Snap Awake to International Human Rights Progress

A bill is set to be passed in France making it illegal to officially deny the Armenian Genocide of 1915, reported the BBC.  The tragedy was one in which the Turkish government, led by the Committee of Union and Progress, killed approximately over one million Armenians in Turkey through execution, torture, and displacement.

The pending law has damaged relations between France and Turkey. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister called it a bill that “murdered freedom of thought.”

It would result in the penalty of 45,000 euros and a year in jail to anyone who denied the genocide. France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy is reported to be signing it into law by early February.

According to the BBC, “unspecified measures” would be taken by Turkey’s foreign ministry against France should the bill pass. Currently the two countries are NATO allies.

LINK

 (Image from PanARMENIAN Photo/Tigran Mehrabyan - In front of the French Embassy in Armenia)

The Sudanese army has been touting the killing of Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the JEM (Justice and Equality Movement). The JEM is a rebel group in Darfur that has been active since before the genocide there. They worked to fight against the genocide and other oppressions in that region of the country.

The rebel group recently rejected a peace deal and claimed to be advancing on the nation’s capital of Khartoum with the purpose of destroying President Omar al-Bashir’s regime. President al-Bashir is largely responsible for the Darfur genocide.

The JEM announced that Ibrahim was killed during an air strike. But the official media in Sudan claims he was killed in clashes between the rebels and the Sudanese security forces.

According to Al-Jazeera in what could prove to ignite more violence, the rebel group has written on their website, “the martyr’s blood will not be wasted, and those who killed him will pay the price more than double.”

Access to Darfur and other regions of high conflict are extremely limited, wrote Al-Jazeera.

LINK

(Photo by Stuart Price/Reuters)

Despite numerous setbacks from Cambodia’s government, the Guardian reported that the three highest ranking Khmer Rouge leaders still alive would be on trial for genocide among other crimes. Both the Cambodian and UN judicial systems will be involved. About 2,000,000 people were killed for allegedly failing to back the Khmer regime as it took hold of the country during the mid-seventies.

A lot of people who’s families were victimized are unsatisfied by how much the Cambodian government is dabbling in the proceedings. German judge Siegfried Blunk resigned over Cambodian interference, and 4,000 survivors have withdrawn themselves from the trial.

Last year, Kaing Guek Eav was sentenced to 35 in prison amidst outcry from genocide survivors. He ran a “detention center” where 15,000 people or more were tortured and killed. Within a year, his sentence was reduced to 19 years for time served and other complications.

LINK

(Photo by Mark Remissa/ EPA)

inothernews:

Ratko Mladic, above, in 1993.  Via the New York Times:

Ratko Mladic, the fugitive accused of masterminding the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995, had been captured but refused to give details.

Mr. Mladic, a former Bosnian Serb general, was one of the world’s most wanted criminals, evading capture for more than 15 years despite an increasing international effort to hunt him down. Serbian news reports said that he was living under the name of Milorad Komadic and was captured after a tip that he had identification documents for Mladic and appeared physically similar.

Mr. Mladic was blamed for the worst ethnically motivated mass murder on the Continent since World War II that resulted in the massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys from the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

Mr. Mladic had become the main obstacle to Serbia’s candidacy to join the European Union. He had been in hiding since 1995, widely believed to be protected by allies in the Serbian military and intelligence.

(Photo: Petar Kujundzic / Reuters via the New York Times)

I studied Srebrenica for a class about genocide a few semesters back. That class changed my life and made me interested in putting an end to political violence against all humans. Violence against humans in general, really. So this is good for me to see, that this prick is finally busted. Hope he gets what he deserves. It was a disgusting massacre.

(via pantslessprogressive)

(Photo from Reuters)

Libya is only getting worse. 42-year-dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi continues to fight his own people who have organized a resistance against his regime. On Al-Jazeera, the bottom of the screen read: “Italy: Reports of 1,000 Dead Credible.” Qaddafi has given orders to attack Libya’s oil pipelines. Libya is the third largest oil producer in Africa, and supplies 2% of the world’s oil, 85% of which goes to Europe.

Libya has longstanding relations with Italy.

Al-Jazeera reported concerns that a political and economic domino effect could cause the price of oil to soar.

Many high level officials have resigned, and sections of the military have defected.

Ibrahim Sahad of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya called it a “genocide against the Libyan people.”

Sahad told Al-Jazeera that a UN Security Council meeting today was a move in the right direction, although late.

Some have criticized the slow and gentle measures taken by the international community in the face of what is clearly an intense, large-scale humanitarian disaster. Al-Jazeera reported on witnesses saying African mercenaries were hired by Qaddafi to crush the protesters. So far he has lost control of the Eastern part of the country, and Al-Jazeera reported this morning that the first town in the West had been taken.

Reporters have been saying that once they cross the Egytp/Libya border, there is no government regulation on the latter side.

Meanwhile protests continue elsewhere in the Middle East. In Yemen yesterday one protest turned deadly, and today in response several members of the Yemeni parliament resigned over the use of violence.