Crimes Against Humanity – Page 4 – Alistair Reign News Blog

Syria: Explained From Occupation To Refugee Crisis

The Syrian crisis began in early 2011 when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began a brutal crackdown on growing peaceful protests throughout the country.

With the use of tanks, attack helicopters, and artillery against protesters and the torture and execution of children, protests spread and opposition groups took up arms. The attacks and counter-attacks escalated into a full-fledged civil war between the Assad regime with allied militias and an array of opposition groups.

On August 21, 2013, the crisis took on a dangerous new dimension with a chemical weapons attack by the Syrian regime that killed over 1,400 people, according to a U.S. intelligence report. The use of chemical weapons in Syria continue to be reported by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPWC), but without clarity on what parties are responsible.

end genocide syria stats — The death toll has reached over 240,000 and almost half the country’s people — 12 million men, women and children — have been forced to flee their homes. The majority of civilians have been killed at the hands of the Assad regime, which has targeted schools and medical centers with crude barrel bombs.

The crisis has grown to a regional crisis with severe implications for global peace and security. Regional powers are supplying weapons and other support to both sides, with Iran notably backing the Assad regime and Gulf States providing arms to the opposition.

Sectarian violence related to the conflict has been seen in Lebanon and Iraq and millions of refugees have fled into neighboring countries.

Appeals for international aid have increased as the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in September 2015 estimated that over four million Syrians were now refugees, up from around 3 million just one year before. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees have made their way to Europe creating a crisis that has launched intense debate in Europe and the United States.

The debate over how to respond to the attacks has deeply divided the international community from acceptance of refugees to the best ways to protect civilians and ultimately to reach a political solution.

FROM PROTEST TO WAR

The Syrian uprising began with protests held in early 2011, demanding release of political prisoners. In March 2011, security forces opened fire on protesters at a “Day of Rage” rally in the southern city of Deraa, triggering days of violent unrest and more civilian deaths.

While the demonstrations in Syria were peaceful at the outset, and called largely for reform of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the Syrian government’s violent response led to widespread defections from the Syrian military and provoked the creation of armed opposition.

The brutal response prompted further non-violent demonstrations across Syria, helping to transform and diffuse series of local grievances into a widespread call for the end of the Assad regime.

Security forces used tanks, combat helicopters, artillery and other heavy weapons against centers of anti-government protest as reflected in numerous massacres.

Sectarian violence also increased with some armed opposition groups committing human rights abuses against Alawite communities due to their perceived support for the government.

The levels of violence prompted the International Committee for the Red Cross to declare the situation in Syria a civil war in July 2012. The new status meant that international humanitarian law applies to all areas where hostilities are taking place.

As reports of chemical weapons were confirmed by the United States in June 2013, crossing a “red line” President Obama had declared the previous year, the United States confirmed that it would provide direct military aid to some opposition groups.

Fighting and abuses have continued dividing the country into areas controlled by the government and an array of opposition groups.

The rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) has further complicated the conflict and brought in a new level of barbarity that has prompted air strikes by both the Syrian regime and the United States and its allies. Weapons and other material support continue to flow in to all sides as the United States and other countries debate further involvement.

THE OPPOSITION

Members of the new Syrian National Coalition in Doha, Qatar on Sunday. (Reuters) — **Members of the new Syrian National Coalition in Doha, Qatar. (Reuters. November 2002)**

The formation of an opposition umbrella, the Syrian National Coalition in November 2012 and its subsequent international recognition, including from the United States, appeared to increase the likelihood for a political resolution to the unrelenting crisis. But disagreements among opposition forces over the makeup of a post-Assad transition government raised doubt over their credentials as a viable alternative to the Assad regime.

Further complicating peace efforts, the opposition remains deeply divided beyond their common enemy in the Assad regime. Many extremist Islamist elements have poured into Syria. Estimates vary widely as to the numbers of extremist elements making up the opposition, but their forces have been cited as among the most effective in combating the Assad regime, further complicating the crisis and opening worries about what a post-Assad Syria might look like.

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

The United Nations has condemned the violence against civilians, but has been unable to agree on appropriate action. International efforts to quell the violence began with an Arab League observer mission sent to Syria in late 2011 but failed to end the bloodshed. China and Russia have vetoed four UN Security Council resolutions on Syria aimed at stemming the violence.

A resolution (UNSC Res 2139) condemning the bombing of civilian areas and the use of barrel bombs was finally passed in February 2014, but little action has been seen despite ongoing violations by the Assad regime. The Syrian regime also continues to block delivery of cross-border humanitarian aid in violation of two other Security Council resolutions.

Various peace efforts have been tried with the UN now on its third Special Envoy.

