GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – An uneasy peace lies over Cairo and other parts of Egypt after the Egyptian army Thursday offered a public apology for the deaths that occurred earlier this week when protesters took to the streets. A truce between the two groups appears to be holding. Army leaders made it clear shortly after offering the apology that they do not intend to relinquish power in the short term.
Strong reactions at home and abroad have put pressure on the army after 38 people died. Aljazeera reports that 3,000 have been wounded in the fighting.
Army leaders promised that they will let elections go ahead as scheduled Monday.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Guardian, New York Times
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Organizers of protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in Egypt are calling for a million people to come out on the streets Tuesday 22 November to force military rulers to hand over power no matter what the results of next week’s elections. At least 25 people have died in fighting in the past four days as the protests turned violent. The civilian cabinet of the military rulers resigned late Monday, adding to the confusion. The military have been ruling since overthrowing Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship early in 2011.
Links to other sites: Al Arabiya, Aljazeera, BBC
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Jordan’s King Abdullah, in a Monday interview with the BBC, became the first Arab leader to openly encourage President Bashar al-Assad to resign, in the wake of the Arab League’s decision to suspend Syria. Protesters in Syria reported up to 40 new deaths, mainly in the south of the country near the border with Jordan. But the Arab League decision was met with harsh words from Syria’s foreign minister, Washid Al Moallam: “Syria will remain – despite what some of the brothers throw at it – the heart of Arabism and its impenetrable bastion,” al-Moallem stated, adding that conspiring against Syria is doomed to fail.
Links to other sites: BBC, Guardian, Jordan Times, Sana (Syrian News Agency)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The number of deaths in Syria as a result of the crackdown on protests has reached 3,500, the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva says. Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a press briefing that 60 deaths have been recorded since the Syrian government reportedly said at the start of November
The OHCHR office headed by Navi Pillay has called on Syria a number of times to end the brutality and allow an independent commission to investigate the situation in the country.
Tuesday Shamdasani said
“Since Syria signed the peace plan sponsored by the League of Arab States last week, more than 60 people are reported to have been killed by military and security forces, including at least 19 on the Sunday that marked Eid al-Adha.
“While the Syrian government announced the release of 553 detainees on Saturday on the occasion of Eid, tens of thousands remain in detention and dozens continue to be arbitrarily arrested everyday. Syrian troops continue to use tanks and heavy weaponry to mount attacks on residential areas in the city of Homs. The situation in the neighbourhood of Baba Amr has been particularly appalling. According to information the UN human rights office has received, the neighbourhood has remained under siege for seven days, with residents deprived of food, water and medical supplies.”
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss government has recalled its ambassador to Syria for consultations, to send a strong signal to Damascus that Bern cannot accept the Syrian government’s violence against its citizens and the fact it has ignored international appeals to stop.
The recall falls short of a rupture in international relations, Bern noted in a statement issued Thursday 18 August:
“Due to the fact that the numerous calls from the international community to end the violence have been ignored, the FDFA has decided to recall the Swiss Ambassador in Syria to Bern for consultations. This decision was made because Switzerland cannot tolerate the systematic human rights violations perpetrated by the Syrian security forces against the civilian population. In view of its humanitarian tradition, Switzerland wishes to send a strong signal to Damascus. The recall of the Swiss Ambassador in Damascus is not, however, equivalent to a rupture of diplomatic relations. The Swiss Embassy in Damascus remains open and fully operational.”
The Federal Council approved sanctions against Syria 18 May, in line with those of the European Union, and it extended these 24 May and again this week, 17 August. These include freezing assets of government officials and their entourages, travel bans and restrictions on arms exports. Bern is also demanding that Syria give foreign journalists access to the country, to report on events there.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Tottenham’s night of violence in the north of London, sparked by the death of a man shot by police, spread Sunday to several other London suburbs: Enfield, Walthamstow and Waltham Forest in north London, Brixton to the south, according to the BBC. Police have been the target of much of what the BBC calls the “disorder”, with 35 police officers reported to be wounded, police vehicles overturned and large gangs of youths looting shops, especially mobile phone stores. Some 100 people were arrested.
