By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States — With only a days remaining until President Barack Obama embarks on a historic trip to Southeast Asia, human rights organizations hope rights abuses in the countries he will visit do not go unnoticed.

On Saturday, the President leaves for visits to Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar, also known as Burma, as part of the 21st Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit.  Obama’s visits to Cambodia and Myanmar will be the first to either country by a U.S. President.

The White House said Obama is going ahead with the visits despite some rights groups’ criticism of the trip being premature because the countries have yet to institute reforms after decades of military rule.

But New York-based Human Rights Watch said the upcoming trip was an opportunity.

“We’re calling on President Obama to really strongly and publicly raise these human rights concerns, to press for accountability, and to insist that it can’t be business as usual with the Cambodian government, given the gravity of these human rights violations,” said Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson in an interview with Voice of America.

The rights group released a report this week showing more than 300 people have been killed in the last 20 years in Cambodia under the rule of Prime Minister Hun Sen.  The group criticized the Cambodian government for ignoring the problem rather than investigating it, adding that some of those believed to be responsible have even been promoted.

“The moral strain on this trip is Cambodia,” an anonymous activist told Reuters after a meeting with U.S. government leaders in Washington.  The White House met with international human rights activists on Tuesday.

Officials reportedly told the rights groups that “Obama would take a tough approach with Cambodian Prime Minister Sen in private,” according to the Reuters report.

Another group calling on Obama to take action was the Committee to Protect Journalists.  On Thursday, it issued an open letter to the President on its website, asking that he stay committed protecting the right of free expression worldwide.

Specifically, the committee asked that Obama “exercise U.S. influence and seek the redress of press freedom violations in Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand,” where the committee said press freedoms are worsening.

The committee noted that Burma does not have a free press, despite improvements in recent years.  It also noted that Cambodian Prime Minister Sen continues to suppress criticism of his government, and that Thailand has laws that can send some journalists to jail for comments posted on their websites.

For further information, please see:

Committee to Protect Journalists — Obama Should Address Media Rights in Southeast Asia — 14 November 2012

Reuters — Rights Groups Press Obama Aides on Myanmar, Cambodia — 13 November 2012

The Washington Post — Human Rights Group Urges Obama to Address Cambodian Abuses — 13 November 2012

Voice of America — Rights Group Urges Obama to Address Human Rights Abuses in Cambodia — 13 November 2012

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

OTTAWA, Canada — Four former employees of the Canadian restaurant chain Tim Hortons launched a human rights complaint against their former boss on Friday, saying the franchise owner was racist.

The employees, who were from Mexico, worked at two Dawson Creek, British Columbia locations, owned by Tony Van Den Bosch.  They came to Canada earlier this year as part of the country’s temporary foreign workers program.

Eugene Kung, an attorney with the BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre, said the four workers were required to share rooms in one of two homes owned by Van Den Bosch, where up to 10 people lived at one time.

“They had no privacy in the house,” Kung said.  “The owner would come in and out as he pleased and would enter people’s rooms.”

Kung also said the workers had to pay a $200 “tip” in addition to their $200 monthly rent for the double-bunked rooms.  Kung said Van Den Bosch earned $4,000 a month in rent by doubling up the rooms and doubling the rents.

“When Tim Hortons advertises the double-double, I don’t believe this is what most Canadians had in mind,” Kung said.  “The complainants felt extremely vulnerable having their employer as their landlord.  This placed them in a position of relative powerlessness right from the start of their stay in Dawson Creek.”

Kung added that Van Den Bosch subjected the workers to discrimination.

“Derogatory, racist comments included ‘[expletive] Mexican workers are lazy’ and ‘Mexican idiots,’ while the employer described himself as the owner of their lives,” Kung said.

He also accused Van Den Bosch of regularly withholding the workers’ Mexican passports for periods of time.

“Two of them were fired and sent back to Mexico after raising concerns about their working and living conditions,” Kung added.  “Two of them actually fled in the middle of the night one night because they were so afraid.”

