By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea – Since North Korea’s recent implementation of a new monetary policy, there have been reports that the currency reform has exacerbated Pyongyang’s chronic problems of food shortages and price inflation.

A researcher in Seoul, Kay Seok, said, “The first public rallies we see in North Korea will not be about freedom or democracy, but…about livelihood.”

In fact, the currency reform has brought about such great public dissatisfaction that thousands of North Koreans began the New Year by holding a rally in the capital of the tightly controlled state.

Pyongyang’s new currency reform would slash two zeroes off its current currency, and the government has imposed limits on how much people can exchange the old currency for the new.  These changes have raised prices for essential goods that the impoverished North Koreans were already having trouble buying because of the existing inflation.

As such, the government is restricting people’s personal wealth, which has angered many North Koreans where there have been reports of people burning money.

In addition, North Korea has decided to stifle its rising merchant class by reclaiming state control over the economy.  For example, the North has decided to ban the use of foreign currency, and this move affects those who operate outside the country’s centrally planned economy, such as those who buy goods in Chinese yuan, US dollars or euros.

North Korean merchants who operate outside the state economy and earn large sums of money risk imprisonment.

Economists Marcus Noland and Stephan Haggard said, “The North Korean currency reform is an economically misguided initiative that will reduce the welfare of North residents…[H]eightened repression is a central feature of the new economic controls.”

Many view North’s new monetary policy as the country’s means to restrict and attacks its emerging market economy and the new businessmen, and a sign of North’s return to its version of socialism.

Park Hyeong-jung at the Korea Institute for National Unification said that the currency reform “has significantly strengthened the regime’s control over the economy and the people.”

Other experts in South Korea have also voiced concerns that this currency reform makes the North Korean regime collapse scenario more probable.
For more information, please see:

BloggingStocks – Inflation Surges on Wealth Destruction in North Korea – 7 January 2010

Jakarta Globe – N. Korean Crackdown On Merchants Risky – 7 January 2010

NPR – North Koreans Upset Over Currency Changes – 8 January 2010

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

ANDHRA PRADESH, India – Government talks to carve a new, separate Telangana state out of the large south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh recently failed, concluding with an inconclusive outcome.   The independence discourse has been occurring between numerous political factions and other stakeholders, neither of whom were apparently willing come to an amicable compromise on their position.  However, neither group seems adverse to further consultation among the numerous interested groups.  Ultimately, the talks resulted in an agreement between all involved parties that, despite the dearth of breakthrough progress concerning the independence of the Telangana, the government will take an active role in preserving peace in Andhra Pradesh and quell civilian hostilities over this highly polarizing, significant issue.Subsequent to India’s liberation from the British Empire, movements for an independent Telangana began in the late 1960’s.  The movement created much tension between groups of Indian nationals and incited rife violence, resulting in many deaths.  Although subsequent stages of the movement were not strong enough the propel any important advances, the recent talks in the Indian government appeared to show promise for those eagerly awaiting a decision on the creation of the independent Telangana state.

The recent discussions of craving a Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh have provoked numerous publicized forms of protest and displays of the peoples’ passion for independence.  Conventional rallies and walk-outs occurred throughout many school campuses around south India.  However, suicides and significant striking have caused much panic among the government, political parties, and the civilian population in Andhra Pradesh.  Significant striking essentially shut down the Telangana region in early December.  Furthermore, the president of the TSR, one of the most prominent groups for Telangana’s independence undertook an eleven-day fast which he intended to carry out until his very death if no breakthroughs arose in the talks of state creation.  However, in early December, the Indian government announced that talks to craft the Telangana state would begin, enabling the TSR president to cease his hunger-strike.

Much of the passion for the creation of a separate Telangana state derives from its historical significance in both Muslim and Hindu history.  Also, the region of Telangana never came under direct British rule during the colonial Raj.  The willingness of the people to die for the symbolism behind an independent state, however, continues to compel supporting organizations to fight for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – India’s ‘Tiger of Telangana’ feted – 10 December 2009

India Today – Govt mulls Prez rule if Telangana talks fail – 5 January 2010

Zee News – Telangana: All-party meet fails to break ice – 5 January 2010

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NEW DEHLI, India-At least 100 people have died in a cold wave sweeping through northern India. The majority of deaths have occurred in the states of Uttar Pradesh.  In Uttar Pradesh the death toll has reached over 70 people.

