human rights abuses

US Continues to Fund Afghan Units Despite Human Rights Abuses

An investigation has revealed that the US military continued to fund Afghan military and police units, using a legal loophole despite knowing of dozens of cases of human rights abuses by the Afghan troops.

Afghan security forces were involved in at least 75 gross violations of human rights from 2010 to 2016, including murder and child sexual assault, according to a report from the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) that was requested by 93 members of Congress last year and declassified on Tuesday.

The report also notes that it was not until September of 2015, when the New York Times reported on allegations that sexual abuse of children by members of Afghan military and police forces was “rampant,” that the U.S. military in Afghanistan provided related training and issued clear guidance that personnel should report suspected child sexual assault.
A U.S. law, dubbed the Leahy law, prohibits the Pentagon and the State Department from providing aid to foreign military or police units if there is credible evidence the units have carried out a gross violation of human rights.
But a clause within the Defense Department’s Appropriations Act allows for an exception to this rule when support to the units is deemed to meet a “national security concern.” Despite evidence that Afghan units committed violations, the Pentagon used this loophole to continue most funding for about a dozen implicated Afghan security force units.
In its report, SIGAR suggests that Congress could eliminate that exception, explaining the Pentagon has used the clause to allow the Secretary of Defense to “forgo implementation of the Leahy Law.”
The Pentagon disagrees.
“The … report does not reflect an understanding of the challenges faced by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in developing and sustaining the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces,” Pentagon official Jedidiah Royal wrote in a response included in the report last year.

According to the report, there were 24 incidents of “bacha bazi” or boy play within the Afghan units, something President Ashraf Ghani has vowed to have no tolerance for. The US units, working with the Afghans are stuck in the middle trying to figure out a way to report these heinous incidents while continuing to try to work with these units.

To read the entire article from Voice of America, click here:

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Germany Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia and Egypt Increases Five Fold

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration has been increasing its arms sales to the Middle East. And particularly to what was characterized as “dictatorships” in both Egypt and Saudi Arabia. This has brought a wave of criticism leveled at Merkel from the left with one opposition lawmaker calling the practice “reprehensible.”

The German government’s arms sales have increased nearly five times from what they sold in the third quarter of 2016. Merkel’s administration approved nearly €450 million ($526 million) of weapons exports to Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the third quarter of 2017. During the same time period last year, arms sales were €86 million.

Opposition Left Party’s Stefan Liebich criticized the government’s exports to both countries as “particularly reprehensible.”

Saudi Arabia and Egypt have “to answer for the thousands of deaths from their dirty war in Yemen,” he said, referring to the ongoing civil war between Houthi rebels and Yemen’s government.
The Saudi-led coalition military intervention in Yemen has led to the death of nearly 10,000 people and created the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis in one of the Arab world’s poorest state. Human rights organizations have said the Saudi-led coalition may have commmitted war crimes, and the UN has warned some 7 million people face possible famine.
As Liebich pointed out, Germany’s policies used to be more restrictive. “There were times when it was completely ruled out for Germany to deliver weapons to countries that were participating in wars,” he said. “That only changed in the last two governments. It started with Turkey, which was sold weapons despite its war with the Kurds — that was a controversial discussion at the time.”

The problem now lies with the working coalition inside the government coming to a new agreement concerning arms sales. While many on the left want arms sales curtailed, others such as the Christian Social Union will want to protect and build up the arms industries in Bavaria.

To read the entire article from Deutsche Welle, click here:

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Venezuela’s Maduro Calls for a Meeting with President Trump

In a strange turn of events, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday that he wants a meeting with President Donald Trump. The Socialist leader, with his country starving due to poor government policies and a bottoming out oil market is facing more and more pressure as he cracks down on opposition leaders, has reached out to the man he called a crass imperial magnate and blasts for U.S. sanctions against officials in his socialist administration.

Maduro spoke at length to the 545 members of a new, all-powerful constitutional assembly, which has given him basically a rubber stamp to operate as he pleases. However, Maduro instructed Venezuela’s foreign minister to approach the United States about arranging a meeting or phone call with Trump.

“Mr. Donald Trump, here is my hand,” the socialist president said, adding that he wants as strong a relationship with the U.S. as he has with Russia.
The remarks came shortly after Maduro forcefully warned the U.S. president that Venezuela “will never give in.”
The Trump administration has called Maduro a “dictator” and issued sanctions against him and more than two dozen other former and current officials, accusing Maduro’s government of violating human rights and undermining the country’s democracy amid an escalating political and financial crisis.
On Thursday, Credit Suisse bank banned the trading and use of Venezuelan bonds.

With the country on the brink of collapse economically and rumblings from the military that could revolt against him, Maduro is trying to salvage his hold on the country. The quickest way to do that is to get Trump to ease the sanctions and ask the United States for economic and humanitarian assistance. But with his government being accused by many with violating his own people’s human rights, the chances of that happening are pretty low at this point.

To read the entire article from Time click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia