By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar court has freed six people who called for the release of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi last December, but sentenced another activist to 104 years in prison.  Bo Min Yu Ko, a member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), was sentenced to 104 years in prison, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). Three others activists remained in detention, according to the relatives.

Bo Min Yu Ko was arrested on September 18, 2008 and charged under different laws, said the AAPP.  He was not allowed to be represented by a lawyer, and his family was prevented from attending the trial.  “This is yet another harsh and cruel sentence handed down by the regime’s kangaroo courts,” said Bo Kyi, joint AAPP secretary. “The courts are not independent and simply follow orders from the regime,” he adds.

Three other members of the ABFSU were also sentenced in late December.  Kay Thi Aung, who is pregnant, was sentenced to 26 years; Ko Nyi was sentenced to 50 years; and Wai Myo Htoo was sentenced to 26 years, according to Tun Tun, an ABFSU member.

Since October 2008, Myanmar courts have tried and sentenced at least 280 political activists.
Courts have handed down hundreds of jail sentences ranging up to 65 years to political prisoners.   Some says that the apparent effort is to clear the country of dissent before a scheduled general election in 2010.  Myanmar has been under Junta rule since 1962 after Junta crushed a nationwide pro-democracy uprising. It held elections in 1990 but refused to honor the results after Suu Kyi’s party won.

For more information, please see:

AP – Report: Myanmar activist gets 104 years in jail – 14 January 2009

EarthTimes – Myanmar dissident gets 104 years in jail – 14 January 2009

Irrawaddy – 104 Years Given to Political Dissident – 14 January 2009

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Chinese government has shut down 91 websites for pornographic and other “vulgar” content, as well as a political blog portal, according to the state media.  The latest crackdown on Internet content targeted many big names, including Google, Microsoft’s MSN and homegrown market-leading rival Baidu, for undermining public morality.  It is the first time that officials have targeted such major companies.

Bullog.cn, a Chinese blog portal with many famous bloggers, including some signatories of the pro-democracy “08 Charter,” has been shut down.  The “08 Charter” is an online petition signed by 303 Chinese citizens, calls for sweeping political change in China.  Luo Yonghao, the founder of Bullog.cn, confirmed that the website had been closed because of “amount of political harmful information,” citing a notice from government. The Human Rights Defenders network has said that more than 100 of the 300 original signatories had been questioned, detained or harassed by police.

The Chinese government publicly announced its anti-porn campaign a couple weeks ago.  Some observers say that the move signals the government’s determination to control the net amid a string of politically sensitive anniversaries.  “While the publicly stated purpose of cracking down in the past week has been porn and internet smut, we have also seen the shutdown of Bullog and a number of websites,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong and an expert on China and the internet.

“From talking to people who work in web companies here it’s pretty clear they feel under increased pressure to control political content as much as smut … I’m being told that all of those companies are beefing up their staff who are employed to police content and the software and other mechanisms to flag content which gets them in trouble.”  Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California at Berkeley said.  He also suggested Bullog’s closure reflected the Chinese government’s deep concerns about the growing influence of the internet.

For more information, please see:

AP – Edgy China blog site shut amid Internet porn sweep – 12 January 2009

Forbes – Beijing’s Own ‘Yellow Peril’ Is Online – 12 January 2009

Guardian – China closes 90 websites as internet crackdown intensifies – 12 January 2009

Reuters – China closes 91 websites in crackdown – 12 January 2009

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – A 65-year-old democracy activist, Wang Rongqing, has been sentenced to six years in jail.  He is charged of “subversion against the state,” having supported and spread the “China Democracy Party” (CDP). The sentence was handed down on Thursday by the people’s court in Hangzhou (Zhejiang), according to a Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

Wang is a veteran of pro-democracy activism.  He had helped to set up CDP in the late 1990s, and and was imprisoned on a number of occasions.  Wang continued to “participate in an active way, organizing and developing it” even after the ministry of public safety had branded CDP an “enemy organization”, according to the crimes listed in the sentence.  Before the Olympics in Beijing, Mr. Wang organized the first national meeting of the CDP and published many articles on the web, and a book entitled “The opposition party.”

The sentence of six years is one of the highest ever handed down in Zhejiang for pro-democracy activists. According to the CHRD (Chinese Human Rights Defenders), after Wang’s arrest, the police advised his family to remain quiet and to accept a public attorney for the trial.  The police told Wang’s family, in this way, Wang could have received a lesser penalty. Wang’s family followed the advice, never gave interviews, and accepted court-appointed lawyer Liu Yong.

