North Korea: Investigating alleged war crimes could further isolate Pyongyang and complicate any peace settlement

Photo: President Kim Jong-Il with members of the North Korean military, accused of launching attacks on the south last year. (Photo: North Korea’s official website)

This article originally appeared in the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, www.iwpr.net

By Anjana Sundaram - International Justice - ICC

ACR Issue 293,

31 Mar 11

Concern Over ICC North Korea Probe

Investigating alleged war crimes could further isolate Pyongyang and complicate any peace settlement, experts say.

Legal experts have expressed concern that a probe by the International Criminal Court, ICC, into alleged war crimes by North Korea will only serve to drive the state further away from the international community.

The ICC’s preliminary investigation into whether actions by North Korea’s military last year constituted war crimes, announced on December 6, is taking place at a time of heightened instability in the region.

On March 8, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, published a report arguing that the Korean peninsula was now as dangerous as at the end of the 1950-53 war.

The report based its view on uncertainty about leadership succession in North Korea, and on reports that South Korea has been stockpiling arms in response to the north’s aggressive stance.

Investigators are currently looking into two incidents. One is the sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean warship, on March 26, 2010, which killed 46 people. The other is a North Korean artillery attack on the island of Yeonpyang island on November 23, which resulted in four deaths.

Although the court has jurisdiction over crimes committed in South Korea, which signed up to the ICC in 2002, it remains unclear exactly what action the ICC could take if it indicted North Korean citizens on war crimes charges, since the country remains outside the ICC and the court lacks any powers of enforcement.

This has led some experts to suggest that the decision by ICC’s decision to launch an investigation is less about bringing justice to victims, and more about stepping up international pressure on the country.

There is also some speculation about why the ICC chose to publicise its actions, given that it is not obliged to announce initial investigations, and that many others now under way are being conducted in a more discreet manner.

Some view the announcement as a way for the court to assert its legitimacy, and to demonstrate that it is prepared to protect member states from alleged abuses.

“One of the ideas behind the court is that they want to persuade [countries] to join the Rome Statute,” Robert Heinsch, assistant professor of public international law at Leiden University, said. “Becoming a member of the ICC [means it] is also there to protect you.”

Others say publicising the investigation could be an attempt to prod the two states into resolving the situation by themselves.

“Certainly, from a soft power standpoint, the simple fact that the ICC has expressed interest in this situation may spur either North Korea or South Korea to start making their own plans for the prosecution,” Kevin Heller, law professor at the University of Melbourne and a blogger on Opinio Juris, an international law forum, said. “That’s kind of how the positive complementarity of the ICC gives an incentive to states to go ahead and do these things themselves.”

Such tactics have worked before, notably in 2009, when the ICC opened a preliminary investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, FARC. The Columbian courts went on to investigate the situation themselves, although there has been little movement on prosecutions.

Doubts remain, however, as to whether the ICC’s investigation will be effective in curbing aggression in the Korean region.

“I question the deterrent value of the OTP [Office of the Prosecutor] announcing this investigation,” Heller said. “If North Korea knows anything about the ICC, they’re not exactly going to be shaking in their boots.”

Others point out that the investigation will change little, since North Korea is already an outcast in much of the world.

“They have a somewhat paranoid and xenophobic mentality to begin with, so all this does is confirm their world view,” Tom Ginsburg, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said. “President Kim Jong-Il [is] already prevented from travelling to many countries of the world, so an arrest warrant... wouldn’t make a difference for him.”

Ginsburg suggested that a confrontational approach might not go down well in this part of Asia, where states generally avoid interfering in one another’s affairs.

“The ICC is essentially a western liberal project, and east Asian states haven’t really signed on,” he added.

For its part, the ICC rejects the notion that any action taken against North Korea will be ineffective.

“The arrest warrant by the ICC Office of the Prosecutor is not limited by either statute of limitations or immunity,” ICC president Song Sang-Hyun said shortly after the investigation was announced. “Because it stays effective until the person dies, it could impose enormous stress on the person, despite lack of force to execute the warrant.”

The ICC declined to comment on the specifics of the North Korea investigation, or why it decided to launch a probe.

Some legal experts are unconvinced that the incidents under investigation qualify as war crimes.

In the first incident, a torpedo allegedly fired from a North Korean submarine at a South Korean naval vessel caused 46 deaths, but none were civilians. The shelling of Yeonpyeong may be easier to classify as a war crime, since it happened an area where civilians lived. Two of the four people killed were civilians.

Overall, it remains uncertain whether or not the two incidents are grave enough to warrant a formal investigation.

“Even given the strongest reading of what actually happened, to open a formal investigation into a situation that involved one attack that led to a very small number of deaths – I just can’t see that ever happening,” Heller said.

The biggest fear is that the investigation could exacerbate North Korea’s hostile relationship with the rest of the world.