When confronted, Van Den Bosch denied the allegations.

“It’s a bunch of crap.  Bunch of crap totally, you know what I mean?” he said.  “[Whether] you believe it or not, I can’t help what people believe.  They like to believe the negative.    People enjoy that sort of stuff.  You know what I mean?”

Tim Hortons released a statement to the media, saying in part, “Tim Hortons restaurant owners hire their own staff, and when they have difficulty filling restaurant positions with local workers, they turn to the temporary foreign workers program to appropriately staff their restaurants.”

The company also confirmed that Van Den Bosch no longer owns the franchises in question and has not been with the chain since July 2012.

For further information, please see:

CBC News — Tim Hortons Workers File Double-Double Rights Complaint — 9 November 2012

CJDC – 890 AM — Temporary Foreign Workers File Complaint Against Former Tim Hortons Owner — 9 November 2012

CTV News — Mexican Workers File Human Rights Complaint Against Tim Hortons Boss — 9 November 2012

The Vancouver Sun — Former Tim Hortons Employees from Mexico Accuse Dawson Creek Franchise Owner of Abuse — 9 November 2012

By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States — A Guatemalan diplomat this week questioned the actions of Texas Rangers who fired gunshots from a helicopter on a pickup truck of undocumented immigrants hiding in the bed.

The incident, which happened near the U.S.-Mexico border on Oct. 25, killed two people and injured one.

“I have a lot of questions,” said Alba Caceres, the Guatemalan consul in McAllen, a border city about 15 miles east of where the incident took place.

The Department of Public Safety, which is in charge of the elite squad of Texas Rangers, said troopers suspected the truck was smuggling drugs because of the covered pickup bed.  Instead, six men lay under that cover, along with three men in the pickup cab, a driver, and a human smuggler.

“Why aren’t the narco-traficos pursued this way?” Caceres asked, referencing drug smugglers.  “Maybe if the officer explained why they made the determination to shoot them, we would understand.  Right now, I am very confused.”

The Los Angeles Times reported that troopers have authority to fire from helicopters to stop a driver, defend themselves or someone at risk, or make an arrest.

The Times also reported that the immigrants, all field workers, each paid $5,000 to be smuggled through Mexico and into Texas.  They had spent nearly three weeks traveling from their hometown of San Martin Jilotepeque, about an hour outside the Guatemalan capital of Guatemala City.

In a statement, the Texas Department of Public Safety said troopers believed the driver’s recklessness was a threat to public safety, considering elementary and middle schools were located less than three miles away from the scene of the incident.

“Although it is very tragic that two lives were lost, had the vehicle continued recklessly speeding through the school zone, any number of innocent bystanders or young lives could have been lost or suffered serious bodily injury,” said DPS Director Steve McCraw.

The trooper involved in the shooting returned to work on Thursday after being placed on administrative leave.  He has been assigned administrative duties pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

The victims were identified as Jose Leonardo Coj Cumar, 32, and Marcos Antonio Castro Estrada, 29.  Coj left behind three children and his pregnant wife in order to earn money for a surgical procedure one of his sons needed.  Caceres said Coj did not want to travel illegally but had to for his son.

“We have expressed our outrage at this incident, and we will pursue all the measures necessary to ensure that this is not forgotten or filed away,” she said.

Caceres also said she was awaiting death certificates to allow the bodies to be returned to Guatemala.  The surviving Guatemalans were in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

For further information, please see:

The Brownsville Herald — ACLU Voices Concerns of DPS Shooting — 2 November 2012

The Huffington Post — Miguel Avila, Texas Trooper in Chopper Shooting of Two Undocumented Immigrants, Returns to Work — 2 November 2012

The Los Angeles Times — Guatemala Seeks Answers in Texas’ Fatal Shooting of Migrants — 31 October 2012

The Dallas Morning News — Guatemalan Diplomat: Texas Agents Who Fired on Pickup Should’ve Seen It Held People, Not Drugs — 30 October 2012