None of the Afghans moved as the rockets landed.  “All stood [still] including 300 women, they were defiant. The signal was ‘we are used to this, we are ready for it but we want to continue’,” Staffan de Mistura told the BBC. The meeting is continuing.

An official in charge of organising the event, Farooq Wardak, said three heavily-armed militants dressed in burkas were involved in the attack. Police later said they had surrounded a home in Kabul where suspected insurgents, believed to be responsible for the attack, were holed up. Two people, described as suicide bombers, were killed and one was arrested in connection with the attack, Karzai’s spokesman said.

The Taliban have been waging a battle to overthrow the US-backed government and expel the 130,000 foreign troops there. The attack underscored the Taliban’s opposition to what they have dubbed as a “phony reconciliation process” stacked with Karzai’s supporters and an ignored female presence. They insist they will not negotiate until all foreign troops leave the country. Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai’s main rival in last year’s presidential election, declined to attend the conference, saying the hand-picked delegates do not represent Afghan public opinion.

The jirga is due to finish late on Friday, with a declaration expected on what steps should be taken to end the insurgency, which groups should be included in the process, and how they should be approached.  President Karzai has proposed offering an amnesty and reintegration incentives to low-level Taliban who accept the constitution. He has also offered to negotiate the removal of some Taliban from a UN blacklist, and to give certain leaders asylum in another Islamic country for the purpose of holding peace talks.

The United States has already promised financial help for the program to lure Taliban foot soldiers to give up fighting.

For more information, please see:

The Huffington  Post – Taliban Attacks Afghanistan Peace Conference – 2 June 2010

BBC News – Violence mars Afghanistan peace meeting in Kabul – 2 June 2010

Al Jazeera English – Taliban attacks Afghan peace jirga – 2 June 2010

Image Courtesy of The National Post

By Kwangmin Ahn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Liang Chao was a farmer’s son who migrated to the city seeking a better life. He worked at Foxconn, a company widely known for producing components for Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and other companies. But the 21-year-old worker was found dead on May 14 after falling from the seventh floor of a factory dormitory, according to local police. A few days after Liang’s death, another Foxconn employee died after falling from a building at the Shenzhen factory complex. In all, state-run media reports there have been 10 deaths and two failed suicide attempts over the past five months.

In Foxconn, the employees work six days a week with one day off and every day they work two hours overtime. Entry-level workers earn about 900 yuan ($132) a month at the Shenzen factory. Obviously work is tiring and there’s pressure. There are lots of rules here, for example a worker has to wear a uniform and a badge. He cannot smoke in public areas and only allowed to walk in authorised areas within the factory. A normal working day is 8am and 5.30pm but many people work till 8pm. The night shift starts at 8pm and ends at 8am. Workers don’t have much time to communicate with each other and they feel quite lonely. The salary is quite low for newcomers, the lowest in Shenzhen.

Foxconn is one of the world’s top electronics manufacturers. Of its 800,000 employees in China’s mainland, 420,000 are in Shenzen, where they work in shifts and live in the sprawling factory complex.

Both the company and Chinese authorities appear anxious to offset some of the negative attention caused by the suicides, telling Chinese newspapers to tone down their reporting of the incidents. Meanwhile, the chairman of Foxconn, Terry Gou, led media personnel on a tour of the factory and promised to do more to prevent further deaths.

Right now, there are no concrete answers as to what drove the workers to commit suicide. Foxconn insists that its workers are treated well and there could be a number of factors at play. However the company admits that “It’s true our employees basically stay at the same place 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” “We also find some young employees don’t know their roommates’ names and don’t communicate with each other.”

Foxconn said it is taking measures to improve its workers’ lives, organizing recreational activities, calling in Buddhist monks to offer spiritual consolation and setting up a 24-hour help line, but the company was overwhelmed because counselors were scarce.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Alarm over Apple factory suicides – 26 May 2010

CNN – China, company seek answers to rash of suicides– 28 May 2010

BBC – Suicide-hit Foxconn factory to increase wages– 28 May 2010

By David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan –The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says it warned of a possible attack, urging the government “to provide fool proof security to the Ahmadi community.”

Unknown gunmen have launched simultaneous raids on two mosques of the minority Ahmadi Islamic sect in Lahore, killing more than 80 people, Pakistani police say. The attackers fired guns and threw grenades at worshippers during Friday prayers. Three militants later blew themselves up with suicide vests. Pakistani forces have secured both buildings, but are still searching for militants who fled the scene.

Lahore has been the scene of a string of brazen attacks. It is unclear who carried out the attacks, but suspicion has fallen on the Pakistani Taliban, Ali Dayan Hassan of Human Rights Watch told the BBC. Mr Hassan said the worshippers were “easy targets” for militant Sunni groups who consider the Ahmadis to be infidels.

Shiite Muslims have borne the brunt of individual suicide bombings and targeted killings for years in Sunni-majority Pakistan, though Christians and Ahmadis have also faced violence. The long-standing sectarian violence in the country has been exacerbated by the rise of the Sunni extremist Taliban and al-Qaida movements.

Pakistan’s Geo TV channel said the Punjab province branch of the Pakistani Taliban had claimed responsibility; however, repeated attempts by the Associated Press to reach the group were not successful. The Pakistani Taliban are believed to have played a role in the failed car bomb attempt in New York City’s Times Square earlier this month.

Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab province where the attacks took place, had several remarks following the events, alluding to the fact that that they call themselves Muslims but believe that Muhammad was not the final prophet. This view contradicts a central Islamic belief. Ahmadis are reviled as heretics by mainstream Muslims for their belief that their sect’s founder was a savior foretold by the Quran, Islam’s holy book. The group has experienced years of state-sanctioned discrimination and occasional attacks by radical Sunni Muslims in Pakistan, but never before in such a large-scale, sophisticated fashion. The group, which is thought to number between 3 million and 4 million people in the country, endures “the most severe legal restrictions and officially sanctioned discrimination” among Pakistan’s religious minorities, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

For more information, please see:

CNN World – At least 80 killed in Lahore attacks – 28 May 2010

Al Jazeera English – Death in Pakistan mosques raids – 28 May 2010

The Huffington Post – Pakistan Mosque Attacks: At Least 80 Killed – 28 May 2010

Image Courtesy of Boston.com

NANGARHAR, Afghanistan – Investigation into questionable night raids continues as the death toll rises over the past week.  The US military has been conducting night raids on several targeted villages in Afghanistan. These raids are night efforts to catch and put a stop to the villages harboring Al-Queda operatives.  Night raids or “sneak attacks” by US troops have been demonized by casualties’ bereaved families, for they are often premised on faulty evidence.

The grieving families claim that innocent civilians are being killed under mistaken identity. The US military does not agree.  After nine civilians were killed this week, the US launched criminal investigations.

Col. Wayne Shanks says they had concrete intelligence that a Taliban sub-commander was in the housing compound at the time and was planning an imminent attack on a US base. “It was an urgent need for us to go in and stop the attack to prevent casualties on our side but also innocent casualties,” he said.

Resident Ehassamudion Kushkaki told CNN the U.S. military did not announce their arrival at 1a.m. local time while everyone was sleeping, so two of the nine killed were shooting, thinking they were being attacked by thieves.  The U.S. military insists it announced its arrival and says all of those killed were shooting at the forces.

‘”No charges have been preferred at this time; however, one soldier has been placed in pre-trial confinement,” the military said in a statement”.  The soldier confined also faces illegal drug use, assault and conspiracy claims.

Miles away in London, Fatima Ayud has been campaigning for night raids to stop and offering help to affected families.  Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has sought to minimize the use of night raids, noting past public anger.  Ayud says it’s not enough after, herself being a victim after a raid attack targeted her extended family.

Nasrutullah Arsala, head of Nangarhar provincial council, tells CNN, “There’s no doubt that when these cases happen, the people rise up and the gap between the government and people widens.”  This form of impunity thwarts American efforts and energizes the Taliban resistance.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera English- US opens Afghan deaths probe – 20 May 2010

CNN World – Civilians or fighters? Debate lingers over deaths at housing compound – 25 May 2010

The Huffington Post – US Investigating Afgahan Civilian Deaths – 20 May 2010

Image Courtesy of Army Times

By Kwangmin Ahn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China — Twenty-one miners were killed in a gas blast at a colliery in southwest China on Thursday.

There were thirty-one miners underground at the time of the blast.  Ten workers escaped to safety and all miners known to have been in the pit were accounted for, but search and rescue work was continuing in case there were other unregistered miners working at the time of the blast.

The cause of the explosion is still under investigation.  The mine is a small colliery run by a local township government with an annual production capacity of about 150,000 tons.

China’s vast coal mining industry is notoriously accident-prone.  Although safety conditions have improved in the last several years, China’s mining industry is by far the world’s deadliest, with accidents and blasts killing more than 2,600 coal miners last year due mainly to lax regulation, corruption, and inefficiency.

The rash of deadly mine accidents caused by poor safety standards and supervision has been traced to China’s rush for commodities to fuel its growing economy.

In March, a flood at the vast, unfinished Wangjialing mine in the northern province of Shanxi left 153 workers trapped underground, but 115 were recovered alive in a rare rescue success for the industry. The head of China’s work safety watchdog said last month that the flood “could completely have been avoided.”  The agency said managers had ignored water leaks noted by workers in the days leading up to the disaster.  A landslide of sludge triggered by the collapse of a mine dam buried a village in Xiangfen county, Shanxi province, on September 8, 2008.

Accidents are particularly common in China’s coal sector. Safety concerns are widely ignored as China tries to satisfy surging demand for the fuel — the source of about seventy percent of the country’s energy.

Recent developments in other mining cases include criminal sentencing.  On Friday, a Chinese court sentenced two policemen to up to five years in jail for taking bribes from the owner of an iron mine, where an accident killed 277 people two years ago. The Fangshan District People’s Court in Beijing sentenced Han Chunxi, 39, the former county police chief, to five years in prison for taking $5,859 in bribes from the mine owner. The court found that he had ordered his subordinates to stop inspections of the mine and abetted the use of mining explosives.

The flood in Shanxi was seen as embarrassing for the government, which has touted a reform program partly aimed at improving safety and shutting dangerous mines.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Blast rips through China coal mine – 14 May 2010

AFP – China coal mine gas blast kills 21– 13 May 2010

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