There is speculation that the more aggressive behaviour displayed by North Korea is linked to plans to transfer power to the current president’s son, Kim Jong-Un.

Some say the younger Kim wants to prove he is tough and able to stand up to the West. Others say the attacks are a reflection of intense political competition for the succession, which has made North Korea unresponsive to external influence.

Although President Kim Jong-Il has been stubbornly anti-western, there are hopes that his son might seek to improve relations. If that is true, an ICC indictment could make it harder for the country to open up to the West in the future.

“If there is an outstanding arrest warrant that has been issued many years before by the ICC… that might deter him [Kim Jong-Un],” Ginsburg said.

The law professor also fears that the ICC’s intervention may be premature.

“I’m just very sceptical of this particular situation,” he said. “In my view, the role of international criminal law is to come in after the conflict is over, and to try to provide some accountability for the worst offenses. Extending the jurisdiction of a fledgling court to relatively minor incidents which are part of an ongoing armed conflict may actually worsen the conflicts and prevent them from being resolved.”

Anjana Sundaram is an IWPR-trained journalist in The Hague.

South Africa: From a massacre to freedom - one survivor's story

Injured in South Africa's Sharpeville massacre half a century ago, Mamai Moloso stayed away from her hometown for decades, as the protest movement aiming to topple apartheid grew.

The 92-year-old recently returned, but feared further persecution when the police knocked on her door. Little did she know, however, the officers weren't there to escort her anywhere other than to her new home, given to her by the government.

Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull reports from South Africa with one survivor's story.

Social Media: Harnessing the Power of Social Media in International Relations

Source: ISN

Twitter may be just another way of sharing inane chatter, but if you have written the service off, think again. Social media has emerged as a powerful new tool in international relations, and it deserves closer attention.

By Fergus Hanson for ISN Insights

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The wonderful and frightening thing about social media and Web 2.0 technologies is that their consequences are so unpredictable. When Jack Dorsey launched Twitter in 2006, did he envisage that the medium would end up playing a role in the attempted overthrow of the regime in Tehran? Did Mark Zuckerberg foresee Facebook being used by activists to help rally support for regime change across the Middle East when he was busy writing code in his college dorm room? The stunning and exciting role social media is beginning to play in our lives has sparked a fierce debate over the power of social media in international relations. Because the landscape is still so chaotic and uncertain, the debate has really only just begun.

Fear of the new

For many, the idea that anything meaningful can come out of a 140 character message (called a 'tweet') is preposterous. Suggesting these social, interactive media are stirring or enabling popular uprisings or even revolutions is heretic.

Unsurprisingly there have been plenty of people willing to step in and ridicule any suggestion that these and other social media platforms are somehow having serious, real world consequences.

One particularly heated debate has been taking place between Clay Shirky and Malcolm Gladwell. Writing in the New Yorker back in October 2010, Gladwell rubbished Shirky's theories on the power of social media, arguing that the medium's influence is overblown because it only fosters "weak-tie" networks that lack the strength to cultivate real world revolutions.

Shirky hit back in the January/February 2011 edition of Foreign Affairs by conceding that much of the activism seen on social media sites is of the "weak-tie" variety, or as he calls it "slacktivism…whereby casual participants seek social change through low-cost activities, such as joining Facebook's 'Save Darfur' group, that are long on bumper-sticker sentiment and short on any useful action."

Shirky goes on to argue that while this might be true in many cases, it is "not central to the question of social media's power; the fact that barely committed actors cannot click their way to a better world does not mean that committed actors cannot use social media effectively."

The reality, as he points out, is that "social media have become coordinating tools for nearly all the world's political movements."

Most recently, these tools were featured in the overthrown of Tunisia's long-reining president and subsequent mass protests in neighboring states, including Egypt. Indeed the gap between a 140 character 'tweet' and an entrenched dictator falling is enormous in many people's minds. This has led some to dismiss claims of ' twitter revolutions'. A recent article in The Christian Science Monitor (aimed particularly at countering the WikiLeaks link in the Tunisian uprising) put it this way:

Ben Wedeman, probably the best TV reporter employed by an American channel (he works for CNN) when it comes to the Arab world, is in Tunis and had this to say about Ben Ali's stunning fall yesterday, the WikiLeaks theory, and the public fury that amounted to the first successful Arab revolt in a long time: "No one I spoke to in Tunis today mentioned Twitter, Facebook or Wikileaks. It's all about unemployment, corruption, oppression."

Thinking about it, however, why would they? For Tunisians to credit these web tools would be like protesters from a previous generation crediting cassette tapes or Xerox photocopiers. Twitter and Facebook are not responsible for the overthrow of Tunisia's leader. That happened the old fashioned way: through mass protests. Social media are just convenient, immediate, mass communication tools that are free, offer a way around the authorities (although not always) and help coordinate and plan mass gatherings and protests.

