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| An explosion and smoke are seen after Israeli strikes in Gaza City.
(photo credit:REUTERS)
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Amnesty International called on the global community to stop war crimes
by halting arms shipments to countries such as Iraq, Syria and Israel
that could use them to commit “mass atrocities.”
“Huge arms
shipments were delivered to Iraq, Israel, Russia, South Sudan and Syria
in 2014 despite the very high likelihood that these weapons would be
used against civilian populations trapped in conflict,” said Anna
Neistat, Senior Director for Research at Amnesty International.
“When
ISIS took control of large parts of Iraq, it found large arsenals, ripe
for the picking. The irresponsible flow of weapons to human rights
abusers must stop now,” said Anna Neistat.
Amnesty issued this
call in its annual report, “the State of the World’s Human Rights,”
which examined human rights abuses in 160 countries.
According
to the 414-page report, Israel was one of 18 countries along with Syria,
Iraq and Libya where war crimes were committed by the government or
armed groups, said researcher Marek Marczynski of Amnesty International.
Armed
groups committed abuses in at least 35 countries in 2014, more than 1
in 5 of the countries that Amnesty International investigated, the
report said.
“2014 was a catastrophic year for millions caught up
in violence. The global response to conflict and abuses by states and
armed groups has been shameful and ineffective. As people suffered an
escalation in barbarous attacks and repression, the international
community has been found wanting,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General
of Amnesty International.
“The United Nations was established 70
years ago to ensure that we would never again see the horrors witnessed
in the Second World War. We are now seeing violence on a mass scale and
an enormous refugee crisis caused by that violence. There has been a
singular failure to find workable solutions to the most pressing needs
of our time,” Shetty said.
Amnesty had harsh words for the Syrian
crisis, which in 2014, it said, “surpassed other such crises to become
the world’s worst in terms of refugee flows and internally displaced
people.
In the past four years, according to Amnesty, more than
200,000 people have died in Syria. Many of them were civilians who were
killed by government forces. Around 4 million people from Syria are
refugees in other countries More than 7.6 million are displaced inside
Syria, Amnesty said.
The group also condemned ISIS, whose
fighters “committed widespread war crimes, including ethnic cleansing of
religious and ethnic minorities.”
Between January and October
of last year, ISIS related violence caused the death of some 10,000
civilians and forcibly displaced almost 2 million people, Amnesty said.
The
report gave the impression that Israel’s actions were akin to the other
atrocities that occurred in the Middle East, by listing it with
countries such as Syria and Iraq.
Amnesty mentioned briefly that
Hamas had committed war crimes for indiscriminately firing rockets at
Israel. But in its five page section on Israel and the territories it
rarely referenced the actions of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. It
focused almost exclusively on Israeli actions particularly during the
conflict with Hamas in the summer of 2014.
“The July assault on
Gaza by Israeli forces caused the loss of 2,000 Palestinian lives. The
great majority of those, 1,500 were civilians,” Amnesty said.
It added that Israel’s policy during that conflict was “marked by callous indifference and involved war crimes.“
The
international community can and should do more to prevent war crimes,
Amnesty said. It urged states to ratify and adhering to the Arms Trade
Treaty, which prohibits the sale of arms to those who would use them for
mass atrocities.
The London based organization also called on
the five members of the UN Security Council - the US, China, Russia,
Franc and the United Kingdom - to renounce their veto power to block
resolutions against countries that have committed war crimes.
“This
could be a game changer for the international community and the tools
it has at its disposal to help protect civilian lives,” Shetty said.
“By
renouncing their veto rights the five permanent members of the Security
Council would give the UN more scope to take action to protect
civilians when lives are at grave risk and send a powerful signal to
perpetrators that the world will not sit idly by while mass atrocities
take place,” said Shetty.
The Foreign Ministry had no comment on
the report. But the group, NGO Monitor, charged that Amnesty call to
halt arms sales and shipment to Israel denied the right of the Jewish
State to self-defense.
The report did not mention the munitions
that were brought to Israel to save the lives of its citizens such the
Iron Dome anti-missile system, NGO Monitor said.
Nor did Amnesty
condemn Hamas for its illegal and systematic placement of weapons in
hospitals, mosques, and homes in Gaza, NGO Monitor charged.
“Unfortunately,
many Amnesty officials and "researchers" are so deeply involved in
promoting the narrative of Palestinian victimhood and Israeli guilt, and
remain blind to the requirements of universal human rights,” NGO
Monitor said.