According to Zhou Wei, a dissident who attended the trial, says that the sentence was so heavy because the government is trying to suffocate any democratic criticism after the publication of Charter 08, a call for sweeping political change in China.  Wang’s friends say that Wang is ill, and is able to move only with the use of crutches.  At the reading of the sentence and asking him whether to appeal in court, Wang shrugged his shoulders as if to say this would be useless.

For more information, please see:

AP – Chinese democracy activist sentenced to 6 years – 08 January 2009

AsiaNews – Pro-democracy activist Wang Rongqing sentenced to six years for “subversion” – 08 January 2009

BBC – Veteran Chinese activist jailed – 08 January 2009

Reuters – China court jails dissident for 6 years – 07 January 2009

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – One of Sri Lanka’s most prominent newspaper editors, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead on Sunday.  The death of Lasantha Wickramatunga demonstrates the Sri Lankan government’s failure to investigate these murders and protect these journalists, urge several human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders.

“Sri Lanka prides itself as a functioning democracy. Yet media freedom, a vital pillar of democracy, has increasingly come under attack,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should not take its recent military victories as a signal that it can stifle dissent.”

Wickramatunga was editor and senior journalist of the Sunday Leader. He was shot on his way to work in Colombo by two unidentified men on motorcycles.  He was rushed to the hospital where he died shortly thereafter.

Wickramatunga was known notably for his in-depth investigations into corruption of the government.  He was often a target of threats and lawsuits for libel.

“Mr Wickramatunga’s death is a serious blow for press freedom because he was one of the few reporters in the country who could write authoritatively about the government and Tamil Tigers’ conduct of a brutal war which has claimed thousands of lives over the years but has been consistently under-reported by much of the world’s media,” said Priyath Liyanage, editor of the BBC’s Sinhala service.

Human rights organizations blame the government directly for the deaths of journalists and repression of speech.

“Sri Lanka has lost one of its more talented, courageous and iconoclastic journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said. “President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his associates and the government media are directly to blame because they incited hatred against him and allowed an outrageous level of impunity to develop as regards violence against the press. Sri Lanka’s image is badly sullied by this murder, which is an absolute scandal and must not go unpunished.”

According to Reporters Without Borders’ 2008 press freedom index, Sri Lanka was ranked 165th out of 173 countries. This was the lowest ranking of any democratic country.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Grievous Blow to Sri Lankan Media – 8 January 2009

Human Rights Watch – Sri Lanka:  Attacks Highlight Threat to Media – 8 January 2009

Reporters Without Borders – Outrage at Fatal Shooting of Newspaper in Colombo – 8 January 2009

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

TURKMENISTAN – Turkmen correspondents, Dovletmurat Yazguliev and Osman Hallyyev who report for Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), have been threatened and harassed by local intelligence officers in recent weeks.

According to RFE/RL, Yazguliez and his wife were interrogated by state authorities in a local administrative office and asked to stop working for RFE/RL last month.  If he did not quit, his family could lose their jobs or even face physical harm.

Yazguliev has worked for RFE/RL since October and despite threats and fear of imprisonment, Yazguliev still works for RFE/RL.  “I will do my utmost to continue working for democracy, for my people. I am not afraid of them,” Yazguliev told RFE/RL. “I am just concerned about the method they could use against my family members. I informed [the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] about increased surveillance of my movements a month ago; however, I haven’t heard from this organization yet.”

Hallyev, a correspondent for RFE/RL since 2006, has been under house arrest since January.  As a result of his coverage of the parliamentary elections, his phone lines have been cut and his relatives have lost their jobs.

In 2006, a similar situation occurred to Turkmen correspondent Ogulsapar Muradova who, according to Reporters Without Borders, died “from blows she received in prison while serving a six-year sentence for helping a French TV journalist to prepare a report.”

Reporters Without Borders urges the Turkmen government to protect their journalists.  “Similar situations in the past have ended tragically, so we urge President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to intervene at once,” Reporters Without Borders said. “If this has been done at the initiative of local officials, they must be brought to order. If not, we reiterate our appeal to the president to order the Turkmen security apparatus to stop treating journalists as enemies and criminals.”

For more information, please see:

EurasiaNet – Turkmenistan:  Authorities Intimidate RFERL Correspondent – 6 January 2009

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty – RFE/RL Turkmen Correspondent Threatened – 5 January 2009

Reporters Without Borders – RFE/RL Provincial Correspondents Harassed and Threatened By Intelligence Officers – 8 January 2009