Asia

Police Open Fire on protesters In Kashmir

By David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KASHMIR, India – “We want freedom” was the resonating chant as protests in Kashmir turned deadly when troops open fired on hundreds of demonstrators on Sunday, killing one person and wounding at least five.

A defiant protester shouts slogans in Jammu on Monday
A defiant protester shouts slogans in Jammu on Monday

Hundreds of people took to the streets, throwing rocks at security forces and surrounding an armored vehicle belonging to paramilitary soldiers, in a protest against the death of Mohammed Rafiq Bangroo, a 25-year-old who died Saturday after being beaten by troops in an earlier demonstration last week.  After the demonstrators tried to light a bunker on fire, the officers fired as an act of self defense, authorities say.

“We exercised maximum restraint.  Our soldiers opened fire only in self-defense after the protesters tried to torch the bunker,” Prabhakar Tripathi, spokesman for the Central Reserve Police Force, told the AP.  Tensions in the Muslim-majority region have been running high since local police accused the military of killing three civilians in April, and officials now say they are clamping down by enforcing a tight curfew and other restrictions.

Despite a decline in violence in Kashmir in recent years, there are fears that militants are trying to regroup in the region.  Hundreds of thousands of Indian troops are based in Kashmir to fight a two decade-old insurgency against Indian rule.

A senior Indian army officer has been killed in a gun battle with separatist militants in Indian-administered Kashmir.  Colonel Neeraj Sood was “leading his troops” when he was gunned down by militants in Lolab area, the army said.  He was the highest ranking officer to be killed by militants in Kashmir in 2010.

It is not clear whether the militants have suffered any casualties in the clashes.

Many know this re-birth of violence comes at the worst time, Al Jazeera’s Prerna Suri reports from Srinagar, said: “The violence couldn’t have come at a worse time for the people of Kashmir.  It’s peak tourist season and families live entirely on tourism.  They say if violence spreads, the only ones to suffer will be them.”

The demonstration swelled after the shots were fired, when hundreds more people poured into the streets, chanting “Indian forces leave Kashmir”.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Muslim-majority Kashmir.  Opposition groups have been fighting since 1989 for the Himalayan region’s independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera English – Police on Kashmir protestors – 20 June 2010

BBC news – Indian army officer killed in Kashmir clash – 23 June 2010

The Huffington Post – Kashmir Police Open Fire On Protesters – 21 June 2010

Kyrgyzstan Chaos Shows Signs of Ethnic Cleansing

By David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyzstan – A Humanitarian crisis and signs of ethnic cleansing is exposed as homes and business have been marked with ethnic background identifying symbols, forcing the displacement of 1 in 4 people and questionable survival for those whom remain.

The ethnic bloodletting has killed hundreds and set off a massive wave of refugees, with 400,000 people crammed in squalid camps with little access to clean water and food.

Men cry in the village of Shark, outside Osh, by a destroyed building
Men cry in the village of Shark, outside Osh, by a destroyed building

The Central Asian state’s interim leader believes the number of people killed since violence erupted just over a week ago may be as high as 2,000.

Up to a million people are said to have been affected by fighting between the Kyrgyz majority and minority Uzbeks. Many of those who fled their homes are staying in Uzbekistan.

“Where can we go now? Our belief in the future is dead,” said Mamlyakat Akramova, who lived in the center of Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city and the epicenter of the violence that broke out last week.

Entire Uzbek neighborhoods of southern Kyrgyzstan have been reduced to scorched ruins by rampaging mobs of ethnic Kyrgyz who forced nearly half of the region’s roughly 800,000 Uzbeks to flee for their lives.

John Holmes, head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs urged a “generous and rapid response” from donors.

“I have been shocked by the extent of the violence and appalled by the deaths and injuries, widespread arson, sexual violence, looting of state, commercial and private property and destruction of infrastructure,” he said.

Muslim tradition of burying the dead before sunset on the day of death meant many hundreds of victims had not been counted.  Eyewitnesses and victims have repeatedly said that the violence was orchestrated, and many have accused soldiers from the Kyrgyz military of being involved.

Uzbeks in Osh complained the government was doing too little to alleviate their suffering and said they were relying on small amounts of aid from Uzbekistan.  Many refugees complained humanitarian supplies were being blocked and stolen by Kyrgyz officials.

