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Syria's alleged use of chlorine gas a 'war crime': Amnesty

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‘More evidence that the Syrian government forces are committing war crimes with impunity,’ says Amnesty International

A boy sits on a bed on 17 March at a clinic in the village of Sarmin, in the province of Idlib (AFP)

A boy sits on a bed on 17 March at a clinic in the village of Sarmin, in the province of Idlib (AFP)

by Middle East Eye

Amnesty International has condemned the Syrian government’s alleged recent chlorine attack in northern Syria on Tuesday.

In a statement published on its website titled “Syria: Evidence of a fresh war crime as chlorine gas attack kills entire family,” Amnesty said that a family of six people, including three young children, was killed late on Monday in a chlorine gas attack when regime forces dropped four barrel bombs on Sermin and Qminas villages in Idlib province.

“These horrific attacks that resulted in civilians, including small children, suffering excruciating deaths, are yet more evidence that the Syrian government forces are committing war crimes with impunity,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty’s director of Middle East and North Africa’s programme.

“The situation in Syria must be referred to the International Criminal Court as a matter of urgency,” he added.

The statement follows a report by the organisation released on Tuesday on findings into the deaths of 115 civilians, including 14 children, in government aerial attacks on Raqqa – a stronghold of the Islamic State (IS) militant group in Syria – which took place between 11 and 29 of November 2014.

Moreover, the organisation made reference to a fact-finding mission of the international Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which found “compelling confirmation” of constant use of chemical weapons in 2014.

The Syrian opposition has repeatedly accused President Bashar al-Assad’s government of using chemical and toxic weapons against civilians since August 2013, when such an attack reportedly killed between 300 and 1,400 civilians in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.

However, Syrian government officials have denied the allegations, charging that the gas attacks were carried out by rebel forces.

US envoy: Almost every CAR mosque destroyed in war

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US ambassador to UN Samantha Power calls devastation in Central African Republic “kind of crazy, chilling” after visit.

Nearly one million of Central African Republic's 4.5 million residents have been displaced [Getty]

Nearly one million of Central African Republic’s 4.5 million residents have been displaced [Getty]

by Al Jazeera

Almost all of the 436 mosques in the Central African Republic have been destroyed by months of vicious fighting between Christians and Muslims, the US ambassador to the United Nations said.

Samantha Power spoke to reporters on Tuesday after a Security Council visit last week to the country, calling the devastation “kind of crazy, chilling”.

She expressed concern about an upcoming possible security vacuum as European Union and French forces pull out and a UN peacekeeping force is still not at full strength.

At least 5,000 people have been killed since Central African Republic exploded into unprecedented violence in December 2013.

Nearly one million of the country’s 4.5 million residents have been displaced. Many of those who have fled are Muslim.

Power said 417 of the country’s mosques have been destroyed. She visited the one remaining Muslim neighbourhood in the capital, Bangui, and described the residents as “a terrified population”.

Some Muslim women, afraid of leaving the community while wearing their veils, are choosing to give birth in their homes instead of hospitals, the ambassador said.

UN peacekeepers, French forces and a European Union military operation have tried to calm the violence.

But Power said the last of the EU force of about 750 troops left the Central African Republic over the weekend, shortly after the Security Council visit.

“That’s a big drop-off in capability,” she said. Meanwhile, the French forces have announced a “substantial drawdown” by the end of this year. France had sent 2,000 troops to its former colony.

The UN peacekeeping force remains at about 80 percent of its planned strength of about 10,000, Power said.

The UN secretary-general last month asked for more than 1,000 additional peacekeepers, and Power said the council is “very favorably disposed” to the request.

She said the combined forces have “averted a worst-case scenario,” but the country’s roving armed groups remain armed.

The ambassador called that a deep cause for concern and said disarmament is a “huge priority”.

Benjamin Netanyahu wins elections

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Prime Minister’s right-wing Likud party wins surprise victory, sweeping past rival Zionist Union in bitter campaign.

Benjamin-Netanyahu

by Patrick Strickland, Al Jazeera

Haifa: With more than 99 percent of the votes tallied, Israel’s incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears poised to retain his office and form the next government.

Though the final campaign polls showed Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party trailing behind the centre-left Zionist Union, headed by Isaac Herzog, Likud gained 30 seats, six more than its main competitor, according to official results released on Wednesday.

