Congo / United Nations

UN Investigates DR Congo Massacre
Agency reports on AlJazeera.net, May 2, 2010
Photo: AFP
"The United Nations has started investigating reports of the killing of about 100 Congolese in an attack by Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in February. John Holmes, the senior UN humanitarian official, spoke of the alleged massacre in Kpanga on Saturday as he visited the region, where the armed group has forced about 300,000 people from their homes. The attack is the latest in a string of massacres in Democratic Republic of Congo's remote northeast. 'We've seen again massacres, rapes, acts of unimaginable brutality, which are continuing,' Holmes said in Nyangara, a town in Orientale province affected by LRA attacks. 'We heard today that there was a very bad massacre in the area where we were in December,' he said. 'And another massacre recently in February with perhaps another 100 people again.'

Israel / Palestine / European Jews

Unconditional Support for Israel "Is Dangerous," Say Leading European Jews
Associated Press dispatch in The Guardian, May 2, 2010
"More than 3,000 European Jews, including prominent intellectuals, have signed a petition speaking out against Israeli settlement policies and warning that systematic support for the Israeli government is dangerous. The petition's signatories include French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a Greens leader in the European Parliament. Supporters, who compare their goals to those of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel Jewish lobbying group in the United States, plan to present their position at a news conference at the European Parliament in Brussels tomorrow. They say they hope to build a European movement that is both 'committed to the state of Israel and critical of the current choices of its government.' ... Many signatories are from France, where the petition has received much press coverage. France's Jewish community has hotly debated the petition, entitled Call for Reason.

Turkey / Israel / Armenian Genocide

Turkey Concerned over Genocide Resolution in Israel
Asbarez.com, April 30, 2010
"Turkey is concerned over a decision by the Israeli parliament on Wednesday to have one of its standing committees consider a draft resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish Today’s Zaman newspaper reported Friday citing a Foreign Ministry spokesman. The Knesset decided by 12 votes to 8, with one abstention, that one of its standing committees will discuss the resolution and determine whether it should be put to a full parliament vote. 'We ought to be sensitive and open to the sorrow of others as a nation with a history of experiencing genocide,' resolution lead sponsor, Haim Oron of the Opposition Meretz party said in a speech before the vote. Oron urged parliament to properly recognize the Armenian genocide, saying that 'justice needs to be implemented.' The Turkish Foreign Ministry reacted to these developments on Thursday, urging Israel not to allow the resolution to proceed beyond committee. 'We expect this attempt to bring no result,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin said at a weekly press conference in Ankara on Thursday. [...]"

Germany / Nazism

German Court Orders Release of Secret Files on Top-Nazi Adolf Eichmann
Associated Press dispatch on FoxNews.com, April 30, 2010
Photo: AP
"A federal court has ordered the government to release secret files kept by the German intelligence service on top Nazi Adolf Eichmann after World War II. The ruling announced Friday came after reporter Gabriele Weber sued to have the BND release the 4,500 pages of files. She says they could fill in gaps about Eichmann's postwar life and how he escaped to Argentina. The BND had argued releasing the files could jeopardize the work of an informant and harm relations with a 'foreign intelligence service' that provided some of the information. But the Federal Administrative Court ruled that while the BND could withhold some files for those reasons it could not keep them all secret. It was not immediately clear when the files would be turned over."
[n.b. This is the complete text of the dispatch.]

Georgia / Russia / Circassian Genocide

Georgia Ready to Debate Circassian Killings
Hurriyet Daily News, April 30, 2010
"A group of Georgian deputies says it is ready for parliamentary discussions on the 19th-century massacres of Circassians during the Czarist Russian era in the North Caucasus, the Caucasian Knot website reported. Circassians at a conference in Tbilisi in March formally appealed to Georgia to condemn the killings as genocide. They further asked Georgian officials to designate the Russian city of Sochi -- the venue for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games -- as 'the location and symbol of the Circassian genocide and ethnic cleansing,' according to the website, Civil Georgia. Zaur Zaukozhev, deputy chairman of the Circassian Congress of Adygea, told the Caucasian Knot that he had addressed Russian leaders many times regarding the issue but to no avail. 'If Georgia at present is ready to recognize our genocide, we should agree to it,' Zaukozhev said.

Turkey / Armenian Genocide

In Turkey "People Are Rebelling" Against Armenia Genocide Denial
By Lou Ann Matossian
Eurasia Review, May 1, 2010
"As Armenians in Yerevan laid flowers at the Eternal Flame on the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Turkish citizens in Istanbul solemnly commemorated April 24 with candles and red carnations-despite protests from ultranationalists and the denial policy of their own government. Seated on the steps outside Haydarpa'a Station, activists from the Istanbul Human Rights Association held carnations and posters of Armenian community leaders whose arrest and deportation from that very place had heralded the Young Turks' extermination campaign. 'April 24, 1915-Never Again' proclaimed the organization's banner as human rights attorney Eren Keskin addressed the solemn group. 'The events of 1915 must not be repeated,' Ms. Keskin was quoted in press reports. 'We have gathered here to say no to genocide.' Turkish police stood guard at the peaceful demonstration of about 100 mourners, keeping counter-demonstrators at bay. As journalists' cameras clicked and whirred, Ms. Keskin and the others threw their flowers into the Bosphorus, closing the vigil on the Asian shore of Istanbul.