“This is our nation, this is a holy land, but I can’t live here anymore,” said Mukhabat Ergashova, a retiree who had taken shelter with dozens of other in a crowded tent.

“We are all witnesses to the fact that innocent citizens were fired upon from an armored personnel carrier by soldiers in military uniform.  I don’t know whether they were from the government or some third party, but they only shot at Uzbeks,” said Sabir Khaidir, and ethnic Uzbek in Jalal-Abad.

For more information, please see:

CNN World – Kyrgyzstan investigating whether troops involved in ethic violence – 20 June 2010

BBC – UN launches $71m appeal for Kyrgystan refugee crisis – 19 June 2010

The Huffington Post – Kyrgyzstan Violence Claims Up to 2,000 Lives – 18 June 2010

Migrants Praised, But No Promises on Pay

By Kwangmin Ahn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

GUANGDONG, CHINA – China’s Premier Wen Jiabao has called for better living conditions for migrant workers from rural areas. He said China owed them its wealth and tall buildings, and officials should treat them as their own children. The comments follow a wave of strikes and labour-related suicides.

The speech was a familiar one for the premier, known as “Grandpa Wen” for his ability to display empathy on behalf of the country’s struggling masses. But it was also the first public intervention by the leadership since strikes and other incidents at some of the country’s most modern factories focused global attention on an agitated younger generation of workers.

At the same time, the ruling communist party maintained a reporting ban on the third in a series of strikes in southern Guangdong province that have affected the China operations of Honda, the Japanese carmaker. The latest strike at a Honda lock factory in Zhongshan began on June 9 and has reached an uneasy stalemate.

After refusing to enter plant grounds for four days, workers returned to their posts on Monday pending another management response, expected on Friday, to demands for a 70 percent wage increase to $230 a month.

Up to 200 million Chinese workers have migrated from the countryside to the cities in recent years and the labour disputes at factories in the Chinese industrial belt have raised fears that migrant workers are becoming restless about tough working conditions and curbs on pay.

Strikes are illegal in China but the government seems to be tolerating the recent walkouts at Honda suppliers and other firms, as long as the disputes are settled quickly and quietly

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – China’s changing work landscape – 09 June 2010

CNN –China attempts to soothe worker unrest– 16 June 2010

BBC – China PM praises migrants but makes no promises on pay– 15 June 2010

NYTIMES – New strike threat at a Chinese Honda parts plant– 14 June 2010

Kyrgyzstan Ethnic War Erupts From Politically Funded Massacres

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

OSH, Kyrgyzstan – Unmitigated violence, resulting in a significant death toll, has engulfed Kyrgyzstan.   The hostilities stem from a breakdown in government and effective security forces outside of Bishkek which precipitated quickly into a crisis waiting to happen, again. Similar violence was seen 20 years prior in 1990, where more than 300 people died during clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks over land ownership near Osh. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was forced to send in troops to quell the violence.

Kyrgyzstan vigilantes rampage government buildings with Crimson Kyrgyz flags in hand
Kyrgyzstan vigilantes rampage government buildings with Crimson Kyrgyz flags

The U.N. has found evidence of bloody intent behind the chaos in Kyrgyzstan, which continues to kill hundreds and leaves the nation’s second-biggest city a smoldering ruin.  Political violence has also sent more than 100,000 ethnic Uzbeks fleeing.  The declaration by the U.N. that the fighting was “orchestrated, targeted and well-planned” – set off by organized groups of gunmen in ski masks – bolsters government claims that hired attackers marauded through Osh, shooting at both Kyrgyz and Uzbeks to inflame old tensions.

Bakiev’s removal from power on April 7 after bloody clashes between police and protesters in the capital, Bishkek, has ignited old grievances between ethnic Kyrgyz and the minority Uzbek population.  Opposition leaders had accused Bakiev of corruption and consolidating power by keeping key economic and security posts in the hands of relatives or close associates.

The focal point of the current violence has been the south of the country, where Bakiev enjoys the bulk of his backing and where his supporters have sought to undermine the provisional administration in Bishkek led by Roza Otunbayeva.