Links to other sites: BBC, Met Police statement, Sky News, Telegraph
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The US will not intervene militarily and Europe is pushing for a UN condemnation of the Syrian government’s crackdown on its citizens, now in its third day, which included the deaths of a reported 100 people in the city of Hama Sunday 31 July alone. Chinese news agency Xinhua quotes Syrian state media as saying the army has not entered Hama while negotiations continue, and that state media show gunmen killing Syrian security forces.
A late-night session of the UN Security Council in New York Monday 1 August failed to bring about an agreement on condemning the violence, but some diplomats say progress is being made, although China and Russia still fear that a condemnation could lead to military intervention.
MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND – Police Monday evening issued their full report on security and crimes during the Montreux Jazz Festival, following an earlier report on the last weekend of the hugely popular Festival which ended on a sour note, with 21 people detained by police in separate incidents between Friday evening and Sunday morning, 15-17 July.
The report calls the security situation “worrying”, despite a well-coordinated policing and safety effort that included cantonal police, the Riviera city police group, criminal police responsible for arresting those caught committing a crime, highway patrol teams from the region, firefighters, emergency crews and private security firms. The festival was faced with a level of violence not seen before.
Security forces and local retailers noted a trend towards younger people buying hard alcohol and taking it into the festival, where they got very drunk, say police, “and where the mob mentality [went] to work, with a bump or a look taken amiss and used as the excuse for a fight”, with police and security guards often the first target.
Police registered some 100 complaints during the festival and they arrested 100 people, 52 of them for drug abuse. They seized 292.5 gr of marijuana, 9 gr of hash, 5.5 gr of cocaine, 0.5 gr of crack, 3.5 gr of amphetamines, 112 Ecstasy pills and 20 ml of GHB.
Security staff parked 47, 600 cars, 1,400 more than in 2010. Firefighterse, who put in 1,000 hours of service during the festival, notably put out the fire from a stand near the Miles Davis Hall, caused by a faulty gas cannister installation.
Fights and violence most worrisome aspect
The most serious early sign of violence came at about 02:00 Saturday 9 July when two groups got into a fight and a man who was not involved in the fight was knifed in the stomach. He was taken to Montreux Hospital where he had eight stitches. He filed charges and the person who attacked him was identified and turned over to to the public attorney after a hearing.
The violence the last two nights took place mainly in the Montreux Jazz Café, where several groups, clearly under the influence of alcohol, went after private security guards and then the police who brought reinforcements. At one point Saturday police were faced with 300 rioters throwing stones, bottles, chairs, parts broken off cars. Several members of the security forces were injured, with the most serious a police officer who was hospitalized and who received 13 stitches to the forehead and head.
Bicycles and motorcycles parked in the area were heavily damaged, and other property was damaged.
Eleven people, including two minors, were detained between Friday and Saturday morning, Ten more people were held by police between Saturday evening and Sunday.
Police are asking witnesses to phone +41 (0) 21 644 4444.
Organizers say the festival drew in excess of 230,000 people this year.
Javier Sicilia, a well-known Mexican poet who writes for a news magazine called Proceso, Sunday 8 May asked for five minutes of silence after a rally in Mexico City’s main square, where people yelled “Enough is enough” in the fight against Mexico’s drug war.
An estimated 150,000 people attended the rally to call on the government to change its strategy in this war.
The violence and the number of victims in the fight against the drug cartels has increased in recent weeks, even though the government argues that almost all the dead are members of drug cartel gangs. Sicilia’s 24-year-old son was found dead last month along with six other people, and authorities have recovered more than 350 bodies from graves and pits around the country, described as “collateral damage”.
The five minutes of silence were to commemorate the city’s more than 35,000 victims of violence in Mexico’s war against drugs in the four and a half years since the president, Felipe Calderón, ordered the military in to fight the cartels.
Links to other sites: BBC, New York Times
Update Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Authorities in Vaud have arrested a man in connection to the 26 February shooting that left two women injured in Lausanne. He phoned police shortly before 03:00 early Monday 28 February, admitting to the crime, and he turned himself in to police in Mont-sur-Lausanne shortly afterwards. He said he did it out of a loathing for authorities.
