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

Iraq to Sue Blackwater

By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq – On January 4 Iraq has filed a lawsuit against Blackwater in a United States court. Another lawsuit will be filed against the US-based private security firm, according to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The charges come amid anger in Iraq over an American court dropping charges against five Blackwater guards. The guards were charged with killing fourteen Iraqi civilians in an unprovoked attack in September 2007.

According to Maliki, “the US Justice Departments has protested” the court’s ruling that the charges be dropped. Maliki also confirmed that Iraq had “formed a committee and filed a case against Blackwater in the United States and will file one here in Iraq.” Without providing elaboration, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that Iraq had “started to take the necessary measures to bring Blackwater to justice.”

The guards charged in the original case were part of convoy of armored vehicles who were escorting a US State Department vehicle in a Sunni-controlled district in September 2007. They were charged with killing fourteen unarmed Iraqi civilians and wounding eighteen others at a busy Baghdad roundabout using both guns and grenades. Iraq alleges that seventeen people were killed in the action. Blackwater claimed that the convoy was attacked by an explosive device and smalls are fire and the guards were acting in self-defense. Witnesses and victims, however, allege that the Blackwater employees shot indiscriminately.

A US federal judge, Ricardo Urbinia, dismissed the charges against the five Blackwater guards. Urbina concluded that prosecutors had violated the rights of the guards by using incriminating statements they had made under immunity during a US State Department probe. The Iraqi government called this ruling “unacceptable and unjust.”

The immunity was lifted in a bilateral agreement that came into effect in 2009. It is not clear how an Iraqi case against the Blackwater guards or the company itself would get around the immunity that was valid at the time of the September 2007 incident.

Blackwater pulled out of Iraq in May 2009 after the United State State Department refused to renew its contracts. The company subsequently changed its name to Xe Services.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Iraq to Take Blackwater to Court – 5 January 2010

Daily Mail – Iraq Seeks Revenge in Court for the Blackwater Shootout – 5 January 2010

AFP – Iraq Files Case Against Blackwater: PM – 4 January 2010

Reuters – Iraq Will File Lawsuits Against Blackwater – 4 January 2010

Talks to Create Independent Telangana State End Inconclusively

By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

ANDHRA PRADESH, India – Government talks to carve a new, separate Telangana state out of the large south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh recently failed, concluding with an inconclusive outcome.   The independence discourse has been occurring between numerous political factions and other stakeholders, neither of whom were apparently willing come to an amicable compromise on their position.  However, neither group seems adverse to further consultation among the numerous interested groups.  Ultimately, the talks resulted in an agreement between all involved parties that, despite the dearth of breakthrough progress concerning the independence of the Telangana, the government will take an active role in preserving peace in Andhra Pradesh and quell civilian hostilities over this highly polarizing, significant issue.Subsequent to India’s liberation from the British Empire, movements for an independent Telangana began in the late 1960’s.  The movement created much tension between groups of Indian nationals and incited rife violence, resulting in many deaths.  Although subsequent stages of the movement were not strong enough the propel any important advances, the recent talks in the Indian government appeared to show promise for those eagerly awaiting a decision on the creation of the independent Telangana state.

The recent discussions of craving a Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh have provoked numerous publicized forms of protest and displays of the peoples’ passion for independence.  Conventional rallies and walk-outs occurred throughout many school campuses around south India.  However, suicides and significant striking have caused much panic among the government, political parties, and the civilian population in Andhra Pradesh.  Significant striking essentially shut down the Telangana region in early December.  Furthermore, the president of the TSR, one of the most prominent groups for Telangana’s independence undertook an eleven-day fast which he intended to carry out until his very death if no breakthroughs arose in the talks of state creation.  However, in early December, the Indian government announced that talks to craft the Telangana state would begin, enabling the TSR president to cease his hunger-strike.

Much of the passion for the creation of a separate Telangana state derives from its historical significance in both Muslim and Hindu history.  Also, the region of Telangana never came under direct British rule during the colonial Raj.  The willingness of the people to die for the symbolism behind an independent state, however, continues to compel supporting organizations to fight for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – India’s ‘Tiger of Telangana’ feted – 10 December 2009

India Today – Govt mulls Prez rule if Telangana talks fail – 5 January 2010

Zee News – Telangana: All-party meet fails to break ice – 5 January 2010