Sudan: Harvard Team Refutes Critique of Report on Mass Killings

Πηγή: allAfrica
Oct 7 2011


Following is the text of an October 6 letter to Dr. Andrew Natsios from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Natsios, who served as U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan from October 2006 to December 2007 and previously headed the U.S. Agency for International Development, criticized a July 14 report by the Satellite Sentinel Project about mass graves in the Southern Kordofan region of Sudan. The report included satellite imagery that the Project said pointed to "systematic killings and mass burials in this conflict-torn region of Sudan."

To: Ambassador Andrew Natsios, Distinguished Professor of Public Diplomacy, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.

In a 5 October 2011 interview in the Kampala, Uganda-based newspaper The Independent, you stated that "I get my intel from other credible sources in the government and we have clearly determined that George Clooney's Sentinel Project is making false accusations. That's what they always do."

You were speaking in reference to the Satellite Sentinel Project's (SSP) 14 July 2011 report identifying three apparent mass graves in Kadugli, the first of eight alleged sites containing mass graves that SSP has publicly reported so far.

The findings in that report were based on the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative's (HHI) analysis of DigitalGlobe satellite imagery and direct eyewitness accounts, which were later corroborated by a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) report. The Harvard-based team leads the review of satellite images and eye witness accounts, produces the analytic reports, and manages the daily operations of SSP. HHI takes full responsibility for the content and veracity of each and every SSP report.

We are perplexed by your statements about SSP's reports, particularly in light of the fact that your claims seem unverifiable. You provide no concrete evidence to support these claims and you mention only unnamed sources in the US Government, who do not represent the official US position on evidence of mass graves in South Kordofan. The US State Department has called for an independent investigation of alleged mass graves and other potential war crimes in South Kordofan, and has never confirmed nor denied the existence of mass graves in Kadugli.

SSP's evidence, analyzed by HHI, is the following:

The 14 July report was the result of over a month of intensive satellite surveillance of Kadugli by SSP in the area in and around the Tilo School where the three graves were independently identified by eyewitness accounts. Archival imagery of the site was also reviewed. The site was independently identified by an eyewitness who did not have access to this imagery, and whose account was corroborated by two other eyewitnesses.

One of the eyewitnesses told SSP that Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) killed an unknown number of civilians near the Tilo Secondary School, in Kadugli on 8 June. A second, separate eyewitness report directly received by SSP, corroborated by DigitalGlobe imagery, alleged that at least two pits were dug on 8 June less than a kilometer south of the Tilo School in Kadugli and approximately 100 meters from a nearby radio tower. The eyewitness reported seeing an earthmover there digging pits.

By the evening of 8 June, the same eyewitness reported that large green trucks were moving back and forth from the site. The eyewitness claimed that dead bodies had been picked up from the market area of Kadugli and other areas in Kadugli around that time. Men at the site were reportedly unloading dead bodies from the trucks and depositing them in the open pits. The eyewitness said that he estimated that 100 or more bodies were deposited at the site that evening.

HHI's analysis of satellite imagery taken during that time is consistent with these allegations that mass graves had been recently dug in that location. The UNHCHR report released after SSP's report contains the same allegations and specific details from other sources, including the presence of an earthmover and the transport of bodies from Kadugli town to that site during that time period. Since the 14 July SSP report containing this particular evidence of apparent mass graves, SSP has published images and analysis consistent with independently verified eyewitness accounts of at least five other sites containing additional alleged mass graves.

The international community, including the US Congress, treats as fact that civilians in South Kordofan are being intentionally targeted by SAF-aligned forces; that credible evidence of potential war crimes exists, including mass graves; that a humanitarian crisis is underway; and that an independent international investigation of these alleged atrocities is urgently required. The Government of Sudan, however, continues to restrict even the most basic humanitarian access to the area.

In this dire context, unverifiable claims, including unsubstantiated accusations that Harvard researchers have lied about their findings, undermines the international effort to alleviate human suffering on-the-ground and hold alleged perpetrators to account. As both a former diplomat and current scholar, HHI invites you to come to Harvard to review SSP's reports and the evidence on which they are based, and publicly share your findings.

