A teenage Pakistani girl was electrocuted by her family for marrying out of Caste (Photo courtesy of Rantrave)

By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Asia

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A teenage girl in Pakistan was electrocuted by her family members for falling in love with a man who comes from a lower caste, police said on Sunday.

Elders and relatives of Saima Bibi, 17, had a meeting with a village council, or panchayat, and came to conclude that an appropriate punishment for Saima for tarnishing the family name was death. Her guilt was falling in love with a man the family did not approve of.

“There are signs of torture and burns on her neck, back and hands which are most probably caused by electrocution,” said Zahoor Rabbani, the police from Bahawalpur district in east Pakistan where Saima was killed.

The incident prompted Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yusuf Raza Gilani, who took “serious notice” of the “the sad incident of the killing of a girl by electric current on the orders of the panchayat”, to order police to immediately submit a report, according to his office.

However, such news is nothing new. Saima’s death is known as an honor killing in Pakistan, which is commonly practiced in rural areas where, under tribal customs for generations, getting married without family approval or having sex outside marriage is deemed a serious slight to the nor of the family or the tribe.

Hundreds of people, most of them women, are brutally killed in Pakistan in the name of “honor” every year. Notably, the majority of these victims come from poor, rural families.

According to Pakistan’s independent Human Rights Commission’s latest report, nearly 650 women were killed in that way in 2009. These women, if accused of fornication, are stigmatized as a “kari”, or “black woman,” and punishment by death of such women was justified under tribal customs.

Saima fell in love with her neighbor, Dilawar, and was in hiding in Karachi, one of Pakistan’s biggest cities for more than a month. When her relatives located her and persuaded her to return to her home on the false promise that they will approve of her marriage.

“Her father, uncles and other relatives later refused to fulfil her wish because they said the boy comes from a lower caste,” said Rabbani.

When she refused to marry another man chosen by the family, Saima was brutally murdered by her own family members.

Rabbani said Saima’s father and her uncle had been detailed after police raided her village home.

For more information, please see:

Reuters – Pakistani girl ‘electrocuted’ in honour killing – 23 January 2011

All Voices – Pakistani Girl Saima Bibi was Brutally Electrocuted to Death by her Family Members – 24 January 2011

The China Post – Pakistani girl ‘electrocuted’ in honor killing – 24 January 2011

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch; Asia

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan – Within a little know Afghan province, Aziza, feeds her four-year-old son pure Opium for breakfast.

“If I don’t give him opium he doesn’t sleep,” she says. “And he doesn’t let me work.”

Many poor families, like Aziza, born to a family of carpet weavers in Balkh province has no education, no idea of the health risks involved or that opium is addictive.

“We give the children opium whenever they get sick as well,” says Aziza.

“People use opium as drugs or medicine. If a child cries, they give him opium, if they can’t sleep, they use opium, if an infant coughs, they give them opium,” reports CNNs Arwa Damon.

With no real medical care in these parts and the high cost of medicine, all the families out here know is opium.

Opium has become a cycle of addiction passed on through generations. The adults take opium to work longer hours and ease their pain.

“I had to work and raise the children, so I started using drugs,” she says. “We are very poor people, so I used opium. We don’t have anything to eat. That is why we have to work and use drugs to keep our kids quiet.”

The Balkin province is famous for its carpets. It’s so remote there are no real roads. The dirt roads that exist are often blocked by landslides.

The neighboring government-run drug therapy center is a four-hour drive away. But it has just 20 beds and a handful of staff to deal with the epidemic, says CNNs Arwa Damon.

“Opium is nothing new to our villages or districts. It’s an old tradition, something of a religion in some areas,” said Dr. Mohamed Daoud Rated, coordinator of the center. The center is running an outreach program to the areas that are most afflicted.

Most Afghans aren’t aware of the health risks of opium and only a few are beginning to understand the hazards of addiction.

“I was a child when I started using drugs” 35-year-old Nagibe says. She says her sister-in-law first gave her some when she was a young teenage bride, just 14 years old. Her children grew up addicts as well.

She has been clean for four months, hoping to leave the addiction behind, but every day is a struggle.

Three generations of one family, all struggling with a curse that afflicts well over one million Afghans.

A recent surge in opium prices could encourage Afghan farmers to expand cultivation of the narcotic crop and reverse advances in the fight against drug production.

UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov said, “If this cash bonanza lasts, it could effectively reverse the hard-won gains of recent years.”

For more information, please see:

CNN – Afghan infants fed pure opium – 23 January 2011

AOL news – Spike in Opium Prices Threatens Progress in Afghan Drug War – 20 January 2011

Top Wire XS – A Terrible Lullaby for Afghan Babies – 24 January 2011

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch; Asia

CHHATTISGARH, India – The right to health care is challenged as a misguided press began looking into claims by Kalluir, Senior Superintendent of Police, Dantewada, whom accused international humanitarian organization’s Medicines Sans Frontières (MSF), or doctors without borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of “facilitating” treatment to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and promised to investigate both agencies.

