A Voice for the Voiceless

Arizona Passes Immigration Law

By Stephen Kopko

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

ARIZONA, United States-Today, the state of Arizona passed the United States’ strictest immigration law.  Under great pressure from a primary opponent, Governor Jan Brewer signed the legislation which will take effect 90 days after the current legislative session is complete.  President Obama rebuked the law in a speech at the White House today.

The Arizona law is the strictest immigration law in the United States. Entitled SB 1070, the law was sponsored by State Senator Russell Pearce.  According to the legislation, immigrants are required to carry proper immigration and identification documents at all times.  If a person is found without documentation, he or she will be charged with a misdemeanor crime.  It also grants police officers the authority to detain people they reasonably believe are in the United States without proper documentation.  The police are required to check with federal officials to determine if a person has proper immigration documents.

Governor Brewer pledged that the new law would not violate citizens’ constitutional rights.  She believes that the law is a compromise that helps Arizona deal with the problem of undocumented immigrants while balancing people’s liberty interests.  She stated; “I will not tolerate racial discrimination or racial profiling in Arizona.”

Arizona lawmakers believed they needed to take action because of the federal government’s failure to pass immigration reform.  Governor Brewer stated that Arizona has been “more than patient waiting for Washington to act.”  Also, Senator Pearce said that those who oppose the legislation were “against law enforcement, our citizens, and the rule of law.”

Before the legislation was signed into law, President Obama expressed his thoughts on it during a speech before members of the United States armed forces.  President Obama stated that the new law threatens to “undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.”  The President also has instructed the Justice Department to assess the legality of the new law. He also called upon Congress to pass immigration reform at the federal level.  Harry Reid, majority leader of the United States Senate, stated that an immigration reform proposal may be before the Senate after Memorial Day.

For more information, please see:

FOX News-Arizona Immigration Enforcement Law Spurs Obama Criticism-23 April 2010

MSNBC-Ariz. governor signs immigration bill into law-23 April 2010

NY Times-U.S’s Toughest Immigration Law Is Signed in Arizona-23 April 2010

Pacific Region Tackles Food Security Challenge at Summit in Vanuatu


By Eileen Gould
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

PORT VILA, Vanuatu – Delegates are currently meeting in Vanuatu to discuss food security issues in the Pacific region.

There are currently 170 delegates meeting in the tiny island nation.  Many are concerned about the “urgent” and “enormous” challenge the food security issue poses in the nations of the Pacific.

Local agriculture and the fisheries are being threatened by globalization and climate change.  Hence, there is a great need for change.

The Summit supported the idea that everyone must ensure that all people in the Pacific have access to safe and nutritious food from the area, as it is a basic right of all humans.

According to Dr. Chen, South Pacific’s Representative for the World Health Organization and Chair of the Summit, the delegates have been discussing a “Framework for Action”, which would provide for working together to pool resources and coordinate amongst regional nations.  The goal of the plan is ultimately to “sustain human life, minimize early death and ensure healthy and productive people.”

Trade, health, and agriculture Ministers came together for the first time to deal with the food security issue and establish a plan that will promote countries taking the initiative to resolve the problem.

The Deputy Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat says that the plan demonstrates that countries and regional organizations have worked together to develop a way to resolve the food security situation.

The Summit focused on sustainable local agriculture and protection of the rights of “vulnerable individuals”.

Food security was first recognized as an issue of increasing importance in August 2008 at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ meeting.  According to remarks by the Deputy Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum, Mr. Feleti P. Teo, it was at this meeting that leaders realized that “[f]ood security is no longer simply a health issue; it is a development issue and one that is multi-sectoral in nature and must be viewed in it[s] broadest scope.”

For more information please see:
Radio Fiji – Pacific Food Summit ends – 24 April 2010

Pacific.Scoop – Opening remarks by DSG Teo at the Food Summit – Vanuatu – 22 April 2010

Radio New Zealand International – Food summit in Vanuatu focuses on sustainable agriculture – 22 April 2010

Chechen Leader Accused of, Denies Political Slayings

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

GROZNY, Chechnya – The President of Chechnya was accused this week of killing two of his political opponents and ordering the murder of a third.  The accusations were quickly and summarily denied.

Mr. Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s President, was accused on Wednesday of ordering and organizing the killings of Sulim Yamadayev in March 2009 and Ruslan Yamadayev in March 2008. Kadyrov quickly denied the allegations without a statement.  His spokesman confirmed this denial today.

Both of the men were political enemies of Mr. Kadyrov, who has been the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya since 2007.  Sulim, a former general in the Russian army, was shot in Dubai.  Ruslan was shot in Moscow by an unidentified assailant.

The brother of the two men, Isa Yamadayev, sent a letter to a Moscow daily newspaper, Moskovsky Komsomolyets, claiming that he has video evidence that links Mr. Kadyrov to the slayings.  The video was obtained legally from a Russian Investigative Committee.

Moskovsky Komsomolyets posted the video on its website.  The video shows footage of an interrogation of Isa’s bodyguard, who claimed that Mr. Kadyrov ordered him to kill Isa for $1 million or otherwise his family would be killed.

The bodyguard did attempt to kill Isa in 2009, but Isa survived the murder attempt when he overpowered the bodyguard in his house.

During a meeting with Kadyrov in 2007, the bodyguard claims that the President Kadyrov also told him that Ruslan and Sulim were killed by Kadyrov’s “personal order”.

