Impunity Watch: Europe

HRW: Iraqi Refugees Seeking Asylum are Mistreated in Greece

by Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

NEW YORK, United States - On November 26, Human Rights Watch published a report documenting mistreatment of Iraqi refugees by Greek officials. The report, titled “Stuck in a Revolving Door,” claims that Greece “systematically rounds up and detains Iraqi asylum seekers... in dirty, overcrowded conditions and forcibly and secretly expels them to Turkey.”

The report documents how Greek Coast Guard officials push migrants out of Greek territorial waters, sometimes puncturing inflatable boats or otherwise disabling their vessels. "Our conclusion is that the practice of summary expulsions across the Evros River is systematic and routine," said to Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at Human Rights Watch and author of the report.

The report also includes a detailed eye-witness account that provides insight into the practices of Greek authorities: “One time I crossed the river into Greece and arrived in Komotini… They put us in jail for five days and then took us to the river and pushed us back. We were 60 persons. They put us in a small river boat with a motor in groups of 10. They did it in the middle of the night. It was raining hard, and the Greek police started beating us to make us move more quickly. I saw one man who tried to refuse to go on the boat, and they beat him and threw him in the river. They beat us with police clubs to get us to go on the boat.”

In addition, those who manage to lodge asylum claims are almost always denied. In 2007, out of 25,111 asylum claims, Greece granted refugee status to eight persons after the first interview, an approval rate of 0.04 percent; the approval rate at the appeals stage was 2 percent.

The report is based on 173 confidential interviews of illegal migrants. One interviewee is an Iraqi Kurd from Kirkuk. After five failed attempts to cross from Turkey into Greece, during which he was beaten and summarily expelled from Greece and also beaten and detained by Turkish authorities, he was finally registered by the Greek authorities. However, the authorities used detention to deter him from seeking asylum - “They told me that if I asked for asylum and a red card that I would need to spend more time in jail beyond 25 days, but if I didn't want asylum and a red card I could leave detention after 25 days. So, I refused the red card and after 25 days they released me. I got a white paper telling me I needed to leave the country in 30 days.”

European Union asylum system, governed by the regulation known as Dublin II, is grounded on the false assumption that all EU states have the same standards and procedures for determining refugee status. Dublin II requires that state of first entry is responsible for examining an asylum claim. Meaning, member states must send asylum seekers back to the country where they originally entered the 27-nation bloc.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees urged EU states in April to stop returning asylum seekers to Greece because of harsh conditions and the low approval rate of claims. Like the UNHCR, Frelick recommends that "Until Greece cleans up its act, EU states shouldn't send asylum seekers back there."

For more information, please see:

Hurriyet - Greece Abusing and Degrading Migrants - Report - 28 November 2008

Guardian - Rights Group: Greece Deporting Migrants Illegally - 26 November 2008

HRW - Greece: Iraqi Asylum Seekers Denied Protection - 26 November 2008

HRW - Stuck in a Revolving Door - 26 November 2008

Georgia President Defends Ossetia War

by Ese Omofoma
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

TBILISI, Georgia - Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Friday defended the decisions made in the lead-up to the August war with Russia.  He told a parliamentary commission that Georgia had responded to Russian "intervention."

"Many wonder if Georgia conducted the military operation against the Tskhinvali region to establish control over territory which was not controlled by Tbilisi. My response is 'Yes,' we opted for military action to protect our population, and this decision was inevitable," Saakashvili told a parliamentary commission investigating the August events.

Saakashvili made the comments justifying the decision to launch a major offensive on the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, on August 7, which left hundreds of civilians dead.  The comments come after recent criticism at home over the five-day war with Russia.

On Thursday, Defense Minister David Kezerashvili told the commission that Georgia had attacked the rebel capital Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 and Aug. 8 because Russian forces were crossing the border.  He added, "it was a matter of time before they started attacking villages inhabited by Georgians." 

