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UN: Syrian forces, opposition committing crime By Zeina Karam and John Heilprin Assosiated Press 24 May 2012
The Syrian regime and an increasingly organized rebel force are carrying out illegal killings and torturing their opponents, but government forces are still responsible for most of the violence stemming from the country's uprising, a U.N. panel said Thursday. The findings were released in Geneva by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which said the conflict has become "increasingly militarized." The report is based on hundreds of interviews since March with victims and witnesses who fled the country.
"Fighters in anti-government armed groups were killed after being captured or wounded," the report said. "In some particularly grave instances, entire families were executed in their homes - usually the family members of those opposing the government."
Children, including boys as young as 10, have said they are "tortured to admit that older male members of their family are Free Syrian Army soldiers or supporters," the report said. The Free Syrian Army is the rebel force trying to topple the government....(read more)
Syrian Kurds Fleeing to Iraqi Safe Haven
By Samer Muscati
May 14, 2012
It was a January evening when his Syrian army unit raided a house near the city of Zabadani, not far from Damascus, the former sergeant recalled. A 70-year-old man wearing a hospital gown was brought to the house, and the soldiers, including a colonel, interrogated him. When he wasn’t able to respond to their satisfaction, one of the guards beat him ferociously in the face with a helmet.
“I heard the old man muttering in a muffled sound as he fell to the ground,” the former sergeant told me. “About 15 minutes after they first brought the man in, I went inside and saw his lifeless body. There was blood coming out of his nose and ears. I’m positive he was dead and they just disposed of his body.”
With violence raging in Syria, thousands of people are fleeing to neighboring countries to escape the bloodshed...(read more)
Sudan: Repression Intensifies after Border Violence
Human Rights Watch
17 May 2012
Sudan has stepped up harassment of journalists, censorship, and arrests of political opponents in the wake of recent fighting with South Sudan, Human Rights Watch said today.
“Sudan is cracking down on civil and political rights in the face of conflict and opposition,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “But locking up critics and silencing dissent will not solve Sudan’s problems.”
Fighting in mid-April, 2012, between Sudan and South Sudan, which became independent on July 9, 2011, along their disputed border provoked an atmosphere of heightened hostility accompanied by increased repression in Sudan. Security officials have harassed and threatened journalists and political opposition members and more than 15 journalists have been banned from working in recent months, according to journalist groups in Sudan....(read more)
Rival Sudans tensions continue despite recent agreement to AU road map
6 April 2012
Earlier this week both Sudan and South Sudan accepted the African Union's seven-point roadmap, that called for a cessation of hostilities, in order to avert an all-out war. 'The UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution threatening Khartoum and Juba with sanctions if they failed to silence the guns and resume talks within two weeks, endorsing the AU's deadline of May 8.' (Read More)
However, Sudan's army accused South Sudan on Saturday, 5 May, of having troops on its territory, a sign tensions between the former civil war foes were unlikely to cool despite an international ultimatum to end fighting. (Read More)
Pod-cast of Greg Stanton's appearance on Public Radio San Francisco, KQED, Monday, April 30, 2012
Why Do We Look the Other Way?
By Dr. Gregory Stanton
President, Genocide Watch
Speech on the the Bay Area Walk Against Genocide, 29 April 2012
I spent three days at the University of Oregon a couple of weeks ago with Dr. Paul Slovic, a social psychologist who has conducted path-breaking experiments asking why we cannot sympathize with the suffering or even the murder of large numbers of people in Sudan, or Rwanda, or Bosnia, or Cambodia.
In one experiment, psychologists asked ordinary Americans to contribute five dollars to feed Rokia, a starving seven year old girl in Mali. About half would donate the five dollars. The same percentage would donate to save Moussa, a little boy from Mali.
But when photos of both Rokia and Moussa were shown, the percent who would donate dropped to thirty percent. And when the photo of Rokia was shown representing 21 million hungry Africans who could be fed by a group of trusted relief organizations, the percentage who would donate dropped to less than ten percent.
Professor Slovic calls this phenomenon “psychic numbing.” He believes human beings are usually unable to feel compassion for large numbers of people. The more victims, the less compassion.
Genocide Watch has developed an early warning system using our understanding of the genocidal process to predict and recommend policies to prevent genocide. Through the International Alliance to End Genocide, the first anti-genocide coalition (founded in 1999), we maintain close relations with policy makers who can take preventive action. Rapid response by regional alliances has prevented or stopped several genocides: in East Timor, Kosovo, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia , and Sierra Leone.