The Joint Arab Coalition, an electoral alliance of four Palestinian-majority parties in Israel, pulled 14 seats, and Yesh Atid, the centrist party headed by former finance minister Yair Lapid, earned 11 seats. Kulanu, a right-wing breakaway party led by former Likud member Moshe Kahlon, took ten seats.

A number of smaller, mostly right-wing parties were unable to break the single digits: Jewish Home earned eight seats, the religious Shas and United Torah parties each got seven and the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu has six seats.

The left-wing Zionist party Meretz walked away with four seats.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has called for a national unity government including both Likud and the Zionist Union, but that prospect is unpopular with most Jewish Israeli voters.

According to a poll conducted by Israel’s Channel 10, 53 percent of Jewish Israelis oppose such a coalition.

Some analysts expect Netanyahu to cobble together a coalition with right-wing and religious parties.

The Likud party announced on Wednesday morning that Netanyahu has reached out to leaders of the parties with which he hopes to form a coalition: the Jewish Home party, Kulanu, Yisrael Beitenu, Shas and the United Torah Party

Palestinian state?

Zionist Union MK Revital Swid worried that restarting negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority would be difficult under another Netanyahu-led government.

“Regarding security, we all understand that there are challenges in the north and the south of Israel,” she told Al Jazeera. “But people want to see a start of negotiations [with the Palestinians] and putting the peace process back on track.”

“Talking to our neighbours will bring a better life here,” Swid added.

Yet, Netanyahu declared on Monday his intention to block the establishment of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

“I think that anyone who moves to establish a Palestinian state and evacuate territory gives territory away to radical Islamist attacks against Israel,” Netanyahu said. “The left has buried its head in the sand time after time and ignores this, but we are realistic and understand.”

Dimi Reider, an Israeli journalist and researcher at the European Council on Foreign Affairs, expects Netanyahu “to do much of the same, only quicker” now that he has maintained his position as prime minister.

“More of the same, though, doesn’t mean the situation is static,” Reider told Al Jazeera. “The international pressure will increase.”

“He won’t outright announce a one-state solution and annexation because the illusion of the possibility of a two-state solution is what has allowed Israel to implement his de-facto one-state solution,” he remarked.

Joint Arab List

As electoral turnout polls poured in on Tuesday afternoon, Netanyahu appealed to right-wing voters to cast their ballots, citing the high turnout among Palestinian citizens of Israel.

An estimated 1.7 million Palestinians carry Israeli citizenship and live in cities, towns and villages across the country.

Nadim Nashif, director of Baladna, a Haifa-based Arab youth advocacy organisation, expects Netanyahu’s new government to continue introducing discriminatory laws that target Israel’s Palestinian minority.

“This is the true test of the international community,” he said. “Will they do something about it now? Or will they stand by like before?”

Alluding to the results, Nashif argues that a national unity coalition between Netanyahu and Herzog is unlikely. “Thus, the Zionist Union is likely lead the opposition and not the Joint Arab List,” he told Al Jazeera.

Analysts have speculated as to whether the Joint Arab List will be able to stay intact, given the sharp ideological divides between the parties, which include socialists, nationalists and Islamists.

Acknowledging the “serious differences between those parties,” Nashif said: “I think the Joint Arab List will stay intact because they have to. They have to stay together for future elections because the electoral threshold requires it.”

“In any case, the differences are good because they reflect the diversity of our community,” he said. “I don’t see it as a bad thing.”

 

On Eve of Election, Netanyahu Promises No Palestinian State If Re-Elected

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Under political pressure, Israeli prime minister admitted publicly what has long been evidenced by behavior

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters at his office in Jerusalem. (Photo: Reuters)

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters at his office in Jerusalem. (Photo: Reuters)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

On the eve of national elections in Israel, politically-embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that if he and his Likud Party were returned to power for another term he would make sure that an independent Palestinian state would not come into being.

The comments come as a reversal of official Israeli government policy which, like the U.S. government, states that a two-state solution is the preferred outcome for the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

As the New York Times reports:

Mr. Netanyahu made the assertion on the eve of an election in which he is trailing in the polls. He has been campaigning aggressively, appealing to conservatives for support.