Rwanda / United States / Rwandan Genocide

Rwandan President Kagame Snubs Lawsuit During US Visit
BBC Online, May 1, 2010
"Rwandan President Paul Kagame has travelled to the US, ignoring a lawsuit filed there over the deaths of two African presidents in 1994. Mr. Kagame spoke at a ceremony honouring Rwandan graduates in Oklahoma City. The widows of the then leaders of Burundi and Rwanda, whose deaths sparked the 1994 genocide, say Mr Kagame ordered their plane shot down. Mr. Kagame denies this. The lawyers who filed the lawsuit were unable to serve the legal papers during his visit. Mr. Kagame was keynote speaker at the Oklahoma Christian University ceremony on Friday. He shook hands with the Rwandan students and other graduates, saying education would be crucial in helping his country continue to recover from genocide. However he left before the event ended, making no public comment on the lawsuit. Witnesses said he was surrounded by security guards. The widows of ex-Presidents Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi do not live in the US, but filed the wrongful death lawsuit in Oklahoma City because of Mr Kagame's ties to the university, their attorneys said. They are seeking $350m in compensation.

Genocide Commemoration / Survivors of Genocide

April and Genocide
By Gerald Caplan
The Globe and Mail, April 30, 2010
"[...] Time after time the survivors told virtually identical tales: Being classified as some kind of filthy insect that needs to be eliminated in order to cleanse society, to make it pure. The sudden transformation of neighbour, friend or teacher into mortal enemy. Your physical separation from the larger whole. Losing track of other members of your family. Witnessing a beloved relative murdered before your eyes. The peculiarly gruesome, sadistic nature of the killings. The desperate escape to anywhere else. Hiding in the marsh, the forest, the hills. Living in holes in the ground like an animal. Taking refuge in disgusting outhouses. The numbing of the senses. The disappearance of everyone else of your kind. The terror. The isolation. The interminable wait for the victors -- the RPF, the Viet Cong, the Soviet or American armies. The miraculous appearance of one of the mob as a furtive protector. Being saved just when you were sure it was over. The complete disorientation of rescue.

Mexico

Mexico Acknowledges Migrant Abuse, Pledges Changes
By Mark Stevenson
Associated Press dispatch, April 28, 2010
"Amnesty International called the abuse of migrants in Mexico a major human rights crisis Wednesday, and accused some officials of turning a blind eye or even participating in the kidnapping, rape and murder of migrants. The group's report comes at a sensitive time for Mexico, which is protesting the passage of a law in Arizona that criminalizes undocumented migrants. The Interior Department acknowledged in a statement that the mainly Central American migrants who pass through Mexico on their way to the United States suffer abuses, but attributed the problem to criminal gangs branching out into kidnapping and extortion of migrants. Rupert Knox, Amnesty's Mexico researcher, said in the report that the failure by authorities to tackle abuses against migrants has made their trip through Mexico one of the most dangerous in the world. 'Migrants in Mexico are facing a major human rights crisis leaving them with virtually no access to justice, fearing reprisals and deportation if they complain of abuses,' Knox said. Central American migrants are frequently pulled off trains, kidnapped en masse, held at gang hideouts and forced to call relatives in the US to pay off the kidnappers.

Israel / Palestine

Israeli Soldiers Given Minor Reprimands over Shooting of Palestinian Civilians
By Catrina Stewart
The Independent, April 28, 2010
"Israeli officers held responsible for the deaths of four Palestinians in the West Bank received only minor reprimands after an internal investigation concluded that the deaths could have been avoided. Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, Israel's military chief, admitted that the incidents last month 'could have ended differently' and could have 'avoided causing harm to civilians.' The two fatal shooting incidents, just 24 hours apart, marked the most serious escalation of tensions in the occupied West Bank in months, and threatened to destroy the fragile calm that has persisted there in recent years. In one case, Israeli soldiers fired on Palestinian protesters, killing two. In a second incident, a soldier killed two Palestinians who he claimed had tried to attack him. Mr. Ashkenazi reprimanded two senior officers -- a colonel and a lieutenant colonel -- and removed a squad commander from his post, a military statement said. The soldiers who fired the lethal rounds appeared to escape censure.

