• Russia rejects Amnesty report

    Dec 22

    The Russian government has rejected a report by Amnesty International, which accused Russia's military of indiscriminate attacks.

    Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said he saw "nothing specific and nothing new" in the report and dismissed the claims as "total lies".

    "We examined this report," Mr Konashenkov told a briefing in Moscow.

  • Panama orders arrest of former president

    The Supreme Court in Panama has ordered the arrest of former president Ricardo Martinelli over accusations that he used public funds to illegally spy on more than 150 people, including trade union activists, politicians, lawyers, doctors and business people.

  • Over 200 civilian fatalities in Russian air strikes

    Over 200 civilians have died since Russia launched air strikes in Syria, a report by Amnesty International says.

    The human rights group says it "researched remotely" more than 25 Russian attacks in five areas between 30 September and 29 November, and found "serious failures [by Russia] to respect international humanitarian law".

  • Burundi forces accused of systematic killings

    Burundi's army is accused of killing dozens of people on December 11, according to Amnesty International.

    The rights group says that some of the dead were killed extra-judicially by members of the security forces.

  • Violence at Israel-Lebanon border after death of Hezbollah militant

    Fire was exchanged across the Israeli-Lebanese border after the death of a senior member of the Hezbollah movement.

    Samir Qantar was killed in a rocket attack, suspected to have been carried out by Israel, near Damascus, Syria.

    The Israeli army said it fired artillery shells into Lebanon after rocket attacks from across the border.

  • Turkey to withdraw more troops from northern Iraq

    Turkey says it will pull more of its troops out of northern Iraq, following a partial withdrawal earlier this week, soon after US President Barack Obama urged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to "de-escalate tensions" with the Iraqi government.

  • War criminals transferred to the DRC

    The International Criminal Court has transferred two former Congolese militia leaders, convicted of war crimes, to a prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

  • UN Security Council agrees on Syria peace negotiation plan
    The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international road map seeking a peaceful political solution.

    The resolution, endorsed on Friday, supported a plan agreed by world powers in Vienna on how to help transition Syria form civil war to a political solution.
     
  • Colombia government and FARC militants agree on accountability and reparations for victims
    The government of Colombia and FARC militants announced that a deal had been reached on reparations for war victims on Monday.

    The agreement will include the set up of a special judicial system to deal with the accountability for war crimes. The courts would offer amnesties or lower sentences for those who admit their crimes, but exclude from amnesty those responsible for war crimes or crimes against humanity.

    A government spokesperson Marcela Duran, speaking to press said,

    “We are very pleased with this agreement on victims which no doubt is transcendental for what we are doing this process.”

    A representative for Farc at the negotiation process said, “With this important step, it is nearly certain that this (peace process) is irreversible.”
  • Thousands protest deployment of Turkish troops to fight in northern Iraq
    Thousands of Iraqis protested against Turkey’s deployment of troops to a base near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday.

    The deployment of Turkish troop into Iraq earlier this month sparked uproar in Baghdad, which appealed to the United Nations Security Council to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Turkish troops from northern Iraq.
  • Hundreds of cases of rape and torture in CAR over last year finds UN
    Almost 800 cases of rape, torture and murder were committed over eight months in the Central Africa Republic by armed groups, reported the UN mission MINUSCA on Friday.

    MINUSCA’s first human rights report said 775 violations and abuses affecting at least 785 victims were committed between September 2014 to May 2015.
  • Syrian opposition groups agree to political solution talks with Assad
    Syria’s political and armed opposition agreed to meet with the Assad regime for talks seeking a political solution to the conflict next month announced the chair of the opposition groups conference in Saudi Arabia.
  • Congo arrests Rwandan former mayor indicted for genocide
    A former Rwandan mayor who was wanted for genocide was arrested by the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday.

    Ladislas Ntaganzwa, accused of orchastrating the killing of tens of thousands of people during the 1994 genocide, was indicted in 1996 and accused of genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide as well as extermination murder and rape.
  • Kenyan MPs released after questioning over mass graves
    A group of Kenyan politicians have been released by police, after facing questioning over the alleged discovery of mass graves in the north-east of the country.

    Lawmaker Billow Kerrow and other parliamentarians claimed that mass graves had been discovered and suggested they contained the bodies of people killed by the security forces.

    Kenya’s Interior Minister Joseph Nkaisserry reacted strongly to the allegations, stating,
    "I wish to inform the country and the world at large that nothing was found in any of those sites. Today, following insistence by the political leaders that people might have been buried deep in the ground, excavators were brought in the site to dig for the bodies and nothing was found”.

    The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) also issued a statement saying they were "not involved in any way with the disappearance of people or extra judicial killings in Mandera or anywhere in the country”.
  • Mugabe warns Zimbabwe security forces
    President Robert Mugabe has warned his security forces not to get involved in politics after continued uncertainty over the ageing Zimbabwean leader's successor.
    The president said Army, police and intelligence officers were taking sides in his Zanu-PF party's infighting over who will take the helm.
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