United States Delays Gun Smuggling Control Laws into Mexico

United States Delays Gun Smuggling Control Laws into Mexico

18 March 2009

United States Delays Gun Smuggling Control Laws into Mexico

By Maria E. Molina
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – Ninety percent of the guns that are used in Mexico to commit heinous crimes come from the United States.  Machine guns get smuggled into Mexico from the United States all the time.  While the United States has just begun to consider the violence in Mexico a threat to United States safety, the threat of lax United States gun laws have affected Mexico’s fight against drug cartels for the past year.  The United States maintains a staunch immigration policy but a loose gun control policy. These policies not only affect the violence in Mexico but human smuggling into the United States.

With the death count last year in Mexico at 6,290, more than the United States has lost in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Mexican officials are pleading with United States counterparts to help stop the southbound gun smuggling and focus.  Yet, the United States government has delayed any proliferation of new laws that would help gun smuggling.  In 2007, there were 7,600 federally licensed arms dealers in United States border states and 50,000 nationwide, but the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms inspected just 5 percent of them. As well an assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004 has not been renewed by Congress.

Lawmakers are not sure how high-powered weapons get in the hands of drug traffickers, but some come from the United States military.  The Department of Defense doesn’t track what it purchases, so the possibility that United States military guns end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels is extremely feasible.  Also, the weapons are becoming more sophisticated and now include .50-caliber rifles with five-inch shells capable of penetrating walls.  A law that speaks to tracking of military weapons would also assist in controlling gun smuggling into Mexico.

Federal United States efforts to stop the smuggling of weapons were clearly not enough.

For more information, please see:

Alternet – Mexico’s Drug War Bloodbath: Guns from the U.S. Are Destabilizing the Country – 18 March 2009

Los Angeles Times – U.S. shares blame in Mexico drug violence, senators say – 18 March 2009

San Francisco Chronicle – Focus shifts to flow of cash, arms into Mexico – 18 March 2009

The Washington Post – U.S. Efforts Against Mexican Cartels Called Lacking – 18 March 2009

Human Rights Commission Calls Fiji Courts Independent

By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – After a Fiji court convicted eight soldiers and a policeman of manslaughter last week, the Human Rights Commission in Fiji says the decision shows the country’s legal system has remained independent.

Last week, Justice Daniel Goundar found nine members of the military and a police officer guilty of manslaughter for the death of a 19-year-old man.

In 2007, the nine assaulted and beat Sakiusa Rabaka to death during an interrogation at a military training site called Black Rock.

“They were made to strip and do military type physical exercises. During the exercises they were continuously kicked, punched and hit,” Justice Goundar said. He added that Rabaka was subjected to“degrading and inhumane treatment as a form of punishment.”

Justice Goundar sentenced the nine men in Lautoka High Court to 4 years in prison.

Human Right’s Commission chairperson, Shaista Shameem, says this decision demonstrates that Fiji military and police are not immune from punishment.

“One of the important that Judge Goundar said in his judgement was that no one can take, no officers even if there law and order can not take the law into their own hands because we have separation of power in the country. You know, the Police and the Military do the arrests and it is the court that decides on the appropriate punishment,” Shameem said.

The Fiji Military Force plans on appealing the conviction later today.

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International – Fiji’s law system is independent, says Human Rights Commission – 18 March 2009

FijiVillage – Military to appeal sentence – 18 March 2009

Fiji Daily Post – FOUR YEARS – 18 March 2009

Chinese Dissent’s Family Escape China

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – The family of Gao Zhisheng, one of China’s most prominent dissidents, fled China last week. Gao Zhisheng’s wife paid human smugglers nearly $6,000 to smuggle her and two children over the border.  After an exhausting journey, they ended in Thailand.  The US government granted refugee status to the family, and they are now in Los Angeles.

Gao Zhisheng’s wife, Geng He said their life is unbearable in China.  The family live under constant surveillance, and two children are not allowed t go to school.  Their 15-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son had been deeply traumatized.  The15-year-old daughter tried to commit suicide and talked about it.  “She cut her arms with a knife and slashed an artery. It bled a lot. She still has scars today,” she says.

Geng He did not say goodbye to her husband, who was not at home in Beijing during the time.  She wrote a note to him, “I’ve taken the children so they can get schooling.”  With the help of a network of people, Geng He and two children managed to get to the southwestern border province of Yunnan in early January.  Then, she paid the traffickers to smuggle her and the children across the border by motorcycle. They moved mostly at night, along winding mountain roads.

“From a wife’s perspective, I really wish that I could stay and take care of him,” Geng said tearfully. “But I had no choice. For the children’s good, I had to take them away with me.”

As to for Gao Zhisheng’s safety, sources say he was interrogated three times after his family fled. He was escort away by police on February 4, and he has not been seen since then.

A Chinese law expert at New York University, Jerome Cohen, says Gao Zhisheng’s case shows a new trend of “prison at home” in China.  He urged International Community to pressure the Chinese authorities to release Gao immediately.  “In light of the terrible, obscene tortures to which he was previously subjected, I think there’s a reasonable question as to whether he’s alive, and I think the Chinese authorities ought to be called upon to produce him,” he says.

For more information, please see:

AP – Dissident lawyer’s family flees China to US asylum – 13 March 2009

AFP – Chinese rights leader’s family ‘defects to US’ – 13 March 2009

NPR – Family Of Chinese Activist Lawyer Escapes To U.S. – 16 March 2009

Radio Free Asia – Chinese Dissident’s Family Defects – 12 March 2009

Reuters – China dissident’s family flee to U.S. – 13 March 2009

UN, Commonwealth Names Chair of Fiji’s Presidential Political Dialogue Forum

By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – Former Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, Sir Rabbie Namaliu, will reportedly chair Fiji’s upcoming President’s Political Dialogue Forum.

The Presidential Political Dialogue Forum will hopefully provide an opportunity for Non-Governmental Organizations as well as civil society groups to meet and discuss Fiji’s political future.

Since the 2006 military coup of Fiji’s federal government, the interim government has promised to relinquish power and hold democratic elections. Interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, originally promised to hold those elections by March 2009, but now states he will not meet his own deadline.

During a multi party political meeting on Friday, the United Nations and Commonwealth reportedly endorsed Mr. Namaliu as the Forum’s chair and also named mediators to assist him.

The UN, Commonwealth’s named mediators have caused some friction among two political parties in Fiji.

Fred Caine, from the General Voters Party, says that because the named assistants are not from the Pacific region, they will not properly understand the political situation in Fiji. In addition, Mr. Caine supports finishing the Forum within 6 months and immediately holding elections without first implementing reforms.

Meanwhile, Ropate Sivo, from the Conservative Alliance Matanitu Vanua, warns the people of Fiji to not allow the UN and Commonwealth to trick them. Mr. Sivo proposed that the Melanesian Spearhead Group should facilitate the Forum instead of the UN/Commonwealth’s named assistants.

For more information, please see:
Fiji Daily Post – ‘More than political’ – 16 March 2009

Radio New Zealand International – Senior PNG figure could chair Fiji’s Presidential Dialogue Forum – 15 March 2009

Commission on the Status of Women Pushes to Adopt Mission of CEDAW

By Sarah E. Treptow
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – The Pacific Islands region, with a population of about 9 million people, presents a range of complex issues for development and gender-equality efforts, including deep social attitudes that limit women’s ability to receive education and career performance equivalent to men’s ability. The Commission on the Status of Women had a panel of presentations from several island nations who spoke of the need to have “gender-responsive programs” that grasp women’s immediate interests and implement relevant strategies for improving conditions across Pacific Island society.  A number of the presenters discussed the need to fully implement and meet the objectives of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).  CEDAW has been ratified by 185 countries but has not yet become a binding global standard for women’s equality.  The treaty has also not yet been brought before the US Senate for ratification.

Ofa ki-Levuka-Guttenbeil-Likiliki, of the Tonga National Center for Women and Children, explained the slow evolution of women’s equality in her country.  In 1975 only 1% of parliament ministers were women and in 2005 Tonga elections had 5 female candidates, the most ever.  In 2008 no women entered Parliament, and only one woman currently serves as MP.

Kairangi Samuela, of the Cook Islands Women’s Counseling Center, explained how cultural standards are used as an excuse for not advancing women’s rights further.  She added that Pacific Island society is now more in need of women in public life than before and would benefit from taking advantage of individual talents of women who may be unable to access positions of leadership or decision-making.

The rising risk of HIV/AIDS to the Pacific Island nations was also discussed and linked to women’s rights and economic independence.  Women who are bound to the home and restricted from accumulating property are less able to take preventative action to avoid becoming infected.  The risk of infection has increased as sex workers from larger Asian nations have moved into the Pacific.

During his address to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the Honorable Willy Telavi, Tuvalu’s Minister of Home Affairs listed some factors contributing to discriminated against women in the Pacific, “the use of custom, culture and tradition as justifications for discriminatory and violent treatment; early and forced marriage, especially in Melanesia; limited access to education; teenage pregnancy and the consequent impacts on health and education; and social acceptance of violent punishment of children.”

For more information, please see:
Islands Business – Commission on the Status of Women Reviews “Pacific Realities” – 16 March 2009

United Nations Development Programme – Translating CEDAW Into Law: Opening Remarks – 07 March 2009