By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KABUL, India– A Taliban suicide bomber has struck the Indian embassy in Kabul, with at least 17 dying in the second attack the building has suffered in little over a year.  Kabul has been attacked regularly in recent months, and the previous bombing occurring in July 2008, where dozens of people were killed. 

Officials say a car bomber blew himself up near the Indian embassy and the Afghan interior ministry.  The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack and state that the embassy was the target.  Insurgent militants would like to force India to decrease their influence in Afghanistan, where the government is spending $1.2 billion on projects supporting the U.S. backed- government’s development drive, important to gaining popular support.

Nirupama Rao, India’s Foreign Secretary said the suicide bomber “came up to the outside wall of the embassy with a car loaded with explosives”.  Habib Jan, an eyewitness said the victims were civilians, “A [Toyota] Corolla car was parked in front of the Indian embassy.  It was rush hour, about 10 minutes after I arrived at the office when we heard an explosion.  There were lots of workers cleaning the street – most of them have been killed.”

The bombing comes at a critical time.  President Obama is deciding whether to increase the number of troops, as Gen. Stanley McChrystal has advised.

The American Embassy has condemned the attack.  In a statement it said “There is no justification for this kind of senseless violence,”  Most the people killed were ordinary Afghans, with many of them being Merchants working at a market that had been refurbished in the last few months.

Muhibullah, a merchant in the market, said the blast so powerful he felt it in his chest.  Mr. Muhibullah said he had hoped that security had improved when city authorities reopened the road in front of his shop.  But now as a result wants to move

Edrees Kakar, an office worker stated that the bomb attacks are happening so frequently that people are no longer feeling safe.  “People are leaving their homes less and less.  We are frustrated and feel we are not getting sufficient help from the international community.”

For more information, please see:

BBC NEWS- Afghan Bomb Strikes India Embassy – 8 October 2009

The New York Times- 17 Die in Kabul Bomb Attack– 8 October 2009

Reuters- Kabul Bomb Likely Aimed to Influence US Afghan Policy– 9 October 2009

The Times of India- ‘India Will Take All Steps To Protect Its Citizens’– 9 October 2009

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KARNATAKA, India – Monsoon rains catalyzed the worst flooding India has experienced in over 100 years on Monday.  India’s monsoon season annually leaves scores of flood victims dead and displaced, yet it has been decades since flooding as caused such immense destruction and alarm.  Between the southern states affected by the torrential rains, flooding has claimed the lives of over 270 victims and displaced more than 2.5 million people. 

Rescue workers responded expediently to the news of imminent tragedy.  Prior to the most intense flooding, relief organizations began reinforcing the embankments of the Krisha river with over 300,000 heavy sandbags to prevent the floodwater from penetrating the trade-center city of Vijaywada.  Rescuers also dropped rations and plastic sheets to the displaced population from helicopters.  In Andhra Pradesh, over a quarter-million people have been relocated to makeshift relief shelters.  Aid workers in Karnataka were able to move over 450,000 into similar temporary housing.  
 

 
While the government and relief workers have taken significant initiatives in their rescue mission, the relentless flooding in southern India carries risks and ramifications other than loss of property and life.  With so many people placed into temporary shelters, conditions at the shelters prove inadequate and resources scarce.  Displaced persons have questioned whether the government could have provided further amenities, but funds for improving the relief camps are currently insufficient.  The influx of rescued people into the makeshift shelters over the coming weeks will undoubtedly cause overcrowding issues while the government strains for the money to accommodate the homeless and rebuild the rain-ravaged cities.  Also, flooding of travel-ways has made the efficient distribution of already scant resources difficult for the government and aid workers.  

Furthermore, aid workers fear the rapid spread of water-borne disease to which hundreds of thousands of people are now vulnerable.  India must also bear the significant loss of agriculture, as the monsoon flooding submerged vast acres of corn, sugarcane, paddies, and other crucial crops.  

While the Indian government continues to calculate the monetary cost of the damage, relief workers continue to provide food and shelter to the displaced, and the military works continual rescue operations.  Though the lack of necessary funds keeps rescued persons in derisory conditions, measures are being  taken to secure the lives of the displaced.  
For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – Millions homeless in India floods – 7 October 2009

CNN – Over 270 killed in India floods – 5 October 2009

Times of India – Flood water recedes, new worries surface – 6 October 2009

Yahoo! News – India floods leave 2.5 million homeless, 250 dead – 5 October 2009

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia  

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan– A suicide bomber garbed in military uniform attacked the UN World Programme offices in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city, killing at least five people and injuring five others, according to police and U.N. officials.The interior minister of Pakistan stated that an investigation had begun into security lapses after guards had allowed the suicide bomber into the compound to go to the bathroom.

Taliban militants on Tuesday, claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing, saying that international relief work in Pakistan was not in “the interest of Muslims”.  Revenge was promised by the Pakistani Taliban for the killing of their leader Baitullah Mehsud in a U.S. drone strike in August and has been behind a series of recent attacks, including an attack last week, where at least 16 people died in two suicide car bomb attacks in north-western Pakistan.

The five confirmed dead worked for the WFP and the injured were hospitalized, some of them with critical injuries.  Of the dead four were Pakistani: Abid Rehman, a senior finance assistant; Gulrukh Tahir, a receptionist; Farzana Barkat, an office assistant; and Mohammed Wahab, a finance assistant. The fifth was Botan Ahmed Ali al-Hayawi, an Iraqi information and communication technology officer.

“All of the victims were humanitarian heroes working on the front lines of hunger in a country where WFP food assistance is providing a lifeline to millions,” the agency’s executive director, Josette Sheeran, said in a statement.  “This is a tragedy—not just for WFP—but for the whole humanitarian community and for the hungry.”

