forces for past violations must end.

Riffing off of the news that President Obama is adding a moral component to his (heretofore mostly economic) pitch for health care reform, Desiree Evans, of the Institute for Southern Studies, writes:

Finding fresh ways to talk about socio-economic issues is not new in the health care advocacy community. Even as the Obama administration searches for a new way to pitch their proposed health reform, human rights groups and grassroots social justice networks have already been hard at work trying to shift the language and the thinking surrounding health care in the United States. They are using an oft-overlooked notion in the United States: “human rights.”

Desiree doesn’t explicitly answer the question in the title of her post — in reframing the health care debate, “is it too late for human rights?” The answer to that question is clear: no, it’s not too late.

Whatever happens with the current round of health care legislation — whether or not a bill passes, and if one does, whether it’s weak, strong, or even regressive — this is only the beginning of a long, long process in making the U.S. health care system truly universal, equitable and accountable. A bill would have to be implemented, which would take years. Crucial legislative questions will remain at the national, state and local levels. And there will be much more work to be done on absolutely central issues, like true fulfillment of the right to maternal health care in the United States.

But that’s a quibble. It’s a very informative post, on the imperatives of justice in health care reform, the historical roots of the human right to health care, and more — read the whole thing.

The editor of Zambia’s largest independent newspaper, The Post, is currently on trial for distributing pornography. Chansa Kabwela was charged in July for ”circulating obscene matters with the intention to corrupt the morals of society,” punishable by a five year prison sentence. What exactly did Kabwela circulate that was so dangerous to the moral character of Zambians? Pictures of a woman giving birth on the ground outside a hospital. 

A recent nurses’ strike led to dangerous medical conditions in the country, a fact Kabwela wanted to highlight. When she received pictures of the incident, she decided not to publish them in the paper, but instead sent copies to the vice president, the health minister and several organizations. The pictures were taken by a relative of the woman, who visited clinics and the hospital in search of medical assistance due to the breach birth position of the baby. Eventually she laid down on the ground near the hospital before doctors from the hospital finally assisted her. The baby did not survive.

Reporters Without Borders calls the arrest shocking and the charges without grounds. They also accuse authorities of harassing and intimidating the newspaper’s staff. The Post is a fierce critic of President Banda, who has made no secret of his dislike for the paper, called for Kabwela’s arrest. Banda became president upon the death of Levy Mwanawasa, one year ago today. Too bad Nixon didn’t think of the same tactic: Nick Ut would have gone to trial instead of winning a Pulitzer.

Amnesty International issued a report today about the ongoing crisis in Honduras following the coup d’etat which took place June 28. Many press outlets have covered the report and accompanying press release which comes at a crucial time as the crisis in Honduras must be kept in the attention of the mainstream media and general public.

AI’s main concerns with the crisis as cited in the report are:

Two of the ten students who took part in the peaceful march on 30 July 2009. The imprint of the police batons is clearly visible on both students. Amnesty International

• Excessive use of force
• Gender-based violence
• Use of military in civilian law enforcement
• Freedom of expression
• Curfew measures
• Safety of human rights defenders

I’ll let the words of Hondurans speak for themselves to end this post, as their words are much more powerful than mine:

“We were demonstrating peacefully. Suddenly, the
police came towards us, and I started running. They
grabbed me and shouted “why do you (all) support
Zelaya’s government? Whether it’s by choice or by
force, you have to be with this government”. They
beat me. I have not yet been informed as to why I
am here detained.”

[“Fernando”, 52 year-old teacher, at a police station in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 30 July 2009]

In an interview in next Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, Secretary of State Clinton says:

When it comes to our global health agenda, maternal health is now part of the Obama administration’s outreach. … Women die every minute from poor maternal health care. You know, H.I.V./AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria — those are all, unfortunately, equal-opportunity killers. Maternal health is a woman’s issue; it’s a family issue; it’s a child issue. And for the United States to say to countries that have very high maternal mortality rates, “We care about the future of your children, and in order to do that, we care about the present of your women,” is a powerful statement.

Maternal health is also a human rights issue, as Secretary Clinton acknowledged in another recent interview, with The Wall Street Journal:

… It’s important to look at human rights more broadly than it has been defined. Human rights are also the right to a good job and shelter over your head and a chance to send your kids to school and get health care when your wife is pregnant. It’s a much broader agenda. Too often it has gotten narrowed to our detriment.

In the human rights framework, one of the key articulations of the right to maternal health is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which says:

States Parties shall ensure to women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period, granting free services where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation. (Article 12)

But the United States hasn’t ratified CEDAW (the only other countries that aren’t States Parties are Iran, Nauru, Palau, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, and Tonga).