We have created international tribunals to try genocidists in former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, East Timor, and Cambodia. And we finally have an International Criminal Court (the ICC). The UN Security Council has referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC. It has indicted President Omar al-Bashir, Abdul Rahim, and Ahmed Harun for crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur. But al-Bashir has just laughed. He even appointed Harun (one of those indicted) to be Governor of South Kordofan where he is leading another genocide against the people of the Nuba Mountains.
South Sudan president says Sudan has ‘declared war’ after Sudanese jets drop bombs on S. Sudan
By The Associated Press
24 April 2012
South Sudan’s president said its northern neighbor has “declared war” on the world’s newest nation, just hours after Sudanese jets dropped eight bombs on his country.
President Salva Kiir’s comments, made Tuesday during a trip to China, signal a rise in rhetoric between the rival nations, who spent decades at war with each other. Neither side has officially declared war.
Sudan and South Sudan have been drawing closer to a full-scale war in recent weeks over the unresolved issues of oil revenues and their disputed border. The violence has drawn alarm and condemnation from the international community, including from U.S. President Barack Obama. (Read More)
Smoke rises from the Al Qusoor district of Homs (Photo: Reuters)
UN has bleak outlook for Syria ceasefire as violence continues in Homs
25 April 2012
Government forces have followed the pattern established since the cease-fire, resuming attacks where the United Nations had just visited, while soldiers remained largely quiet in the places where the unarmed monitors were walking around. The Damascus suburb of Douma, which staged a massive antigovernment protest when the observers visited Monday, was shelled heavily on Wednesday morning, activists said.
Only about a dozen monitors have deployed in the country so far, but Syrians have already soured on the experience, blaming the monitors for being powerless in the face of further violent attacks despite the cease-fire technically in effect since April 12. The United Nations Security Council continues to back the peace plan, however, with the full contingent of 300 inspectors expected to deploy over the next couple months. Read more
The Atrocity Prevention Board that President Obama created held its first meeting on Monday. While the atrocities in Syria, Sudan, and other countries were highlighted at the meeting, there is no mention of the genocide, ethnic cleansing campaigns and other crimes against humanity in Ethiopia by the Woyanne junta. – Elias Kifle
(Photo: NYDailyNews)
President Obama Announces Formation of the Atrocity Prevention Board
23 April 2012
During a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, President Obama confirmed that atrocity prevention is "a core national security interest and core moral responsibility." The President's speech outlined an unprecedented effort to institutionalize normative commitments to atrocity prevention by creating a high-level interagency Atrocities Prevention Board, the APB, under the chairmanship of the National Security Council’s Senior Director of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, Samantha Power. (USIP)
Click hereto read the official press release from the White House Office of the Press Secretary.
How We Can Prevent Genocide
Dr. Gregory Stanton, Genocide Watch Founder, President, and Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, provides pragmatic tools for prevention of genocide at the individual, community, policy, and government levels. This lecture is part of an interdisciplinary University of Oregon initiative entitled "Genocide and Mass Atrocities: Responsibility to Prevent," which strives to harness the rich scholarship and experience of academics, policymakers, and advocates around the world. It is spearheaded by the Oregon Law Appropriate Dispute Resolution Center in partnership with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
“The situation in South Kordofan is even worse than Darfur.”
-Mukesh Kapila former UN Coordinator for Sudan
(Reuters)
The Roles and Challenges of Women in the Syrian Revolution By Kristi Scogna, Genocide Watch 13 March 2012
“We are all fighting for dignity, freedom and human rights. That’s it.”
On Friday, March 9, 2012, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a moderated discussion panel, co-sponsored with United for Free Syria and the Syrian Emergency Task, to address the critical role of women in Syria’s current revolution and what this means for women in a potential post-Assad Syria. The program included four Syrian female panelists, all of whom are active supporters of the opposition movement by various means. The panelists discussed the monumental contributions women have made to the progress of Syria’s political revolution, which have been largely overshadowed and unrecognized in the media. They also answered audience questions concerning the role of the international community, accusations of disunity among the opposition, and their predictions for a post-Assad Syria. This discussion was part of the Institute’s commitment to conflict management, training and peacebuilding in Syria and around the world. Read More
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