Khmer Rouge Defendant Weeps during Return to Killing Fields

Khmer Rouge Defendant Weeps during Return to Killing Fields

By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer,Asia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – During an investigative reenactment, Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, was brought to tears as he lead tribunal judges and co-investigators through the Tuol Sleng Torture Center he once oversaw during the Khmer Rouge regime.

During the 3 ½ hour tour, Kaing Guek Eav explained what took place at the torture center and nearby killing fields. Reach Sambath, a tribunal spokesmen, told reporters, “We noticed that he was feeling pity, tears were rolling down his face two or three times.” Kaing Guek Eav was also especially moved when he stood before a tree that described how executioners killed child victims by bashing their heads against the tree’s trunk.

At the end of the reenactment, Kaing Guek Eav began to pray and cried in front of a glass-fronted stupa that displayed 8,985 skulls bearing signs of death by hammers, bamboo sticks, and bullets.

The reenactment took place last Tuesday and was closed to the public and media. About 80 tribunal participants took part. The group included judges, prosecutors, lawyers, representatives of victims, and witnesses.  During the tour, Kaing Guek Eav appeared frail and walked through the fields with the assistance of a guard.

Kaing Guek Eav was commander of the Khmer Rouge’s torture center, Tuol Sleng. Nearly 16,000 men, women, and children were tortured at the Tuol Sleng and then executed at the nearby killing fields. Only 16 persons are believed to have survived their time there.

For more information, please see:

AP – Khmer Rouge Defendant Visits Grave Site – 26 February 2008

Earthtimes – Former Khmer Rouge Jailer Returns to Cambodian “Killing Fields” –26 February 2008

The Press Association – Khmer Rouge Accused at Death Sites – 26 February 2008

BRIEF: Women in Afghanistan in Danger

KABUL, Afghanistan- Seven years after the Taleban regime ended, women in Afghanistan are still plagued by extremely high rates of violence.  High levels of poverty are causing families to sell their daughters into forced marriage.  Some of these girls are as young as six and they are being forced into a life of slavery and rape, often by multiple members of their new families.

In 2007, the Afghan government passed a law banning marriage to girls under 16 years old.  Despite this, in 57 per cent of marriages the bride is under 16 according to a recent report by Womankind Worldwide.  There are laws in place to protect women, but the Afghan government does not enforce them.

Because of their violent home situations, many of these women turn to self-harm and suicide.

For more information, please see:

The Independent – Women’s lives worse than ever – 25 February 2008

BBC News – Afghan women ‘remain in danger’ – 25 February 2008

Gazans Form Human Chain

NEW YORK, United States – Human Rights Watch and the Moroccan Human Rights Association called on the Moroccan government to protect the rights to privacy and a fair trial.  In November 2007, six men were arrested and later convicted under Article 489 of the penal code, which criminalizes “lewd or unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex.”

The men were arrested after a video of a private party, allegedly including the men, circulated on the internet.  Abdelaziz Nouaydi, a Rabat lawyer on the men’s defense team, said that the men were convicted after the prosecution showed no evidence of any Article 489 violation and only offered the video as evidence.  However, the video showed no indication of sexual activity.  The men were sentenced to imprisonment, ranging from three to ten months.  Article 489 provides a punishment of up to three years imprisonment.

HRW states that criminalizing consensual, adult homosexual conduct violates international law.  Morocco has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which bar interference with the right to privacy.  Also, the United Nations Human Rights Committee stated that laws that criminalize consensual homosexual conduct violate the ICCPR.

For more information, please see:
Human Rights Watch – Morocco: Protect Rights to Privacy and Fair Trial – 26 February 2008

Human Rights Watch – Morocco: Overturn Verdicts for Homosexual Conduct – 12 December 20083

Ugandan Peace Deal: End in sight for 22 year war

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

JUBA, Sudan – The Ugandan Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) Rebels signed a deal over the weekend. The deal will include a permanent cease-fire to the twenty-two year war that killed thousands of people and displaced another one to two million. The agreement requires one final step: agreement on the disarmament, demobilization and re-integration of the rebel fighters. The official cease-fire will go into effect once the comprehensive peace deal is signed, an event most expected to occur by next weekend. However, negotiators such as UN envoy Joaquim Chissano see this past weekend’s events as “the laying down of arms. . . the end of the war.”

Peace talks began in mid-2006 when the parties signed a cessation of hostilities agreement that required both parties to stop shooting at each other and remain with their weapons. Last week, the peace agreement talks picked up steam when the two parties reached agreements on how to prosecute alleged war criminals and how rehabilitation efforts in war-torn regions would proceed. The progress made was almost lost Friday of last week when members of the LRA stormed out of the peace talks over demands for government positions.

