Afghan Police Join Taliban Insurgents

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia

KABUL, Afghanistan – Imagine local American police forces joined local and state gangs, and then attacked the very police station which they were previously employed. This is precisely what took place in Afghanistan according to the provincial governor of the Ghazni region.

American military trained and now Taliban recruited
American military trained and now Taliban recruited

In Khogeyani, volatile area southwest of the capital, the entire police force on duty Monday morning appears to have defected to the Taliban side. The New York Times is reporting that the “entire police force on duty Monday morning” in the district of Khogeyani “appears to have defected to the Taliban side.”

Musa Khan Haidar Zada, governor whom reported these events to CNN, indicated that defections were due to the poisonous influence of the Taliban.

Spokesman for the governor, Sayeed Esmaial Jahanger, told CNN that the Taliban took over the district without any violence and that 20 police were not seen again.

“This was not an attack, but a plot,” said Mohammed Yasin, the chief of the Khogeyani police force. “The Taliban and the police made a deal.”

Even a spokesman for the Taliban, said deal were cut and “the movement’s fighters made contact with the Khogeyani’s police force then sacked and burned the station. As officers vanished, so did their guns, trucks, uniforms and food.”

For months, through the tactic of “reintegration” American and Afghan officials have been promoting a plan to persuade multitudes of rank-and-file Taliban fighters to switch and fight on the side of the government. This tactic is one of the big hopes for turning the tide in the war, according to military officials.

The Taliban have developed a reintegration plan of their own.

The local police chief, who missed the attack, said he suspected a defection.

Zabiullah Mujahid, member of the Taliban said the Afghan officers decided to defect after “learning the facts about the Taliban.”

The Taliban reports that, “We never force people to join us,” said Mr. Mujahid, whose name is fictitious. “The police joined us voluntarily and are happy to work with us, and to start the holy war shoulder to shoulder with their Taliban brothers.”

The takeover of the station did not last long. Akbarzada said his office lost contact with the police station at about 5 a.m. Government forces arrived in Khogeyani about three hours later and found the station smoking and abandoned.

Mr. Akbarzada said his Afghan forces would be relentless in their recruitment.

“The Taliban exist in and around the district centers, and we have our own judges, courts, district governors and other officials,” he said. “We do our guerrilla attacks and then leave the district center. This is just a building.”

Provincial Governor Musa Khan Akbarzada insisted that security forces will continue to search for the police and the Taliban they joined with. Taliban spokesman Mujahid insisted that they were long gone, having melted into the countryside.

For more information, please see:

New York Times – Afghan Police Unit Defects to Taliban – 1 November 2010

CNN World – Police in Afghan might have defected – 2 November 2010

AntiWar.com – Afghan Police Defect to Taliban in Secret Deal – 1 November 2010

Peruvian Blogger Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison For Post About Congressman

By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Peruvian blogger José Alejandro Godoy (photo courtesy of ideeleradio.blogspot.com)
Peruvian blogger José Alejandro Godoy (photo courtesy of ideeleradio.blogspot.com)

LIMA, Peru – Popular Peruvian blogger Jose Alejandro Godoy has been sentenced to three years in prison and 120 days of community service for “defamation.”  In addition, Godoy was ordered to pay a fine of 350,000 soles, approximately $125,000 U.S. dollars.  This represents the first time in Peruvian history that such an action has been taken against a blogger.

Former Peru Congressman Jorge Mufarech filed charges against Godoy in 2009 for one of the blogger’s posts.  The post, which was titled “Desde el Tercer Piso” (From the Third Floor), illustrated threats that Congressman Mufarech made against Arzibu Gonzalez, an advisor for Peru’s Nationalist Party.

Godoy published links to numerous documents which tended to substantiate the threat allegations.  One such document was a letter sent from Arzibu to Congressman Fredy Otarola, a member of Peru’s Nationalist Party, detailing the threats.  Although Mufarech demanded that the post be taken down, it was not, and the ex-Congressman filed suit.

Other Peruvian journalists have been outspoken against the ruling.  The Lima-based Press and Society Institute called the ruling “unconstitutional” and “without precedent.”  In a statement, Press and Society Institute stated, “[t]he lack of judicial support for the sentence… as well as the excessive sentence, shows a clear attempt, without precedent, against freedom of the press in the history of Peru. [i]t is the first sentence that has been produced in this country against a blogger.

In perhaps the most powerful outcry of support, Susana Villaran, the likely mayor-elect of Peru’s capital city of Lima, called the conviction “an attack on freedom of expression.”

Godoy is not accepting the verdict without a fight.  Stating “[i]t is an unfair, illegal ruling and doesn’t only go against the Constitution but against international human rights agreements,” the blogger has vowed to appeal the final ruling.