**The plight of an increasing flow of refugees, captured in a heart wrenching photo of the body of a small boy washed up on a beach in Greece, sparked intense debate within Europe and the United States.**

A report commissioned by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Syria, cites that war crimes, including murder, extrajudicial killings and torture, and gross violations of international human rights, including unlawful killing, attacks against civilians and acts of sexual violence, have been committed in line with State policy, with indications of the involvement at the highest levels of the Government, as well as security and armed forces.

The report also concludes that the Government forces and Shabiha fighters were responsible for the Houla massacre. While opposition forces also committed war crimes, including murder and torture, the CoI says that their violations and abuses were not of the same gravity, frequency and scale as those committed by Government forces and Shabiha militias.

The United States has led the world in supplying of $4 billion in aid to Syrian refugees, but has taken in only 1,500 Syrian refugees in the first four years of the conflict. Though the Obama administration has pledged to take in more, human rights groups and former U.S. officials warn the number remains inadequate.

United To End Genocide: Syria Backgrounder: The Situation.

Kunduz: USA Says Afghan Ordered Airstrike That Killed Civilians

Gen. John Campbell, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said today that Afghan forces who were under attack by the Taliban requested the U.S. airstrikes that resulted in 22 deaths at a hospital in Kunduz run by Doctors Without Borders.

“We have now learned that on October, 3rd, Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from U.S. Forces,” Campbell told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. “An air strike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck.”

Campbell said that information was different from initial reports that “indicated that U.S. forces were threatened and that the air strike was called on their behalf.”

He said three investigations are underway and “if errors were committed, we’ll acknowledge them. We’ll hold those responsible accountable and we will take steps to ensure mistakes are not repeated.”

In addition to the U.S. military’s internal investigation, joint investigations are also being conducted with the Afghan government and NATO.

Campbell declined to address the rules of engagement for the U.S. military troops in Kunduz and who specifically had ordered the airstrike, citing the ongoing investigation.

But he acknowledged that “the Afghans asked for air support from a special forces team that we have on the ground providing train advise and assist in Kunduz.”

“But I think the impression that people got after the first couple days is they were firing directly on U.S. forces, and what I’m telling you today is as I’ve talked to the investigating officer, as we continue to get updated information, that that was not the case in this place,” Campbell said.

He restated that the 9,800 U.S. troops serving as trainers Afghanistan are not directly fighting the Taliban.

“Afghanistan remains an area of active hostilities and our personnel continue to operate in harms way,” he said. “Therefore, they retain the inherent right of self-defense.”

The organization (MSF) this weekend had demanded an independent investigation into the deadly airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan, that struck an MSF-run hospital, “under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed,” calling the U.S. military’s announcement that it would formally investigate “wholly insufficient.”

“Relying only on an internal investigation by a party to the conflict would be wholly insufficient,” a weekend statement from MSF General Director Christopher Stokes said.

Gen. Campbell responded today when asked about the request for the organization’s independent investigation, “If there’s other investigations out there that need to go on I’ll make sure that we coordinate those as well but I won’t go into those details here. We’re going to do everything we can in this case to be open and transparent.

Campbell confirmed that an AC-130 gunship had been called into strike at Taliban fighters.

Brigadier Gen. Richard Kim is conducting the initial military investigation and Campbell said he should have a preliminary report “in the next couple of days.”

Kunduz: MFS Hospital Bombing Deaths Rise To Nine

The medical charity MSF says air strikes on its hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz continued for more than 30 minutes after US and Afghan authorities were told of its location.

In a statement, MSF has condemned “in the strongest possible terms the horrific bombing of its hospital”.

MSF says the number of its staff killed has risen to nine, from three.

US forces were carrying out air strikes at the time. The Nato alliance has admitted the clinic may have been hit.

85887572_kunduzgrabfire_bbc — Afghanistan: MSF says the number of its staff killed has risen to nine, from three. At least 37 people were seriously injured, 19 of them MSF staff. At least 100 patients were in the hospital. (Photo Courtesy MSF)

At least 37 people were seriously injured, 19 of them MSF staff. At least 100 patients were in the hospital.

Many patients and staff remain unaccounted for, MSF says.

The organisation says that all parties to the conflict, including Kabul and Washington, had been told the precise GPS co-ordinates of the hospital in Kunduz on many occasions.

A spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, Col Brian Tribus, said: “US forces conducted an air strike in Kunduz city at 02:15 (local time)… against individuals threatening the force.

“The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility.”

The incident is being investigated, he added.

There has been intense fighting in Kunduz since Taliban fighters swept into the northern city on Monday.

MSF staff in Kunduz continued to perform emergency surgery on wounded civilians (Photo Courtesy MSF)

Afghan officials said the government had regained control of Kunduz on Friday, but the Taliban denied the city had been retaken.

Eyewitnesses said they saw Taliban fighters on the streets or hiding in civilian houses.

Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour had described the seizure of Kunduz as a “symbolic victory”.

Kunduz, with a population of around 300,000, is one of Afghanistan’s largest cities and strategically important both as a transport hub and a bread-basket for the region.

