Asia

Militant Rebels Blow up Railway Tracks

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BIHAR, India- During a 48-hour strike Maoist rebels in India blew up sections of railway tracks in four eastern states.  These attacks have left two people dead.

Maoists began the strike on Monday in six states as a protest against a major offensive being executed by government troops.  The attack in Bihar state came during a two-day strike.  The rebels demanded that people stay home to join their protest against the government action aimed at flushing militant from their forest hide-outs.  One section of track destruction in Bihar caused an express train to derail, but no casualties were reported.

The Maoist rebels desire communist rule in large areas of India.  More than 6,000 have died in this 20 year-fight.  The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of the rural poor who complain they have been neglected by the government for decades.

Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister described the Maoists as the biggest threat to India’s internal security, and ordered a major offensive in November.

The major offensive, called Operation Green Hunt consists of nearly 50,000 federal paramilitary troops and an equal number of policemen, equipped with helicopters and unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles.

On Tuesday, law enforcement blamed the destruction of a 1.2m(4ft) section of railway tracks on the Maoist rebels.  This caused seven coaches and the engine of an express train to derail.  This occurred 15km from the town of Gaya, while the train was en route from the city of Bhubaneswar to the capital, officials said.  Samir Goswami, a railway spokesman said the rebels blew up tracks in three other places in Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa, leading to the cancellation of several services.

The government has proposed talks with the rebels, but only if they refrain from violence and place no preconditions.  On the other hand, the rebels demand that the government stop their offensive before they agree to talks.

In West Bengal, rebels were blamed for killing Hemant Pradhan, a school headmaster, who was said to be a supporter of the ruling Communist Party of India.  Police state that he was dragged from this home and shot dead.

For more information, please see:
Gulf Times- Maoists Blow Up Rail Track, Bridge– 22 March 2010

First Trial in China for Illegal Organ Transplants

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Four men in China were charged with the criminal offense of paying living people for their organs with the intent to resell them to citizens in need of organ transplants. For the first time, a Chinese trial is scheduled to take place in April to hear the suspects on the laws governing organ transplants.

The four charged awaiting trial are believed to be part of a criminal ring that sells organs on the black market.  The group is led by a former organ donor surnamed Liu. The named suspects suspects allegedly organized four liver and kidney donations. China Daily reported that their new business foundered, however, when the suspects were taken to court in December by a “donor” claiming back pay, according to the Haidian District Procuratorate in Beijing, which is handling the case. 

If the four men are found guilty, they would be sentenced to at least five years in prison according to current laws regulating organ transplants.  Present regulations on human organ transplants ban organ trade. This was set forth by law in May 2007, and restricted living organ donations to spouses, blood relatives or people sharing family bonds through mutual support.

Despite these legal limitations to organ donations, there has been a recent increase in the illegal businesses of organ trade has become a rampant enterprise. Over the last few years, the number of illicit sales of organs in China has skyrocketed. This is especially true with the rise in living organ transplants, which are transplants which use organs that are donated by living individuals, predominantly by those in dire need of money immediately. Li Ning, president of Beijing Youan Hospital and a liver transplant surgeon, added, “Driven by a huge demand for the life-saving procedure, the lack of a proper and sustainable organ donation system and poor law enforcement, the black market became huge.”

According to China Daily, about a third of 10,000 organ transplants in China involved living donors last year – a figure almost six times the number in 2008. Vice health minister Huang Jiefu, who is also a leading liver transplant expert, stated, “A considerable number of them were done with fake identities from hired donors.”  Jiefu also expressed the concern that, “Without intervention, China will become the biggest black market for living human organs, which will seriously affect the country’s reputation and threaten patients’ health.”

 

For more information, please see:

New York Times – China: 4 Face Trial on Organ Trafficking Charges – 22 March 2010

China Daily – Four face a minimum of five years in jail if convicted – 22 March 2010

People’s Daily – Organ trafficking ring to go on trial – 22 March 2010

North Korea Ignores Advice to Improve Human Rights

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

GENEVA, Switzerland – North Korea has rejected a series of recommendations from the United Nations (UN) to improve its “appalling” human rights record.

In its response, North Korea’s Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Ri Chol, rebuffed 50 of the 169 recommendations by the UN. 

At a meeting held on Thursday, Ri said that the recommendations arose out of animosity towards North Korea are aimed at undermining the North Korean regime.  Ri specifically stated that North Korea does not recognize UN’s human rights envoys.

UN urged North Korea to end capital punishment and public executions, forced labor, and military training for children.  The recommendation also included allowing UN human rights envoys to visit Pyongyang as well as improving human rights for the socially weak and allowing reunions of families separated by the Korean War.

The UN recommendation came on the heels of a reported high-profile execution by a firing squad of a former top North Korean government official.  The government official was executed for causing the current inflation and economic crisis in North Korea resulting from last year’s currency reform.

The last high-profile execution took place in 1997 when Pyongyang executed the director of Agriculture Ministry who was blamed for the famine that killed estimated two million North Koreans back in 1990’s.

In addition, Pyongyang has continuously refused to allow UN’s special human rights rapporteurs to investigate first-hand the human rights situation in the country. 

