International organization claims Kenya poll violence was ‘planned’

International organization claims Kenya poll violence was ‘planned’

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya – Researchers for the international organization Human Rights Watch (“HRW”) claim in a new report that the ethnic violence that tormented Kenya following December’s disputed presidential elections was organized by local leaders. The report says that the planning of the violence was done at the local level, but that the role of national leaders must be investigated further. “What we found, far from being spontaneous was that it (the violence) was organized as elders and youth met,” said HRW spokesman Ben Rawlence.

The eighty-eight page report, entitled “Ballots to Bullets: Organised Political Violence and Kenya’s Crisis of Governance,” documents serious abuses of power in the worst affected areas of Nairobi, Nyanza, Rift Valley and western provinces of Kenya.  It focuses on the use of excessive force by police, vividly describing unlawful killings in response to demonstrations and the organization of the violent acts.  For example, a fifteen year old boy described how he was shot in the leg, as he was running from a police car. The report also detailed many instances of officers opening fire on unarmed demonstrators. The most serious cases of extrajudicial police violence occurred in Kisumu, a stronghold of opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga.  The report credits police for the deaths of eighty-one people, mostly from opposition strongholds. The police deny any wrongdoing, but have agreed to look into any alleged wrongdoing by officers.

The report uses eyewitness testimony to show that local leaders organized the violence. In the town of Eldoret, located in the Rift Valley attacks on Kikuyu homes were planned in advance of the election results. The elders in the town “said that if there is any sign that Kibaki is winning, then the war should break… they were coaching the young people how to go on the war.” Reprisal attacks against non-Kikuyus were also organized by local leaders. In Naivasha and Nakuru, the violence allegedly followed meetings with local businessmen and politicians, which mobilized youths in their attacks.

Further investigations are required to determine the extent to which the national leadership had a hand in planning the violence and mobilizing the local leaders.

HRW also suggests that Kenya faces a repeat of this violence if the government and international community fail to punish those responsible. The report alleges that western powers looked on, while successive governments in Kenya “failed to tackle the land and poverty issues at the root of the trouble, exploited by politicians to incite violence, without fear of real punishment.” HRW ultimately calls for the new coalition government to prosecute those responsible, a move it claims is necessary to stabilize the country. Georgette Gagnon, African director at Human Rights Watch said “Inciting violence along ethnic lines almost destroyed Kenya. The new government now has a chance to repair those fractures.”

More than one thousand died, and over six hundred thousand were displaced in riots and attacks following the disputed December 2007 election. The bloodshed saw militias burn civilians alive, forcibly circumcise foes and hack victims with machetes,  is “Kenya’s darkest moment since independence from Britain in 1963.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Kenya poll violence ‘was planned’ – 17 March 2008

Human Rights Watch – Kenya: Justice Vital to Stability – 17 March 2008

Voice of America – Rights Group Describes Planned Post-Election Violence in Kenya – 17 March 2008

allAfrica.com – Human Rights Watch Urges Inquiry Into Post-Election Violence – 17 March 2008

AfricaNews – HRW: Election violence Kenya was planned – 17 March 2008

Reuters – Kenya faces repeat of violence if impunity stays – 17 March 2008

BRIEF: At Least 68 dead in Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo – Fighting in the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has left at least sixty-eight people dead and the numbers could be much higher according to a UN report leaked to the BBC.

Budu Dia Kongo is a political and religious group that has its own militia and accuses the central government of corruption. The group wants to establish its own authority in the west. Currently, more than 300 members of the BDK are missing.

A Congolese army captain was killed last month and it is alleged that BDK is responsible for the killing. Since this date, the Congolese police have been destroying BDK churches and houses believed to be owned by members of the group.

Many members of BDK have been seen at local hospitals for gunshot and machete wounds alleging they were tortured by police.

The governor of Bas-Congo, Simon Mbatshi Mbatsha, estimated that 24 civilians had been killed on 4 March 2008 during fighting between police and the BDK.

Mbatsha blames the government for causing violence because people are killed with firearms and there houses are burnt down.

While there are over 200 UN peace keepers in the area, they have been unable to maintain the peace.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Deadly clashes in west DR Congo – 16 March 2008

allAfrica.com – Congo-Kinshasa: Fears Over Increasing Sect-Related Violence in Southwest – 6 March 2008

China Censors Major Foreign Media Over Tibet’s Unrest

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – China has shutdown several of the world’s most popular websites in an apparent attempt to censor international coverage of the violence in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. The Google-owned YouTube, the video-sharing website blocked in China on Sunday after footage of recent deadly protests in Tibet appeared on the site.  Some videos on YouTube show a public gathering, including Tibetan monks in their distinctive saffron robes and peaceful marching.  The most hits video (over 80,000 so far) actually shows bodies on the streets, protesters throwing rocks at Chinese army vehicles and other images.

Popular news sites reporting on the riots, such as CNN, The Guardian, the BBC, Google News, and Yahoo have allegedly had all or parts of their sites blocked. Flickr, the photo-sharing website, Wikipedia, and the LA Times, the US newspaper, are among the other sites to which access has been cut off.  These websites have been subject to what is known as ‘keyword filtering’, where a Chinese internet user attempting to load a page which contains words such as ‘Tibet’ or ‘Dalai Lama’ or ‘riot’ will see the site stall.

Foreign journalists being denied access and foreign tourists ordered out of the city.  Foreign media have been banned from Tibet, CNN and British Broadcasting Corp. broadcasts of a speech by the Dalai Lama were also blocked, the newspaper said.  According to a CNN video, says the station has not been able to send a team to report the news.  Some stations, such as the BBC, picked up photos and other contributions from tourists in Tibet. The BBC and CNN are only broadcast within international hotels and diplomatic compounds in China.

