David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia

KARACHI, Pakistan – The city of lights is becoming more like a jungle to local residents who fear the city has been overrun with predators: extortionists, drug lords, weapon dealers, the land mafia…the list goes on. Criminals guard their turf and have allegedly formed links with political parties, making controlling the violence difficult, if not impossible says the Tribune.

Within Karachi, an annual billion dollars in revenue province, political rivalry, sectarian tension, ethnic hatred, and a bloody chase of a multi-billion rupee pie are the ongoing explanation for the increased violence.

Nasrullah Khan, Station House Officer of Mauripur Police Station battles targeted killing on a daily basis and has survived numerous shootouts as a result.

“The police is combating crime efficiently,” he claims, “which is evident from the numerous arrests and the seizure of illegal arms, the courts are overflowing with trials and the  jails are overcrowded with all the people we have arrested.”

The statistics Nasrullah offers tell one story, but there are other numbers as well, and they tell a different story.

Targeted killings for the month of March are 135. This number is twenty more than two months ago were January witnessed 105 people killed.

According to the Human Rights Commission in Pakistan, target killings in the city have risen by 175 per cent from 2009 to 2010. Last year 748 people lost their lives on the violent streets of Karachi. Only 447 of them were political activists.

“This is indeed a turf war,” says Nasrullah Khan. “There is a battle for drugs, for weapons, for confiscation of land, for extortion, for dominance — ultimately it’s a battle to own Karachi.”

But adding to the turmoil is a sluggish judicial process where the police and prosecutors lack the ability to produce evidence or witnesses before the court.

Despite the confession of nine target killing suspects, they were acquitted by the court because of a lack of evidence and witness testimony. Only to be let loose without any surveillance so they often continue committing crime without any fear.

Reports indicate that on May 12th a message was sent to political parties to strengthen their militant wings or find themselves on the receiving end of political violence. Lacking alternatives, party workers chose to arm themselves or align with ‘sympathetic’ criminal groups for protection.

Politics in this case are unquestionable the “Muttahida Qaumi Movement” or MQM and the “Awami National Party” or ANP share the coalition government in Sindh with the ruling Pakistan People’s Party or PPP.

They share the responsibility of governance and maintenance of the law and ultimate order.

ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan says that no single political party should be allowed to dominate the city. He stressed “that the Pashtun presence in Karachi was a reality, as was the existence of other ethnicities.”

The ANP chief says that “elements” intending to destabilize the city were feeding on political strife and that neither the MQM nor the ANP were solely responsible for target killing.

Interviews with the International Herald report that the ANP and MQM now apparently seem to be in agreement that peaceful co-existence is the solution to Karachi’s problems.

The citizens pay the price for this targeted violence.

Citizens are targeted for their ethnicity, their sect, their politics…and sometimes, just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The father of a victim says, “the Katchi community is fed-up of the PAC and has decided to gang up against them under the banner of the Katchi Rabta Committee” or KRC.

Uzair Jan Baloch, chief of the now-defunct People’s Aman Committee or PAC, refutes the allegations leveled against him. “I am a victim of gang wars myself. My father was abducted in front of my eyes fifteen years ago. His dead body was found in Jahanabad in a sack.”

“I am a social activist and the Aman Committee is a social welfare outfit,” claims Baloch.

To back up his claims, Uzair Baloch shows Sabin Agha of the Tribune, three applications from the residents of Lyari for financial assistance.

One is a request for payment of a student’s school fees in Australia, the other two also ask for monetary help due to lack of income and the absence of a breadwinner. Baloch claims he took care of all three applications.

Administrative neglect over the years have left Lyari so impoverished that it is not surprising that people find their saviors in people like Uzair Baloch or Rehman Dakait.

Citizens believe that as long as political parties feel the need to maintain militant wings and ally themselves with criminals, the slightest spark will continue to set this city ablaze.

Police have lost credibility in the eyes of the people, the law enforcement agencies suffer from endemic lawlessness and rampant corruption, ironically the same problem Karachi faces.