Russia has consistently denied Georgia's claims that its forces entered South Ossetia via the Roki tunnel the night before the Georgian assault. Russia has said that it sent troops into South Ossetia and Abkhazia protect civilians and Russian peacekeepers from the Georgian onslaught.  "This is another attempt to escape responsibility for his decision to start a military operation against South Ossetia," Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the Russian army's deputy chief of staff, told the Interfax news agency.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states on August 26.

For more information, please see:

AP - Georgian president defends war decisions - 28 November 2008

BBC - Saakashvili defends S Ossetia war - 28 November 2008

IHT - New defense of attack offered by Georgia - 28 November 2008

RIA - Saakashvili says August attack aimed at protecting Georgians - 28 November 2008

 

Russian Politician Accused of Ordering Murder of Reporter

by Ese Omofoma
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia - A defense lawyer for one of three men charged in the killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya said that their indictment indicates a politician inside Russia ordered her killing. Attorney Murad Musayev, said the indictment named no specific figure, but said the person who masterminded her slaying was a political figure living inside Russia. 

"In the indictment, we read that ... this is a political figure inside the Russian Federation and that he ordered this crime to punish Anna Politkovskaya for critical publications," Musayev told reporters gathered at the courthouse.

Musayev's statement contradicts authorities' suggestions that the killing was the work of a Kremlin foe acting from abroad and casts more suspicion on an already controversial case.

Yesterday, lawyers acting for Politkovskaya's family said that it was now abundantly clear that the journalist had been murdered from inside Russia, and that her death was linked to her work. "The person who gave the order was a political figure. He clearly wasn't happy with the articles Politkovskaya wrote," said lawyer Anna Stavitskaya.

The three men being tried on charges of conspiracy to murder are former Moscow police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov and brothers Ibragim and Dzhabrail Makhmudov. Authorities say the man accused of shooting Politkovskaya, Rustam Makhmudovs, has fled the country.

The case is being heard in a military court because a fourth defendant is a Federal Security Service officer. He is accused of criminal links to Khadzhikurbanov, but has not been charged in the killing.

Politkovskaya's family allege the investigation was sabotaged to allow the suspected trigger-man and the unidentified mastermind escape justice.

For more information, please see:

Guardian - Politkovskaya killing order by politician, lawyer claims - 26 November 2008

Independent - Politician 'ordered killing' - 26 November 2008

CNN - Lawyer: Russian politician ordered murder of reporter - 25 November 2008

No Deportation for Accused Croatian War Criminal

By Sarah Benczik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

TORONTO, Canada - Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) today refused to revoke the refugee status of Josip Budimcic.  The Canadian government had brought the case before the IRB after it discovered Budimcic lied to Canadian immigration authorities about his service in the Yugoslav military when he was granted refugee status in 1995.  The IRB found no evidence Budimcic was involved in the commission of any crimes, and that even if Budimcic was at the scene, the situation was beyond his control to prevent what happened.

Budimcic has been convicted in absentia by a Croatian court for participation in the abuse and torture of captured Croatian soldiers. He was also accused being present when 12 members of the Croatian military unit were captured in a forest between Sarvas and Tenja and two of them were executed.  Four former members of the Croatian army who claimed to have been subjected to mistreatment under Budimcic testified that he had taken part in the execution and torture of the POWs captured during the war in 1991.

The IRB today called the witnesses and the Croatian trial deficient and unreliable.  "He was there for only a few minutes and the situation was beyond his control," the board ruled. "Therefore, there were no serious reasons to consider that Mr. Budimcic committed a war crime, a crime against humanity or a serious non-political crime." 

Budimcic applied for refugee status in 1995 in Canada on the basis of his "mixed marriage" to with his Croatian wife.   The IRB today found the mixed Serbian-Croatian marriage at that time in the history of the former Yugoslavia was enough evidence to make him a refugee.

For more information, please see:

Canada.com - Croatian man accused of war crimes allowed to stay in Canada - 25 November 2008

CTV.ca - War crimes 'beyond control' of accused: panel - 25 November 2008

National Post - Crown loses case to deport alleged Croatian war criminal - 25 November 2008

Politkovskaya Trial Becoming a Farce

by Ese Omofoma
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia - The trial of three men suspected of murdering Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya has been suspended, amid deepening controversy. 