This was an unwanted reminder that their capital remains vulnerable to attack, and is further proof that militants can cause harm in the face of heightened security precautions and ongoing army operations.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the attack would not “slacken the resolve” of Pakistan’s efforts in battling the Taliban.  He said: “The operations that we carried out against them in Swat, North Waziristan and South Waziristan have broken their back. They are like a wounded snake.”

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the blast, stating, “Pakistan will not be deterred in its efforts to fight extremism and terrorism and will continue its quest to bring peace by eliminating the terrorists.”

For more information, please see: 

BBC News- Suicide Bomb hits UN in Pakistan– 5 October 2009

ABC News- Bomb rips through UN Office, 4 dead– 5 October 2009

Washington Post- Bomb Blast Hits U.N. Agency in Islamabad– 6 October 2009

Associated Post- AP Top News at 10:58 a.m. -6 October 2009

 

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

WASHINGTON, United States – The U.S. nominee for North Korea human rights envoy, Robert King, said he will continue to pressure China to stop the deportation of North Korean refugees.

At the Senate confirmation hearing, King said, “The Chinese have been less hospitable than we would like in terms of accepting [North Korean] refugees and allowing them access to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.”

China views North Korean defectors as “economic migrants,” not refugees.  Therefore, China deports the defectors to North Korea where they face persecution.  China and North Korea have a secret agreement regarding deportation of North Korean defectors.

King also labeled North Korea as “one of the worst abusers of human rights in the world” and asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to continue supporting human rights in North Korea despite Pyongyang’s lack of cooperation.  The U.S. has taken in about 80 North Korean defectors since the passage of the North Korean Human Rights Act.

Furthermore, King described North Korea’s kidnapping of Japanese citizens as “one of the most egregious human rights violations.”  He said that the U.S. would support Japan in their efforts to obtain information of the abducted citizens.  Since 2002, North Korea has kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens.

Critics have accused the Obama administration of turning a blind eye on North Korean human rights issues.  Some have claimed that North Korea’s reprocessing of plutonium has overshadowed the country’s abysmal human rights record.

The UN has recently urged North Korea to immediately reverse its human rights record by providing food to millions of hungry citizens, stopping public executions and ending persecution of defectors who are sent back to North Korea.

The U.S. listed North Korea as one of the worst offenders of religious freedom last month, which put North Korea on the list of “countries of specific concern” for the ninth consecutive year. 

In addition, the U.S. State Department issued a human rights report earlier this year concerning human trafficking and repatriation of North Korean refugees.

Reports have said that the Senate is “virtually certain” to confirm King, however, North Korea has been critical of King’s nomination.

For more information, please see:

AFP – US envoy says to press China on NKorea refuges – 5 November 2009

Taiwan News – US envoy nominee presses NKorea on human rights – 6 November 2009

Yonhap News – U.S. envoy on N.K. human rights denounces China for refugee repatriation – 5 November 2009

By Megan E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

AHMEDABAD, India– In cities across India that have been struggling with organized crime groups, the response of crime fighters has been to have officers designated to killing these gang figures – all in the name of justice. These officers, known as encounter specialists, gained reputations as heroes, and became known as local celebrities by the number and particular gangsters they had killed.

Although such practice has occurred for decades, Indians have become increasingly wary of police officers taking on the role as judge, jury and executioner. According to the National Human Rights Commission, 346 people have been killed since 2006 in what seem to have been extrajudicial police killing, though this figure is estimated to be a low approximation.

A sensationalist account in June 2004 shed light on the issue when four Muslims were pummeled with bullets when intelligence reports had identified the four as terrorism suspects. The group had bomb-making chemicals and a suitcase full of money in the trunk of their car. It was believed they planned to assassinate the chief minister of India’s richest state when police intercepted.

Jay Narayan Vyas, a spokesman for the state government, said that the four people killed had been identified by the central government as terrorism suspects. A government intelligence report said that the four were possible terrorism suspects, but the central government has said that these were merely suspicions and could not justify the killings.

As suspicion mounted, forensic evidence revealed that the four were actually shot at point-blank range, and earlier than the reports given by the police. Civilian animosity then began to rise against “encounter killings.”

In many of these killings, investigations have found, the motive was not vigilante justice. The police often staged such killings for personal gain: eliminating a rival of a powerful politician in the hopes of a big promotion; killing a crime boss on behalf of one of his rivals; settling scores between businessmen. According to the New York Times, lawyers had known for years that something strange was happening in the Gujarat police force and that the killings of terrorism suspects were dubious. Such acts are dubbed, ‘fake encounters.’

Reports continue to show that these human rights violations and fake encounter killings are still being carried out by security forces in India. In New Delhi, political parties, with the exception of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), criticized the Gujarat government in a recent meeting and demanded that Chief Minister Narendra Modi resign over the June 2004 killing of Mumbai collegian, Ishrat Jahan, which created mass public awareness as a exploitive fake encounter. Governmental and official tension remains amidst human rights activists’ continued beckoning for the cessation of this crude ‘justice’ tactic.

For more information, please see:

New York Times – Questions on Executions Mount in India – October 3, 2009

Gulfnews: Modi government criticised for fake encounter killings – October 4, 2009

The Times of India – Another ‘fake’ encounter in Manipur – Septmber 11, 2009

Asia Human Rights Commission – INDIA: Encounter killing and custodial torture, a disgrace for the nation – September 14, 2009 

South Asia Citizens Web – ’Encounter Killings’ and the Question of Justice in India – September 6, 2009