BAGRAM, Afghanistan – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced this week that it disapproves of the way the United States runs its prison at the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, and urged for reforms.

Over 600 prisoners are held at Bagram, and the US military does not reveal who is held there or why.  Family and other public visitors are not allowed, including journalists.

The ICRC, however, has visited Bagram 120 times.  This recent announcement was made after the ICRC President, Jakob Kellenberger, visited last week.

Kellenberger commended the US for following some of the ICRC’s past recommendations, such as allowing video-conference communication between prisoners and their families.  He also appreciated the founding of new “enemy combatant review boards” that will examine Afghan detainees’ cases every six months and determine whether they can be released.

Nevertheless, he urged for further reforms to expand prisoner rights and allow them to introduce outside testimony:  “This [enemy combatant review board] should also get evidence from the persons outside, … evidence which can speak in favor of those who are detained … Evidence of people who know them, so that this evidence is brought into the process.”

Over the past five years, the US has been criticized for holding prisoners in places like Bagram without charge.

Kellenberger emphasized that the prisoners in Bagram “do not know what the future brings, how long will they be there and under which conditions will they be released.”

For more information, please see:

Associated Press – Red Cross: Change Needed at US Prison – 15 April 2008

The Jurist – Red Cross chief urges US military to allow outside evidence in Afghan detainee hearings – 14 April 2008

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

A new study that concerns treatments of North Korean refugees after they are forcibly returned from China to North Korea puts pressure on the Chinese government to stop repatriating North Korean refugees. Tens of thousands of North Koreans are thought to have crossed into China, propelled by hardship or persecution. China treats them as economic migrants and sends them back.

The 48-page report is titled “A Prison Without Bars.” The chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Michael Cromartie, says the report is based on interviews with 32 refugees who fled North Korea for China from 2003 to 2007 and with six former North Korean security agents who defected to South Korea during the past eight years.  He called on countries to press the Chinese government to stop sending North Korean refugees back to their homeland and provide increased protections as required by international protocols.

The report said that repatriated North Korean refugees were often subjected to harsh interrogation, torture and long detentions without trial if found to have converted to Christianity or had contact with South Korean Christians or churches while in China. Former North Korean security agents told the commission that authorities set up mock prayer meetings to entrap new converts in North Korea and train staff in Christian practices for the purposes of infiltrating churches in China.

Refugees said that merely owning a Bible could lead to arrests, disappearances and even deaths of those repatriated.  “Its up to the condition of the guards. Because killing a prisoner will do no harm for them,” one interviewee said.  Another refugee, claimed that “a person was shot to death” on a riverside in Hoeryeong, a North Korea city along the border with China, for accepting a Bible from South Korean priests.  According to the report, the treatment was part of Pyongyang’s efforts to prevent the spread of religion.

For more information, please see:

AFP – China slammed over “grave” crisis facing NKorean refugees – 16 April 2008

BBC – China ‘must not return N Koreans’ – 16 April 2008

Chosun News – U.S. Report Hits North Korea On Religious Rights – 16 April 2008

International Herald Tribune – U.S. congressional report finds abuse of returned North Korean refugees – 15 April 2008

Reuters – U.S. panel urges China not to repatriate North Koreans – 15 April 2008

Washington Post – NKoreans with religious ties face peril – 15 April 2008

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – According to rights group Human Rights Defenders Initiative, Uzbek dissident Yusuf Juma has been sentenced to five years forced labor for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer (see prior Impunity Watch article here).  He was charged with the crimes in December after conducting a protest against Islam Karimov’s third bid for president.  While being held prior to trial, his family claims that he was tortured.

His son Bobur, who had also been arrested during the protest, was given a suspended sentence of three years after admitting to the charges.  A family member said that Bobur only confessed after being beaten, and after authorities told him that without his confession, his father would be sentenced to 20 years.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Uzbek poet ‘sentenced over demo’ – 15 April 2008

Impunity Watch – BRIEF: Family of Uzbek Critic Say He Is Being Tortured by Government – 12 April 2008

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar’s main opposition party, National League for Democracy (NLD) called on international observers to take part in the country’s referendum on a new constitution.  The NLD statement said the military government is allowed to campaign openly and without restriction in favor of the proposed constitution, while people campaigning against a new, military-backed charter were being assaulted and their materials seized.

“Local authorities are committing acts of suppression by trying to seize documents of the NLD and detain or interrogate township organizers,” NLD said a day after the junta-drafted charter was made public.  NLD spokesman Nyan Win told Reuters at least three NLD were attacked by unknown assailants as they campaigned against the constitution in Yangon.

Myanmar Information Minister Kyaw Hsaw promised last month the vote would be “free and fair”, but he bluntly rejected offers of U.N. technical assistance and monitors.  Pinheiro, a U.N. special reporter on Myanmar called Myanmar’s plans for constitutional referendum as “surreal”,  He also said he saw no credible moves towards political transition in the military-ruled country while the government continues detaining and repressing people who are trying to do some campaigning for a ‘no’ in the referendum.”  He also said the constitutional process could not be considered democratic given that all delegates of the constitutional assembly had been picked by the government.

The junta, who has tighten its control over Myanmar’s media, has urged the country’s 53 million people to back the charter, which is a key step in the military’s seven-point “road map to democracy” that is meant to culminate in multiparty elections in 2010.

For more information, please see:

International Herald Tribune – Myanmar pro-democracy party calls for international observers at constitution vote – 10 April 2008

Reuters – Myanmar crackdown on “no” campaign begins: opposition – 10 April 2008

Reuters – U.N. rights expert calls Myanmar vote plan “surreal” – 14 April 2008

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – Yusuf Juma, an outspoken Uzbek critic and poet, and his two sons Bobur, 25, and Mashrab, 22, have been jailed since December for minor offenses, and according to their family they have been tortured while in prison.

Yusuf and Bobur were arrested after conducting a protest against President Islam Karimov in December before the election.  They called for a boycott of the election and the resignation of Karimov from the Presidential race.  Karimov was running for his third term as President, which violated a constitutional ban on a President serving more than two terms.  They were arrested and charged with battery, the use of insulting language, and resisting arrest.

Mashrab was arrested in a separate incident and charged with hooliganism, a charge believed to have been brought in an attempt to silence Yusuf.

Relatives who have visited the prisoners say that they have been under strong psychological and physical pressure.  The sons have been forced to watch each other being beaten, and Yusuf was so weak that he was unrecognizable.

Proceedings against Yusuf and Bobur opened on April 8th, but were adjourned to next week.  They face five years in jail if convicted.

Given the start of their trial, the European Union (EU) has been under great pressure to enforce their Central Asia strategy, which they adopted last June.  Critics say that the EU has not fully implemented the human-rights aspects of the strategy against countries like Uzbekistan, including the creation of human-rights benchmarks and the use of sanctions.  The EU is scheduled to review its policy specific to Uzbekistan at the end of April.

For more information, please see:

RadioFreeEurope – Uzbekistan: Family Says Jailed Poet, Sons Are Being Tortured – 11 April 2008