For more information, please see:

International Herald Tribune – Welcome to the Jungle – 17 April 2011

Xinhua News (China) – Tension grips Pakistan coastal city Karachi as target killing continues – 15 April 2011

Hindustan Times – Fresh Political violence kill 10 in Karachi-17 April 2011

The News (International) – No PPP man named in Joint Team report on Karachi target killings – 11 April 2011

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia

KATHMANDU, Nepal – After nine years of waiting, Bhutanese refugees by the thousands are still living in miserable conditions in Nepal, India, and elsewhere. They have survived this long with hope of being able to return to their homeland. Their hopes have been reignited, as on Saturday Bhutan’s Prime Minister Lyonchhen Jigmi Y Thinley said they would have to prove again that they were bona fide Bhutan citizens, but the conversation alone is progress.

Some 108,000 Bhutanese of Nepali-origin were forced to flee the country after Druk Government stripped them of their citizenship and forcefully evicted them from Bhutan in a manner of ethnic cleansing.

Prime Minister made these unfortunate remarks after talks with Nepal’s Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal due to regional as well as bilateral concerns and issues.

Over 105,000 Bhutanese refugees waste away in closed camps within Nepal since their eviction in the 1990s and almost 30,000 more living in India  and all over the world including Syracuse, New York. These refugees remain yet hopeful, as Thinley agreed to resume talks to allow them their return home.

The issue of repatriation for Bhutanese refugees has continued to be a foreign relations concern since their forced displacement.

A large number of Bhutanese refugees continue to live in seven camps within eastern Nepal, and have done so for over 18 years.

The two leaders held discussions regarding the bilateral relations and upcoming summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Thinley told reporters after the meeting. Bhutan is the current chair of the SAARC.

Thinley also said that consensus has been forged to hold dialogues which further strengthen the five-decade long relationship between the two countries.

In a separate interview the Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal’s foreign affairs advisor Milan Tuladhar also said consensus was forged regarding the issue of Bhutanese refugees’ repatriation through dialogues.

Ministerial Joint Committee talks have been delayed since 2003 with Nepal to resolve the lingering Bhutanese refugee problem, reports Kosh R. Koirala of the Asian Tribune.

“The date for the talks will be settled through diplomatic channels,” said Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal’s foreign affairs advisor Milan Tuladhar.

Frustration has risen as the Bhutanese side had not shown any interests to resume talks after an angry mob of refugees tried to manhandle the Bhutanese members of the Joint Verification Team (JVT) on December 22, 2003 reports Koirala, Asian Tribune.

Prime Minister Khanal´s request comes at a time when a significant number of Bhutanese refugees have opted for repatriation with full dignity.

Although the government has maintained that it wants to respect the rights of those wishing to return to their homeland over 44,000 refugees have already left for third country settlement in eight countries, a program spearheaded by the United States.

For more information, please see:

The Times of India – Bhutan dashes refugees’ home-coming dreams – 16 April 2011

Xinhua News (China) – Nepal, Bhutan agree to resolve refugees issue through dialogue – 15 April 2011

Asian Tribune – Bhutan agrees to resume bilateral talks to resolve refugee problem –  16 April 2011

South Asian News Agency – Bhutan resumes talks on refugees – 16 April 2011

By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Asia

2011 census reveals that boys are preferred to girls, leading families to abort girl babies (Photo courtesy of the Nation).

NEW DELHI, India – If you are a girl in India, you are less likely to be born. The figures speak for itself: the latest 2011 census show that the sex ratio, the number of girls to every 1,000, was 914 in the 0-6 age group, which is 13 less than the 2001 census.

As medical technology continues to improve and more commonly implemented in rural areas, the abortion of female fetuses has also increased. This is because technology has made it easier to detect the sex of an unborn child.

Lakshmi Rani, 30, is one of many women who was forced to abort her unborn baby, multiple times. From Bhiwani district in Uttar Pradesh, Ms. Rani’s first three pregnancies were terminated due to family pressure.

