Asia

Rape by US Servicemen of an Okinawan Woman Exacerbates Relations

By Karen Diep
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

TOKYO, Japan – On Tuesday, Japanese authorities arrested two United States sailors for allegedly raping a Japanese woman on the island of Okinawa.

Okinawan Women Protesting. (Photo Courtesy of Huffington Post)

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Osamu Fujimura, shared that ministry defense representatives informed United States officials that “the incident is completely unacceptable.”

“[We] have strongly requested measures to increase discipline and prevent things like this from happening again,” said Mr. Fujimura.

“This should never have been allowed to happen,” stated Japan’s Prime Minister, Yoshihiko, to Japanese reporters.

The two sailors were identified as Petty Officer 3rd Class Skyler Dozierwalker and Seaman Christopher Browning of the Fort Worth Naval Air Base in Texas.  Furthermore, according to information relayed to the Huffington Post, the two men were drinking before they purportedly raped her.

United States Ambassador, John Roos, stated that the United States was “extremely concerned by recent allegations of misconduct” by the two servicemen.

“We are committed to cooperating fully with the Japanese authorities in their investigation,” continued Mr. Roos.

On Friday, Lieutenant General Salvatore Angelella apologized in a statement that announced the United States’ plan to impose a curfew.  “I want to personally apologize for the grief and trauma the victim has endured,” shared the lieutenant.

The curfew confines United States military personnel to the base, a personal home, or hotel between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.  This curfew will affect an estimated fifty thousand servicemen currently stationed in Japan.

It is important to note that the relationship between the United States and Okinawans has already been strained by events in the past.

Last month, more than one hundred thousand gathered to protest the deployment of the Marine Corps Osprey aircraft.  Many Okinawans believe this is adding to the already heavy United States presence in the area.

Furthermore, prior to Tuesday’s attack, in August of this year, a U.S. Marine was arrested for purportedly molesting and assaulting a woman Okinawa’s capital, Naha.

Moreover, in 1992, three United States personnel allegedly gang-raped a twelve-year-old girl on Okinawa.  The event caused the United States to reduce military presence on the island.

The United States currently bases approximately twenty six thousand troops on Okinawa.

For further information, please see:

CNN – U.S. troops in Okinawa on curfew after arrests in rape case – 19 Oct. 2012

New York Times – Curfew is Imposed on the U.S. Military in Japan Amid Rape Inquiries – 19 Oct. 2012

BBC – US troops held over Okinawa alleged rape – 17 Oct. 2012

Huffington Post – Okinawa Military Rape Arrests: Japan Decries U.S. Troops in Sexual Assault Allegations – 17 Oct. 2012

Protesters Riot Over an Alleged Police Beating of a Truck Driver in Luzhou

By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Local protests erupted in the Chinese city of Luzhou after a truck driver was allegedly beaten to death by police officers over an unknown dispute.

Locals riot in the streets of Luzhou. (Photo courtesy of China Digital Times)

Luzhou, a major city situated in the southwestern Sichuan province, experienced violent riots that lasted well into Wednesday night.  Bystanders took pictures and video footage of unruly mobs throwing rocks, bottles, and other objects at police forces.  Several police patrol vehicles had also been overturned and set on fire.

Amateur photographs and videos of the scene where the truck driver had died went viral on the Chinese “microblogging” site, “Sina Weibo.”  The photos and videos allegedly show the dead truck driver sprawled out on the ground as police tried to keep the smoldering crowd back and under control.  Local bloggers conveyed that the crowd around the scene swarmed the body of the dead truck driver and attempted to protect the corpse from being removed by the local authorities.

A Sichuan province official issued a statement saying the truck driver had died of a disease when traffic police asked the truck driver to stop blocking traffic and move his vehicle away from the middle of the road.  The official attempted to disperse the crowd by telling the protestors that the truck driver died of an illness and had, in fact, not been beaten to death by the traffic police.

Police reinforcements were brought in to contain the violent outburst by the protesting crowd.  Reports of arrests and police reinforcements using tear gas on protestors exploded on the internet.  Onlookers posted photographs, videos and blog post regarding the police brutality and retaliation against the protestors.

The violent riots over the dead truck driver in Luzhou, Sichuan province, comes during a period of political uncertainty in China.  The Communist Party meets next month in Beijing to install a new generation of central government leaders.