The US-led Nato combat mission in Afghanistan ended in December 2014, but Nato forces remain for training purposes.

Nato’s Resolute Support Mission, which was launched in January 2015, consists of more than 13,000 troops from 42 countries. The US contributes around half of these.

BBC News: Afghan hospital air strike: MSF says location known

Yemen: 6,000 Civilians killed In 7 Months of Saudi-led Attacks

Saudi Arabia has killed in excess of 6,000 Yemenis as Riyadh’s military aggression against the impoverished Arab country enters its seventh month, says Yemen’s Civil Coalition.

According to a report by the Nongovernmental Organization (NGO), which was published on Saturday (09/19/2015):

Saudi Arabia's fresh airstrikes — Saudi Arabia’s fresh airstrikes have claimed the life of a little girl in the northwestern Yemeni province of Sa’ada amid the silence and inaction of the world. (Photo: ABNA: Shia News)

6,091 Yemenis have lost their lives in the Saudi airstrikes and a total of 13,552 people have been injured.

3,006 women and children among the dead.

2,997 women and children have been wounded.

Targeting infrastructure, civilians

Yemen’s Civil Coalition stated that the Saudi airstrikes target civilians, the infrastructure and residential areas of Yemen in defiance of international norms and conventions.

The report also highlighted an escalation in the airstrikes against Yemen over the past two weeks, which has increased the number of casualties.

The attacks are mainly centered on residential areas in the provinces of Sana’a, Sa’ada, Hajjah, Ta’izz, Ibb, Jawf, Hudaydah, Dhamar, and Bayda, according to the report.

Educational, medical and historical locations across Yemen are also targeted in the airstrikes, the report stated, calling on the United Nations to investigate crimes committed by Riyadh against Yemen.

Saudi warplanes carried out new airstrikes on the district of Razeh in Yemen’s northwestern province of Sa’ada during the early hours of Sunday. There has been no report on the possible casualties.

Similar airstrikes left over 60 people dead across the country the previous day.

In the district of Munabbih in northern province of Sa’ada, at least 50 people were killed and over a dozen others injured in similar attacks on a local market late on Saturday.

Saudi warplanes also targeted a residential area in the district of Majz in the province, killing 10 members of a family.

Three members of another family were also killed when their house was hit by an airstrike in Ma’rib Province.

In retaliation for the Saudi airstrikes, the Yemeni army, backed by popular committees, targeted a number of Saudi military bases in the border region, inflicting heavy losses on them.

Riyadh launched its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 – without a UN mandate – in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore power to the fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

AhlulBayt News Agency – ABNA – Shia News: Over 6,000 killed since Saudi aggression against Yemen

Syria: Assad’s War Crimes Include Genocide Of Family Lineages

Thank you to the people who take the time to learn, share, and assist the innocent children of war. This Colour of War campaign poster is for public use. Please do not alter it in any way; use only for cause to raise awareness of the children suffering, even dying inside war-torn counties.

Syrian family last dinner — I reserve the right to have this poster removed from any location at my request. Copyright 2015 Alistair Reign.

Syria: U.S. Secretary Kerry Says President Assad “Must go”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has to go but the timing of his departure had to be decided through negotiation.

Speaking after talks with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond he called on Russia and Iran to use their influence to convince al-Assad to negotiate.

He said there is an urgency to renewing efforts to find a political settlement to end the four-year war and worsening refugee crisis in Syria.

“We need to get to the negotiation. That is what we’re looking for and we hope Russia and Iran, and any other countries with influence, will help to bring about that, because that’s what is preventing this crisis from ending,” said Kerry. “We’re prepared to negotiate.”

Is Assad prepared to negotiate, really negotiate?

Is Russia prepared to bring him to the table?

“Kerry said of Assad’s removal, “it doesn’t have to be on day one or month one … there is a process by which all the parties have to come together to reach an understanding of how this can best be achieved.”

Channel NewsAsia: US says Assad must go, timing down to negotiation

Canada: Aylan’s Aunt Pleads, Tell world to help refugees

“Now the whole world is going to watch my story. Where was all the world before when my kids were hungry? When I didn’t have a job?” said Tima Kurdi.

The aunt of two drowned Syrian boys recalled her brother’s harrowing battle to save his sons at two emotional press conferences in Coquitlam, B.C. Thursday, and said the tragedy would help wake people up and pay attention to the migrant crisis.“Now the whole world is going to watch my story. Where was all the world before when my kids were hungry? When I didn’t have a job?” said Tima Kurdi.“I want to tell the rest of the world, at this point, to step in and help the refugees.”