The focus on so-called weak-tie networks may also be selling social media short because each of those individual networks often have very strong connections as well. The average individual may have 130 Facebook 'friends' but among them are their very closest real friends too. A modern version of crowd psychology might also be at play in some instances. Reading through the tweets using 'hashtag' #Jan25 (used by the protesters in Egypt) particularly in the initial days of the uprising, dozens of new messages were streaming in every minute. All of these were filled with passionate exhortations to rise up and overthrow the government, stories of police brutality, rumors of fleeing leaders and words of encouragement. While it was difficult to tell how many Egyptians on the street were using Twitter or how many were following this hashtag on the ground (especially after reports it was blocked), it was easy to imagine how this online bombardment could help spur people into real world action.

Clearly not every revolution that makes use of social media is successful, but there is no question they are the obvious tools to use for anyone motivated enough to get involved (particularly the young adults who grew up with this technology). The situation is analogous to political campaigns where social media is now an essential component of any outreach strategy. Yet the simple act of harnessing it does not, of course, guarantee victory.

Disrupting old hierarchies

Social media is not only powerful because it can be used as a tool in organizing a protest. It is also powerful because it disrupts old hierarchies and traditional ways of doing things, perhaps another reason why social media is so often dismissed. A big driver of this change has been the rapid spread of mobile phones and the internet and the vast reach they provide.

As the Director of Google Ideas Jared Cohen recently pointed out: "Ten years ago, the number of people who had access to the Internet was 361 million; today it's 2 billion. In the year 2000, 300,000 people in Pakistan were using cell phones; today it's 100 million. You can't say technology doesn't matter."

As an example of this dissolution of old power structures: The world has just witnessed a powerful but essentially leaderless uprising in Egypt. In the initial stages at least, there was no spokesperson for the protesters, no apparent agreed plan beyond the idea to demonstrate and no clearly articulated set of demands.

The 2008 anti-FARC protests in Colombia highlighted the transformative and empowering function of social media from an individual's perspective: An unemployed 33 year old, Oscar Morales, frustrated with FARC kidnappings, went and created a Facebook page called 'No Mas FARC'. His group soon amassed over a quarter of a million members who were assigned to different roles like assembling an anti-hacking brigade, a constitution, a Supreme Court and press liaisons. A few weeks later hundreds of thousands of Colombians had been mobilized on the streets in protest.

In both these examples, old ways of doing things were turned on their heads and traditional hierarchies ignored.

New ways to communicate

Social media's utility for revolutionaries is one dramatic example of the power of these new tools in international relations, but there is a lot more in store.

For a state to have a chance of shaping favorable outcomes in both the domestic and international environments, at a bare minimum, it needs to ensure its position, solution or preference is included in the debate. As the forum for policy debates shifts online, online communication becomes essential, as this Washington Post profile of State Department spokesman PJ Crowley suggests. Not surprisingly then, the savvier players have adopted these platforms with alacrity but many others are yet to catch on. Those that refuse to adapt to these changing patterns of communication will increasingly find that their view is not heard.

Changing communication patterns, however, are likely just the tip of the iceberg. Shirky argues that while observers have focused "on the power of mass protests to topple governments, the potential of social media lies mainly in their support of civil society and the public sphere - change measured in years and decades rather than weeks or months."

The full implications of social media's impact in the international realm are hard to predict because the speed of innovation and development of these new platforms is so fast. It is also difficult to measure its influence with precision or foresee how they will be applied. What seems likely, however, is that we can expect more unexpected consequences from social media and that those who dismiss its power are making a risky gamble.

---

Fergus Hanson is a Research Fellow and Director of the Lowy Poll Project at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Australia.

Bahrain: Prime Minister Proposes Several Large Government-Funded Development Projects

Source: Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the United States

His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa yesterday announced a series of mega building projects may be forthcoming.

The Prime Minister said he has commissioned feasibility studies for a number of projects to bolster the nation's infrastructure and return the country to economic prosperity.

"The huge development schemes are aimed at re-energizing the national economy and ensuring it more edge," he said.

He instructed concerned authorities to suggest a list of such projects along with their estimated costs and deadlines.

"The priority should be put first and foremost on housing and infrastructure," the Prime Minister said during a work meeting.

This initiative is part of a series of proposals by the government to return Bahrain to normalcy. Earlier this month the Crown Prince called on all opposition groups to enter a National Dialogue and explore ways to foster reform in Bahrain.

In other developments, the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has been instructed to provide more help to businesses in overcoming negative repercussions resulting from the unrest.

The Prime Minister directed CBB officials to co-ordinate extra measures with banks and financial institutions to help the private sector regain its pivotal role as a driving force of the national economy.

"The government is working hard for the economy to emerge stronger and surmount any negative repercussions," he said.

