By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KABUL, Afghanistan- Explosions and gunfire in the center of the Afghan capital have left at least 17 people dead, officials say.

The attack took place in an area of hotels and guesthouses which are popular with foreigners.  Up to nine Indians, a Frenchman and an Italian were killed.  Three gunman and two policeman died in a gun battle that lasted several hours.  The Taliban said they were behind the attack.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai condemned the violence. India called it “barbaric”.  The attack comes as NATO and Afghan forces continue Operation Moshtarak to tackle the Taliban in Helmand province.

Martin Patience of the BBC in Kabul says the first blast on Friday happened close to the Kabul City Center shopping area and the Safi Landmark Hotel.  The Park Residence Hotel, popular with foreigners, was also close to the main blast.

SM Krishna, India’s Foreign Minister said up to nine Indians were dead, including government officials.  The Minister said :” These barbaric attacks are a matter of deep concern and are clearly aimed against the people of India and the people of Afghanistan…”These are the handiwork of those who are desperate to undermine the friendship between India and Afghanistan.”

At least 30 people are reported to have been injured in the attacks.  Condemning the attacks, NATO’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen saying in a statement: “Those who committed them made it clear, in their choice of targets that their aim is to reverse the progress that Afghans are making,”

Two smaller explosions were reported following the main blast and security forces fought with gunman for several hours after sealing off the area.  Sirens blared across the city and announcements warned people to stay indoors.  Areas around diplomatic missions and government ministries were closed to traffic.

Operation Moshtark continues in Helmand in the south, whose aim is to drive the Taliban from the areas around Nad Ali and Marjah.

Friday’s attack is also the Taliban’s first major raid since the arrest of key leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Pakistan this month.  He was said to be the second in command and to have run the Taliban’s leadership council and controlled their finances.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Afghanistan Captial Kabul Hit by Suicide Attack– 26 February 2010

SCPR.ORG- Taliban Claims Responsibility for Kabul Attacks– 26 February 2010

The New York Times- Guesthouses Used By Foreigners In Kabul Hit in Deadly Attacks-26 February

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea – A report released by South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission detailed the plight of female North Korean refugees.  The report was compiled based on interviews and surveys of 274 defectors.

The report specifically discussed how female North Korean defectors suffer sexual violence and are trafficked to China or other countries. 

According to the study, many are abused in refugee camps in China, and about 20% of the female refugees bribed North Korean border guards with money or sex to cross the North Korea-China border.

One defector who lives in hiding in China said, “We were slaves, or worse than that, treated like animals.” 

Others described their lives in Southeast Asia where they lived under horrid conditions in detentions camps, for example, not being able to use the toilets after dark or “buying” a space where they can sit.

South Korea is also being criticized for its handling of North Korean defectors.  The chief criticism is that the South Korea’s policy on defectors is too fragmentary and does not provide substantive aid.

Although vocational training is offered, the programs center on low-paying work, such as cooking and nursing, despite the fact that many of the defectors have received higher education in North Korea. 

The South Korean government also has one-size-fits-all training programs which disregard personal difference of refugees. 

In addition, female defectors also suffer abuse from their South Korean husbands.  This is a matter that needs to be resolved as soon as possible considering that these women already suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the horrible experiences they endured in order to escape, living with constant fear of repatriation or because of a sense of guilt they feel towards family they left behind in North Korea.

More than 16,000 North Koreans have crossed into South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953.  The annual number of defectors is on the rise, and the South Korean Unification Ministry expects the number to top 20,000 in 2010.

Park, Sun-seong, the professor responsible for this study, said, “By revealing the scars left to the North Korean women who fled their country, we hope to shed light on their human rights issues….”
For more information, please see:

AFP – N.Korea women refugees suffer abuse: watchdog – 22 February 2010

The Korean Times – Female Defectors’ Plights – 23 February 2010

Yonhap News – Human rights abuses on NK defector women abound: report – 22 February 2010

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COX’S BAZAAR, Bangladesh – The Rohingya ethnic minority, for unexplained reasons, has been enduring a significant crackdown in Bangladesh as of recent.  The Rohingya ethnic minority comprises one of the most persecuted peoples on the planet.

Human rights violations against the ethnic group began attracting international attention in the late 70’s.  In 1978, great friction between the Rohingya ethnic minority and the majority group in erupted into a Myanmar government military operation.  As a result of the government’s persistent deprivation of the Rohingyas’ human rights, the ethnic minority abruptly began fleeing the country into Bangladesh.  In the late 80’s, subsequent to the mass exodus out of Myanmar, newly established laws of citizenship officially rendered the Rohingya Muslims stateless.  The laws stripped the Rohingya’s right to a nationality.

The latest waves of discrimination against the Rohingya Muslims expose them to much violence and prejudice.  Both local residents and agents of the state have been driving the stateless Rohingyas out of their homes in the Cox’s Bazaar region of Bangladesh.  Among the approximately 220,000 Rohingyas currently residing in Bangladesh, those living outside of makeshift refugee camps may be subject to beatings and arrest.  Myanmar’s border security has also been reported to mistreat escapees headed to Bangladesh.

The current rise in actions depriving the rights of the Rohingya ethnic minority in Myanmar represents a reprise from many similar situations in the 90’s.  The U.N. intervened when the Myanmar government staunchly enforced citizenship laws which denied Rohingya Muslims their nationality, the right to travel, the right to marry, and other civil and political rights.

Despite efforts by various human rights groups, in all of Bangladesh, only 28,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority are currently residing in makeshift refugee camps.  These 28,000 are a part of a much larger body of about 220,000 unregistered Rohingya Muslims.  The fraction makes fightfully clear just how unwanted the Rohingya minority is in Myanmar.

