By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KABUL, Afghanistan –   As women lined up to cast their ballots at various national voting stations, the event was tarnished by fraud and corruption. One man cast 35 votes for female relatives. Others lugged in sacks full of voting cards they claimed had been collected from women voters. In a village of only 250 people, 200 women supposedly voted in three hours.

Unfortunately, these stories are not unfamiliar. In Afghanistan‘s recent presidential election in August, one very sensitive area was that of fraud as women exercised their right to vote. The same speculation and concern remains present as the election on November 7 draws near for the runoff between President Hamid Karzai, and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. Analysists are concerns as the stakes are so high.

Accepting the presence of fraud as it relates to allowing women to vote, the situation cannot be resolved in the weeks just before the election. There is a general acceptance of proxy voting by male relatives on behalf of female family members. In such circumstances, many women have expressed their reluctance to vote, primarily because of the threats of violence and polling centers that swarm with men. Further, those women who do brave the polling centers and are able to cast their ballots are often uneducated and therefore more easily manipulated.

Despite the uncertainty of how deeply rooted or how significant the impact of fraudulent women voting will be on the results in November, there is increasing speculation that women’s polling stations were more problematic than men’s since officials have not yet released the list of women’s polling stations.

This Photograph, taken August 20, 2009 shows Afghan women voters lining up to cast their ballots. Image Curtesy of Associated Press.    

According to a U.N. report, back in August, men arrived at voting stations carrying and submitting hand-fulls of female voter cards. Poll workers permitted these ballots to be cast without argument. The report further revealed that in some cases, men dragged in sacks full of cards supposedly for their female relatives. Under this sort of sporadic and unregulated election scheme, Theresa Delangis, part of a team working on election issues with the U.N. women’s fund, commented, “It allowed for women’s votes to be manipulated. Block voting, proxy voting, or there were just no women at the polling stations and those ballots were used for fraudulent votes.”

Concern remains as observers indicate that Afghanistan is no more of a safer voting environment now than it was two months ago. Election officials claim they have plans to recruit more women, but there is no reported progress to-date, as government workers are apparently waiting on a report of gender related proposals to the voting process.

For more information, please see:

New York Times – Intimidation and Fraud Observed in Afghan Election – October 31, 2009 

Yahoo! World News – Fraud surrounds women voters in Afghan election  – October 30, 2009 

Khaleej Times – Fraud surrounds women in Afghan election – October 31, 2009

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

TOKYO, Japan –Japanese and international organizations sent a joint letter to Japan’s new justice and foreign ministers asking that the country’s new administration pressure Burma to end human rights abuses against minority groups.

The letter urged Japan to “urgently review its policies to protect the Rohingya both in Japan and Burma,” and to grant residential permits to Rohingyas in Japan.  In addition, Japanese government was asked to rescind their deportation order against Burmese asylum seekers.

The Rohingyas are one of the most persecuted minority groups in Burma, and the Burmese government refuses to grant Rohingyas legal status in Burma, which leaves this minority group stateless.

Human Rights Watch reported that human rights violations against the Rohingyas include extrajudicial killings, religious persecution, forced labor, and restrictions on movement.

Kanae Doi, Tokyo director of Human Rights Watch, said, “Tokyo’s silence sends a message to Burma’s generals that their horrendous persecution of the Rohingya can continue…The Rohingyas have faced persecution…and mistreatment in the countries where they seek refuge.  The Japanese government should ensure their protection….”

In the past ten years, 110 Rohingya refugees have entered Japan and have petitioned the Japanese government for asylum.  However, although reports of forced repatriation do not exist, Rohingyas in Japan have been denied refugee status or have received deportation notices.

Japan has traditionally been reluctant to pressure Burma regarding human rights issues.  However, the signatories of the letter asked that Japan’s new government “make human rights a central pillar of Japanese foreign policy” by pressuring Burma to stop the human rights abuses and to grant Rohingyas full citizenship rights. 

