David L. Chaplin II

Impunity Watch Reporter; Asia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch has been found guilty of crimes against humanity by Cambodia’s UN-backed war crimes tribunal. Duch, 67, whose full name is Kaing Guek Eav, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

The man who ran a notorious torture prison where more than 14,000 people died during the Khmer Rouge regime was found guilty of war crimes Monday and sentenced to 35 years in prison — with 5 years taken off that sentence for time served.  The verdict against Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, also convicted him of crimes against humanity, murder and torture.  Duch ran Tuol Sleng prison, where “enemies” of the Khmer Rouge regime were sent.

At least 1.7 million people — nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population — died under the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime from execution, disease, starvation and overwork, according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia.  But prosecutors said the former maths teacher ordered the use of brutal torture methods to extract “confessions” from detainees – including pulling out toenails and administering electric shocks – and approved all the executions.

A meticulous record-keeper, Duch built up a huge archive of photos, confessions and other evidence documenting those held at Tuol Sleng.

Despite acknowledging the role he played at Tuol Sleng, codenamed “S-21”, he insisted that he had only been following orders from his superiors, and on the trial’s final day in November shocked many by asking to be acquitted.

Wearing a blue shirt, the former Khmer Rouge jailer looked pensive and slumped in his chair as proceedings were held behind a floor-to-ceiling bullet-proof screen which separated the public gallery from the rest of the court.

“I can’t accept this,” Saodi Ouch, 46, told the Associated Press news agency. “My family died… my older sister, my older brother. I’m the only one left.”

Some said they wanted a tougher sentence. “There is no justice. I wanted life imprisonment for Duch,” said Hong Sovath, whose father was killed in Tuol Sleng. Many called the War crimes tribunal efforts a “shame” and “slap in the face” to survivors.

The group’s top leader, “Brother Number One” Pol Pot, died in 1998.  The other Khmer Rouge leaders awaiting trial are “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan, former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith, the minister of social affairs.

For more information, please see:

CNN World – Khmer Rouger survivors angry over Duch jail sentence – 26 July 2010

Al Jazeera – Khmer Rouge prison chief convicted – 26 July 2010

BBC – Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch found guilty – 26 July 2010

By David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

HAMGYONG, North Korea – Human rights group calls on international community to help end regime’s ‘systematic neglect’ and prevent humanitarian disaster.  North Korea is failing to provide the most basic healthcare needs for its people, Amnesty International warns.  Barely functioning hospitals, poor hygiene and epidemics made worse by widespread malnutrition was revealed from human rights watch dog.  An investigation by the human rights watchdog found many people were also too poor to pay for treatment.

The state’s failure to feed its people has produced a generation where nearly 50% suffer from stunted growth, where the hungry eat poisonous plants and pig feed, amputations are conducted without anesthetic and doctors are paid in cigarettes.

“If you don’t have money you die,” said the woman, who left North Korea in 2008.

Pyongyang spends less than $1 (£0.65) per person on healthcare a year, less than any other country, according to World Health Organization figures cited in the report.

Amnesty’s report, The Crumbling State of Health Care in North Korea, is based on interviews with more than 40 North Korean health professionals, who left the country between 2004 and 2009.

“The government’s failure to provide basic education about using medication is especially worrying as North Korea fights a tuberculosis epidemic,” said Catherine Barber, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia Pacific.

Pyongyang says it provides free healthcare for its people, but witnesses told Amnesty they had to pay for all services for the past 20 years.

One 20-year-old woman from North Hamgyong province said: “People don’t bother going to the hospital if they don’t have money because everyone knows that you have to pay.  Poor hygiene at medical facilities and a dire lack of medicines were threatening the lives of many, Amnesty warned, with people routinely trading cigarettes, food and alcohol for treatment.

A 56-year-old woman told Amnesty that her appendix was removed without anaesthetic.  “The operation took about an hour and 10 minutes. I was screaming so much from the pain – I thought I was going to die.

North Korea faces critical food shortages following famine in the 1990s which killed up to one million people and relies on international aid.

A botched currency re-evaluation in 2009 almost doubled the price of rice overnight, and one non-governmental organization cited in the report said thousands of people starved to death in January and February this year in one province alone.

Politically the North finds itself isolated – it has withdrawn from international talks over its controversial nuclear programme.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Amnesty warns of healthcare crisis in North Korea – 15 July 2010

Business Week – North Korean Health System “Dire,” – 15 July 2010

Guardian.co.uk – North Korea facing health and food crisis – 15 July 2010

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Police in Bangladesh have charged 824 people for the massacre of 74 senior military officers during a mutiny by border guards in February last year.   All suspects could face the death penalty if found guilty.

Seventy-four people, including 57 senior army officers, were killed during the siege of a military base in Dhaka, the capital, in an uprising that briefly threatened the government of Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister.

Prosecutors announced the charges on Monday and the trials against the mutiny’s ringleaders and participants are expected to take at least one year to complete in Bangladesh’s civil courts.

“We have charged 824 people with murder, conspiracy, aiding and abetting murder, looting military weapons and arson,” Mosharraf Hossain Kazal, the state prosecutor, said.

Rebelling soldiers were allegedly angry about their superiors’ refusal to increase their pay and improve working conditions.

“They mowed their officers down in cold blood, using semi-automatic weapons and rifles they’d looted from the barracks,” Akhand, the police investigator, said of  mutineers who took control of BDR headquarters on February 25, 2009.

