By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
GAZA CITY, Gaza – British reporter and filmmaker Paul Martin continues to be held in a Gaza prison, over three weeks after he was arrested by Hamas officials at a trial of Palestinian man who was accused of collaborating with Israel. According to a Hamas military court, Martin “committed offenses that harmed the security of the country.” Hamas has refused to publically specify Martin’s alleged offenses.
Hamas security officers arrested Martin on February 14, and after the fifteen-day detention period lapsed, security officers petitioned the Hamas military court for another fifteen-day extension, which was granted on March 1. Martin had been working on a documentary about Mohammed Abu Muaileq, the accused collaborator, when he was arrested. Martin has previously produced stories for the BBC, The Times of London, Al Jazeera International, CNN, and Channel Four News.
Martin’s lawyer, Sharhabil Zayim, said that the fifteen-day extension would be the longest that investigators could hold Martin without filing formal charges. When the Associated Press interviewed Zayim on February 28, Zayim said he had last seen Martin ten days previous, that he looked fine, but that he had not been allowed to see his client since.
Since that interview, Martin’s family in the United Kingdom have broken their silence and expressed concern about Martin’s well-being. Martin’s wife, Anne Martin, released a statement saying that her husband “has been kept in solitary confinement and interrogated whilst being denied access to his Gazan lawyer or to official British representatives. …We understand that he is now being held without reading and writing materials and without means of communication with the outside world.”
The British Embassy in Israel has also expressed concern, echoing Anne Martin’s statement that her husband’s arrest was the first arrest of a foreign press representative in Gaza.
“We are urgently looking into the matter and following up with the responsible people so we can sort this matter out on the consular level,” said Fadi Adeeb, a spokesperson for the British consulate in Jerusalem.
For more information, please see:
Sky News – Family’s Fears for Briton Held by Hamas – 2 March 2010
BBC News – Hamas Extends British Reporter Paul Martin’s Detention – 1 March 2010
New York Times – Hamas Says it is Extending Briton’s Stay in Detention – 1 March 2010
Associated Press – Hamas Seeks Extension of Detention of UK Reporter – 28 February 2010
Ha’aretz – Hamas Seeks to Extend Gaza Arrest of U.K. Journalist – 28 February 2010
British Reporter Held by Hamas in Gaza
Concern for Abused Addicts at Cambodian Drug Centers
By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Many treatment centers in Cambodia have raised serious human rights alerts as reports of physical abuse and involuntary administration of experimental drugs and medication become more frequent.
The Human Rights Watch issued a recent report describing the abuse and mal-treatment in eleven different government-run centers. The report indicated that electric shock, beatings, rapes, forced labor and forced donations of blood were practices at most of these institutions.
According to the report, “Sadistic violence, experienced as spontaneous and capricious, is integral to the way in which these centers operate.” It went on to state that, “the practice of torture and inhuman treatment [is] widely practiced throughout Cambodia’s drug detention centers.”
The Cambodian government dismissed the report, and uttered in a public announcement that the report was, “without any valid grounds.” Meas Virith, deputy secretary of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, stated at a news conference that, “The centers are not detention or torture centers,” and that “They are open to the public and are not secret centers.” She declined to describe the specific treatment practices the centers uses.
Aside from the few government-run centers, there are very few other resources for drug users to rely on to seek help for their addictions. Government figures for drug use in Cambodia are unreliable and range from about 6,000 to 20,000.The United Nations believes this figure could be as high as 500,000. In light of such heavy use, desperate families sometimes commit their relatives to the centers. Others are said to be institutionalized against their will.
In December of 2009, the Cambodian government engaged in administering and experimental herbal drug to try and treat addicts. The treatment was heavily criticized by rights groups and health professionals because it was imported from Vietnam but not registered for use in Cambodia. It is uncertain how many people the drug was used on, but twenty-one drug users documented and administered “bong sen” for ten days at various treatment centers before being released. There is no indication that a systematic follow-up was conducted, and the national drug authority conceded that at least some of those treated returned to drug use.
According to Graham Shaw, an expert on drug dependence and harm reduction with the World Health Organization in Phnom Penh, “No information is known to exist as to the efficacy of this claimed medicine for the detoxification of opiate dependent people, nor to its side effects or interactions with other drugs.”
“If Cambodian authorities think they are reducing drug dependency through the policy of compulsory detention at these centers, they are wrong,” said the report by Human Rights Watch. “There is no evidence that forced physical exercise, forced labor and forced military drills have any therapeutic benefit whatsoever.”
For more information, please see:
The New York Times – Cambodian Addicts Abused in Detention, Rights Group Says – 15 February 2010
Voice of America – Drug Treatment Centers Rife with Abuse – 30 January 2010
IPS – CAMBODIA: ‘Abuse Rampant in Drug Detention Centres’ – Human Rights Watch – 7 March 2010
Cambodia News – Rights Group Says Cambodia’s Drug Treatment Centers Rife with Abuse – 30 January 2010
Terrorist Cell Convicted In Germany For Failed Plot
By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
DUSSELDORF, Germany – Four members of a German terrorist cell were convicted for a foiled terrorist plot target United States soldiers and military installations that they had attempted to carry out in 2007.
German citizens Fritz Gelowicz, Daniel Schneider and Attila Selek were arrested, along with Adem Yilmaz of Turkey, in 2007. Found in their possession at the time of arrest were military detonators and large quantities of hydrogen peroxide. The cell had been under investigation by German law enforcement authorities for approximately nine months prior to their arrest. It was their intention to target the U.S. Air Force base in Germany, Ramstein Air Base, along with a number of regional airports and restaurants. Each defendant had trained at an Al Qaeda camp in northern Pakistan. They also had joined the Islamic Jihad Union in 2006.
The defendants confessed to the charges leveled against them last year. Gelowicz and Schneider were sentenced to twelve years in prison. Yilmaz was given an eleven year sentence, while Selek was sentenced to five years. Schneider was also was convicted for the attempted murder of one of the police officers who participated in the cell’s arrest.
Judge Ottmar Breidling, who handed down the sentences, commented that the four defendants wanted to carry out a “second September 11th”. He described the plot as having the potential to have been a “monstrous bloodbath, designed to kill at least 150 people, mostly Americans.”
This failed plot constituted the first radical Islamic plot to be organized and prepared by German citizens.
For more information, please see:
CNN – 4 convicted over foiled German terror plot – 4 March 2010
THE NEW YORK TIMES – Germany Sentences 4 in Terror Case – 4 March 2010
VOICE OF AMERICA – 4 Muslims Convicted in Germany – 4 March 2010
UPI – Germany convicts home-grown militants – 4 March 2010
Solomon’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Plans to Have Its First Hearing
By Cindy Trinh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania
HONIARA, Solomon Islands – The first public hearing by the Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission is to be held this week.
The first national public hearing of the Commission comes almost a year after the Commission was established in April last year. The Commission was formed to end the chaos and violence in the Solomon Islands from 1997-2003, mainly because of conflict between gangs from the islands of Malaita and Guadalcanal.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s primary function is to promote national unity and reconciliation.
In a public announcement, the Commission says the national public hearing is “one of the most significant activities of the Commission’s work plan to accomplish their mission.”
The public hearing allows victims and witnesses of crimes committed during tensions in Solomon Islands the opportunity to give testimony regarding their experiences.
The Commission stated that “the public hearings will give voice to victims of the ethnic tensions who have had to silently endure abuses and crimes impossible to describe.”
The ethnic tensions have claimed 100 lives so far, and displaced about 20,000 persons in the Solomon Islands.
The Commission hopes to end the “silence” and make the country “recognize their sufferings and feel their tragedy that has long been denied.”
The hearing is expected to last for two days. During these days, victims and witnesses from Guadalcanal, Malaita, Western Province, and Choiseul are expected to appear before the Commission to offer their testimony.
The victims will not be allowed to name individuals, but they are allowed to name the groups that have abused them.
The hearings will take place at the Forum Fisheries Agency offices in Honiara on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 9-10, 2010.
For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International – First hearing of Solomons Truth and Reconciliation Commission this week – 07 March 2010
Solomon Times Online – First TRC Public Hearing Next Week – 05 March 2010
Three Rivers Episcopal – Archbishop Tutu launches Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the Solomon Islands – 20 May 2009
Australia Intercepts Asylum Seekers, Expands Christmas Island Facilities
By Eileen Gould
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania
CANBERRA, Australia – As the number of boats carrying asylum seekers to Australia continues to rise, questions have been raised over the Government’s immigration and border protection policies.
Over the last two days alone, two boats were intercepted by authorities, who subsequently brought the individuals to the detention center at Christmas Island.
Christmas Island has itself been the subject of much scrutiny recently. Australian newspapers have recently been reporting that the number of detainees on Christmas Island will double, reaching approximately 5,000 by 2014. Many believe that if this were to happen, Christmas Island would become similar to a penal colony. However, the Government has stated that these figures are inaccurate.
These reports have placed pressure on the Government to clarify just how many asylum seekers it plans to house at the facility.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd denies reports that the Government plans to increase the capacity of the immigration detention center at Christmas Island. He has indicated that the detention center at Christmas Island can currently hold approximately 2,040 detainees. Currently, the Government has plans to expand the facility’s capacity to 2,300 individuals. It began construction on an addition to the main detention center’s facility, which would house an additional 400 beds.
Despite the Government’s insistence that there are no plans to double the size of the detention center, opposition immigration officials believe that the government still needs clarify its plans. The detention center is having problems accommodating the number of asylum seekers that are currently housed there.
The opposition claims that Christmas Island originally was built to house approximately 1,200 detainees at the most.
Approximately 400 asylum seekers arrive each month while only 100 leave. On average, an asylum seeker could spend between 100 and 110 days at the facility.
Many of the asylum seekers have arrived illegally by boat. This year alone, the navy has intercepted eighteen boats carrying asylum seekers.
In order to save on the costs of running Christmas Island, some individuals recommend that immigrants be processed on Australia’s mainland. This year’s budget for operations is expected to cost between $280 and $300 million.
For more information please see:
ABC News – Rudd shoots down detention centre report – 07 March 2010
Brisbane Times – Two asylum seeker boats intercepted – 07 March 2010
ABC News – Christmas Island detainee population to double: report – 06 March 2010
The West Australian – Govt quiet on Christmas Island detention – 06 March 2010