Rohingya mother and child at a refugee camp by the Burma/Bangladesh border.  Courtesy of BBC.

Human Rights Watch also released a photo essay and report on the Rohingyas.  The report points to insufficient international attention to this issue and documents the exodus of Rohingyas from Burma to Bangladesh, in addition to focusing on the 20-year long persecution of Rohingyas inside Burma, especially in the Arakan state.

The drafters of the letter also held a public event in Tokyo concerning the treatment of Rohingya refugees in Japan.

For more information, please see:

Asian Tribune – The Rohingya Refugees: Victims of Exploitation – 5 October 2009

Democratic Voice of Burma – Japan ‘should protect’ Burmese Rohingya – 29 October 2009

Human Rights Watch – Japan: Protect Burmese Rohingya Seeking Asylum – 29 October 2009

Human Rights Watch – Joint letter to Japanese Justice Minister and Foreign Minister on Rohingya – 29 October 2009

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COX’S BAZAAR, Bangladesh – Enduring a 30-year history of persecution in their native land, members of the Rohingya Muslim minority continue trying to elude human rights abuses under the Burmese junta.  The Rohingyas, who generally reside in the state of Myanmar, have been able to cross into neighboring nations such as Bangladesh and Thailand to escape impunity.  However, the recent construction of a razor-wire fence along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, across which many Rohingyas traverse in search of freedom from subjugation, further undercuts the Muslim minority groups’ reach for liberation.

The razor-wire barrier effectively eliminates one of the Rohingya peoples’ only routes to less hostile territory.  Though the Bangladesh government neither recognizes nor welcomes the Rohingyas, hundreds of thousands of them reside in makeshift camps in Bangladesh.  Although the U.N. attempted a repatriation into Myanmar for the Rohingyas in 2005, government threats of higher oppression of the minority Muslim group ended the initiative.

By keeping the Rohingyas within Myanmar borders, the government may continue to exploit and abuse them.  The Burmese government persistently denies Rohingya Muslims any form of national citizenship and continues to force the minority group into labor.  The Myanmar government also has a history of executing military operations against civilian Rohingyas.  In 1978, an army operation called “Nagamine” targeted Rohingya civilians living illegally in Myanmar and entailed the destruction of schools, mosques, and other structures.    

Considering the disposition of the ruling powers of Myanmar, Rohingya refugees in Thailand and Bangladesh cannot return to their homes.  Effectively disallowed from re-entering Myanmar borders, the Rohingyas must live under derisory, unsanitary conditions of refugee camps with a scarcity of food and clothing.

Bangladeshi authorities have also taken measures to prohibit more Rohingyas from entering the country.  Border patrol used to arrest and imprison Rohingya peoples attempting to cross into Bangladesh illegally.  However, given the significant number of refugees attempting to cross, Bangladeshi jails quickly became filled with Rohingya escapees looking for solace in Bangladesh.   Operations recently began to send new Rohingya refugees back to Burmese land.

Bangladeshi officials released statements saying that the Rohingya minority places a social and economic burden upon Bangladesh.  Although relief funds from Germany and numerous human rights organizations help maintain the refugee camps, the Bangladeshi government refuses to allow the Rohingyas to indefinitely remain within the nation’s borders.

Without a home to find peace, it seems the plight of the Rohingyas will continue to plague the group until the international community devises an effective means to secure the minority groups’ rights.   

 

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – Rohingya suffer in Bangladesh camps – 28 October 2009

Burma Library – Bangladesh-Myanmar Relations and the Stateless Rohingyas – June 2001

Mizzima – Germany donates $430,000 for Rohingya relief in Bangladesh – 17 October 2009

ReliefWeb – Bangladesh expels Rohingyas – 16 October 2009

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PHNOM PEHN, Cambodia — The Khmer Rouge prison boss, Kaing Guek Eav, more commonly known as Duch, admitted personal responsibility for the torture and murder of more than 12,000 people. He shocked the war crimes court by asking to be acquitted and released.

