EU Companies Importing and Exporting Torture Devices Despite Ban

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Florida based company, Stinger Systems, has acknowledged that it exports an instrument of  torture known as the “Band-It” to Europe.  The “Band-It” system is attached to a prisoner’s arms or legs and can administer a shock of 50,000 volts.  This report by Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS) comes roughly a month after Amnesty International  reported on the loopholes that European firms were using in order to side-step EU bans on trade in torture devices.

Since 2006 the European Union (EU) has had rules in place which outlaw trade in a range of instruments that are expressly used for torture. Stinger Systems’ “Band-It” is among those devices outlawed by the EU. The company’s president, Bob Gruder, refused to say which European countries have purchased the device. Gruder told IPS: “We only sell to military and law enforcement authorities . . . Our products are sold worldwide but we prefer not to disclose where.”

Stinger, formerly known as Stun Tech, has distributed their products in several EU nations. A Romanian company called Gate 4 Business has confirmed that they imported some of the “Band-It” devices.  The company’s spokesman, Cristian Anastesue, said that the company took “a few samples,” but added that under Romanian law, it is considered a “lethal weapon.”

Amnesty International reported in March that firms in Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Italy were selling electroshock “sleeves” and “cuffs” capable of delivering 50,000-volt shocks, spiked batons, and fixed wall restraints to countries with checkered human rights records, such as China, Pakistan, and the U.A.E. These firms have gotten around the EU ban on torture devices, which explicitly refers to “stun belts,” by applying different names to products that have a similar effect to a stun belt.

David Nichols, a foreign policy analyst in the Amnesty International office in Brussels, said: “What we have been saying is that there are other devices that have been reclassified or renamed and traded as if they were completely legitimate, even though they have no other use than as torture instruments.”

Sirien, a Belgian company, was named in the report as a Stinger agent in Europe. Sirien ceased advertisement of the S-200 stun gun on its website after the report was published.

In his response to the Amnesty International report, Sirien representative Erwin Lafosse said: “The problem with Amnesty International is that they only see the bad side to everything . . . Yes, these can be used to torture but so can all sorts of ordinary devices like knives, forks and spoons.”

For more information, please see:

IPS – Europe Imports Torture from US – 14 April 2010

Time – Is the European Union Exporting Torture Devices? – 31 March 2010

Amnesty International Report – From Words to Deeds: Making the EU Ban on the Trade in ‘Tools of Torture’ a Reality – 17 March 2010

Yemeni Police Kill Two Al-Qaeda Suspects

By Ahmad Shihadah
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

SA’NA, Yemen – A security official in Yemen says soldiers killed two suspected members of al-Qaeda wanted by police and arrested a third in an exchange of fire at a highway checkpoint near the country’s Red Sea coast.

The shootout occurred at a highway checkpoint north port city of Houdieda. It also left two policemen injured, one of them critically.

Police opened fire at the car after it failed to pull over for a routine search at the al-Sham checkpoint outside Houdieda city, with two of its occupants dying on the spot while a third one was arrested by Yemini authorities.

“The two men were inside a car and refused to stop at a check point. An exchange of fire took place between them and security forces,” an official said, adding the clash took place after midnight on Saturday.

Yemen has tightened security at oil facilities and government buildings, after the clash with security forces in western Yemen, a Yemeni official told Reuters on Sunday.

Yemen’s government is struggling to stabilize the country where al-Qaeda is trying to strengthen its influence. The security official told Reuters that security measures were tightened around major “government, economic, oil and Western facilities” as of Saturday.

The measures included “the replacement of some normal central security forces with special units … well qualified and trained by Arab military experts,” he said.

Yemen, the poorest Arab country, has already carried out air strikes, with U.S. assistance, to target al-Qaeda leaders.

Western intelligence agencies lately warned that Yemen was becoming a hub of Islamist insurgents, including those from al-Qaeda, despite the Yemeni government’s efforts to snuff religious extremism out

The growing emergence of Islamist insurgency in the peninsular country was further revealed when the young Nigerian accused of trying to blow up an American airliner midflight on Christmas day said he had received training and indoctrination from militant leaders in the Yemen.

For more information, please see:

AP – 2 Al-Qaida Members Killed In Clash With Yemen Army – 18 April 2010

The Washington Post – Yemen Oil Security Tightened, Two Suspects Killed – 18 April 2010

RTT News – Two Al-Qaeda Suspects Killed In Shootout With Police In Yemen – 19 April 2010

Honduras’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Faces Skeptism

By Brenda Lopez Romero
Impunity Watch reporter – North America desk

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – On May 4, 2010, the independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission will begin its work to document an “objective and impartial” report of the events that lead to the June 28, 2009 political change of power and ouster of President Zelaya.

Former Guatemalan Vice President – Eduardo Stein, two international experts – Michael Kergin, former Assistant Deputy Minister for the Americas in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada and Maria Amadilia, former Minister of Justice of Peru, and two national experts – Hondurans Julieta Castellanos, President of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) and former UNAH President and jurist Jorge Omar Casco, and a support team, will coordinate the Commission in addition to technical and administrative assistance from the Organization of American States (OAS).

