By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

New Delhi, India –According to a study of air quality conducted by the World Health Organization in 2014, New Delhi, The capital of the world’s second most populous country, was found to be the most polluted city on earth. According to the study, New Delhi was found to have the highest levels of particulate matter or PM 2.5, which refers to small solid or liquid particles floating in the ambient air that are known to be harmful to human health. New Delhi’s average PM2.5 level was 153, compared to 14 in New York City and 56 in Beijing, the city that has become famous around the globe for high pollution levels. The WHO’s safety threshold for humans is 10. High levels of particulate pollution are extremely hazardous to human health. The pollution problem in India is not limited to the nation’s capital. India is home to 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world and air-pollution related deaths have become the fifth largest killer in the country.

Delhi’s air is consistently more toxic than that in Beijing, rigorous statistical comparison of two years’ worth of data from both cities has demonstrated. According to US air quality standards, the air quality in the Indian capital was considered healthy for only 7 out of 730 days. Professor Douw Steyn of the University of British Columbia, an air pollution expert who performed the analysis of New Delhi air said the city’s air was considered health less than 1% of the time.

The data shows that in New Delhi, PM 2.5 levels are above the “hazardous” level 17% of the time, or nearly one out of every five. At these levels, according to the US definition, “everyone may experience serious health effects”. Steyn argued “the cost of pollution reduction is far smaller than the costs of pollution damage and simple technological solutions are easily available. What is needed is political will, which can only come from an informed and engaged population.”

Kamal Meattle, a Delhi-based air pollution activist says the government must do more to respond to the pollution crisis in India’s cities and beyond. “I think the first people to be convinced are the politicians, the bureaucrats and the judges … people who really matter in the sense that they understand the problem is going to create a major health issue and major costs,” he said. India’s newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched a national Air Quality Index (AQI) to monitor pollution levels in major urban cities on a real-time basis. AQI data is currently available in 10 cities across the country including New Delhi. Air pollution in India is a reminder of the high costs of economic development and globalization, especially when industry is left unregulated. Urbanization is also a massive problem in India and a challenge to environmental regulators as the country’s poor continue to move into large, overcrowded urban areas in search of work.

For more information please see:

Hindustan Times – Beijing better than Delhi: Only 7 days of good air in national capital in 2 years – 22 April 2015

BBC News – Breathing poison in the world’s most polluted city – 18 April 2015

The Weather Network – New Delhi has the world’s worst air pollution – 14 April 2015

CNN Money – This Indian city has the world’s worst air – 13 April 2015

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

SRINAGAR, Kashmir – Police in India-administered Kashmir reprovingly shot and killed a 16-year-old boy on Saturday during a demonstration on the outskirts of the city of Srinagar, the regions summer capital, as a separatist strike shut down the region for a second second day of violent clashes between Kashmiri separatist and Indian officials. The young boy’s uncle claims his nephew was detained by Indian police before he was shot and killed at point-blank range; Indian officials say they are investigating the allegations.

Indian police reported that they had arrested two officers accused of being involved in the shooting a few hours after the incident. Witnesses say three others were injured during clashes with police. In a police statement Indian Police expressed concerns over the killing of the young protester saying; “regret the unfortunate incident.” the statement added that “a preliminary inquiry conducted into the matter indicates that the forces deployed have acted in violation of the laid-down SOP (Standard Operating Procedure).”

The demonstrators erupted in response to India’s apparent crackdown on separatists leadership within occupied Kashmir. The police killing occurred after protests erupted the day before after Friday prayers. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds of protesters on Friday as demonstrators threw rocks at police and changed anti-Indian and pro-Pakistan slogans, Indian officials said. Earlier, Indian Police arrested Masarat Alam, a top Kashmiri separatist leader for allegedly leading an anti-India demonstration earlier in the week. Alam was placed under house arrest on Thursday night and then formally arrested Friday. His arrested came just weeks after he was released from prison after serving an five yer term for organizing anti-Indian protests in 2010. During the clashes on Friday, 30 people, mainly police officers, were injured as pro-Pakistani demonstrators in the city of Srinagar set fire to an Indian flag and threw rocks at police while protesting the arrest of Masarat Alam.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesperson Tasnim Aslam addressed the violence in Kashmir saying; “brutality and coercion will not suppress aspirations and struggle of Kashmiris of their right to self-determination, promised by the United Nations Security Council resolutions,” she said. “Pakistan is deeply concerned at increase in systematic human rights violations in Indian occupied Kashmir and condemns brutal use of force by Indian security forces.”

Anti-Indian sentiment runs deep within the Indian administrated region of Kashmir. The Himalayan territory is dived by the Line of Control which separates the Pakistan-administered region from the Indian-Administrated region divining families and communities with shared cultural heritage between the two states. A number of militant organizations have operated in the Indian-administered region of Kashmir since the insurgency began in 1989, an estimated 68,000 people have killed in the fighting.