India: Criminal Complaint Filed Against Punjab Police for the Unlawful Removal of a Sikh's Turban

UNITED SIKHS' counsel from Chandigarh, Sukhwinder Singh, today filed a criminal complaint under Section 295 A of the Indian Penal Code regarding the forcible removal of a Sikh's turban by a Punjab Police officer who was acting on the instructions of a police superintendent. The deliberate and malicious act was intended to outrage the religious sentiments of Sikhs by stripping them of their dignity and intimidating and subjugating those who were peacefully protesting.

What started off as a peaceful sit-in protest by veterinary pharmacists/employees turned into a shameful incident of police excess. The police official responsible for the reprehensible act was from the Mohali Phase VIII Station House Officer (SHO), Sub-Inspector Kulbhushan, who claims he acted on orders from Mohali Superintendent of Police (SP), Pritam Singh. A video of this disturbing incident may be watched at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONYV8hUKN3Y.

In response to mounting pressure, the Home Minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal, announced the suspension of the two officers. However, further action is required to redress these consistent abuses by the Punjab Police. Earlier this year, the Chandigarh Police removed the turban of another Sikh who was asked to prove his Sikh identity, as evidenced in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lYZ1e4CL44.

Addressing the long-standing reign of impunity by the Punjab Police, Mejindarpal Kaur, Legal Director for UNITED SIKHS, stated that: "The Punjab Police officers cannot be allowed to get off lightly with a suspension. This incident is not isolated and there is a need for a root and branch reform of the Punjab Police Rules with respect to protecting religious freedom."

Source: UNITED SIKHS

Media: "Rights" group claims Al-Jazeera a mouthpiece for Muslim Brotherhood and a homeland security threat

Source: Stop Islamization of America

The views expressed by authors or media organisations other than Mike Hitchen, do not necessarily reflect the views of Mike Hitchen Online. This blog aims to present a wide spectrum of opinion and analysis.

Human rights activists and advocates for journalistic accuracy are holding a conference this week in Washington to protest the expansion of Al-Jazeera in the United States. "Al-Jazeera, Global Jihad, and the Suicide of the West" will convene at noon on Friday, April 1 at the National Press Club, 529 14th St. Northwest.

Topics will include:

• The activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. and its influence on the Obama Administration.
• How Al-Jazeera television functions as a mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood and a homeland security threat to the United States.
• How American tax dollars are being funneled to Al-Jazeera.
• The involvement of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn in the Al-Jazeera- supported "International Solidarity Movement" in the Middle East.

The event will feature Pamela Geller, Executive Director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization of America. AFDI/SIOA is one of America's foremost organizations defending human rights, religious liberty, and the freedom of speech against Islamic supremacist intimidation and attempts to bring elements of Sharia to the United States.

Geller is the author of the acclaimed book The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America with Robert Spencer (foreword by Ambassador John Bolton), published by Simon & Schuster. She is the 2010 recipient of the Annie Taylor Award for Courage, presented by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

Geller has broken numerous important stories -- notably the questionable and illegal foreign sources of some of the financing of the Obama campaign, the anti-Semitic posts on Obama's website, Obama's political organizing in public school classrooms, ACORN's destruction of Republican voter registrations, and many more. A frequent guest on radio and television, she was the subject of a profile on 60 Minutes and has been profiled in a cover story in the Sunday New York Times Metro section.

At the conclusion of the event, Geller will sign copies of The Post-American Presidency for conference attendees.

Cliff Kincaid, the President of America's Survival, Inc., organized the event. A veteran journalist and media critic, Kincaid is the director of the Accuracy in Media (AIM) Center for Investigative Reporting. He has written or co-authored nine books on foreign policy, the media and cultural affairs, including Global Bondage (1995) and Global Taxes for World Government (1997). Kincaid has been at the forefront of the opposition to the acceptance of Al-Jazeera and other foreign propaganda channels in U.S. media markets.

Other speakers include news analyst Charles K. Ortel, television producer Jerry Kenney, and investigative journalist Lee Kaplan.

Ortel serves as Managing Partner of Newport Value Partners, L.L.C. Newport, established in 2007, which provides value-added research to executives and to investment firms. Ortel has been warning that many initiatives launched by the Obama Administration seem to constitute a "War on Capitalism."

Jerry Kenney is an independent television producer who uncovered the illegal relationship of MHz Networks, a division of Commonwealth Public Broadcasting, with 30 public TV stations around the country, whereby they air Al-Jazeera and Russian Today television. Kenney subsequently hired a lawyer to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, arguing that the contracts between the public TV stations and Commonwealth violate federal rules.

Lee Kaplan is an investigative journalist who has been published internationally. He has been a contributor to Front Page Magazine, a regular columnist for the Israel National News and Canada Free Press, and is a senior intelligence analyst and communications director for the Northeast Intelligence Network. He is currently working on a book about America's colleges in the War on Terror and the International Solidarity Movement.

Geller explained: "The issue of the expansion of Al-Jazeera into the United States can only be likened to an expansion of Goebbels' media network into the U.S. at the height of World War II. No organization has done as much damage to spread hate, lies and incitement to violence as Al-Jazeera. Al-Jazeera is the leading terrorist propaganda organization in the world."

