UPDATE: Trial of Eight Fiji Police Charged with Murder Resumes

UPDATE: Trial of Eight Fiji Police Charged with Murder Resumes

SUVA, Fiji — (For further information about the history of this story, please see Impunity Watch Articles here and here).  The trial of eight police officers charged with the murder of rugby player Tevita Malasebe continued this week with the High Court hearing testimony from a forensic pathologist from the Colonial War Memorial Hospital. 

According to Dr. Prashant Sambekar, Malasebe sustained thirty-eight individual injuries on the night of 06 June 2007. The injuries were sustained to Malasebe’s head, chest, feet, hands, neck and head.  These injuries were accompanied by a collapsed lung and a swelling of Malasebe’s brain.  The swelling of the brain, the doctor said, was most likely due to vigorous sharking of the victim’s head.  While Samebekar testified that he could not pin down the exact time of Malasebe’s death, he did say that based on his coloration and the appearance of the bruises on his body, the injuries were still fresh when Malasebe was brought to hospital.   

The trial is set to continue on Monday morning. 

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International — Trial against eight policemen charged with murder in Fiji gets underway — 03 April 2008

Fiji Times — Pathologist takes stand — 04 April 2008

Fiji Times — Malasebe had injuries on his body: Pathologist — 03 April 2008

Fiji Village  — Pathologist Takes Stand in Malasebe Case — 04 April 2008

BRIEF: 42 Abducted Iraqi Students Freed

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A group of 42 male university students abducted near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul have been freed, just few hours after their kidnapping. Another bus carrying female students had managed to escape, but three passengers were injured by gunfire.

The buses were taking the students to Mosul University, where classes were due to restart after a weekend break. The kidnappers had stopped the buses near an area called Jorum, on a highway near Mosul. The bus carrying female students fled, but the bus carrying male students were unable to escape. The captured male students were loaded into a trailer and were taken to the village of al-Jarradi, where they were eventually freed.

No group has claimed responsibility, but many speculate Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia to be responsible for the kidnapping. Al Qaeda has regrouped in the Northern Province after having been pushed out of western AnBar Province and Baghdad. The U.S. military says Mosul is Al Qaeda’s last major urban stronghold in the country.

Mosul police believes the kidnapping was a result of mistaken identity. The police said the kidnappers probably thought the male students to be policemen or police recruits. But when the kidnappers found out the hostages were students, they let the students go.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Abducted Iraqi students are freed – 6 April 2008

International Herald Tribune – 42 university students abducted in Iraq – 6 April 2008

Al Jazeera – Abducted Iraqi students freed – 6 April 2008

The Associated Press – Gunmen seize 42 college students – 6 April 2008

Bangladesh Group Publishes List of Possible War Criminals

By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer,Asia

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Bangladesh war veterans and intellectuals released a list of 1,597 war criminals, alleging the persons on it committed war crimes which include rape, arson, and mass murder. In explaining the release of the list, M.A. Hasan, a member of the War Crimes Fact Finding Committee, said “We have prepared the list not to take revenge but to break the silence of impunity.”

The list names about 400 Pakistani army personnel, and about 1,100 Bangladeshi collaborators. The war veterans included Pakistanis like Yahya Khan, president of Pakistan during the war, General Tikka Khan, commander of the Pakistani army at the time, and Lieutenant General Ameer Abdullah Khan Niazi, who signed the surrender agreement. A prominent Bangladeshi listed is the head to the Jamaat-e-Islami party, Matiur Rahman Nizami.

The crimes took place during the 1971’s independence from Pakistan. For decades, war veterans have alleged that their fellow countrymen and members of the opposition are responsible for thousands of deaths. The list was created after 17 years of investigation based specifically on field work, mass grave sites, and eyewitness statements.

War veterans and intellectuals are calling for a prosecutions of those listed or at least a truth commission resembling the one set up for post-apartheid South Africa.

The calls for war trials has re-erupted recently because Bangladesh has been under emergency power since early 2007. The government has promised to reinstate a democracy in late 2008. The emergency government is presently attempting to clean-up the corrupt political system. War veterans believe that the war crimes are even more important now because of the up and coming elections. M.A. Hasan said, “We will give this list to the government and the election commission. Our demand to the government is that those perpetrators should be punished and disqualified from the next election.”

For more information, please see:

AFP – Bangladesh Group List of Alleged War Criminals– 4 April 2008

The Daily Star – List of 1,597 War Criminals Released – 4 April 2008

The Hindu News Update – Yahya Khan Names “War Criminal” by Bangladesh Group – 4 April 2008

Impunity Watch – Bangladesh Contemplates War Trials – 22 March 2008

Egypt Warns Against General Strike

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – Egypt’s Interior Minister declared that government “agencies will take the necessary and immediate firm measures against any attempt to demonstrate, block traffic, or hinder public services – or inciting any of these acts.”  Also, state-owned daily Al-Ahram warned that individuals inciting or participating in the strike could face prison.

Egypt’s largest state-owned textile factory, Mahalla al-Kobra, called for its workers to strike on April 6 to protest against low wages and increasing food prices.  A call for a general strike has been circulating for a week via the internet and cell phones.  For example, a group on the social network site Facebook, “April 6”, has attracted over 64,000 members.

Strike organizers urge people to stay home from work, avoid shopping, wear black clothes and hang the Egyptian flag from windows and balconies in a show of support for the strikers.

UN’s World Food Programme said that the average household expenditure has risen by 50 percent since the start of the year.  The price of food in Egypt has sky-rocketed since the start of the year.  As food prices increased, so has popular discontent.  Since the strike was announced last week, President Mubarak has lifted taxes on some foodstuffs in an effort to soften economic affects of the price increase.

The Interior Ministry stated that the government was not trying to prevent freedom of expression, but that “such actions must come through legitimate channels and the qualified unions and professional associations according to the law.”  Under Egypt’s emergency law, strikes and public demonstrations are illegal.

For more information, please see:
AFP – Egypt Rails Against General Strike Call – 5 April 2008

Al Jazeera – Egypt Issues Strike Warning – 5 April 2008

International Herald Tribune – Egypt’s Interior Ministry Warns Against Participating in a General Strike – 5 April 2008

AHN – Egyptian Opposition Groups Call for Sunday Strike – 3 April 2008

BRIEF: Khmer Rouge Tribunal Receives Funds from Australia, Still in Need

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – The Khmer Rouge Tribunal received an additional $459,000 in funds from Australia. The tribunal, however, is still in need of an additional $114 million to ensure the proceedings can go on. Senior minister Sok An expressed his confidence in additional contributions, “We will have no problem with the financial support.” The Khmer Rouge Tribunal’s original budget was $50 million over three years, but because of delays, the tribunal is expected to continue past 2011.

For more information, please see:

Radio Free Australia – Australia Injects Funds into Cambodia Trial – 3 April 2008

Reuters – Cambodia Says Khmer Rouge Court Funds “No Problem” – 3 April 2008