Minority Christian Group persecuted in Vietnam

By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Desk Reporter, Asia

Reports say the Vietnamese government has intensified its repression of Christians (Photo courtesy of the Associated Press)

HANOI, Vietnam – Vietnam has increased repression of minority Christians, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports released on Thursday. Some of the signs of repression includes, but is not limited to, closing small informal churches, compelling collective renunciations of faith, arresting worshipers, torturing and preventing them to seek asylum abroad.

In Vietnam, all religious groups are required to register with the government according to its law.

Vietnam’s indigenous minority Christian community located in the country’s Central highland provinces, known as the Montagnards or “Dega Protestants”, is unregistered and outside the control of the official Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam.

The Vietnamese government doubts that these Dega Protestants are a legitimate religious group but rather a politically motivated group fighting for a Montagnard independence movement.

The Montagnards, however, are claiming their legitimacy and press for religious freedom and land rights, prompting the government crackdown, according to a report by the US-based HRW.

‘In recent months, the Vietnamese government has increased its harassment of peaceful ethnic minority Christians in the Central Highlands, targeting members of unregistered house churches,’ the report said.

In some instances, police officers destroy the churches of unauthorized groups and detain or imprison the members of church on charges of violating national security. There have been reports of torture by these church members. One man who was sentenced to five years in prison described how the police beat him in the face.

“Blood came out of my ears and my nose. I went crazy from this. It was so painful, and also the build-up made me very afraid and tense,” he said.

This unidentified man remains partially deaf as a result of the beating, while other prisoners and detainees also express similar experiences of torture.

Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director based in New York, called for immediate recognition of these independent religious groups by the Vietnamese government to allow them to practice their beliefs.

“Montagnards face harsh persecution in Vietnam, particularly those who worship in independent house churches, because the authorities don’t tolerate religious activity outside their sight or control,” he said.

“The Vietnamese government has been steadily tightening the screws on independent Montagnard religious groups, claiming they are using religion to incite unrest.”

He added: “Freedom of religion does not mean freedom for state-sanctioned religions only.”

For more information, please see:

Christian Today – Human Rights Watch condemns repression of Christians in Vietnam – 31 March 2011

Straights Times – Vietnam steps up repression of Christian group – 31 March 2011

The New York Times – Vietnam Persecutes Christian Minority, Report Says – 31 March 2011

China Orders Lethal Injection For Drug Smuggling

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia

MANILA, Philippines – Appeals have been abandoned in China as three Philippine citizens are executed after drug smuggling conviction.

The two women and one man, Elizabeth Batain, 38, Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, 32, and Ramon Credo, 42 were arrested on separate occasions carrying packages containing at least 8lb (4kg) of heroin.

Activists and supporters light candles with slogans during an overnight vigil in suburban Quezon City, north of Manila, Philippines on Tuesday March 29, 2011.f
Activists and supporters light candles with slogans during an overnight vigil in suburban Quezon City, north of Manila, Philippines on Tuesday March 29, 2011.f

They were the first Filipinos to be executed in China for drug trafficking, Philippine officials said.

The families of two of the prisoners had sent open letters appealing for leniency, arguing they had been conned by others.

China’s foreign ministry considers drug trafficking to be a serious offence and that justice had been served.

The three Philippine nationals were executed by lethal injection on Wednesday.

China normally does not announce executions. Amnesty International says China is the world’s biggest executioner, with thousands of convicts killed every year. The Philippines has abolished the death penalty.

Edwin Lacierda, Philippine presidential spokesman, issued a statement after receiving news of the executions: “Their deaths are a vivid lesson in the tragic toll the drug trade takes on entire families.”

He said the government will act strongly to battle drug organizations. “We are resolved to ensure that the chain of victimization, as pushers entrap and destroy lives in pursuit of their trade, will be broken,” he said.

Prayer vigils and special masses were organized in Manila and other cities in the days before the executions were carried out, in the hope of a “miracle” reprieve for the three convicts; reports Jaime FlorCruz, CNN.

“No miracles happened,” wrote Rodel Rodis, a lawyer based in San Francisco, in his posting on Facebook. Rodis opposed the executions, saying “they are human beings with families and they were just dupes of drug syndicates.”

Ramon Tulfo, a prominent multi-media commentator in Manila, had a different view. “We have a lot of things to cry over, so let’s not waste our tears on three convicted criminals who brought shame to our country,” Tulfo wrote in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “If we continue to plead for (their lives), we might give the impression that our country is a haven of drug mules. Let’s allow the Chinese people to carry out their harsh antidrug trafficking law, as we would expect them to carry out ours in case Chinese (are) caught trying to smuggle drugs into our country.”

The three Filipinos were originally scheduled for execution on February 20, but China agreed to postpone the executions after Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay traveled to Beijing to plead on their behalf.

The three had not been told they would be executed Wednesday, although their sentences were publicized early in the day, Philippine Consul Noel Novicio said.

“They gave us only one hour (with her). They have no mercy,” Ordinario-Villanueva’s sister, Maylene Ordinario, said in a text message from Xiamen to her family in the Philippines.

Jayson Ordinario, Ordinario-Villanueva’s younger brother, said last week that his sister was hired as a cellphone dealer in Xiamen and was tricked into carrying a bag that had a secret compartment loaded with heroin, allegedly by her job recruiter.

Aquino urged Filipinos to remain calm, he said while the three were convicted of drug trafficking, they could also be considered victims of unscrupulous recruiters and drug traffickers, and of a society unable to provide enough jobs at home.

“Our ultimate goal is to create a situation where people are not pressured to resort to these things, where they can find enough gainful employment in the Philippines,” he added.

Around 10 percent of the Philippines’ 94 million people work abroad to escape a lifestyle of poverty and unemployment.

For more information, please see:

TIME – China Executes 3 Filipino Drug Mules – 30 March 2011

BBC – China executes three Filipinos for drugs smuggling – 30 March 2011

CNN – China executes three Filipinos for drug smuggling – 30 March 2011

The Washington Post – Philippines says China executes 3 Filipinos convicted of drug smuggling despite appeals – 30 March 2011

MAYORS FOR PEACE REINFORCE THE POSSESSION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS AS A VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

By Erica Laster                                                                                                                       Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

NEW YORK, United States – U.N. officials have been actively discussing the complete abolition of nuclear weapons.   “They all understand that nuclear weapons make us less safe, not more,” said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at an exhibit and presentation by the Mayors of Peace at U.N. headquarters in New York last Thursday.  In the wake of the meltdown of Japanese nuclear plants following the tsunami, human rights groups have called for an end to the sale, use and production of nuclear weapons across the World.

U.S. & Russia sign Nuclear Arms Treaty (April 2010). Photo courtesy of npr.org.
U.S. & Russia sign Nuclear Arms Treaty (April 2010). Photo courtesy of npr.org.

Mayors of Peace began working alongside the United Nations in 1991 to confront the difficult task of nuclear weapon bans.  It now operates in 150 countries and over 4,500 cities in the International community. 

Accompanied by survivors of the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Ban Ki-moon indicated the necessity of nuclear disarmament.

Just one day before, the Simons Foundation and the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) released the Vancouver Declaration which declared that nuclear weapons are “incompatible” with international humanitarian law.  Further, as weapons of mass destruction, they are universally prohibited in warfare. 

Specifically, the harm inflicted on civilians from nuclear heat and radiation has been widely discussed and argued in the community as a violation of international law by experts and public diplomacy officials.

The declaration’s signers cite the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of 1996, arguing that “It cannot be lawful to continue indefinitely to possess weapons which are unlawful to use or threaten to use, are already banned for most states, and are subject to an obligation of elimination.”  This obligation to eliminate nuclear arsenals stems directly from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation (NPT) of 1970.  According to the NPT, states possessing weapons agreed to disarm and destroy their supply of weapons and those not in possession agreed not to acquire them.

93 percent of the world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons are possessed by the United States and Russia.  The remaining nuclear powers include China, France, Israel, Britain, India and Pakistan.

Many have derailed, prolonged and completely ignored their agreement to disarm and reduce their nuclear stockpiles.  Some, such as Dr. Jennifer Simons, Simons Foundation President, believe that “the possession of nuclear weapons should be an international crime.”

