By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Hunger striker Franklin Brito. (Photo courtesy of El Universal)

CARACAS, Venezuela—A man who had been protesting President Chavez has died of a hunger strike.  His supporters accuse Chavez of human rights abuses and call the death state-sponsored murder.

Franklin Brito, who was 49 and a father of four, died of a heart attack Monday in a military hospital.  He had been there since last December when authorizes took him away from a protest.  When he died, he weighed 77 pounds.  Read more...

By Eric C. Sigmund
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Armed militias engaged in an intense four-hour firefight in the streets of Beirut after a dispute arose over a parking space.  The fighting pitted Hezbollah, an Iranian backed governmental organization many consider to be a terrorist group, against a rival militia.  The fighting left 3 dead and 11 others wounded.  Civilians recall snipers running through the streets and rocket propelled grenades being shot around a Beirut neighborhood.  Ten people have since been arrested for their involvement in the clash.

 Read more...

By Laura Hirahara
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

Rwanda U.N. Peacekeepers; Photo Courtesy of U.N.

KIGALI, Rwanda- According to a statement made by Rwandan military spokesman, Jill Rutaremara, Rwanda has made preparations to withdraw thousands of peace-keeping troops from Sudan if the United Nations publishes its latest report on possible human rights violations in the region.  The report, from the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, details the killings of thousands of ethnic Hutus in the Congo by Rwanda and its allies during a ten year period starting in 1993.  Copies of this report, which leaked last week to several press agencies, identify Rwanda troops as taking part in crimes against humanity and genocide.  Rwanda’s government, led by President Paul Kagame, is hoping it has enough leverage to stop the report from being officially published, which it believes to be false.  Read more...

By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Leader of Indigenous Tribe Voices Displeasure During Meeting of Commission of Human Rights of the Federal Senate in Brasilia (Photo Courtesy of The Washington Post)

 BRASILIA, Brazil – Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently signed a contract allowing the construction of a controversial dam to begin.  The Belo Monte mega dam, as it is being called, is set to be built on the Amazonian Xingu River.  President Lula championed the dam under the guise that it will be a victory for Brazil’s energy sector and the Brazilian government claims that the project will create 20,000 jobs.  Critics contend that, in all likelihood, the dam will devastate the area and cause the demise of the local government and indigenous peoples.  Read more...

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

The teen hit lists were posted on Facebook. Photo courtesy of Time.

PUERTO ASIS, Colombia—A small Colombian town has been gripped by panic after three teens who were named on online hit lists were murdered.  Many local families have reacted by moving out of the area or sending their children away to safety.

Three hit lists, containing 90 names, were posted on the social networking website Facebook.  Those named were youths, threatened with death if they did not leave the town Puerto Asis.  According to a local official, some of the names on the lists were nicknames only known and used within the youths’ group of friends.  Read more...

By Laura Hirahara

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

Children protesting their abuse; photo courtesy of Children of Nigeria

AKWA IBOM, Nigeria- In several states of Nigeria, children accused by church leaders of being witches are tortured and abandoned by their communities, to either die or be trafficked out of the country.  While the belief in witchcraft has been a centuries old tradition in Nigeria, a majority of the abuse of ‘child witches’ has been occurring for the last 10 years.  In most cases, the leader of a make-shift church will identify a child as a witch and promise the parents that he will ‘deliver’ the child.  Deliverance includes torturing a child until they confess and can cost anywhere from $300- $2,000.  The torture itself ranges from acid baths to burnings to beatings and can result in death.  Read more...

By: Amnesty International
August 27, 2010
Amnesty International has criticized the Kenyan government for its failure to arrest Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir during his visit to the country to join celebrations ushering in Kenya’s new constitution, viewing the refusal to arrest President al-Bashir as an obstruction of justice for victims in Darfur.

The President of Sudan is the subject of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

“Kenya has regrettably followed the example of Chad, which violated its obligations under international law by providing safe haven to President Bashir during his visit to the country last month,” said Michelle Kagari, Deputy Director in Amnesty’s Africa programme.  Read more...

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT

AI Index: AFR 62/009/2010
August 26 2010  Read more...

By Polly Johnson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

Rush has been in prison for more than five years on a heroin smuggling conviction. (Photo Courtesy of ABC News).

DENPASAR, Indonesia - In a final attempt to avoid the death penalty, ‘Bali Nine’ drug mule Scott Rush made an emotional appeal to an Indonesian court on Thursday.

“I wish to say to you, my parents, my family, and the community, how sorry I am for the crime that I have committed and the pain that I have caused,” Rush told Denpasar’s District Court on Thursday.  Read more...

By Eric C. Sigmund
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Violence continued in Somalia for the third straight day today as the government combats insurgent forces throughout the country.  Fighting erupted in Mogadishu after the Islamic insurgent group al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda sponsored radical Islamic organization, successfully carried out a number of suicide bombing attacks against civilian populations and government forces in the country’s capital.  The Somali government, supported by African Union troops, has engaged in an intensive campaign to push al-Shabab out of its strongholds and to maintain control of the capital.  Read more...