The cease-fire agreement creates a temporary staging area in the southern part of  Sudan where rebels will remain prior to demobilization. The area creates a buffer of six miles (ten kilometers) around the area, which will be guarded by Sudanese troops. The rebel assembly area is on the border between  Sudan and Congo, in a town called Ri-Kwangba. The town has been used previously in the talks as one of the two locations the rebels were to assemble after the initial cessation was signed in 2006. However, the government contends the rebels never honored the assembly area and roamed throughout southern Sudan causing havoc.

Further, in the agreement a provision was left for the UN to play a policing role, assisting in compliance with the cease-fire. This cease-fire has “raised expectations that up to 500,000 of the (estimated) 1.3 million internally displaced people created by 20 years of war could go home in 2008,” according to a U.N. news released. Some refugees have returned to the areas they were displaced from, but aid agencies expect the cease-fire will lead to a “mass return” once finalized.

The revolt against President Yoweri Museveni, aimed at destabilizing the government, has torn apart Northern Uganda since 1986.  The LRA became infamous for their brutal tactics and methodology, including mutilation of their victims and recruitment of child soldiers. The Acholi people of North Uganda have been especially hard hit, suffering from not only the rebel attacks and recruitment but also from rape and other abuses by the military in refugee camps.

As the talks come to a close, LRA leader Joseph Kony is still at large. Kony claimed his power from spiritual authority, and his rebels demanded the Ugandan constitution be replaced with a version of the Ten Commandments. The International Criminal Court has had an outstanding arrest warrant for Kony since 2005. The warrant charges Kony with twenty-one counts of war crimes, including sexual enslavement, rape, directing attacks against civilians, and forced enlisting of children to fight.

For more information, please see:

Washington Post.com – Voting Starts in Remote Areas – 24 February 2008 (free registration required)

International Herald Tribune – Major Step Toward Final Peace Deal in Uganda – 24 February 2008

CNN.com – Ugandan Peace Deal Looms as Rebels, Rulers Sign Cease Fire – 24 February 2008

allAfrica.com – Govt, Rebels Sign Permanent Ceasefire Agreement in Juba  – 24 February 2008

Sify.com – Uganda Signs ceasefire with rebels – 24 February 2008

Impunity Watch – Brief: Second Breakthrough in Uganda Peace Talks this Week – 22 February  2008

Two journalists arrested by military junta in Burma

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

“Burma’s military regime has once again shown its intolerance toward different political viewpoints by arresting journalists who were doing nothing more than reporting news and opinions,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

The Burmese government arrested two journalists Thet Zin and Sein Win Aung of Myanmar Nation magazine.  Both journalists were taken after police and intelligence officers carried out a four-hour search of the publication office, and confiscated many documents which included a copy of Human Rights Report on Burma by Paulo Sergio Pinherio, videos of last September’s anti-government protests and hand-written poems.  It was unclear under what specific charges the two journalists were being held.

Thet Zin’s wife Khin Swe Myint said that the journal is “published officially after clearance from the Censorship Board.”  According to Aung Din, Director of the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma, Thet Zin told his wife Khin Swe Myint in a visit that he will be transferred to Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison soon.  Thet Zin did not tell his wife the nature of the charges he is facing, but he told her the prison term could amount to 10 years.

The editor, Thet Zin, has been an anti-government activist and critic.  He was arrested and tortured in 1988 for his participation in pro-democracy student protests during which the government killed as many as 3,000 protestors.  Throughout the 1990s, Thet Zin was occasionally detained and interrogated by officials.

Four days after the arrest, and interrogating the two reporters, the authorities raided the publication office again, and confiscated more documents.  Later, the censorship board, the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, instructed the publisher to stop publishing the weekly journal.  According to Human Rights Watch reports, Burma’s government continues to sharply restrict media freedoms by requiring all domestic copy to be approved by the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division of the Ministry of Information.  Journalists are routinely banned from publishing any material that contains criticism of the current government or positive towards the political opposition.

According to The Associated Press, the country’s ruling junta surprisingly announced last week that a new draft constitution to replace the one scrapped in 1988 is ready for submission to a national referendum. The new charter is supposed to lead to a general election in 2010. It was the first time the military government had set dates to carry out what it calls its road map to democracy.  However, “The arrests of journalists and repression of access to information deny the Burmese people any real opportunity to debate the proposed new constitution,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

For more information, please see:

Asian Tribune – Burma’s Media completely under military dictatorship – 20 February 2008

The Committee to Protect Journalists – BURMA:Two journalists arrested by military junta – 19 February 2008

Human Rights Watch – Burma: Arrest of Journalists Highlights Junta’s Intolerance – 19 February 2008