By Kevin M. Mathewson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NANJING, China – A Chinese official and her husband have been detained over an attack on a nurse in Jiangsu province which left the nurse paralyzed, police and state media say.

The incident occurred when the Nanjing Stomatological Hospital arranged for a critically ill male patient to be placed in the same ward where the couple’s daughter was being cared for. After the couple unsuccessfully protested about the male patients placement, Yuan Yaping, the mother, struck a nurse on the back and shoulder with an umbrella and dragged her out of the nurse’s station.

Yuan is deputy director of the government-run Jiangsu Science and Technology Museum in Nanjing and Dong is a senior publicity official at the Jiangsu Provincial Procuratorate office. Both have been suspended by their employers following the alleged attack, media reports said.

Chen Xingyu, the 20-year-old victim remains in the hospital receiving treatment, according to authorities in Nanjing. She has been diagnosed with paralysis of the lower limbs.

“Given that Chen Xingyu has not recovered her functions after a week of medical care, we have decided to place suspect Yuan Yapin under criminal detention, in accordance with the public security bureau’s regulations for injury cases,” police said in a statement.

The case has prompted outrage in China, with the term “Nanjing nurse beaten” becoming the third-most-popular search term on Thursday.

The fact that police took more than a week to detain Yuan has especially angered observers online. Many have blamed police for yielding to the political influence of Yuan’s family and speculated they had hidden major evidence from the public.

Nanjing police later explained they were only able to detain Yuan after the seriousness of Chen’s injuries had been determined by medical experts.

Since the attack, more than 30,000 medical workers have added their names to a website calling for a harmonious relationship between patients and hospitals after the attack. Since the online signature drive was launched on February 28 it has attracted thousands of medical professionals from across the country.

China has seen an outburst of violence against medical staff in recent years and the problem of patient-doctor conflicts has drawn the attention of the central government.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – China nurse ‘paralysed by beating’ from official – 6 March 2014

South China Morning Post – Nurse paralysed as shocking hospital attack by Nanjing official is caught on camera – 6 March 2014

China Daily – Medical workers call for harmony – 6 March 2014

English News – Gov’t official couple punished over nurse’s attack – 6 March 2014

By Kevin M. Mathewson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – The US State Department has described Saturday’s knife attack which killed 29 people in China’s Kunming city as “an act of terrorism”, but the lack of firearms and explosives in the attack has left some analysts unconvinced by the explanation.

Ten attackers dressed in black converged on passengers at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming on Saturday, stabbing bystanders indiscriminately with a range of long knives, taking the lives of at least 29 people and injuring 143 more, according to state-run Xinhua News.

The statement comes after Chinese state-run media accused Washington of double standards for its initial reluctance to use the phrase.

The US Embassy in Beijing originally described the attack as “a horrific, senseless act of violence”, but on Monday US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki revised that statement and described the attack as appearing “to be an act of terrorism targeting random members of the public”.

Officials have blamed separatists from Xinjiang – which is home to the Muslim Uighur minority – for the attack.

Both this attack and an incident late last year in which a car ploughed into pedestrians in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square have been attributed to separatists from the far-western region of Xinjiang.

Authorities traditionally blame extremists for these outbreaks of violence, while Uighur activists point to tight Chinese control as a cause of tensions. Establishing facts independently is difficult, because foreign journalists’ access to the region is restricted.

In a statement, the World Uyghur Congress – a Germany-based umbrella organization of Uighur groups – condemned the violence “unequivocally”, but also called on Chinese authorities to be open and transparent in their investigation.

It urged Beijing “to refrain from using this as a pretext to further and indiscriminately crack down on Uighurs as precedents suggest, and to show a measured response”.

“It is absolutely vital the Chinese government deal with the longstanding and deteriorating human rights issues facing Uighurs if tensions are to be reduced,” its president, Rebiya Kadeer, said in the statement.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – US says Kunming attack is ‘act of terrorism’ – 4 March 2014

The Wall Street Journal – China Calibrates its Police Response to Train Station Attacks – 4 March 2014

Descrier – China blames bloody Kunming massacre on international terrorism, but many remain unconvinced – 4 March 2014

The Irish Times – Police capture remaining suspects after Kunming knife attack – 4 March 2014

The Huffington Post – Chinese Netizens Lash Out At U.S. For Downplaying Severity Of Deadly Knife Attack – 3 March 2014

By Kevin M. Mathewson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

YANGON, Myanmar – Doctors Without Borders has been kicked out of Myanmar after two decades of caring for sick people in the country. The decision came after the humanitarian group reported it treated nearly two dozen Rohingya Muslim victims of communal violence in Rakhine state.

Many of the country’s 1.3 million Rohingya – identified by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world – have been living in the country for generations, but the government insists they are here illegally. Systematic and discriminatory policies limit their freedom of movement, access to health care, right to worship and have children.

The government defended its decision by accusing the group of creating tensions and instability in violence-scarred Rakhine.

Myanmar’s presidential spokesman Ye Htut had criticized Doctors Without Borders in the Myanmar Freedom newspaper for hiring “Bengalis,” the term the government uses for the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Ye Htut also accused the group of misleading the world about the attack last month in remote northern Rakhine, cut off to almost all foreigners, including journalists and aid workers. The United Nations says more than 40 Rohingya may have died when a Buddhist mob rampaged through a village, killing women and children. The government denies the allegation and says one policeman was killed by Rohingya and no other violence occurred.

The humanitarian group said it was “deeply shocked” by Myanmar’s decision to expel it after two decades of work in the country.

“Today for the first time in MSF’s history of operations in the country, HIV/AIDS clinics in Rakhine, Shan and Kachin states, as well as Yangon division, were closed and patients were unable to receive the treatment they needed,” the group said in a statement, using the French acronym for its name.

Due to increasing threats and intimidation from a group of Rakhine Buddhists who have been holding near daily protests against Doctors Without Borders, the organization has said its activities have been severely hampered and that it has not received enough government support.

“We urge the government to continue to work with the international community to provide humanitarian assistance to communities in need and to unsure unfettered access for humanitarian agencies,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington.

Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley, one of the most prominent voices in the U.S. Congress on Myanmar, also reacted to the reported expulsion. “It is the responsibility of the Burmese government to protect civilians. This is deeply troubling,” he said in a tweet.

For more information, please see:

arab news – Doctors Without Borders expelled from Myanmar – 1 March 2014

Associated Press – Doctors Without Borders expelled from Myanmar – 28 February 2014

abc NEWS – Doctors Without Borders Expelled From Myanmar – 28 February 2014

Yahoo! News – Doctors Without Borders expelled from Myanmar – 28 February 2014