Politkovskaya was an outspoken critic of the Kremlin.

Judge Yevgeny Zubov postponed the trial for 10 days, after disputes with the jury and defense attorneys.

The judge said a defense lawyer would have trouble attending some of the hearings on the scheduled dates. Murad Musajev, the defense lawyer, said this wasn't true. He said there was no reason to postpone proceedings for 10 days, casting further doubt on the transparency of the trial.

"The latest bizarre twist adds to the impression that this trial is seriously compromised," a BBC correspondent says.

Supporters of the murdered Kremlin critic say the trial is already proving to be a farce.

On Monday the judge surprised everybody by ruling that the trial would be open to the public, said the BBC's Rupert Wingfield Hayes, in Moscow.

Two days later he reversed his decision, saying the jury had refused to appear in front of journalists.

However, on Thursday a member of the jury called a Moscow radio station denying any of the jurors had made such a request.

The juror said they had objected to having TV cameras in court, but not text journalists.

Politkovskaya's supporters believe state security agents were involved in her murder.  Therefore they believe there will never be a fair and open trial.

Politkovskaya, was one of the most outspoken critics of former Russian President Vladimir Putin.  She was shot dead outside her Moscow apartment two years ago.

Three men are on trial.  One is a former policeman Sergey Khadzhikurbanov.  The other two are Chechen brothers, Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov. 

The men are only charged with involvement in the plot, not with either carrying out the murder or ordering it.

For more information, please see: 

FIP - In Russia, Politkovskaya Trial Descends Into Farce - 22 November 2008

BBC - New twist in Politkovskaya trial - 21 November 2008

Newstin - New twist in Politkovskaya trial - 21 November 2008

Rwandan Genocide Suspect Appears Before French Court

By Sarah Benczik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PARIS, France - Rose Kabuye today appeared for the first time before a court in France on accusations regarding her involvement in the assassination which sparked the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. 

Kabuye, who is currently the chief of protocol for Rwandan president Paul Kagame, was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany on Wednesday and then transferred to France under a European arrest warrant.   She is suspected of having housed the militants who shot down the plane carrying then-president Juvenal Habyarimana.  Specifically, she has been charged with “complicity in murder in relation to terrorism.”

Kabuye denies all allegations.  She is a popular figure in Rwanda, and the BBC reports that thousands of people gathered in Kigali on Wednesday to protest her arrest.  Viewed by many in Rwanda as a hero, she is a former guerrilla fighter with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and is currently one of President Kagame’s closest aides.  Rawandan Foreign Minister Rosemary Museminali called the arrest "illegal and flawed".

France is investigating the crash because the pilots were French nationals.  The investigation initially caused Rwanda to break off all diplomatic ties with France in 2006, but the relationship between the two nations, although rocky at times, has been restored through a special effort by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.  France issued the arrest warrant for Kabuye and eight other Rwandans.

After Habyarimana’s plane was shot down in 1994, Hutu extremists killed around 800,000 Tutsis until Kagame’s forces gained control roughly 100 days later.  The Hutus accused the RPF and Tutsis of the assassination, while the RPF accused the Hutus of the attack, used as a supposed pretext for carrying out the genocide.  France, who had military forces on the ground in Rwanda at that time, was absolved of responsibility in 1998.  However, it was also known that France gave diplomatic and military aid to support the Hutu extremist government between 1990 and 1994.  The current Rwandan government continues to claim France armed the militias that carried out the genocide. 

For more information, please see:

AllAfrica.com – Rwanda: Rose Kabuye Arrives in France – 20 November 2008

BBC – Rwanda aid questioned in France – 20 November 2008

AP – Germany sends Rwandan suspect to France – 19 November 2008

Deutsche Welle – Germany Extradites Rwandan Politician to France – 19 November 2008

UPDATE: Serbia to Counter-sue Croatia for War Crimes

by Ese Omofoma
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbia will counter-sue Croatia for war crimes, after the International Court of Justice said it will try a genocide case against Serbia brought by Croatia.