Signed:

Charlie Clements, MD, MPH. Director Human Rights Documentation, Satellite Sentinel Project. Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Executive Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Kennedy School, Harvard University

Vincenzo Bolletino, PhD. Executive Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative

Nathaniel A. Raymond. Director of Operations, Satellite Sentinel Project. Harvard Humanitarian Initiative

Iraq to look into 2006 killing of children

Πηγή: BigNews
Tuesday 6th September, 2011

A diplomatic cable made available by Wikileaks has alleged US soldiers killed Iraqi civilians in 2006.

The cable shows evidence that American troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including four women and five children. The children were all five years old or younger.

The incident, which happened in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi, about 130 kilometers northwest of the capital Baghdad, was revealed by a UN official.

According to an allegation made by the same official, US troops, after the incident, called for an airstrike on the house to destroy any evidence of the murders.

Troops had claimed an al-Qaeda suspect had been in a house in the same area.

Iraqi officials have said a probe will be launched into the massacre.

NATO’S Massacre at Majer, Libya

Destruction in Majer, Libya, on August 8, 2011 (AFP/Getty Images)

Πηγή: Foreign Policy Journal

By Franklin Lamb

August 13, 2011

Residents Say NATO's Air Strikes Killed 85 People, Including 33 Children, 32 Women and 20 Men

TRIPOLI — Located about 20 miles east of the ancient Roman city of Leptis Magna, six miles south of Zliten, and off Libya’s southern coast across the Mediterranean from Rome, Majer was a picturesque village known for the fine quality of its dates and is claimed by locals to produce the best tarbuni (date juice) in Libya.

Family members, eyewitnesses and Libyan government officials claim that NATO’s airstrikes at Majer killed 85 people, including 33 children, 32 women, and 20 men. Reporters and visitors were shown 30 of the bodies in a local morgue, including a mother and two children. Officials and residents explained that approximately 50 bodies were taken to other locations for family burial and most of the injured were rushed to hospitals at Tripoli.

At Majer, NATO chose to bomb three neighboring compounds and visitors examined a total of five bombed-out houses. There was no evidence of weapons at the farmhouses, but rather mattresses, clothes and books littered the area. One badly injured 15-year old young lady, Salwa Ageil Al Jaoud, had earlier written her name inside one notebook found amidst the rubble. She was later visited in hospital and attested, like the witnesses at Qana had, that there was no military presence in the homes that were bombed.

NATO used the same tactic that Israel used during the two Qana massacres. After the first three bombs dropped at around 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) on Monday, August 8, many residents of the area ran to the bombed houses to try to save their loved ones. NATO then instantly struck with more bombs, slaughtering 85 Libyans.

The badly burned and mangled bodies of two boys named Adil Moayed Gafes and Aynan Gafees were pulled from the rubble by family members deeply in shock. One anguished gentleman repeated the words, “There is no God but Allah, and a martyr is loved by Allah,” and soon others joined in.

Standing on a pile of rubble, Libyan government spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, declared, “This is a crime beyond imagination. Everything about this place is civilian!”

According to Libyan officials interviewed at the Rixos Hotel here in Tripoli last night, NATO attacked Majer “to try to help rebel fighters enter the government-held city from the south as it deepens its involvement and military command and control of one side in what has become a civil war hoping for billions of dollars in reconstruction contracts and special oil deals from its chosen team set up in eastern Libya.”

Seemingly borrowing a page from the Israeli army media office, NATO’s Carmen Romero, the NATO Deputy Spokesperson and Colonel Roland Lavoie, Operation ”Unified Protector” military spokesperson on August 9 told a joint Brussels-Naples news conference that “the village bombed contained a military assembly area and that NATO to date had no evidence of any civilian casualties but that NATO always takes extraordinary measures to assure the safety of civilians.”

It is predictable that as the evidence of the massacre at Majer becomes public and NATO is pressed to explain the killing of yet more Libya civilians, NATO, probably within the next 48 hours, will announce “an internal investigation” into the events at Majer while asserting in advance, as the Israelis regularly do, that their bombing was only directed at “legitimate military targets.”

Every Muslim and Christian Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, and every Lebanese citizen whose family members or loved ones were slaughtered during Israel’s two massacres at Qana, Lebanon, is reminded today of the indescribable loss suffered yesterday by their Libyan sisters and brothers at Majer, Libya.

