Impunity Watch: Asia

HRW Accuses Nepali Police of Torturing Children

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

Kathmandu, Nepal – Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Nepali police of torturing children in police custody for petty crimes. HRW had received over 200 credible claims of young boys and girls being tortured in Nepalese prisons. Some of the boys and girls were as young as 13 years old and many of the children were convicted of petty crimes or were working on the streets. Methods of torture included kicking, blows to the body, inserting sharp object under children’s toe nails and beatings to the feet, arms, and thighs with bamboo sticks and plastic pipes.

Torture is prohibited by the Nepalese Constitution and the torture of children is a criminal and civil crime. However, the maximum punishment for the torture of children under Article 7 of the Nepalese civil code is a fine and one year in jail. Asia researcher for HWR Children’s Rights Division, Bede Sheppard, said that police are supposed to protect children and “by torturing children in custody they are committing crimes against those they are supposed to be protecting.” Sheppard also added “it is surprising that not a single police officer has been prosecuted” despite the widespread allegations of torture of children in police custody.

HRW also expressed grave concern on the condition of surrounding of children in police custody because children are separated from their parents and adults in Nepalese prisons and could face assault from other prisoners. One 15 year old boy accounted being tortured by each of the three different police stations he was transferred to. The boy faced beatings, kicks, and was threatened with a gun to his temple to force him to confess to robbery. Sheppard said sometimes the purpose of torturing children was to force confessions or can be “purely for the entertainment of officials.”

November 20^th marks Nepalese National Children’s Day and HRW urges the Nepalese government to stop the abuse of children under policy custody. A Nepalese police spokesman said that several police officers have been punished in the past for torturing children; however, the spokesman denied any ongoing torture claims. The foreign minister, Nabin Kumar Ghimire, joined the police spokesman and said the allegations of torture were “wrong and baseless.”

For more information, please see:

ABC News – Nepali Police Accused of Torturing Children – 20 November 2008

BBC – Nepali Police ‘Torture Children’ - 19 November 2008

HRW – Nepal: End Torture of Children in Police Custody - 18 November 2008

Junta Sends More Activists to Jail

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

YANGON, Myanmar - A special court set up by the Junta government in Myanmar handed out jail terms of up to nine-and-a-half years to 11 more activists, mainly from the opposition NLD party, according to the Associated Press.   Earlier this week, five monks were jailed for six-and-a-half years and at least 14 student activists were given 65-year jail sentences for participating in anti-junta protests last year.  The sentence of 11 activists brings the total number sentenced this week to more than 60.

It is unclear why the authorities have acted against the opposition now.  However, human rights groups say the government is intensifying efforts to curb dissent ahead of elections in 2010. "Now they won't be able to participate in the election," said Soe Aung, the spokesman for the National Council for the Union of Burma, a Thailand-based umbrella organization for exile groups. "The generals are trying to put the final nail in the coffin to keep themselves in power forever."

Myanmar authorities also have split up pro-democracy activists who were given long jail terms this week and transferred them to different prisons around the country, relatives of sentenced activities said.  The sister of prominent activist Htay Kywe said she met her brother on Saturday at notorious Insein prison in Yangon, but when she returned on Sunday he had been transferred to a jail about 700 miles from Yangon.  "He is very thin and not in good health. I did not think they could be transferred very quickly like this, I am really sorry for this," she cried.  Then, she added: "If we can appeal for him, I will do. He said they have just tried for peace and national reconciliation."

Nyan Win, the spokesman for the National League for Democracy (NLD) party confirmed the transfers.  He told AFP that "It's like increasing the sentencing. Not only family members but also the person himself or herself is in difficulty."  He said that party lawyers Aung Thein and Khin Maung Shein had also been transferred.

For more information, please see:

AFP - Myanmar activists moved to separate prisons: relatives - 16 November 2008

AP - Myanmar activists moved to separate prisons: relatives - 16 November 2008

AP - Myanmar courts imprison more democracy activists - 17 November 2008

BBC - Burma court jails more protesters - 14 November 2008

Impunity Watch - Myanmar Sentenced 14 Democracy Advocates to Jail for 65 Years - 12 November 2008

Uzbek Human Rights Activist Recalls 3 Year Prison Stay, Honored by HRW

By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Asia

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – Although Uzbek Human Rights Activist Mutabar Tojibaeva was released from the Tashkent City Prison 6 months ago, she regularly has nightmares of her three year stay in the jail, which included 112 days in solitary confinement.

In 2005 Tojibaeva openly criticized the Uzbek government after the massacre in Andijan.  In Andijan the Uzbek government attempted to stop an antigovernment uprising.  She condemned the shooting of hundreds of mostly unarmed civilians by government forces.  Tojibaeva is the head of the Burning Hearts Club, an unregistered nongovernmental organization (NGO) in the city of Margilan.  She has also helped ordinary people seek justice, and she has also monitored trials and published reports on illegal child labor.

Tojibaeva was later arrested and was charged with 17 counts of criminal activity, which included slander, extortion, tax evasion, polluting the environment and membership in an illegal organization – her own unregistered NGO.  4 months after her arrest she was sentenced to eight years in prison.

In 2007, prison authorities placed Tojibaeva in the prison’s psychiatric ward without informing her lawyers.  Prison authorities forced Tojibaeva to take daily medication. Her family also told Human Rights Watch (HRW) that she was forced to spend 40 straight days in the ShIZO (punishment cell), causing her health to deteriorate. Tojibaeva was later diagnosed with cancer and on March 18, 2008, had surgery at the Tashkent Oncological Hospital.  Soon after Tojibaeva was released for health reasons and must continue to serve a three year suspended sentence.

Recalling her experience in prison, Tojibaeva said, "Those classified as political prisoners, such as practicing Muslims or government critics, face ill-treatment and torture.  They are subject to verbal abuse, as well as physical and psychological pressure. Prison workers treat them like animals.  They never get proper food.  Prison food largely consists of boiled porridge and cabbage soup. Inmates have to wait for hours -- sometimes in the snow or rain -- outside the prison canteen to get lunch or dinner."

HRW has honored Tojibaeva with the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.  The award is a unique collaboration among 10 of the world’s leading human rights organizations to give protection to human rights defenders worldwide.  The chairman of the jury of the Martin Ennals Award, Hans Thoolen, described Tojibaeva as “an exceptionally brave woman in a country where standing up for human rights is a dangerous activity that can lead to imprisonment and death; where human rights defenders often have to choose between prison or exile.”

Presently, Tojibaeva is in Germany receiving medical treatment but does not plan on staying in the country long.  Tojibaeva says she will return to Uzbekistan to continue her campaign to improve the human rights situation.

For more information, please see:

Daily Times – Uzbek Activist Jailed for 10 Years – 24 October 2008

Eurasia – Arrests, Beatings, Torture All Party of Job Description for Uzbek Rights Activists – 15 November 2008

Human Rights Watch – Uzbek Human Rights Activist Honored – 15 May 2008

Forced Abortion Case in China

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China - Arzigul Tursun, a Uyghyr woman who is six months pregnant with her third child, is forced to have abortion in China, according to human rights groups.  She fled from a local hospital to avoid a forced abortion.  But she has been found by police and taken under guard to a larger hospital, where she was scheduled to undergo an abortion against her will, according to her husband, Nurmemet Tohtasin.  “The police found my wife,” he said in a telephone interview from the Women and Children’s Welfare Hospital in Ili prefecture. He added, “My wife’s father was already at the hospital. They will probably do the abortion today.”

The village chief and party secretary had forced Nurmemet Tohtasin to find his wife after she escaped from the local hospital.  Nurmemet took officials to two of Tursun’s relatives’ homes and to her parents’ home.  “They said if we don’t find Arzigul, they would take our house and our farmland,” he said. The local Party secretary, Nurali, and the Dadamtu township mayor, Juret, declined to comment. The case of Arzigul Tursun is raising international attention because she is six months pregnant and an abortion could threaten her health.

According to China’s official news agency, Xinhua, China maintains a one-child-per-family rule on majority Han Chinese, with more flexible rules for ethnic minorities, to contain its massive population of 1.3 billion citizens. According to the One-Child policy, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two.  Under “special circumstances,” rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear.  Besides abortion, the government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low.  Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means.

U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, a New Jersey Republican, wrote China's ambassador to Washington, Zhou Wenzhong, to demand that "the nightmare of a forced abortion" not be carried out.

