Malian Media Strikes Following Editor’s Arrest

By Hannah Stewart
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

BAMAKO, Mali — Mali’s private media launched a news strike after an editor was arrested for publishing a letter about the substandard conditions of Malian soldiers fighting Islamist militants in the north.

Man selects one of the 40 newspaper titles typically published each week in Bamako. (Photo Courtesy of BBC)

Agents from Mali’s intelligence service arrested Boukary Daou, editor-in-chief of Le Republican newspaper, and took him from his home on March 6.  This followed soon after his newspaper published a letter from an army officer denouncing Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo’s recently-decreed salary of $8,000 per month.

Sanogo’s salary is incredibly high salary for anyone in the impoverished country.  The letter contends that the salary — as much as 26 times what Sanogo earned before last year’s coup — serves as an incentive for future coups.

The letter further threatened that if Sanogo’s salary is not reduced, soldiers deployed in northern Mali’s will refuse to fight.  Currently, the average salary of an enlisted soldier is just $100 a month, which is 80 times less than what Sanogo’s salary.

Sanogo seized power a year ago last March.  Just weeks later, he was forced to relinquish control due to international sanctions.  Sanogo managed to negotiate a “golden parachute” before resigning, including the salary of an ex-head of state.  Despite officially stepping down, many observers contend that Sanogo continues to pull the strings in government, as Daou’s arrest evidences.

President Dioncounda Traore spoke to reporters at a stop in Dakar, Senegal, and defended his administration’s decision to arrest Daou.  President Traore assured reporters that if Daou is innocent that he will be freed.  Moreover, President Traore condemned the letter published in Le Republican as subversive and aimed to demoralize the nation’s troops during wartime.

Sources in the capital of Bamako, say that approximately 40 periodicals are published weekly; however, none appeared on newsstands on Tuesday morning.  Furthermore, the 16 local private FM radio stations are either silent or only playing music.

According to a statement from the country’s press association, the media strike “will continue until Boukary Daou is freed.”

“Mali is in a state of emergency.  We all need to remember this.  We are in a state of war, and we cannot allow this kind of thing,” President Traore said.  “If he is guilty, he will need to answer to the courts.  If he is not, there’s no reason he’ll be kept in prison.”

Following Sanogo’s coup last year, various rebel groups allied with al-Qaeda forces in northern Mali have sent the the country and the region careening into crisis.  Since January, French troops have joined with Malian and regional soldiers to push back against the northern rebels.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Mali Media Strike Over Editor Boukary Daou’s Arrest – 12 March 2013

Bloomberg – Media in Mali Protest Journalist’s Arrest with National Strike – 12 March 2013

Financial Times – Mali Media Strike Against Editor’s Arrest – 12 March 2013

NPR – Mali Media Outlets Go Silent Over Editor’s Arrest – 12 March 2013

North Korea Denounces the U.N.’s Probe into Human Rights Abuses at Home

By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PYONGYANG, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – The United Nations (UN) met on Monday to vote on and, hopefully, establish an independent commission to probe the allegedly worsening human rights abuses rampant in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or more commonly known as North Korea).

So Se Pyong attending the UN meeting on Darusman’s report. (Photo Courtesy of Reuters)

The UN’s desire to investigate the human rights situation in North Korea is based on a report compiled by Marzuki Darusman.  Mr. Darusman is an Indonesian lawyer by trade and has been appointed to the UN as a Special Rapporteur on human rights for North Korea.

Darusman, in his report, describes the human rights violations currently being perpetrated in the totalitarian state as “grave, systematic and widespread.”  The report highlights abuses such as rapes, tortures, executions, arbitrary arrests, government sanctioned abductions, and, perhaps what is most troubling, a seemingly large scale expansion of the gulag, or prison camp system.

According to official UN reports, analysts, who have been monitoring North Korea from 2006 to 2013, have found an expansion of a previously constructed 20 km perimeter located in the Ch’oma-Bong valley.  The site is known as Camp No. 14, and reports estimate roughly 200,000 prisoners are held within the borders of the camp.

The living conditions within the camp are described as “dire,” and “extremely harrowing.”  Darusman believes that the camps are designed in a way so that the detainees of the camps endure a slow and painful death.

Robert King, U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues, provided additional evidence to support the worsening scenario in North Korea as the newly ascended, young leader, Kim Jong-un, tightens his grip on his squalid subjects.  King’s report suggested that 2,600 North Koreans were able to escape to South Korea in 2011.