For more information please see:

The Express Tribune – Police Shoot 16-Year-Old Protester Dead in Indian Kashmir – 18 April 2015

The New York Times – One Killed in Kashmir Valley Protest – 18 April 2015

The Times of India – Jammu & Kashmir Police Accept Lapses in Narbal firing that Killed a Teenager – 18 April 2015

Reuters – Violent Clashes Erupt in Kashmir Over Arrest of Separatist Leaders – 17 April 2015

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

PYONGYANG, North Korea – The United Nations has called $111 million in aid to fund crucial humanitarian needs in the country. The United Nations estimates that about 70% of the North Korean people are food insecure and one third of children under the age of five years old are stunted. North Korea “is both a silent and under-funded humanitarian situation,” Ghulam Isaczai, the United Nations resident coordinator for North Korea, said in a statement released last Wednesday. “Protracted and serious needs for millions of people are persistent and require sustained funding.” The call for additional funding comes as the North Korean regime cracks down on foreign aid organizations operating inside the secretive state. On Wednesday, the reclusive State’s propaganda news service announced the deportation of aid worker Sandra Suh, a United States citizen, accusing her of engaging in acts of propaganda against the state. It was the second deportation of an aid worker in less than two months after a German aid organization announced one of its workers was expelled in February.

The Korean Central News Agency claimed Suh had “engaged in anti-DPRK propaganda abroad with photos and videos about the DPRK she secretly produced and directed, out of inveterate repugnancy toward the DPRK.” Timothy Park, who accompanied Suh to North Korea, said the allegations were without basis. Suh has been named in the media as the founder of Los Angeles-based Wheat Mission Ministries.

Despite the regimes apparent crackdown on foreign aid workers the North Korean people remain desperate for humanitarian aid as the state continues to fail to meet their basic needs. According to the United Nations latest report on North Korea, Children in rural areas and those in institutions such as nurseries, kindergartens and orphanages have little access to water and sanitation contributing to the spread of waterborne diseases. About 25 percent of North Korea’s 24.62 million people still have no access to essential health services.

According to the economist Marcus Noland, North Korea could close the food gap and end food insecurity in the country with less than two-tenths of one percent of national income or one percent of the regimes military budget. The Kim Jong-un regime is known to be spending six times that of the United Nations latest appeal for aid to North Korea on luxury goods as North Korea’s elite regime insiders continue live in obscene wealth while most people go hungry.

For more information please see:

Deutsche Welle – Expulsions Hinder Foreign NGO Activities in North Korea – 13 April 2015

The Diplomat – North Korea Clamps Down On Foreign Aid Groups – 13 April 2015

Reuters – U.N. Calls For $111 Million for Crucial Aid for North Kore – 9 April 2015

The Wall Street Journal – North Korea Deports U.S. Aid Worker – 8 April 2015

Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

YANGON, Burma – Myanmar’s Military police reportedly beat several protesters supporting the Burmese student movement with batons and detained at least eight demonstrators on Thursday. The police were attempting to black student protesters from marching into Burma’s largest city, Yangon (formally Rangoon) the commercial hub of the country and former capital. About 200 student demonstrators have been in a standstill with police outside of a Buddhist monastery in Letpadan, about 140 km (90 miles) north of Yangon. The demonstrators are protesting an education bill that they argue would stifle academic freedom.

Myanmar’s government has barred the student protesters from entering the city of Yangon which has long been a site of anti-government protest. The city is the birthplace of the 1988 protests that sparked the pro-democracy movement that eventually led to the victor of Aung Sun Su Ki in democratic elections which was not recognized by the military regime. The 1988 protests quickly spread across the country, sparking a call for democratization that nearly toppled the military dictatorship.

Thursday’s arrests symbolized a rise in tension between the government and students who have been demonstrating across the country, which is officially undergoing a period of democratic reforms, for two months. Dozens of demonstrators, including members of ’88 Generation who led the 1988 protests, assembled near the golden Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon to show solidarity with students in Letpadan. Of the eight people arrested on Thursday three are members of the ’88 Generation reported Na Lynn, a student leader who spoke on the phone to one of the detainees. Among those detained was prominent ’88 Generation member Nilar Thein. “Some of them, including Nilar Thein, were beaten in the commotion,” said her husband Ko Jimmy, who is also a member of the organization.

Evidence is also mounting that Myanmar police continue to crack down on attempts to organize labor and pro-labor demonstrations in the country. On Thursday police reported they detained more than a dozen factory workers, who were demanding higher wages and better working conditions, in a protest that outside of Yangon. The arrests occurred after about 100 workers tried to march from their factor into the city of Yangon on Wednesday but were blacked by the military police. Many of the workers staged a sit-in in response to the police action but were dragged away by police.

While the Myanmar Ministry of Information reported Thursday that 13 workers, many of them women, had been arrested. Protesters reported that the number was actually much higher. Two journalists were also briefly detained by the police.

The workers have been protesting since last month demanding improved working conditions and higher wages, but a settlement has not been reached between labor and the factor owners.

The recent wave of protests and government crackdowns demonstrates the fragility of democratic reforms which began four years ago in Myanmar. While the reforms have introduced new freedoms in the country the government struggles to recognize and respect the newly protected freedom of expression and political activism in a country that struggles to hold on to military rule.

For more information please see:

ABC News – Myanmar Police Drag Away Protesting Factory Workers – 5 March 2015

BBC News – Myanmar Police Arrest Demonstrators Against New Education Bill – 5 March 2015

Reuters – Baton-Wielding Myanmar Police Force Pro-Student Protesters To Flee – 5 March 2015

Salt Lake Tribune – Myanmar Police Drag Away Factory Workers – 5 March 2015