Russia / Ukraine / Holodomor

Russia's Duma Welcomes Ukrainian President's Opinion of Holodomor
By Alexei Drujinin
RIA Novosti dispatch in Kyiv Post, April 28, 2010
"Russia's State Duma has welcomed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's opinion on the recognition of Ukrainian genocide during the 1930s, the speaker of the parliament's lower house, Boris Gryzlov, said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Yanukovych told the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's spring session that the famine could not be considered genocide as it was 'a common tragedy of the Soviet people.' 'We welcome the new constructive approach to historic problems, which was shown by [Ukrainian President] Viktor Yanukovych in Strasbourg yesterday. In return, the Russian parliamentarians are always open to a comprehensive dialogue, based on facts and historic truth, but not on emotions,' Gryzlov said.

Russia / Poland / Katyn Massacre

Secret Documents on Katyn Massacre Published Online
By Andrey Volkov & Juliana Kim
The Epoch Times, April 28, 2010
"The electronic copies of secret Katyn documents were published Wednesday on the Russian Federal archive website, revealing details on the 1940 massacre of Polish officers by the Soviets. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the publishing of the documents, as he promised Poland following the tragic plane crash in Russia on April 10, which killed the Polish first couple and 94 others. During the incident, 20,000 Polish officers and members of the intelligentsia were murdered on Soviet territory by the People's Commissariat Internal Affairs (NKVD) with Stalin's approval.

United States / Srebrenica Massacre / International Tribunals

US Extradites Bosnian Serb
Reuters dispatch in The Irish Times, April 29, 2010
"The United States has extradited to Bosnia a Serb former soldier under investigation for genocide during the 1995 massacre of Muslims in Srebrenica, Bosnia's state prosecutor said today. Marko Boskic (46) was arrested in the United States where he was prosecuted for immigration fraud for lying about his military engagement during the Bosnian 1992-95 war, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. 'Boskic is under investigation by the prosecutor's office and is suspected of committing the criminal offence of genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995 as a former member of the 10th Commando Squad of the Serb Republic Army,' it said. It said Boskic is suspected of having, together with other members of the squad, 'personally participated in the shooting and killing of Muslim men and boys captured after the fall of Srebrenica.' Bosnian Serb forces, commanded by General Ratko Mladic, killed some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys after they captured the eastern town which had been a United Nations-protected safe zone.

Canada / Indigenous Peoples

NB [New Brunswick] Aboriginal Group Sues over "Genocide"
CBC Online, April 29, 2010
"A New Brunswick-based aboriginal group and three native men are suing the New Brunswick and federal governments for $13 billion in damages for alleged "genocide" and loss of native lands over the past 400 years. They are also seeking a declaration that the two levels of government have no jurisdiction over aboriginal and Métis people in the province. The lawsuit also demands the province stop all hunting, fishing and forestry prosecutions against aboriginal and Métis people until the case is heard. The notice of action, filed in Moncton's Court of Queen's Bench, cites colonial actions dating back to 1610, saying they amount to genocide against native people. Aboriginals never ceded their land to European powers and they deserve compensation for their losses, the court document states.

South Africa / Palestine / Israel

South Africa Judge Who Criticized Israel Won't Attend Grandson's Bar Mitzvah
By Robyn Dixon
The Los Angeles Times, April 23, 2010
Photo: Ashraf Amra (AP)
"The South African judge who led a United Nations fact-finding mission on Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip has decided to stay away from his grandson's bar mitzvah after a Zionist group threatened protests at the synagogue. The judge, Richard Goldstone, accused South Africa's chief rabbi, Warren Goldstein, on Thursday of politicizing the ceremony and making it difficult for him to attend. A spokesman for the South African Zionist Federation, Avram Krengel, said in a telephone interview Thursday that the federation had planned protests at the bar mitzvah, but had agreed with the family to drop them on condition that Goldstone not attend. He said both sides agreed not to comment further until after the bar mitzvah, which news reports say will take place in May at the Sandton Synagogue in Johannesburg. Goldstone's findings that the three-week Gaza military operation Israel launched in December 2008 was disproportionate and that both the Israeli military and Palestinian militants had committed war crimes were condemned by Israel and rejected as biased by the U.S. House of Representatives. It angered many Jews in South Africa. Goldstein wrote an article in October accusing Goldstone of reporting without integrity and care. The rabbi called the report a disgrace. In an article in Wednesday's Business Day newspaper, Goldstein wrote that the judge was welcome at the Sandton Synagogue. But he lambasted Goldstone over the report, which he said was factually and morally tainted.

