Australia and New Zealand Comdemn Call for Fijian Uprising

Australia and New Zealand Comdemn Call for Fijian Uprising

By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – Prime Ministers from Australia and New Zealand are speaking out against a call for Fijians to rise up against the country’s military regime.

Last week, at the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Cairns, Niue Premier, Toke Talagi, told the people of Fiji that if they want to restore democracy, they must rise up and claim it for themselves.

“The people of Fiji must be responsible for constructing their own destiny,” Talagi said. He added, “I wonder, sometimes, whether people realise you can’t shoot 500,000 Fijians.”

Meanwhile, New Zealand and Australia have shown their disapproval of Talagi’s message, despite their condemnation of Fiji interim PM, Commodore Frank Bainimarama for delaying democratic elections.

Mr. John Key, New Zealand PM, told reporters that he would not support Fijians in an uprising against the interim government.

“We have encouraged Frank Bainimarama to engage with former leaders in Fiji…and we think that’s the right course of action, not some sort of uprising against the military coup,” Key said.

Australian PM, Kevin Rudd, said “I would emphasise in absolutely clear-cut terms the importance of a peaceful solution to the problems which exist within Fiji.” He added, “They are real problems and that is one of the reasons why the countries of the Pacific Islands Forum agreed on a mechanism for the suspension of Fiji.”

But Talagi says he was not pushing violence, but rather, hoped the people of Fiji would find a way to peacefully protest the military regime.

The Pacific Islands Forum, an organization of Pacific leaders from 16 nation states, chose to suspend Fiji from the group after Bainimarama refused to hold elections by May 2009 as originally promised.

For more information, please see:
National Business Review – Key plays down call for uprising in Fiji – 06 August 2009

ABC News – Rudd plays down call for Fijian uprising – 05 August 2009

New Tang Dynasty Television – Pacific Leaders Express Concern over Fiji – 05 August 2009

Violence Against Christians in Pakistan

By Alishba I. Kassim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Last week Muslim protestors in Gojra, Pakistan set fire to Christian houses, resulting in seven dead, and over twenty injured. The cause of this outbreak of violence in the province of Punjab was an allegation against Christians, who had supposedly desecrated the pages of the Quran at a wedding. Over forty houses were burnt during the outbreak, and around 100 were looted, as the two religious groups engaged in gunfire.

The Federal Minister of Minorities, Shehbaz Bhatti, declared that no such desecration of the Islamic text had occurred. The minister claimed the allegations were “baseless”. In light of the violence and unfortunate deaths of the two men, four women, and one child, all of whom were Christian, over a thousand Christians would not acknowledge the dead until the government held the demonstrators responsible. Now, two hundred people have been arrested.

The provincial minister of human rights and foreign affairs in Punjab, Kamran Michael, called for three days of mourning for the victims, causing all Christian institutions to close down. The leader also denounced the current Pakistani “law of offenses relating to religion” which strictly prohibits any debasement of the Quran, possibly leading to life imprisonment or the death penalty. The minister called for a change in the law, helping to protect minorities against the predominantly Muslim societal structure.

For more information, please see:

The Hindu – Communal Clashes in Pakistan – August   5, 2009 

CNN – 200 Arrested in Violence against Christians in Pakistan – August 3, 20 09 

CNN – Pakistani Police Patrol Streets after Christians Murdered – August 2, 2009 

Indonesia and PNG Border to Remain Closed

By Angela Marie Watkins
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

JAKARTA, Indonesia – The border between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea is to remain closed following last month’s shootings in Papua’s Freeport area.

Indonesia’s military headquarters said that both countries have agreed to close the border following various shootings in the Freeport area and to anticipate further interference.

“The closing is to anticipate the incidents’ impact, including possible foreign interests toward the incidents,” military spokesperson Air Vice-Marshall Sagom Tamboen said.

The border closing was first adopted during Indonesia’s presidential election on July 8, 2009 in response to early incidents and in anticipation of further unrest.

Violence in Freeport began this summer when an employees’ bus at the company’s security post at mile 53 was set fire, killing Drew Nicholas Grant from Australia.

The following day, a security guard Markus Rante Allo was killed by gunfire at mile 51. The latest incident was July 13 when the body of internal affairs police officer Vice Brigadier Marson Fredy Pettipelohi, of Papua’s regional police, was found with severe wounds in his neck at mile 64.

Sagom said that all three incidents are being investigated by both the police and the military.