Mr. Stein pre-warned some facts may not be disclosed, because “there will be sensitive information that will be classified, especially confidential testimony provided by certain individuals during the investigation process.”  Mr. Stein did point out that within a 10 year period that information would be declassified, but his team is “going to be extremely scrupulous in [thier] work.”  Nevertheless, there is already dissatisfaction with the chosen experts.

Reina Rivera, a member of the Human Rights Platform Coalition stated, “We believe that the selection of the international members was made more on the basis of their nationalities than their competence and abilities. The representatives from Canada and Peru are not well looked upon in some sectors, which is why some reject the Commission, while others view it with reservations.”  The president of the National Association of Industrialists, Adolfo Facusse, said that the findings “will be geared to what the world wants to hear, and not to what really happened in Honduras. I don’t have very high expectations regarding this question. It won’t contribute to reconciliation; on the contrary, it will create greater division.”  Honduras’ first ever Human Rights Commissioner (from 1992 to 2002), Leo Valladares, opined that “it’s only natural that there is widespread distrust,” he said.

For more information see:

Honduras News – Truth Commission Faces Daunting Task – 19 April 2010

IPS News – Truth Commission Under Fire from All Sides – 19 April 2010

Upsidedown World – Disappearing Truth in Honduras: Commissions Cover Up Demands for New Constitution – 13 April 2010

Hamas Promises to Continue Executions of “Collaborators”

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

GAZA CITY, Gaza – Hamas has announced that it will continue to execute those it believes are collaborating with Israel. Hamas, the Islamist party that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, restarted such executions on April 15, executing Nasser Abu Freih and Mohammed Ismail by firing squad. Hamas had not officially executed accused collaborators in five years.

“We will continue to implement the death penalty for all those who were so sentenced,” said Fathi Hamad, Hamas interior minister. “Anyone who finds himself in this treacherous condition is an agent and a spy. He is providing information without regard to who he really is, and should be brought to justice…If there is a death sentence we will implement it immediately in order to preserve our people and its project of jihad and liberation.”

The executions and Hamas government statements caused an outcry among international human rights groups. B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group accused Hamas of not adhering to “even minimal standards of due process” in its trials of alleged collaborators. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights also condemned the executions, saying that any executions conducted without the approval of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are unconstitutional. Further, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she was alarmed by Hamas’s plan to continue such executions, and was “disappointed” that Hamas has returned to the death penalty, despite the international community’s rejection of the practice.

Local analysts believe that Hamas is not solely motivated in cracking down on alleged collaborators, but rather in reversing internal criticism that it is being soft on Israel. Since Hamas agreed to a ceasefire with Israel after the fighting between Israel and Hamas during the winter of 2008-2009, the party has tried to reassert its internal legitimacy among competing militant factions.

“[T]his recent decisions was…related to internal pressure, where the extreme elements both in Hamas and from other factions are saying: ‘Why are we just holding these collaborators in jail? We want action,’” according to Issam Younis, director of the Gaza-based al-Mezan Center for Human Rights.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Hamas Vows to Keep Executing “Collaborators” in Gaza – 19 April 2010

Ha’aretz – Hamas: We’ll Continue Carrying Out Executions in Gaza – 19 April 2010

The National – Executions by Hamas Condemned as Murder – 18 April 2010

Jurist – UN Rights Chief Denounces Hamas Executions – 16 April 2010

BBC News – “Palestinian Collaborators” Executed by Hamas – 15 April 2010

Human Rights Group Reports Labor Law Violations in Microsoft Factory in China

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SHANGHAI, China – Two Chinese factories have been found to have violated local labor laws, such as working employees for too many consecutive hours and failing to register more than 300 workers between the ages of 16 and 18.  The factories supply goods to Microsoft and other global companies.

In response to these reports, Microsoft Corporation said it is investigating allegations of worker abuse at a factory, which primarily produces computer mice, cameras as well as many other devices for the technology giant. KYE Systems Corporation is also reacting to the situation for products the factories make for it.

The ordeal is a response to effort by the National Labor Committee, a human rights group, a New York-based nonprofit that monitors the treatment and local practices of foreign workers by U.S. companies.  According to Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, “The factory was really run like a minimum security prison.” The report issued by the National Labor Committee states that KYE recruits employees, many of whom are 16 and 17 years old, to work 15-hour shifts six to seven days a week, paying them 65 cents an hour, which then is reduced to 52 cents an hour, after deductions for food.

The National Labor Committee went on to discuss conditions and treatment in its report. According to the group’s findings, workers are housed in cramped quarters in factory dormitories and prohibited from talking, listening to music or using the bathroom during work hours. Employees were also forced to work an excessive amount of overtime in March, clocking about 280 hours, the report said. The report also indicated that copies their employment contracts were not given to the employees. However, in response to these statements, company officials said that based on interviews with workers, there were no restrictions against using the restroom during shifts, and that it is the company’s policy to give workers 10-minute breaks for every two hours worked.

In a press interview, KYE Systems Corporation spokesman, Lai Jin-hui, insisted that factories did nothing wrong regarding overtime and had followed regulations that limit the workweek to 60 hours. But Lai acknowledged that the factories failed to properly register workers and would now fix the problem.

For more information, please see:

Yahoo! Finance – China factories break labor rules – 19 April 2010

 The New York Times – Chinese Suppliers to Microsoft Cited for Labor Violations – 19 April 2010

The Wall Street Journal – Microsoft to Probe Conditions in China – 19 April 2010