By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

HONG KONG, China – Ten individuals were arrested in Hong Kong for attempting to smuggle baby formula past customs out of the island territory and into mainland China.

The Hong Kong government recently passed a new regulation which restricted the amount of baby formula travelers were allowed to take out of Hong Kong and into mainland China.  The regulation only allows travelers to take 1.8 kilograms (about 4 pounds) of formula through customs.

The individuals who were placed under arrest were both Hong Kong citizens and mainland Chinese citizens.  The smugglers were caught with a total of 53 cans of baby formula.  One man was attempting to smuggle 15 cans through customs by himself.

Under the new regulation, individuals caught with more than the allowed 1.8 kilograms of milk powder can face fines of up to 500,000 Hong Kong dollars (equivalent to about $65,000 U.S.).  Additionally, smugglers could also be subjected to up to two years in jail.

Travelers are taking the extreme risk of smuggling the baby formula out of Hong Kong and into mainland China because of the recent milk powder scandals that have been rampant in mainland China.  The most infamous of these scandals happened in 2008 when six infants died after ingesting milk which contained traces of the industrial chemical melamine.

Due to the high demand of baby formula from mainland Chinese citizens, Hong Kong has been experience severe shortages causing extreme tensions between the island territory and Beijing.  Hong Kong citizens have been having a hard time obtaining baby formula for their own children.

Hong Kong resident, Bruce Lui, says that every morning, parents are lined up outside shops and pharmacies for the opportunity to purchase formula.  Some are lucky if they can get even one can to feed their hungry infants.

Lui says that he walks from neighborhood to neighborhood attempting to hunt down the precious baby formula.  Sometimes he must walk through at least ten pharmacies and shops before he can get his hands on one can.  Other times, he is unlucky and comes home empty handed.

Adding to the distress of local Hong Kong parents, some shops and pharmacies will not sell to locals because they know that they can obtain higher profits from selling exclusively to mainlanders desperate for safe formula.  Some mainland Chinese parents are willing to pay up to 50 percent above retail for cans of powdered baby formula.

Proponents of the new regulation hope that the new law will help prevent shortages like one that happened last month in Hong Kong when stores sold out of the most popular brands of baby formula.

For further information, please see:

Shanghai Daily – 10 caught flouting Hong Kong’s new infant formula rule – 2 March 2013

Yahoo News Philippines – Hong Kong cracks down on baby formula trade – 2 March 2013

BBC – Ten arrested in Hong Kong over baby milk formula curbs – 1 March 2013

The Sunday Times – Hong Kong limits export of baby formula after furore – 1 March 2013

By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on Tuesday alleging that Sri Lankan military forces used rape and sexual torture to get confessions out of suspected Tamil rebels during the bloody civil war between the central government and the Tamil separatist movement from 2006 to 2012.

The report documented roughly 75 cases of rape which include 41 female victims, 31 male victims, and at least three juvenile boys under the age of 18.  The victims stated that their torturers’ brutality did not cease until they confessed that they had ties to the Tamil separatist movement.

One male victim, who was a rebel fighter in the conflict and surrendered in 2009, said the Sri Lankan military inserted a metal rod along with metal balls inside his private parts.  The foreign objects were later surgically extracted from his body only after he had escaped from Sri Lanka.

Another male victim says that he suffered at the hands of the Sri Lankan military when he was still a juvenile.  The man said that he was beaten, raped, and then hung upside down while he was only 17 years old.  A female victim says she was raped as recently as one year ago in the Colombo Criminal Investigation Department.

Prasad Kariyawasam, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to New Delhi, spoke on behalf of the Sri Lankan government.  The High Commissioner says there is no evidence to support the statements and allegations made by the victims in the HRW report.

Kariyawasam stated that the 75 victims could possibly be economic refugees attempting to fabricate a good sob story to gain asylum into countries like Britain.  He believes that until Sri Lanka executes a proper, domestic inquiry into the allegations, the HRW report cannot be legitimate.

The HRW report, however, contained numerous medical reports on the alleged victims which confirmed their stories.  The medical reports showed evidence that the 75 victims had been subjected to sexual torture.  The victims had cigarette burns on their inner thighs, breasts, and there was also evidence that the victims had been bitten in the buttocks and breast regions.

Kariyawasam maintains that these alleged war crimes have been publicized at a convenient time because the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva will be voting on a U.S. supported resolution criticizing Sri Lanka’s human rights track record later this week.

The U.S. supported resolution will urge Sri Lanka to bring suspected war criminals to justice.  Sri Lanka is believed to be protecting their own military personnel who have been suspected of killing civilians during the armed conflict with the Tamil separatist movement.  Displaced Tamil refugees in Britain, Canada, and the European Union are expected to show strong support for the U.N. resolution.

For further information, please see:

BBC – Sri Lankan forces ‘raped’ Tamils in custody, study says – 26 February 2013

The Guardian – Sri Lankan military ‘still raping and torturing suspected rebels’ – 26 February 2013

Reuters – Sri Lanka security rape, torture Tamil detainees: HRW – 26 February 2013

The Star – Sri Lanka security forces rape, torture Tamil detainees – group – 26 February 2013

By Karen Diep
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

MALE, Maldives – Yesterday, a Maldivian court sentenced a 15-year-old rape victim to receive 100 lashes for engaging in premarital sex.