For more information, please see:

ABC News - Outrage Over Forced Abortion Case - 17 November 2008

LifeNews - China Officials Trying to Force Woman Six-Months Pregnant to Have Abortion - 14 November 2008

Radio Free Asia - Uyghur Woman Found, Facing Abortion - 17 November 2008

大纪元 - 新疆维族妇女怀孕6月被迫人工流产 - 11月15日2008

Journalist Shot by Pakistani Soldiers

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Journalist Qari Muhammad Shoaib was shot by Pakistani soldiers while driving his car in Mingora in the Swat Valley of northwest Pakistan.  Pakistani soldiers were stationed in the Swat Valley patrolling the area in response to threats of a suicide attack. 

Shoaib was accompanied by a family member driving home.  The family member said, "They shot at us as we reached Airport Road.  We received no indication that we should stop."  On the other hand, the military stated that warning shots were fired, yet the vehicle did not stop and as a result, they opened fire.  Police official Khaista Rehman said that "the security forces personnel gave him several warnings, he was signalled to stop, then they shouted and also fired shots in the air, but he kept moving towards a military convoy and finally one of the bullets hit him."  He continued by saying that shots were fired because suicide bombers have attacked in the past in a similar manner.

Military officials said that they regretted the incident and promised to compensate his family.  Shoaib was a reporter for the Khabar Kar daily and survived by two wives, three daughters and a son.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, eleven journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 2000.  Several journalists allege that the soldiers fired intentionally at Shoaib stating, "If they had wanted to stop the vehicle they could have shot out the tires." 

Approximately forty journalists protested in Mingora on Sunday, demanding an investigation of the Shoaib shooting.  On Monday and Tuesday, more journalist protesters rallied.  They said that many journalists have been killed for no reason except performing their professional duties.  They also criticized the government for not providing protection to journalists and demanded that the soldiers involved in Shoaib's killing be arrested and punished.

For more information, please see:

BBC News - Pakistan Troops 'Kill Journalist' - 10 November 2008

Daily Times - Journalists Protests Colleague's Killing - 11 November 2008

Pakistan Times - Security Forces Kill Seven Militants in Swat - 11 November 2008

Reporters Without Borders - Journalist Shot Dead in the Swat Valley - 10 November 2008

Canadian Reporter Held Hostage in Afghanistan Released

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KABUL, Afghanistan - Melissa Fung, a 35 year old reporter for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), was released after being held hostage for nearly four weeks on Saturday. 

Fung was on her way to a U.N. refugee camp in outer Kabul when she was kidnapped and forced to the western part of Afghanistan.  CBC News publisher John Cruickshank said in a statement, "She had been in a refugee camp.  She'd been doing some reporting on conditions there and on difficulties in Kabul, and essentially, as she left the camp, within a couple of blocks of a police station, they pulled up in a van, jumped out and overpowered her and took her."

Fung was held in the region of Wardak, located 50 kilometers southwest of Kabul, and controlled by the Taliban.  Fung stated that she was held in a small "cave."  It was so small that she could barely stand.  She said that they dug a small hole which turned into a tunnel, then opened to a room.  She said that her abductors never mistreated her except for when they chained her.  For the first three weeks of being kidnapped, they guarded her constantly, but during the last week, they chained her arms and legs and then abandoned her.

Susan Ormiston of CBC stated that they received a threatening phone call saying that Fung would be killed if a ransom was not paid or if people in police custody were harmed.  Fung was rescued by the National Directorate of Security (NDS), an Afghan intelligence agency.  NDS arrested three people who were involved in the kidnapping, but seemed to only be middle men.  The agency is still looking for others. 

The identity of the kidnappers is still unknown.  Fung said the man who guarded her went by the name "Khaled."  However, she indicated that she didn't believe it was his real name.  Fung said, "His friends called him 'Hezbollah.'"

Hezbollah is a radical Shia group based out of Lebanon and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.  It has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist acts, including car bombs, roadside bombs, rockets, booby-traps and suicide attacks.

Despite Fung's successful release with the help of the Afghan government, kidnappings of Western journalists are on the rise.  Reporters Without Borders said, "We are nonetheless very worried by the recent kidnappings of journalists in Afghanistan, where the security situation has deteriorated dangerously." 