“I think that anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state today and evacuate lands, is giving attack grounds to the radical Islam against the state of Israel,” he said in a video interview published on the NRG website. “Anyone who ignores this is sticking his head in the sand. The left does this time and time again. We are realistic and understand.”

Asked if he meant that a Palestinian state would not be established if he were to continue as Israel’s prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu replied: “Correct.”

Netanyahu’s comments on Monday come a day after stating that his government, if it remains in power, will not be afraid to build new settlements in East Jerusalem and across the occupied territories. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the rightful capital of a future Palestinian state.

“My friends and I in Likud will preserve the unity of Jerusalem,” he said. “We will continue to build in Jerusalem, we will add thousands of housing units, and in the face of all the (international) pressure, we will persist and continue to develop our eternal capital.”

Reaction on Twitter was quick to acknowledge that few ever thought Netanyahu had any commitment—official or otherwise—to what is called the two-state solution. As journalist Murtaza Hussein tweeted with implied sarcasm:

The Associated Press adds:

Tuesday’s election caps an acrimonious three-month campaign that is widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu. The hard-line leader has portrayed himself as the only politician capable of confronting Israel’s numerous security challenges, while his opponents have focused on the country’s high cost of living and presented Netanyahu as imperious and out of touch with the common man. As Netanyahu’s poll numbers have dropped in recent days, he has appeared increasingly desperate, stepping up his nationalistic rhetoric in a series of interviews to local media to appeal to his core base. Netanyahu has also complained of an international conspiracy to oust him, funded by wealthy foreigners who dislike him, and on Sunday night, he addressed an outdoor rally before tens of thousands of hard-line supporters in Tel Aviv. The strategy is aimed at siphoning off voters from nationalistic rivals, but risks alienating centrist voters who are expected to determine the outcome of the race.

When it comes to establishing a viable and equitable Palestinian state, author and rights activist Ali Abunimah also took to Twitter in the wake of Netanyahu’s comments to point out that Likud’s largest political rival in this election, the newly formed Zionist Union coalition, is not itself likely to make any substantial moves toward supporting a settlement with the Palestinians or ending the occupation of the West Bank. 

Pakistan carries out mass executions

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At least 10 convicts hanged, marking highest number in a single day since lifting of moratorium on capital punishment.

Human rights group Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row [EPA]

Human rights group Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Pakistan has hanged at least 10 convicted murderers, the highest number in a single day after the government lifted a six-year-old moratorium on capital punishment, officials said.

Eight of the convicts were hanged in the Punjab province on Tuesday, while two others were hanged in the southern metropolis of Karachi, according to prison officials.

The latest hangings bring to 37 the number of convicts hanged since Pakistan resumed executions in December after Taliban fighters gunned down 154 people, most of them children, at a school in the restive northwest.

The partial lifting of the moratorium, which began in 2008, only applied to those convicted of terrorism offences, but was last week extended to all capital offences.

Only one person was executed during the period of the moratorium – a soldier convicted by a court martial and hanged in 2012.

Human rights group Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row, most of whom have exhausted the appeals process.

Critical voices

Supporters of the death penalty in Pakistan argue that it is the only effective way to the deal with the scourge of rebel groups in the country.

But rights campaigners have been highly critical, citing problematic convictions in Pakistan’s criminal justice system, which they say is replete with rampant police torture and unfair trials.

“This shameful retreat to the gallows is no way to resolve Pakistan’s pressing security and law and order problems,” Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International’s deputy Asia-Pacific director, said last week.

European Union diplomats have also raised the issue of capital punishment – and the case of one man who was condemned to death as a teenager in particular – in meetings with Pakistani officials focused on trade and human rights.

The EU granted Pakistan the much coveted “GSP+” status in 2014, giving the country access to highly favourable trade tariffs, conditional on Pakistan enacting certain commitments on human rights.

 

UN: $35 million weekly needed for Syrian refugee aid

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Syrian refugee children sit outside their tent near the hills of Ersal. Al-Akhbar/Marwan Tahtah

Syrian refugee children sit outside their tent near the hills of Ersal. Al-Akhbar/Marwan Tahtah

by Anadolu Agency

Displaced Syrian refugees across the Middle East need some $35 million in aid every week as the conflict in their country enters its fifth year, a UN official said Monday.

