By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KABUL, Afghanistan – Melissa Fung, a 35 year old reporter for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), was released after being held hostage for nearly four weeks on Saturday.

Fung was on her way to a U.N. refugee camp in outer Kabul when she was kidnapped and forced to the western part of Afghanistan.  CBC News publisher John Cruickshank said in a statement, “She had been in a refugee camp.  She’d been doing some reporting on conditions there and on difficulties in Kabul, and essentially, as she left the camp, within a couple of blocks of a police station, they pulled up in a van, jumped out and overpowered her and took her.”

Fung was held in the region of Wardak, located 50 kilometers southwest of Kabul, and controlled by the Taliban.  Fung stated that she was held in a small “cave.”  It was so small that she could barely stand.  She said that they dug a small hole which turned into a tunnel, then opened to a room.  She said that her abductors never mistreated her except for when they chained her.  For the first three weeks of being kidnapped, they guarded her constantly, but during the last week, they chained her arms and legs and then abandoned her.

Susan Ormiston of CBC stated that they received a threatening phone call saying that Fung would be killed if a ransom was not paid or if people in police custody were harmed.  Fung was rescued by the National Directorate of Security (NDS), an Afghan intelligence agency.  NDS arrested three people who were involved in the kidnapping, but seemed to only be middle men.  The agency is still looking for others.

The identity of the kidnappers is still unknown.  Fung said the man who guarded her went by the name “Khaled.”  However, she indicated that she didn’t believe it was his real name.  Fung said, “His friends called him ‘Hezbollah.'”

Hezbollah is a radical Shia group based out of Lebanon and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.  It has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist acts, including car bombs, roadside bombs, rockets, booby-traps and suicide attacks.

Despite Fung’s successful release with the help of the Afghan government, kidnappings of Western journalists are on the rise.  Reporters Without Borders said, “We are nonetheless very worried by the recent kidnappings of journalists in Afghanistan, where the security situation has deteriorated dangerously.”

For more information, please see:

CBC News – Kidnapped CBC Journalist Chained in Tiny Chamber Before Release – 9 November 2008

CNN – Freed Canadian Reporter:  I Was Kept in a Cave – 9 November 2008

Reporters Without Borders – Canadian Reporter Freed After Being Held Hostage for 28 Days – 9 November 2008

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Maqbool Fida Husain still fears returning to his native country. Husain, 93, is the most renowned painter in India, though subject to self-imposed exile due to the “controversial” nature of his work. Most notably, he paints Hindu goddesses and in a few of his works, they are nude. This has caused anger on behalf of Hindu nationalists who attacked galleries exhibiting his work, vandalized his work and even offered an $11 million reward for his death. In response to violent threats, Husain removed himself from India and has lived in Dubai for the past two years.

There are three of Husain’s works which have caused most of the backlash from right-wing Hindus. Two are pencil drawings. One depicts Durga, the mother goddess. The other is of Saraswati, the goddess of the arts. Both portray the goddesses faceless and nude. The third, named Mother India, is a painting of a female nude, kneeling on the ground creating the shape of India. Husain believes that nudity is symbolic of purity.

In September 2008, the Supreme Court of India dismissed all charges against Husain. He was accused of obscenity, which under Indian laws, is a criminal offense. However, the Court ruled that Husain’s paintings were not obscene, in fact, nudity was common in Indian iconography. With the Court ruling, Husain looks forward to returning to India stating, “This is not a victory for me only, but one for the Indian contemporary art movement.”

Freedom of expression is one concept that has caused heated debate between democratic ideals and religious and ethnic diversity. Analysts state that most often controversy erupts as a result of politics. For example, last March, Taslima Nasreen, was forced to leave West Bengal after a Muslim political party denounced her novel. Another instance is that of political psychologist, Ashis Nandy. Nandy wrote an article criticizing the victory of Hindu nationalists in state election. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party controls the western state of Gujarat, where Nandy was subsequently charged with “promoting enmity between different groups.”

The government has responded to threats and violence by banning the works of art and literature.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Indian Painter Cleared By Court – 9 September 2008

New York Times – An Artist in Exile Tests India’s Democratic Ideals – 9 November 2008

TIME – Maqbool Fida Husain – 13 August 2007

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand – According to a statement by Vaughn Vang, Director of the Laos Human Rights Council, Inc., Laos Peoples Democratic Republic (LPDR) officials are pressuring the Thai government to repatriate all Hmong refugees and asylum seekers from Huay Nam Khao refugee camp in Thailand. Vang added many Hmong refugees that are deported from Thailand back to Laos have gone missing or are arrested in the middle of the night by LPDR authorities.

In June 2008, more than 5,000 Hmong refugees from the Huay Nam Khao refugee camp in Thailand held peaceful protests against Thai deportations of Hmong asylum seekers and refugees. Several witnesses confirmed with Human Rights Watch that Thai paramilitary forces surrounded protests with barbed wires and separated Hmong families when forcing them onto pick-up Trucks. Thai authorities moved the Hmong demonstration leaders to undisclosed locations. Additionally, Thai military and paramilitary forces arrested 873 Hmong protestors, including women and children, and forcibly deported them to Laos the next day.