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand – PNG/Indonesia border remains closed – 04 August 2009

China View –  Indonesia, Papua New Guinea agree to keep border closed – 04 August 2009

Palestinian Families Evicted from East Jerusalem Homes

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East Photo:   A Palestinian woman confronted Israeli riot police as she was evicted from her home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Sunday.  Courtesy New York Times.

EAST JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – Early on the morning of August 2, Israel security forces evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem.  The Ghawi and Hanoun families, with thirty-eight and seventeen members, respectively, had lived in the houses for generations.

The evictions came after a drawn-out legal battle over the title to the land in the Sheikh Jarrah district, a wealthy, predominantly Arab neighborhood.  Witnesses reported that as soon as the Palestinians were forcibly removed, Israeli nationalists moved in.

The evictions have drawn heavy international criticism from the United States, United Nations, and European Union.  A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State stated that the moves in East Jerusalem are not in “keeping with the Israeli obligations under the Roadmap,” referring to the 2003 “Roadmap for peace” plan.

Saeb Erakat, the Senior Palestinian negotiator with Israel, said he was outraged by the Israeli actions.

“Israel is once again showing its utter failure to respect international law,” Mr. Erakat said.  “Now settlers from abroad are accommodating themselves and their belongings in the Palestinian houses and nineteen newly homeless children will have nowhere to sleep.”

Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesperson, attempted to downplay the controversy, describing the dispute as a legal one between two private parties who had title to a property in East Jerusalem.  In the suit filed by the Israeli settlers, the Palestinians had allegedly violated an agreement under which they were allowed to live in the houses.

Mr. Regev further denied that the evictions were part of a systematic effort to cleanse Palestinians from East Jerusalem and replacing them with Israeli settlers.

Maher Hanoun, head of one of the evicted families, was on the street following the removal.

“I do not need a tent or rice,” Mr. Hanoun said.  “What I need is to return to my house, where I and my children were born.”

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – US Criticizes Israeli Eviction Move– 4 August 2009

Jerusalem Post – EU Protests Evictions of Palestinians from East Jerusalem– 4 August 2009

CNN – Israel Defends Jerusalem Evictions-3 August 2009

BBC News – Israel Condemned Over Evictions– 2 August 2009

New York Times – Israel Evicts Palestinians from Homes– 2 August 2009

Canadian Gets Life Sentence in Ethiopia on Terror Conviction

By Jennifer M. Haralambides
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Ethiopian-born, Bashir Makhtal, was charged with being a member of the  separatist group, Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), which is fighting for the independence of an ethnically Somali part of the country.

The conviction is debated because human rights groups say the prosecution failed to produce credible evidence and witnesses proving Bashir’s guilt.  The prosecution was pushing for him to be executed, but the judges decided against it, sentencing him to life in prison instead.

In response to the allegations of a one sided trial, the Ethiopian government has denied the trial was unfair in any way.

Bashir denies being the leader of the separatist group, saying he was prosecuted because his grandfather had helped fund the rebel group decades ago. Bashir, a 40-year-old Canadian left Ethiopia at age 11 and does not speak the local Amharic language.

“In fact, I am a victim of the ONLF,” said Bashir when he testified at his trial.

In 2006 Bashir was among dozens of people arrested when Ethiopia invaded Somalia.  His family in Canada says he was held in solitary for almost two years with no access to lawyers or embassy officials.  Bashir’s relatives also said he was a businessman, selling second-hand clothing in Kenya and that he was in Mogadishu on a business trip when the he was captured.

“The only hope that I have now is the government of Canada,” said Bashir. “I don’t see any fair treatment here and won’t see any … as long as I’m in their hands.”

Regardless, the Addis Ababa court found him guilty on four charges. He was found guilty of being a member of the ONLF central committee, for recruiting and training members of the ONLF at a military camp, for leading a contingent of the ONLF in the field, and for collaborating with Somalia’s Union of Islamic Courts in Eritrea in an effort to overthrow the Ethiopian government.

Bashir’s lawyers plan to appeal against the conviction.
For more information, please see:

AFP – Ethiopia Jails Canadian for Life on Terror Charges – 3 August 2009

BBC – Ethiopia Jails Canadian For Life – 3 August 2009

Reuters – Ethiopia Jails Canadian ONLF Rebel for Life – 3 August 2009

The Toronto Star – Canadian Gets Life Sentence in Ethiopia on Terror Conviction