By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KARACHI, Pakistan– A gesture of generosity became a day of sorrow and horror for many when 18 women were killed, among them a 13-year old girl, during a stampede where free flour was being given out. 15 others were also injured during the chaos.

The free-flour was being given out by local philanthropist Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, at his warehouse in Khori Garden, a neighborhood on the southern part of the city, and one of the poorest as well. Thousands of women and children gathered to attempt to take advantage of the offer. However a stampede occurred when the organizers, believing that the women were getting out of control decided to close the doors. Because of Khori Garden’s narrow lanes this created a suffocating atmosphere. The stampede was caused by the panicking women all attempting to leave at once. Witnesses state that what started the chaos were various arguments which broke out during the distribution of the food. One women stated that “Dozens of women just leapt to grab the items and the man distributing just closed the gate,”. One grieving mother named Karima cried “I have lost my little daughter…All I wanted was a bag of flour for my family, but my greed lost me so gravely” 

During the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Muslims traditionally give free food and drink. These gifts are given by private individuals, and by religious and charitable groups.

During this year, a shortage of flour and sugar in the country as a result of hoarding has caused food prices in Pakistan to rise, with food prices rising even further during the Ramadan period. As a result competition for the distributed free food among the poor of this country has been higher than in previous years. Although the government has tried to subsidize flour and sugar prices, they seem unable to provide relief to the ever increasing number of poverty-stricken citizens.

The United Nation’s International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights defined the right to adequate food as a fundamental human right which is inherent to all to have regular access, either through direct or financial to an adequate and sufficient supply of food.  In other words, the right to adequate food is achieved when every person in a community has the physical and economic access at any time to adequate food or means to procure it.  Evidenced from the chaos erupted from the poverty and hunger stricken masses from a free-food give away, there seems to be a violation of this basic human right of access to food.

This incident was not the first time people have died, with similar scenes of long lines at various centers distributing free food falling into chaos during the last few weeks.  

For more information, please see:

BBC News- Pakistan food stampede kills many – 14 September 2009

New York Times- At least 19 killed in Ramadan food stampede– 14 September 2009

Daily Times- 18 women die in Karachi free food stampede – 15 September 2009

The Right to Food- Guiding Principles

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia      

BEIJING, China– China has detained numerous dissidents and campaigners ahead of President Barack Obama’s anticipated first visit to the country, their relatives and close contacts told the Associated Foreign Press Saturday.

In Beijing, a group of dissidents tried to apply for a demonstration last Friday, to protest the President’s visit.  The dissidents hoped it would attract attention to the Chinese regime’s human rights violations.  But officials rejected their application.

On Sunday Obama arrives in Shanghai before moving on to Beijing the next day for a four-day presidential trip.  As the visit has drew closer, Zhao Lianhai, the head of an activist group for parents of children who were sickened by tainted milk was detained, said his wife.  In a text Li Xuemei said, “Zhao Lianhai was criminally detained for ‘provoking an incident’.”

Zhao was handcuffed and taken away Friday night by officers who searched his house and took items such as computers, a video recorder, a camera and an address book according to activist group Human Right in China.  The group also stated that upon refusing to go with them, since the summons did not state a cause, the police filled in “provoking an incident” in the summons.  Beijing police would not comment on the case.

Qi Zhiyong, a survivor of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, says the President’s upcoming visit is already affecting him, “[Obama’s] visit to China only involves discussions on climate change, or economic issues. We hope that he will bring up the issue of human rights, and truly improve  China’s human rights.  In fact, his [upcoming] visit has indirectly caused our rights as well as our living spaces to be trampled on.  Because of his visit people like me and other dissidents are being affected.  I have been subjected to a formless oppression, whether it’s house arrest, or being taken away from Beijing.”  Many dissidents have received warning from police not to go to Beijing during Obama’s visit.

Qi also applied to police to protest the Obama’s visit to press him on human rights in China and was detained trying to organize a human rights seminar on November 9 in a Beijing park. Qi said he was being held in the suburbs and had been charged with unlawful assembly and disturbing the social order.

Obama is headed to China to discuss climate change.

For more information, please see:

AFP – China Dissidents ‘Detained Ahead of Obama Visit’ – 14 November 2009

New Tang Dynasty Television – Dissidents Protest Obama’s Upcoming Visit to China – 10 November 2009

AP – Chinese Activist Risks Jail With Letter to Obama – 5 November 2009

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – With the monsoon season approaching in about a month, the UN and other humanitarian agencies are expressing concerns over the overcrowded, unsanitary camps where Tamil civilians are being housed.

Human rights groups have argued that holding these civilians in the military-run camps is an “illegal form of collective punishment,” but the Sri Lankan government is claiming that the camps are conducting screenings for potential rebel fighters. 

Tamils in camps.  Courtesy of AFP.

However, the UN has said that the screening process is progressing too slowly, and those who have gone through the screening have not yet been released unless the person is under 10 or over 60 years old.

Mark Cutts of the UN was told by Sri Lanka’s senior military officials that probably less than 20% of the Tamils currently in the camps will be able to resettle despite Sri Lankan government’s initial decision to resettle most Tamils by end of this year. 

“We need to look into this issue of how long are they going to be kept in these places, will they be given proper freedom of movement…,” said Cutts.

The camps are housing twice as many people as originally intended, and activists are worried that monsoon rains, which is likely to cause flooding, will worsen the sanitary conditions by bringing fecal matter to the surface and subjecting people to diseases.  Moreover, the camps were averaging about 40 people per latrine while the UN standard is 20.