Most of the deaths have taken place among the homeless and the elderly, and the local authorities have been asked to arrange shelter for vulnerable citizens.  The region saw its first snow fall on Sunday.  The snowfall which began early was recorded at over 10 centimeters by Sunday evening, with additional snowfall through Tuesday.  Temperatures in the region have been below freezing, with spells of rain bringing down the maximum temperature.  Scores of citizens die in India every year, being ill-equipped to deal with the extreme cold.  Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are among the northern states which have been hit hardest by intense cold weather.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 25 states that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, which includes access to housing, medical care,and necessary social services.

In Uttar Pradesh, the victims were mostly poor people who were sleeping on the streets or out in the open.  Uttar Pradesh chief bureaucrat Arun Kumar Gupta said all schools were shut down until Thursday as a health precaution. On Monday, Gupta said state authorities decided to spend 100 million rupees (2.17 million dollars) to hand out free blankets and firewood to the needy in the area.  In India, there are few homeless shelters in Indian cities, and although  blankets and firewood have been distributed,  the authorities’ efforts have been inadequate in the face of the intense cold.

Government spokesman Diwakar Tripathy said an exercise was underway to move the homeless into state-run night shelters.

In addition to cold-related deaths, heavy fog caused by rain and the cold wave resulted in visibility problems which caused two separate train accidents on Saturday, leaving 10 dead, and nearly 50 injured.

According to weather officials, temperatures are expected to stay low over the next few days.

For more information, please see:

BBC News- ‘Dozens of People’ Die in India Cold Wave– 4 January 2010

IBN Live- Cold Wave Grips North India, At Least 100 Dead – 4 January 2010

Associated Foreign Press- More Than 40 Die In India’s Cold Wave: Officials– 4 January 2010

United Nations- Universal Declaration of Human Rights

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia– Three decades have passed since the Khmer Rouge caused the deaths of as many as two million Cambodians. Despite the long-awaited, and much-delayed, Khmer Rouge tribunal, many survivors and families of victims are beginning to speak out against the lack of justice, even though for the first time at an international criminal tribunal, victims have been represented as well as the defense and prosecutors.

Chem Mey, a 78-year old survivor, commented that he, “lost my family,” and that the regime “killed my children and my wife. Nobody had rights or freedom then. That’s why now I want to find justice – for the victims and the younger generation.” The former mechanic not only lost his family to the Khmer Rouge, he also suffered torture and beatings at the notorious S-21 detention center in Phnom Penh. At least 14,000 inmates passed through the tiny cells of Phnom Penh and torture chambers in the late 1970s; and Chum Mey is one of only three confirmed, living survivors.

At the tribunal, along with almost a hundred other people, Chum Mey was accepted as a civil party in the trial of the man who ran S-21, Kaing Guek Eav, commonly referred to as Comrade Duch.

After closing statements in November, civil parties like Chum Mey felt that their rights to speak and question witnesses had been restricted. Lawyers of many civil parties complained that little interest was shown in their testimony. According to one civil party lawyer, Silke Studzinsky, “They felt that the trial chamber was not very receptive to their sufferings.” She went on to say that “This left for them the impression that the trial chamber was rather uninterested in their stories.” Despite the frustration, various local and international lawyers worked with several different groups of victims through the closing statements, but there seemed to be little coordination among them.

Although it is too late to impact the trial of Duch, a second trial, believed unlikely to start until the middle of 2011 is expected to take a different approach to give voice to victims such as Chum Mey. Instead of a myriad of lawyers, there will be one lead counsel for the civil parties to mirror the approach taken by the prosecution and defense.

For more information, please see:

BBC World News – Khmer Rouge survivors feel justice denied -January 4, 2010

Earth Times – Historic Khmer Rouge tribunal has lessons for the world – December 13, 2009

Phnom Penh Post – Genocide charges laid at KRT – December 17, 2009