Human Rights Watch Urges Investigation of Philippine Death Squads

Human Rights Watch Urges Investigation of Philippine Death Squads

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

MANILA, Philippines – Human Rights Watch calls upon the government of the Philippines to investigate and hold accountable members of the “Death Squad” for extrajudicial killings in Davao City on the southeastern island of Mindanao.

Supplementing this announcement is a 103 page report, “You Can Die Any Time: Death Squad Killings in Mindanao.”  This report reveals the involvement of local officials in targeted killings of drug dealers, petty criminals and street children.  Human Rights Watch investigated 28 cases and interviewed more than 50 people including victims’ families, witnesses, local and government officials, and journalists.

Human Rights Watch identified a pattern of the killings that took place.  Typically, two or three Death Squad members arrive on unmarked motorcycles.  They wear baggy shirts in order to conceal their weapons, usually a knife or .45 caliber handgun.  They wear baseball caps, doing little to cover their faces.  They attack at any time, frequently during the day.  They do not fear witnesses, often threatening them that they would be next if they talked to the police.  Notably, when an attack occurs, the police arrive late, so that perpetrators have a chance to escape.  Police are also known to fail to collect obvious evidence and to follow up in their investigations.

Local officials generally have a list of persons who are engaging in criminal activities.  Local level officials warn the people that if they do not stop, they will be killed.

Most members are former communist New Army insurgents or those who were formerly on the “list” to avoid getting killed.  They are then trained by police officers who provide them with weapons and information about their victims.

“The hundreds of targeted killings in Davao City in recent years are clearly not random events but the result of planned hits by a ‘death squad’ that involves police officers and local officials,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.  “The police consistently fail to bring the perpetrators to justice, while the local government cheers from the sidelines.”

Director General, Jesus Verzosa, chief of the Philippine National Police, denies any involvement in the death squads.  He said, “We acknowledge that human rights organizations documenting the series of alleged vigilante killings in Davao city are well-intentioned, but we completely disagree with their pronouncements that these cases were state-sponsored.  He added that charges, “should be backed by evidence so taht appropriate cases may be pursued and filed before the courts of law.”

Mayor of Davao City, Rodrigo Duterte, defends the existence of death squads, stating that their presence serves as a deterrent to crime and ensures that the community is safe.

The Philippine government, under the leadership of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, has been accused of inaction and even supporting targeted killings.  President Arroyo had appointed Duterte as her consultant on peace and order in 2003.

“Arroyo has been taking security advice from someone who openly advocates murder to bring peace and prosperity,” said Roth.  “But this needs to stop.  The Arroyo government should send a clear message to local officials and the police that the killings of petty criminals, drug users, and street children will not be tolerated.”

For more information, please see:

GMANews.TV – HRW Report: How Davao City’s Squad Killers Get Away with Murder – 7 April 2009

Human Rights Watch – Philippines: Dismantle ‘Davao Death Squad’ – 6 April 2009

Inquirer Mindanao – Prove It, PNP Chief Dares Rights Groups – 8 April 2009

Bangladesh to Start War Crimes Tribunal

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

DHAKA, Bangladesh – On April 9th, 2009 the Bangladeshi government announced that it would create a war crimes tribunal within two weeks to try war crimes committed from the bloody 1971 liberation struggle.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was elected last year, had promised to jump start the tribunal as soon as possible.

The Bangladeshi Law Minister Shafig Ahmed, told the media that the government was in the final stages of putting together the defendant list. “We have begun the process by deciding to appoint the investigating agency, prosecutors, investigation officers and form tribunals in two weeks,” Ahmed said.

The United Nation (UN) promised to aid the tribunal. Last Wednesday, the UN said that some of its top war crimes experts would advise Bangladesh on how to try the defendants accused of murder and rape. Renata Lok Dessallien, head of the United Nations in Bangladesh, told AFP “We have suggested the names of some top international experts who have experience in how war crimes tribunals operate across the globe.”

Dessallien also said the UN would look into whether Bangladeshi law complies with international war crimes law. Dessallien added, “This is the first time Bangladesh is conducting war crimes tribunals and it is important it understands how other countries have held them. There are some countries where mistakes were made and we don’t want Bangladesh to repeat those mistakes.”

“The UN will advise us so that we don’t make any mistakes and so that the process is transparent and does not create any questions” Ahmed said.

The tribunal was welcomed by human rights NGOs like Amnesty International.

During the 1971 war for liberation, Bangladesh was then West Pakistan and fought against East Pakistan to become an independent country. The alleged war criminals sided with West Pakistan and committed murder, rape, and arson. About three million people were killed during the war.

A private investigation that investigated the conflict listed 1,775 people responsible for the atrocities. The private group blamed top Pakistani generals and local Islamists that allied with Pakistan for the atrocities.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Bangladesh war crimes tribunals in two weeks – 9 April 2009

AFP – UN to help Bangladesh war crimes trial planning – 8 April 2009

BBC – Bangladesh to announce war probe – 7 April 2009

Pakistani Judge Holds Hearing to Investigate Taliban Flogging

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudry has ordered a court hearing to investigate the flogging of a 17 year old girl depicted in a video that was shown to the world.  The video was first shown in Pakistan on Thursday, April 2.  The film shows two Taliban members holding a young girl down and a third hitting her with a strap.  She was allegedly punished for “coming out of her house with another man who was not her husband”.  She was given 34 lashes and then taken into a stone building.

Chaudhry condemns what happened and criticized the government for not taking immediate action.  “Before the video became public, what were you doing, why couldn’t you find out what happened?” he asked the attorney general, Sardar Latif Khosa.  Chaudhry was reinstated as Chief Justice after two years of being fired from the bench by President Zardari.

The video was taken by a local with a mobile telephone camera.  It was allegedly filmed a month and a half ago, but only recently released.  Its release coincides with the Sharia peace deal that will be implemented in the near future.

Taliban spokesman Mian Iftikhar said, “We believe there is a conspiracy to sabotage the peace process by airing a video recorded before the deal.”

Samar Minallah, a human rights activist, bought the video in the markets of Swat and distributed it to the media.  In broadcasting the video, Minallah wanted to let the nation know of the types of transgressions happening in the Swat Valley.  “The most fundamental rights are violated every second of every day.  People are being ejected from their houses, courts are closed, 300 schools have been demolished,” she said.

A journalist in the Swat Valley, Ehsan Haqqani, said that it was encouraging for the Supreme Court to take action.  “We were the forgotten people. . . .  The government was only a silent spectator.  Now the Supreme Court is forcing the government to take notice.  That is encouraging for us.”

For more information, please see:

BBC – Pakistan to Probe Girl’s Flogging – 3 April 2009

Daily Times – Taliban Flog 17 Year Old Girl for Having Affair – 4 April 2009

The Hindu – Swat Girl Denies She was Flogged – 7 April 2009

International Herald Tribune – Pakistan’s Chief Justice Assails Attorney General Over Taliban Flogging – 6 April 2009

Native Hawaiians Denied Recognition of Aboriginal Lands by U.S. Supreme Court

09 April 2009

Native Hawaiians Denied Recognition of Aboriginal Lands by U.S. Supreme Court

By Karla E General
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

HONOLULU, Hawaii – The U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Hawaiian Supreme Court last week when it decided that the 1993 Official Apology Resolution issued by the Congress to the Native Hawaiians did not constitute recognition of Native Hawaiian rights to their ancestral lands. With this decision, 1.2 million acres of disputed Native Hawaiian lands will be opened for public sale.