For more information, please see:

Guardian.co.uk – Peru Blogger Jailed for Three Years – 2 November 2010

Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas – Peruvian Journalists Condemn Blogger’s Defamation Conviction – 1 November 2010

Peruvian Times – Peru Judge Hits Local Blogger with 3 Year Prison Sentence, First of Kind in Peru – 29 October 2010

Turkish Laws Violate Right to Speech, Association and Assembly

By Ricardo Zamora

Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ISTANBUL, Turkey – In a report released today, Human Rights Watch revealed that Turkey, through anti-terror laws, seeks to prosecute peaceful demonstrators as though they were armed militants.  Human Rights Watch cautions that such sweeping laws violate freedom of expression, association, and assembly.

After a suicide bombing during a Kurdish demonstration in Istanbul yesterday, local authorities are seeking to prosecute many attendees even though they were not involved in the bombing itself.

This is not a new approach for the Turkish government.  Over the past three years, courts have prosecuted demonstrators through the use of the 2005 Turkish Penal Code and case law.  Hundreds of Kurdish demonstrators are currently incarcerated awaiting the outcome of their trials or appeals.

“When it comes to the Kurdish question, the courts in Turkey are all too quick to label political opposition as terrorism,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researched at Human Rights Watch and author of the report.  “When you close off the space for free speech and association, it has the counterproductive effect of making armed opposition more attractive.”

In July, parliament amended laws to prevent the prosecution of Kurdish children who attend such demonstrations and quashed any current convictions.  However, Turkey’s approach to handling adults went unchanged.

Now, Human Rights Watch is calling Turkey to similarly amend its approach to the prosecution of Kurdish adults in related cases.

“Ending the prosecution under these laws of most child demonstrators was an important step forward,” Sinclair-Webb said. “But allowing laws clearly aimed at terrorism to be used against adult demonstrators inflicts immense damage on free expression, assembly, and association in Turkey.”

The report documents many “violations” which authorities found sufficiently severe to subject otherwise legal demonstrators from being subject to Turkey’s anti-terror laws and penalties.  For example, several individuals have been convicted for simply shouting slogans, making victory signs and throwing stones.  Sentences handed down for those offenses range from 10 years and 5 months to 11 years and 3 months.

“The government should complete the task of reform by changing laws relating to adult demonstrators, to bring them fully into line with Turkey’s human rights obligations,” Sinclair-Webb said.  “Throwing people in jail is not way to halt terrorism – or protest.”

For more information, please see:

IFEX – HRW Report Shows Terrorism Laws Used to Jail Kurdish Protesters – November 1, 2010

Human Rights Watch – Turkey: Terrorism Laws Used to Jail Kurdish Protesters – November 1, 2010

Monsters & Critics – Turkey Accused of Using Terror Laws to Stifle Kurdish Protests – November 1, 2010

Brazil’s First Woman President Addresses Equality

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Rousseff shakes hands with supporters after her win. (Photo courtesy of Globe and Mail)
Rousseff shakes hands with supporters after her win. (Photo courtesy of Globe and Mail)

BRASILIA, Brazil—On Sunday, Brazil elected the country’s first woman president, Dilma Rousseff.  President-elect Rousseff received 56% of the vote, and has become the eighth elected woman president in Latin America and the Caribbean.  She has vowed to defend women’s rights, echoing Barack Obama’s motto “Yes, we can,” by saying, “Yes, women can.”

After her victory on Sunday, Rousseff proclaimed, “Equal opportunities for men and women are an essential principle of democracy.  I would like for fathers and mothers to look into their daughters’ eyes today and tell them: ‘Yes, women can.’ I would like to register my first post-election commitment: to honor Brazilian women so that this unprecedented fact becomes a natural event.”  She went on to say that she will work towards women gaining opportunities “in businesses, civil institutions . . . and in the whole of our society.”

Many are hopeful that Brazil’s first female president will be successful in implementing important advances in gender equality.  Sociologist Fátima Pacheco Jordão opined: “Most important in this feminist-tinged speech was that she described the advance of gender equality issues as one of the foundations of democracy.  Never has a [Brazilian] president treated the gender question in this way.”

It is believed that the president-elect will promote certain women to higher governmental offices.  Yet Jordão is hesitant to expect massive reform under Rousseff, noting that most senior cabinet members will still be men.  According to Jordão, “The proportion of women in politics in Brazil is very limited, worse than many Latin American countries and several in Africa.”

Rousseff had been imprisoned and tortured for three years in the 1970s for opposing Brazil’s then-dictatorship.  More recently, she served under former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as Chief of Staff for the last five years.  She ran for president as the candidate for the Workers Party.

Brazil is ranked as the world’s eighth largest economy.  Rousseff, 62, will take office on January 1 of next year.

For more information, please see:

Guardian-‘Yes, women can’-Brazil’s first ‘presidenta’ pledges gender equality-1 November 2010

CBS-Obama telephones Brazil’s president-elect Rousseff-1 November 2010

Examiner-Brazil elects its first female president, Dilma Rousseff-1 November 2010