The violence has spread nationwide and Bangladesh appeared to be on the brink of civil war.

The case will be handled by Bangladesh’s civil courts in what will be the largest trial in the country’s history.

In parallel prosecutions, some 3,500 soldiers who had joined the rebellion are being tried in military courts on lesser charges.

At least 200 guards have already been convicted by the tribunals with jail sentences ranging from four months to seven years.

The mutiny erupted at the BDR headquarters in Dhaka and lasted 33 hours, during which officers were killed and their bodies dumped in sewers and shallow graves.

“A senior officer was taken to the roof of a four-storey building and thrown to the ground. The dead bodies of a few officers were set on fire.”

The mutiny took place just two months after the country returned to civilian rule under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

She had originally offered an amnesty to some mutineers but this was rescinded when the extent and nature of the bloodshed became clear.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Bangladesh charges 824 people over deadly mutiny – 12 July 2010

Al Jazeera English – More charged over Bangladesh mutiny  – 12 July 2010

Radio Netherlands Worldwide – Bangladesh charges 824 for deadly munity murders – 12 July 2010

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Wen Qiang, 55, former director of the Chongqing Justice Bureau in the Chongqing region and highest ranking official also an ex-deputy police chief, was sentenced to death in April on massive corruption charges, for sponsoring and protecting five gangs as well as rape and taking bribes.

He was executed in Chongqing, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

Wen’s case was part of a huge operation that exposed illegal activities in Chongqing, a city of more than 30 million people, as well as highlighting China’s problem of rampant official corruption.

The crackdown resulted in more than 3,300 detentions and hundreds of prosecutions, including the trials of nearly 100 officials.  Several people have already reportedly been executed or sentenced to death in the trials.

Wen allegedly raped a number of women including film and music personalities, as well as having affairs with subordinates.

He was also found guilty of taking more than 12 million yuan ($2 million U.S.) in bribes and engaging in a range of corrupt activities.

At his trial in February, Wen admitted he took money from others on numerous occasions but said that no corruption was involved and much of it was for “birthday and New Year” greetings, according to state media.

Wen was tried with his wife, Zhou Xiaoya, and three former Chongqing police associates, all of whom received jail sentences of up to 20 years.

Last November, Wen’s sister-in-law Xie Caiping was sentenced to 18 years in prison on charges of running illegal gambling venues and drug dealing.

The crackdown is widely seen as a bid by Bo Xilai – who was appointed Communist Party secretary in Chongqing in 2007 – to move up in the national hierarchy via political maneuvering.

The corruption trials, covered extensively by Chinese media, have transfixed the nation and rallied Chongqing residents, who claim they are fed up with being bullied by their own local officials.

“Only capital punishment will serve him right. He deserves to be killed a thousand times,” one person commented online about Wen in February.

“The Wen Qiang case is only the tip of the iceberg,” another wrote. “If China wants more rapid development, there should be a purge to wipe out all the corrupted officials in Communist Party.”  Analysts said a harsh crackdown on corruption was vital to maintaining public faith in the Communist leadership.

For more information, please see:

CNN World – Ex-Chinese official executed for corruption – 7 July 2010

BBC – China rejects police official Wen Qiang death appeal – 21 May 2010

Al Jazeera English – China ‘executes’ justice official -7 July 2010

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter; Asia

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The death toll climbed to 50 on Friday after a pair of suicide bombers detonated their explosive vests at one of Pakistan’s holiest shrines, police said.  Police are on high alert in Pakistan as demands grow for a tougher crackdown on armed religious groups in the central Punjab province after bombers targeted a popular Muslim shrine.

The targeted shrine was that of an 11th century Sufi saint, Ali bin Usman, commonly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh Hajveri, who traveled throughout the region spreading Islam with a message of peace and love.  His shrine is the most revered and popular of Sufi shrines in the nation.

More than 200 people were injured in the blasts outside the Data Darbar, a famous Sufi shrine complex.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan expressed alarm over the attacks and called on both the government and Muslim clerics to stand up to extremism.

Security has been tightened at Sufi shrines across the country, but many Pakistanis, already frustrated by a troubled economy and crippling power cuts, are calling for the resignation of Punjab government officials.

About 2,000 people, some armed, staged protests in Lahore on Friday, shouting “Down with Shahbaz Sharif”, the chief minister of Punjab

“This sickening poison of extremism will be driven out of our nation and we will not be cowed,” said Farahnaz Ispahani, a spokeswoman for President Asif Ali Zardari, in a text message to CNN.

“Peaceful worshippers have once again been targeted by those who want to destroy the fabric of this great country.  We will not forgive or forget and we will get justice for all Pakistanis murdered in cold blood — be they Muslim, Christian, Ahmadi or of any other faith.”

Talat Masood, a defence analyst and former Pakistan military officer, said Taliban-linked groups are exploiting the uncertainty over the government’s response to such attacks.

“At the moment there is lukewarm support from the people, and the people have no confidence in the government and their governance,” he told Al Jazeera on Friday.

“America is killing Muslims in Afghanistan and in our tribal areas, and militants are attacking Pakistan to express anger against the government for supporting America,” explained Zahid Umar, 25, a frequent visitor to the Lahore shrine.

For more information, please see: 

Al Jazeera English – Pakistan on alert after shrine raid – 2 July 2010

CNN World – Explosions at famous shrine in Pakistan kill dozens – 2 July 2010

The Huffington Post – Pakistanis Blame U.S. After Shrine Suicide Attack Kills 42 – 2 July 2010