- PMC's are a part o war. They become big again at the end of the second war. Now we have powerhouses like Wagner.
An Israeli-style Wagner Group': The ultra-Orthodox military unit in Washington’s crosshairs
For the first time, the United States is expected to impose sanctions on an Israeli military unit. The Netzah Yehuda Battalion, initially set up to accommodate Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews but which quickly expanded to become a popular unit for radical right-wing settlers, has over the years been accused of a series of human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.
By:
Sébastian SEIBT
The first word of the prospective
sanctions emerged over the weekend when several Israeli and American news outlets reported that the Biden administration was gearing up to sanction Netzah Yehuda. Citing three unnamed US sources “with knowledge of the issue”,
news website Axios said US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken was expected to announce the unprecedented move against the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) “within days”. The sanctions relate to
human rights abuses committed by the unit in the
West Bank prior to
Hamas’s October 7 attack on
Israel, it said.
‘A unit every army should be ashamed of’
The news sparked angry reactions in Israel. “The IDF must not be sanctioned!” Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu wrote in a post on X, describing the prospect of the sanctions as “the height of absurdity and a moral low” at a time when Israeli forces are fighting a war in Gaza against Hamas.
Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s political rival and a key centrist minister in Israel’s war cabinet,
responded in a similar manner: “We have great respect for our American friends, but imposing sanctions on the unit is a dangerous precedent and sends the wrong message to our shared enemies at a time of war.”
One of the main reasons for the anger is that the US would need to invoke the 1997 Leahy Laws to sanction the battalion. Leahy has previously been used to blacklist Indonesian military units accused of kidnapping and murdering political activists, as well as members of the Pakistani army involved in assassination campaigns in Afghanistan.
“Sanctions on an IDF unit is a terrible stain on the Israeli Defence Forces. If you look at the groups [previously targeted by] US sanctions you will see that it is not going to be good company for the IDF to be part of,” Ahron Bregman, a political scientist and an expert on the Israel-Palestinian conflict at King’s College in London, said, adding “the Israelis will fight hard to try and prevent it”.
He noted, however, that even though the Netzah Yehuda is an integral part of the IDF, it is “a unit every army should be ashamed of”.
“My fellow Israelis will hate me saying it but Netzah Yehuda is a sort of an Israeli-style
Wagner Group,” he said.
Omri Brinner, an Israeli analyst and specialist in Middle East geopolitics at the International Team for the Study of Security Verona (ITSS), said it was a bold comparison.
"It's not some private military group fighting for money. They are an integral part of IDF."
But the Netzah Yehuda is no ordinary unit. Created in 1999, it was initially set up to accommodate ultra-Orthodox Jews into the army by allowing them time to maintain their religious practices and limiting interactions with female soldiers. Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community is normally exempt from the state’s strict military service. Over the years, the unit’s special status and benefits – it has a dedicated rabbi and its members have time set aside for prayers – has generated heated debate in Israel, with some criticising the special treatment it has been accorded.
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-...thodox-military-unit-in-washington-crosshairs
Mali: Army, Wagner Group Atrocities Against Civilians
Investigations Needed Into Indiscriminate Drone Strikes, Summary Killings
- Malian armed forces and Wagner Group foreign fighters unlawfully killed and summarily executed several dozen civilians in counterinsurgency operations in Mali’s central and northern regions since December.
- Mali’s Russia-backed transitional military government is committing horrific abuses and is leaving the regional group that could provide scrutiny into its human rights situation.
- The mandate of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s independent expert on human rights in Mali, who assists the Malian government to protect human rights, should be renewed and given adequate resources.
(Nairobi) – Malian armed forces and Wagner Group foreign fighters have unlawfully killed and summarily executed several dozen civilians during counterinsurgency operations in
Mali’s central and northern regions since December 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. Military drone strikes on a wedding celebration on February 16, 2024, and during a burial on February 17, 2024, killed at least 14 civilians, including 4 children.
Mali has long been engaged in an armed conflict with Islamist armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The recent abuses have occurred at a time when Mali’s relations with the United Nations and neighboring West African governments have sharply deteriorated. In December, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA),
pulled out of the country at the request of Mali’s transitional military authorities, raising
concerns about the protection of civilians and the
monitoring of abuses. In January, the transitional authorities
announced that Mali would leave the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which would deprive victims of gross human rights violations of the ability to seek justice through the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice.
“Mali’s Russia-backed transitional military government is not only committing horrific abuses, but it is working to eliminate scrutiny into its human rights situation,” said
Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Malian authorities should urgently work with independent experts to monitor human rights violations and ensure that those responsible are held to account.”
Between January 1 and March 7, Human Rights Watch interviewed by telephone 31 people with knowledge of the incidents in central and northern Mali. These included 20 witnesses to abuses, as well as community leaders, activists, international organization representatives, journalists, and academics. On March 1, Human Rights Watch sent letters to Mali’s justice and defense ministers detailing its findings and inquiring about alleged abuses. The Malian authorities did not respond.
Witnesses reported serious abuses by the Malian armed forces and the Wagner Group, the Russia-linked military security contractor, during counterinsurgency operations against Islamist armed groups in the villages of Attara, in Timbuktu region; Dakka Sebbe and Nienanpela in Segou region; Dioura and Gatie Loumo in Mopti region; Ouro Fer, Nara region. They said that in most of the operations, foreign, non-French-speaking armed men described as “white” or “Wagner" took part. In Dakka Sebbe, the operation was carried out almost entirely by Wagner fighters. In Attara, more Wagner fighters were identified than Malian soldiers.
Wagner personnel first
deployed to Bamako, Mali’s capital, by December 2021 with support from the Russian armed forces. Human Rights Watch has previously
documented grave abuses by Malian security forces and allied fighters believed to be from the Wagner Group. In August 2023, Russia
vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have extended the work of the panel of experts tracking abuses by armed groups and Malian security forces and Wagner fighters, curbing efforts to bring accountability for conflict-related violations.
On January 26, scores of Malian soldiers searching for Islamist fighters in Ouro Fero village went door-to-door and arrested 25 people, including 4 children. Later that day, villagers found their bodies about four kilometers from Ouro Fero.
“We found the bodies on a hill, charred, bound by the hands, and blindfolded,” said a 26-year-old villager who helped bury the bodies. “They had all been shot in the head.”
On February 16, a Malian drone strike on an outdoor wedding celebration in Konokassi killed at least five men and two boys and wounded three others. The following day, as villagers attempted to bury the bodies, a second drone strike hit a group of people at the Konokassi cemetery, killing five men and two boys and injuring six others.
Villagers said that while the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM) controls the areas around Konakassi, none of their fighters were at the wedding.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/28/mali-army-wagner-group-atrocities-against-civilians
- The comic-book character Deathstroke become disappointed with the army proporses, when they asked him to blow a hospital full of terrorists. It's was a hospital full of civilians, marjority children!
This four decades ago. The art copies the life?