Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said that the Sudanese Air Force has continued to indiscriminately bomb civilians in South Kordofan, in a statement released Tuesday.

This is despite a ceasefire declared by Sudanese President Omar al Bashir last week.

Amnesty's Donatella Rovera said:

"The Sudanese government is literally getting away with murder and trying to keep the outside world from finding out. The international community, and particularly the UN Security Council, must stop looking the other way and act to address the situation."

After meeting on August the 19th, the Security Council failed to agree on a statement or action condemning the violence in South Kordofan. This is thought to be largely due to objections from Russia, China and South Africa.

Daniel Bekele, Africa Director of Human Rights Watch said,

“South Africa’s position is especially troubling. As a leading African state, it should not turn its back on African victims in Southern Kordofan. Instead of blocking action, it should lead the charge in the Security Council.”

The report led US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland to comment:

“The United States is deeply concerned about reports of continued Sudanese Air Force bombings of civilian areas in Southern Kordofan, despite President Bashir's announcement of a unilateral two-week ceasefire last Tuesday.”

Both organisations urged the Security Council to call for an end to the indiscriminate bombings by Sudan and called for “an independent human rights monitoring presence across Southern Kordofan.”

The report by the two groups follows a similar UN report last month, which was dismissed by Sudan.

Sudan has since asked the UN Security Council to delay discussion of South Kordofan, whilst the government completes its own investigation.

See report by Al Jazeera here:


Indiscriminate bombing

The two non-governmental organisations sent researchers to South Kordofan who compiled this report. Whilst on the ground, researchers witnessed almost daily attacks on civilians, as the SAF’s Antonov aircraft manually dropped unguided munitions into areas with no military targets nearby.

Witnesses also reported that there were no fighters of the rebel SPLM-N in the area at the time of the strikes, nor were they located near sites of armed confrontations.

Use of weapons in a civilian area that cannot accurately be directed at a military objective makes such strikes inherently indiscriminate, in violation of international humanitarian law, said Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Rovera went on to say,

“Indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas and restrictions on humanitarian aid could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Such attacks must cease and independent humanitarian needs assessment and relief delivery must be allowed immediately.”

"These are no longer allegations, these are findings of the world's two biggest human rights organizations."

See footage from HRW and Amnesty’s report here:



The Sudanese government has also been accused of blocking aid to the tens of thousands of displaced civilians in the region. A small number of UN flights have been allowed into the area, only to evacuate staff, not to deliver aid.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also urged the Council to implement High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay's recommendations, that an independent inquiry into alleged violations of international humanitarian law should be held and the perpetrators brought to account.

An estimated 50,000 people have been killed since the beginning of Libya's uprising to oust Muammar Gaddafi six months ago, a military commander with the country's interim ruling council told Reuters.

See Reuters’ report here.

The figures included those killed in the fighting between Gaddafi's troops and rebels, and those who have gone missing.

"In Misrata and Zlitan between 15,000 and 17,000 were killed and Jebel Nafusa (the Western Mountains) took a lot of casualties. We liberated about 28,000 prisoners. We presume that all those missing are dead," he said.

"Then there was Ajdabiyah, Brega. Many people were killed there too," he said, referring to towns repeatedly fought over in eastern Libya.

US Vice Consul to Chennai, Maureen Chao, who caused outrage after referring to Tamils as "dirty and dark", has decided to leave her posting 'in the near future'.

The decision was announced by the US consulate spokesperson in Chennai on Saturday.

The incident occurred during a speech at SRM University in Chennai on 12 August when Chao shared her memories of a train journey she had taken over 20 years ago in India.

"I was on a 24-hour train trip from Delhi to Orissa. But, after 72 hours, the train still did not reach the destination.. and my skin became dirty and dark like the Tamilians."

Ms. Chao's comments have been described as a poorly worded attempt at joviality and not racist - her audience was, after all, largely Tamil.

But once reported in the press, her remarks stirred outrage in Tamil Nadu. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa demanded an apology for what she deemed blatant racism.

Keen to minimise any damage, the US Consulate swiftly stated, "during the speech Ms. Chao made an inappropriate comment. Ms. Chao deeply regrets if her unfortunate remarks offended anyone, as that was certainly not her intent."

But that has not assuaged the outrage, and with her case being reported critically in US media also, the diplomat is leaving Chennai.

Meanwhile, US State Department spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, reiterated that Chao's remarks, "did not reflect the best of American values in terms of tolerance for difference and diversity."

"We consider the comments absolutely unacceptable. I think you saw that she apologized almost immediately. She's voluntarily enrolled in a cultural sensitivity course. But obviously, they're unacceptable and inconsistent with core American values," she added.

