By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KABUL, Afghanistan – Melissa Fung, a 35 year old reporter for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), was released after being held hostage for nearly four weeks on Saturday.

Fung was on her way to a U.N. refugee camp in outer Kabul when she was kidnapped and forced to the western part of Afghanistan.  CBC News publisher John Cruickshank said in a statement, “She had been in a refugee camp.  She’d been doing some reporting on conditions there and on difficulties in Kabul, and essentially, as she left the camp, within a couple of blocks of a police station, they pulled up in a van, jumped out and overpowered her and took her.”

Fung was held in the region of Wardak, located 50 kilometers southwest of Kabul, and controlled by the Taliban.  Fung stated that she was held in a small “cave.”  It was so small that she could barely stand.  She said that they dug a small hole which turned into a tunnel, then opened to a room.  She said that her abductors never mistreated her except for when they chained her.  For the first three weeks of being kidnapped, they guarded her constantly, but during the last week, they chained her arms and legs and then abandoned her.

Susan Ormiston of CBC stated that they received a threatening phone call saying that Fung would be killed if a ransom was not paid or if people in police custody were harmed.  Fung was rescued by the National Directorate of Security (NDS), an Afghan intelligence agency.  NDS arrested three people who were involved in the kidnapping, but seemed to only be middle men.  The agency is still looking for others.

The identity of the kidnappers is still unknown.  Fung said the man who guarded her went by the name “Khaled.”  However, she indicated that she didn’t believe it was his real name.  Fung said, “His friends called him ‘Hezbollah.'”

Hezbollah is a radical Shia group based out of Lebanon and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.  It has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist acts, including car bombs, roadside bombs, rockets, booby-traps and suicide attacks.

Despite Fung’s successful release with the help of the Afghan government, kidnappings of Western journalists are on the rise.  Reporters Without Borders said, “We are nonetheless very worried by the recent kidnappings of journalists in Afghanistan, where the security situation has deteriorated dangerously.”

For more information, please see:

CBC News – Kidnapped CBC Journalist Chained in Tiny Chamber Before Release – 9 November 2008

CNN – Freed Canadian Reporter:  I Was Kept in a Cave – 9 November 2008

Reporters Without Borders – Canadian Reporter Freed After Being Held Hostage for 28 Days – 9 November 2008

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Maqbool Fida Husain still fears returning to his native country. Husain, 93, is the most renowned painter in India, though subject to self-imposed exile due to the “controversial” nature of his work. Most notably, he paints Hindu goddesses and in a few of his works, they are nude. This has caused anger on behalf of Hindu nationalists who attacked galleries exhibiting his work, vandalized his work and even offered an $11 million reward for his death. In response to violent threats, Husain removed himself from India and has lived in Dubai for the past two years.

There are three of Husain’s works which have caused most of the backlash from right-wing Hindus. Two are pencil drawings. One depicts Durga, the mother goddess. The other is of Saraswati, the goddess of the arts. Both portray the goddesses faceless and nude. The third, named Mother India, is a painting of a female nude, kneeling on the ground creating the shape of India. Husain believes that nudity is symbolic of purity.

In September 2008, the Supreme Court of India dismissed all charges against Husain. He was accused of obscenity, which under Indian laws, is a criminal offense. However, the Court ruled that Husain’s paintings were not obscene, in fact, nudity was common in Indian iconography. With the Court ruling, Husain looks forward to returning to India stating, “This is not a victory for me only, but one for the Indian contemporary art movement.”

Freedom of expression is one concept that has caused heated debate between democratic ideals and religious and ethnic diversity. Analysts state that most often controversy erupts as a result of politics. For example, last March, Taslima Nasreen, was forced to leave West Bengal after a Muslim political party denounced her novel. Another instance is that of political psychologist, Ashis Nandy. Nandy wrote an article criticizing the victory of Hindu nationalists in state election. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party controls the western state of Gujarat, where Nandy was subsequently charged with “promoting enmity between different groups.”

The government has responded to threats and violence by banning the works of art and literature.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Indian Painter Cleared By Court – 9 September 2008

New York Times – An Artist in Exile Tests India’s Democratic Ideals – 9 November 2008

TIME – Maqbool Fida Husain – 13 August 2007

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand – According to a statement by Vaughn Vang, Director of the Laos Human Rights Council, Inc., Laos Peoples Democratic Republic (LPDR) officials are pressuring the Thai government to repatriate all Hmong refugees and asylum seekers from Huay Nam Khao refugee camp in Thailand. Vang added many Hmong refugees that are deported from Thailand back to Laos have gone missing or are arrested in the middle of the night by LPDR authorities.

In June 2008, more than 5,000 Hmong refugees from the Huay Nam Khao refugee camp in Thailand held peaceful protests against Thai deportations of Hmong asylum seekers and refugees. Several witnesses confirmed with Human Rights Watch that Thai paramilitary forces surrounded protests with barbed wires and separated Hmong families when forcing them onto pick-up Trucks. Thai authorities moved the Hmong demonstration leaders to undisclosed locations. Additionally, Thai military and paramilitary forces arrested 873 Hmong protestors, including women and children, and forcibly deported them to Laos the next day.

Hmong refugees are prohibited to return home after they have returned to Laos after deportation. Some refugees are sent to relocations sites where they are enrolled in re-education camps. However, many human rights organizations say that Hmong refugees face arbitrary incarceration, sexual abuse, torture, and disappearances.

Bill Frelick, refugee policy director of the Human Rights Watch said, “The Laos government is notorious for treating deported Hmong harshly upon their return … By imprisoning these Hmong deportees, Laos authorities confirm the fear many Hmong asylum seekers and refugees have expressed of being persecuting if returned to their native country.”

The LPDR persecute Hmong communities because of a Hmong insurgency in the 1960s. According to several humanitarian agencies, the LPDR is responsible for sexual abuse, torture, and extrajudicial killings of Hmong civilians living in Laos suspected of being insurgents.

For more information, please see:

APF – Rights Group Says Laos Jailed Hmong Refugee Protest Leaders – 27 October 2008

HRW – Laos: Cease Arbitrary Detention of Deported Hmong – 28 October 2008

Media Newswire – Thailand’s Somchai Visits Laos Following Bloody Military, Chemical Weapons Attacks on Hmong – 3 November 2008