In 2002, a Hawaiian state court initially ruled that Hawaii could sell the disputed lands. The case eventually went up to the state’s highest court in 2008, with the Hawaii Supreme Court finding that Native Hawaiians had a claim to the disputed lands. The Court then issued an injunction to prevent the sale of “ceded lands” held in trust until the outstanding aboriginal land claims had been resolved. The Hawaii Supreme Court relied on the 1993 Apology Resolution – an official acknowledgment of the illegality of the U.S. overthrowing of Hawaii’s sovereign government, creation of a provisional government, and annexation of Hawaii as a U.S. territory with the Newlands Resolution – in it’s landmark decision.

The recent Supreme Court’s ruling is extremely dangerous – it accepts the Newlands Resolution as the legal resolution of land disputes, vesting absolute title to the United States over the disputed lands – while ignoring the Congressional Apology which recognized that “the Indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or over their national lands to the United States, either through their monarchy or through a plebiscite or referendum.” J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Associate Professor of American Studies and Anthropology at Wesleyan University, expressed frustration over the Court’s mishandling of the case: “If the Apology Resolution has no teeth in the court of the conqueror, then how is it that the Newlands Resolution that unilaterally annexed Hawaii does? This (ruling) is a legal fiction to cover up the fact that the U.S. government accepted the stolen lands from the Republic of Hawaii government that confiscated these lands after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.”

The U.S. Supreme Court remanded the case back to the Hawaii Supreme Court for “further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.”

For more information, please see:

Indian Country Today – U.S. Supremes Rule Against Native Hawaiians’ Land Claims – 6 April 2009

Chicago Tribune – Hawaii: Land Sale Upheld – 1 April 2009

Honolulu Star – Ceded Land Ruling Creates Quick Need for Sovereignty – 1 April 2009

New York Times – Supreme Court Backs Hawaii in Land Dispute – 31 March 2009

A 75-year-old Retired Professor Beaten in Cemetery

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Last Saturday marked “Qingming”- grave-sweeping day, when Chinese honor the dead. A 75-year-old retired professor, Sun Wenguang, was beaten for honoring the death of a reformist communist leader Zhao Ziyang on Saturday. Mr. Zhao is a former prime minister and Communist Party general secretary who was purged for supporting the 1989 Tiananmen protests.
In 2005, Mr Zhao died under house arrest.

According to Mr. Sun, a police car followed him when he went to visit a memorial honoring Chinese martyrs on Heroes’ Mountain in Jinan.  When he entered the memorial grounds, he was beaten and “kicked like a football” for more than 10 minutes by a group of five men.

“They were very strong. They did not say a word,” Sun said in a telephone interview from a Jinan hospital.  “They wanted to punish me and let people know that Zhao Ziyang is not allowed to be memorialized,” he claimed.  Mr. Sun suffered three broken ribs and injuries to his hands and legs in the attack.  It was not clear who the men were.

Mr Sun is a retired physics professor from Shandong University.  He spent some times in prison from the 1960s to the 1980s, for criticizing communist leader Mao.  He said he had paid his respects at Zhao Ziyang’s grave every year on the Qingming, but was warned not to do so this year by police and officials from Shandong University.

Human Rights in China condemned the attack on Mr Sun.  “This deplorable act, committed in broad daylight and in clear view of the police… calls into serious question officials’ professed commitment to building a society that puts people first,” said executive director Sharon Hom.

Human Rights Defenders, a Hong Kong-based group, says that “Chinese authorities are staging a campaign of terror to intimidate and suppress expressions of commemoration for the 1989 Tiananmen massacre,” the group said in a statement. The attack on Mr. Sun “is part of the overall campaign.”

For more information, please see:

AP – Professor beaten for honoring ousted China leader – 07 April 2009

BBC – Scholar beaten at Tiananmen grave – 07 April 2009

Human Rights in China – Retired Professor Attacked after Honoring Memory of Late Party Secretary Zhao Ziyang – 06 April 2009

New York Times – China Rights Activist Beaten in Cemetery – 07 April 2009