Abdullah Kurdi with his sons Aylan (left) and Ghalib. (Photo: Courtesy Abdullah Kurdi Facebook)

Kurdi said her brother Abdullah described to her the horror of the boys dying in his arms and screamed: “Please don’t die!” at their lifeless bodies.“He said he tried with all his power,” she said.When Abdullah realized that his five-year-old son Ghalib was dead in his left arm, he turned his attention to his three-year-old son, Alan, she said.“Slowly he let him (Ghalib) go and he said I will try to save the second one, Alan,” he said.When he realized Alan was also dead, he tried to save his wife, also with no success, she said.

“He said, ‘I tried with all my power to save them, I didn’t,’” she said.

A photograph of Alan’s tiny body in a bright red T-shirt and shorts, face-down in the surf, appeared in newspapers around the world, prompting sympathy and outrage at the perceived inaction of developed nations in helping refugees.

Alan’s 5-year-old brother Ghalib and mother Rehan, 35, were among 12 people, including other children, who died after two boats capsized while trying to reach the Greek island of Kos.“The things that happened to us here, in the country where we took refuge to escape war in our homeland, we want the whole world to see this,” Abdullah told reporters.

Mohamad settled in Germany, and Abdullah wanted to follow with his own family. But Abdullah’s wife was scared of the perilous journey across the water to Greece, Kurdi said.“She said to me I really don’t want to go, I don’t know how to swim,” Kurdi said. “I said ‘just put your life jacket on, you’ll be fine.’”

Kurdi said she did all she could to help her brothers and their families, including wiring them $5,000 to help pay the smuggler for their escape.“I shouldn’t have sent the money,” she cried.

Tima Kurdi at a press conferences in Coquitlam, B.C., Canada.

Kurdi said she moved to Canada in 1992 after marrying a Canadian and worked to bring family members to Canada and safety.Asked what should be done to prevent future tragedies, she said: “Stop the war.”She said Abdullah now wants to travel to their hometown of Kobani in Syria near the Turkish border to bury his boys.“He has to bury them in their own country,” she said.

The Kurdi family had made a privately-sponsored refugee application to the Canadian authorities that was rejected in June due to complications with applications from Turkey. Kurdi said the family had money and plenty of room to house little Aylan Kurdi and his brother and parents.“I wasn’t asking the Canadian government to drain the system, I can pay for everything,” she said.

This article has been shortened, click on the link below to read the entire document.

‘I want to tell the rest of the world, to step in and help the refugees,’ says aunt of drowned Syrian boys | Toronto Star

Two US Reporters, 1 Translator Charged “Terror Ties”

A Turkish court has detained and charged two British journalists and a translator working for a US-based media outlet with links to the Takfiri Daesh terror group.

The ruling on Monday by the court in the Kurdish-dominated city of Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey came as Vice News reporters, identified as Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury, were reportedly filming a documentary on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) amid a recent surge of violent clashes between the Kurdish militants and Turkish security forces.

According to the court’s statement, the two reporters and their Iraqi translator, Mohammed Ismael Rasool, were formally charged with “engaging in terror activity” on behalf of the Daesh terrorist group as well as “intentionally aiding an armed organization.”

To read the entire article published on August 31, 2015 in PressTV click on the link below.

via: PressTV: Turkey charges US media staff with terror ties

Jerusalem: Israeli Security Forces Abuse Palestinian Children

Choke-holds, Beatings, and Coercive Interrogations.

Israeli security forces have used unnecessary force to arrest or detain Palestinian children as young as 11. Security forces have choked children, thrown stun grenades at them, beaten them in custody, threatened and interrogated them without the presence of parents or lawyers, and failed to let their parents know their whereabouts.

Human Rights Watch interviewed four boys, ages 11, 12, and 15, from different neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, and a 14-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy from elsewhere in the West Bank, whom Israeli forces arrested or detained in separate incidents for allegedly throwing rocks from March to December 2014. They and their parents gave accounts of abuses during arrest and interrogation that caused the children pain, fear, and ongoing anxiety. Human Rights Watch has seen photos and marks on the body of one of the children, consistent with the accounts he and his parents had given; the children’s accounts were also consistent with each other.

“Israeli forces’ mistreatment of Palestinian children is at odds with its claim to respect children’s rights,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director. “As Israel’s largest military donor, the US should press hard for an end to these abusive practices and for reforms.”

In every case Human Rights Watch documented, the children and their parents told Human Rights Watch that Israeli authorities did not inform parents of their child’s arrest and interrogated the children without permitting them to speak to a parent or lawyer prior to the interrogation. In five of the cases, the children said that interrogators either did not permit their parent to attend their interrogation or allowed them entry only as it ended. Two 15-year-old boys and the 14-year-old girl said they signed confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand, after interrogators threatened them. One boy said police “punched and kicked” him, then presented him with the Hebrew confession to sign.