She added that "jihad murder mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki has praised Al-Jazeera, and several years ago one of its most prominent reporters was arrested on terror charges. Al-Jazeera also has for years been the recipient of numerous al-Qaeda videos featuring bin Laden, Zawahiri, and American traitor Adam Gadahn. Yet they never seem to be able to trace where these videos are coming from. They have repeatedly been set up at the point of attack right before the bomb went off, so that they could take the picture of the slaughtered, dismembered bodies. How did they know?"

"It's clear to any objective observer," Geller concluded, "that Al-Jazeera is sympathetic to the global jihad, and a strong case can be made that it is complicit in those jihadist activities."

Business: EU Wins Key WTO Case Proving Boeing Received Billions in Subsidies From United States

The European Commission welcomes the WTO Panel report published today, which found that billions of dollars in U.S. Federal and State subsidies granted to Boeing are illegal under WTO rules. This landmark ruling has clearly confirmed the EU's position on all of its main claims, notably that between 1989 and 2006 the U.S. Federal and State governments granted WTO-incompatible subsidies to Boeing amounting to at least $5.3 billion. Planned future subsidies are estimated to be worth between $3 to $4 billion.

"This WTO Panel report clearly shows that Boeing has received huge subsidies in the past and continues to receive significant subsidies today. The U.S. began this dispute in 2004 and now finds itself with a crystal clear ruling that exposes its long-running multi-billion dollar subsidization of Boeing through Federal and State programs as illegal," said EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht. "These subsidies have resulted in substantial harm to EU interests, causing Airbus to lose sales, depress its aircraft prices and unfairly lose market share to Boeing. The detrimental costs to EU industry from this lengthy and onerous subsidization run into billions of euros. We therefore welcome the WTO Panel's report and call on the U.S. Government to take the appropriate steps that may assist to achieve a mutually agreed solution to this dispute."

The report is supported by clear and solid findings from the Panel covering each of the main sources of U.S. subsidies, including: (i) $1.3 - $2 billion in R&D program funds granted by NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to Boeing; (ii) $1.5 billion from NASA and DoD "general support"; (iii) $ 2.2 billion in Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) export subsidies; and (iv) Washington State tax breaks valued up to $4 billion for the 2006-24 period.

All of these subsidies violate WTO Rules since they constitute actionable subsidies that cause adverse effects to EU and Airbus interests. The Panel also confirmed that the federal FSC/ETI tax breaks for Boeing are prohibited subsidies, which according to WTO rules must be withdrawn by the U.S. without delay.

These massive subsidies from multiple U.S. Government sources have enabled Boeing to develop new aircraft, in particular the 787 "Dreamliner," at much lower costs than would otherwise have been the case.

In contrast to the Panel in the Airbus case, this Panel quantified the amount of WTO-incompatible subsidies granted to Boeing. Support to Boeing has been and continues to be in the form of non-repayable grants or free access to government facilities. In the Airbus case, however, the most important instrument—the Repayable Launch Investment (RLI)—was considered WTO-compatible in principle, with the subsidy element being, in certain cases, the sole difference in the conditions provided compared to other repayable commercial financing.

Background to the WTO Aircraft Cases

Since October 2004, the EU and U.S. have been contesting at the WTO their Governments' respective support to their aerospace industries. Both WTO challenges relate to alleged illegal WTO support to Airbus and Boeing respectively over a 20 to 30 year period.

Prior to these WTO challenges, U.S. and EU government support to their aircraft manufacturers had been regulated by the "Bilateral EU-US Agreement on Trade in Large Civil Aircraft." This 1992 agreement allowed each party to provide a certain level of support to their respective aircraft industry. The agreement permitted the EU to grant the "Repayable Launch Investment" to Airbus, e.g. loans repaid with interest under terms specified in the agreement. The U.S. was allowed to provide a certain level of government financed R&D support to the U.S. aerospace manufacturer, Boeing. Annual meetings and regular exchanges of information took place to monitor compliance with the terms of the bilateral agreement.

On October 6, 2004, the United States quite unexpectedly and unilaterally announced its withdrawal from the 1992 Agreement and immediately filed a challenge at the WTO of all EU support ever granted to Airbus, despite the fact that the U.S. had previously agreed to this support.

The EU had little option other than to respond immediately with a parallel WTO challenge of U.S. government support to the U.S. aerospace industry (e.g. Boeing) by Federal, State and local authorities. This support included benefits to Boeing under the U.S. Foreign Sales Corporation Scheme, which the U.S. government had continued to provide, despite repeated findings that these subsidies violated WTO rules.

These two parallel WTO challenges, the Airbus case (DS 316: the U.S. challenge of EU support for Airbus) and the Boeing case (DS 353: the EU challenge of U.S. support to Boeing), although both were initiated on October 6, 2004, have followed different timetables due to a number of delays at the WTO. The WTO Panel made its report on the Airbus case public on June 30, 2010, whereas the Panel issued its final public report on March 31, 2011, on the Boeing case.

