More Witnesses Plan to Testify at Future Hearings for Solomon’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission

More Witnesses Plan to Testify at Future Hearings for Solomon’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission

By Cindy Trinh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

HONIARA, Solomon Islands – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Solomon Islands says more witnesses have volunteered to testify at future hearings into the ethnic tensions.

The Commission recently held its first public hearing regarding the ethnic tensions. The first hearing’s main concern was the conflict that has left 100 people dead and 20,000 displaced between 1998 and 2003.

The Commission says it will hold seven more public hearings this year, with the next to be held on the island of Malaita on April 10, 2010.

The chairman of the Commission, Reverend Sam Ata, says victims of ethnic tensions are calling on their perpetrators to come forward so they can be reconciled.

Amnesty International has called on the government to protect those who speak publicly because it says there is a “danger of reprisals.”

But Ata says rather than expressing fear of reprisals, the victims have “issued a powerful message of reconciliation to the perpetrators of violence.”

Ata stated: “That’s the message they have put across to the country, that they are willing to forgive them and reconcile with them, so I don’t know if there is a fear there after the victims have made a plea for these people to come forward, then that is something else.”

Ata worries that reprisals would be difficult, but he acknowledged the possibility.

Jo O’Brien, correspondent for a news station in Solomon Islands, reported: “The first hearing into the conflict…concluded yesterday. Nineteen witnesses gave testimony, including a woman who lost her husband, brother and niece, a man whose father was tortured by militants, and a Guadalcanal woman who was attacked because she married a man from Malaita. During the hearing there were calls for perpetrators to come forward and tell their stories, and the Commission’s chairman, Father Sam Ata said it will invite them to testify because they also need to heal.”

The Minister for National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace, Sam Iduri, says the “level of public support and interest in the hearing has far surpassed the ministry’s expectations.”

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International – More volunteers to testify at Solomons Truth Commission – 11 March 2010

Radio New Zealand International – Solomons Truth Commission advocates reconciliation – 11 March 2010

Impunity Watch – Solomon’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Plans to Have its First Hearing – 07 March 2010

Growing Concern Over Disappearance of Fiji Politician

By Cindy Trinh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – The Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement, based in Australia, has expressed its concern about a former parliamentarian, Peceli Rinakama, who has not been seen in almost a week.

Reports from Fiji say the whereabouts of Rinakama are unknown. He was reportedly seized by the military and it is not know where he has been taken.

Attempts to get information from the interim government have been unsuccessful. The military and the interim government have declined to comment on the matter.

During the recent trial of eight men accused of plotting to kill the Fiji Prime Minister, a witness stated that Rinakama was gathering ex-military personnel for the case.

Rinakama was accused of being involved in the plot back in 2007, when the conspirators were first arrested. However, Rinakama was released and the charges against him were dropped. The other conspirators were recently convicted.

As Rinkama’s whereabouts remain unknown, a representative from the Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement, Usaia Peter Waqatairewa, has accused the interim regime of failing to guarantee the safety of its citizens.

Wagatairewa states: “We are very concerned that this politician has disappeared for five days going on to six days now, and we have not had any word from anybody.”

He further expressed his concerns about the military’s actions. He stated: “They can’t guarantee the safety of the people. This regime has failed in its duty as the government of Fiji under the International Declaration of Human Rights to guarantee the safety of its citizens.”

For more information, please see:
Solomon Star – No trace of Fiji politician Rinakama seized by military – 11 March 2010

Radio New Zealand International – As Fiji regime stays silent, concern grows over politician seized by soldiers – 11 March 2010

Radio New Zealand International – Fiji Freedom Movement concerned about politician not seen for six days – 11 March 2010

Radio New Zealand International – No trace of Fiji politician Rinakama seized by military – 10 March 2010

Church Abuse Allegations Rock Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe Desk

AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands – Dutch Roman Catholic bishops have ordered an independent inquiry into over 200 reported cases of alleged sexual abuse of children by priests, with investigations slated to begin “as soon a possible.”  The Dutch Catholic Church also issued a statement offering its apologies to the victims. The allegations, which first centered on a monastery school in the eastern part of the Netherlands, soon sparked dozens more allegations across the country. 

New allegations of abuse have not been confined the the Netherlands; on Tuesday it emerged that Bruno Becker, head of a monastery in Salzburg, Austria, confessed to having abused a boy forty years ago when he was a monk. Church authorities quickly accepted his resignation on Monday.

Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said that the sexual abuse scandals were particularly reprehensible in light of the educational and moral responsibilities of the Catholic Church. He also said that Church institutions in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands have “demonstrated their desire for transparency and, in a certain sense, accelerated the emergence of the problem by inviting victims to speak out, even when the cases involved date[s] many years ago.”

Father Lombardi also denied that the Vatican has tried to erect a “wall of silence” around the scandals.

On Monday, German justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger accused the Vatican of erecting the “wall of silence” surrounding abuse cases, and said that the Vatican secrecy rules were complicating German efforts to investigate the claims of abuse. Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger also cited a 2001 rule from the Vatican requiring abuse cases to be investigated internally as having hindered investigations.

There are currently investigations into abuse allegations underway in eighteen of Germany’s twenty-seven Roman Catholic dioceses. In January, pupils at the Jesuit-run Canisius College in Berlin were the first to come forward with allegations of abuse, prompting many others to come forward in subsequent weeks.

Allegations that abuse occurred at a church choir in the Regensburg Diocese have made the Vatican particularly uneasy. The choir was run from 1964-1993 by Pope Benedict XVI’s elder brother, Father Georg Ratzinger.  The abuse, however, is alleged to have occurred before Father Ratzinger took charge of the choir. Although he has denied any knowledge of the sex abuse cases, he admitted that he knew discipline was strict, and said that he had, himself, sometimes slapped students in the face.  He told the Passauer Neue Presse:

“Pupils told me on concert trips about what went on. But it didn’t dawn on me from their stories that I should do something. I was not aware of the extent of these brutal methods.” He added: “At the start, I also slapped people in the face, but I always had a bad conscience.”

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, the head of the German Bishops, has apologized for the abuse, and is scheduled to meet with the Pope later this week to discuss the scandal. The German Catholic Church has pledged to investigate all 170 allegations of abuse and to investigate whether Pope Benedict XVI knew about the sex scandals when he was a bishop in Bavaria between 1977 and 1994. Father Karl Jüsten, spokesman for the Bishops’ Conference in Germany, said:

“We do not know if the Pope knew about the abuse cases . . . However, we assume that this is not the case.”

The abuse cases have  prompted German legislators to discuss the possibility of changing Germany’s statute of limitations to allow for the prosecution of priests.

 For more information,  please see:

The Times Online – German Catholic Church pledges to investigate all 170 allegations of abuse – 11 March 2010

BBC – Dutch Bishops order abuse inquiry – 10 March 2010

Deutsche Welle – Archbishop will report to Pope on abuse in German church schools – 10 March 2010

Radio Netherlands World Wide – Catholic Church child sex abuse scandal widens – 10 March 2010

BBC – Vatican accused over German sex abuse allegations – 8 March 2010

Bangladesh Faces Further Criticism for Mistreating Rohingya Muslims

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

Bangladesh – The Bangladeshi government has provoked chastisement from the international community once more for its gross mistreatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority.  The Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) released a statement on Tuesday stating that the state of the makeshift refugee camps in Bangladesh constitutes numerous human rights violations.  The report focuses on the starvation which has been occurring in the refugee camps to which droves of Rohingya Muslims escape.  Other members of the ethnic minority, however, have also been coerced into dwelling in these derisory camps.

