By: Jessica Ties
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

 PYONGYANG, North Korea – An NGO have expressed anger at the United States decision to suspend food aid to North Korea after it became known that North Korean planned a satellite launch said to violate an agreement between the two nations.

The agreement provided that the U.S. would deliver 240,000 tons of food over the next year if international inspectors were permitted to visit North Korean nuclear facilities and missile tests were suspended.

The U.S. claims that North Korea breached its agreement when it launched a satellite atop a rocket that believed to be capable of delivering a nuclear warhead because it “…reflects their lack of desire to follow through on their commitments….”

North Korea, however, maintains that the rocket is not a missile test and is instead a scientific weather satellite.

Despite the suspension of food aid, the U.S. State Department has continued to state that the aid does not depend on political concession but is instead an attempt by the U.S. to regain “confidence in the commitments” about promises by the North Korean government to monitor and distribute the food appropriately.

The state department has stated, “[w]e’re not going to send food to a country where it might be diverted to the elites…[So] there’s a link in the sense that we don’t have confidence in the good faith of the government…If they want to restore our confidence in their good faith, they can cancel the plans to launch this satellite.”

Samaritan’s Purse, a U.S. aid agency disagrees with the account of the State Department. The organization’s Vice President, Ken Isaacs, has stated that “there is evidently a strong linkage in the negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea-the linkage being an exchange for discontinuation of enriching uranium in swap for food…”

Isaacs continued to express that the people who would suffer as a result of the United States’ decision would be the individuals living in the rural areas who are already hungry and malnourished.

In February 2011, Samaritan’s Purse and four other NGO’s sent a food assessment to North Korea reporting that children in many parts of the country were suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

As a result, the organization determined that an intervention was necessary to save the lives of those at risk. The organization also determined through interviews with those who had received food aid that there has never been any direct information that food was being inappropriately diverted making the refusal to send the food aid unnecessary.

North Korea has relied on foreign food aid since the 1900’s when famine struck the country and marked the beginning of constant famine.

 

For more information, please see:

Radio Free Asia – ‘No Political Links’ to Food Aid – 29 March 2012

Reuters – U.S. Suspends Food Aid to North Korea Over Missile Plans – 29 March 2012

BBC – U.S. Confirms it has Suspended North Korea Food Aid Plans – 28 March 2012

By: Jessica Ties
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China –  Liu Ping was detained by local authorities on March 6 for running as an independent candidate in China’s Jiangxi province.

Liu was detained by security who worked from her former employer, Xinyu city Steel Group, which is state owned.

Following her detention Liu was taken to a “black jail”, the common name for an unofficial prison, where she was aggressively strip searched and beaten.

According to the China Human Rights Defenders, “her belongings were confiscated, and she was held temporarily in a black jail…her captors forced Liu into a car and drove her back to Jiangxi.”

After being driven to a secret location, while blindfolded, Liu was strip-searched by three women who left her virtually naked and with little food.

While in this location, Liu was forced to stay in a windowless room equipped with padded walls and surveillance cameras where she was monitored daily.

When Liu confronted her captors about the condition she was being kept in, she was beaten until she fell to the ground.

Liu was returned home on March 19 after she became sick.

Since being returned, Liu has endured surveillance cameras being placed at her home and negative treatment of her family members by authorities.

The treatment of Liu was caused by the strong following she had obtained during her candidacy as an independent candidate  for district People’s Congress.

Chinese authorities have reportedly warned that independent candidates do not exist and any person desiring to run for election for the People’s Congress will have to obey legal procedure.

Wang Songlian, a researcher at Chinese Human Rights Defenders, described  the arrest of Liu as another example of detentions made annually shortly after the yearly meeting of the National’s People Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

Wang asserts that this meeting typically leads to detention of people identified as troublesome to the government. Despite the regularity of these meetings and the subsequent detentions, Wang has express the opinion that “…this year is more serious than previous years.”

Interestingly, Liu was detained the National People’s Congress was focused on passing a revision to the Chinese Criminal Procedure Law which would require authorities to detain citizens in official detention centers rather than black jails.  The amendment would also require that family members of detainees to be informed of the detention within twenty-four hours.

Parties opposing the Communist Party are banned in China, with the exception of a few “democratic parties”, leading those who try to run against the ruling party to be subjected to lengthy prison terms.

