Asia

Olympics Protester Ji Sizun Jailed for Three Years

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Ji Sizun, a 58 years-old grassroots legal activist from Fujian province, has been sentenced to three years in prison.  He was charged for making fake official government seals and forging official documents in 2006.  Last year, Ji traveled to Beijing from the southern province of Fujian. He wanted to call for greater participation of Chinese citizens in the political process and denounce rampant official corruption.  He applied for a permit to hold a protest against corruption in one of Beijing’s three official “protest zones” designated for public use during the Beijing Olympic Games.  When he returned to check on his application three days later, he disappeared, human rights groups said.  Eyewitnesses said Ji was escorted out of the building and put into a car by several men who appeared to be plainclothes police officers.

Ji’s lawyer Huang Qiang says, “For charges of making fake official government seals and forging official documents, three years is the heaviest punishment.”  However, Huang refused to say if the sentence was linked to Ji’s attempt to demonstrate during the Beijing Olympic Games. Huang said he did not know about Ji’s activities during the games.

Ji’s action was a respond to an announcement made by Liu Shaowu, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) security director on July 23, 2008.   The announcement stated “people or protesters who want to express their personal opinions can go to do so” in line with “common practice in other countries.”  Over the following week, 77 applications were filed.  Citizens who applied were either detained by authorities or blocked by complicated application procedures.  In one instance, two women in their 70s were ordered to spend a year in a labor camp after applying, but authorities later reversed their decision.

Human Rights Watch called for immediately exonerate and release of Ji. Human Rights Watch said that Ji’s conviction is part of a broader campaign against dissent and perceived threats to the Chinese Communist Party’s one-party rule linked to official concerns about possible unrest in 2009.   Sophine Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, says, “Ji Sizun’s conviction is just the latest betrayal of the Chinese government’s promises that the Beijing Olympics would foster greater development of human rights in China.”

For more information, please see:

AP – Would-be Olympics protester sentenced to prison – 16 January 2009

Guardian – China Olympics protester jailed on forgery charges -16 January 2009

Human Rights Watch – China: Would-Be Olympics Protester Ji Sizun Jailed – 16 January 2009

Reporters Without Borders Support London Protest Over Killing of Sri Lankan Journalist

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SRI LANKA – A demonstration is set to be held on January 15 protesting the death of lead journalist and editor of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge.  Reporters Without Borders supports the protest stating, “We urge the government to react quickly to end the climate of impunity in Sri Lanka and we urge Londoners to join the rally in memory of the murdered journalist, to condemn repression and the critical situation for journalists in Sri Lanka.”

The demonstration is organized by Wickrematunge’s colleagues with support from various organizations, such as Reporters Without Borders, and will be conducted outside of the prime minister of the United Kingdom’s home.  Protestors will be denouncing the killing of Wickrematunge and urging for the protection of journalists and press freedom.

While driving to work in Colombo, Wickrematunge was shot by four men on motorcycles.  Shortly after, he was taken to the Kalubowila hospitall where he died.  His death occurred only two days after a grenade attack on a private television studio in Colombo.

Wickrematunge was known as a controversial journalist who was said to be extremely critical of the Sri Lankan government.  He founded the newspaper, The Sunday Leader, with his brother in 1994.  The Leader constantly received threats and were targets of violence for speaking out against corruption, war, terrorism, organized crime and human rights violations.

His final editorial was published after his death on January 11.  He knew that he was being targeted by the government since he was in the midst of writing on a controversial story, stating, “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.”

Approximately 4,000 protestors demonstrated in Colombo on January 12 calling for justice over Wickrematunge’s death.  They shouted against the government and President Mahinda Rajapaksa.  Meanwhile, the government denies any involvement and stated that it is continuing its investigation.

For more information, please see:

Guardian – Dying for Free Speech in Sri Lanka – 12 January 2009

Reporters Without Borders – Reporters Without Borders Backs London Demonstration in Protest at Murder of Leading Editor – 15 January 2009

Sri Lanka Guardian – The Death of a Journalist – 15 January 2009

Reporters Without Borders for Press Freedom in Afghanistan

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KABUL, Afghanistan – Reporters Without Borders sent a delegation to Kabul to gather information regarding press freedom.  On the second to last day of the investigation, Reporters held a news conference where secretary-general Jean Francois Julliard urged the Afghan government to make press freedom a priority.

“The press freedom situation is getting worse in Afghanistan and it is the government’s duty to reverse this disturbing trend,” Julliard said. “The country cannot continue to develop and progress towards democracy without a free and independent press. The president and his government must get fully involved in this issue and must take measures that give journalists more freedom to work. Much needs to be done in Afghanistan but the country will not be able to recover from 30 years of war without free and diverse news media.”

Reporters Without Borders points to the case of Perwiz Kambakhsh, who is serving a 20 year prison sentence for downloading and reading an essay about women’s rights in Islam.