"Serbia will sue Croatia... and give it an opportunity to respond to (our) charges of war crimes and ethnic cleansing committed against the Serb minority during the 1991-1995 war in Croatia," Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic told Serbian state television today.

Croatia argues that Serbia committed genocide during the 1991-95 war of independence in which thousands of people died.

The dispute has brought relations between the two former Yugoslav republics to their lowest point since the wars of the 1990s. Serbia-Croatia ties are crucial for the stability of the Balkans, which is still healing from the war.

The conflict erupted when Croatia declared independence from the former Yugoslavia triggering a rebellion by minority Serbs who were backed by Serbia.

About 10,000 people are believed to have been killed in the Croatian war. The conflict ended after Zagreb re-took the Serb-held territories in 1995.

Zagreb wants the World Court to order Belgrade to pay compensation for the war. Croatia also asked the court to order Serbia to help trace people missing from the war and return cultural items plundered during the fighting.

Serbia will now seek to prove that Croatia committed war crimes when it expelled its Serb population.

The Serbian suit also will touch on the atrocities by Croatia's Nazi puppet state against Serbs during World War II, Jeremic added.

"Croatia has rejected our offer of reconciliation and efforts to leave the past behind," he said. "We will now turn to history to determine the truth so we can have a joint future in the European Union."

This is the second time that Serbia will face allegations of genocide before the World Court. In February 2007, the U.N. judges exonerated Serbia of direct responsibility for genocide in Bosnia in the early 1990s, but ruled that it failed to prevent the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica.

For more information, please see:

Adnkronos - Serbia to sue Croatia after World Court ruling - 19 November 2008

Euronews - Serbia pledges to bring war crime case - 19 November 2008

Heraldsun - Serbia to counter-sue over war crimes - 19 November 2008

IHT - Serbia to sue Croatia over war crimes - 19 November 2008

ICJ to Hear Genocide Case Against Serbia

By Sarah Benczik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced today that it has jurisdiction to hear the case brought by Croatia against Serbia regarding genocide during the 1990s. 

The ICJ court president presiding over the proceedings, Rosalyn-Higgins, announced that the court decided 12 - 5 that it has jurisdiction to hear the case under Article IX of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.  The court decided 10 - 7 that it is appropriate for Serbia to appear before the court, even though the alleged crimes were committed under the government of Yugoslavia. 

Croatians believe that 20,000 Croats died in the conflict between Croatia and Yugoslavia, which the Croatians view as an independence war.  Croatia is seeking reparations and an order from the ICJ that Serbia help trace missing persons from the era and return plundered cultural items.

Serbian representative Tibor Varadi said the ruling will only prolong tensions between the neighboring countries, in direct conflict of the goals of European integration.  "I think it would be much better to insist consistently on individual criminal responsibility," he said.  Despite this, Varadi reported that the Serbian legal team, which has been preparing its defense for the past eight years, has also been working on a counter-suit at the same time.  It is possible that Serbia will now consider bringing a case against Croatia for genocide involving Serbs.

Croatian representative, Ivan Simonovic, said the ICJ case should help both countries move beyond the past by bringing legal closure for the wartime atrocities.  Croatian Parliament president Luka Bebic said, "[the] future cannot be constructed in these areas if we do not face the past and those who are guilty are held responsible."

Croatian President Stipe Mesic described the ruling as symbolic, especially since it was delivered on the 17th anniversary of the fall of the city of Vukovar, during which at 1,500 Croats were killed and thousands expelled by Serbian forces.  "We expected this decision, considering everything that has happened. The symbolism is that we have received this news today, when we remember Vukovar victims and the heroes who defended it," he said.  "It is symbolic, as well as just."

Unless the two countries settle out of court - which seems unlikely given that Serbia has offered to do so throughout the process thus far - it is likely that the entire adjudicatory process will stretch out over the next three years or longer.  Croatia first brought the case to the ICJ in 1999.  In May 2007 the ICJ found for Serbia in a case brought by Bosnia-Herzegovia against Serbia on similar grounds.   