Last year, the Maldivian police examined allegations against the victim’s stepfather for raping and killing their baby.  Authorities subsequently discovered the dead baby buried on the island of Feydhoo in Shavivani Atoll.  If the victim’s stepfather, is convicted, he may face 25 years in prison.  Meanwhile, the victim’s mother is also facing charges for failure to report the incident to the Maldivian police.

After further investigation, the victim admitted to having a sexually consensual relationship with another man.

Maldives’s legal system has attributes of both Islamic and English common law.  Accordingly, in Maldives, sex outside marriage is illegal.

According to BBC News, a spokesperson for the juvenile court, Zaima Nasheed, stated that the court ordered the victim to remain at a children’s home under house arrest for the next eight months. Furthermore, the victim will not receive her punishment until she reaches the age of 18 or consents to an earlier time.

The 15-year-old victim is not the first to face this particular punishment.  In September of last year, a Maldivian court ordered the public flogging of a 16-year-old girl for premarital sex.

Amnesty International censured the punishment as “cruel, degrading and inhumane.”  “We are very surprised that the government is not doing anything to stop this punishment – to remove it altogether from the statute books,” stated Ahmed Faiz, a researcher with Amnesty.

“This is not the only case.  It is happening frequently – only last month there was another girl who was sexually abused and sentenced to lashes,” continued Mr. Faiz.

Furthermore, Human Rights Watch has chastised the punishment and stated that this in reality was a sex crime against the victim.  In addition, the United Nations has continually asked Maldivian authorities to cease using the “barbaric practice” of flogging women.

However,there is hope for the 15-year-old victim. The Maldivian government disagrees with the court’s sentence.  “The President has asked the Attorney-General to appeal against the lower court decision,” stated spokesman Abbas Adil Riza to AFP. “The girl will also be provided with the necessary legal counsel and we hope the case will be concluded in about a month,” continued Mr. Riza.

For further information, please see:

The Globe and Mail – Maldives government to appeal flogging of rape victim, 15, for premarital sex – 28 February 2013

BBC News – Maldives girl to get 100 lashes for pre-marital sex – 26 February 2013

Fox News – Alleged Maldives rape victim, 15, to get 100 lashes for having premarital sex – 27 February 2013

 

 

 

By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Navi Pilay, the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, recently released a report on the Sri Lankan central government’s failure to investigate widespread killings and other wartime atrocities committed by their military forces during the bloody, 25 year civil war with the Tamil Tigers.

Pilay is calling for independent, international criminal and forensic investigations to help rectify the situation in Sri Lankan.  Experts and human rights groups say that the Sri Lankan military, who fought for the central government and population majority composed mainly of ethnic Sinhalese, murdered as many as 40,000 civilian, non-combatants in Tamil territory.

U.N. Secretary, General Ban Ki-moon, set up an expert panel whose study led to the exposure of the murders by the Sri Lankan military and the statistical figures.  The Sri Lankan government, however, has rejected the reports alleging abuses and atrocities committed by their soldiers.

Pilay has also accused Sri Lanka of not implementing a system to relocate missing adults that disappeared during the latter stages of the civil war.  Disappearances of thousands of citizens have gone uninvestigated and their perpetrators have not been arrested nor prosecuted for their crimes.

The Sri Lankan central government has devised plans for some of their own official, internal investigations on the alleged atrocities committed during the 25 year long civil war.  President Mahinda Rajapaksa also said that the government never ordered attacks on civilian targets during the armed conflict.

Commissioner Navi Pilay, however, still believes that there are inaccuracies in the central government’s official investigations.  Pilay cited a video broadcasted in 2009 which allegedly showed summary executions of Tamil prisoners by central government military forces as evidence for the necessity of independent investigations into the matter.

Pilay is calling for greater transparency and impartiality in the investigation process to get to the bottom of the abuses that may have been rampant during the violent conflict.  Witnesses coming forward to testify as to the abuses carried out by the military, as well as the victims of the atrocities, also need protection in this investigatory process.

There have also been reports of new abductions as recent as 2011 and 2012.  Political activities and members of their family have alleged been abducted, tortured, and in extreme cases, killed.  The central government says that they have been looking into these alleged crimes.

Journalists from media outlets have also been harassed and attacked by the central government.  I addition, human rights activists that took part in the U.N. Human Rights Council a year ago had also been attacked in public by government ministers.

Due to these recent public abuses, Sri Lanka has come under more pressure by Western states to take a look at the human rights situation in the country.

For further information, please see:

News Daily – Sri Lankan military inquiry says army did not shell civilians – 15 February 2013

Reuters – Sri Lanka’s wartime investigation lags as abuses persist: U.N. – 13 February 2013

The Star – Sri Lanka’s wartime investigation lags as abuses persist, U.N. says – 13 February 2013

The Washington Post – UN rights chief faults Sri Lanka probe of alleged wartime abuses – 13 February 2013