“As long as a citizen can be sentenced to death or to a long jail term just for reading a report on the Internet, we will not be able to say there is free expression in Afghanistan. Perwiz Kambakhsh must be released as soon as possible. He committed no crime and this case, which has been marred by judicial irregularities, is a grave stain on Afghanistan’s image. We told all the officials we met that his conviction must be overturned.”

He continued: “The threats against Afghan journalists and visiting foreign journalists are becoming more and more diverse. As well as the Taliban, who have never ceased to threaten to kill journalists who do not comply with their demands, there are now criminals and mafia groups.”

Moreover, Reporters Without Borders reports that in 2008 alone, two journalists were killed and about 50 were attacked.

They urge the Afghan government to provide security measures for the protection of journalists so that they will continue their work, the authorities to solve and investigate cases more thoroughly and consistently, adoption of a proposed media law, and a law facilitating access to information to the journalists.  It is also urged that media owners should stop meddling with editorial content.

For more information, please see:

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty – Press Freedom Gets Worse in Afghanistan, RFS Says – 15 January 2009

Reporters Without Borders – Reporters Without Borders Gives Kabul News Conference, Urges Government to Make Press Freedom a Priority – 15 January 2009

Reuters – Press Freedom Getting Worse in Afghanistan – 15 January 2009

Nepal: Four Charged for Brutal Murder of a Journalist

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KATHAMANDU, Nepal – Nepal authorities have arrested four suspects for the murder of Uma Singh, a Nepalese reporter and women’s rights activist. On January 12th, Singh was murdered in her rented apartment room in the southern city of Janakpur. Singh was the first woman journalist to be killed in Nepal though many women journalists have been threatened.

According to international media watchdog, Reporters without Borders, around 15 men broke into Singh’s apartment and repeatedly battered her with blunt objects and then stabbed her to death. Singh died from the injuries sustained on her way to the capital when local attempts to help her failed. Singh was only 26 when she died.

Singh had criticized the caste system and written on a number of political issues. Her articles criticizing the dowry system, a tradition where the bride’s family has to pay significant sums of money and land to the groom’s family, created shock waves in Southern Nepal.

However the motives of her attackers are still unclear. Although four men have been arrested, an underground group claimed responsibility for Singh’s attack but stated it was ‘a mistake.’ Singh was working in a part of the country where there are many militants connected to an ethnic separatist movement. The militants want regional autonomy from the Maoist government.

Singh’s death caught international attention. The UN high Commissioner for Human Rights, Richard Bennett condemned the murder, “This tragedy should galvanise those responsible for protection of media freedom to take the necessary action to ensure the security of journalists.”

Reporters without Borders said, “This wave of violence against Nepalese journalists requires a firm response from the government, which must assume its responsibility and adopt effective measures to protect journalists.”

For more information, please see:

BBC –Nepal Radio Journalist Murdered–12 January 2009

RSF – Journalist and Women’s Rights Activist Brutally Murdered –12 January 2009

RSF – Four Arrested for Woman Journalist’s Murder, While Clandestine Group Claims Responsibility –14 January 2009

BBC – Picture of Uma Signh

Thailand Mistreats Illegal Immigrants

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter

BANGKOK, Thailand – Refugees International, a US based human rights group, has accused Thailand of mistreating illegal immigrants that travel to Thailand by boat. Many of these refugees, dubbed ‘boat people’ by the Thai officials, are from neighboring Myanmar-Burma and Bangladesh.

There are about 500 survivors that are now recovering from severe dehydration in India’s Andaman Islands and Aceh provinceof Indonesia. Survivors told BBC journalists that the Thai navy would tie their hands and send their boats back out to sea without engines. During a press release on Monday, 4 refugees have died and 300 refugees are reported missing.

The Thai officials declined to comment and only confirmed that the Thai navy would push Asylum seekers’ boats back out to sea. Refugees International said the Thai government “should instruct its Army to desist from its new and troubling policy of pushing refugees and migrants intercepted on boats back out to sea.”

Many of these refugees are Rohingya peoples, a Muslim ethnic minority that live in western Burma. Rohingya are among one of the most persecuted peoples in the world.  They have no legal rights, including the right to own property in Burma, because the country is predominately Buddhist. Due to oppression many Rohingya have sought refuted along the western coast of Thailand. Many of these asylum seekers are detained by the Thai military that leave Rohingya refugees to fend for themselves in international waters.

International human rights advocate, Sean Garcia said, “The Thai government is taking highly vulnerable people and risking their lives for political gain. Instead they should be engaging the Burmese government on improving conditions at home for the Rohingya if it wants to stem these flows.”

For more information, please see:

BBC – Thais ‘Leave Boat People to Die’– 15 January 2009

Irrawaddy –Thailand Urged to Stop Pushing Refugees Out to Sea– 15 January 2009

AsiaNews – The Tragedy of Rohingya Refugees Arrested in Thailand and Abandoned in the High Seas– 15 January 2009