Rashid S., 11, said that Israeli border police forces officers threw a stun grenade (a non-lethal explosive device that produces a blinding light and intensely loud noise causing loss of balance) at him and put him in a chokehold when they arrested him for throwing stones in November. He said that officers put a black bag over his head, threatened him with beatings, and kicked him in the shin while taking him for interrogation. The border police forces pulled his coat and shirt off during arrest, but kept him outside for about an hour despite cold temperatures, he said. Human Rights Watch observed photographs of police arresting him and marks on the boy’s leg consistent with his account. Rashid’s full name and the full names of another person interviewed are not being used for their protection.

Two of the boys Human Rights Watch interviewed said they had urinated on themselves in fear at the time of their arrests, and three said they had experienced nightmares and difficulty in sleeping afterward. The families of the 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy said they were not allowed to visit or even call during their detention – 64 days for the girl and 110 for the boy.

Another 15-year-old boy from East Jerusalem, Fares Shyukhi, said Israeli border police officers strip-searched, slapped and kicked him, threatened him, and jailed him from March 6 to April 2, 2014, on suspicion of throwing rocks and a Molotov cocktail at a settlement in his neighborhood. He was later released to indefinite house arrest, but jailed again from late October to January 6, 2015, after failing to appear at a court hearing, his family said.

On January 6, Fares was returned to house arrest and his conditions were eased slightly the same month, after his lawyer informed the Jerusalem magistrates’ court that the boy had threatened suicide, allowing him to leave the house for six hours a week if accompanied by his mother. On March 29, the judge lifted his house arrest, but Israeli border police have detained him twice since then, he told Human Rights Watch, once violently, claiming wrongly that he was violating his house arrest.

Israeli border police forces put another 11-year-old boy, Ahmad Abu Sbitan, in a chokehold while arresting him outside the gates of his school in another East Jerusalem neighborhood, according to the boy and photographs of the incident, and arrested a 22-year-old man who sought to intervene non-violently, Ahmad and the man, Mohammed H., said. Police later strip-searched and beat the 22-year-old in the room where Ahmad was being detained, he told Human Rights Watch.

Police picked up the 12-year-old boy, Mohammed Khatib, while he was waiting to take a bus home from school outside the Old City of Jerusalem. A policeman “grabbed the back of my jacket and lifted me off the ground, I was choking,” the boy said. A police officer told the boy’s father that police were looking for a stone-throwing suspect “wearing a blue shirt,” the color of the boy’s school uniform, his father said. Police interrogated the boy without allowing his father to be present and released him without charge eight hours later.

Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Israel ratified in 1991, requires court procedures to take into account the age of child defendants and “the desirability of promoting their rehabilitation.” The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Israel also ratified in 1991, elaborates on this requirement and directs states to ensure that children are “not compelled … to confess guilt.” The Committee charged with interpreting the convention has stated that this includes a right to request the presence of a parent during questioning and that judges must take into account the absence of a parent or lawyer during interrogation, as well as other factors, when considering the reliability of confessions.

Israel’s Youth Law and military orders applicable in the West Bank require police to notify a parent of their child’s arrest and to allow the child to consult with a lawyer prior to interrogation. The Youth Law also entitles a child to have a parent present during their interrogation, except in cases of alleged “security offenses,” such as throwing stones. Although the Youth Law applies only to Israel, according to the military in practice this requirement is also applied in the West Bank.

Human Rights Watch submitted its preliminary findings, including details of five of the individual cases it investigated, to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and to the Israeli police. The separate responses of the IDF and Justice Ministry, which responded on behalf of the police, failed to address the specific allegations of unnecessary force during arrest and subsequent ill-treatment, while asserting that security officials had adhered to the law in all cases, including by informing the children of their rights.

They stated that interrogations of Palestinian children are conducted in Arabic and frequently recorded, and that Hebrew language documents are translated into Arabic. The responses did not in all cases directly address the question of whether officials had notified parents of their children’s arrest. In its response, the IDF said that breaches of procedures are viewed seriously and may lead to a ruling that a confession is inadmissible as evidence against an accused. The IDF cited several cases in which children were released due to serious interrogation process violations.

Human Rights Watch investigations indicate that existing laws are insufficient to safeguard the rights of Palestinian children in the custody of the Israeli police and the IDF, and that officials often adhere to legal requirements and procedures in a manner that undermines the protections they aimed to guarantee. For example, they often record interrogations to prevent the use of violence and threats against children, but many of the children interviewed complained that they were beaten or threatened before their official interrogation as an inducement to “confess.” Furthermore, several children said they were informed of their right to consult a lawyer only immediately before their interrogation and the police or military refused to delay the interrogation until their lawyer arrived.

Israeli interrogators use Arabic when interrogating Palestinian children but frequently use Hebrew to document the interviews – only 138 of 440 interrogations they conducted in 2014 were documented in Arabic, according to the Israeli military – or fail to audio or audio-visually record the interrogation – 128 of 440 cases in 2014, according to the military. This means that in many cases alleged confessions or other incriminating statements by detained children are documented in a language they do not understand, and there is no way to ascertain whether the documents were accurately translated to the children before they signed them.