There were roughly 80,000 incidents of riots, protests, and other eruptions of unrest in the general population in 2007.  Experts estimate that in 2009, the number of violent eruptions of unrest had risen to 90,000 incidents.  Others estimate that the number may be even higher.

The Chinese Communist Party is in disarray and worries that the thousands of protests may soon transform into a national movement that may threaten the party’s iron grip over the country and the people.  The number of demonstrations and protests have risen in opposition of the Communist Party’s corruption, land grabs, abuse of power, and economic transgressions.

For further information, please see:

People’s Daily Online – Cops blamed for death as crowds riot – 18 October 2012

China Digital Times – Residents Take to Streets After Man Reported Killed – 17 October 2012

Offbeat China – Violent unrest in Luzhou, Sichuan, after traffic police beat driver to death. Censors already at work. – 17 October 2012

Reuters – Chinese residents take to streets after man reported killed – 17 October 2012

Foxconn Admits to Employing 14 year-old Student Interns in China

By Karen Diep
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Yesterday, the world’s largest contract electronic maker, Foxconn Technology Group, admitted to using student interns in its Chinese factory.  The Taiwanese company has been employing students as young as fourteen years old.

Foxconn workers following the series of suicides in 2010. (Photo Courtesy of The Guardian)

According to The Guardian, Chinese labor rights activists have accused many big companies, including Foxconn, of using student internship programs as a veil for cheap labor.

On Tuesday, Foxconn shared that it found interns under the legal working age of sixteen at its factory in Yantai, located in the northeastern Shandong province.  Foxconn, however, did not reveal how many of underage interns there were.

“Our investigation has shown that the interns in question, who ranged in age from 14 to 16, had worked in that campus for approximately three weeks,” stated the company.

In defending its internship program, Foxconn stated that workers make up only 2.7% of its staff in China.  Moreover, internships can be long- or short- term, with the average lasting three and a half months.

Foxconn stated that the company would work with the local government to forbid schools involved in the Yantai factory from the internship program.  However, if these schools demonstrated compliance with company policy and, most importantly, labor law then they would not be barred from the program.

“This is not only a violation of China’s labour law, it is also a violation of Foxconn policy and immediate steps have been taken to return the interns in question to their educational institutions,” Foxconn shared.  “However, we recognize that full responsibility for these violations rests with our company and we have apologized to each of the students for our role in this action.”

According to The Telegraph, in order to differentiate student interns from others, Foxconn gave them special worker ID numbers. Nonetheless, they worked alongside adults including night shifts and overtime.

“I did transport work, helping them move goods,” said one fourteen years old using the alias Xiao Wang.  “Right now, the night shift is 7:40pm until the morning. Whenever the work is done is when you get off your shift.”

Moreover, when asked how many days these student interns do not work a month, the response was “[n]ot even one.”

In September of this year, a riot took place at Foxconn’s plant in Taiyuan over living conditions inside the plant’s on-site dormitories for commuting workers.

Foxconn is Apple’s largest manufacturing partner and creates products for, among other companies, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell.  However, the company stated that none of the under age interns were working on Apple products.

After a series of suicides in 2010 and reports of employment abuses, Foxconn and Apple were mandated to improve working conditions in the Chinese factories.

For further information, please see:

The Guardian – Foxconn used 14-year-old interns at its factory in China – 17 Oct. 2012

Los Angeles Times – Underage Foxconn interns working in China plant return to school – 17 Oct. 2012

The Telegraph – 14-year-olds employed on Foxconn factory production line – 17 Oct. 2012

Monks Protest Establishment of an Office of Aid for Rohingya Muslims

By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar – Thousands of Buddhist monks in Myanmar took to the streets to protest the establishment of an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) office which would supply aid to Rohingya Muslims in the country.

 

Monks protest in the streets of Rakhine. (Photo courtesy of Al Arabiya News)

Three thousand monks marched through downtown Yangon, the former capital, holding banners which read “No OIC.”  In Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, thousands of protestors said they could not accept the establishment of an OIC office in the country.  Further demonstrations sprang up in the town of Pakokku in the central region of the country.

Plans to set up an OIC office in the northwest Rakhine state had been in the works until the recent protests.  Rakhine had been the stage for violent clashes between native Buddhists and the Rohingya Muslims in June which resulted in at least 77 deaths and displaced thousands more.

The demonstrations by the monks, a powerful political force in the predominately Buddhist country, was followed by an announcement by the president’s office which conveyed that an OIC office would not be opened in Rakhine after all.  President Thein Sein’s office stated that due to the popular desire of the people, the government would not sanction the opening of the OIC office.  It is uncertain whether or not the protests were directly linked to the government’s announcement.