However, “Those who wanted to find some silver lining in the gray clouds of North Korea’s human rights record had pointed to North Korean participation in Geneva at least as evidence that North Korea wanted to put its side of the story,” said Mark Fitzpatrick from International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

Nonetheless, members of the UN, including South Korea, the United States, Japan and France, have expressed their disappointment with North Korea’s response.

For more information, please see:

The Christian Science Monitor – North Korea spurns UN push to stop executions and torture – 19 March 2010

RTT – North Korea Shuns UN Recommendations On Improving Human Rights Record – 19 March 2010

Yonhap News – N. Korea rejects U.N. recommendations on human rights – 19 March 2010

Protesters In Thailand Stage Rally in Bangkok

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand- Anti-government demonstrators took to the streets of Bangkok to press their case for the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to resign and call fresh elections. Many of the residents are in support of the protest to add pressure on the six party coalition government.

On Saturday thousands joined the protest on Saturday that consisted of motorcycles, vans and trucks that stretched up to eight kilometers along Bankok’s thoroughfares.  Government officials had warned residents to remain at home to avoid being caught in the traffic congestion.

The convoy came after a week of protests by the red wearing demonstrators who have targeted the 15-month-old government of Prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, calling on him to dissolve the parliament and call elections.  In addition to the convoy, other protests which occurred during the week included the pouring of blood on key government administrative buildings in ritual ceremonies.

The demonstrators, also known as the Red Shirts, are led by the United Democratic Front against Dictatorship, or UDD, have the support of the main parliamentary opposition group, the Puea Thai Party.

Both of these groups are supporting the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted from power in a coup in 2006.  The groups claim that Mr. Abhisit’s coalition government is illegitimate as it came after courts removed two pro-Thaksin Government since 2007 elections.

Mr. Abhisit said in recent media comments that he will not b pressed to take the country to elections at the moment but is willing to hold talks with protest leaders.  Representatives from both sides are due to meet on Sunday.

Mr Thaksin is still in exile because of a two year jail sentence for corruption.  Because of the populist economic policies he held while in office, he maintains support from the northern rural areas, along with the poor and low income groups.  The middle class accused Mr. Thaksin of corruption and abuse of power while in office, in particular his government’s attacks on the media, and his perceived attempts to control all branches of power, including parliament and independent government agencies.

The protests have been peaceful so far.  The government was forced to enact security laws and bring in the military when anti-government demonstrations held in April of last year turned violent.

For more information, please see:
English.xinhuanet.com- Thai Anti-Gov’t Protesters End March In Bangkok Peacefully– 20 March 2010

Chinese Authorities Support the Detention of Lead Poison Victims for Months

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

JIAHE, China – Police stopped a bus carrying 53 villagers suffering from lead poisoning. The citizens were traveling to get medical care when the officials blocked the bus.

In September 2009, police in Jiahe, Hunan province, prevented a vehicle occupied by parents and children who were contaminated by illegal emissions of heavy metals from a rural smelting factory. The factory in Jiahe was operated by Tenda Corporation, a company that had been ejected from other, wealthier areas because of its dismal pollution record. The regional government in Jiahe allowed the factory to operate despite warnings from the local environmental department that the plant was breaking toxic emission regulations. Jiahe is one of China’s poorest counties and needed the funding that Tenda Corporation offered. The cost, however, was the health of local citizens.

The officials not only stopped and questioned the vehicle filled with sick passengers, the police detained two of them for six months, mistakenly believing the villagers were planning to protest. The local government responsible for stopped the sick passengers was unapologetic for causing the tremendous delay.

According to Ou Shudong, the chairman of the local People’s Congress, “The villagers’ intentions were unclear. Even if they were going for a medical examination, they should have informed the government.” Beijing News cited a Jiahe county report as saying the punishment of a few people “served the purpose of public education for the majority.”

Other government officials tried to justify the event and the prolonged detention by responding to an investigation of the incident, “We may have blocked the wrong visit, but they should not have been on that road,” stated Li Ying, deputy secretary of Jiahe county political and legislative committee.

This type of occurrence is not unheard of, as it reveals the feudal control that local officials exercise over citizens in much of rural China. It also exemplifies the widespread strategy of stifling dissent by making an example of suspected insurgents, a tactic known as “killing a chicken to scare the monkeys.”

Recent testing results since the September detention confirmed that the passengers were in fact in dire need of health care, and were not attempting to protest. The latest results, received on 24 February 2010, revealed that 250 of the 397 children in the village had excess levels of lead in their blood. The victims included four of the five children of Liao Mingxiu, one of those still in police detention. Further investigative reports state that local people complained of health problems and unusually outrageous behavior and poor performance in school among children, but local petitions to the authorities were ignored for more than three years.

Nevertheless, Chinese authorities still defend the six-month detention of lead poisoning victims, claiming it was a punishment necessary for “public education.”

For more information, please see:

Tibetan Review –Mistaken punishment justified as education for majority – 19 March 2010

The Sydney Morning Herald – Poisoning victims used as an example – 19 March 2010

The Guardian –China defends detention of lead poisoning victims who sought medical help – 16 March 2010