“My mother-in-law took me to the clinic herself,” she said. “It wasn’t my decision, but I didn’t have a choice. They didn’t want girls.”

She and her husband are pushing for another pregnancy and she prays that the next one will be a boy. Although sex determination tests, let alone abortion itself is illegal in India, women like Ms. Rani is powerless before family pressure and general societal preference of boys.

There is also a stark regional difference. The divide between the north and south has gotten worse as J&K’s child sex ratio fell steeply to 859, making it the third worst state after Haryana and Punjab. Just ten years ago In 2001, J&K had a better child sex ratio than the Indian average. With the exception of Himachal Pradesh, no state in the north now has a child sex ratio above 900.

The reasons behind the preference of boys over girls are complex, according to the Center for Social Research, a research organization in New Delhi. Ironically, the aborting practice happens in some of India’s most prosperous states — Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh — indicating that economic growth does not guarantee a shift in social attitudes. Ranjana Kumari, spokesperson for the research center gives several factors that may attribute to the preference of boys in many parts of India, especially the conservative north: sons are the source of the family income, daughters marry into another family and are not available to look after their parents, dowries make a daughter a liability and, in agricultural areas, there is the fear that any woman who inherits land might take that property to her husband’s family.

“It (the decline in child sex ratio) was expected, but it is a warning signal for the nation to wake up,” Ms. Kumari said, also adding that law banning sex-based abortion “is not stringently implemented”.

Her findings and facts lead to conclusion that India’s sex ratio is a feature not just of dictatorship and poverty. Unlike China, India is a democracy: there is no one-child policy to blame.

“The caution should be taken seriously. We are leading to a crisis situation,” she said.

For more information, please see:

The Times of India – Sense of Census 2011: Save the Girl Child – 1 April 2011

The Economist – Gendercide in India: Add Sugar and Spice – 7 April 2011

The New York Times – A Campaign Against Girls in India – 12 April 2011

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia

BEIJING, China – Ai WeiWei, the brain behind the birds-nest stadium which was the centerpiece of Beijing’s Olympic Games, and outspoken activist was detained by police at Beijing airport in a widening crackdown on resistance across the country.

His wife told Agence France Press on Monday that police in Beijing had refused to disclose why they detained the artist, the internationally acclaimed artist, has now been missing for over a week.

Ai Weiwei’s believes firmly in the freedom of speech and the right to speak up on behalf of others who have been brutally silenced for their efforts to change society for the better.

His public comments, activities and art are some of the loudest, most flagrantly defiant forms of speech in China today, in a time where government controls on the Internet and traditional media limit freedom in their civil society.

Citizens urge their government to treat their people with respect as a matter of basic justice and humanity.

More than 20 dissidents and activists have been held in the past weeks reports Human Rights Watch.

China’s authorities appear on edge over calls for a so-called Jasmine Revolution, partly inspired by pro-democracy movements in the Middle East.

The artist was stopped while passing through security checks for a flight to Hong Kong with an assistant, Jennifer Ng.

Ms. Ng was allowed to continue on her journey to Hong Kong only after the documents of both were searched thoroughly.

She told the BBC that Ai Weiwei was taken away by border guards.

A few hours later, more than 40 police officers raided the artist’s Beijing studio.

Dozens of items were confiscated, said another assistant, and several people were taken to a nearby police station, although they were released a few hours later.

Some of his work has political connotations, he tried to gather the names of every school child who died during the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

This is a sensitive subject as many schools fell down in the earthquake, leading to claims that they were poorly built.

The Chinese government has made it a point to arrest activists who bring this issue up, says the BBC’s Michael Bristow in Beijing.

France, Germany and the United States have called for the immediate release of a Chinese artist and dissident, detained in China.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called on China for an “urgent explanation” of his fate.

A spokesman for the French foreign ministry said the country was “very concerned” about his disappearance.

“We hope he will be released as soon as possible,” Bernard Valero said, adding that the French government was following events “very closely”.