Because of the DS 353 Panel's delays, close to a year's gap exists between the two WTO proceedings. The EU has continuously expressed its dissatisfaction with this lag. On July 23, 2010, the EU appealed the Panel's findings in DS 316. These proceedings are expected to be completed during the first half of 2011.

For further information

Factsheet on the Boeing case DS 353:

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2010/september/tradoc_146486.pdf

Source: Delegation of the European Union to the United States

Space: NASA Spacecraft Reveal Mysteries of Jupiter and Saturn Rings

In a celestial forensic exercise, scientists analyzing data from NASA's Cassini, Galileo and New Horizons missions have traced telltale ripples in Saturn and Jupiter's rings to specific collisions with cometary fragments that occurred decades, not millions of years, ago.

Jupiter's ripple-producing culprit was comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. The comet's debris cloud hurtled through the thin Jupiter ring system on a collision course into the planet in July 1994. Scientists attribute Saturn's ripples to a similar object - likely another cloud of comet debris - plunging through the inner rings in 1983. The findings are detailed in two papers published Thursday in the journal Science.

"We're finding evidence that a planet's rings can be affected by specific, traceable events that happened in the last 30 years, rather than a hundred million years ago," said Matthew Hedman, a Cassini imaging team associate, lead author on one of the papers, and a research associate at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "The solar system is a much more dynamic place than we gave it credit for."

Scientists learned about the patchy patterns in Jupiter's rings in the late 1990s from Galileo's visit to Jupiter. Unfortunately, the images from that mission were fuzzy, and scientists didn't understand why such patterns would occur. Not until Cassini entered orbit around Saturn in 2004 and started sending back thousands of images did scientists have a better picture of the activity. A 2007 science paper by Hedman and colleagues first noted corrugations in Saturn's innermost ring, dubbed the D ring.

A group including Hedman and Mark Showalter, a Cassini co-investigator based at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., saw that the grooves in the D ring appeared to wind together more tightly over time. Playing the process backward, Hedman demonstrated the pattern originated when something tilted the D ring off its axis by about 300 feet (100 meters) in late 1983. The scientists found Saturn's gravity on the tilted area warped the ring into a tightening spiral.

Cassini imaging scientists received another clue around August 2009 when the sun shone directly along Saturn's equator and lit the rings edge-on. The unique lighting conditions highlighted ripples not previously seen in another part of the ring system. Whatever happened in 1983 was big - not a small, localized event.

The collision tilted a region more than 12,000 miles (19,000 kilometers) wide, covering part of the D ring and the next outermost ring, called the C ring. Unfortunately, spacecraft were not visiting Saturn at that time, and the planet was on the far side of the sun out of sight from ground or space-based telescopes.

Hedman and Showalter, the lead author on the second paper, wondered whether the long-forgotten pattern in Jupiter's ring system might illuminate the mystery. Using Galileo images from 1996 and 2000, Showalter confirmed a similar winding spiral pattern by applying the same math they had applied to Saturn and factoring in Jupiter's gravitational influence. Galileo was launched on a space shuttle in 1989 and studied Jupiter until 2003.

Unwinding the spiral pinpointed the date when Jupiter's ring was tilted off its axis between June and September 1994. Shoemaker-Levy plunged into the Jovian atmosphere in late July. The Galileo images also revealed a second spiral, which was calculated to have originated in 1990. Images taken by New Horizons in 2007, when the spacecraft flew by Jupiter on its way to Pluto, showed two newer ripple patterns, in addition to the fading echo of the Shoemaker-Levy impact.

"We now know that collisions into the rings are very common – a few times per decade for Jupiter and a few times per century for Saturn," Showalter said. "Now scientists know that the rings record these impacts like grooves in a vinyl record, and we can play back their history later."

Launched in Oct. 15, 1997, Cassini began orbiting Saturn in 2004 and sends back data daily.

"Finding these fingerprints still in the rings is amazing and helps us better understand impact processes in our solar system," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Cassini's long sojourn around Saturn has helped us tease out subtle clues that tell us about the history of our origins."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about Cassini, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

Pluto New Horizons launched in 2006 on the first mission to study Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. The mission is managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., for NASA. The mission is part of the New Frontiers program managed at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. For more information about Pluto New Horizons, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons

Source: NASA

Crime: Two New Orleans Police Officers Sentenced in Post-Katrina Shooting and Burning of Henry Glover

U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

Former New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) Officer David Warren was sentenced today in connection with the post-Katrina shooting death of Henry Glover, and current NOPD Officer Greg McRae was sentenced for the subsequent burning of Glover's remains and obstruction of justice.