Confessions obtained from children in violation of their rights add to the pressure on them to cooperate in plea bargains that result in their imprisonment with reduced sentences, Human Rights Watch said.

“Israel has been on notice for years that its security forces are abusing Palestinian children’s rights in occupied territory, but the problems continue,” Whitson said. “These are not difficult abuses to end if the Israeli government were serious about doing so.”

Abusive Arrests of Children

Human Rights Watch decided to focus on the issue of abusive arrests of children because reports by local human rights organizations and news media indicated, and follow up research confirmed, that there appeared to be a pattern of such arrests. Human Rights Watch initially identified the cases for documentation based on these reports, where preliminary information indicated the likelihood of abuses. Human Rights Watch obtained the consent of the children and at least one parent before conducting interviews and informed them that the interviews were to be in a human rights report. In some cases the report withholds the full names of interviewees to protect their safety and privacy. Human Rights watch did not offer interview subjects any remuneration.

The abuses of children that Human Rights Watch documented are consistent with information from other organizations, especially in the West Bank. UNICEF reported in 2013 that “the ill-treatment of children who come in contact with the military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized.” Israel responded to the report by committing to “collaborate with UNICEF to implement [the] report’s recommendations.” Yet, according to a UNICEF update, reports of alleged ill-treatment of children by Israeli forces “have not significantly decreased in 2013 and 2014.” UNICEF reported that from September 2013 to September 2014, it received affidavits from 171 children stating that Israeli forces had subjected them to “physical violence during arrest, interrogation and/or detention.”

The Israeli military conducts nighttime arrest raids on children’s family homes. In 2013, it arrested 162 children during such raids, according to the military. In February 2014, the military introduced a “pilot project” of issuing summonses to the families of children wanted for questioning in two areas of the West Bank, but it cancelled the project in January 2015 due to an increase in violence during the summer, and said it did not keep statistics on the project.

The Israeli military had classified 163 Palestinian children from the West Bank as “security detainees” – including children convicted for offenses like throwing stones, but not including other “criminal detainees” – in Israeli detention at the end of January 2015, according to Israel’s prison service. Palestinian children from East Jerusalem, occupied territory that Israel has purported to annex to its territory, in violation of international law, are detained under Israeli domestic law rather than military orders. Figures for children from East Jerusalem in detention were not available.

Rashid S., Age 11

Israeli border police forces arrested Rashid S., 11, outside his school in the Ein al-Louz area of Silwan, an East Jerusalem neighborhood, on the afternoon of November 24, 2014. “A few kids were throwing rocks at the soldiers, who were all in black, and they came out of their car,” Rashid said. “I ran to the mosque, but they threw a sound bomb that hit my leg on the stairway, so I fell down the stairs and they caught me by my shirt. They got me in a headlock and pushed me face-down on the ground.”

The police forces tore off Rashid’s shirt and coat during the arrest, he said. Human Rights Watch viewed a photograph taken by a neighborhood resident that shows the boy, shirtless, being held by an Israeli border policeman. At some point during or after the arrest he urinated on himself in fright, he said. Rashid and his father, Kayed, said that the police did not give him anything to keep warm for several hours. Weather records show that it was about 12 degrees Celsius in Jerusalem that day. Rashid said that the police drove him to a settlement in the neighborhood, put him “in a storage room” for about 15 minutes, then drove him to a police office near the Hebron Gate in the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, put him “in and out of a car,” and otherwise held him outside for about an hour.

“When they drove me from the settlement to the office, they put a black cloth bag on my head, and were shouting, ‘We’re going to beat you, you’re going to tell us who was with you throwing stones,’” Rashid said. “Then they were pushing me around, and cursing me, in Arabic. They kicked me in the shin, and my leg turned different colors. I was freezing. They kept putting me into a car and taking me out.”

Rashid said the police then took him to the detention facility in the Russian Compound, referred to in Arabic as Moskobiyya, north of the Old City. “They took the bag off my head before the interrogation,” Rashid said. His father said that neighbors had called to tell him of Rashid’s arrest and that he drove to a police station on Salahadin Street in East Jerusalem. “Then I got a call from a police interrogator saying to come to the Moskobiyya,” he said. Rashid’s interrogation had yet to begin but police “had sat him facing a wall on an outside balcony, and it was freezing,” his father said. “I shouted that they were treating him like an animal, and they told me they were going to arrest me for ‘disturbing an interrogation’ if I didn’t quiet down.”

The interrogation lasted for about an hour, and was recorded, Rashid and his father said. Rashid did not confess to throwing stones, but said he had run from Israeli forces simply because the forces had thrown a stun grenade at the group of children he was standing with. He said that older boys in the group had thrown stones but he did not know their names.

