Migrant boat traffic from Libya to Europe is surging and turning deadlier

The Washington Post reports today that the number of migrants heading to Italy from Libya in leaky boats and inflatable dinghies has broken an annual arrivals record, according to Italian authorities. The number of boat migrants reaching Italy from North Africa this year surpassed 171,000, topping the previous record of 170,100, set in 2014, the Italian Interior Ministry said Monday. But 2016 is also the most lethal year for those trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. So far, 4,690 people have died en route, compared with 3,771 deaths for all of last year, according to the U.N. refugee agency. http://wapo.st/2gES2g8        

Mexican archdiocese closes missing persons registry

The Catholic News Agency, from the US, published an article yesterday about the Archbishop of Guadalajara in Mexico announcing that his diocese is calling off its distribution of a list of…

Mali: Trial of former junta leader must bring justice for abductions, torture and murder

Amnesty International carried an article yesterday about the opening of the trial of former Malian junta leader Amadou Haya Sanogo. This is an important first step to put an end to an agonizing three-year-long wait for justice for those who suffered torture, as well as the murder and enforced disappearances of loved ones, at the hands of his soldiers, Amnesty said. Sanogo and several soldiers under his command will be tried on 30 November by the Assize Court in Sikasso, on charges linked to the abduction and murder of soldiers accused of supporting the ousted President, Amadou Toumani Touré. The charges also include the enforced disappearances of 21 soldiers between 30 April and 1 May 2012, whose bodies were later found in a mass grave. http://bit.ly/2fwBjMq

Defectors use satellite images to identify North Korean mass graves

The Telegraph…

Mass graves of Yazidi victims found near Mosul

Reuters reported yesterday that two mass graves of at least 18 members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, thousands of whom have been killed and kidnapped by so-called Islamic State, have been discovered as security forces fight to dislodge the militants from Mosul. Kurdish Peshmerga forces found the grave, which contained bones and identity cards that appeared to have been covered over with sandy earth by a bulldozer, the report says. Islamic State systematically killed, captured and enslaved thousands of Yazidis in the summer of 2014 as they overran the Sinjar area, where many of them lived. UN investigators have said that this constitutes genocide. http://reut.rs/2gmO4G7

Pakistani government urged to ascertain whereabouts of Wahid Baloch

The International News carried an article on 26 November noting that a large number of social, human rights and literary activists have expressed concern over the alleged enforced disappearance of…

Jamaica: “Illegal police tactics fuel scores of murders and sow culture of fear”

Amnesty International published a report on 23 November which finds that Jamaican authorities and local police are promoting a culture of fear among women and their families in marginalized communities to cover up thousands of alleged unlawful police killings amid systematic injustice. “Jamaica’s shocking culture of fear and violence is allowing police officers to get away with hundreds of unlawful killings every year. Shocking injustice is the norm,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International. http://bit.ly/2gmBkhO

More bodies found in Mexico mass graves

The Telegraph reports today that Mexican authorities have exhumed 32 bodies and nine heads from several clandestine graves in Mexico’s violence-plagued southern state of Guerrero this week. The remains were unearthed between Tuesday and Thursday in 17 pits on a hill in the village of Pochahuixco, part of the municipality of Zitala, a region…

Almost one in three Calais child refugees missing

The Independent reports today that almost one in three children who moved from the so-called Calais Jungle refugee camp after it was demolished have already gone missing, according to a report by a youth organization. The Refugee Youth Service (RYS) monitored 179 children displaced by last month’s evictions, of whom 56 percent are now living in France’s children’s homes, eight percent moved legally to the UK and two percent were sleeping rough. Yet another 30 percent could no longer be found. RYS co-founder Ben Teuten said: “We saw it in the southern evictions in March where 129 children are known to have disappeared and are witnessing it again now. A third of the 179 children RYS were tracking in the October evictions cannot currently be located.” http://ind.pn/2g5znqv

Bodies of 25 victims of Camp Speicher pulled from Tigris River

Iraqi News carried an article yesterday on an announcement by UNHCHR that the bodies of 25 victims…

Cambodian tribunal upholds life terms for Khmer Rouge leaders

Voice of America reports today that the UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia has upheld life sentences given to two former leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime for crimes against humanity. Khieu Samphan, the former head of state, and Nuon Chea, second in command to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, were originally sentenced in 2014 in connection with charges of extermination, enforced disappearances and political persecution. The tribunal has convicted one other person, while many of the Khmer Rouge leaders have died. The Khmer Rouge oversaw the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. http://bit.ly/2gAe5Vt

Migrant crisis: more die in the Mediterranean

Middle East Eye reported yesterday that at least eight people had died and many more were missing, feared dead, after migrant boats were believed to have sunk in the Mediterranean. The Italian coastguard said one of…

Islamic Movement in Nigeria calls for bodies to be removed from mass graves

The Daily Trust, a newspaper from Nigeria, reports today that the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) yesterday called for the release of the bodies of IMN members allegedly buried in mass graves in Kano and Kaduna. The head of Martyr Foundation of the IMN, Sheikh Abdulhamid Bello, made the call during a press briefing in Kano, charging that unknown numbers of the movement’s members have been murdered, and that those killed in Kano and Kaduna were buried in mass graves. http://bit.ly/2gcS0ff

Tunisia tribunal seeks to heal wounds of the past

The Daily Mail reported yesterday that in a series of heartrending televised hearings, a tribunal in Tunisia has begun the long process of healing the wounds of six decades of dictatorship. Harrowing descriptions of torture and rape moved many to tears during the first sittings of…

Colombia has the highest number of missing persons in Latin America

Telesur carried an article yesterday about a report on enforced disappearances published by Colombia’s National Center for Historical Memory. According to the report, over the span of 45 years a stunning 60,630 people were forcibly disappeared in Colombia, dramatically outpacing figures from other countries in the region, exceeding even those that endured bloody military dictatorships. The 423-page report, entitled, “Until We Find Them,” is the product of a lengthy investigation involving interviews with experts, human rights defenders, and victims of enforced disappearance. The staggering figure, which accounts for the years 1970 to 2015, translates to three people disappeared per day. In the worst years, between 1996 and 2005, a person was disappeared every two-and-half hours in Colombia. http://bit.ly/2fTl8Fl                 

Majorca moves to return missing Spanish Civil War victims to families 

The…