China strictly controls access to information, the only footage broadcast by state-run media so far has been a short clip showing Tibetan rioters in the city destroying Chinese shops, but nothing has been released on the resulting crackdown by police.

For more information, please see:

AP – China Blocks YouTube Over Tibet Videos – 16 March 2008

AFP – YouTube access blocked in China after Tibet clips appear – 16 March 2008

CNN – American film crew kept from China protests – 17 March 2008

Guardian – China blocks media due to Tibet unrest – 17 March 2008

Times Online – China blocks YouTube, Yahoo! Over Tibet – 17 March 2008

BRIEF: Dalai Lama accused China of “cultural genocide” against monks in Tibet

BEIJING, China – In a news conference on Sunday the Dalai Lama, who is exiled in India and the Tibetan spiritual leader, accused China of waging “cultural genocide” against Tibetan monks and called for an investigation into the suppression of protests. “Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place,” the Dalai Lama said, referring to China’s policy of encouraging members of the ethnic Han majority to migrate to the region. “It’s really desperate,” he told the BBC. “Things become tense as the Tibetan side is determined, the Chinese side also equally determined. So that means the result is killing.”  China’s provincial government in Tibet rejected the Dalai Lama’s assertion regarding cultural genocide and said the population enjoys religious freedom.

During the news conference, the Dalai Lama expressed his fear of another crackdown like in the late 1980s, when the Chinese government declared martial law and violently suppressed demonstrations in Tibet.  Under martial law, hundreds Tibetans died.  However, he told reporters he was powerless to stop the protests.  “I do feel helpless,” he said. “I feel very sad, very serious, very anxious. Cannot do anything.”  The Dalai Lama also endorsed the right of his people to press grievances against the Chinese authorities and reminded reporters that he was not calling for secession. “As far as material development concerned, we get much benefit” from being part of China, he said.  He also remained supportive of the Olympic Games being held in China.

The protests began a week ago in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and have quickly evolved into the largest outpouring of Tibetan rage against Chinese rule in 20 years.  The Chinese have deployed thousands of troops and rolled out tanks to suppress Tibet protests.  According to Tibet’s government-in-exile, at least 80 people died since protests began last week, which disputes the official death toll of 10.

For more information, please see:

International Herald Tribune – Dalai Lama assails curbs on protest in Tibet – 17 March 2008.

The Independent – Dalai Lama attacks ‘cultural genocide’ – 17 March 2008.

The Seattle Times – Tibet protests spread to other provinces as Dalai Lama warns of “cultural genocide” – 17 March 2008.

International organization claims Kenya poll violence was ‘planned’

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya – Researchers for the international organization Human Rights Watch (“HRW”) claim in a new report that the ethnic violence that tormented Kenya following December’s disputed presidential elections was organized by local leaders. The report says that the planning of the violence was done at the local level, but that the role of national leaders must be investigated further. “What we found, far from being spontaneous was that it (the violence) was organized as elders and youth met,” said HRW spokesman Ben Rawlence.

The eighty-eight page report, entitled “Ballots to Bullets: Organised Political Violence and Kenya’s Crisis of Governance,” documents serious abuses of power in the worst affected areas of Nairobi, Nyanza, Rift Valley and western provinces of Kenya.  It focuses on the use of excessive force by police, vividly describing unlawful killings in response to demonstrations and the organization of the violent acts.  For example, a fifteen year old boy described how he was shot in the leg, as he was running from a police car. The report also detailed many instances of officers opening fire on unarmed demonstrators. The most serious cases of extrajudicial police violence occurred in Kisumu, a stronghold of opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga.  The report credits police for the deaths of eighty-one people, mostly from opposition strongholds. The police deny any wrongdoing, but have agreed to look into any alleged wrongdoing by officers.

The report uses eyewitness testimony to show that local leaders organized the violence. In the town of Eldoret, located in the Rift Valley attacks on Kikuyu homes were planned in advance of the election results. The elders in the town “said that if there is any sign that Kibaki is winning, then the war should break… they were coaching the young people how to go on the war.” Reprisal attacks against non-Kikuyus were also organized by local leaders. In Naivasha and Nakuru, the violence allegedly followed meetings with local businessmen and politicians, which mobilized youths in their attacks.

Further investigations are required to determine the extent to which the national leadership had a hand in planning the violence and mobilizing the local leaders.

HRW also suggests that Kenya faces a repeat of this violence if the government and international community fail to punish those responsible. The report alleges that western powers looked on, while successive governments in Kenya “failed to tackle the land and poverty issues at the root of the trouble, exploited by politicians to incite violence, without fear of real punishment.” HRW ultimately calls for the new coalition government to prosecute those responsible, a move it claims is necessary to stabilize the country. Georgette Gagnon, African director at Human Rights Watch said “Inciting violence along ethnic lines almost destroyed Kenya. The new government now has a chance to repair those fractures.”

More than one thousand died, and over six hundred thousand were displaced in riots and attacks following the disputed December 2007 election. The bloodshed saw militias burn civilians alive, forcibly circumcise foes and hack victims with machetes,  is “Kenya’s darkest moment since independence from Britain in 1963.”

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Kenya poll violence ‘was planned’ – 17 March 2008

Human Rights Watch – Kenya: Justice Vital to Stability – 17 March 2008

Voice of America – Rights Group Describes Planned Post-Election Violence in Kenya – 17 March 2008

allAfrica.com – Human Rights Watch Urges Inquiry Into Post-Election Violence – 17 March 2008

AfricaNews – HRW: Election violence Kenya was planned – 17 March 2008

Reuters – Kenya faces repeat of violence if impunity stays – 17 March 2008