By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Asia

SRINAGAR, India – Indian authorities opened fire on a crowd during a one-day strike held in protest against New Delhi controlled elections. At least 55 persons were wounded.

On Monday, the Indian Election Commission held a meeting with political parties to coordinate poll dates for Kashmir. Separatists in Kashmir have long fought for the Himalayan region’s succession, and traditionally have boycotted the polls. The shutdown was to protest the upcoming elections.

In protest over the planned elections, separatists organized a general shutdown. Shops and businesses across the region were closed. However, soon violence broke out. According to witnesses, police fired bullets and teargas shells at the crowd, who were throwing stones. Protesters also were chanting, “No election, no selection, we want freedom.”

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the main separatist alliance All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, commented, “New Delhi is pushing Kashmiris to the wall and wants to convert the ongoing peaceful agitation into a violent resistance movement so as to dub it as a terrorist movement.”

Farooq also warned that the heavy-handed response by the Indian government could incite even more violence. He said, “If India pushes us too hard to the wall, tomorrow you can’t really ignore the fact the youth might be angered and forced to resort again to arms.”

New Delhi has directly ruled the Kashmir region since early July when the local government collapsed over a Hindu land dispute, which triggered large pro-independence demonstrations.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Election Strike Cripples Indian Kashmir – 8 September 2008

Daily Times – Mirwaiz Warns India Crackdown Could Fuel Revolt – 10 September 2008

Reuters – Fifty-five Wounded in Indian Kashmir Violence – 8 September 2008

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia Desk

BEIJING, China — Local governments in northwestern China have imposed strict limits on religious practices during the traditional Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. “Faced with recent violent and disruptive activities by religious extremists, separatists and terrorists, we must… step up ideological education of religious leaders and followers,” a notice posted on Xinjiang’s Zhaosu county website said.  The rules include prohibiting mass prayers, the distribution of religious material, women from wearing veils and men from growing beards, as well as barring government officials from observing Ramadan.

Police are checking the identities of those who have beards or mustaches, and women who cover their faces, according to an officer who answered the phone at the Charbagh village police station, in Lop county, Hotan prefecture.  “We uncover the faces of veiled women by force if necessary,” he said. “We also arrest anyone teaching religion to children illegally,” he said, adding that police were also helping to enforce a ban on Muslim restaurant closures during Ramadan.  County rules also required companies and families that have workers or visitors from outside the county to register the outsiders with the nearest police station, and to sign an agreement “on maintaining social stability.”

Xinjiang is a vast desert region bordering Central Asia that is home to 8.3 million Uighurs, many of whom say they have suffered decades of political and religious repression under Chinese rule. Last month, a series of attacks on police in Xinjiang resulted 20 officers and security guards dead, and at least as many attackers killed or arrested.  The limits on religious practices put in place by local governments appear to be a part of the broader security crackdown.  It was unclear whether the rules would be relaxed after Ramadan.

For more information, please see:

AFP – China imposes Ramadan security crackdown in Muslim northwest – 05 September 2008

Economist – A crackdown in China’s wild West, its Muslim-majority chunk of Central Asia – 04 September 2008

Radio Free Asia – Ramadan Curbs on China’s Muslims – 06 September 2008

New York Times – Ramadan Curbs Imposed in China – 08 September 2008

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PAKISTAN – Post September 11, 2001, Pakistan joined U.S. efforts in the War on Terror by using the practice of enforced disappearances.  The Pakistani government has repeatedly denied reports of abducting hundreds of its own citizens who are suspected of terrorist activity.  Suspects are detained and held in secret facilities, secluded from the law and the outside world, and most are subjected to torture.   Pakistani organizations report that at least 563 cases of disappeared persons.

Saturday, August 30, 2008 marked the 25th International Day of the Disappeared when protesters demonstrated outside of the Pakistani High Commission in London.  Among them is Amina Janjua, founder of Pakistani Defence of Human Rights, an organization campaigning for the release of the disappeared.  Janjua’s husband, Masood Janjua, had disappeared nearly three years ago.  He was apprehended in Pakistan while traveling by bus.  Janjua was joined by Amnesty International activists; they were all chanting, “Justice now for the disappeared.”

The memorialized day also marks the start of Janjua’s international tour.  Janjua will head to Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States in order to raise global awareness and for other governments to investigate the disappearances and put pressure on the Pakistani government.

