Pacific Region Tackles Food Security Challenge at Summit in Vanuatu

Pacific Region Tackles Food Security Challenge at Summit in Vanuatu


By Eileen Gould
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

PORT VILA, Vanuatu – Delegates are currently meeting in Vanuatu to discuss food security issues in the Pacific region.

There are currently 170 delegates meeting in the tiny island nation.  Many are concerned about the “urgent” and “enormous” challenge the food security issue poses in the nations of the Pacific.

Local agriculture and the fisheries are being threatened by globalization and climate change.  Hence, there is a great need for change.

The Summit supported the idea that everyone must ensure that all people in the Pacific have access to safe and nutritious food from the area, as it is a basic right of all humans.

According to Dr. Chen, South Pacific’s Representative for the World Health Organization and Chair of the Summit, the delegates have been discussing a “Framework for Action”, which would provide for working together to pool resources and coordinate amongst regional nations.  The goal of the plan is ultimately to “sustain human life, minimize early death and ensure healthy and productive people.”

Trade, health, and agriculture Ministers came together for the first time to deal with the food security issue and establish a plan that will promote countries taking the initiative to resolve the problem.

The Deputy Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat says that the plan demonstrates that countries and regional organizations have worked together to develop a way to resolve the food security situation.

The Summit focused on sustainable local agriculture and protection of the rights of “vulnerable individuals”.

Food security was first recognized as an issue of increasing importance in August 2008 at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ meeting.  According to remarks by the Deputy Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum, Mr. Feleti P. Teo, it was at this meeting that leaders realized that “[f]ood security is no longer simply a health issue; it is a development issue and one that is multi-sectoral in nature and must be viewed in it[s] broadest scope.”

For more information please see:
Radio Fiji – Pacific Food Summit ends – 24 April 2010

Pacific.Scoop – Opening remarks by DSG Teo at the Food Summit – Vanuatu – 22 April 2010

Radio New Zealand International – Food summit in Vanuatu focuses on sustainable agriculture – 22 April 2010

Chechen Leader Accused of, Denies Political Slayings

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

GROZNY, Chechnya – The President of Chechnya was accused this week of killing two of his political opponents and ordering the murder of a third.  The accusations were quickly and summarily denied.

Mr. Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s President, was accused on Wednesday of ordering and organizing the killings of Sulim Yamadayev in March 2009 and Ruslan Yamadayev in March 2008. Kadyrov quickly denied the allegations without a statement.  His spokesman confirmed this denial today.

Both of the men were political enemies of Mr. Kadyrov, who has been the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya since 2007.  Sulim, a former general in the Russian army, was shot in Dubai.  Ruslan was shot in Moscow by an unidentified assailant.

The brother of the two men, Isa Yamadayev, sent a letter to a Moscow daily newspaper, Moskovsky Komsomolyets, claiming that he has video evidence that links Mr. Kadyrov to the slayings.  The video was obtained legally from a Russian Investigative Committee.

Moskovsky Komsomolyets posted the video on its website.  The video shows footage of an interrogation of Isa’s bodyguard, who claimed that Mr. Kadyrov ordered him to kill Isa for $1 million or otherwise his family would be killed.

The bodyguard did attempt to kill Isa in 2009, but Isa survived the murder attempt when he overpowered the bodyguard in his house.

During a meeting with Kadyrov in 2007, the bodyguard claims that the President Kadyrov also told him that Ruslan and Sulim were killed by Kadyrov’s “personal order”.

Previous links between Mr. Kadyrov and the killings have been more speculative.  Earlier this month, a Dubai trial court convicted Adam Delinkhanov of organizing the 2009 shooting of Sulim.  Mr. Delinkhanov was a close advisor to President Kadyrov.

For more information, please see:

RADIO FREE EUROPE – Chechen Leader’s Spokesman Rejects Assassination Allegations – 23 April 2010

MOSCOW TIMES – Kadyrov Accused of Ordering 3 Yamadayev Murders – 21 April 2010

NEW YORK TIMES – Chechen President Denies Ordering the Killings of 2 of His Opponents – 21 April 2010

General Fonseka Demands Liberation

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – After months of what General Fonseka has claimed to be unlawful detention, the former key organizer of Sri Lankan armed forces now demands freedom from captivity.  General Fonseka’s unsuccessful run against Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka’s presidential elections cost him his liberty, as Rajapaska, the remaining president, accused Fonseka of running with militant, anti-government designs.  High tensions between Rajapaksa and Fonseka intensified when, following the end of the quarter-century civil war against the Tamil Tigers, Fonseka acted on political aspirations.  Fonseka’s policies contravened Rajapaksa’s ethically questionable regime, further alarming the former president and resulting in his efforts to undermine Fonseka’s potential to ascend to office.

Among other allegations, Rajapaksa charged General Fonseka with interacting and supporting anti-government organizations.  Rajapaksa also claimed that General Fonseka illegally procured arms to advance his purposes.  Under the notion that General Fonseka was planning a forceful rule of the state, Rajapaksa ordered law enforcement to arrest and retrieve General Fonseka from his campaign offices and detain him.  A pending trial will determine the validity of these suspect charges.  The court marshal for Fonseka’s supposed effort to run for office while still serving under the Sri Lankan military was recently adjourned for two weeks for parliament’s inaugural session.

In his first public statement since his detainment on February 8th, General Fonseka expressed his hopes that the parliament would support the rights and liberties of the Sri Lankan people and unite in the interest of an honest nation.  The Sri Lankan government has long been accused of myriad human rights violations and morally tenuous policies and practices.  Fonseka’s remarks suggest his discontent with the state’s operations, despite his significant involvement in the military’s victory over the Tamil Tigers.

Although Fonseka’s attempt to rise to the presidency failed, his Democratic National Alliance party was able to occupy as total of seven seats in parliament.  Afforded the opportunity to speak in the house, Fonseka described his detainment as “illegal detention” and an example of the multiple “injustices” perpetrated by the Sri Lankan government.

The ultimate fate of the general remains to be decided, and it seems uncertain how his minimal influence in parliament will effect the pending decision of his fate.  However, Fonseka’s captivity appears to be an extension of Sri Lanka’s history of rights violations against its own people

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – Sri Lanka’s Fonseka demands freedom -22 April 2010

BBC – Detained opposition leader in Sri Lankan parliament – 22 April 2010

Los Angeles Times – Sri Lanka defends arrest of candidate Sarath Fonseka – 10 Februar 2010

Palestinian Child Allegedly Forced to Drink Sewage, Vineyard Flooded by Israeli Settlement Sewage

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BEIT UMMAR, West Bank – In Beit Ummar, a Palestinian child was allegedly captured by Israeli soldiers on April 16. The child, fifteen-year-old Sabri Awad, was seized by the soldiers at the entrance to Beit Ummar after they suspected he was involved in stone-throwing. Awad told Al-Jazeera that the soldiers questioned him about the stone-throwing, which he denied, then the soldiers reportedly beat him for two hours. During the beatings, he was forced to drink fetid water, which Awad believed was sewage. Awad said that he vomited, after which the soldiers continued to beat him. Awad alleges the soldiers then threw him out of the Army jeep and sped away.

Media reports estimate that Israel is currently holding approximately three hundred Palestinian youth in custody, and that up to seven hundred Palestinian children and adolescents were detained by Israelis in 2009. Experts say that the full effects of such detentions are not fully known. Over 760,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned since 1967, which many experts say is one of the main sources of a trans-generational trauma that is pervasive throughout the Palestinian population, and one that will necessarily remain as long as there is occupation. Palestinian children who had at one time been in Israeli custody account for twenty percent of patients in the only torture victim center in the Palestinian territories. Even if the youth had not been tortured while in prison, mental health experts say that these young people tend to suffer more severe post-traumatic stress than adults who had been imprisoned.

In the same village where Sabri Awad was allegedly beaten, Israeli settlers from the Gush Etzion settlement opened their sewage pipe on April 21, flooding a Palestinian vineyard and destroying 70,000 square meters of prime agricultural land. Land experts who had surveyed the damage later said that both the land and the crops were effectively destroyed.

The Israeli Civil Administration later confirmed the incident, and said that compensation for the incident would have to be sought in court. A spokesman for the agency said that the sewage pump in the settlement had stopped working due to a power outage and that the resulting flood was a mistake.

The Israeli military has imposed a tight blockade on Beit Ummar and the surrounding areas since last week.

For more information, please see:

International Middle East Media Center – 58 Detained, One Wounded and 70 Dunams Drowned in Sewage – 23 April 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Vineyard Flooded with Settlement Sewage – 23 April 2010

Al-Jazeerah.info – Palestinian Child Reveals Abuse, Beating, and Drinking Sewage Water by Israeli Occupation Soldiers – 22 April 2010

Press TV – Palestinian Kid Forced to Drink Sewage – 22 April 2010

Al-Jazeera – Young Palestinians in Israeli Jails – 17 April 2010

Iraqis Allege Abuse at Secret Jail

By Bobby Rajabi

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East.

BAGHDAD, Iraq – On April 19 it was revealed that an Iraqi security force that was direclty under the command of current Iraqi Prime Miniters Nuri al-Maliki held hundreds of detained from northern Iraq. The detainees were kpet in an undisclosed prison in Baghdad. It is alleged that dozens of the detainees were tortured. Iraqi and American officials have said that the torture ended after Iraq’s human rights minister and the United States intervened late in March.

According to Iraqi officials, Prime Minster Maliki order that the prison be closed, but said that he had already been aware that the prison existed. The move to close the prison brought about the release of over seventy detainees and the transfer of many others to other prisons. However, over two hundred detainees remain on the grounds of the Old Muthanna military airfield. All of the detainees are alleged to be Sunnis.

The minister of human rights, Widjan Salim, praised the Iraqi Prime Minister’s efforts in moving to close to prison. Ms. Salim commented that “he’s doing the best he can. The problem we have is not the prime minister, it’s with the judicial system.”

Iraqi officials have announced that they are investigating claims that the detainees at the secret jail were tortured by electric shocks and suffocated with plastic bags. Officials will also investigate claims that the prisoners were beaten by prison guards. Kamil Amin, the Deputy Human Rights Minister of Iraq, announced that three army officers have been arrested for their connection to the case.  The men detained were reportedly detained by the Iraqi army in October in sweeps targeting anti-government militias in Nineveh.

Al Jazeera obtained interviews with two men who claim to be tortured at the secret prison at the Muthanna air base. One individul claimed that “our hands were tied and eyes covered so we couldn’t see the torturers.” He explained that torture was dictated by the information provided by informants. The former detainee showed cigarette burns on his body and insisted that “we were all innocent.”

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Iraqis Allege ‘Secret Jail’ Abuse –  22 April 2010

Morning Star Online – Investigation into Iraq Brutality Launched – 22 April 2010

New York Times – Secret Baghdad Jail Held Sunnis From the North – 21 April 2010