Police say the man is in their books, but only for traffic violations.
He has now been charged with attempted murder, putting the lives of others in danger and grievous bodily injury.
The man is in his late 20s and he lives on the west side of the city. He told police that he went into the city centre to shoot a police officer, but that he never intended to murder anyone. He shot the parking officer from a distance of 30 metres until he saw the woman fall, then he went home and cleaned his gun.
The shooting took place near the Montbenon Tribunal. Two women, including one who was in her car at the time, were shot in the legs. One of the victims was an off-duty municipal parking agent.
The man shot his 9mm gun before fleeing in what was identified Saturday as a Mercedes-Benz with Valais license plates, police investigators said Saturday. But when the man turned himself in, he admitted driving his dark blue BMW 316i with Vaud license plates.
Nearby Montbenon Park, one of the city’s largest and most popular parks, has been the scene of random acts of violence in recent years. In 2009, an American student was attacked by a group of six young people that included four women. A few months earlier, a 20-year-old was knifed in the heart by two youths he didn’t know as he walked through the park.
29 January 2011: dust storm leaving Egypt (photo, Jeff Schmalz / NASA Modis rapid response team
(2 videos) Egyptians marching in the streets against the government of Hosmi Mubarak have been faced in recent days with more than the threat of military action against them: a weekend dust storm swept across Cairo and much of Egypt, adding to their woes.
The storm has now flown out of Egypt, over the Mediterranean.
Mubarak late Tuesday 1 February promised he will step down as president, but not as quickly as the crowds would like, reports indicate. Some rioting broke out in Alexandria after the president made his announcement.
They, and now US President Barack Obama, are encouraging Mubarak to move with greater speed, perhaps that of the desert dust storm that rapidly left the country.
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, New York Times, Telegraph, UK
Reuters video of Mubarak’s announcement
Barack Obama video, White House
Police seek witnesses to beating; couple attacked in front of their children
Update 22:15 Zug, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Canton Zug police are seeking witnesses to a beating Friday night 28 January in which a British couple was injured in front of their three children at the train station in the town of Zug.
The pair and their children, whose ages are not given by police, were at the Zug train station at 22:00 Friday, part of a group of people, when they were insulted by nine teenagers.
Four of the teens then attacked the couple for reasons that are not clear, punching and kicking the man and woman several times in the torso and the head.
Official reports are not being provided by the government in Tunisia detailing the number of protestors, dead and injured, but eyewitnesses are increasingly supplying reports of violent confrontations Wedneday evening 12 January. A curfew, the first since 1987, was not enough to keep people off suburban streets in Ettadhamen and Intilaka, 15 km from the centre of Tunis, according to AFP/Nouvel Observateur, although the city of Tunis itself is reported to have been quiet during the 20:00-05:30 curfew.
A Swiss-Tunisian woman from Lausanne was killed Wednesday night in the north of the country while watching riots from the window of her family’s home.
Tunisia has been torn by violence for the past month, over the scarcity of jobs and the cost of living.
Match abandoned Tuesday night after six minutes, but violence continued
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Uefa, the European football body, says it is opening an investigation into the violence Tuesday night 12 October in Genoa, Italy, that prompted officials to call off the Euro 2012 qualifying match between Italy and Serbia after six minutes.
The start of the match was delayed by 35 minutes due to flares thrown by Serbian fans and “disturbances”, says Uefa. Seventeen people were arrested, with nearly 140 identified as taking part in the disturbances, according to Italian media reports, with some reports that the instigator was among those arrested.
The hearing into the case will be held 28 October after referee and delegates reports are filed with Uefa. Disciplinary action, says the organization, could “range from a reprimand or fine, up to a stadium closure or ‘disqualification from competitions in progress and/or exclusion from future competitions’, based on Uefa regulations.
Serbia lost its home match to Etonia, 3-1, Friday 8 October. Italy is currently in first place in the Group C rankings for qualifying rounds, with Serbia in fifth place out of the six.
Riots inside the stadium
Conches, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva police say a 52-year-old Vaud man shot and killed his 42-year-old companion and then killed himself at around 8:00 on 4 October. Their blood-covered bodies were found by their children who alerted the authorities.
