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	UN Rights Chief warns of crisis in Chad as Darfur Atrocities spill over by Louise Arbour UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Chad   17 November 2006   Deadly violence, maiming and burning of people alive is increasingly spilling over from strife-torn Darfur to neighbouring Chad and displacing thousands, United Nations agencies said today, as the world body’s human rights chief warned of a full-blown crisis and called on Chadian leaders to protect their civilians.   “I am deeply concerned that the horrendous violence that has been wracking Darfur is affecting Chad. Action must be taken immediately to stop a full-blown human rights crisis in south-eastern Chad,” said High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour.   “It is also the Government’s duty to bring those responsible for the violence to justice,” she added, noting an official announcement on 8 November that the authorities would establish culpability for the attacks that over the past week have killed around 200 people.   Ms. Arbour also expressed her hope that a state of emergency imposed on Chad’s border areas near Sudan, as well as in the capital N’Djamena, would be lifted soon.   Armed men on horseback have attacked 23 villages in south-eastern Chad since the start of this month, and at least 20 others have been abandoned by residents who feared attacks were imminent, the UN refugee agency said today.   “Altogether, we estimate some 75,000 Chadians have been forced to flee their villages over the past year – 12,000 of them since the latest series of attacks began on November 4,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva.   “Information from survivors of the recent attacks south of Goz Beida show a pattern over the past 12 days in which villages were surrounded by armed men – some in military uniforms – on horses and camels. In some cases, the attackers also used rocket propelled grenades, witnesses said.   “Survivors describe their attackers as Arab nomad tribes, both Chadians and Sudanese. The testimonies are harrowing, including reports of babies, children, the elderly and infirm being burned alive in their houses because they were unable to flee.”   In addition, Mr. Redmond said UNHCR staff in eastern Chad had begun moving the first of some 1,500 newly-arrived Darfur refugees away from the Sudanese border to the agency’s camp at Kounoungou, one of 12 camps for some 218,000 refugees from Sudan in Chad, because of the increasing violence.   These Darfurians fled the bloody 29 October attack on Jebel Moon in West Darfur that left over 50 dead and many wounded, including two dozen children.   UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassador and acclaimed actress Mia Farrow, who is currently on a three-day visit to Chad, has also issued a stark warning on the humanitarian situation.   “I came to Chad because of my deep involvement with Darfur, where I went in 2004 and most recently last June. I saw a similar landscape to what I saw in 2004 in Darfur,” she said after travelling from Abeche to Goz Beida and visiting the local hospital there, where she was shocked by the injuries inflicted on the villagers.   “In the hospital, there were three men who had had their eyes gouged out, something that I had never seen in my life before… I had to remind myself that I was in Chad and not in Darfur. Darfur has completely arrived in Chad.”   In a related development inside Darfur, escalating violence has forced thousands of women and children to flee their homes and take shelter in a camp in the southern part of the region, UNICEF said yesterday, noting that around 11,000 people had arrived at the Ottash Camp near Nyala in October alone.   “Most of them were mothers and children in dire need of shelter, food and water. Some of them had been hiding in the bushes since September when the trouble started, and they arrived at Ottash in a very bad way,” says UNICEF Programme Officer Narinder Sharma.   Yesterday after a high-level meeting in Ethiopia, Sudan’s Government agreed with the UN, the African Union (AU) and representatives from Security Council countries and others to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur alongside those of the AU mission already there trying to halt the bloodshed.   Details of the agreement are still being worked out but the deal comes after Sudan’s leaders previously refused to allow a UN force into the region despite the killings. At present, the UN assists a 7,000-strong African Union mission (AMIS) in Darfur and is currently working on a $21 million support package.   At least 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the strife-torn region as a result of the conflict between Government forces, allied militias and rebels seeking greater autonomy, and more than 2 million others have been displaced.
	Circumventing the Absolute Ban on Torture: The Wrong Strategy in the "War against Terrorism" by Aaron Rhodes International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights   Vienna. 14 November 2006.   A briefing paper published by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) today documents how governments in Europe, Central Asia and North America have called into question and circumvented the prohibition on torture and ill-treatment in their efforts to counter terrorism.   International law establishes an absolute prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, which is without exception in any circumstances. In the post-September 11 period, this fundamental human rights principle has been openly challenged in ways previously unseen. While governments of established democracies have called for a rethinking of old rules in the face of the threat of terrorism, governments of more authoritarian countries have exploited the fight against terrorism to continue and worsen abusive policies.   “Circumventing the ban on torture and ill-treatment in the name of enhancing security is illegal and diminishes respect for human dignity,” stated Aaron Rhodes, IHF Executive Director. “Any admission of abusive practices is the beginning of a slippery slope toward the uncontrollable and systematic use of torture and ill-treatment and constitutes a security threat to all,” he continued.   The briefing paper reviews developments in four areas:   • torture and ill-treatment in the interrogation and treatment of terrorist suspects;   • the use of evidence extracted under torture in terrorism-related proceedings;   • transfers and returns of terrorist suspects to countries where they are at risk of abuse; and   • “disappearances” and secret detentions in the counter-terrorism campaign.   Among others, the US government has violated international standards in its counter-terrorism efforts by authorizing abusive interrogation techniques, abducting and transferring purported terrorists to countries with notorious records of torture, holding terrorist suspects in secret detention facilities for prolonged periods of time and allowing military commissions established to try alleged terrorists to use evidence obtained under coercion.   In the context of the purported “anti-terrorism operation” conducted by the Russian government in Chechnya and neighboring republics, federal and local law enforcement officials continue to engage in kidnappings, unacknowledged detention, “disappearances,” brutal torture, fabrication of criminal cases using forced confessions and extra-judicial executions with little or no accountability. The Russian government insists that this operation is part of the international “war on terrorism.”   The Uzbek authorities have used the May 2005 massacre in Andijan, which they blamed on “religious extremists,” as a pretext to reinforce their long-standing campaign against independently practicing Muslims. In this campaign, in which no distinction has been made between those advocating violence and those peacefully exercising their beliefs, torture has been routinely used to extract confessions and such confessions have frequently served as the sole basis for guilty verdicts handed down in trials conducted in gross violation of international standards.   The briefing paper calls for renewed commitment to the prohibition on torture and ill-treatment in the continued fight against terrorism and makes a number of recommendations to states for how to ensure that their counter-terrorism policies are consistent with this ban. The recommendations are based on an examination of international standards and case law relating to torture.   (The briefing paper was prepared within the framework of the IHF yearly campaign 2006, which is devoted to the topic of counter-terrorism measures and human rights, with emphasis on measures undermining the absolute ban on torture. It is also a contribution to a seminar on counter-terrorism measures and human rights, which the IHF is organizing in cooperation with the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and the Rehabilitation and Research Centre on Torture Victims in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 17 November). Visit the related web page
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