Ms. Chao is former Fulbright scholar who has worked with foster children, refugees and low-income and homeless populations around the world, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Syria's closest ally, Iran, has called on the government in Damascus to listen to the people's "legitimate demands" as pro-democracy protestors across the country continued to defy a violent crackdown.

See the New York Times’ report here.

Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying:

“The government should answer to the demands of its people, be it Syria, Yemen or other countries.

“The people of these nations have legitimate demands, and the governments should answer these demands as soon as possible.”

It was Iran’s first comment on the crisis that has engulfed Syria for five months.

The government’s crackdown has resulted in the deaths of over 2,200 protestors, according a UN report which also says crimes against humanity may have taken place.

The New York Times pointed out that Iran’s comments come even as Tehran has maintained an unyielding crackdown on its own dissenters.

Last week the European Union, tightening sanctions against the Syrian government and individual people and groups seen to be aiding it, also placed sanctions on the secretive Al Quds wing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, saying it was providing technical and material support for Syria’s crackdown on demonstrators.

India’s anti-corruption hero, Anna Hazare, ended his hunger strike Sunday after the Congress-led government caved in and accepted his key demands on creating an anticorruption ombudsman empowered to scrutinize government officials and bureaucrats.

Parliament, meeting on Saturday, the 12th day of Mr. Hazare’s hunger strike, accepted his demands in a resolution.

Mr. Hazare’s campaign had to make a little concession for the deal too.

They had demanded a public vote on the resolution so as to expose those MPs opposing the proposed powers for the ombudsman.

Instead, the resolution was read aloud in both houses of Parliament and approved by MPs thumping their desks. This allowed the decision to be declared ‘unanimous’.

“Parliament has spoken,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Indian media on Saturday. “The will of Parliament is the will of the people.”

But at the beginning of his campaign, the government had taken a tough line, initially arresting Hazare and several thousand of his supporters in a move widely criticised as repressive and short-sighted.

On his release, Hazare promptly began his hunger strike, mobilising millions across the country in public protests of support.

NDTV reported Sunday:

“[Mr. Hazare's] supporters rejoiced through the night and across the country - celebrating the 74-year-old and his role in helping India take a huge step forward towards a historic new anti-corruption law. People poured out on the streets in spontaneous elation - the Anna cap, the tricolour were everywhere and slogans of victory rent the air.”

Mr. Hazare himself was more cautious about Saturday's agreement.

"We have won half the battle," he said to thousands of workers and supporters who helped elevate his movement to the top of the country's agenda.

In short, until the bill becomes law, their struggle continues.

The charred remains of 53 bodies were discovered in a warehouse in Tripoli on Sunday.

Local residents accused Gaddafi's most feared military unit, the Khamis Brigade, loyal to Gaddafi's youngest son, of the massacre. The residents reported hearing shooting several days prior. However, when they demanded answers, Gaddafi's forces threatened to kill them if they did not retreat.

The simmering remains were found by residents and rebel forces, once they captured the southern area of the city.

One man who claimed to have escaped the massacre said Gaddafi's forces had used the warehouse to execute those who refused to kill civilians.

However claims of rebel forces taking revenge on Gaddafi fighters, particularly those deemed to be mercenaries, distinguishable by their darker skin tone, have emerged.

Witnesses described finding bodies on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs, clothed in the charred remains of Gaddafi's military garb.

The gruesome discovery comes one day after 120 bodies were found in a Tripoli hospital. The hospital staff had evacuated as Gaddafi's forces began targeting the hospital. The patients however, with no where to go, kept coming.

The stench of blood and decomposing corpses has been described as unbearable.

See footage of BBC's John Simpson reporting from the hospital here.

These scenes of horror have added weight to the calls for an investigation into war crimes in Libya.

The Libyan rebels' military commander was previously an Islamist terror suspect interrogated by the CIA, according to a claim made in the Independent today. 

Abdelhain Belhadj, responsible for the military success in Tripoli, had reportedly fought alongside the Taliban and was a former member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) - listed in the UK and US as a terrorist organisation.

See full article in Independent here.

See extracts below:

"The 45-year-old first went to Afghanistan in the late 1980s, where he fought against occupying Soviet forces. Arrested in Malaysia in 2004, he was interrogated by the CIA in Thailand before being extradited to Libya, where he was released from prison last year; he has since renounced violence. Mr Belhadj has become a hero of the Libyan revolution – and ally of the West.

"Founded in the 1990s by Libyan fighters returning from Afghanistan, the LIFG merged with al-Qa'ida in 2007, and in March 2011 renamed itself the Libyan Islamic Movement. Hundreds of its members are taking part in the fighting in Libya.

 

Whilst South Africa came into unexpected and ungainly confrontation with Western states over Libya this week, the other African power, Nigeria, has deftly come off the sidelines and joined the international action.