Geneva police said the children heard a loud “crack” before finding their parents’ bodies.
Three of the minors, aged 10, 7 and 5 were home at the time of the incident. The oldest child, 14, was in school.
The woman, a Geneva native, lived with her children on chemin de Pré-l’Hermine, in Conches, canton Geneva.
[Ed. Note: Geneva police have made a correction to their previous statement concerning the age of one of the victims and added new details surrounding the shooting. The second victim, police say, is a 24-year-old and not a 14-year-old as previously identified.]
Petit-Lancy, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 29-year-old man has been arrested after shooting two people, including a 15-year-old girl, during an argument that occurred around 19:00, Sunday 3 October in Petit-Lancy, a commune of Lancy in canton Geneva.
The 15-year-old is fighting for her life after being shot in the head and a 24-year-old man is recuperating after being grazed in the face by a bullet.
According to police, the argument started after the 29-year-old man who had been drinking heavily, accosted a group of girls at the Caroline school park in Petit-Lancy. The teens called two male friends who then confronted, and pushed, the aggressor.
The man, police says, felt “humiliated,” left and came back armed with a gun.
The group started to run after being confronted by the armed man who shot one time towards the 24-year-old man. The bullet grazed him on the cheek and then continued its trajectory and struck the 15-year-old in the head.
According to police, the shooter seemed to have realized what he had done, approached the fallen teen to help her and called police from his mobile phone. The 29-year-old then waited, by the girl’s side, for authorities to arrive.
The girl is in critical condition at the University Hospital in Geneva; the shooter faces attempted murder charges.
The violence continues in Mexico where soldiers killed 25 suspected cartel members in the Tamaulipas state, near the US border.
According to Mexico’s Defense Department, soldiers rescued three men that had been kidnapped and seized 25 rifles, four grenades, 4,200 rounds of ammunition and 23 vehicles.
Links to: The LA Times, Voice of America
Additional details:
Violence flared once again in the Ardoyne area in Belfast, Northern Ireland for the traditional but controversial “Twelfth” parade that commemorates the 1689 ouster of King James II, a Catholic, by King William III, a Protestant. The parades have often been marked by riots and the 2010 one was no exception, with 55 police officers injured. An angry police chief Constable Matt Baggott condemned the crowd’s actions, but appealed, in a police statement, in a new way to the province’s non-violent majority: ”
“The cost of policing last night in that small part of Northern Ireland is the equivalent of a ward in a hospital. It’s the equivalent of a primary school. It’s the equivalent of neighborhood policing. It is time to have that big debate about what is really important for the future in Northern Ireland. I would like to see a very loud collective voice making sure that these people are condemned. Everyone who has a say in the future of Northern Ireland must condemn those responsible and make sure it is clear to them that they have no place in that future.”
Links to other sites: Belfast Telegraph, CNN, RTE
IOM in Geneva warns of tense situation
Tutu’s One Movement tamping down xenophobia
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – The International Office for Migration (IOM), a UN agency in Geneva, warned Tuesday 13 July of possible violence against Zimbabwean and other migrant workers in South Africa, in the wake of the World Cup. The organization is preparing, with other UN agencies, the South African government and local NGOs (non-governmental organizations) inside Zimbabwe, to provide aid and help process the return of a large number of people. In recent days the popular border crossing at Beitbridge has been the scene of a steady flow of vehicles laden down with furniture and other household possessions.
The army and police are moving into Western Cape townships after threats of violence; two years ago violence flared, aimed at foreign workers. At the weekend foreign nationals were reported to be leaving Nyanga, Philippi East and Khayelitsha districts.
“I cannot risk the life of my family while trying to watch the World Cup final,” Ellias, a 26-old Zimbabwean from Gwanda, told IOM officials. He is married with two children and was passing through Musina on his way from Mamelodi Township near Pretoria.
Video: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, founder of One Movement, speaks to migrant workers on International Migrant Day, december 2009
The leaders of Thailand’s anti-government Red-shirt protest movement surrendered early Wednesday, telling their followers to go home, and initially, they did. The encampment where they have stayed in a standoff with troops for the past two weeks quietly emptied. And then the reaction set in and violence took over, with what the Wall Street Journal describes as “some of Bangkok’s priciest real estate” set on fire. Great plumes of smoke rose over the center of the city by Wednesday evening, with troops unable to control the crowds.