For more information, please see:

CBC News - Kidnapped CBC Journalist Chained in Tiny Chamber Before Release - 9 November 2008

CNN - Freed Canadian Reporter:  I Was Kept in a Cave - 9 November 2008

Reporters Without Borders - Canadian Reporter Freed After Being Held Hostage for 28 Days - 9 November 2008

India's Famous Painter Fears Returning to Native Country

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Maqbool Fida Husain still fears returning to his native country. Husain, 93, is the most renowned painter in India, though subject to self-imposed exile due to the "controversial" nature of his work. Most notably, he paints Hindu goddesses and in a few of his works, they are nude. This has caused anger on behalf of Hindu nationalists who attacked galleries exhibiting his work, vandalized his work and even offered an $11 million reward for his death. In response to violent threats, Husain removed himself from India and has lived in Dubai for the past two years.

There are three of Husain's works which have caused most of the backlash from right-wing Hindus. Two are pencil drawings. One depicts Durga, the mother goddess. The other is of Saraswati, the goddess of the arts. Both portray the goddesses faceless and nude. The third, named Mother India, is a painting of a female nude, kneeling on the ground creating the shape of India. Husain believes that nudity is symbolic of purity.

In September 2008, the Supreme Court of India dismissed all charges against Husain. He was accused of obscenity, which under Indian laws, is a criminal offense. However, the Court ruled that Husain's paintings were not obscene, in fact, nudity was common in Indian iconography. With the Court ruling, Husain looks forward to returning to India stating, "This is not a victory for me only, but one for the Indian contemporary art movement."

Freedom of expression is one concept that has caused heated debate between democratic ideals and religious and ethnic diversity. Analysts state that most often controversy erupts as a result of politics. For example, last March, Taslima Nasreen, was forced to leave West Bengal after a Muslim political party denounced her novel. Another instance is that of political psychologist, Ashis Nandy. Nandy wrote an article criticizing the victory of Hindu nationalists in state election. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party controls the western state of Gujarat, where Nandy was subsequently charged with "promoting enmity between different groups."

The government has responded to threats and violence by banning the works of art and literature.

For more information, please see:

BBC News - Indian Painter Cleared By Court - 9 September 2008

New York Times - An Artist in Exile Tests India's Democratic Ideals - 9 November 2008

TIME - Maqbool Fida Husain - 13 August 2007

Laos and Vietnamese Troops Attack Hmong Civilians

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand – According to a statement by Vaughn Vang, Director of the Laos Human Rights Council, Inc., Laos Peoples Democratic Republic (LPDR) officials are pressuring the Thai government to repatriate all Hmong refugees and asylum seekers from Huay Nam Khao refugee camp in Thailand. Vang added many Hmong refugees that are deported from Thailand back to Laos have gone missing or are arrested in the middle of the night by LPDR authorities.

In June 2008, more than 5,000 Hmong refugees from the Huay Nam Khao refugee camp in Thailand held peaceful protests against Thai deportations of Hmong asylum seekers and refugees. Several witnesses confirmed with Human Rights Watch that Thai paramilitary forces surrounded protests with barbed wires and separated Hmong families when forcing them onto pick-up Trucks. Thai authorities moved the Hmong demonstration leaders to undisclosed locations. Additionally, Thai military and paramilitary forces arrested 873 Hmong protestors, including women and children, and forcibly deported them to Laos the next day.

Hmong refugees are prohibited to return home after they have returned to Laos after deportation. Some refugees are sent to relocations sites where they are enrolled in re-education camps. However, many human rights organizations say that Hmong refugees face arbitrary incarceration, sexual abuse, torture, and disappearances. 

Bill Frelick, refugee policy director of the Human Rights Watch said, “The Laos government is notorious for treating deported Hmong harshly upon their return … By imprisoning these Hmong deportees, Laos authorities confirm the fear many Hmong asylum seekers and refugees have expressed of being persecuting if returned to their native country.”

The LPDR persecute Hmong communities because of a Hmong insurgency in the 1960s. According to several humanitarian agencies, the LPDR is responsible for sexual abuse, torture, and extrajudicial killings of Hmong civilians living in Laos suspected of being insurgents.