Elections take place every five years and is responsible for appointing two million lawmakers at the county and township levels in over 2,000 counties and 3,000 townships.

 

For more information, please see:

The Hindu – Activist’s “Disappearance” Exposes China’s Legal Limits – 27 March 2012

Radio Free Asia – Independent Candidate Stripped, Beaten – 27 March 2012

The New York Time – Activist Said to be Missing in China – 19 March 2012

by Hibberd Kline
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China– The Chinese Ministry of Justice announced Wednesday in a statement on its website that all attorneys in China will from now on be required to swear an oath of allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party.

According to the statement, attorneys must take the oath within 3 months of receiving or renewing their certificate of practice.

The oath reads in part as follows: “I pledge to faithfully fulfill the sacred mission of a worker of the socialist system of laws with Chinese characteristics, be loyal to the homeland, loyal to the people, support the leadership of the Communist Party of China…”

The Justice Ministry statement explains that the purpose of the oath is improve the “political, moral and professional quality” of China’s attorneys.

However, the oath has come under heavy criticism from many of China’s leading human rights lawyers.

Human rights attorney Pu Zhiqiang told the Financial Times that the oath was potentially problematic in that many of the leaders of the Communist Party often break the law. Therefore, Pu reasoned that pledging loyalty to both the party and the law will in some cases create a conflict for Chinese attorneys.

According to another prominent human rights lawyer, Jiang Tianyong, the existence of such an oath in modern society is “ridiculous.” Jiang was detained for two months last year by the Chinese authorities for his work defending aids activists and advocates of religious freedom. He believes that the oath is out of tune with international norms and that it will likely interfere with lawyer’s duties to their clients.

The new oath, which is the first of its kind for Chinese attorneys, has widely been decried as just another tool for restricting human rights lawyers. However, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency the Chinese authorities have repeatedly hinted at the likelihood that such an oath would be implemented at some point in time. In 2000, the All China Lawyers Association (ACLA), an organization which carries out professional administration of all lawyers in China, proposed the adoption of a similar oath. However, the ACLA’s proposal never came to fruition. In September 2010, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council both suggested that loyalty oaths would be important to “improving lawyers’ integrity.”

Efforts by Chinese lawmakers to “modernize” the Chinese legal system often come under criticism for taking one step forward and two steps back as national security concerns and the desire to maintain the hegemony of the Communist Party often undermine the rule of law.

In recent years, the Chinese Government has worked hard to encourage the development of modern Chinese business law.

However, civil liberties, human rights and other politically sensitive subjects are not protected by law in China. Lawyers who represent clients in these matters often face harassment, jail time, lose their licenses or are “disappeared.” Some prominent human rights attorneys and activists have also allegedly been tortured by the Chinese authorities.

The loyalty oath comes against the background of increasing repression of lawyers and activists as part of an attempt by China’s expansive security apparatus to prevent Arab Spring-inspired protests in the run-up to this year’s transfer of political power to a younger generation of Communist Party leaders. The Chinese Government has also drastically increased spending on its police, militia and other security forces to an announced $111 billion for 2012. This amount surpasses China’s official military budget, which is steadily rising and is second only to that of the United States.

For more information, please see:

New York Times —  Chinese Lawyers Chafe at New Oath to Communist Party — 22 March 2012

ABC News — China Says Lawyers Must Swear Allegiance to Party — 21 March 2012

BBC News — Lawyers in China to Swear Allegiance to Communist Party —  21 March 2012

Financial Times — China Tightens Grip on Lawyers — 21 March 2012

Reuters — China Orders Lawyers to Pledge Allegiance to Communist Party — 21 March 2012

Xinhua News — China’s Lawyers to Swear Their Professional Loyalty — 21 March 2012

By: Jessica Ties
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – On Thursday March 15, Cambodian chief prosecutor Hing Bunchea stated that Chhouk Bandit, a former city governor and the lone suspect in a factory shooting, had not been charged despite admitting to a shooting that resulted in injuries for three women.

The incident involving Chhouk occurred on February 20 when Chhouk allegedly opened fire on a group of approximately 1,000 protestors outside of Kaoway Sports Ltd factory.

The protestors were demanding an increase in their pay and better working conditions when the suspect stepped out of his car, pulled out a hand gun and began to fire on the protestors.

