IWPR Top Stories

When Euro-Songs Fade, Azeri Dissidents Fear Hard Times

25 May 12

Campaigners who used Eurovision to highlight rights concerns now expect to pay price for speaking out.

As Azerbaijan prepares for the Eurovision Song Contest finale on May 26, local human rights groups are warning that once international media interest wanes, the government will launch a crackdown to punish those who used the event to criticise its record.

Winning the right to host Eurovision was a major coup for the government, which saw it as a chance to advertise a country that remains unfamiliar to many Europeans.

For human rights groups and the political opposition, however, the contest was an opportunity to draw international attention to restrictions on free speech and other concerns, which some argued made Azerbaijan an unsuitable host for the pan-European event. A campaign called “Sing for Democracy” made the link explicit. (...

Programme: Caucasus

Kyrgyz Women Take to Hijab

24 May 12

Islamic dress becomes more popular in previously secular urban communities.

For the last six months, 17 year-old Zarina Barinova has worn a Muslim-style headscarf whenever she goes out in northern Kyrgyzstan’s Chui province.

A confident and outspoken student from the town of Karabalta, Barinova defies the common stereotype in Kyrgyzstan that women wearing “hijab” or Islamic are shy and retiring, mostly from rural backgrounds, and raised only to be obedient housewives.

“As a rule, they’re seen as quiet, dull, obedient and submissive people who can’t speak Russian,” she said. “In reality, that’s far from being the case. I went to a Russian-language school, I’ve done well at my studies and I’m involved in various activities at college.”

Women in urban areas are more...

Programme: Central Asia

Fears of Tension Grow in Kenya

24 May 12

Leading presidential candidates accused of incitement as government again tries to block international trials.

Amid fresh attempts by the Kenyan government to delay or halt the trials of senior officials pending before the International Criminal Court, ICC, observers are warning of an increased risk of violence in the run-up to a presidential election slated for early 2013.

Kenya descended into chaos in late 2007 and early 2008 following the last presidential election, as violent clashes took place between supporters of today’s coalition partners, the Orange Democratic Movement, ODM, and Party of National Unity, PNU.

Approximately 1,300 people were killed and 600,000 were displaced as fighting erupted along ethnic lines, prompting the ICC to bring cases against those accused of being key perpetrators.

In January 2012, ICC judges confirmed that Kenya’s deputy...

Programme: International Justice - ICC

Arab Unrest Drives Iraqi Refugee Return

23 May 12

Government says its resettlement programme has boosted numbers, though main driver seems to be fear of violence in host states.

The wave of revolutions that has swept the Middle East and North Africa over the last year has driven large numbers of Iraqi refugees to go home, despite their reluctance to return to a still unstable country.

Most of the estimated 2.3 million refugees fled the sectarian violence that erupted in the country after Saddam Hussein was overthrown in the United States-led offensive of 2003. The bloodshed peaked with clashes between Shia and Sunni Arabs in 2006-07. Others left the country while Saddam was still presiding over three decades of repressive rule.

The Iraqi government launched a programme in 2007 to encourage people to come back, but until recently, relatively few had taken up the offer. They were deterred by the continuing violence in Iraq, and by the high...

Programme: Iraq

Prosecutor Seeks New Charges in DRC

18 May 12

As eastern region sees renewed violence, commentators question whether justice process actually deters atrocities.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, ICC, has asked judges to issue new charges against two alleged warlords in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. While experts welcome the idea that rebel militia commanders should be held to account, they are still debating how much of a contribution justice mechanisms can make to protracted peace efforts in the region.

On May 14, the ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, requested additional charges against Bosco Ntaganda relating to war crimes and crimes against humanity, including acts of murder, persecution and sexual slavery carried out between September 2002 and September 2003 in the Ituri region of eastern DRC.

Ntaganda, the military commander of the National Congress for Defence of the People or CNDP, was...

Programme: International Justice - ICC

Armenian Alarm at Spate of Border Shootings

18 May 12

Border villagers say life feels like the war never ended.

A series of shooting incidents on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan and around Nagorny Karabakh has heightened fears among local civilians, even though they are well used to the sound of gunfire.