Iraq / Torture

Iraqis Tortured at Secret Baghdad Prison, Says Watchdog
By Mark Tran
The Guardian, April 28, 2010
Photo: Karim Kadim, AP
"Iraqis held at a secret prison in Baghdad were routinely tortured using whips, electric shocks and rape, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch. The organisation said it had interviewed 42 men who were among about 300 detainees transferred from the secret facility in the old Muthanna airport in west Baghdad to al-Rusafa into a special block of 19 cage-type cells over the past several weeks. The existence of the secret prison was revealed in the Los Angeles Times. All the detainees interviewed, Human Rights Watch said, described the same methods of torture. 'The jailers suspended their captives handcuffed and blindfolded upside down by means of two bars, one placed behind their calves and the other against their shins. All had terrible scabs and bruising on their legs. The interrogators then kicked, whipped and beat the detainees. Interrogators also placed a dirty plastic bag over the detainee's head to close off his air supply. Typically, when the detainee passed out from this ordeal, his interrogators awakened him with electric shocks to his genitals or other parts of his body.' Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi authorities to hold a thorough investigation into the allegations, which come at a time of heightened political uncertainty and tension after close parliamentary elections last month.

Sri Lanka / United Kingdom

British Candidate Calls Tamils Victims of Genocide
TamilNet, April 27, 2010
"Dr. Rachel Joyce, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, Harrow West, UK, in a statement circulated to her constituents, said she believes that since Sri Lanka's independence 'the acts perpetrated the Government of Sri Lanka on Tamils including the burning down of Jaffna library ... disappearance of Tamil individuals ... and the use of concentration-style camps for internally displaced Tamils should be classed as Genocide.' Dr. Joyce further made a campaign promise to 'work with the Tamils to get the acts perpetrated on the Tamils classed legally as a genocide so that the UN Convention can be used to address the problems.' The text of Dr Joyce's full statement follows: 'Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. A legal definition is found in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG). ... I believe that since independence the acts perpetrated by the Government of Sri Lanka on the Tamils including the burning down of the Jaffna Library, the refusal to act on the Vattakottai resolution, disappearances of Tamil individuals, refusal to allow Tamil to be an official language of Sri Lanka, firing on the so-called 'safe zone,' the relocation of Tamils and moving in of Sinhalese into traditional Tamil areas, and the use of concentration-style camps for internally displaced Tamils should be classed as Genocide. I will work with the Tamils to get the acts perpetrated on the Tamils classed legally as a genocide so that the UN Convention can be used to address the problems.

Iraq

Iraq Today: Afflicted by Violence, Devastation, Corruption, and Devastation [sic]
By Stephen Lendman
Baltimore Chronicle, April 27, 2010
"After two decades of war, sanctions, and occupation, Iraqis have suffered horrifically from one of the greatest ever crimes of war and against humanity -- ongoing, destructive, devastating, unreported, and unaccountable. Seven years under occupation, Iraqis still cope with what Refugees International calls 'a dire humanitarian crisis that sees huge numbers of displaced (and other Iraqis) struggl(ing) to survive,' a situation 'for which the US bears special responsibility' but does nothing to correct. Recent UNHCR figures estimate around 4.5 million refugees, nearly 2.8 million internal ones (IDPs), a third of these in squatter slums in Baghdad, Diyala and Salah al-Din. Many fear returning home. Most are impoverished. Settlements lack basic services, including water, sanitation, electricity, and health care. Education is difficult where available.

Ukraine / Russia / Holodomor

Ukraine: No Genocide by Russia in "Great Hunger"
Associated Press dispatch on FoxNews.com, April 27, 2010
"In a major turnabout in Ukrainian policy, new President Viktor Yanukovych says the 1930s Stalinist famine that killed millions should not be considered genocide against Ukrainians because it targeted its victims indiscriminately. Yanukovych told the Council of Europe on Tuesday that he considered the famine 'a shared tragedy' of all people who were all part of the Soviet Union, then led by Joseph Stalin. Yanukovych's stance is a complete shift from that of his predecessor, pro-Western president Viktor Yushchenko, who sought to have the famine recognized as genocide against Ukrainians. Since being elected in February, Yanukovych has sought closer ties with Russia."
[n.b. This is the complete text of the dispatch. Wow! Pretty craven stuff.]

Serbia / Srebrenica Massacre

Serbs Deny Srebrenica Genocide, UN to Press on for Arrests
DPA dispatch on EarthTimes.org, April 27, 2010
"A Bosnian Serb leader denied Tuesday that the killing of the men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica during the Yugoslavian wars of the 1990s amounted to genocide, even as a United Nations prosecutor said the arrest of the man accused of the crimes remains a 'top priority.' Bosnian Serb Premier Milorad Dodik said in an interview published Tuesday that the 1995 killings in Srebenica were not genocide, and also that the number of victims was lower than reported. 'We cannot and will never accept to qualify that event as genocide,' Dodik, the premier of the Serbian part of Bosnia, told the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje Novosti. He insisted that the number of Muslim boys and men killed by Serb forces at Srebrenica in July 1995, estimated at around 8,000, was 'manipulated.'