By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China–China responded to criticism Thursday, and announced that it would increase its aid to the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan. Some Chinese bloggers have called for no help at all. 

The two countries remain knotted in a longstanding dispute over islands in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety. Manila has accused Beijing of aggressively asserting its claims and says Chinese vessels have occupied the Scarborough Shoal, which Manila has claimed as its own since last year. 

China, enjoying an almost decade long economic boom, announced a $100,000 cash donation on Monday. The donation was to be matched by the Chinese Red Cross. The sum of $200,000 is far less than other countries, and sparked intense criticism overseas. It also stands in sharp contrast to China’s other recent donations: over $10 million for Japan in the wake of its tsunami two years ago and almost $40 million for countries affected by the 2004 Asian tsunami. 

The amount would be low even if China, the world’s second largest and fastest growing economy, were a much smaller or poorer nation: Malaysia, population 29 million, has pledged $1 million in cash, as well as food aid; New Zealand, population 4.4 million, has pledged another $1 million.  

The US magazine Time reported Wednesday under the headline “The world’s second largest economy off-loads insultingly small change on a storm-battered Philippines”. 

“The Chinese government has been made to look mean-spirited in front of the world community,” said the article.

Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday that the country decided “just days ago” to provide an additional 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) for relief efforts in the form of blankets, tents and other materials. 

“There will be thousands of tents and tens of thousands of blankets,” he told reporters. 

“We hope that these supplies will be delivered to the disaster-stricken areas as soon as possible to show our sympathies with the Philippines.” 

Typhoon Haiyan swept through the central islands of the Philippines Friday, leave mass destruction in its wake. 

Chinese media and Internet users — many of whom are intensely nationalistic — were divided on how the country should respond to the disaster. 

“If (the Chinese government) was generous to the Philippines, it would hurt the Chinese people completely,” wrote a user of Old Beijing on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. 

Another user said: “I think what China has done was rational — facts have long showed the wickedness of the Philippine regime. It will not be grateful even if we hand them much money. Instead, it could use the cash to buy weapons from the US to attack us.” 

Others argued that China was a victim of the storm itself, and had its own disaster relief needs at to be concerned with. 

The typhoon brushed three provinces and regions in south China this week, leaving at least 13 dead or missing and 252,000 people displaced, according to the latest data.

Nevertheless some experts warned that it was not in China’s best interests to minimize its humanitarian aid to the Philippines, particularly with the international community heavily scrutinizing every move the economic giant takes.  

“A country’s status on the world stage does not only rely on its economic and military strength. It is also determined by how much soft power it can master, which includes its approach to humanitarianism,” said a commentary in the state-run Global Times. 

Qin attempted to diminish the value of the online nationalist sentiment, saying that an “overwhelming majority” of Chinese people “understand and sympathize with the sufferings of the Philippines”.

For more information, please see:

BBC News– China’s Phillippine aid controversy — 14 November 2013

ABC News– In Phillippine Relief Effort, China Beat by Ikea — 14 November 2013

Reuters– China says people sympathetic about Phillippines, online criticsm unrepresentative — 14 November 2013

Quartz– China’s paltry response to Typhoon Haiyan illustrates the limits of its soft power — 13 November 2013

Global Post– China to step up aid to Phillippines amid controversy — 14 November 2013

By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PYONGYANG, North Korea–North Korea announced Thursday that a South Korean spy had been arrested while attempting to use “dishonest elements” for a mission to destabilize its government. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) immediately rejected the claim as baseless.

Security authorities recently captured an agent of South Korea’s intelligence agency in Pyongyang, according to the North’s state-run media outlet, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

KCNA’s report quoted a spokesman for the Ministry of State Security as saying the spy confessed to coming into Pyongyang illegally through a third country.

“An initial investigation indicates that he was engaged in anti-DPRK (North Korea) espionage and plot-breeding activities in a third country bordering the DPRK for nearly six years, while disguising himself as a religionist,” KCNA reported.

The spy came to Pyongyang to “rally dishonest elements within the boundary of the DPRK and use them for undermining the stability of the social system in the DPRK”, it said.

“This fully proves to what extent the puppet group of conservatives has reached in its anti-DPRK moves,” the report continued.

NIS responded from Seoul almost immediately.

“Such allegations are absurd and totally groundless,” an NIS official said.

North and South Korea have remained technically at war since their 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice. Since then, thousands of North Korean spies have been arrested in the South. The North has also sporadically announced the arrests of South Korean citizens on charges of espionage.

The South’s Yonhap news agency speculated that a South Korean citizen might have been detained while doing missionary work in the North.

The North arrested Kenneth Bae, a 45-year-old US citizen, in November and sentenced him to 15 years’ detention in a labor camp on charges of seeking to topple the government.

The court described Bae, also known by his Korean name Pae Jun-Ho, as a militant Christian evangelist who smuggled inflammatory material into the country.

Since the announcement, Northern officials claim to be “intensifying investigations.”

For more information, please see:

Fox News– North Korea says it has arrested South Korean spy in Pyongyang; Seoul rejects claim — 7 November 2013

Bloomberg– North Korea Arrests South Korean Spy in Pyongyang, KCNA Reports — 7 November 2013

Arirang News– N. Korea admits catching S. Korean spy — 7 November 2013

AFP– N. Korea arrests S. Korean spy: state media — 7 November 2013

Sky News– North Korea says it arrested South spy — 7 November 2013

By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

DHAKA, Bangladesh–A special court in Bangladesh sentenced 152 soldiers to death Tuesday for participation in a 2009 military mutiny in which dozens of military officers were massacred. Human rights groups have criticized the mass trial, claiming that the process falls well below the international legal standard.

At the special court in Dhaka on Tuesday, Judge Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman sentenced an additional 157 people, mostly border guards, to life in prison for their role in the 33-hour mutiny, while another 271 soldiers were acquitted.

“The atrocities were so heinous that even the dead bodies were not given their rights,” Akhtaruzzaman said as he started to read out the verdicts.

Approximately 823 soldiers were alleged to have taken part in the killing of 74 people, who were hacked to death or tortured and burnt alive, then dumped in sewers and shallow graves.

Security was tight at the specially-built court in Dhaka, with police and the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officers deployed outside, before the verdict’s announcement.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for a majority of the 823 soldiers charged with murder, torture, conspiracy and other offences over the mutiny that started at the paramilitary Bangladeshi Rifles (BDR) headquarters in Dhaka.

Nearly 6,000 soldiers have already been jailed by dozens of special courts over similar events that spread from the Dhaka headquarters to other BDR bases around the country.

The 823 soldiers were selected for prosecution in a civilian court after they were found guilty before military courts for their role in the mutiny.

At least twenty-three civilians have been charged with criminal conspiracy.

Baharul Islam, the lead prosecutor, said the case was the largest of its type in the world, with hundreds of witnesses participating in the trial that started in January 2011 and finished in October this year.

“So far as we know it’s the largest case in the world’s history. There were 654 prosecution witnesses,” Islam said before the verdict.

The verdict was delayed last week after the judge said he needed more time to finish writing it.

During the uprising, the mutineers stole an estimated 2,500 weapons and broke into an annual meeting of top BDR officers before opening fire on them at point blank range.

As the mutiny spread, it posed a serious threat to the new government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who had been elected only one month previously.

The cause of the violence is uncertain but pent-up anger over poor benefits and resentment by soldiers against BDR senior officers has generally been considered as the main factor.

New York-based Human Rights Watch criticized the Bangladesh authorities for the mass trial, saying it would not ensure justice, and suggested that the trial implicated grave violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The group says the violations include torture and other abuse while in custody in order to extract confessions and statements.

Human Rights Watch reported at least 47 suspects had died in custody while the surviving suspects have had limited access to lawyers, and to knowledge of the charges and evidence against them.

“Trying hundreds of people en masse in one giant courtroom, where the accused have little or no access to lawyers is an affront to international legal standards,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement on Oct. 29.