Whilst South Africa is baulking at recognising the rebels’ National Transitional Council (NTC) as Libya’s authority, Nigeria moved swiftly to do so on Tuesday – just as the rebels overran Gaddafi’s base-complex in Tripoli.

See reports by Africa Report and Vanguard.

Both countries are presently members of the UN Security Council.

Both voted in favour of a UNSC resolution 1973, which paved the way for the NATO air campaign that made possible the rebels’ shock victory over Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

The TNC has been recognised by more than 40 countries, including the US, EU member states, several Arab states and twenty African countries.

See Reuter’s list on Wednesday and report Friday.

Russia and China have recognised the NTC as a legitimate political force (though not Libya's sole authority), and Beijing has already established diplomatic contacts.

Saying “Nigeria stands ready to work with the democratic forces in Libya in this transition process,” Foreign Affairs Minister Olugbenga Ashiru added:

“The unmistakable message from the battle for the control of Tripoli and other cities is that the people of Libya are anxious and determined to take their destiny in their own hands and to ensure the realisation of their own quest for freedom and democracy.”

South Africa, meanwhile, has justified its not recognising the NTC on the lack of an African Union (AU) consensus for the move – despite the twenty African states' unilateral decisions.

On Friday, after eight hours of deliberations, the AU shied away from recognising the NTC. Its rationale – put forward by South African President Jacob Zuma at the meeting – was that it could not do so as long as “there is fighting” in Libya.

Post-Gaddafi Africa

See our earlier post on South Africa's Libya dilemma here.

Some in South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) have a residual loyalty to Gaddafi for supporting their struggle against Apartheid.

The ANC has criticised Nigeria’s recognition of the NTC as “jumping the gun.”

Also, several African states have benefited from Gadaffi’s largess. He was also instrumental in setting up the AU, which he also funded generously.

Nigeria, however, has had fractious relations with Gaddafi. Last year he advocated Nigeria’s breakup as a solution to interreligious conflict there, resulting in Abuja’s ambassador to Tripoli being withdrawn for a while.

More significantly, many analysts say a key aspect of a post-Gaddafi era is that Nigeria and South Africa will compete more strongly for leadership in Africa.

“Nigeria’s financial and political influence could loom larger in the post-Gaddafi Africa, where Libyan petrodollars and the Colonel’s machinations are no longer the force they once were,” an analysis in The Christian Science Monitor said.

The UN Security Council on Thursday released frozen Libyan assets so they could be used for emergency aid after the United States and South Africa ended a dispute.

See AFP’s report here.

The assets were frozen in US banks, but South Africa had blocked the release, saying it would imply recognition of the rebels' National Transitional Council (NTC).

South Africa agreed to the release only after the Washington removed implicit recognition of the NTC from a document.

With the dispute dragging on for two weeks, the United States had threatened to seek a full UN Security Council vote on Thursday to make the assets available.

The last-minute accord with South Africa meant that the United States did not press for the vote.

See our post on South Africa's dilemma here.

“[I]t clearly can be in the US and the west’s strategic interest to help social revolutions fighting for the values we espouse and proclaim. The strategic interest in helping the Libyan opposition came from supporting democracy and human rights, but also being seen to live up to those values.

“This value-based argument was inextricable from the interest-based argument. So enough with the accusations of bleeding heart liberals seeking to intervene for strictly moral reasons.”

“We also now know how different intervention looks when we help forces who want to be helped. East Timor, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Libya – all cases where force evened out odds between a brutal government and a widespread and legitimate social or national movement.”

- Anne Marie-Slaughter, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and a former director of policy planning for the US state department.

See her comment in the Financial Times here.

Rahul Gandhi, the scion of India's Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty and widely seen as a prime minister-in-waiting, said Friday that a popular anti-corruption campaign spearheaded by activist Anna Hazare was “a dangerous precedent for a democracy.”

See  AFP's report here.

Hazare’s fast for a strong anti-corruption law is in its eleventh day and millions across India have rallied to the cause in huge protests.

It was Gandhi's first public statement on an issue that has snowballed into a full-blown crisis for the government.

"A process divorced from the machinery of an elected government, that seeks to undo checks and balances created to protect the supremacy of parliament, sets a dangerous precedent for our democracy," he said.

Gandhi also said he had "serious doubts" about the idea that a single piece of legislation would eradicate the corruption that permeates all levels of Indian society.

The dispute, however, is over the terms of an anti-corruption law presently before parliament that would create a new ombudsman.

The BBC summarised some of the differences thus:

Mr Hazare says ombudsman should have power to investigate prime minister and senior judges; the government refuses.