Khmer Rouge prison boss, known as Duch, stands beside a security guard during the closing arguments of his trial. Curtesy of The Guardian,

Duch is one of five aging senior cadres facing trial in the deaths of at least 1.7 million Cambodians who were murdered or died of starvation or overwork. From 1975 to 1979, before being removed after an invasion by the Vietnamese, the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime sought to create an agrarian utopia by abolishing religion, money and schools and forcing most of the population onto collective farms.

Duch’s nine-month trial concluded with Duch asking the judges to consider his co-operation with the court, and proceeded to ask that the 10 years he had already served in jail be used as his sentence, and set him free. In the last statement of his concluding remarks, he said: “I would ask the chamber to release me, thank you very much.”

The statement reportedly came only two days after he told the court he was ultimately accountable for the deaths that occurred while he headed the Khmer Rouge’s Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. Duch had admitted, “I am solely and individually responsible for the loss of at least 12,380 lives.” Duch was claimed to be responsible for the thousands of deaths, most of whom were tortured detainees at the notorious S-21 prison, where Duch was commander, before inflicting death in the nearby “killing fields.”

Officials involved in the proceeding seem skeptical. Prosecutor, William Smith, said outside of the court, that he was surprised by Duch’s last-minute change of heart. Smith stated, “The fact that he entered a request for an acquittal reinforces in our mind that his remorse is limited.” The prosecution has asked for 40 year’s jail for Duch, 67.

The judges are expected to deliver a ruling in March of next year. The maximum penalty they can impose is life imprisonment.

For more information, please see:

Sydney Morning Herald – Killing fields accused may not live to face court – November 27, 2009

The Times Online – Please release me begs Khmer Rouge torturer-in-chief – November 27, 2009

The Guardian –Cambodia torturer Duch – killer of 12,380 – asks court to set him free – November 27, 2009

CNN – Closing arguments end in Khmer Rouge trial – November 27, 2009

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

 

Vetribel Jaseeharan, a publisher for North Eastern Monthly, and his wife Vadivel Valarmathi, were charged with conspiracy to discredit the government.  He and his wife were detained for articles they published in their magazine.  They were acquitted of all charges.  

The judge stated that a confession where Jaseeharan admitted to supporting the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels was gained while under duress and that the medical records presented showed signs he had been tortured.  A court official said, “The attorney general withdrew the charges as the judge noted that the confession was not made voluntarily.”

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were a rebel group in Sri Lanka who had been fighting the government for the last two decades, with armed uprising beginning in 1983.  Government troops finally defeated the Tamil Tigers in May, when the Tigers finally laid down their guns, ending a long civil war.  International press groups however, say that Sri Lankan Journalists are still burdened with major restrictions on reporting. 

J.S. Tissainayagam, a reporter for the North Eastern Monthly, and the man who wrote the two articles which Jaseeharan and his wife published, was in August sentenced to 20 years in prison.  The found him guilty of “causing communal disharmony”, “racial hatred” and raising money for “terrorism” through his writings about the victimized Tamils during the war.  The international Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the world’s largest organization of journalists condemned the judgment, which in addition sentenced Tissainayagam to hard labor while in prison. 

The court stated that the only offense of Jaseeharan was to publish the articles written by Tissainayagam.  

Several Sri Lankan reporters have been killed in recent years by unidentified groups.  Lasantha Wickrematunga, a leading anti-establishment editor was among the many victims, he was shot dead near his office.  Government figures show that nine journalists were killed and another 27 assaulted in the past three years, with activists stating that more than a dozen journalists have been killed.

For information, please see:

International New 24/7- Tamil Reporter Jailed for 20 Years on Terror Charges – 31 August 2009

BBC NEWS- Detained Tamil Publisher is Freed  – 26 October 2009

Khaleej Times- Sri Lanka Frees Publisher Held for 19 Months – 26 October 2009

The Peninsula- Colombo Frees Publisher Held for 19 Months -27 October 2009

Global Security.Org- Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam