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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Bomb blast in Pakistan killed 35 people


A remote-controlled bomb blast killed 35 people and wounded more than 60 others on Tuesday in a tribal region of northwest Pakistan Tuesday in the deadliest such attack in months, officials said. The explosion took place in a market in Jamrud, one of the towns of the troubled Khyber tribal region, which also used to serve as the main supply route for Nato forces operating in Afghanistan. “The total number of deaths in the blast is 35 while 69 people were wounded, and of them the condition of 11 is critical,” a senior administration official, Shakeel Khan Umarzai, told AFP. Another top official in Khyber, Mutahir Zeb, said the target of the attack was not immediately clear. “According to initial information, it was a remote controlled device planted in a passenger pickup van,” he said. There were about 120 bomb attacks in Pakistan in 2011 and the same number in 2010 according to an AFP tally – an increase from 2009, but far below the violence of 2009 when there were more than 200 bomb blasts.

Iraq: 15 Afghan pilgrims injured in car bomb


The bombing, which struck west of the city of Hilla, hit a group of pilgrims waiting near a garage just after midnight (2100 GMT), a police officer in the province said. "We received 15 wounded persons, including three people seriously hurt by the explosion," said Mohammed al-Shammari, a doctor at Hilla hospital. The police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, gave the same casualty toll. Shiite pilgrims from around the world flock to the shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala. Their numbers surge for the festival of Arbaeen, which marks 40 days after the Ashura anniversary commemorating the killing of Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Islam s most revered figures, by the armies of the Caliph Yazid in 680 AD. Attacks against Shiites in Baghdad and the south on Thursday left 70 people dead and more than 100 wounded, in Iraq s bloodiest day since last August.

Guantánamo: A decade of damage to human rights


It was said by Amnesty International said on the 10th anniversary of the first detainees being transferred to this notorious US prison. In a report published ahead of the anniversary, Guantánamo: A decade of damage to human rights, Amnesty International highlights the unlawful treatment of Guantánamo detainees and outlines the reasons why the detention centre continues to represent an attack on human rights. “Guantánamo has come to symbolize 10 years of a systematic failure by the USA to respect human rights in its response to the 9/11 attacks. The US government disregarded human rights from day one of the Guantánamo detentions. As we move into year 11 in the life of the detention facility, this failure continues,” said Rob Freer, Amnesty International’s researcher on the USA. Despite President Obama’s pledge to close the Guantánamo detention facility by 22 January 2010, 171 men were being held there in mid-December 2011. At least 12 of those transferred to Guantánamo on 11 January 2002 were still held there. One of them is serving a life sentence after being convicted by a military commission in 2008. None of the other 11 has been charged. The Obama administration – indeed large parts of all three branches of the federal government – have adopted the global “war” framework devised under the Bush administration. The administration asserted in January 2010 that four dozen of the Guantánamo detainees could neither be prosecuted nor released, but should remain in indefinite military detention without charge or criminal trial under the USA’s unilateral interpretation of the law of war. “Until the USA addresses these detentions as a human rights issue, the legacy of Guantánamo will live on whether or not the detention facility there is closed down,” said Rob Freer. The Guantánamo detention facility, which is located on the US naval base in Cuba, became a symbol of torture and other ill-treatment after it was opened four months after the 9/11 attacks. Among the detainees still held there today include individuals who were subjected by the USA to torture and enforced disappearance prior to being transferred to Guantánamo. There has been little or no accountability for these crimes under international law committed in a program of secret detention operated under presidential authority. The US government has systematically blocked attempts by former detainees to seek redress for such violations. In 10 years, only one of the 779 detainees held at the base has been transferred to the USA for prosecution in an ordinary federal court. Others have faced unfair trials by military commission. The administration is currently intending to seek the death penalty against six of the detainees at such trials. The Obama administration has blamed its failure to close the Guantánamo detention facility on Congress, which has indeed failed to ensure US compliance with international human rights principles in this context. “Under international law, domestic law and politics may not be invoked to justify failure to comply with treaty obligations. It is an inadequate response for one branch of government to blame another for a country’s human rights failure. International law demands that solutions be found, not excuses,” said Rob Freer.