By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Many treatment centers in Cambodia have raised serious human rights alerts as reports of  physical abuse and involuntary administration of experimental drugs and medication become more frequent.

The Human Rights Watch issued a recent report describing the abuse and mal-treatment in eleven different government-run centers. The report indicated that electric shock, beatings, rapes, forced labor and forced donations of blood were practices at most of these institutions.

According to the report, “Sadistic violence, experienced as spontaneous and capricious, is integral to the way in which these centers operate.” It went on to state that, “the practice of torture and inhuman treatment [is] widely practiced throughout Cambodia’s drug detention centers.”

The Cambodian government dismissed the report, and uttered in a public announcement that the report was,  “without any valid grounds.” Meas Virith, deputy secretary of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, stated at a news conference that, “The centers are not detention or torture centers,” and that “They are open to the public and are not secret centers.” She declined to describe the specific treatment practices the centers uses.

Aside from the few government-run centers, there are very few other resources for drug users to rely on to seek help for their addictions. Government figures for drug use in Cambodia are unreliable and range from about 6,000 to 20,000.The United Nations believes this figure could be as high as 500,000. In light of such heavy use, desperate families sometimes commit their relatives to the centers.  Others are said to be institutionalized against their will.

In December of 2009, the Cambodian government engaged in administering and experimental herbal drug to try and treat addicts. The treatment was heavily criticized by rights groups and health professionals because it was  imported from Vietnam but not registered for use in Cambodia. It is uncertain how many people the drug was used on, but twenty-one drug users documented and administered “bong sen” for ten days at various treatment centers before being released. There is no indication that a systematic follow-up was conducted, and the national drug authority conceded that at least some of those treated returned to drug use.

According to Graham Shaw, an expert on drug dependence and harm reduction with the World Health Organization in Phnom Penh, “No information is known to exist as to the efficacy of this claimed medicine for the detoxification of opiate dependent people, nor to its side effects or interactions with other drugs.”

“If Cambodian authorities think they are reducing drug dependency through the policy of compulsory detention at these centers, they are wrong,” said the report by Human Rights Watch. “There is no evidence that forced physical exercise, forced labor and forced military drills have any therapeutic benefit whatsoever.”

For more information, please see:

The New York Times – Cambodian Addicts Abused in Detention, Rights Group Says – 15 February 2010

Voice of America – Drug Treatment Centers Rife with Abuse – 30 January 2010

IPS – CAMBODIA: ‘Abuse Rampant in Drug Detention Centres’ – Human Rights Watch – 7 March 2010

Cambodia News – Rights Group Says Cambodia’s Drug Treatment Centers Rife with Abuse – 30 January 2010

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – The World Food Programme (WFP) announced Thursday that efforts to deliver aid to starving North Korea will stop by July if donations do not increase.

According to a senior UN official, WFP’s Pyongyang office is on the brink of closure as aid to North Korea has decreased due to growing donor fatigue.

He said, “WFP can continue to support around 1.4m children and pregnant women with fortified foods until the end of June.  However, new contributions are required now or the operation will come to a standstill in July.”

In 2008, WFP saw a similar aid crunch where the programme had difficulty attracting donors, and UN officials opine that donors have once again become exasperated with North Korea.

For example, the U.S. was once a leading food donor, but the U.S. has announced that it will no longer supply cereals to the North until North Korea “resumes proper monitoring.” 

Relationship between North Korea and the U.S. deteriorated last year when the North refused to issue visas to monitors who wanted to ensure that the food aid was going to the hungry citizens and not being funneled to the military and the government elite.

Although the exact condition of malnutrition in North Korea is hard to gauge, the country’s leader Kim Jong-il has made a very rare apology this year for “failing to deliver rice and meat stew to the people.”

A non-governmental relief agency also called on South Korea to resume food aid to North Korea so as to ease the North’s worst food shortage since the 1990’s.

Current conservative South Korea administration has stopped shipments of food to North Korea with resuming aid conditional on the North making progress in the Six-Party Talks.

Aid organizations have said that North Korea will need at least 1 million tons of food from donors to feed its 24 million citizens.  Reports have also indicated that thousands have already starved to death this winter due to soaring food prices resulting from the recent currency reevaluation.