For more information, please see:

B92 - Belgrade mulls "counter-suit' - 18 November 2008

B92 - Croatian genocide suit in the ICJ jurisdiction - 18 November 2008

BBC - Serbia 'genocide' case to proceed - 18 November 2008

International Court of Justice - Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Croatia v. Serbia) - Preliminary objections - The Court finds that it has jurisdiction, on the basis of Article IX of the Genocide Convention, to entertain the case on the merits - 18 November 2008

International Herald Tribune - Croatia wins right to sue Serbia for genocide - 18 November 2008

JAVNO - Croatian Top Pleased with ICJ Genocide Decision - 18 November 2008

BRIEF: Roma Children Face Discrimination in Czech Republic

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Last year, the European Court of Human Rights demanded that the Czech Republic stop discriminating against Roma children.  For years now, the Czech Republic has segregated Roma children into schools for the mentally disabled. 

A recent report from the European Human Rights Center said that Roma children, "continue to be dramatically over-represented in practical primary schools that that follow a special curriculum for mentally disabled pupils." 

Czech Education Minister Ondrej Liska admitted that these children, "are not less talented and do not have fewer abilities than the others." 

The European Union has set aside some funding for this issue.  Failure of any European state to comply could lead to possible fines and/or sanctions.

For more information, please see:

International Herald Tribune - Gypsy kids herded into Czech schools for disabled - 13 November 2008

Former El Salvadorian President Accused of Crimes Against Humanity in Spanish Court

By Sarah Benczik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MADRID, Spain - The Asociacion Pro Derechos Humanos de Espana and the Center for Justice and Accountability today filed suit in Spain’s National Court against former El Salvadorian president Alfredo Cristiani Burkard and 14 other former officials.  The human rights groups have accused the former leaders of crimes against humanity which took place during the civil war in 1989.

Specifically, the groups have accused Cristiani of covering up the murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and the housekeeper’s 16-year-old daughter and obstructing the subsequent investigation.  According to a report by the UN-sponsored Truth Commission in El Slavador from the mid-1990s, General René Emilio Ponce ordered the killing of Ignacio Ellacuría who was one of the six murdered priests and who had promoted peace talks and a negotiated resolution between the right-wing military government and Marxist guerrillas.  The report also stated that Ponce ordered soldiers to leave no witnesses to Ellacuría’s murder. 

The killings were covered widely by the international press at the time in gruesome detail: In the early hours of Nov. 16, 1989, members of the Salvadoran Army forced their way into the priests' residence on the campus of the Central American University in San Salvador. They ordered five of the priests to lie face-down in the garden and shot them, then searched the house, killing another priest, the housekeeper and her 16 year-old daughter.  The story fed criticism of US anti-Communism efforts after it was reported that some of the soldiers involved in the raid had been trained at the former School of the Americas at Fort Benning in Georgia.

In 1991, two of the nine army members were convicted for the murders, but they were released two years later when Cristiani instituted a blanket amnesty law.  Current Salvadoran President Antonio said that while he had not studied the case, he believed that "reopening wounds of the past is not the best formula for reconciliation." 

“We hope this case helps to reawaken the memory and the conscience of El Salvador's people," said Almudena Bernabeu, a lawyer for Center for Justice and Accountability.  David Morales, a lawyer with the Foundation for Studies on the Application of Rights, said the new lawsuit filed in Spain will “highlight[] the state of impunity that prevails in El Salvador, where thousands of atrocious and appalling crimes committed during the (1980-1992) armed conflict cannot be investigated" because "the state continues to protect the criminals."

The human rights groups filed the case in the National Court under its principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows prosecution of crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.  The court is famous for recent cases brought before it including one against Osama bin Laden for September 11, and Baltasar Garzon’s case against Pinochet.

For more information, please see:

AP - El Salvador massacre case filed in Spanish court - 13 November 2008

Inter Press Service, Italy - RIGHTS-EL SALVADOR: Ex-President Cristiani Faces Charges in Spain - 13 November 2008

International Herald Tribune - Rights lawyers file Spanish court case on El Salvador killings - 13 November 2008