The border village of Dovegh in Armenia’s northeastern Tavush region came under sustained fire for 90 minutes on April 25. Two days later, three Armenian solders were killed when their car was hit by shots fired over the border as it was travelling between the villages of Aygepar and Movses.

While sporadic gunfire is a constant danger to Tavush residents, they say it has been particularly intense in the last two months.

Samvel Soghoyan, the mayor of Chinari, a village right on the border with Azerbaijan said the 1,200 or so residents were effectively living...

Programme: Caucasus

Help Slow in Reaching Azeri Quake Zone

18 May 12

Government promises to rebuild homes, but what people want right now is more tents.

Residents of five villages destroyed by an earthquake in northwestern Azerbaijan are now living in tents and worrying how long it will be before they get help to rebuild their lives.

The quake struck on the morning of May 7, with its epicentre in Zaqatala district. No one was killed, but more than a dozen people, including several children, were injured.

According to official figures, 3,000 houses and 100 public buildings were destroyed or damaged.

The villagers left homeless have no idea how much longer they will be expected to live in tents, since aftershocks have continued, preventing emergency teams from inspecting their homes.

“At first, we didn’t even get given tents. There were many people left without accommodation, but there were only...

Programme: Caucasus

Srebrenica Footage Shown at Mladic Trial

17 May 12

Judge delays witness testimony after prosecution fails to disclose documents to defence.

During the second and final day of opening arguments in the trial of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, prosecutors showed video clips of the accused in Srebrenica after his forces captured the eastern Bosnian town on July 11, 1995.

As the hearing ended on May 17, presiding Judge Alphons Orie said that the start of witness testimony would be delayed beyond the scheduled date of May 29, because the prosecution had mistakenly failed to disclose several thousand documents to the defence.

“The chamber is still in the process of gathering information as to the scope and the full impact of this error,” Judge Alphons Orie told the court. “The chamber aims to announce a start date for evidence as soon as possible.”

Mladic’s...

Programme: International Justice - ICTY

Shock at Iraq Gun Law

16 May 12

In a country plagued by violence, legalising firearms ownership looks like a step in the wrong direction.

An Iraqi government decision allowing people to keep firearms at home has created an uproar, with many politicians and commentators saying it sends out the wrong signal at a time when the country is far from stable.

Officials say that on the contrary, registration will allow them to count and curb the large amounts of weapons already in private hands.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh announced on May 6 that under a plan approved by the security agencies, "possession of one rifle or pistol per home” would now be permitted by law.

"Each owner should register his household’s firearm at the nearest police station," the statement, published on Dabbagh’s official website, said.

No reason was given for the change.

The...

Programme: Iraq

Sarajevo Siege Recalled as Mladic Trial Starts

16 May 12

Prosecution sets out opening arguments on siege of Sarajevo and detention camps where non-Serbs were held.

As prosecutors began their opening statements in the long-awaited trial of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, they showed wartime footage of the accused apparently boasting that he killed people “in passing” whenever he visited the besieged city of Sarajevo.

The grainy footage, which according to the Office of the Prosecutor, OTP, was shot in August 1994, was shown in the courtroom as the trial opened on May 16.

The OTP says the film shows General Mladic in a car with a Serbian man who was visiting from Canada.

According to the court’s English translation, Mladic tells the visitor that “we brought tanks here and kicked the hell out of the Turks” – a reference to Bosnian Muslims.

“Whenever I come to...

Programme: International Justice - ICTY

Muted Applause for Ugandan Rebel's Arrest

16 May 12

Analysts say capture of senior Lord’s Resistance Army commander does not signal disintegration of rebel group.

As the Ugandan military seeks to flush out Joseph Kony, leader of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA, analysts are downplaying the significance of last weekend’s capture of a senior commander from the group.

According to the Ugandan army, LRA officer Caesar Acellam was captured in a pre-planned ambush as he crossed the Mbomu river between the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, and the Central African Republic, CAR.