“We currently need $35 million on a weekly basis to help Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq and inside Syria. This is a large amount of money,” Jonathan Campbell, the World Food Program (WFP)’s emergency coordinator for the Syria Refugee Operation in Jordan, told The Anadolu Agency.

Campbell noted that only $225 million had been designated for the WFP’s programs in Jordan this year, down from $306 million last year.

“At least 97 percent of the Syrian refuges in Jordan have been affected by the cut in aid. They’re only able to get rice and legumes, but not meat,” he said.

“Some of them can only have one or two meals [a day],” he added.

Syria has been in the throes of civil war since mid-2011, when a peaceful uprising against President Bashar al-Assad escalated into an armed insurrection following a violent government crackdown.

Around 1.3 million Syrians currently seek refuge in Jordan, according to official data.

Maldives ex-leader Mohammed Nasheed jailed for 13 years

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Maldives police on Monday night denied allegations of brutality against former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed, seen here being dragged into court on Monday. (Photo: Haveeru/Mohamed Sharuaan)

Former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed, seen here being dragged into court by Maldives police. (Photo: Haveeru/Mohamed Sharuaan)

by BBC

A former president of the Maldives has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after he was found guilty of ordering the arrest of a judge while in office.

Mohamed Nasheed was cleared of the charges last month, but was re-arrested and charged under anti-terrorism laws.

His lawyers quit during the second trial, which they said was biased and intended to end his political career.

Hundreds of supporters have been protesting on a regular basis since Mr Nasheed’s arrest last month.

Both the US and India have voiced concerns over the charges.

A former human rights campaigner, Mr Nasheed became the nation’s first democratically elected leader in 2008, ending three decades of rule by former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

The judge at the court in the capital, Male, said the prosecution had proved “beyond reasonable doubt” that Mr Nasheed ordered the “arrest or forceful abduction and detention” of Judge Abdulla Mohamed in January 2012.

Mr Mohamed was detained after ordering the release of an opposition politician, provoking weeks of protests.

Mr Nasheed eventually stepped down on 7 February, later saying he had been forced to resign at gunpoint. His allies say he was ousted in a coup.

‘Dictatorial power’

After the sentencing, Mr Nasheed urged his supporters to come out on to the streets to “confront the dictatorial power of this regime,” according to a statement released by his office.

Analysts say his arrest adds to growing instability in the small coral atoll nation.

The current president, Abdullah Yameen, has recently become alienated from key former colleagues. He arrested his defence minister, accusing him of plotting a coup, and also sacked the chief justice and another judge.

He was elected in November 2013 in a poll that saw its second-round runoff cancelled when early results put Mr Nasheed ahead.

The jail term will effectively prevent Mr Nasheed running for president at the 2018 elections but President Yameen, who is a half brother of Mr Gayoom, has denied the trial was politically motivated.

Turkey says spy suspected of helping British school girls is Syrian

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British teenage girls Shamima Begun, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana (L-R) walk through security at Gatwick airport before they boarded a flight to Turkey on February 17, 2015, in this combination picture made from handout still images taken from CCTV and released by the Metropolitan Police on February 22, 2015.

British teenage girls Shamima Begum, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana (L-R) walk through security at Gatwick airport before they boarded a flight to Turkey on February 17, 2015, in this combination picture made from handout still images taken from CCTV and released by the Metropolitan Police on February 22, 2015.

Ankara/Reuters: An alleged spy detained in Turkey for helping three British girls cross into Syria is a Syrian national working for a country in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, the Turkish foreign minister said on Friday.

Mevlut Cavusoglu announced on Thursday that a spy who had assisted the three London school girls, now believed to be on territory controlled by Islamic State, had been caught, but did not give the suspect’s nationality.

Islamic State seized swathes of land last June, cementing their rule with a militant interpretation of Islamic law, and is drawing sympathisers from many countries to support their fight. The U.S.-led coalition is using mostly air power in an attempt to push the Sunni militant group back.

“The person who helped the three British girls into Syria is a Syrian national working for another country within the coalition. The situation is so complicated,” Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara.

He did not say which country the spy was working for, although on Thursday he had said it was not the European Union or the United States. The coalition also includes countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, Australia and Canada.

The three girls, two aged 15 and one 16, flew to Istanbul from London on Feb. 17 and then onwards to Syria, where more than 200,000 have been killed in a civil war. Their families have appealed to them to return.

(Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Writing by Ece Toksabay; editing by Ralph Boulton)

UN chief: Syrians feel 'increasingly abandoned'

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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says world “divided and incapable of taking collective action” to resolve crisis.

More than 4 million people have fled the country millions more have been internally displaced [AFP/Getty Images]

More than 4 million people have fled the country millions more have been internally displaced [AFP/Getty Images]

by Al Jazeera

The UN secretary-general has warned that Syria’s people feel increasingly abandoned by the world as their country’s crisis enters its fifth year.

Ban Ki-moon called on President Bashar al-Assad by name to take decisive steps to end the conflict.

“Governments or movements that aspire to legitimacy do not massacre their own people,” Ban declared on Thursday.

In a statement, Ban described the international community as “divided and incapable of taking collective action” in the civil war.

That division is seen in the UN Security Council, which has been largely powerless to take strong action because of the threat of a veto from permanent member Russia, Syria’s ally.

Ban’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters that the UN chief was not so much assigning blame but underscoring “our collective responsibility”.

The Syrian conflict began months after popular protests erupted in March 2011.

More than 220,000 people have been killed so far in the war, and more than 4 million have fled the country.

The UN says it needs another $2.9bn to help Syrians caught up in the conflict.

Government forces and rebels are battling each other on many fronts, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has seized large swathes of territory.

‘Total collapse’

Ban warned of the “fearsome prospect of the total collapse of this country” and its effects throughout the region.

He said the lack of accountability in the conflict has led to an exponential increase in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Each day brings reports of fresh horrors,” he said, including executions, systemic torture, the use of indiscriminate weapons like barrel bombs on civilians, siege and starvation and the use of chemical weapons.

The UN chief’s statement came as more than 20 international aid groups issued a joint condemnation of the Security Council for its failure to back up the resolutions it passed last year to help get aid to millions of Syrians and protect civilians from the fighting.

The aid groups, including the International Rescue Committee, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Handicap International, called on UN members to ensure the resolutions are fully implemented.

Iraqi forces advance on ISIL strongholds in Tikrit

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Fierce battles raging as troops and allied fighters launch push to retake key city on the Tigris river.

tikrit

by Al Jazeera

Iraqi government forces and their allied fighters are continuing to advance towards the centre of Tikrit as part of a major offensive to recapture the strategic city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Army and militia fighters captured part of Tikrit’s northern Qadisiya district, the provincial governor said on Wednesday, while in the south of the city, a security officer said another force made a rapid push towards the centre.

Video obtained by the AP news agency showed troops and Shia militiamen marching alongside Humvees flying Iraqi military and Shia miltia flags in the city.

ISIL fighters stormed into Tikrit last June during an offensive in which they captured large swathes of northern Iraq.

They have since used the complex of palaces built in Tikrit under Saddam Hussein, the executed former president, as their headquarters.

More than 20,000 troops and Shia militias, supported by local Sunni tribes, launched the offensive for Tikrit 10 days ago, advancing from the east and along the banks of the Tigris river.

On Tuesday they took the town of al-Alam on the northern edge of Tikrit, paving the way for an attack on the city itself.

The Tikrit Military Hospital was one of the latest key installations re-captured from ISIL fighters on Wednesday.

Government troops have also reportedly taken control of the oil fields in al-Ojail, another town near Tikrit.

Villages ‘destroyed’

Al Jazeera’s Jane Arraf, reporting from Sulaymaniyah, said on Wednesday: “The word is that while the Iraqi army is indeed in Tikrit, they have not yet managed to control the entire city.

“What they’ve done is clear the way to the city and clear surrounding areas.

“What we’re hearing is really quite a lot of concern about the damage that is being done and could be done … There are reports coming from politicians chatting to their constituencies that entire villages have essentially been destroyed along the way.”

Our correspondent said those reports could not be independently verified.

The Iraqi government is hoping that a victory in Tikrit will help persuade Sunnis in other places to rise up against ISIL as the operation proceeds further north into Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city.

Elsewhere in Iraq, ISIL on Wednesday launched a coordinated attack on government-held areas of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, involving seven almost simultaneous suicide car bombs, police say.

At least 10 people were killed and 30 wounded in Wednesday’s attack, according to initial reports by police and hospital sources in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province.

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