Hmong refugees are prohibited to return home after they have returned to Laos after deportation. Some refugees are sent to relocations sites where they are enrolled in re-education camps. However, many human rights organizations say that Hmong refugees face arbitrary incarceration, sexual abuse, torture, and disappearances.

Bill Frelick, refugee policy director of the Human Rights Watch said, “The Laos government is notorious for treating deported Hmong harshly upon their return … By imprisoning these Hmong deportees, Laos authorities confirm the fear many Hmong asylum seekers and refugees have expressed of being persecuting if returned to their native country.”

The LPDR persecute Hmong communities because of a Hmong insurgency in the 1960s. According to several humanitarian agencies, the LPDR is responsible for sexual abuse, torture, and extrajudicial killings of Hmong civilians living in Laos suspected of being insurgents.

For more information, please see:

APF – Rights Group Says Laos Jailed Hmong Refugee Protest Leaders – 27 October 2008

HRW – Laos: Cease Arbitrary Detention of Deported Hmong – 28 October 2008

Media Newswire – Thailand’s Somchai Visits Laos Following Bloody Military, Chemical Weapons Attacks on Hmong – 3 November 2008

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

YANGON, Myanmar – Fourteen democracy advocates of the 88 Generation Students were sentenced to prison terms of 65 years each, according to regional news accounts and reports on a Web site for exiles. The activists were sentenced during a closed-door hearing in Yangon.  “Family members were not allowed to attend the hearing,” the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said in a statement.

Many of the activists were arrested during anti-junta protests last year.  The protests lead to massive pro-democracy demonstrations, which were resulted in a military crackdown by the Junta.  Amnesty International and other international human rights groups condemned the Junta’s action.  “It’s a powerful reminder that Myanmar’s military government is ignoring calls by the international community to clean up its human rights record.” Amnesty International said in a statement.

Nyunt Nyunt Oo, mother of 31-year-old Pandeik Tun, one of the 14, said her son and others were sentenced under various charges including the so-called 5/96 law declaring that anyone who demonstrates, makes speeches or writes statements undermining stability will face up to 20 years in prison. She said the other charges involved the Video Act, the Foreign Exchange act, the Electronics Act and links with illegal groups.  Oo stated she will not appeal the decision because she does not think any effort will make a difference.

On Monday, a court gave a 20-year sentence to blogger Nay Phone Latt, who was arrested in January after his blog in Myanmar was banned.  Also, a leading Myanmar poet Saw Wai, who is accused of penning a secret anti-junta message in one of his works, received two years at the same hearing, according to the spokesman Nyan Win of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.

For more information, please see:

AP – Myanmar: Long sentences for democracy advocates – 11 November 2008

AP – Relatives: Myanmar activists get long prison terms – 11 November 2008

AFP – Govt slams jailing of Myanmar activists – 11 November 2008

International Herald Tribune – Myanmar sentences 14 dissidents – 11 November 2008

Reuters – Myanmar jails dissidents for 65 years – 11 November 2008

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Fifty-five Tibetans have received prison sentences for their involvement in anti-government riots on March 14th, according to the vice chairman of the Tibet regional government, Baema Cewang. The prison sentences range from three years to life, Xinhua reported.  It did not give details of how the sentences were handed down or what sort of trial the prisoners had received, if any.

The anti-government riot, led by Buddhist monks, erupted in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on March 14th.  The protests soon turned violent, with demonstrators burning vehicles and shops, and attacking Han Chinese living and working in Lhasa.  The March riot led to a government crackdown in the region and other Tibetan areas in western China.

The report came as representatives of the Dalai Lama, Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, met with Chinese officials to discuss Tibet policies and the status of the Dalai Lama.  A senior Chinese official ruled out giving Tibet the kind of autonomy that Beijing grants Hong Kong.  Du Qinglin, head of a government department in charge of the talks, says, “It is impossible for Tibet to become independent, semi-independent, or independent in a disguised form, ” and called the Dalai Lama to face reality.

The talks failed to make any progress, according to Zhu Weiqun, executive vice minister of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.  He said the Dalai Lama side should “shoulder full responsibility for that.” Although the two sides have engaged in “frank and sincere” talks, there are still “serious divergences” of opinion, according to the Chinese government.  Mr. Zhu alleged that a memorandum presented by the Tibetans contained proposals were unacceptable, such as a plan to withdraw Chinese troops from Tibetan areas.  “It clearly shows they had not given up their dream of independence,” he said. China would not accept any mid-way such as “independence, half-independence or covert independence,” he added.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Tibetans blamed for failed talks – 10 November 2008

CNN – China sentences 55 people over Tibet riots – 05 November 2008

Guardian – China reveals fresh sentences for Tibet unrest – 05 November 2008

New York Times – China Has Sentenced 55 Over Tibet Riot in March – 05 November 2008

XinHua – China says no compromise on national sovereignty, refutes Dalai’s so-called “middle way” – 10 November 2008