“When he got home he had nightmares,” Rashid’s father said. “He woke up screaming for four or five nights in a row.” Rashid told Human Rights Watch that he dreamed of being arrested, “over and over again,” and was scared of going to school.

Earlier in 2014, Rashid said, Israeli police had arrested two of his 11-year-old classmates, Adam and Bara, on suspicion of throwing stones, holding one of them overnight.

To read the rest of this article by Sarah Leah Whitson click on the link below.

Human Rights Watch: Israel security forces abuse Palestinian children

Kurdistan: Kurdish Forces Violating Child Soldier Ban

Despite Promises, Children Still Fight

UPDATE: The YPG sent Human Rights Watch this response on July 22, 2015, pledging to “follow up” cases referenced in this report.

The Kurdish armed group that controls territory in northern Syria, despite some progress, is still not meeting its commitment to demobilize child soldiers and to stop using boys and girls under 18 in combat, Human Rights Watch said today.

On June 5, 2014, the People’s Protection Unit (YPG) signed a “Deed of Commitment” with the nongovernmental organization Geneva Call pledging to demobilize all fighters under 18 within one month. One month later, it demobilized 149 children. Despite this promise and the initial progress, Human Rights Watch documented cases over the past year of children under 18 joining and fighting with the YPG and the YPJ, its female branch. Some children under 18 with those forces, based on public sources, apparently died in combat in June 2015.

“The YPG promised to stop sending children to war and it should carry out its promise,” said Fred Abrahams, special adviser at Human Rights Watch. “Of course the Kurdish forces are fighting groups like ISIS that flout the laws of war, but that’s no excuse to tolerate abuses by its own forces.”

The YPG and YPJ are not the only offenders among the many armed groups in Syria using child soldiers, but they can do more to stop the practice, Human Rights Watch said.

Based on information provided by local and international organizations, Human Rights Watch compiled a list of 59 children, 10 of them under 15, who were allegedly recruited by or volunteered for YPG or YPJ forces since July 2014. Human Rights Watch confirmed seven of these cases by speaking directly with the children’s relatives. In some cases, the groups enlisted children without their parents’ consent.

“My daughter went to school and was taken from there by a group of YPJ,” a father of a 14-year-old girl near Qamishli said. “We knew nothing about her until a YPJ commander called and informed us that she had joined YPJ.”

Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the YPG on June 10, 2015, asking for a response to the allegations. In its reply on June 24, the group acknowledged that it faced “significant challenges” to stop its use of child soldiers due to the ongoing armed conflict. It acknowledged that there had been “some individual cases” over the past year.

Human Rights Watch urged the YPG and YPJ to stop recruiting 16- and 17-year-olds, even if they are not serving a military function. The Optional Protocol to the Children’s Rights Convention on Children and Armed Conflict says that non-state armed groups should not recruit children under 18 for any purpose.

Under customary international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), it is a war crime for members of armed forces or non-state armed groups to conscript or enlist children under 15, or to use them to participate actively in hostilities. Ten of the 59 children who allegedly joined the YPG or YPJ over the past year were 15 or younger.

The June 5 report of the United Nations secretary-general to the Security Council on children in armed conflict said that the recruitment and use of children in combat in Syria had become “commonplace.” The United Nations verified cases of 271 boys and 7 girls who had been recruited and used by groups affiliated with, among others, the Free Syrian Army (142), YPG and YPJ (24), ISIS (69), and al-Nusra Front (25), and the actual numbers are believed to be higher. Some armed groups fighting with the Syrian government, such as Hezbollah and the Popular Committee, also reportedly recruited children in small numbers, the report said.

“Armed groups in Syria are placing children in direct harm by giving them weapons and sending them to fight,” Abrahams said. “The YPG has a chance to stop this practice and show that it’s serious about keeping its commitments on human rights.”

Human Rights Watch: Kurdish Forces Violating Child Soldier Ban

World: Challenging The ‘Refugee-Victim’ Narrative

Refugee boy holds his sister outside the family tent — Big brother all smiles holds his baby sister outside the family tent at a refugee camp. Photo: Free Syria Hub.

“ORDINARY PEOPLE LIVING THROUGH EXTRAORDINARY TIMES”

While academics in the field of (forced) migration are more often than not aware of these complexities, public perceptions are often skeptical of narratives that recognize refugees as people ‘like you and I’ who find themselves in dire circumstances. At first glance, the difference between the two narratives seems marginal. However, acknowledging forced migrants as people with knowledge, abilities, and strength does not delegitimize their claim for asylum and refuge, on the contrary, it will make their case the more pressing if they are seen as who they are, rather than who they are expected to be. This perspective challenges predominant notions of passivity and inertia which are prolific in most media and inform political action. UNHCR’s 2015 World Refugee Day slogan “Ordinary people living through extraordinary times” could mean a step in the right direction. Despite this positive potential, the aim of such strategies cannot be the uncritical celebration of ‘same-ness’ (“like you and I”), as it echoes a liberal, Eurocentric discourse that seeks to minimize ‘difference’ without addressing the historically-produced, unequal power positions of “us” and “them” with respect to socio-economy, politics, culture, and race. [end quote]

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In the immediate aftermath of the preventable deaths of hundreds of Arab and African migrants in the Mediterranean earlier in April this year.