The Majer massacre was perpetrated yet again with American weapons once more gifted by American taxpayers without their knowledge or consent and against every American humanitarian value shared by all people of good will.

As at Qana, the inventory of American weapons that has been provided to NATO and available for use here in Libya since March 29, sometimes indiscriminately, in order “to protect civilians” includes, but if not limited to, the following:

• B-2 stealth bombers from the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base

• F-15Es currently based at the 492nd Fighter Squadron and 494th Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath, Britain

• F-16CJ “defense-suppression” aircraft based at the 480th Fighter Squadron at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany

• EC-130 Commando Solo psychological operations aircraft from the 193rd Special Operations Wing, Pennsylvania Air National Guard, Middletown, PA

• KC-135s from the 100th Air Refueling Wing currently based at Mildenhall, Britain and the 92nd, Air Refueling Wing, Fairchild AFB, WA

• C-130Js recently based at the 37th Airlift Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, Germany

• A-10 attack fighters

• AC-130 gunships.

• The NATO attacks on Libya began with the bombing of claimed Libyan air-defense equipment using 110 American Tomahawk and Tactical Tomahawk cruise missiles. Tomahawks were also fired from British ships in the area.

• Also launched were bombing attacks using three American B-2 Spirit Bombers delivering 45 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) against Libyan air bases.

U.S. Navy ships being used by NATO “to protect Libyan civilians” include:

• The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Stout (DDG 55) and USS Barry (DDG 52)

• Submarines USS Providence (SSN 719), USS Scranton (SSN 756) and USS Florida (SSGN 728)

• Marine amphibious ships USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) and USS Ponce (LPD 15)

• Command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC/JCC 20)

• Support ships Lewis and Clark, Robert E. Peary and Kanawha

• AV-8B Harrier fighters, CH-53 Super Stallion helicopters and MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft aboard the Kearsarge and Ponce

• KC-130J tanker aircraft flying from Sigonella Air Base, Italy

• EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft of VAQ-132, based at Whidbey Island, WA and flying from Aviano Air Base, Italy (the above listed aircraft were diverted from Iraq at NATO’s request “to help protect Libyan civilians”)

• P-3 Orion sub-hunters

• EP-3 Aries electronic attack aircraft.

In addition to the above listed weapons, more than 50 types of American bombs and missiles are stockpiled for NATO use “to protect civilians in Libya” and their use to date is illegal under both American and International law because it has resulted in the killing, maiming, or wounding of approximately 7,800 Libyan civilians between March 29 and August 9, 2011.

A survey of NATO bombing sites, ground inspections, cataloged serial numbers from unexploded ordnance, examination of bomb and missile fragments at civilian sites in Western Libya, and consultation with Libyan military sources confirm what two US Senate Armed Services Committee staffers and international lawyers have postulated. NATO, like their Israeli allies at Qana, Lebanon, committed war crimes and crimes against humanity at Majer, Libya on August 8, 2011.

Specifically, NATO stands accused of committing the following crimes against the people of Libya according to a consensus from meetings with an increasing number of visiting international lawyers and human rights advocates who have come here from Europe, Asia and South and North America.

Applicable international law includes but is not limited to Article 3 of the Statute of The Hague International Penal Court, which clearly states that one criterion for indictment for war crimes is: “Attack or bombardment, by whatever means, against undefended cities, towns, villages, buildings or houses”. NATO’s continuous use of civilian targets for military purposes, a scenario which NATO wantonly and callously calls “collateral damage” fits this clause exactly and would be a cornerstone of a case accusing this organization of being guilty of war crimes.

Violation of the Geneva Convention IV, Article 3 (a): “To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons: violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds.”

These are similar causes of action that were filed against Israeli officials by American lawyers at the New York based Center for Constitutional Rights in Ali Saadallah BELHAS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Moshe YA`ALON, Defendant (466 F.Supp.2d 127 (2006)), a case that educated the international legal community and the public about the necessity to strip sovereign immunity from international outlaws and allow lawsuits in domestic as well as international courts.

The NATO massacre at Majer requires international law suits that achieve nothing less.