A graveyard in North Korea’s northeastern port city of Chongjin sees an average of two to three funerals a day now, compared to one funeral every three days before the country was hit with inflation caused by the currency reevaluation.

For more information, please see:

Bangkok Post – Lack of honors hits N.Korea food relief efforts – 4 March 2010

The Financial Times – Donor fatigue threatens to choke aid for North Korea – 4 March 2010

Yonhap News – NGO warns of extreme famine in N. Korea, urges aid – 5 March 2010

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -In response to the beating by police of a suspected thief, the Supreme Court directed that all provincial administrations form committees and create a report by March 11 to indicate the degree and extent of police torture of citizens in all regions. Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, ordered the Punjab police chief to take stern action against the cops involved in the torture of people at the police stations.

The Supreme Court’s mandate is the result of five police officials in the Pakistani province of Punjabm, who whipped and beat a citizen who was suspected of stealing rice. The man was one of four suspected in the incident. The officials were arrested after footage was released and then aired on a widely broadcasted network of national TV channels, and showed the officers severely whipping the man accused of stealing rice. The footage shows one policeman holding the legs of a victim, while another stands on his hands.

Infuriated human rights activists claim that the incident highlights a common practice by Pakistani police, who have a long-standing reputation for brutality and torture. Those who have spoken out condemning the incident worry that despite government efforts, the acts will continue to occur. Asma Jahangir, head of the influential Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, called the actions of this event “barbaric,” and advocated for harsh punishments for those involved.

Inspector General of Police, Punjab Tariq Saleem Dogar, said in a press release that every police officer would be taken across the board and not a minor act of the accused officer would be tolerated. Dogar commended the response of the media, he stated that “[I] come to know many incidents through media,” and in this incident, the media was a critical role in creating awareness about criminal acts directed toward the general public. 

In discussing the event, Dogar said that the acts of barbarity and inhuman torture by police were the result of absence of a proper system of accountability in the Police Department, lack of supervision by senior officers and weaknesses at police station level.

Punjab’s law minister, Rana Sanaullah, assured Pakistanis in an interview with Dunya television, that appropriate legal action was being taken, and that the officers “will not remain in the police force.”

For more information, please see:

BBC World News – Police filmed beating robbery suspects – 5 March, 2010

Daily Times – ‘Law of the jungle’ prevalent in country, says CJP – 5 March 2010

Pakistan Times –SC directs for submission of report in Chiniot police torture case – 5 March 2010

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea– A firing squad publically executed a North Korean factory worker for making a phone call to a friend in South Korea using an illegal mobile phone.

Although South Korea’s Unification Ministry stated that they could not immediately confirm the execution, the execution is said to have taken place back in late January in the North’s eastern coastal city of Hamhung.

The executed factory worker was accused of recounting rice price and other information concerning the current living conditions in North Korea to a friend who defected to South Korea several years ago.

Despite the introduction of an advanced network partnered with Cairo-based Orascom Telecom back in 2008, North Korea maintains tight restrictions on mobile phone uses.

Most North Koreans who do manage to make international phone calls do so by using networks in neighboring China.

There is an estimated 10,000 North Koreans living by the North Korea-China border who possess Chinese mobile phones, which is illegal.

North Korea has launched a crackdown in February on potential defectors and those who use Chinese mobile phones, a measure which made it harder for North Koreans to make calls abroad asking for help in terms of sneaking out of the country.

North Korea’s Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of State Security announced over a government-run television network that “[North Korea] possess[es] a world-class striking force and means to protect our security that have not yet been…made public” and that Pyongyang has the means to crush “reactionary forces.”

The joint statement by the Ministries also said that the main focus of the crackdown on defectors is so that “people [are] educated about the traitors to the nation,” adding that the defectors will be “mercilessly dealt with.”

North Korea is reportedly to have purchased expensive cell phone tracking and jamming devices and have installed the equipment in various cities like Shinuiju, Heysan and Hweryong, which all lie near the North Korea-China or North-South Korea borders.

The defector who received the North Korean factory worker’s phone call in South Korea may have been working for the South Korean government.

For more information, please see:

Eurasia Review – North Korea Cracks Down on Mobile Phones – 20 February 2010

The Press Associated – Korean executed for ‘illegal’ phone – 4 March 2010

Toronto Star – N. Korean man executed for cell phone call – 4 March 2010