By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand – Thai officials have pledged to investigate the death of Yapa Kaseng, a Muslim prayer leader. He was arrested on March 19^th for his alleged involvement in bomb attacks by insurgents. According to his relatives, his body showed signs of torture. Yapa Kaseng’s body as covered with bruises and burn marks, and his ribs appeared fractured.

Army Chief General Anupong Phaochinda announced that a special committee would investigate the death and punish guilty parties. However, Human Rights Watch [HRW] is deeply concerned that the pledge is insincere because Yapa Kaseng’s family has been pressured to remain silent and not pursue a lawsuit.

In interviews with HRW, other Muslims said they have been tortured by interrogators after being arrested. The most common forms of torture were ear-slapping, punching, kicking, beating with wooden and metal clubs, forced nudity, exposure to cold temperatures, electric shocks, strangulation, and suffocation with plastic bags.

In response to the torture allegations, Army spokesman Colonel Acra Tiproch said only “a small faction” of Muslim detainees had been abused and then only because they “provoked” interrogators as a ploy to demonize the Buddhist state and its troops. He continued, “Some of these suspects are well-educated and they know well how to make junior interrogators lose their patience and start beating them.”

Thailand annexed the three southern provinces in 1902, and then tensions began to erupt between the region’s largely Muslim population and the largely Buddhist country of Thailand. A separatist campaign started in the 1970’s.

The separatist campaign erupted again in 2004 after a decade of peace. Muslim separatists have become increasingly angry with the Thai government because it began to impose assimilation policies in the region, which included adopting Thai names, giving up religious and cultural customs, and ending education in the Malayu language. Thus far, the conflict has caused about 3,000 deaths in the last 50 months, according to the Bangkok Post.

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – Thailand: Iman’s Killing Highlights Army Abuse in South– 26 March 2008

Inter Press Service – Thailand: Islamic Teachers Blamed for Violent Separatism –24 March 2008

Reuters – Detained Muslims Tortured by Thai Army: Rights Body – 26 March 2008

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – After the mid-March violence and a subsequent government crackdown, the Chinese government invited international journalists to tour Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The reporters, from 19 media organizations including the U.S. Associated Press, Britain’s Financial Times and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, toured the Tibetan capital on a three-day trip press junket in Lhasa.  The purpose of the tour is to show foreign reporters the city is calm after recent anti-China protests, and to help sway international opinion on China’s crackdown and arrests in the aftermath of the riots.  It is first time foreign reporters had been allowed into Tibet since the unrest began two weeks ago.

According to the schedule, the reporters first went to a Tibetan medical clinic that had been attacked in the riot near the Jokhang Temple square in downtown Lhasa.  They were also shown the Yishion clothing store where five girls had been trapped and burned to death in an arson attack by the rioters, the torched buildings of the Lhasa No. 2 Middle School, and a smashed Bank of China outlet.  The reporters also allowed to visit local markets, shopping centers, the city’s relief station and interview government officials and injured police, said the Chinese information office official.

However, the tour at the sacred Jokhang Temple, one of Tibet’s holiest shrines, was disrupted by outburst of a group of 30 monks in red robes shouting there was no religious freedom, and the Dalai Lama had been wrongly accused by China of responsibility for the rioting.  “Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free!” yelled one young Buddhist monk, who then started crying, said an Associated Press correspondent in the tour.  Some journalists even said a monk complained that the government had planted fake monks in the monastery to talk to the media.

Government handlers shouted for the journalists to leave and tried to pull them away during the protest.  The protesting monks appeared to go back to their living quarters. There was no way of knowing immediately what happened to them.  Later, People’s Armed Police sealed off the area around Jokhang.  The only people allowed to enter are those who live in the narrow lines around the temple.

When some reporters attempted to break away from the group, Chinese officials followed them throughout Tibet.  Only furtive conversations with Tibetans were possible.  But the reporters were kept away from any potential hotspots, including the Ramoche monastery, where the violence started on March 14.

For more information, please see:

AP – Tibet Monks Disrupt Tour by Journalists – 27 March 2008

CNN – Monks protest upstages China’s PR tour – 27 March 2008

New York Times – Monks Protest During Press Tour of China – 27 March 2008

Wall Street Journal – Tour of Lhasa Shows, Wide Scope of Unrest – 27 March 2008

XinHua – Overseas journalists’ Lhasa tour interrupted, resumes soon – 28 March 2008

ASTANA, Kazakhstan – The Kazakh government has formed a working group to fully develop a National Action Plan on human rights for 2008-2011, and it met for the first time today.  The group will consist of rights experts from government and public human rights institutes across the country.

