BEIJING, China – Hu Jia, a prominent human rights activist and dissident, was denied a chance to appeal his 3.5 year sentence because prison guards prevented his lawyer from meeting with him.

Li Fangping, Hu Jia’s lawyer, said he went to the detention center on Monday to discuss Hu Jia’s final decision on whether to appeal. Li Fangping said he waited for several hours because guards would not allow him to see Hu Jia. After waiting, he decided to draft a motion for appeal that required Hu Jia’s signature. However, prison guards refused to give it to Hu Jia.

Hu Jia was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for inciting subversion. The charges were largely based on a blog he contributed to that provided information about other dissidents and social problems. Specifically, he wrote a series of essays that criticized the country’s human rights record.

For more information, please see:

Impunity Watch – UPDATE: Hu Jia, Chinese Dissident, Sentenced to 3.5 Years for Subversion – 3 April 2008

International Herald Tribune – Chinese Rights Activist Loses Chance to Appeal –18 April 2008

By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand – The Thai Cabinet has extended emergency rule in Southern region of the country to deal with a separatist rebellion by Malay Muslims despite criticisms from human rights groups.

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej extended the state of emergency for three more months Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces, where a separatist insurgency is raging. The emergency rule has been extended 10 separate times, putting emergency rule in place for a total of thirty-three months.

In response the repeated extensions, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, said, “The emergency rule will not continue forever because the situation is improving, but as of now we really need it.”

The emergency rule provides security forces with broader immunity from prosecution while giving them wider powers of search and seizure. Persons may also be detained up to thirty days without charges.

Several human rights groups have criticized the continued emergency rule inSouthern Thailand because it creates a culture of impunity.

More than three thousand have died since 2004 when the separatist insurgency began. The killings have become more frequent and brutal as time has gone on despite the Thai government’s assurances that things will improve.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Thai Cabinet Extends Emergency Rule in Muslim South – 18 April 2008

Bangkok Post – Emergency Decree Extended in Deep South – 18 April 2008

MCOT Thai News Agency – Cabinet Approves Three-Month Extension of Emergency Rule in Restive South – 18 April 2008

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

A new study that concerns treatments of North Korean refugees after they are forcibly returned from China to North Korea puts pressure on the Chinese government to stop repatriating North Korean refugees. Tens of thousands of North Koreans are thought to have crossed into China, propelled by hardship or persecution. China treats them as economic migrants and sends them back.

The 48-page report is titled “A Prison Without Bars.” The chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Michael Cromartie, says the report is based on interviews with 32 refugees who fled North Korea for China from 2003 to 2007 and with six former North Korean security agents who defected to South Korea during the past eight years.  He called on countries to press the Chinese government to stop sending North Korean refugees back to their homeland and provide increased protections as required by international protocols.

The report said that repatriated North Korean refugees were often subjected to harsh interrogation, torture and long detentions without trial if found to have converted to Christianity or had contact with South Korean Christians or churches while in China. Former North Korean security agents told the commission that authorities set up mock prayer meetings to entrap new converts in North Korea and train staff in Christian practices for the purposes of infiltrating churches in China.

Refugees said that merely owning a Bible could lead to arrests, disappearances and even deaths of those repatriated.  “Its up to the condition of the guards. Because killing a prisoner will do no harm for them,” one interviewee said.  Another refugee, claimed that “a person was shot to death” on a riverside in Hoeryeong, a North Korea city along the border with China, for accepting a Bible from South Korean priests.  According to the report, the treatment was part of Pyongyang’s efforts to prevent the spread of religion.

For more information, please see:

AFP – China slammed over “grave” crisis facing NKorean refugees – 16 April 2008

BBC – China ‘must not return N Koreans’ – 16 April 2008

Chosun News – U.S. Report Hits North Korea On Religious Rights – 16 April 2008

International Herald Tribune – U.S. congressional report finds abuse of returned North Korean refugees – 15 April 2008

Reuters – U.S. panel urges China not to repatriate North Koreans – 15 April 2008

Washington Post – NKoreans with religious ties face peril – 15 April 2008