For more information, please see:

APF – Rights Group Says Laos Jailed Hmong Refugee Protest Leaders – 27 October 2008

HRW – Laos: Cease Arbitrary Detention of Deported Hmong – 28 October 2008

Media Newswire – Thailand's Somchai Visits Laos Following Bloody Military, Chemical Weapons Attacks on Hmong  – 3 November 2008

Myanmar Sentenced 14 Democracy Advocates to Jail for 65 Years

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

YANGON, Myanmar - Fourteen democracy advocates of the 88 Generation Students were sentenced to prison terms of 65 years each, according to regional news accounts and reports on a Web site for exiles. The activists were sentenced during a closed-door hearing in Yangon.  "Family members were not allowed to attend the hearing," the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said in a statement. 

Many of the activists were arrested during anti-junta protests last year.  The protests lead to massive pro-democracy demonstrations, which were resulted in a military crackdown by the Junta.  Amnesty International and other international human rights groups condemned the Junta's action.  "It's a powerful reminder that Myanmar's military government is ignoring calls by the international community to clean up its human rights record." Amnesty International said in a statement.

Nyunt Nyunt Oo, mother of 31-year-old Pandeik Tun, one of the 14, said her son and others were sentenced under various charges including the so-called 5/96 law declaring that anyone who demonstrates, makes speeches or writes statements undermining stability will face up to 20 years in prison. She said the other charges involved the Video Act, the Foreign Exchange act, the Electronics Act and links with illegal groups.  Oo stated she will not appeal the decision because she does not think any effort will make a difference. 

On Monday, a court gave a 20-year sentence to blogger Nay Phone Latt, who was arrested in January after his blog in Myanmar was banned.  Also, a leading Myanmar poet Saw Wai, who is accused of penning a secret anti-junta message in one of his works, received two years at the same hearing, according to the spokesman Nyan Win of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. 

For more information, please see:

AP - Myanmar: Long sentences for democracy advocates - 11 November 2008

AP - Relatives: Myanmar activists get long prison terms - 11 November 2008

AFP - Govt slams jailing of Myanmar activists - 11 November 2008

International Herald Tribune - Myanmar sentences 14 dissidents - 11 November 2008

Reuters - Myanmar jails dissidents for 65 years - 11 November 2008

Thai Intellectual Arrested for Insulting Monarchy

By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand - Sulak Sivaraksa, a prominent intellectual, was arrested on a charge of insulting the Thai monarchy.  The offense may lead to a 15 year sentence for the 75 year old intellectual.

Sivaraksa was arrested for remarks he made in December last year to mark International Human Rights Day. Sivaraksa’s lawyer would not quote the passages from the speech on philosophy, society, and human rights.  However, reports indicate that the speech was broadly critical of government spending on the lavish 2006 celebrations for King Bhumibol Adulyadej's Golden Jubilee. Sivaraksa’s lawyer stated that Sivaraksa considered his critical remarks to be an effort to protect the monarchy.

Although almost all Thais revere the monarchy and admire the king, the specific charge of lese majeste is often used for political purposes.  The timing of Sivaraksa’s arrest comes amid a struggle between the royalist, military “old guard,” represented loosely by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) street campaign, and forces loyal to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.  Although the monarchy is considered to “be in the middle and working in every field,” Queen Sirikit’s recent attendance at the funeral of a PAD protester killed in clashes has led many to believe the monarchy supports the campaign to oust the elected government.

"The more clear it becomes that the monarchy is caught up in politics, the more they are attempting to clamp down on local and international discussion of this role.  It seems that the authorities are trying to keep a lid on discussion of this political role," said Thailand researcher Andrew Walker of Australian National University in Canberra.

The Thai police are presently investigating 30 other similar cases.  One includes an Australian writer, who is presently in jail, awaiting formal charges for allegedly inappropriate passages in a novel. 

Sivaraksa was educated in Britain and has been associated with reformist movements since the 1960’s.  During the 1960’s he was a mentor to students who took part in an uprising against military dictatorship in 1973.  He fled abroad after a right-wing counterrevolution in 1976, the first of several periods he spent in exile.

For more information, please see:

AP – Thai Intellectual Arrested on Anti-Monarchy Charge – 7 November 2008

Bangkok Post – Sulak Arrested – 8 November 2008

Reuters – Arrest of Thai Academic Raises Free Speech Fears – 7 November 2008