North Korea to Restrict Emerging Market Economy

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea – Since North Korea’s recent implementation of a new monetary policy, there have been reports that the currency reform has exacerbated Pyongyang’s chronic problems of food shortages and price inflation.

A researcher in Seoul, Kay Seok, said, “The first public rallies we see in North Korea will not be about freedom or democracy, but…about livelihood.”

In fact, the currency reform has brought about such great public dissatisfaction that thousands of North Koreans began the New Year by holding a rally in the capital of the tightly controlled state.

Pyongyang’s new currency reform would slash two zeroes off its current currency, and the government has imposed limits on how much people can exchange the old currency for the new.  These changes have raised prices for essential goods that the impoverished North Koreans were already having trouble buying because of the existing inflation.

As such, the government is restricting people’s personal wealth, which has angered many North Koreans where there have been reports of people burning money.

In addition, North Korea has decided to stifle its rising merchant class by reclaiming state control over the economy.  For example, the North has decided to ban the use of foreign currency, and this move affects those who operate outside the country’s centrally planned economy, such as those who buy goods in Chinese yuan, US dollars or euros.

North Korean merchants who operate outside the state economy and earn large sums of money risk imprisonment.

Economists Marcus Noland and Stephan Haggard said, “The North Korean currency reform is an economically misguided initiative that will reduce the welfare of North residents…[H]eightened repression is a central feature of the new economic controls.”

Many view North’s new monetary policy as the country’s means to restrict and attacks its emerging market economy and the new businessmen, and a sign of North’s return to its version of socialism.

Park Hyeong-jung at the Korea Institute for National Unification said that the currency reform “has significantly strengthened the regime’s control over the economy and the people.”

Other experts in South Korea have also voiced concerns that this currency reform makes the North Korean regime collapse scenario more probable.
For more information, please see:

BloggingStocks – Inflation Surges on Wealth Destruction in North Korea – 7 January 2010

Jakarta Globe – N. Korean Crackdown On Merchants Risky – 7 January 2010

NPR – North Koreans Upset Over Currency Changes – 8 January 2010

Seven Killed in Drive-By After Coptic Christmas Eve Mass

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

NAGAA HAMMADI, Egypt – Clashes broke out between nearly one thousand Coptic Christians and local police in southern Egypt outside the hospital where the bodies of six Coptic Christians were held. The Christians and one Muslim security guard were killed as churchgoers left Christmas Eve midnight mass, welcoming the Coptic Christmas, which is celebrated on January 7. Ten others were reported wounded.

 

The shootings were believed to be revenge for the alleged rape of a twelve-year-old Muslim girl by a Christian man in November 2009. Since news of the alleged rape spread throughout the Nagaa Hammadi community, sectarian violence has gripped the southern Egyptian town. For five days after the alleged assault, Muslim residents ransacked the town, and set fire to Christian homes and businesses.

 

At the hospital where the bodies of the victims were being held, protestors threw stones at police and smashed ambulances. Police responded with tear gas, and witnesses reported the crowd shouted: “No to repression,” and “O blessed Cross we will defend you with our soul and our blood.”

 

The recent clashes are the latest in Upper Egypt (so-named because it is further upstream on the Nile River), an area that is known for its fierce tribal loyalties and practice of honor killings. In recent years, many Coptic Christians have reported increasing harassment by both residents and government officials. The Copts make up one of the oldest communities of Christians in the world, descended from Egyptians who converted during the first century A.D.

 

Mounir Megahed, director of Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination, said that sectarian violence has escalated in Egypt during the past year, with a new example coming nearly every week. Megahed also alleges that the Egyptian state is “soft on tackling the issue,” and that “they do not put people who commit these crimes to trials.” The most infamous of the violent outbreaks was the killing of twenty-one Christians in the southern Egyptian town of El Kosheh in 2000. Nearly ninety villagers were reportedly involved in the killing, but none were prosecuted, according to Megahed.