The PHR report contains statements alluding to the conditions of the refugee camps in Bangladesh as “unconscionable.” For the duration of their stay in the makeshift refugee camps, the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority remains stateless and in a state of utmost poverty.  The report also reveals that the child malnutrition rate at the Rohingya camps is approximately 18.2 percent.  As a comparison, the report offers a figure signifying that the child malnutrition rate in Haiti after the recent earthquake is approximately 6 percent.  Furthermore, the Rohingya Muslim group has never received external aid.  Their plight is largely overlooked, allowing for their continued mistreatment.

The ill treatment of the Rohingya Muslims has lead to the group’s becoming the most persecuted peoples on Earth.  They have been fleeing from their homeland of Myanmar since the 1970’s to escape discrimination and deprivation of civil and political rights.  Since the beginning of the exodus out of Burma, over 300,000 Rohingya sought freedom in Bangladesh.  However, human rights groups and the UN have seen a significant backlash against the Rohingya population and the Bangladeshi government has taken affirmative steps to deter further immigration.

Bangladesh has been exacting a significant crackdown on Rohingya Muslims who for decades have been residing as unregistered residents in various camps in Bangladesh.  Current practices include the systematic arrest and expulsion of unregistered Rohingya Muslims by Bangladeshi authorities.  There have also been accounts of Bangladeshi police forcing Rohingya Muslims to re-enter Myanmar, where the ethnic minority has faced its most severe oppression and persecution.

The acts of Bangladeshi authorities signify a flagrant violation of the Rohingya Muslims’ human rights.  The UN has yet to respond with a possible reaction to the illegal acts of the Bangladeshi government.

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – Refugees ‘starve’ in Bangladesh – 10 March 2010

AsiaNews – Bangkok denies mistreatment allegations by Rohingya refugees – 04 February 2009

Yahoo! News – Rohingya refugees ‘starving to death’ in Bangladesh – 10 March 2009

Despite Attacks, Over Sixty Percent Vote in Iraqi Election

By Bobby Rajabi

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq – On March 8, officials from the Independent High Electoral Commission announced that the turnout for the March 7 Iraqi election was sixty two percent. The level of turnout was over sixty percent despite attacks throughout the country that killed over thirty five individuals. It is widely expected that Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Coalition will win the most seats of another other Iraqi political party. The final officials results for the election will not be declared until the end of March

Maliki’s coalition reportedly did quite well in areas such as Baghdad and the Shi’ite south of Iraq. Anonymous Iraqi Officials told the Associated Foreign Press (AFP) that the Iraqi President was leading in nine of Iraq’s eighteen provinces. He was facing competition from the Iraq National Alliance, a Shi’ite dominated group, and the secular coalition led by former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Allawi’s group reportedly did well in Iraq’s northern and western provinces.

Despite the strong showing by Maliki’s State of Law Coalition, it is highly unlikely that an party received the number of votes needed to form a government alone. It is possible that months of negotiations will precede any coalition forming a governing on its own.

Voter turnout varied throughout Iraq. In Anbar, the province composed mainly of Sunnis, reported a voter turnout of sixty one percent. Over five hundred candidates, mostly Sunni, were banned from running because of alleged connections to the Ba’ath party, the party of former President Saddam Hussein

The reported voter turnout number was even higher in Duhok. The AFP reported that Duhok, the northern Kurdish controlled autonomous area reported a voter turnout of eighty percent.

Attacks on election day took place in Baghdad, Mosul, Fallujah, and Baquba. Despite insurgents threatening to disrupt the election, there were no large suicide bombings as feared by many Iraqi officials. The worst attack took place on an apartment block in Baghdad which collapsed and killed twenty five people.

President Obama commented on the election, saying that it showed that “the future of Iraq belongs to the people of Iraq.”

For more information, please see:

AP – Iraq Elections Head Says Turnout at 55-60 percent – 8 March 2010

Al Jazeera – Iraq Awaits Election Results – 9 March 2010

BBC – Iraq Elections Turnout 62%, Officials Say – 9 March 2010