Former NOPD Officer Warren was sentenced to 25 years and nine months in prison for his involvement in the Sept. 2, 2005, shooting death of civilian Henry Glover. As part of the restitution order, Warren will also pay $7,642.32 to Glover's family for funeral expenses. Warren was found guilty by a federal jury of a civil rights violation resulting in death for shooting Glover, and for using a firearm to commit manslaughter.

Current NOPD Officer McRae was sentenced to 17 years and three months in prison, three years of supervised release, and restitution in the amount of $6,000 for his involvement in the burning of Mr. Glover's body. McRae was convicted of two civil rights violations, one count of obstructing justice, and one count of using fire during the commission of a felony. One of the civil rights counts charged that McRae willfully used fire to destroy a civilian's property by burning and destroying a car, and the other civil rights count charged that he willfully deprived Glover's family members of their right to seek redress in the courts for his death.

Evidence presented at trial established that Warren, while stationed on a second floor lookout, shot Glover, who was a floor below him and running away. Glover's brother and a friend flagged down a passing motorist, "Good Samaritan" William Tanner, who put the wounded Glover in his car to try to get medical attention for him. However, when the group of men drove up to a makeshift police station seeking help for Glover, police officers surrounded the men at gunpoint, handcuffed them and let Glover die in the back seat of the car. McRae then drove off with Tanner's car, with Glover's body inside, and burned both the body and the car with a traffic flare.

"Instead of upholding their oath to protect and serve the people of New Orleans in the days after Hurricane Katrina, these officers abused their power, and violated the law and the public trust," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "Today's sentence brings a measure of justice to the Glover family and to the entire city."

"Today's sentences send a powerful message that no one is above the law, and that those who are sworn to protect our citizens are never, under any circumstances, relieved of their sacred responsibilities under our Constitution. We will continue to do everything in our power—and use every law and weapon in our arsenal of justice to make certain that our police never abuse power they wield. Today is an important step forward for the courageous Glover family and the people of New Orleans, and an important move toward the city's healing and rebuilding," said Jim Letten, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

David Welker, FBI Special Agent in Charge for Louisiana, said, "Today's sentences are a result of the continued diligence and commitment of the FBI to aggressively and fairly pursue civil rights violations, with the goal of bringing to justice those who abuse the very citizens they are entrusted to protect and serve."

This case was investigated by the New Orleans Field Office of the FBI and was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Jared Fishman, of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tracey Knight and Michael Magner for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Paraguay: UN independent expert praises tolerance in Paraguay, deplores inequality

UN - The United Nations independent expert on religious freedom today commended Paraguay for the openness and tolerance of both the Government and society, but pointed out there is “much room” for improvement in tackling the issue of inequality.

“There are enormous societal inequalities in terms of distribution of wealth, access to public or private education, political influence, ethnic and linguistic minority status, etc.,” said Heiner Bielefeldt, the UN Special Rapporteur on the freedom of religion or belief at the end of his eight-day visit to Paraguay.

He highlighted weakness in the implementation of non-discrimination mechanisms, especially in the Chaco region where many indigenous peoples live.

“The weak presence and capacity of State institutions renders certain sectors of the population structurally vulnerable to possible human rights abuses, including in the field of freedom of religion or belief.”

The human rights expert drew special attention to the Paraguayan indigenous peoples’ long history of discrimination, neglect, harassment and economic exploitation, while noting that their representatives mostly agreed that the general attitude towards their traditional beliefs and practices has been one of respect in recent years.

“The imposition of religious doctrines and practices, possibly against their will, is not a matter of the past only but persists to a certain degree until today,” said Mr. Bielefeldt.

During his 23-30 March visit, the Special Rapporteur met with high-ranking officials and representatives from civil society, religious groups and indigenous peoples in Asunción, Ciudad del Este and Filadelfia.

Government officials and representatives of a variety of communities, ranging from the predominant Roman Catholic Church to minority religious communities and secular non-governmental organisations generally agreed that Paraguay is a pluralistic society, he said.

In spite of the traditional “hegemony of Catholicism,” public manifestations of religious diversity largely take place in an open and tolerant environment, Mr. Bielefeldt said.

He said he had observed that that the issue of education triggered strong emotions in the South American country.

“I observed tensions between advocates of more traditional religious values and those promoting the right to have information about sexual [and] reproductive health and the inclusion of anti-discrimination principles in the school curriculum,” said Mr. Bielefeldt. “These issues seem to have created tensions not only between religious and less religiously-oriented sectors of society but also within some religious communities,” he added.

He encouraged the Government to continue supporting the Inter-religious Forum initiated two years ago and ensure the open and transparent participation of all interested groups.

“I very much appreciate the launch of the Government’s National Action Plans on human rights and on human rights education,” Mr. Bielefeldt underscored. “National Action Plans are excellent opportunities for bringing together all interested stakeholders and also for providing space to discuss issues related to freedom of religion or belief.”