Previous links between Mr. Kadyrov and the killings have been more speculative.  Earlier this month, a Dubai trial court convicted Adam Delinkhanov of organizing the 2009 shooting of Sulim.  Mr. Delinkhanov was a close advisor to President Kadyrov.

For more information, please see:

RADIO FREE EUROPE – Chechen Leader’s Spokesman Rejects Assassination Allegations – 23 April 2010

MOSCOW TIMES – Kadyrov Accused of Ordering 3 Yamadayev Murders – 21 April 2010

NEW YORK TIMES – Chechen President Denies Ordering the Killings of 2 of His Opponents – 21 April 2010

General Fonseka Demands Liberation

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – After months of what General Fonseka has claimed to be unlawful detention, the former key organizer of Sri Lankan armed forces now demands freedom from captivity.  General Fonseka’s unsuccessful run against Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka’s presidential elections cost him his liberty, as Rajapaska, the remaining president, accused Fonseka of running with militant, anti-government designs.  High tensions between Rajapaksa and Fonseka intensified when, following the end of the quarter-century civil war against the Tamil Tigers, Fonseka acted on political aspirations.  Fonseka’s policies contravened Rajapaksa’s ethically questionable regime, further alarming the former president and resulting in his efforts to undermine Fonseka’s potential to ascend to office.

Among other allegations, Rajapaksa charged General Fonseka with interacting and supporting anti-government organizations.  Rajapaksa also claimed that General Fonseka illegally procured arms to advance his purposes.  Under the notion that General Fonseka was planning a forceful rule of the state, Rajapaksa ordered law enforcement to arrest and retrieve General Fonseka from his campaign offices and detain him.  A pending trial will determine the validity of these suspect charges.  The court marshal for Fonseka’s supposed effort to run for office while still serving under the Sri Lankan military was recently adjourned for two weeks for parliament’s inaugural session.

In his first public statement since his detainment on February 8th, General Fonseka expressed his hopes that the parliament would support the rights and liberties of the Sri Lankan people and unite in the interest of an honest nation.  The Sri Lankan government has long been accused of myriad human rights violations and morally tenuous policies and practices.  Fonseka’s remarks suggest his discontent with the state’s operations, despite his significant involvement in the military’s victory over the Tamil Tigers.

Although Fonseka’s attempt to rise to the presidency failed, his Democratic National Alliance party was able to occupy as total of seven seats in parliament.  Afforded the opportunity to speak in the house, Fonseka described his detainment as “illegal detention” and an example of the multiple “injustices” perpetrated by the Sri Lankan government.

The ultimate fate of the general remains to be decided, and it seems uncertain how his minimal influence in parliament will effect the pending decision of his fate.  However, Fonseka’s captivity appears to be an extension of Sri Lanka’s history of rights violations against its own people

For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – Sri Lanka’s Fonseka demands freedom -22 April 2010

BBC – Detained opposition leader in Sri Lankan parliament – 22 April 2010

Los Angeles Times – Sri Lanka defends arrest of candidate Sarath Fonseka – 10 Februar 2010

Palestinian Child Allegedly Forced to Drink Sewage, Vineyard Flooded by Israeli Settlement Sewage

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BEIT UMMAR, West Bank – In Beit Ummar, a Palestinian child was allegedly captured by Israeli soldiers on April 16. The child, fifteen-year-old Sabri Awad, was seized by the soldiers at the entrance to Beit Ummar after they suspected he was involved in stone-throwing. Awad told Al-Jazeera that the soldiers questioned him about the stone-throwing, which he denied, then the soldiers reportedly beat him for two hours. During the beatings, he was forced to drink fetid water, which Awad believed was sewage. Awad said that he vomited, after which the soldiers continued to beat him. Awad alleges the soldiers then threw him out of the Army jeep and sped away.

Media reports estimate that Israel is currently holding approximately three hundred Palestinian youth in custody, and that up to seven hundred Palestinian children and adolescents were detained by Israelis in 2009. Experts say that the full effects of such detentions are not fully known. Over 760,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned since 1967, which many experts say is one of the main sources of a trans-generational trauma that is pervasive throughout the Palestinian population, and one that will necessarily remain as long as there is occupation. Palestinian children who had at one time been in Israeli custody account for twenty percent of patients in the only torture victim center in the Palestinian territories. Even if the youth had not been tortured while in prison, mental health experts say that these young people tend to suffer more severe post-traumatic stress than adults who had been imprisoned.

In the same village where Sabri Awad was allegedly beaten, Israeli settlers from the Gush Etzion settlement opened their sewage pipe on April 21, flooding a Palestinian vineyard and destroying 70,000 square meters of prime agricultural land. Land experts who had surveyed the damage later said that both the land and the crops were effectively destroyed.

The Israeli Civil Administration later confirmed the incident, and said that compensation for the incident would have to be sought in court. A spokesman for the agency said that the sewage pump in the settlement had stopped working due to a power outage and that the resulting flood was a mistake.

The Israeli military has imposed a tight blockade on Beit Ummar and the surrounding areas since last week.

For more information, please see:

International Middle East Media Center – 58 Detained, One Wounded and 70 Dunams Drowned in Sewage – 23 April 2010

Ma’an News Agency – Vineyard Flooded with Settlement Sewage – 23 April 2010

Al-Jazeerah.info – Palestinian Child Reveals Abuse, Beating, and Drinking Sewage Water by Israeli Occupation Soldiers – 22 April 2010

Press TV – Palestinian Kid Forced to Drink Sewage – 22 April 2010

Al-Jazeera – Young Palestinians in Israeli Jails – 17 April 2010