By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – According a Chinese official newspaper, the Procuratorial Daily, authorities in Xinjiang province arrested nearly 1,300 people and indicted 1,154 of them in last year.  These people were indicted of “endangering state security”. The indictment applies to alleged subversion or “splittism”, as well as to offences such as espionage, and it can carry the death penalty.  The newspaper said that is an extraordinary increase in the arrests on the particular charge compared with the number in 2007.  The number is drawing scrutiny from human rights groups.

The government statistics show that in 2007, the number of people arrested across China on suspicion of endangering state security was 742, and 619 of them were indicted.  Of those total numbers, about half were from Xinjiang, said Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch, citing statistics from the Xinjiang Yearbook, a government publication of regional statistics.

“If this is confirmed, this is very alarming because it reflects that the threshold of what constitutes a state security crime was considerably lowered last year, in line with the campaign,” Bequelin said.  Last year, the authorities in Xinjiang announced a campaign against political crimes and terrorism before the Beijing Olympics. Bequelin added that the antiseparatist campaign weighed heavy on Uighurs. “It’s not a yellow line that you should not cross … they have to positively demonstrate their opposition to separatism; they have to say so publicly in meetings and study sessions.”

According to Bequelin, the Chinese government maintains strict control over the practice of Islam in Xinjiang. For example, government workers are not allowed to worship at mosques, and the private teaching of the Koran and other religious material is forbidden. According to the law, these practices are not the crime of endangering state security.

For more information, please see:

International Herald Tribune – Arrests increased in Muslim region of China – 05 January 2009

Market Watch – Arrests rise in China’s Muslim region – 05 January 2009

New York Times – Arrests Increased in Chinese Region – 05 January 2009

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Police detained a group of parents whose children fell ill from drinking tainted milk in China.  They apparently were trying to block the parents from holding a news conference, according to one of the fathers.  The parents’ news conference was called off after police picked up one of the organizers, Zhao Lianhai, said Li Fangping, a lawyer for some of the parents. “The purpose was to prevent the parents from holding a news conference,” Li Fangping said, adding that 10 parents had planned to participate. The parents were unhappy about a compensation plan made public this week, saying the amounts were too low and the plan was formulated without any input from families.  Under the plan, families whose children died would receive $29,000, while others would receive $4,380 for serious cases of kidney stones and $290 for less severe cases.

Mr. Zhao has a 3-year-old child who fell ill after drinking tainted milk but has since recovered.  He organized other parents and created a website about the contamination.  The website was also blocked on Friday.  It was not immediately clear why.  Mr. Zhao has been released, according to Xu Zhiyong, who is part of a legal team representing 63 families with sickened children.  Mr. Zhao said police held him at Tuanhe Farm conference centre, a compound outside of Beijing where police formerly held people who were to be sent to labor camps. “There are more than 20 police watching me here, and they are not letting me go,” Mr Zhao said.  “I protest this illegal treatment,” he added.

One of the fathers says that some parents, including himself, were also taken to a labor camp on the outskirts of Beijing.  “We are under house arrest now, and the government did not give us any reasons why they kept us here,” the father told Reuters by phone.  “The government said all the medical care is free, but when it comes to the local level, things change. I have already paid more than 50,000 yuan ($7,300) for the operation and cure,” said the father, a migrant worker from Sichuan province.

Last year, at least six children have died from kidney stones and more than 290,000 been made ill from the melamine-contaminated milk produced by Sanlu, a Chinese dairy company. The incident caused massive recalls around the world.

For more information, please see:

AP – Parents of kids in China milk scandal released – 02 January 2009

Financial Times – China cracks down on milk scandal victims – 02 January 2009

New York Times – China: Father in Milk Case Is Detained – 02 January 2009

Reuters – Parents of China milk scandal victims detained – 02 January 2009

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PAKISTAN – In the northwest Tribal Area of Bajaur, Pakistani journalists receive threats and are subjected to violence amidst fighting between the Taliban and government forces.  A fatwa was issued against two journalists and a grenade was thrown at a press club.

The fatwa was issued by the Taliban to two journalists, Anwarullah Khan and Irfanullah Jan, accused of acting as “agents of the west.”  The fatwa was broadcasted over the radio.

The Khar Press Club building was damaged by a grenade on December 13.

Reporters Without Borders urges both the Taliban and security forces to stop the violence.  “The Tribal Areas are being steadily emptied of their journalists because of the threats and violence against them,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The Taliban groups and security forces are entirely to blame for this exodus as they display a disgraceful disregard for media freedom and safety.”

The Press Feedom Organisation also stated, “The Tribal Areas, especially Bajaur, are at the centre major international conflict but the press is in the process of disappearing there. We appeal to all parties to stop targeting journalists, who are neither the West’s agents nor Taliban supporters but just media professionals and nothing else.”

Many journalists in the Tribal Area of Bajaur have fled or are in hiding.  Only a handful continue to work.