The CPI (Maoist) Formed in 2004 is a guerilla organization committed to overthrowing the Union government through an armed revolution.

“Investigations have shown that these medicines have been prescribed by MSF doctors,” Kalluri said. “They even carry out surgeries for those (Maoists) wounded in encounters with the police”.

“They come in the name of helping the poor, but these foreign doctors treat the Maoists. If they want to work for the poor, surely they can work elsewhere,” said SRP Kalluri.

However, Director-General of Police Vishwa Ranjan said no such investigation was under way. “The ICRC is still in the process of signing an agreement with the government to operate in Chhattisgarh,” he said.

“We are not investigating either organization for supporting the Maoists,” he said, attributing Mr. Kalluri’s comments to confusion among the local press.

MSF’s India head Martin Sloot said the organization offers medical support to people who have limited access to healthcare, with support from the Chhattisgarh government.

“These allegations, as I understand them, are not true. MSF has worked in Chhattisgarh for quite some time. We are very transparent, and provide medical care to the entire population,” said Martin Sloot, who heads the MSF mission in India.

“We are not a political organization, we are medical organization. We believe in the principles of impartiality and neutrality, and that healthcare is a right,” said Mr. Sloot said, adding that MSF did not allow armed people into its health centers.

“I am surprised by the comments,” said Yahia Alibi, Deputy Regional Head of the ICRC. “We do not operate in Dantewada, but are running one primary health center in Kutru, Bijapur, with the full support of the local administration and the police.”

Both MSF and ICRC have won Nobel Peace Prize for their work in providing humanitarian assistance to people caught in situations of armed conflict.

The rebels are believed to be active in more than two-thirds of the country. They say they are fighting for the rights of the rural poor.

A government offensive against the rebels widely referred to as Operation Green Hunt – began last October.  It involves 50,000 troops and is taking place across five states – West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa and Chhattisgarh.
For more information, please see:

BBC – Red Cross and MSF accused of helping India Maoists – 21 January 2011

Times of India – Medecins Sans Frontieres, Red Cross treat Maoists: Dantewada – 20 January 2011

The Hindu – MSF and Red Cross aiding  Maoists: Dantewada police – 21 January 2011

Obama is pressed to raise NK refugee issue with Hu (Photo Courtesy of White House/Pete Souza)

By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA – Human Rights groups, including The North Korean Freedom Coalition (NKFC), are urging President Barack Obama to press China to stop repatriating North Korean refugees captured in China. President Hu Jintao of China met with President Obama on Wednesday and this has created a lot of hype amongst the media and public.

While most of discussion between two leaders is expected to revolve around setting a new course in economic cooperation and political reconciliation, human rights groups point to North Korean refugees over whom China has tremendous power and control.

“We urgently request that during your meetings . . . with President Hu Jintao… that you request China to end its current policy of repatriating North Korean refugees back to North Korea,” Suzanne Scholte, chairwoman of the North Korea Freedom Coalition, said in an open letter to Obama. “We believe that ending this policy of repatriation would have a very positive effect for China and North Korea.”

However, it is unclear, thus far, how much of concern has been expressed by President Obama on North Korean refugees. His primary agenda regarding North Korea is the North’s recent development of its nuclear weapons programs and its latest provocation against South Korea.

China has failed to join the international community in condemning North Korea on two series of attacks it carried against South Korea last year; sinking of the naval ship, Cheonan, in March, which took the lives of 46 marines, and shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November, killing two civilians and two soldiers.

It is estimated that up to 400,000 North Korean refugees are hiding in China trying to find their way to another country, mostly South Korea. China, however, in violation of the 1951 U.N. Convention that requires countries to grant asylum to foreign refugees, and under a secret agreement with North Korea, treats defectors as economic immigrants rather than refugees, and repatriate them when caught in their soil.

Those repatriated to the North are subject to “a minimum of five years of labor correction” or “indefinite terms of imprisonment and forced labor, confiscation of property or death,” according to a U.S. State Department report released last year. According to Scholte, many female refugees are subject to becoming victims of human trafficking and sold as sexual slaves among chinese men.

“It is China’s repatriation policy that has created an environment in China that has led to human beings being bought and sold, as over 80 percent of North Korean females are trafficked . . . These women are our mothers, or sisters, and our daughters who are being bought and sold like animals just because they went to China to try to feed their starving children and families in North Korea,” said Scholte.


South Korea has taken in more the 20,000 North Koreans since the end of the Korean War (1950-53), while the United States have been accepting about 100 North Korean refugees under the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004.


For more information, please see:

Yonhap News – Obama urged to ask Hu to stop repatriating N. Korean refugees: rights group – 12 January 2011

The Korea Times – Obama pressed to raise NK refugee plight with Hu – 12 January 2011

The New York Times – U.S. Warning to China Sends Ripples to the Koreas – 20 January 2011