In addition, Sri Lanka has expelled James Elder of UNICEF, accusing him of siding with the Tamil Tigers.  Elder has spoken out against the sufferings of children in Sri Lanka, and UNICEF “unequivocally rejects any allegations of bias” since Elder’s statements were based on “concrete information that the [UN] attained and verified.”

UN Secretary-General Bank Ki-moon strongly denounced Elder’s expulsion saying he has “full confidence in the work of the [UN] in Sri Lanka, which includes making public statements when necessary in an effort to save lives and prevent grave humanitarian problems.” 

Furthermore, human rights organizations claim that the Sri Lankan government has failed to investigate the rights abuses and war crimes which occurred during the fighting. 
For more information, please see:

BBC – UN concern over Sri Lanka camps – 11 September 2009

CNN – Concern over conditions in Sri Lankan camps – 11 September 2009

Inter Press Services – SRI LANKA: Gov’t to Resettle Displaced Tamils Ahead of Monsoon – 12 September 2009

Radio Canada – Sri Lankan refugee camps try UN patience – 11 September 2009

By Megan E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

TOKYO, Japan – Prisoners on death row in Japan endure cruel conditions as they await capital punishment. Human rights group, Amnesty International, warns that the terms of the convictions are unjust.  

Last year, 15 prisoners in Japan were executed, and approximately 102 inmates are on death row presently. A number of them are elderly prisoners who have spent years or even decades in isolation. One inmate, Hakamada Iwao has been on death row for more than 40 years. From January 2006 to January 2009, 32 men were executed, and among them, 17 were over the age of 60, with five being in their seventies placing them as the oldest prisoners in the world who were executed. 

In a report compiled by Amnesty International, inmates on death row are held in isolation and not permitted to speak to other inmates. Aside from exercise sessions sanctioned two or three times a week, death row prisoners are prohibited from moving within their own cells and must remain seated. Amnesty International’s United Kingdom director, Kate Allen, referred to the death-row system as a “regime of silence, isolation and sheer non-existence.”

The human rights group fears that conditions of isolation faced by Japanese death row prisoners are making them mentally ill. In response, Allen called on the government to immediately halt executions: “rather than persist with a shameful capital punishment system, the new Japanese government should immediately impose a moratorium on all further executions.” The human rights group director also called the Japanese practice of informing prisoners that they would be killed with only a few hours notice was “utterly cruel.”

Researchers who attempted to report on the situation and policies of the Japanese justice system were discouraged in trying to compile facts due to the secrecy surrounding the country’s justice system. However, examiners were able to determine that Japan’s crime rate is low in comparison to other countries of a similar socio-economic level of development and the number of murders is also low. Despite the statistic that criminal trials have a 99% conviction rate, the actual level of imprisonment is relatively low, and the number of prisoners convicted and sentenced to death is a small fraction of all those convicted of capital offences – a little over 1% according to Amnesty International. Yet, those who are among those convicted of capital offences, the conditions preceding their final punishment is daunting and cruel leading to mental illness.

Japan’s code of criminal procedure states that if a person condemned to death is in a state of insanity, the execution shall be stayed by the justice minister. The fear by human rights groups like Amnesty International is that there is a rise of insanity among inmates caused by extreme conditions and the sheer length of their detention and police interrogation reform is needed to investigate these claims.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Japan death row ‘breeds insanity’ – 10 September 2009

Huffington Post – Amnesty International: Japan Must Stop Executing Mentally Ill Prisoners –11 September 2009

Guardian – Prisoners driven insane on Japan’s death row, says Amnesty – 10 September 2009

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

TOKYO, Japan – Amnesty International published findings that Japan’s practice of informing inmates of their execution only a few hours before they take place have caused death row prisoners to become mentally ill.  The Japanese government is now under pressure to abolish their capital punishment system.

Kate Allen of Amnesty said, “The mental anguish of not knowing whether each day is to be your last day on Earth is terrible…[b]ut Japan’s justice system…sees fit to bury its death row prisoners in the most punitive regime of silence, isolation and a sheer non-existence imaginable.”  She urged the Japanese government to “[r]ather than persist[ing] with a shameful capital punishment system, [they] should immediately impose a moratorium on all further executions” because being informed only a few hours before execution is “utterly cruel.”

Japanese prisoners.  Courtesy of Getty Images.

Japanese death row prisoners are held in isolation, and they are not allowed to speak to other inmates.  In addition, prisoners on death row are not allowed to move around except for the weekly exercise sessions and must remain seated in their cells.  Visitations from family and attorneys can end in as little as five minutes.  Consequently, many inmates become delusional and suffer from mental illnesses.

Amnesty’s report highlighted the case of Iwao Hakamada, former professional boxer, who has been on death row for 41 years.  He is considered to have been the longest condemned death row prisoner in the world.  A psychiatrist who met Hakamada diagnosed him with “institutional psychosis.”

32 men were executed between January 2006 and January 2009 in Japan.  17 of the 32 executed inmates were older than 60.  Five were in their 70’s, which made them the oldest executed prisoners in the world.  Japan currently has 102 prisoners on death row.

International human rights standards forbid imposing capital punishment on the mentally ill.  The Japanese criminal procedure code also states that executions should be halted if a person receives the death sentence and is mentally insane. 

However, the death penalty has had wide support in Japan, where conviction rate for criminals is 99%. 

For more information, please see:

BBC – Japan death row ‘breeds insanity’ – 10 September 2009

Guardian – Prisoners driven insane on Japan’s death row, says Amnesty – 10 September 2009

Huffington Post – Amnesty International: Japan Must Stop Executing Mentally Ill Prisoners –11 September 2009