This figure of escaped North Koreans has fallen by 43 percent in initial data reports for 2013.  Darusman also supported this scenario of Jong-un tightening his grip by noting that the number of North Koreans escaping to China has dwindled since the death of Kim Jong-il, Jong-un’s father.

The North Korean representative in the UN has slammed the investigation as a hoax and a witch hunt.  So Se Pyong, North Korea’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, denounced Darusman’s report, calling all of the evidence collected a fraud.

So Se Pyong believes that the investigation is the UN’s plot to put North Korea under greater international scrutiny and tarnish the sterling image of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.  Navi Pilay, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, called for a grave need to investigate North Korea’s human rights abuses rather than the media focus on the North’s nuclear arms programs.

For further information, please see:

Bloomberg – North Korean Rights Abuses May Be Crimes Against Humanity – 12 March 2013

International Herald Tribune – A Push to Investigate North Korea’s Human Rights Abuses – 11 March 2013

Reuters – North Korea slams U.N. “plot” to investigate its human rights record – 11 March 2013

The Asahi Shimbun – U.N. urged to probe North Korean leaders’ role in abuses – 5 February 2013

Phosphorous Used Against Protestors in Myanmar

By Karen Diep
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

Naypyidaw, Myanmar – Yesterday, a parliamentary report ordered by President Thein Sein revealed that the Myanmar Police Force (MPF) used smoke bombs containing phosphorous against protestors on November 29th of last year.

Injured Buddhist monks (Photo Courtesy of BBC News).

According to the Huffington Post, the November incident was the biggest use of force against protesters in Myanmar since President Thein Sein’s reformist government took office in March 2011.

Protestors have been opposing the $1 billion copper mine in Monywa, a city in the northwest of Myanmar.  The mine is owned by a Chinese company and Myanmar Economic Holdings, the latter owned by the Myanmar military.

These protestors, including local villagers, activists, and Buddhist monks, claim that they have been unfairly forced to give up their land and subjected to environmental, social, and health problems.

A panel, led by opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, stated that the protestors suffered “unnecessary burns.”

“We have found that unexpected and unnecessary burns were caused to some monks and civilians because the police used smoke bombs without knowing what their effect would be,” stated the report.

Although the report did not specifically mention white phosphorus, it stated that devices used on the protesters contained phosphorus.

According to BBC News, the Myanmar government subsequently apologized to the injured protestors and created an investigation commission led by Ms. Suu Kyi. She is also expected to travel to the mine on Wednesday and speak with local villagers.

In response, the MPF stated that they only used water cannons, tear gas, and smoke grenades against the protestors.

Despite the opposition, the parliamentary report suggested that the mine operations continue. “This massive project is beneficial to the country even though the benefit is slight,” read the report.  The report also stated that eliminating the mine would create tension with China and may discourage or deter future foreign investments.

“Some people are afraid of China, but the people in general are not, and they don’t feel any obligation toward China,” said Aung Thein.

Others are equally outraged. “I am very dissatisfied and it is unacceptable,” said Thwe Thwe Win, a protest leader. “There is no clause that will punish anyone who had ordered the violent crackdown. Action should be taken against the person who gave the order,” continued Thwe Thwe Win.

A separate report last month by Burmese lawyers and the US-based Justice Trust accused the MPF of using military-issue white phosphorus grenades to diffuse protesters.

For further information, please see:

BBC News – Burma Confirms phosphorus used at mine protest – 12 March 2013

Washington Post – Myanmar protestors hit by police crackdown outraged over report that supports mine operations – 12 March 2013

Huffington Post – Myanmar police used phosphorus at mine – 11 March 2013

Saudi Arabia to Consider an end to Beheadings

By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Recently, Saudi Arabia has been under a lot of heat for the amount of people it has been executing under capital punishment. The most common method used in Saudi Arabia for executions has been that of beheading by swordsmen. Saudi Arabian authorities finally seem ready to retire the traditional Sharia technique.

The beheading of Rizana Nafeek, seen above, took place this past January. (Photo Courtesy of the Global Dispatch)

Those beheaded last year were convicted for the capital crimes of armed robbery, drug smuggling, murder, rape, sorcery, and witchcraft. International human rights group, Amnesty International, opposes the administration of death sentences for the commission of any crime.