Mr. Bielefeldt will present a report on his visit to Paraguay to the 19th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Libya: Why African Union Avoided London Conference on Libya

By Jaya Ramachandran
Courtesy IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

PARIS (IDN) - The decision of the 53-nation African Union (AU) not to participate in the Libya Conference in London on March 29 has drawn little focus. But it is of profound significance and is rooted in the development of the AU and Libyan President Muammar al-Gaddafi's critical role in buttressing it.

AU officials said they could not attend the meeting due to 'organisational reasons'. But informed sources at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa maintained that the member countries were divided on their stand over Gaddafi.

Some AU members, including Rwanda, reportedly favour military action against the Libyan leader, and Gabon, Nigeria and South Africa had backed the UN Security Council resolution 1973 for the establishment of a no fly zone over the North African country.

"But the AU officially favours diplomatic means to find a solution to the escalating conflict in Libya," reported Tanzania's newspaper 'The Citizen'. Quoting informed sources, the newspaper said that ahead of the London conference, the AU had tabled a new proposal to end the crisis in Libya but the international community had remained reluctant to consider it.

In fact, the establishment by the no fly zone over Libya had prevented the AU's five-member panel with the mandate of seeking a peaceful settlement to the Libyan crisis to enter the country.

The newspaper said that delegates attending the London meeting convened at British Foreign Secretary William Hague's initiative were asked to focus on only one major issue -- give Gaddafi a chance to go into exile, with African nations or even Venezuela the most likely destinations, without any guarantee of not being tried by the International Criminal Court for "crimes against humanity".

The report said "the AU peace roadmap consists of an immediate ceasefire and fast political transition to be followed by democratic election". It added: "AU chief Jean Ping has expressed the AU's disappointment about the western military attacks on Libya."

In an interview with the BBC HardTalk programme, Ping criticized the Western-led international coalition involved in the no-fly zone over Libya saying that the AU was not consulted before the Paris meeting on March 19, 2011, which decided to deploy air strikes. Ping suggested that given these circumstances AU's participation in the London conference was going to be meaningless.

Explaining what the London gathering was for, Hague said on March 29: "The conference discussed the situation in Libya with UK allies and partners and took stock of the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1970 and 1973. It considered the humanitarian needs of the Libyan people and identified ways to support the people of Libya in their aspirations for a better future."

"It is critical that the international community continues to take united and coordinated action in response to the unfolding crisis. The meeting formed a contact group of nations to take forward this work," Hague added.

More than 40 Foreign Ministers and representatives from key regional organisations attended the London conference. These included the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary General Dr Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu from Turkey, the Prime Minister of Qatar, Foreign Ministers from "key regional countries" including Iraq, Jordan, UAE, and Morocco, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Foreign Ministers from across Europe and NATO members, along with Secretary General Rasmussen.

Lebanon, Tunisia and the Arab League, though through Ambassador Hesham Yousse, were also represented.

Asked whether the Libyan "opposition" was invited, the British Foreign Secretary said. "No. We invited international partners to this conference to discuss the international effort to support the Libyan people. Of course it is important that (we) develop and maintain our dialogue with key opposition groups in Libya including the Interim Transitional National Council, and we ensured this was done including in the run up to the conference. The Foreign Secretary spoke to Special Envoy Jabril on March 22 and invited him to London in the near future."

While the composition of the 20-member Libya Contact Group, which the London Conference decided to set up, and which would be meeting in Doha around middle of April 2011, is not known, the AU -- keen to move ahead with its peace initiative -- is widely expected to join the Group.

The AU's difficulties in hammering out a joint stance lie very much in the history of the Union: Muammar al-Gaddafi chaired it from February 2009 to January 2010. Together with Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, he has been providing 75 percent of the AU's budget.

Besides, Gaddafi was a driving spirit behind the establishment and strengthening of the AU, which succeeded the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The heads of state and government of the OAU held an extraordinary session in July 1999 at Gaddafi's hometown Sirte and issued a declaration calling for the establishment of AU.

The July 9, 1999 declaration stated, among others: "In our deliberations, we have been inspired by the important proposals submitted by Colonel Muammar Ghaddafi, Leader of the Great AI Fatah Libyan Revolution, and particularly, by his vision for a strong and united Africa, capable of meeting global challenges and in shouldering its responsibility to harness the human and natural resources of the continent in order to improve the living conditions of its peoples."

They African leaders were driven by the desire to accelerate the process of integration in the continent to enable it play its rightful role in the global economy while addressing multifaceted social, economic and political problems compounded as they are by certain negative aspects of globalisation.

The guiding vision was: "An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in global arena."

This vision of a new, forward-looking, dynamic and integrated Africa was to be fully realized through relentless struggle on several fronts and as a long-term endeavour. Subsequently, the African Union has shifted focus from supporting liberation movements in the erstwhile African territories under colonialism and apartheid, as envisaged by the OAU since 1963 and the Constitutive Act, to an organization spear-heading Africa’s development and integration.