Those sentenced to death are set to be hanged to death, though no time frame has been established.  Defense attorneys for several of the convicted have already begun the appeals process.

For more information, please see:

Reuters– Bangladesh court sentences 152 to death for 2009 mutiny — 5 November 2013

Al Jazeera– Bangladesh sentences hundreds to death, life in prison in mutiny verdict — 5 November 2013

CNN– 152 soldiers sentenced to die for mutiny in Bangladesh — 5 November 2013

Gulf News– Bangladesh court sentences 150 former soldiers to death — 5 November 2013

By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China– Chinese police have announced two suspects, reportedly from the tense Xinjiang region, after a car crash at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square resulted in the deaths of five people.  Analysts said the incident looked like a premeditated attack.

The crash — in which an SUV drove along the pavement through crowds and then caught fire at the capital’s well-known sensitive site — killed three people in the car and two tourists, according to Beijing police.

The square lies next to the Forbidden City, a former imperial palace and top tourist attraction.  It was the location of pro-democracy protests in 1989 that were violently crushed by authorities, garnering international attention.

Police identified two suspects and four license plates, all from Xinjiang, in relation to a “major case” on Monday. The notification was posted in hotels across the area.

Police instructed hotels to be on alert for “suspicious” guests and motor vehicles.  Security guards from several hotels in Beijing confirmed they had received a police notice.

A version posted online by 64tianwang.com, a Sichuan-based human rights news site, gave the suspects’ names, identity numbers and registered residences, while urging hotels to report any potentially relevant information.

The authenticity of these reports has not been confirmed.

Xinjiang, in China’s far west, is home to ethnic minority and largely Muslim Uighurs.

State media has reported several violent incidents there and a rising militant threat. Uighur rights groups complain of ethnic and religious repression, in an area where information is tightly controlled.

Police have arrested 140 people in Xinjiang in the past months for allegedly spreading jihad. Twenty-two Uighurs were killed in August in an “anti-terrorism” operation, the official news agency Xinhua reported.

One of the suspects named in the notice was from Lukqun, where state media said 35 people were killed in June in what Beijing had labeled a “terrorist attack”.

Chinese political expert, Willy Lam, said the Tiananmen incident “looks like a terrorist attack” but warned that more information was necessary to reach such a strong conclusion.

“If it is indeed a terrorist attack it shows that Beijing’s efforts in trying to stamp out terrorism have not been very successful,” he added.

But Ilham Tohti, a prominent Uighur intellectual, said the police notice was not definitively linked to the Tiananmen crash, and even if a Xinjiang car was involved, it would not establish that members of the minority were responsible.

“Some media has suggested it was a terrorist attack carried out by Uighurs, without evidence being produced,” he said.

“I worry that this event, even though it may have nothing to do with Uighurs, could lead local governments to increase repression and discrimination.”

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying declined to elaborate on the incident at a press briefing, but said that while Xinjiang “enjoys sound economic and social development”, it sometimes experiences violence and “terrorism”.

“We sternly oppose and crack down on such incidents to ensure the safety and security of society as well as people’s lives and properties,” she added.

The reports and witnesses said the SUV drove along the pavement outside the Forbidden City on the north side of the square before crashing into the crowd.

In addition to the five fatalities — one of them a female tourist from the Philippines — another 38 people were injured, police said.

Images posted on Chinese social media sites showed the blazing shell of the car and tall plumes of black smoke.

The square appeared normal on Tuesday, with no sign of any damage at the crash site.

For more information, please see:

BBC News– Tiananmen crash: China police ‘seek Xinjiang suspects’— 29 October 2013

LA Times– China leaders were nearby during apparent Tiananmen Square attack— 29 October 2013

New York Times– Beijing Crash May Be Tied to Unrest in Xinjiang — 28 October 2013

AFP– China names suspects after Tiananmen crash — 29 October 2013

Reuters– China suspects Tiananmen crash a suicide attack— 29 October 2013