Bangkok and much of the country have been put under curfew.
Links to other sites: BBC, Sydney Morning Herald, Wall St Journal
Three people have died in Athens and four are reportedly missing after a fire bomb hit a bank in central Athens. The victims were Marfin bank employees, according to CNN, and another 20 employees are reported to be trapped on floors above the fire. Several cars, trash bins and buildings have been set on fire elsewhere in the city as the anti-austerity measures strike and protests turn violent.
Government riot police in Bangkok confronted red-shirt protestors Friday morning on the main Rama Iv road before stepping back, following a grenade attack late Thursday that killed one commuter and sent 75 to hospital with injuries. The government has blamed unnamed terrorists for the attacks.
Tensions have been running high as the red-shirt protestors have stepped up resistance to the government, and several foreign governments, including Australia, Britain and the US are recommending that travelers avoid Thailand. A number of business along Silom Road, the Wall Street of Bangkok, were closed Friday in the wake of the violence.
Links to other sites: AP, BBC, Bangkok Post, Xinhua
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland has for the first time produced nationwide crime statistics that will in future allow for true comparisons between areas. Top of the list of crimes committed: theft and property damage, which together make up 82 percent of all crimes, with car theft more than one-third of these.
Swiss police registered 675,309 crimes in 2009.
Domestic violence: one-third of violent crimes; foreigners commit one-third of all crimes
Violence that broke out Sunday 17 January in Jos, Nigeria flared up again Tuesday and the government has declared a 24-hour curfew. “Scores” have died and as many as 600 people may have been injured, reports CNN, but reliable numbers are not available. According to allAfrica, the violence began when two neighbours, both of whom had had their houses burned down, began to rebuild them, but fell out over a misunderstanding. “Garba allegedly encroached on the plot of his Christian neighbour, a development that resulted into a hot argument and then a fight. The entire quarters re-grouped along religious lines and began a riot that spread to other parts of the city.”
Links to other sites: allAfrica, CNN, Reuters AlertNet
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two shelters for abused men are opening this week in German-speaking Switzerland, one near Aarau and the other near Zurich. The shelters are not connected in any way but both are primarily designed for men who have lost their homes and families after separations, says swissinfo, which carries a feature on the two new shelters. It focuses on the little-discussed problem of violence towards men, at home.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Violence and hooliganism marked the FC Bâle and AS Roma football match, the first as part of the new Europa League, despite a massive police presence in Basel Thursday night. Some 50 supporters for each side, say the police, caused trouble, starting with a group of Italians before the match, notable for their violence, police said in a press release issued Friday morning 18 September. Basel won the match 2-0 and it was the Basel side hooligans who then flared after the match, throwing bottles at cars with Italian license plates.
Former French President Jacques Chirac kept the promise he made to murder victim Ilan Halimi’s parents: 27 gang members who targeted Jews as their victims will go on trial in Paris for killing Halimi. Halimi was kidnapped and tortured for more than three weeks before his captors stabbed him, tied him to a tree and set him on fire three years ago. BBC
Continual rapid news updates and social networking tools like Twitter can cause further indifference to human suffering, some studies show, reports CNN. The media give too little time for the brain to digest violence and suffering in one story before they bombard the viewer with the next and this can have implications on their morality, according to a University of Southern California study. Twitter sees itself as a solution to information overload because the viewer can step in and out of the information flow at will, according to CNN.
Increasing conflicts in the northwest Central African Republic (CAR) has forced nearly 24,000 people to leave their homes and seek refuge in the bush or neighbouring Chad. Refugees and internally displaced persons began returning to their homes in 2008 when rebel groups and the government signed peace agreements. A new rebel group known as the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace is at the root of the renewed violence, reports AllAfrica.
Tens of thousands of people, according to Al Jazeera wire service, marched in Naples 21 March to demand an end to organized crime and violence attributed to the Mafia, as well as to commemorate some 900 Mafia victims.