Felix Kulayigye, spokesman for the Ugandan People’s Defence Force, UPDF, described Acellam as a "big fish", and predicted that his detention would accelerate the arrest of other LRA members, including Kony himself.

The International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague has charged Kony and two of his commanders, Okot Odhiambo...

Programme: International Justice - ICC

Mladic Fails in Trial Delay Bid

15 May 12

Tribunal president says defence hasn't substantiated allegations that judge is biased.

The Hague tribunal’s president has rejected a request from lawyers for former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic to disqualify the presiding judge in his case and issue a stay of proceedings.

In a May 11 submission, Mladic’s lawyers gave 17 different grounds why Judge Alphons Orie should be removed from the case.

These included the claim that Judge Orie was biased in favour of the prosecution and against the accused in numerous ways, and that his Dutch nationality created a conflict of interest regarding the charges relating to the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, in which some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed.

A battalion of United Nations peacekeepers from The Netherlands, known as “Dutchbat”, was tasked with protecting the eastern...

Programme: International Justice - ICTY

Bosnian Court Rules Against Segregated Schools

15 May 12

Decision seen as landmark for breaking down ethnic divisions, but it only applies to two towns and is likely to face resistance.

The municipal court in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar has ruled that schools in two towns should no longer segregate Croat and Bosniak children.

The court ruled on April 27 that it would be discriminatory for the towns of Stolac and Capljina to continue with the “two schools under one roof” system, where children of different ethnicity – mostly Bosniak and Croat – attend the same institution but are taught separately.

According to the ruling, the first of its kind on segregated schools in Bosnia and Hercegovina, BiH, the system is in breach of legislation banning discrimination.

The court ordered schools in Stolac and Capljina to merge their classes by the time the new academic year begins on September 1.

However, analysts warn...

Programme: International Justice - ICTY

Meskhetians Struggle to Find Place in Georgia

15 May 12

Government now facilitating deported ethnic group members’ return, but does little for them when they arrive.

While the Georgian government is fulfilling a pledge to allow the Meskhetians, descendants of an ethnic group deported by Stalin, to settle in the country, rights activists say little effort is being made to help them integrate into society.

Georgia agreed to facilitate the Meskhetians’ return when it joined the Council of Europe in 1999, but the legislation to make it happen was not enacted until 2007.

Some 500 Meskhetians have already received repatriate status, which puts them on the fast track to acquiring citizenship and other rights, and more than 5,000 other applications are pending.

Around 100,000 members of this Muslim, Turkish-speaking group from what is now the Samtse-Javakheti region of southwestern Georgia were summarily packed off to Central...

Programme: Caucasus

Opposition Alleges Irregularities in Armenian Polls

11 May 12

Election better run than previous ones, but Armenian National Congress wants results cancelled.

Armenian opposition parties, which collectively polled about a quarter of the vote in the May 6 parliamentary election, have alleged electoral fraud. However, analysts say their complaints may be undermined by their decision to take up their seats, which could be seen as a de facto recognition of the result.

The opposition Armenian National Congress, ANC, headed by former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, won just seven per cent of the vote. It announced on May 8 that it would be seeking an annulment of the results at the Constitutional Court.

Despite this, Nikol Pashinyan, a senior figure in the party, said those elected would still enter parliament.

Alexander Iskandaryan, director of the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan, said the implication was that “the ANC...

Programme: Caucasus

Azerbaijan Rights Situation Poor Despite Eurovision Spotlight

11 May 12

If anything, pressure on free speech has intensified in recent weeks, rights activists say.

Azerbaijani rights activists were hoping the Eurovision Song Contest would place their country under the international spotlight and prompt the government to relax restrictions on freedoms of speech and assembly. But with just two weeks to go until the contest, there is no sign of that happening.

Azerbaijan won the right to host the contest in Dusseldorf last year, when “Running Scared” by duet Eldar and Nigar was voted best song.

Human rights activists immediately saw an opportunity for advocacy work, setting up a campaign called “Sing for Democracy”.

“Eurovision is focusing world attention on Azerbaijan. We wanted the global community to be aware that Azerbaijan suffers from violations of basic human rights that hinder the...

Programme: Caucasus