Those still contemplating committing witchcraft anytime soon should know that they will still be executed for a capital crime. Instead of being killed by a beheading, a sorcerer will be executed by firing squad.

The switch has nothing to do with the Saudis seeing beheadings as antiquated. The real reason why the ministerial committee of the interior has decided to potentially cease beheadings is because there is a shortage of swordsmen. Swordsmen are largely unavailable in a number of areas in Saudi Arabia. This shortage leads to swordsmen needing to often travel great distances in order to perform executions. When such travels are necessary, executions are often delayed. They are simply impractical.

Saudi Arabia is currently the only country which still beheads criminals in public by sword. Executions by beheading has always been seen as the proper technique under the Koran to punish a person who committed a capital offense since medieval times. Death by the gunfire of a firing squad has also been deemed to be consistent with Sharia law. Though they have been more uncommon, such executions have occurred before and are not considered to be a religious violation.

The manner in which an individual, sentenced by a judge to death, will be killed will ultimately come down to the discretion of a local governor or prince. So far seventeen individuals have been executed this year. At least fifteen of those seventeen were beheaded. The seventeen people already killed this year represent a great increase in the rate of individuals executed, after just eighty individuals were killed a year for the past two years.

For further information, please see:

Arabian Business – Saudi Could Replace Beheading with Firing Squad – 11 March 2013

Guardian – Saudi Shortage of Swordsmen Prompts Approval of Executions by Firing Squad – 11 March 2013

New York Times – Saudis Consider Firing Squads for Executions – 10 March 2013

Global Dispatch – Amnesty International Calls for Saudi Arabia to Stop Beheading ‘Nearly two People a Week’ – 12 February 2013

Jordans Parliament Elects PM for the First Time

By Ali Al-Bassam
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East 

AMMAN, Jordan — For the first time in Jordan’s history, its Prime Minister was appointed under a recommendation by Parliament.  Previously, the position was decided by King Abdullah II.

 

Abullah Ensour was selected by Jordan’s Parliament, a first for the country, to continue serving its Prime Minister. (Photo Courtesy of Al Jazeera)

Under the new process, Ensour was selected by the king after Parliament put forward two names to him last Saturday.  King Abdullah II then selected Ensour, who collected the most votes in Parliament.  King Abdullah II heralded the elections, the Parliament, its new found involvement in selecting a prime minister, and the significant step Jordan took in creating a more participatory political system.

Prime Minister-designate, Abdullah Ensour retains the position after having been selected by King Abdullah II earlier as a “caretaker Prime Minister.”  Ensour was originally selected by the king because of he believed that Ensour would reform for the government and quell the tensions of the Jordanian people that were sparked by the Arab Spring, rigged elections and a government that was said to be corrupt.

However, since October, Ensour saw his popularity drop significantly.  Originally expecting to retire from politics and receive a hefty pay-out, he will now have the opportunity to continue making reforms to a government that he criticized when he was a member of the opposition.  In November, Ensour’s government raised gas prices as part of an economic plan necessary to instill so Jordan could receive a loan from the International Monetary Fund.  The move set off street riots and demonstrations throughout Jordan.  Critics believe that Ensour’s government will continue to raise prices in an effort to revive the Jordan’s economy, one of the poorest countries in the Middle East.  Critics believe that these actions will lead to more street protests.  “There was an opportunity to restore some trust in government. We missed that chance,” said Hassan Barari, an independent economist and commentator, of the election. “We were a divided society before the elections.”

Ensour is expected to name his new cabinet in the coming days.  The king will then swear the new cabinet in and Parliament will install it with its vote of confidence.  In a letter to Ensour, written by King Abdullah II, he requested Ensour and his incoming cabinet to “pursue further liberalization and decentralization,” without mentioning specific issues.  In his letter, the king mentioned that the cabinet should focus on targeting government bureaucracy, which has been marred with nepotism, corruption, and inefficiency. “We also want a white revolution in the public sector to improve its performance and skills, ensure transparency and better service to citizens…”

For further information, please see:

Al Bawaba — Same old PM Marks Radical Change for Jordan — 10 March 2013

Jordan Times — PM-Desigante Enters Talks with MPs over Cabinet Make-Up — 10 March 2013

Wall Street Journal — Jordan Appoints New Prime Minister — 10 March 2013

Al Jazeera — Jordan’s Parliament Chooses PM for First Time — 9 March 2013