Human rights group Amnesty International said Mr Ai’s arrest showed that “China’s time for open dissent has come to an end”.

The detention adds to the lengthening list of dissidents held in a security crackdown by a government determined to snuff out any hint of challenges to its power as it approaches a leadership transition in late 2012.

Under Chinese law, the authorities must inform relatives within 24 hours when someone is brought in for questioning and 48 hours if he or she is arrested. However, the rule is often disregarded.

For more information,  please see:

Human Rights Watch – China: Arrests, Disappearances Require International Response – 31 March 2011

BBC – Concern mounts over missing Chinese artist Ai Weiwei – 5 April 2011

The West Australian – “No information” in disappearance of China dissident – 4 April 2011

Asia News – China West protests “disappearance” of renowned artist Ai Weiwei, but another 200 are also detained – 5 April 2011

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia

NEW DELHI, India – The “Pre-conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act” banned Prenatal sex determination India in 1994. The acts prevention of female feticide, which according to the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, “has its roots in India’s long history of strong patriarchal influence in all spheres of life”, has been ineffective since its implementation in 1996.

Despite the banning on doctors revealing the sex of unborn children, poor implementation of the PNDT Act reflect low convictions of medical professionals found guilty, showing a lack of governmental concern.

The 2011 census recorded staggering decrease in the percentage of girls among India’s preschoolers. For every 1,000 boys aged up to 6 years old, the report counted 914 girls, a drop from 927 a decade ago.

The current ratio is the lowest ratio since India gained independence in 1947, said the preliminary census.

It’s illegal in India to abort a child just because of its sex, but such abortions happen, often aided by illegal clinics; reports Harmeet Shah Singh, CNN.

Explaining the fallout of the decreasing sex ratio, Dr. BP Mishra, psychologist in Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, said, “Less number of girls in society could cause fights among communities over marriages. When there are a lot of unmarried men around, it would also lead to prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases.”

The skewed sex ratio in Punjab and Harvana could have wider and more permanent social effects like rise in exploitation of women, higher crime rate, an increase in sexual diseases and depression among youth, she said.

Sociologists and psychologists in Punjab and Haryana said if the sex ratio continues to drop it will lead to chaos in society.

Dr. Mishra added that if the sex ratio continues to fall, the situation would be like “jungle raj” or survival of the fittest. “Being a biological need, the desire for sex is like hunger or thirst. If this desire is not fulfilled, it would lead to unnatural sex encounters,” he said.

“The reasons for high number of incidence of female feticide in India include a deep-rooted traditional son preference, continued practice of dowry and concern for safety of the girl child and exploitation and abuse of women and girl children,” India’s Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath told Parliament last month.

Dean of faculty of social sciences in Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak, professor Khazan Singh Sangwan pointed out that marriage would be difficult for those youngsters who don’t have land, employment or businesses.

“In the absence of a job, land, occupation and even marriage this section will opt for crime. Jobless youths will try to bring brides from outside the community and state. Such situation may lead to human trafficking on a large scale,” he said.

Some Indian states have announced incentives for the birth of baby girls and have criminalized sex-selective abortions in an effort to try to restore balance, she said.

Tirath also stressed that socio-economic empowerment of women is essential to help them make informed decisions and change their mind sets.

“If this condition persists, there will be inter-caste marriages that may help in diluting the caste identity and prove helpful for national integration also.” MDU professor Khazan Singh.

Advocating strict implementation of PNDT, Khajan Singh said, “Cases of female feticide should be treated like murders. The person who opts for female foeticide should be punished but doctors should be held more responsible for this crime because they are supposed to follow certain ethics.”

For more information, please see:

CNN – India combats sex-selective abortion as gender ration loses balance – 2 April 2011

The Times of India – Skewed sex ration may lead to social chaos in Punjab & Haryana: Experts – 3 April 2011

The Times of India – National policy needed to tackle declining sex-ration: NGOs – 3 April 2011

Global Post – India Census | Boys and Girls – 31 March 2011