As a result of the shooting, three women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three suffered gunshot wounds and were taken to the hospital.

Despite the fact that Chhouk Bandit was subsequently fired by Prime Minister Hun Sen, many fear that he is using his money and influence to avoid being charged for the shooting.

Minister of the Interior Sar Kheng has identified Chhouk as the shooter leading NGO’s and rights groups  to “…strongly urge the Royal Government of Cambodia to make the suspect’s arrest an utmost priority.”

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, stated that the shooting is a criminal matter and Chhouk “…can’t use his money to shut people up.” He continued to state that there should be “…an investigation into who is trying to convince the court to drop the case. This kind of impunity sets a bad example for the country.”

Also fueling accusations of legal impropriety are the statements of the Svay Rieng provincial prosecutor.

Last week the prosecutor issued a summons for Chhouk rather than an arrest warrant citing his belief that the police report was unconvincing despite the fact that the former governor had been identified by the Interior Minister.

Initially, and following a meeting with Chhouk, the prosecutor had stated, “I already questioned him this morning. He was accompanied by his lawyer. He confessed to the shooting, but he gave me many reasons for that…It is my right not to arrest [him]. I don’t see it as important.”

Despite the admission, however, Chhouk left court without being arrested. Following this statement the prosecutor then changed his account of the deposition and stated that Chhouk had fired his gun in the air only to change his story again a few days later by stating that Chhouk had a gun but was unaware that it had discharged.

Kaoway Sports Ltd factory sources products for major clothing companies leading a consortium of clothing retailers including Puma, Gap and H&M to demand that the Cambodian government “…conduct a full and transparent investigation into the shooting and [to] hold those responsible for injuring workers accountable.”

For more information, please see:

Khmerization – Prosecutor’s Account of Questioning Varies – 20 March 2012

Khmerization – Factory Shooter Confesses – 17 March 2012

Radio Free Asia – Prosecutors Slammed for No Arrest – 15 March 2012

Voice of America – Bavet Mayor Identified as Suspect in Bloody Shooting – 1 March 2012

By Greg Donaldson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia 

COLUMBO, Sri Lanka – The United Nations Human Rights Council will vote this week on a resolution strongly sponsored by Britain and the United States. The resolution will explore potential war crimes that occurred during a Sri Lankan civil war that ended three years ago.

Citizens of Sri Lanka are upset over the resolution. Many Sri Lankans see the resolution as disruptive of the current peace. Hundreds of Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian clergy gathered in Colombo to demonstrate against the UN resolution. The ceremony demonstration included members of each clergy carrying national flags and traditional drummers parading throughout the city.

The clergies also read a statement following the day’s events. The statements said “evil forces both local and international, have joined hands to deprive Sri Lanka of the present environment of peace… and take this blessed island back to an era of darkness.” The statement continued “we therefore pledge with national determination that the Sri Lankan government and people will be able to defeat the resolution and the evil forces behind it.”

It is alleged that both the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were responsible for major war crimes during the country’s civil war. Last year a United Nations appointed panel found that there were “credible allegations” that both sides had committed serious human rights violations.

The Sri Lankan government has rejected the report and instead commissioned its own internal investigation. The Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission found the armed forces had not acted inappropriately. The report was rejected by the U.N. and condemned by several human rights groups.

One of the examples the UN panel found in its investigation was a so-called humanitarian rescue operation carried out by the Sri Lankan army. The operation took place during the final stages of the civil war against the Tamil Tigers. The panel estimated that the operation was responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people.

Eileen Donahoe, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council, has pushed hard for the proposed Sri Lankan war crimes resolution. In a statement she explained, “many thousands of Sri Lankans civilians died or suffered other violations in the final weeks of the long-running civil war in 2009. There has been no complete accounting of those deaths or other violations and no pursuit of accountability for them.

The resolution is currently being debated at the United Nation’s convention in Geneva. Both proponents of the resolution and the Sri Lanka government have received strong support from outside parties and countries.

For More Information Please See:

New York Times –U.N. Panel Seeks Vote on Carnage in Sri Lanka – 19 March 2012

Washington Post – Sri Lankan Clergy Pray for Defeat of UN Resolution Urging Investigation of Possible War Abuses – 19 March 2012

The Independent – Sri Lanka Resists UN Resolution Against Alleged War Crimes – 26 February 2012