Mr Hazare wants the ombudsman to be able to investigate MPs accused of taking bribes to vote or ask questions in parliament; the government says such probes should be carried out by MPs.

In recent days, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who sat beside Gandhi as he spoke, has sought to reach out to Hazare with a series of conciliatory gestures aimed at bringing the hunger strike to an end.

But at the beginning of his campaign, the government had taken a tough line, initially arresting Hazare and several thousand of his supporters in a move widely criticised as repressive and short-sighted.

Meanwhile, three top Indian industrialists have expressed concern over the impact worsening corruption has on their businesses.

See PTI’s report here.

“I think corruption has become worse and if you choose not to participate in this, you leave behind a fair amount of business,” Mr. Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata, India’s largest company said.

Mr Tata said that unlike in 1991, corruption is now not only seen in the grant of licence approvals, but also in the award of contracts and in changing the terms of contractual obligations.

Mr N R Narayana Murthy, founder of another Indian giant, Infosys, said: “One can bribe their way to make a $10 million company, but if you want to make a $1 billion company, there is no other way but to do business the right way.”

Mr Anand Mahindra, managing director of the conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra said: “What’s happening at the Ramlila Ground signals a great shift of people wanting accountability and not just from politicians, but also from businesses,” referring to the site of Hazare’s hunger strike.

Pressure is mounting on India’s government to launch a full-scale investigation over 2,700 corpses found in unmarked graves across northern Kashmir.

See report by Wall street Journal here.

The existence of the graves, many of which hold the remains of civilians killed during the height of the Kashmir insurgency in the 1990s, has long been known by locals and was detailed in a 2008 report by a Kashmiri human rights group.

But the report by the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) officially recognises the existence of the mass graves – and increases pressure on New Delhi to launch its own investigation.

The report is the result of a three-year investigation by police officers working for the SHRC.

The investigation found around 2,700 corpses in four districts of northern Kashmir, and was able to identify 574 as those of local residents.

The police had claimed the graves were those of ‘unidentified militants’.

Amnesty International welcomed the report and called for an Indian government investigation into unmarked graves “throughout the state”, adding:

“All unmarked grave sites must be secured and investigations carried out by impartial forensic experts in line with the UN Model Protocol on the disinterment and analysis of skeletal remains.”

India’s army and paramilitary police are shielded by special laws from prosecution in Kashmir.

The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, a Kashmir-based rights group which wrote the 2008 report on unmarked graves, estimates that around 10,000 people have gone missing in Jammu and Kashmir since the early 1990s.

The rebellion against Indian rule in Kashmir began in 1989. Tens of thousands of people were killed over the following decade, including many civilians, during India’s counter-insurgency to crush the rebellion.

See NDTV's report here:

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has declared a “two-week unilateral ceasefire” with rebels in the troubled state of South Kordofan, during an unannounced visit to the state's capital of Kadugli.

Bashir’s declaration was described by BBC’s correspondent as catching “his own military - and the rebels they are fighting - by surprise”.

The move follows pressure from both the US and the UN, who are pushing for an independent investigation into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, as detailed by a UN report.

Bashir did go on to say that not a single foreign agency would be allowed into the region, contradicting an earlier acceptance by his government to allow UN agencies access to South Kordofan.

It comes days after talks between President Bashir and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) failed to reach a solution to end the crisis.

Relations between the US and UN with Sudan have become increasingly strained over the latter's refusal to investigate allegations of war crimes.

The US has kept Sudan on its list of state sponsors of terrorism along with the many sanctions that come with the designation.

Speaking on the motives of the UN, Mahdi Ibrahim, a former Sudanese ambassador to Washington who now chairs the foreign relations committee of Sudan's Parliament said, "out of all these experiences, we feel that this is an open project of continued intervention into Sudan.’Don't allow this country to be stable,' is the very clear message that we see."

These allegations were firmly refuted by US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice who  said:

"we have to begin to speculate is the result of the fact that they don't want the international community to be able to validate these horrific reports of everything from mass arrests, to executions, mass graves, and aerial bombardments".

Ibrahim's comments were echoed by Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party vice-chairman, who after talks with the rebels ended stated that they would not be defeated by “agents” working with the rebels.

“Our message to Al-Hilu (SPLM-N spokesperson) and those behind him in Juba, America and Europe (is) that the war that kills innocent people will not last and will be defeated in the upcoming period.”

An earlier agreement between the two sides in June, providing for talks on cessation of hostilities and recognition of the SPLM-N as a political party, fell through as President Bashir overruled the deal signed by his negotiator. He ordered his army to carry on with their operations in South Kordofan.

Violence erupted in South Kordofan after Sudan’s army attempted to disarm the SPLM-N in early June.

See our earlier post: US backs action on UN report on Sudan atrocities (Aug 2011)