One journalists anonymously said, “I cannot leave my home for fear of being kidnapped or killed. I am cut off from the world.”

In addition, these journalists are forced to censor themselves.

“I report less than half of what happens in my area,” a Pakistani journalist said. “We have to censor ourselves if we want to stay alive.”

Seven journalists have been killed due to the nature of their reporting, making Pakistan second to Iraq for killings related to the media.

For more information, please see:

Committee to Protect Journalists – Two Journalists Wounded in Pakistan Shooting – 14 November 2008

Newsweek – Pakistan Journalists Come Under Attack – 4 November 2008

Reporters Without Borders – Fatwa and Violence Against Journalists in Tribal Areas – 29 December 2008

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PAKISTAN – Twenty year old reporter Javid Lehri, from Balochistan, a southwest province in Pakistan, revealed that he was tortured while imprisoned in Quetta.  Lehri was a reporter for Azadi, a Urdu language local daily newspaper.

Lehri disappeared on November 29, 2007, taken by military intelligence agents from his dormitory in the Kuzdar district.  There was no explanation for his forced disappearance.  Some claim it was for his bold reporting in criticizing the government.  Lehri was imprisoned and released nine months later in August 2008.

In an interview with the Daily Times, he revealed that in the first three days of imprisonment, Lehri was hung up by his feet and beaten.  He was then chained and tortured.  “The torture was so unbearable that I prayed for death,” he said “I hoped I could find some object in my cell that I could use to commit suicide with.”

He was then asked the meaning behind Azadi and what “liberation” they were fighting for.  Lehri said in response, “I told them that I only worked for the newspaper as a correspondent and I could not change either its name or its editorial line.  They wouldn’t believe me and continued to beat me.”

After his release this past August, Lehri suffers from depression, insomnia and digestive problems.  He also states that he receives threats.  He said, “I am still receiving threatening phone calls on my mobile phone warning me against talking about what happened to me in prison.”

Human rights groups such as the Worldwide Press Freedom Organization, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Reporters Without Borders urge the government to investigate these cases involving journalists.  “The conflict between government forces and separatist movements ravaging Baluchistan has been devastating for the region’s journalists,” said the Worldwide Press Freedom Organization.  “This arrest was in fact illegal and constitutes an offense against the rule of law.  The terrifying account given by Javid Lehri, who was kidnapped and tortured for political reasons, should prompt the central government to open an early investigation so that those guilty of these vicious acts can be punished.”

In Baluchistan, there is tension between ethnic Baluch militant groups and government forces.  As a result, journalists are often caught in the middle of the violence.

For more information, please see:

Committee to Protect Journalists – Three Reporters Missing in Pakistan’s restive Baluchistan Province – 6 March 2008

Daily Times – 3rd Journalist From Same Newspaper ‘Disappears’ – 4 March 2008

Reporters Without Borders – Balochi Journalist Reveals He Was Tortured in Prison – 24 December 2008

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – On December 31st, the Cambodian Supreme Court decided to retry two alleged killers of a prominent labor leader due to unclear evidence. The Cambodian Supreme Court reversed the convictions of a 20-year sentence upheld by the Appeals Court.

In January 2004, Chea Vichea, the leader of Cambodia’s largest labor union was shot to death in broad daylight at a Phnom Penh newsstand. Vichea is a vocal critic of the Prime Minister, Hun Sen’s government and the murder was suspected to be politically motivated.

Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun were arrested and convicted of murder just days after the killing. They were each sentenced to 20 years in prison.  International and local human rights groups criticized the speedy trial and conviction.

Supreme Court judge, Dith Monty, dismissed the conviction upheld by the Appeals Court in 2007. Dith Monty said, “The case is a criminal one which requires more investigation,” adding in order to ensure Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun’s rights were not violated, the Court had “decided to release the two suspects provisionally, but under watch of the Court.” The judge also ordered the Appeals Court to retry the case.

The two men denied any involvement in the killing. They told the Court, which was filled with diplomats, human rights activists, and journalists, that they have been framed by the police.  Heng Pov, the former chief of police in Phnom Penh and led investigator of the murder of Vichea also believed Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun’s innocence.

The UN human rights officials, the United States and relatives of the two men welcomed the Court’s decision. The Supreme Court’s decision “was greeted with a warm round of applause by the public, including the families of the defendants, as it truly deserves,” the UN rights office said in a statement. Additionally, the UN office “hopes that this decision will set the standards for the future handling of all criminal cases by Cambodian courts.”

In a statement, the United States embassy’s charge d’affaires Piper Campbell urged the Appeal Court to “take up the case expeditiously and finally resolve this matter in a way consistent with Cambodian law and international standards of due process.”

For more information, please see:

AFP – Cambodian Court Releases Alleged Killers of Union Boss – 31 December 2008

HRW – Cambodia: Supreme Court Tested by Labor Leader’s Murder Case – 27 December 2008

Phnom Penh Post – Convicted Killers of Labor Leader Released Pending Retrial – 31 December 2008