Analysts and media outlets again invoked this sense of despair, hopelessness and victim-hood on the part of those people risking the perilous journey to Europe, and eventually paying with their lives for the dream of a better and safe life.

With looming refugee and forced migration crises in the Mediterranean, Kenya, Myanmar, Syria, Burundi and elsewhere hitting international headlines, public attention is rightfully drawn to those people immediately affected by war, poverty, and persecution. For many, internally-displaced persons (IDPs), refugees, and asylum-seekers are above all unfortunate souls, devastated, and stripped of their humanity by seemingly never-ending civil wars, dictatorships and economic stagnation at home. Yet, maybe counter-intuitively, ritualistic demonstrations of compassion in Western media and the political scene do a disservice to refugee advocacy, as they inadvertently – and falsely – reduce refugee-ness to a state of inaction and passivity, and refugee camps to fairly hopeless and “nondescript places”, as Edward Said famously remarked [1].

In the immediate aftermath of the preventable deaths of hundreds of Arab and African migrants in the Mediterranean earlier in April this year, analysts and media outlets again invoked this sense of despair, hopelessness and victim-hood on the part of those people risking the perilous journey to Europe, and eventually paying with their lives for the dream of a better and safe life.

‘WAREHOUSING’ REFUGEES?

The implicit message of these various representations was – quite rightly – Europe’s moral and legal obligation to save those drowning right on her doorstep and in visual range of her shores. Understandably, well-meaning human rights activists, leftist politicians, and humanitarian agencies have used the same imagery to create awareness in Western media, civil society and public discourse. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), for instance, speaks of “warehousing” refugees. Not only have the lines between ‘migrant’ and ‘refugee’, between ‘asylum-seeker’ and ‘displaced person’ become increasingly irrelevant in popular parlance to a point of indistinguishably, but these groups are also imagined to share a common, inevitably fate.

While these strategic portrayals of ‘essential victims’ are ironically driven by commendable intentions to stir debates and at best provoke policy responses, it is also clear that they nurture and prolong a problematic ‘refugee-victim’ narrative. Here, refugees – or (forced) migrants in general – feature as helpless, indistinct crowds who are being heaved by the coastguard from overloaded rubber boats on the verge of sinking onto the safety of navy vessels, or as destitute and empty-eyed bodies in uninhabitable places, abandoned and sacrificed. Having said this, unspeakable stories of pain and devastation are not a fiction, but they exist to the millions and very much deserve to be told. Yet, by harping on scenarios of trauma and loss, discourse practice ironically thwarts the ‘empowerment’ language of humanitarian actors. Naturally, the short-term benefits of proliferating such images with their metaphorical power must be weighed critically against the potentially damaging repercussions for popular beliefs and attitudes towards (forced) migrants at large. In the words of renowned scholar Jennifer Hyndman, “the popularity and sympathy for displaced peoples on the part of Western governments lies precisely in their location ‘over there’” [2].

LANGUAGE AND BIOPOLITICS

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“ORDINARY PEOPLE LIVING THROUGH EXTRAORDINARY TIMES”

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To read the rest of this inspiring article by Hanno Brankamp on June 2, 2015 in Pambazuka News click on the link below.

Pambazuka – Challenging the ‘refugee-victim’ narrative.

Yemen: Saudi-led Coalition Airstrike kills 20 Civilians

Yemen (AP) — A Saudi-led coalition airstrike in Yemen hit allied fighters in a friendly fire incident, killing at least 20, Yemeni security officials and pro-government fighters said Sunday.

The officials said the incident happened late Saturday as the fighters were on a coastal road heading toward the embattled city of Zinjibar in southern Yemen.

The Saudi-led, American-supported coalition began launching airstrikes in March against the Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies, who control the capital and much of the country’s north.

The fighting in Yemen pits the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants and loyalists of exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The United Arab Emirates said Saturday that three of its soldiers were killed while taking part in a Saudi-led campaign.

The statement carried by the official news agency WAM did not say how the soldiers were killed or whether they died in Yemen.

The ruler of the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah led funeral services for the three corporals on Sunday. A total of five Emirati soldiers have been killed in battle since March.

Yemeni security officials have said that Saudi, Emirati, Egyptian and Jordanian military advisers are training hundreds of fighters at a military base near the Yemeni port city of Aden.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

via Officials: Saudi-led friendly fire in Yemen kills 20.

Choke-holds, Beatings, and Coercive Interrogations.

Abusive Arrests of Children

Rashid S., Age 11

Despite Promises, Children Still Fight

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