So it’s encouraging that the Clinton State Department supports CEDAW ratification, putting the ball in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s court (here’s a helpful recent primer on the state of play).

Given Secretary Clinton’s endorsement of the full range of economic, social and cultural rights (in her Wall Street Journal interview, she also mentions the rights to decent work, housing and education), her State Department should also support ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights — which, like CEDAW (and the Convention on the Rights of the Child), the United States has signed but not ratified. But CEDAW is the only human rights treaty on State’s recommended-action list. It’s up to the human rights community to push for ratification of all three treaties in the years to come.

AFGHANISTAN – Election violence and a nod to “warlord politics”

The world is looking to Afghanistan this week, where Presidential and Provincial Council elections will be held on August 20th. The Taliban are threatening to attack polling stations in the country’s unstable southern province. The government estimates that about 14 percent of the country’s polling centers are considered too dangerous for people to vote. Moreover, the risk of violence will increase should no presidential candidate reach more than 50 percent of the vote, leading to a mandatory run-off between the top two contenders. Nevertheless, US government officials are optimistic, stating that the Taliban have failed to derail the elections. In other developments, both government officials and the Taliban have been increasing pressure and threats against journalists in the country and limiting independent and critical reporting.

In what the Christian Science Monitor calls a nod to ‘warlord politics’, suspected war criminal General Dostum returned to Afghanistan this week. Addressing the thousands of people who welcomed him home, he boasted that he is too popular to be persecuted: “If you mess with Dostum, you mess with a million people.” His return has shown the failure of the Afghan government and its international supporters to demonstrate that the rule of law is respected in Afghanistan.

Must Reads

• Foreign Policy’s Afghan Election Watch
• The Wall Street Journal’s interactive map of Regional Violence in Afghanistan
• The Washington Post’s Afghanistan Elections Resource Page

Overheard

We hope that, from top to bottom, every effort will be taken to make election day secure, to eliminate fraud, and to address any complaints fairly and quickly. It will be several days before we have preliminary results and we hope initial reports will refrain from speculation until results are announced. Final results could take several weeks. We call on candidates and their supporters to behave responsibly before and after the elections – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

We have made clear to the Government of Afghanistan our serious concerns regarding the return of Mr. Dostum and any prospective role in today’s Afghanistan. And I think that President Obama had earlier, based on an earlier story, had asked that the national security team gather further information on his background, including concerns that he might have been involved in the deaths of a significant number of Taliban prisoners of war a few years ago, and that the team is continuing to gather that information – Philip J. Crowley, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs

A ferocious offensive by the Taliban [was] designed to try to kill the elections. Their goal is to prevent the elections and they have failed in that – Richard Holbrooke, US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC – Humanitarian situation deteriorates

Ongoing ethnic conflict in northeastern Central African Republic (CAR) and recurring attacks by the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the southeast part of CAR have created overwhelming humanitarian needs throughout the country. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that thousands of internally displaced people have been left without food, protection or shelter.

The country is the second poorest in the world after Sierra Leone and has long been unstable. Although five of the rebel groups signed peace treaties with the government in late 2008, the security situation has been deteriorating since the beginning of the year, causing about 18,000 people to flee to Chad and many more losing their homes during attacks. Children are particularly at risk in CAR, with almost 700,000 children under five living below acceptable standards, according to UNICEF.

Meanwhile, CAR Communications Minister Cyriaque Gonda announced on Monday that the government has set up a three-year timetable to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 former rebels. However, upcoming elections in 2010 and the formation of a new rebel group in 2009 in the northeast of the country are likely to lead to increasing insecurity and tension in CAR.

Must Reads

• International Crisis Group’s Untangling the Political Dialogue
• Norwegian Refugee Council’s State of Neglect – Displaced Children in the Central African Republic  
• Amnesty International’s War Against Children in the Wild North

Overheard

The situation is still very volatile and the displaced population remains traumatized […] Fear is very evident amongst the people who had to repeatedly leave their villages and watch their homes and livelihoods being looted, burnt and destroyed – Catherine Bragg, UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs

These children’s lives, their ability to learn, to earn, and to lead productive lives is being stunted by this tragic crisis – Jeremy Hopkins, acting representative of UNICEF in CAR

Coming This Week

• August 18: U.S. President Barack Obama meets Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Washington, DC
• August 18: Secretary Clinton meets with Colombian Foreign Minister Bermudez
• August 20: Presidential and Provincial Council Elections in Afghanistan
• August 17-24: US Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration travels to Sudan (Juba, Makalal), Ethiopia and Egypt

Juliette Rousselot contributed to this post.

Human Rights Flashpoints is a weekly column about countries at risk of escalating human rights violations and is brought to you by AIUSA’s Crisis Prevention and Response team.