In Amensty International’s report, Denying the Undeniable, affidavits and testimonies confirm the arbitrary detention of terrorist suspects, despite Pakistan’s denials.  Evidence also shows how government officials obstruct attempts to trace them.  The report also calls upon other governments to ensure that they do not participate in, nor tolerate, this practice; there have been testimony by victims stating that they have been interrogated by foreign intelligence agents.  Moreover, Amnesty International insists that Pakistan’s new government reinstate those judges, who were removed for their meddling in the disappearances since December 2007 by President Musharraf, so that cases can be investigated more thoroughly.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International – Protest Launches Tour Against Enforced Disappearance in Pakistan – 2 September 2008

Amnesty International – Denying the Undeniable:  Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan – 23 July 2008

Reuters – Pakistan’s New Government Must Reveal Truth About Enforced Disappearances, Urges Amnesty International In a New Report – 22 July 2008

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

CHHATTISGARH, India – For the past two decades, Maoist guerrillas have run a parallel government in the region of Bijapur and Dantewada.  The Maoists strive to liberate the red zone, the area of southern India to the border of Nepal.  In 2005, Salwa Judum, a civilian resistance emerged which later gained the support of the Indian government.  As a result of this conflict, 436 people including 200 policemen died in 2007.

Currently, all parties to the Chhattisgarh conflict are recruiting child soldiers to their ranks.  The Naxalites, a Maoist rebel group, admit that they have recruited children as young as 12 years old to “gather intelligence, for sentry duty, to make and plant landmines and bombs, and to engage in hostilities against government forces.”  Salwa Judum have used children in village attacks.  Chhattisgarh state police also concede to employing children under the age of 18 to serve as special police officers who participate in government security forces.  Eyewitnesses have seen children dressed in police uniforms armed with rifles.

Human Rights Watch children’s rights advocate Jo Becker states, “A particular horror of the Chhattisgarh conflict is that children are participating in the violence.  It’s shameful that both India’s government and the Naxalites are exploiting children in such a dangerous fashion.”

The conflict has not only placed children at the forefront of violence, but has also affected the children’s education.  Children are removed from school or are abducted for recruitment.  Children have dropped out of school in fear of being abducted.  School buildings have been destroyed due to acts of terror or hostilities with the Naxalites.  Many have fled to outside the region or the country itself but the language barrier of a foreign nation has prevented children from attending.

India is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child’s optional protocal on the involvement of children in armed conflict. Pursuant to the protocol, 18 years old is the minimum age for participation in hostilities, for government forces and non-state armed groups. In cases such as this, the protocol advises the Indian government to assist in the rehabilitation of children who have been recruited and used in armed forces in violation of international law.   However, the state government have yet to take action.

For Human Rights Watch’s report on the use of children by all parties in the conflict, click here.

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – India:  All Sides Using Children in Chhattisgarh Conflict – 5 September 2008

India eNews – Maoists Forcibly Recruiting Child Soldiers in Chhattisgarh – 2 September 2008

The Times of India – Maoists Training Children as Guerillas – 17 August 2008

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Human Rights Watch said that despite recent positive steps taken by the Chinese government, discrimination against persons with disabilities continues in China.  Human Rights Watch applauded the Chinese government’s enactment of a variety of new laws including the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons, Regulations on the Education of Persons with Disabilities, and the Regulations on Employment of Persons with Disabilities, which on paper provide impressive protections of the rights of China’s estimated 82.7 million persons with disabilities.  However, these protections have meant little to persons with disabilities and their advocates in China who struggle to promote their rights and, in particular, to fairly compete for employment, said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.

According to a 20087 survey conducted by the China University of Political Science and Law, 22 percent of the 3,454 respondents in10 major cities said their physical disabilities had prompted employers in both the public and private sectors to reject them for jobs.  Official statistics show that the number of employable people with disabilities did not have jobs rises by 300,000 per year since 2007. Although the government has imposed a mandatory quota requiring that people with disabilities comprise a minimum of 1.5 percent of all employees of government departments, enterprises, and institutions, there is little evidence of official efforts to enforce that quota.

Furthermore, 200 million migrant workers in China are still facing employment discrimination and services for them are not in place.  “Migrant workers have lower pay and worse welfare than urban workers,” said Li Zhuobin, a member of the Standing Committee of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at a meeting on balanced development between urban and rural areas.  He purposed the Chinese government to implement the salary deposit rule in a variety of industries.  The salary deposit rule requires employers to deposit a certain amount of money in a special labor department bank account. The money is used to pay migrant workers whose employers don’t pay them. The rule has been implemented in the construction industry.  Li also suggested that preferential policies to promote employment should cover both urban and rural residents and local governments should continue lifting discrimination rules against migrant workers.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Beijing makes big efforts to help disabled, but hurdles remain – 04 September 2008

Human Rights Watch – China: As Paralympics Launch, Disabled Face Discrimination – 05 September 2008

XinHua – Chinese advisor urges ending discrimination against migrant workers – 02 September 2008