 

The lack of official attention to the sectarian violence in southern Egypt may also be rooted in cultural stereotypes and prejudices held by many Egyptians in the north. Salem Abdel Galil, the deputy minister for preaching at Egypt’s ministry of religious endowments said the violence was due to the “low standard of culture or education” in Upper Egypt, rather than any underlying religious intolerance.

 

For more information, please see:

 

Al Jazeera – Clashes After Egypt Copt Killings – 7 January 2010

 

BBC News – Clashes in Egyptian Town After Coptic Killings – 7 January 2010

 

The National – Egypt Fears Rise in Sectarian Violence After Church Killings – 7 January 2010

 

The Telegraph – Coptic Christians Clash With Egyptian Police After Mass Shooting – 7 January 2010

 

Voice of America – Attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt Leaves 7 Dead – 7 January 2010

Indigenous Autonomy in Bolivia

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LAGUNILLAS, Bolivia-The government of Bolivia has begun seizing ranches, totaling in over sixty square miles, in efforts to end a system of indigenous servitude. The changes came in the new constitution, establishing Bolivia as a pluri-national republic giving the thirty-six ethnic groups that make up over sixty percent of the population the right to self determination at the municipal level.

The land seizures are a part of the process of redistribution where 77,000 square miles of underused or disputed land will be turned over to indigenous communities nationwide by 2013. Eventually there will be autonomous territories. The government claims that all land seized thus far was obtained by fraud and was serving no social or economic purpose. The government also claims that indigenous people were living in servitude on ranches on the land.

The ranchers deny the government’s charges and are challenging the seizures in the courts. Other occupants who have had land seized by the government claim that it was an act of “vengeance.” Large land owners have been some of President Morales’ strongest opponents.

Morales was reelected on December 6, when twelve of Bolivia’s 327 municipalities voted in favor of indigenous self-government. This gives the indigenous communities control over natural resources on their land and more agency in deciding how to use funds transferred from the central state, as well as how they are dispersed.

Local government structure will be determined by each group. Some concerns are that there will be a shortage of farmland. In one area there are 16,000 people who will potentially be assigned plots of only 200 square meters, an insufficient amount to sustain agriculture. Other clans are seeking a redistribution of the 1.7 million dollars a year in funds that come from the central government, because they now only receive half of the total. Groups are also seeking an increase in local taxes and leasing charges on “fair terms” for companies exploiting minerals, limestone, water, and other natural resources.

For more information, please see:

Latin American Herald Tribune-Bolivia Announces Large Land Seizure From Private Company-7 January 2010

AP-Bolivia’s New Leader Seeks Justice for Exploited Indians-3 January 2010

Upside Down World-Bolivia:Native People Take First Step Toward Self Government-23 December 2009

Deadly Floods in Kenya Carries Concern of Disease

By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya — Some 30,000 people are in urgent need of shelter, water, food and healthcare after heavy rainfall caused massive flooding killing at least 21 people over parts of Kenya in the past two weeks and displacing thousands more.

The Kenya Red Cross (KRCS) on Tuesday called for help on behalf of families flooded out of their homes and in danger of waterborne disease. More than 70,000 people countrywide are at risk as they are said to reside in areas earmarked to suffer heavy rains.

Roads and bridges have been either destroyed or severely damaged, cutting off villagers and leaving them without food or potable water, putting them at risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases. The KRCS has begun trucking non-food items to Turkana and Nakuru in the northwest, where about 30,000 people have been affected in the past few days. The consignment includes blankets, jerry cans, mosquito nets, kitchen sets, soap and water treatment tablets.

These types of emergency activities are very expensive, said Abbas Gullet, KRCS Secretary-General. So far, the search and rescue activities have cost KRCS about KSh30 million (US$400,000), an amount sufficient to respond to the current needs but not if prolonged rains cause future damage, he added. “This has the potential of becoming an environmental disaster. We managed to address the immediate needs, but we need support to help our brothers and sisters,” Gullet told IRIN.