The United Nations has described Rohingya Muslims as one of the most persecuted minority groups in the world.  Human Rights watch has also found evidence of state sponsored discrimination and persecution against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

Myanmar is currently home to approximately 800,000 Rohingyas with no state to call home due to their illegal immigrant status.  Thousands of Rohingya were displaced by the violence in Rakhine and have been seeking shelter in temporary homes and refugee camps.  The conditions that Rohingya Muslims are currently living in are described as abject and dire.

Government officials have been criticized by the United Nations as contributing to the problem by allowing violence to occur against the Rohingyas rather than implementing policies to curb it.  Lawmaker Aung San Suu Kyi, an advocate for Burmese rights, is under fire from the international community for failing to advocate for the Rohingyas.  The Burmese are suffering from the same denial of basic rights.

Amidst the arsons, ethnic clashes and other violent displays directed at the Rohingyas, many have attempted to flee by sea to neighboring Bangladesh.  Those that have attempted to fled, however, were met by Bengali security forces and turned away, forcing their return to Myanmar to endure persecution, discrimination and illegal status.

For further information, please see:

Al Arabiya News – Mass monk rallies against OIC in major Myanmar cities – 15 October 2012

Al Jazeera – Myanmar scraps Islamic group’s office plan – 15 October 2012

Press TV – Myanmar bans OIC from opening office for Rohingya Muslims – 15 October 2012

Reuters – Buddhist monks march in Myanmar to thwart Islamic office plan – 15 October 2012

Nephew of Chinese Activist Chen Guangcheng Faces Criminal Charges

By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Nephew of blind Chinese activist, Chen Guangcheng, faces charges of intentional infliction of injury after being detained for five months without any communication with friends, family or legal counsel.

Chen Guangcheng (Left) and his brother (Right), father of Chen Kegui. (Photo courtesy of The Daily Beast)

Chen Kegui was taken into custody shortly after his uncle, Chen Guangcheng, escaped an alleged illegal house arrest and fled to the United States back in April.  Chen Guangcheng, was under house arrest at his farm house, evaded dozens of armed guards, hidden cameras and other security measures during his miraculous escape.  He made his way to the American Embassy in Beijing and eventually to the United States.

Chen Guangcheng had been in prison for four years prior to his 19 month house arrest stint for openly protesting China’s family planning policies involving forced sterilizations and forced late term abortions.  Chen was imprisoned for inciting social unrest, disrupting traffic and causing property damage.  His escape was seen as a great embarrassment to the Chinese government.

Shortly after his escape, plain clothes police officers entered the home of Chen’s nephew, Chen Kegui, and beat him and his family.  The policemen scaled the wall and beat Chen Kegui in the courtyard of his Shangdong home.  When Chen Kegui grabbed a knife from the kitchen in order to defend himself and his family, three of the attackers were allegedly injured by his defensive actions.

The family alleges that it was impossible to tell that the attackers were in fact local police.  They did not wear any uniforms, did not announce their identity, and intruded the home without any proper documentation such as a search warrant.  Chen Kegui was hauled away by the police and initially charged with intentional homicide.

Chen Kegui was allegedly beaten and interrogated for several days after the abduction regarding the whereabouts and escape of his uncle.  The family has not seen their son since the incident at their Shangdong home.  They have only received a formal notification of the arrest from the police and the possible charges against Chen Kegui.

Although the charges have since been dropped down from intentional homicide to intentional infliction of injury against the policemen who abducted Chen Kegui, Jerome Cohen, an expert on Chinese law at the New York University School of Law, believes there is a high likelihood of conviction.

Given the high profile nature of the case and the possible connection to Chen Guangcheng’s escape and embarrassment suffered by the Chinese government, the outcome of the case may have already been decided by local party officials.  The formal proceedings such as the indictment and trial may be just a charade to fabricate some semblance of a fair and just legal system.

For further information, please see:

The Daily Beast – Chinese Dissident Chen Guangcheng’s Nephew Faces Assault Charges – 13 October 2012

The New York Times – Charges Likely for Chinese Activist’s Nephew – 13 October 2012

Radio Free Asia – Chen’s Nephew Faces New Charges – 13 October 2012

Reuters – Blind Chinese activist says nephew could face unfair trial – 13 October 2012