According to Yerlan Karin, the head Internal policy department of the Presidential Administration, “Kazakhstan has ratified a number of international documents in the sphere of human rights. Several international regulatory acts are planned to be ratified as well. The work of the state bodies in this direction is among priority ones in the activity of all state bodies.”

Kazakhstan’s human rights record has been in the spotlight often, especially since the country was named chair-in-office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in November 2007.  Many human rights organizations criticized the appointment, claiming that it undermined the integrity of the OSCE’s human rights principles because Kazakhstan does not meet its own human rights obligations.  Some of the criticisms state that Kazakhstan has not held a fair election, its media is dominated by loyalists, and libel is still a criminal defense often used against independent journalists.

The Kazakh government states that it has been attempting to make changes, but human rights critics claim that they do not see results and they watch the country closely.  For that reason, the National Action Plan developed by today’s working group will likely be widely critiqued and regularly monitored.

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – Kazakhstan: OSCE Chairmanship Undeserved – 30 November 2007

Kazinform – National Action Plan in the field of human rights for 2008-2011 discussed in Astana – 26 March 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan children fleeing their war-torn home country are facing danger as they make their way through Iran and Eastern European countries.  Many of these children’s parents have paid smugglers to bring them to a safe country, and as they travel alone they are being preyed upon by traffickers.

This is particularly a problem in the port city of Petras, Greece, where many of these children are camped hoping to sneak on to ferries going to Western Europe.  Recently, police in Petras raided one of these camps; the children living there scattered across the city, causing them to become even more vulnerable to trafficking.  The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees has called the situation in Petras a “humanitarian crisis” and the UN office in Greece has asked for immediate support for the children.  Authorities in Petras refuse to offer assistance to the children because they fear that the city will become an even larger magnet for refugees.

The Afghan government has been criticized recently for its inability to address human rights in its country.  Because it cannot protect these children in Afghanistan, they are fleeing to other countries and facing many dangers along the way.

For more information, please see:

Impunity Watch – Impunity in Afghanistan: UN Statement – 19 March 2008

International Herald Tribune – Afghanistan’s youngest migrants adrift on the road to asylum – 24 March 2008

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KATHMANDU, Nepal – UN officials reports Nepalese police stopped two separate protests by Tibetan exiles and monks in Katmandu, and arrested 475 protesters on Monday as they gathered to protest the recent crackdown on Tibetans in China.  The UN human rights office in Nepal said the arrested included some prominent Nepali human rights activists who joined the protests.

Chanting “China, stop killings in Tibet. UN, we want justice,” the protesters were marching toward the UN offices when police stopped them and snatched their banners.  The protest in Katmandu by 200 Tibetan refugees and monks was broken up by police, who beat them with bamboo sticks and arrested scores, dragging them to trucks and vans to be taken to police stations. Police official Sarad Karki said about 245 demonstrators were arrested in the protest.

Police also stopped a second protest near Singhadurbar, where the prime minister’s office and all government ministries are located, but less force was used.  Police official Sarvendra Khanal said 155 protesters were arrested there.

The UN human rights office said it was deeply concerned at the arbitrary arrests and detentions of several hundred individuals. “These actions by police violate individuals’ basic rights to freedom from arbitrary detention and freedom of movement, in addition to impairing the individuals’ rights to peaceful assembly and expression,” the UN said in a statement.

The Nepali government denied it was using excessive force, saying it was only trying to stop political activities by Tibetans.  “We will not allow any anti-China activities in Nepal and will stop it. The allegations that excessive force was used to break these protests are baseless,” said Modraj Dotel, Nepal’s home ministry spokesman.

For more information, please see:

AP – Nepal Police Arrest Tibetan Protesters – 24 March 2008

CBC News – 400 Tibetan supporters arrested in Kathmandu – 24 March 2008

FOX News – Nepalese Police Beat Back Monks, Refugees in Tibetan Protest; About 475 Arrested – 24 March 2008

Reuters – Tibetans protest in Nepal, 250 detained – 24 March 2008