According to National Disaster Operation Centre (NDOC), the area most badly affected by the floods is the North Rift Valley region. In one district, Turkana East, five people died, five bridges were destroyed, many farms and households were damaged, while hundreds of head of livestock perished.

Megan Gilgan, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) chief of emergency, told IRIN: “We are concerned about recurrences of watery diarrhea and cholera in Lokori, East Turkana. The area already faced an unprecedented outbreak in the month of December and the situation could worsen now. We have emergency health kits available and water purification tablets for 30,000 people, enough supplies for a month.”

Floods are not common this time of year in Kenya. Meteorologists have blamed the unusual heavy rains on El Nino. El Nino is a periodic warming of the water in the tropical Pacific Ocean accompanied by changes in air pressure and winds that can affect weather worldwide.

For more information, please see:

IRIN – Disease Threat Follows Floods – 6 January 2010
http://allafrica.com/stories/201001060840.html

Capital News – After floods, disease stalks Kenyans – 5 January 2010
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/Kenyanews/After-floods,-disease-stalks-Kenyans-6999.html

All Africa – Aid Appeal for Flood Victims Sent Out as Heavy Rains Forecast to Continue – 5 January 2010
http://allafrica.com/stories/201001050968.html

New York Times – 21 Drown in Floods in Kenya – 5 January 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/05/world/AP-AF-Kenya-Floods.html

Tamil Asylum Seekers Protest Slow Processing of Claims on Christmas Island

By Eileen Gould
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

CANBERRA, Australia – Tamil asylum seekers have staged a protest at the Christmas Island detention facility as a result of the slow processing of their applications.

More than four hundred asylum seekers at the center have decided to boycott use of the facilities and participation in certain activities.  They have boycotted the gym, the internet and computers, library services as well as the cafeteria.

Because processing has been extremely slow, many individuals have waited for over six months to receive a decision on their applications.  The current protest involves the processing of claims made by the Tamil asylum seekers, totaling 196, that arrived in June 2009.

The immigration department has a self-imposed ninety day maximum for processing asylum applications on Australia’s mainland.

Of the 196 Tamils awaiting processing, 112 have in fact received visas.  However, seventy-eight asylum seekers, having been kept in detention for six months, have yet to receive any decision on their applications.

An additional seventy-eight asylum seekers, who arrived in the middle of August 2009, also have been waiting for approximately five months, without any word on the status of their visas.

One detainee summed up his frustrations in a phone conversation with a Refugee Action Coalition representative.  “How long do we have to wait?  We are too long waiting.  Our families have problems.  We have too many problems.”

The protest has been suspended, pending the outcome of a meeting on Wednesday between the Tamil asylum seekers and representatives from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC).

If the results of the meeting are not “satisfactory”, the Tamils promise to protest further.

An immigration department official stated that each Tamil’s situation “must be assessed on its individual merits”.

A spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition, Ian Rintoul, stated that the Tamils’ applications should not have taken this long to process, arguing that the government has employed a “double standard”.

“All of the Oceanic Viking Tamil asylum seekers were processed within six weeks.  The Tamils are victims of Labor maintaining a policy of off-shore processing part of Kevin Rudd’s Indonesia solution.”

The Refugee Action Coalition has expressed concern over the effects of long term detention practices.

Although the Immigration Minister claims that the policies of Prime Minister Rudd’s administration are humane, the Coalition feels otherwise.

“It is time [the Christmas Island detention facility be] closed.  Asylum seekers should be allowed to live in the community while their applications are being processed.”

These protests come as the number of detainees on Christmas Island approaches maximum capacity, with reports indicating the existence of ethnic tensions and overcrowding.

For more information please see:
Herald Sun – Asylum island ‘transit lounge’ – 07 January 2010

Scoop World – Christmas Island Detainees Protest Over Slow Processing – 06 January 2010

Sydney Morning Herald – Tamils boycott gym over processing times – 05 January 2010