“Well-armed people who were obviously well prepared for this conflict were shooting at us,” said Teymurat Yuldashev, 26, who had bullet wounds of different calibers in his arm and chest. “They were organized, with weapons, militants and snipers. They simply destroyed us.”

Over 200,000 Uzbeks have fled for their lives to neighboring Uzbekistan, and tens of thousands more, most of them women and children, were camped on the Kyrgyz side or stranded behind barbed-wire fences in a no man’s land where reports of rape and brutal beating consumes them.

A state of emergency has been declared in both Osh as well as the city of Jalal-Abad where the violence has now spread, with police given the authority to shoot to kill.

With more than 200,000 ethnic Uzbeks streaming into camps in neighboring Uzbekistan, according to the Uzbek foreign ministry, there has been a prompting to close a number of border crossings and ask for international assistance.

Fears mount as Uzbekistan may be forced to intervene militarily if the death toll across the border continues to climb, leading to further instability in Kyrgyzstan.  Other countries which border Kyrgyzstan, including China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, will also fear being drawn into the crisis.

Until the new central government has gained legitimacy in all the Kyrgyz Republic’s regions through free and fair elections in October, and equal distribution of land and property it is likely that there will be further unrest and possible deaths.  For its part, the interim government accuses Bakiev and his supporters of orchestrating the violence, a charge he denies.

For more information, please see:

CNN World – Concern over refugees grows as calm falls on Kyrgyzstan – 16 June 2010

Al Jazeera English – Kyrgyzstan toll ‘could be higher – 16 June 2010

The Huffington Post – Kyrgyz Violence: Red Cross Says ‘Several Hundred’ Killed In Ethnic Fighting – 15 June 2010

Taliban Justice? 7 Year old Child Spy Executed

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter; Asia

KABUL, Afghanistan – The Taliban plague and reign of terror continues amidst the government’s limited ability to regulate and control their activities.  The execution of a 7 year old boy, which has the Taliban thugs being branded internally as “inhuman” allegedly executed the boy after a hurried kangaroo court where the boy, allegedly the grandson of a village elder, was found guilty of being a spy.

Unbridled mayhem worsens as Taliban executes 7 year old kid
Unbridled mayhem worsens as Taliban executes 7 year old kid

The latest episode demonstrates an expression of unbridled authority which has led to a 7 year-old boy’s murder, in what has been regarded to be an apparent act of retribution. The boy had allegedly been providing allied forces with information on Taliban movements.

Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor of Helmand, said that the killing happened days after the boy’s grandfather, Abdul Woodod Alokozai, spoke out against militants in their home village.  In the past, militants have carried out similar killings of those accused of spying, Ahmadi said.  Three years ago, a 70-year-old woman and a child in the Musa Qala district of the province were executed following the same allegations, he said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai after looking into reports of the execution, condemned the act if confirmed to be true.  “I don’t think there’s a crime bigger than that that even the most inhuman forces on earth can commit,” Karzai said. “A 7-year-old boy cannot be a spy. A 7-year-old boy cannot be anything but a 7-year-old boy, and therefore hanging or shooting to kill a 7-year-old boy… is a crime against humanity.”

Dawoud Ahmadi, said “The innocent boy was not a spy, but he may have informed the police or soldiers about planted explosives,” Ahmadi told Central Asia Today.  “If this is true, it is an absolutely horrific crime,” added British Prime Minister David Cameron, while on a stop in Kabul. “I think it says more about the Taliban than any book, than any article, than any speech could ever say.”  Ahmadi said: “His grandfather is a tribal elder in the village and the village is under the control of the Taliban. His grandfather said some good things about the government and he formed a small group of people to stand against the Taliban. That’s why the Taliban killed his grandson in revenge.”

Qari Yousef Ahmaid, the Taliban spokesman, denies that any of his militants were involved. “The Taliban’s enemies are the Afghan Government and the foreign forces,” he said. “We never kill children. Everyone knows a seven-year-old can’t be a spy.”

For more information, please see:

CNN World News – Officials: Taliban executed boy, 7, for spying – 10 June 2010

London Times – Taleban hang 7-year-old boy to punish family – 11 June 2010

Pattaya Daily News – Taliban Hang 7-Year-Old Allegedly Spying for Allied Forces – 11 June 2010

New York Daily News – Taliban hang 7-year-old boy accused of being a spy – 10 June 2010