Amnesty International Calls on New Zealand to Speak Out Against Repression in Fiji

By Cindy Trinh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – Amnesty International is calling on New Zealand and other countries in the region to speak out and intensify calls for Fiji to cease human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests, intimidation, threats, assaults, and detention.

In its call for New Zealand and other countries to speak out against repression in Fiji, Amnesty urges that the topic of human rights are included in any dialogue with Fiji.

Human rights violations have been increasing in Fiji ever since Public Emergency Regulations (PER) were imposed in April of 2008, when ex-President Ratu Josefa Iloilo abrogated Fiji’s constitution and reappointed Commodore Frank Bainimarama as Prime Minister.

Under the PER, Fiji’s military and security forces retain absolute control over the country’s population, and soldiers and police enjoy complete immunity from prosecution for their actions, including serious violations of human rights.

Not only does the PER encourage violations of human rights, the Fiji regime is continually bringing in more measures to stifle dissent.

Amnesty’s Pacific Researcher, Apolosi Bose, stated that the Fiji regime has become “comfortable with getting away with human rights abuses, because they are shutting down their opponents one by one.” Amnesty urges New Zealand and other countries to maintain a strong stance against the Fiji regime.

Last week, Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced that New Zealand and Fiji had agreed to improve diplomatic relations. Amnesty believes that this “provides an increased opportunity to raise concerns about the recent intensified crackdown on opponents of the Fijian regime.”

Apolosi Bose further stated: “Fiji’s neighbors must urge the regime to restore the independence of the judiciary and cooperate with the United Nations in ending human rights abuses.”

For more information, please see:
Amnesty International – NZ-Fiji re-engagement must consider human rights – 21 January 2010

Radio New Zealand International – Amnesty calls on region to speak out against repression in Fiji – 21 January 2010

Silobreaker – Amnesty calls on region to speak out against repression in Fiji – 21 January 2010

Colombian Soldiers Indicted for Indigenous Deaths

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia-Seven soldiers were indicted last week for killing Edwin Legarda, the spouse of Aida Quilcue, an indigenous leader. Aida Quilcue lead indigenous protests of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s policies. Another indigenous leader was found brutally murdered in Northern Colombia this week.

The army initially explained the shooting death as the result of Legarda failing to stop at a checkpoint in the Cuaca village of San Pedro. However, investigators found no sign of a military check point at the location where Legarda was killed. However, sixteen bullets were found in the sides and just three in the back of the pickup truck Legarda was in.

Seven members of the army were arrested in April of 2009 for the shooting and were charged last week with aggravated assault. The death occurred not long after Legarda’s wife led a large march for several days along the Pan American Highway to the southwestern city of Cali. Protesters demanded that Uribe provide indigenous communities with land, protection from illegal armed groups, and full respect for indigenous rights.

Protest organizers estimate that more than 1,200 indigenous Colombians have been killed and at least 54,000 displaced from their ancestral lands since Uribe became president in 2002.

On Sunday a Zenu indigenous leader that had been reported missing in Northern Colombia was found dead. Efrain Antonio Basillo was beheaded and set on fire by unknown individuals. He was a medicine man and received calls for help in treating an ailing man the night he disappeared.

Tribal leaders believe that both deaths are related to land disputes.

For more information, please see:

Latin American Herald Tribune-Colombian Troops Indicted for Killing Indian -28 January 2010

Colombia Reports-Soldiers on Trial for the Murder of Indigenous Leader-25 January 2010

EFA-Siete Militares Son Llamados a Jucio Por el Homocidio de un Líder Indígena-26 January 2010

Iranian Nuclear Plant to be Operational by 2011

By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

MOSCOW, Russia – On January 21 Iranian and Russian officials said that Iran’s first nuclear power plant will be operating by mid-2011. Russian officials confirmed that the nuclear reactor would be started to be built in 2010. The plant will be located in the Iranian city of Bushehr. Russia’s nuclear chief, Sergei Kiryenko, commented that “2010 is the year of the Bushehr.”

Kiryenko also said that “all the work is going as scheduled. The tests are a success.” The Director of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, also commented on the plants creation. Salehi said that the Bushehr nuclear power plant will be operational by late September. He also explained that experts are conducting final tests and there would be no delays on the part of the Russians in the launching of the nuclear plant.

This development comes amidst rising tensions over Iran’s refusal to accept a proposal by the United Nations aimed at easing the international concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. The IAEA (nuclear arm of the united nations) plan calls for the Islamic Republic to ship low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment and then to France where it would converted into fuel for Tehran’s medical purpose reactor.

Iran’s refusal to accept this deal lead to Western nations in the UN Security Council to threaten to imposed further sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The other two members of the Security Council, Russia and China, have called for more restraint and patience. Iran insists that they only have peaceful intentions with their nuclear program. The West believes that these claims are a cover-up for a nuclear weapons program.

The Bushehr plant’s construction began in 1974 but was abandoned five years later after the Islamic Revolution led to upheaval in Iran’s government. Western companies reneged on their commitments and pulled out of the Islamic Republic and the project after political pressure from the United States federal government. Russia ultimately agreed to complete the project.