Amnesty International called on the global
community to stop war crimes by halting arms shipments to countries such
as Iraq, Syria and Israel that could use them to commit “mass
atrocities.”
“Huge arms shipments were delivered to Iraq, Israel,
Russia, South Sudan and Syria in 2014 despite the very high likelihood
that these weapons would be used against civilian populations trapped in
conflict,” said Anna Neistat, Senior Director for Research at Amnesty
International.
“When ISIS took control of large parts of Iraq,
it found large arsenals, ripe for the picking. The irresponsible flow of
weapons to human rights abusers must stop now,” said Anna Neistat.
Amnesty
issued this call in its annual report, “the State of the World’s Human
Rights,” which examined human rights abuses in 160 countries.
According
to the 414-page report, Israel was one of 18 countries along with
Syria, Iraq and Libya where war crimes were committed by the government
or armed groups, said researcher Marek Marczynski of Amnesty
International.
Armed groups committed abuses in at least 35
countries in 2014, more than 1 in 5 of the countries that Amnesty
International investigated, the report said.
“2014 was a
catastrophic year for millions caught up in violence. The global
response to conflict and abuses by states and armed groups has been
shameful and ineffective. As people suffered an escalation in barbarous
attacks and repression, the international community has been found
wanting,” said Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
“The United Nations was established 70 years ago to ensure that
we would never again see the horrors witnessed in the Second World War.
We are now seeing violence on a mass scale and an enormous refugee
crisis caused by that violence. There has been a singular failure to
find workable solutions to the most pressing needs of our time,” Shetty
said.
Amnesty had harsh words for the Syrian crisis, which in
2014, it said, “surpassed other such crises to become the world’s worst
in terms of refugee flows and internally displaced people.
In the
past four years, according to Amnesty, more than 200,000 people have
died in Syria. Many of them were civilians who were killed by government
forces. Around 4 million people from Syria are refugees in other
countries More than 7.6 million are displaced inside Syria, Amnesty
said.
The group also condemned ISIS, whose fighters “committed
widespread war crimes, including ethnic cleansing of religious and
ethnic minorities.”
Between January and October of last year,
ISIS related violence caused the death of some 10,000 civilians and
forcibly displaced almost 2 million people, Amnesty said.
The
report gave the impression that Israel’s actions were akin to the other
atrocities that occurred in the Middle East, by listing it with
countries such as Syria and Iraq.
Amnesty mentioned briefly that
Hamas had committed war crimes for indiscriminately firing rockets at
Israel. But in its five page section on Israel and the territories it
rarely referenced the actions of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. It
focused almost exclusively on Israeli actions particularly during the
conflict with Hamas in the summer of 2014.
“The July assault on
Gaza by Israeli forces caused the loss of 2,000 Palestinian lives. The
great majority of those, 1,500 were civilians,” Amnesty said.
It added that Israel’s policy during that conflict was “marked by callous indifference and involved war crimes.“
The
international community can and should do more to prevent war crimes,
Amnesty said. It urged states to ratify and adhering to the Arms Trade
Treaty, which prohibits the sale of arms to those who would use them for
mass atrocities.
The London based organization also called on
the five members of the UN Security Council - the US, China, Russia,
Franc and the United Kingdom - to renounce their veto power to block
resolutions against countries that have committed war crimes.
“This
could be a game changer for the international community and the tools
it has at its disposal to help protect civilian lives,” Shetty said.
“By
renouncing their veto rights the five permanent members of the Security
Council would give the UN more scope to take action to protect
civilians when lives are at grave risk and send a powerful signal to
perpetrators that the world will not sit idly by while mass atrocities
take place,” said Shetty.
The Foreign Ministry had no comment on
the report. But the group, NGO Monitor, charged that Amnesty call to
halt arms sales and shipment to Israel denied the right of the Jewish
State to self-defense.
The report did not mention the munitions
that were brought to Israel to save the lives of its citizens such the
Iron Dome anti-missile system, NGO Monitor said.
Nor did Amnesty
condemn Hamas for its illegal and systematic placement of weapons in
hospitals, mosques, and homes in Gaza, NGO Monitor charged.
“Unfortunately,
many Amnesty officials and "researchers" are so deeply involved in
promoting the narrative of Palestinian victimhood and Israeli guilt, and
remain blind to the requirements of universal human rights,” NGO
Monitor said.
Original post found here:http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Amnesty-urges-halting-arms-sales-to-Israel-and-other-countries-that-commit-mass-atrocities-392137