700,000 Rohingya ethnic minorities currently reside in Bangladesh.  The Rohingya Muslims have significant linguistic, cultural, and religious discrepancies with the Buddhist majority of Myanmar.  None of the 700,000 Rohingyas are recognized as individuals under Myanmar’s law, and are subject to Myanmar’s systematic oppression.  While the repression of the Rohingyas continues to attract the criticism of the international community and human rights groups, their ultimate fate remains uncertain.

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KABUL, Aghanistan– A suicide bomber has killed an influential Afghan tribal chief in eastern Nangarhar province, officials say.  In addition 14 other people were killed.

During the Afghan civil war in the 1990s, Mohammad Haji Zaman was a powerful mujahideen warlord.  He led tribal forces in the Tora Bora region during the 2001 US-led Afghan invasion but is suspected of allowing al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden to flee.  No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.  Mohammad Haji Zaman, also known as Haji Zaman Gamsurek, was addressing a gathering of refugees in the Khogyani district of Nangarhar when the blast went off.

Police official Col Abdul Ghafour told the AFP news agency the suicide bomber set off his explosives after approaching a group of tribal elders at the gathering.  The attack in the eastern province of Nangargar occurred when provincial authorities were distributing land titles to poor people in the Dashte Chimtala area.  General Ayoub Salangi, the provincial police chief, said  “The attack killed 15 people and around 15 others were injured.”

Mohammad Haji Zaman has been living in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, only recently returning to Afghanistan.

The wounded in Monday’s attack included Abdul Rahman Shams, the chief of the refugee department in the province.  It was not known who was the prime target of the attack.  Taliban spokesman were not immediately available for comment.  Also in the eastern region, NATO said Monday that their forces killed four insurgents and injured five others after the militants attacked their joint patrol with Afghan forces in Taqab district of north-eastern province of Kapisa.

There were no casualties among the combined forces on Monday;s firefight, the alliance said in a statement.

Chris Morris of the BBC says that Nangarhar is a province that, under the guidance of local tribal leaders, had become more peaceful in recent months.  But it is on the border with Pakistan, an important target for militants wishing to smuggle arms.

For more information, please see:

BBC News- Suicide Blast Kills Afghan Tribal Chief in Nangarhar– 22 February 2010

M&C News- Suicide Attack Kills 15 Afghans including Tribal Leader-22 February 2010

ABC News- Tribal Elders Killed In Suicide Blast-23 February 2010

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand– Hundreds of Rohingya, Burmese Muslim, refugees are believed dead after being pushed back into the sea by Thai authorities, according to human rights activists based in Thailand.

Image courtesy of The New York Times.

A report was issued stating that as many as 200 people are missing, while more than 300 others are believed to have died after they were set adrift by Thai soldiers. It is said by one survivor, that some of the refugees were sent back with their hands tied behind their backs in boats without engines.

The United Nations’ Refugee Agency has also voiced its concern about the reports and urged the government to investigate the incidents. In an official statement by Kitty McKinsey, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangkok, she said, “We request the Thai government to take all measures necessary to ensure that the lives of Rohingya are not at risk and they are treated in accordance with humanitarian standards.”

Thai military authorities have denied these accusations, and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, has promised a full investigation. In a statement to the public, the Thai Foreign Ministry said it was “investigating and verifying all the facts and surrounding circumstances.” The ministry added that while the Thai government was dedicated to protecting its sea borders from all illegal activities, including illegal immigration, “we are committed to maintaining our traditional adherence to humanitarian principles and the protection of human rights”.

Vejjajiva told journalists that Thailand would investigate allegations that the Thai navy set hundreds of Rohingya asylum seekers adrift. The country’s defense minister will investigate these accusations, and report back to the Prime Minister with any findings as soon as possible.

In describing the overall situation, Paul Critchley, who runs the Bangladesh program for the aid group, Doctors Without Borders, he said, “Over the last few months we have treated victims of violence, people who claim to have been beaten by the police, claim to have been beaten by members of the host population, by people they’ve been living next to for many years.” He went on to say that, “We have treated patients for beatings, for machete wounds and for rape,” and the circumstance is now a “humanitarian crisis” now that the atrocities continue and in light of the most recent string of horrific events.

Since October, the unofficial Kutupalong makeshift camp with its dirt paths, flimsy shacks and open sewers has grown by 6,000 people to nearly 30,000, with 2,000 arrivals in January alone. There are an estimated 250,000 Rohingya in Bangladesh. They do not have citizenship, and are subject to abuse and forced labor, and where they cannot travel, marry or practice their religion freely. Yes, many continue to flee Myanmar in fear of repression and in search of a better life.  About 28,000 of them have been officially recognized by Bangladesh, and documented as refugees. They receive food and other assistance in a camp administered by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and have not been subject to the abuses and forced returns described by other Rohingya. But, the government has not allowed the agency to register new arrivals since 1993.

A Photograph of Women who suffered beatings and abuse in Myanmar. Image courtesy of The New York Times.

The most recent incident and possible deaths to hundreds sheds light on the fact that the problem has worsened, many human rights activists are trying to call attention to the issue to get other foreign involvement.

For more information, please see:

The New York Times – Burmese Refugees Persecuted in Bangladesh – 20 February 2010

World News – Persecution of Burmese Refugees – 20 February 2010

Open Democracy – Bangladesh government accused of crackdown on Burmese refugees – 18 February 2010

Asia Times Online – Bilateral Repression for Myanmar’s Rohingya – 22 February 2010