Despite a recent US-Russia Arms Treaty approved by the Barack Obama administration which confirms the countries intent to disarm, the United States is still allowed to keep 3,500 weapons after the year 2020.  John Burroughs of the Lawyer’s Committee on Nuclear Policy is hopeful that despite the long haul, the peace movement will help crystallize and garner support for the abolition of nuclear weapons. 

For More Information Please Visit:

IPS – Public Momentum Builds Against Nukes – 25 March 2011

Mayors For Peace – Powerful earthquake, huge tsunami and nuclear accident in Japan – 11 March 2010

NY Times – Nuclear Weapons – 22 December 2010

Saudi Arabia Outlaws Protests

By Eric C. Sigmund
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Islamic scholars in Saudi Arabia issued a fatwa, a religious edict, Tuesday, forbidding protests in the country.  The edict declares that anti-government demonstrations are punishable as un-Islamic.  The Saudi government reports that it will print and additional 1.5 million copies of the edict, to add to the 500,000 already printed, to distribute to citizens.

The fatwa, issued by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al al-Sheikh, the most prominent religious official in the country, urges citizens to “have a united front….under its wise and legitimate leadership.”  Despite the government’s quick endorsement of the edict, not all Islamic scholars support a ban on free expression.   Sheikh Gamal Qotb, the former head of the Al-Azhar fatwa committee, the highest religious institution in the Sunni world, expressed that the edict was a “big mistake,” noting that protest helps to promote peace and check tyranny.

While countries throughout the region continue to experience massive popular uprisings, Saudi Arabia has been largely immune from pro-democracy resistance.  The government quickly reacted to attempts by opponents to stage mass protests on March 11 by increasing the street presence of its police forces.   Heightened security patrols and strong rhetoric from the Saudi leaderships has thus far allowed the government to suppress and deter civilian protests. 

For more information please see:

Al-Masry Al-Youm- Al-Azhar Scholar Criticizes Saudi Edict Banning Protests – Mar. 30, 2011

People’s Daily Online – Saudi Arabia Prints 1.5 Million Copies of Anti-Protest Edict –Mar. 30, 2011

Reuters Africa – Saudi Prints 1.5 Million Copies of Anti-Demo Edict – Mar. 29, 2011

Colombian Politicians Accused In Journalist’s 2002 Murder

By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Orlando Sierra Hernandez, deputy editor and columnist for La Patria newspaper, was murdered in 2002 (photo courtesy of Committee to Protect Journalists)
Orlando Sierra Hernandez, deputy editor and columnist for La Patria newspaper, was murdered in 2002 (photo courtesy of Committee to Protect Journalists)

BOGOTA, Colombia – Francisco Ferney Tapasco and Dixon Ferney Tapasco, father and son politicians, will be charged with the planning of the 2002 murder of Orlando Sierra Hernandez, a Colombian journalist, according to the Colombian Attorney General’s Office. Sierra Hernandez was the assistant editor of La Patria newspaper; he was gunned down in January 2002 outside the newspaper’s offices in Manizales.

According to the prosecution, several key witnesses have linked Ferney Tapasco, the former director of the Liberals in the Caldas department, and Dixon Tapasco, his ex-congressman son  with the murder. The murder came shortly after Sierra Hernandez published allegations of corruption against the father and son.

Luis Fernando Soto Zapata, the confessed shooter, was sentenced to 29 years in prison, but was subsequently released after only six years on good behavior. The early release spurred large-scale protests by journalists across Colombia. Zapata ultimately was killed in a June 2008 gunfight with police in the southwestern city of Cali.

Francisco Ferney Tapasco is already serving jail time in connection with an investigation of his alleged ties to a violent right-wing rebel group in Colombia. His son is also previously served a seven-year prison sentence for paramilitary links, but left prison earlier this month.

The arrests of these politicians support the fears initially expressed by the Colombian journalistic community that the murder was politically motivated. Sierra Hernandez had been outspoken against what he perceived as corrupt politicians for years prior to his murder. In face, he the journalist was assigned bodyguards following death threats that he had received in 1998.

For more information, please see:

Colombia Reports –Liberal Party Politicians Indicted for Journalist Murder – 29 March 2011

Latin American Herald Tribune –Colombia Politicians Accused of Journalist’s Murder – 29 March 2011

Committee to Protect Journalists – Journalist Killed: Colombia – February 2002