In 1992 the two countries signed a deal to complete the construction of the nuclear power plant. Russia started working on the plant in 1995 and its contract was estimated to worth close to one billion dollars. The plant was was originally scheduled to open in 1999 but has been repeatedly delayed.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Plant to Open in 2010 – 21 January 2010

Press TV – Russia: Bushehr Plant to Come on Stream in 2010 – 21 January 2010

RTT – Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Plant to be Launched by Mid-2010 – 21 January 2010

Washington Post – Russia Says to Start Iran Nuclear Plant in 2010 – 21 January 2010

Thousands Displaced and Over 20 Dead after Rogue Violence Consumes Nigerian City

By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KANO, Nigeria — Several thousand residents of Jos, in central Nigeria, are displaced after their homes burned in deadly sectarian clashes on January 17th, according to residents and the local Red Cross. Local authorities have not yet confirmed the death toll violence but information IRIN obtained from hospital sources and residents put the number at 26, with 300 people injured.

Violence erupted in the Dutse Uku neighborhood of the predominantly Christian Nassarawa Gwom district. Residents told IRIN, the clashes followed a dispute over a Muslim resident’s reconstruction of his home that had been burned down in February 2008 riots, in which according to Human Rights Watch, 133 people died. The misunderstanding occured between two neighbors, one Mr. Garba, a Muslim and the other a Christian who both had their houses burnt during the November 2008 crisis. According to THISDAY, when the neighbors decided to re-build their homes, Garba allegedly encroached on the plot of his Christian neighbor, a development that resulted into a hot argument and then a fight. The entire quarters re-grouped along religious lines and began a riot that spread to other parts of the city.

The NRC is coordinating its response with the government’s National Emergency Management Agency and has appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross for support.

“We have [set up] five makeshift camps in police barracks, mosques and churches, sheltering 2,800 displaced people,” Awwalu Mohammed, head of Nigeria Red Cross (NRC) in Jos, capital of Plateau State, told IRIN. “These people don’t have enough food and water,” he said. “They have lost their homes…so they couldn’t salvage anything from their belongings. They are in urgent need of clothing and blankets to protect them from the cold, especially children who are more vulnerable to the unfriendly harmattan [seasonal winds].” Many more displaced people are staying with friends and relatives in other parts of Jos city, Mohammed added.

The Red Cross’s Mohammed also told IRIN the NRC recorded 102 people admitted to five hospitals in the city with gunshot wounds, while others with less severe injuries had been treated and discharged.

Military and police are constantly patrolling Jos city and a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed on January 17th remains in effect, Plateau State information commissioner, Gregory Yenlong, told IRIN on January 18th. Gregory Anting, state police commissioner, told IRIN police have arrested 35 people, five of whom were in military uniform.

Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Mohammed Lerama, said: “the situation is being contained. Other residents of the town are advised to remain calm and report any suspicious movement. Anyone who takes the law into his or her hand would be dealt with in accordance with the law. Residents should equally disregard any rumor of crisis in the city.”

For more information, please see:

Vanguard – Food Crisis Hits Displaced Persons – 19 January 2010

THISDAY –‘Jos Mayhem Caused By Religious Terrorism, Bigotry’ – 19 January 2010

THISDAY – 20 Feared Killed in Another Jos Riot – 18 January 2010

IRIN – Thousands Displaced in Jos Riots – 18 January 2010

24 Russians Detained At March Remembering Slain Activists

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Twenty-four people were detained on Tuesday by Moscow police during a rally in remembrance of the killing of an activist human rights lawyer and a prominent reporter.

Approximately one thousand marchers attended the rally in remembrance of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova.  Markelov had worked with human rights victims in Chechnya while Baburova, a journalist for the Novaya Gazeta, had published a number of articles critical of extremist Russian nationalist groups.  Both were murdered after leaving a building in downtown Moscow where they had been attending a news conference.  Protesters at yesterdays rally declared that those neo-Nazi nationalist forces were responsible for their deaths.

Leading human rights activists, including representatives from For Human Rights and the opposition political party Yabloko, were in attendance at the rally.  Russian human rights activist Gary Kasparov noted that those Russians who had been willing to speak out on human rights issues were becoming targets for extremist groups, and the government was not taking the necessary steps to protect them.

In addition to drawing attention to those responsible for the deaths of Markelov and Baburova, those participating sought to draw more scrutiny on the growing prominence of extreme nationalist groups in contemporary Russia.  Sergei Udaltsov, a human rights activist who attended the rally, noted that “we are here to say our firm “No” to nationalism, fascism, and inactivity of authorities.”

The protesters arrested were held by police on the grounds that they were participating in a march that had deviated from the permitted march route.  The city had originally denied a permit for the rally but eventually agreed to the event with certain restrictions.  Participants were not allowed to carry signs with political symbols and they could march in groups no greater than fifty people.  According to the Interfax agency the police put those who had been arrested onto buses before transferring them to another location.

Regarding the arrests at the rally, a police spokesman offered an explanation for the decision by police to arrest the protesters.  “[Those] twenty four people were detained after they tried to hold an illegal march.  There was an agreement with the authorities for a rally, but after the rally they provoked police by trying to stage a march.”

Nikolai Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis, members of a neo-Nazi group, were arrested in November and charged with the killing of Markelov and Baburova.

For more information, please see:

MOSCOW TIMES – 500 Rally in Memory of Markelov – 20 January 2010

AP – Moscow rally in memory of slain lawyer, journalist – 19 January 2010

DEUTSCHE PRESS-AGENTUR – 30 arrested in unauthorized Moscow demonstration – 19 January 2010

OTHER RUSSIA – 600 Participate in Memorial March for Slain Lawyer – 19 January 2010

REUTERS – Police Detain 24 At Russian Rally For Murdered Activists – 19 January 2010