Rights Activist Arrested in Western Sahara

By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

RABAT, Morocco – Western Sahara rights activist Aminatou Haidar, 42, was arrested on Friday after arriving in Laayoune, capital of Western Sahara, from the Canary Islands.  On Saturday Moroccan authorities ejected her to the Spanish archipelago.

Haidar is accused of being linked to the Polisario rebel group.  She was arrested for allegedly refusing to follow police formalities.  According to Haidar, she was arrested at the airport when she listed Western Sahara as her country of residence on an entry form at Laayoune airport.

“After her stubborn refusal to follow normal police procedures and renouncing her Moroccan citizenship upon her arrival at Laayoune airport…Aminatou Haidar was sent back by plane Saturday to the Canary Islands,” said a security source.

Haidar, a mother of two, lives with her children in Laayoune.  She threatened to go on a hunger strike if she is not allowed to fly back on Sunday.  It is unclear whether or not she will be allowed to return because Moroccan authorities confiscated her passport when they arrested her.

A leading defender of human rights of the people in Western Sahara, known as Sahrawis, Haidar received the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Laureate.  Most recently she received the Civil Courage Prize from The Train Foundation in New York on October 21.

“This prize gives me the courage to pursue the non-violent struggle that I have been leading since I was 23,” she said.  “I have been threatened with arrest on my return.”

In 2005 Haidar became a symbol for non-violent protest when she nearly killed herself by going on a hunger strike after Moroccan authorities imprisoned her for nearly seven months.  Some of her admirers call her “Sahrawi Gandhi.”

Haidar frequently criticizes Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara after Spanish colonial rule ended in 1975.  Her critique prompted the Polisario to rise up for independence of the territory.  Members of a seven-person group are to appear before a military tribunal in Rabat on charges of supporting secession after returning from a visit to Polisario refugee camps in Algeria on October 8.

Last week, King Mohammed VI warned “opponents of the territorial integrity of Morocco” that he would be cracking down, referring to Sahrawis supporting the Polisario Front.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Western Sahara Rights Activist Expelled From Morocco – 14 November 2009

AllAfrica – Human Rights Awardee Detained, Deported By Morocco – 14 November 2009

AFP – Polisario Militant Arrested in Morocco – 13 November 2009

ASVDH (The Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations) – RFK Center Condemns Morocco’s Detention of Decorated Human Rights Defender, Amintou Haidar – 13 November 2009

ASVDH – Western Saharan Activist Wins Prestigious RFK Human Rights Award – 16 September 2008

Nepalese Police Face-Off With Protesters

By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KATHMANDU, Nepal – Thousands of Maoist activists gathered outside the capital in Nepal at the main government headquarters, where police claim protesters had tried to enter a prohibited area. According to a local news source, the rioters were calling for the resignation of the president.

Nepal riot police clash with protesters: witnesses Protesters advancing as police try and contain the riot in Katmandu. Photograph courtesy of The New York Times.

The police fired tear gas at a crowd of protesters who were blocking access to administrative offices in the capital. A Nepalese reporter from Republica noted that there were some minor injuries to police officers and picketers. One police officer stated, “We used force after the protesters tried to breach our security cordon,” said deputy superintendent of police Kanchha Bhandari. He also stated that 14 rounds of tear gas were fired.

Before violence erupted, demonstrators began gathering in Katmandu before dawn. Many of them arrived by bus from outlying towns and villages. As the crowd mounted, thousands of heavily armed National Police officers were mobilized.

The protesters were led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the former guerrilla fighter better known as Prachanda, who had been the leader of the 10-year Maoist insurgency that overthrew the Nepalese monarchy in 2006. Earlier in the week, Prachanda warned the government that he and his supporters could be forced to “take up arms” if the government used the police and military to block demonstrations, according to a local news agency.

Most civil servants and politicians were able to reach their offices in the Singha Durbar, although The Himalayan Times reported that local schools were closed for the day.

Prachanda and other Maoist leaders assert that the general defied a peace accord, which was backed by the United Nations, that would have integrated about 20,000 former guerilla soldiers (a large percentage of which are unemployed) into the Nepalese military. Protests such as this one are not unique occurrences.  Prachanda and his supporters have held several mass riots, demanding the resignation of the government and the removal of the president.

For more information, please see:

NY Times – Protesters Clash With Police in Nepal – November 12, 2009 

Yahoo! World News – Nepal riot police clash with protesters: witnesses – November 13, 2009 

Thaindian – Maoist protesters, police clash outside Nepal presidential palace – November 12, 2009

Two Young Activist Bloggers Jailed

By Brandon Kaufman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAKU, Azerbaijan– On Wednesday, November 11, the Sabail District Court of Baku convicted Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade of hooliganism and inflicting minor bodily harm, sentencing each of them to two and a half years in prison. Milli is a blogger for an online television site and a coordinator of exchange student alumni. Hajizade is a video blogger. They were charged in relation to an incident in July in which they say they were attacked.

The defendants allege that on July 8, they had been discussing their youth movement in a Baku restaurant when two strangers approached them, demanded that they stop discussing such matters, and attacked and injured them. That evening, Milli and Hajizade went to the police station, filed reports about the attack, and requested medical assistance.

Human Rights Watch contends that the restaurant fight was staged to provide grounds for a bogus case against the bloggers.  Human Rights Watch further asserts that the convictions come amid deteriorating media freedoms in Azerbaijan as journalists and media representatives have been harassed, threatened, or attacked for their professional activities.  According to Giorgi Gogia, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, “There is a longstanding pattern of Azerbaijani officials filing trumped-up charges against journalists to punish them for critical or satirical comment.”  And in the United States, State Department officials condemned the court decision, calling it “a step backwards for Azerbaijan’s progress towards democratic reform.”

The bloggers maintain that they were arrested and convicted because of their online criticism of the authorities.  Isakhan Ashurov, the attorney for Adnan Hajizade, said his client was charged for political reasons and that he had not been involved in violence. Various civil society organizations in Azerbaijan have expressed anger at the sentences.

Milli and Hajizade, who have been in prison since July 8, plan to appeal the verdict, but in the meantime “The imprisonment of Milli and Hajizade sends a chilling message to bloggers and any sharp government critic in Azerbaijan,” Gogia said. “It reflects growing government hostility towards the freedom of expression.”

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch- Azerbaijan: Young Bloggers Jailed– 12 November 2009

BBC News- Azeri Bloggers Given Prison Terms– 11 November 2009

New York Times- Azerbaijan: Bloggers Convicted– 11 November 2009

Peru’s Vice President Charged for Illicit Arms Deals

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru-Peru’s Vice President, Luis Giampietri is facing criminal charges for alleged irregular arms deals and faces a motion that he be removed from office. A five year investigation revealed that Giampietri was responsible for questionable arms purchases for the Peruvian Navy in 1994 and 1995.

Giampietri is a retired vice admiral in Peru’s Navy. The accusations are from the period where Giampietri was in charge of arms procurement for the Navy, when Alberto Fujimori was in office. Giampietri is accused of using his position to favor supply companies belonging to members of a corrupt network headed by then presidential security adviser Vladimiro Montesinos.

Giampietri is accused of collusion and conspiracy to commit a crime. Allegations detail how Giampietri approved purchases of military equipment from companies specifically selected by Montesinos, who then received millions of dollars in commissions in return. The money was found in his name in Switzerland. The allegedly illicit deals total 49.9 million dollars.

Giampietri denies all charges against him and insists that the arms deals did not do the state any harm, “because equipment . . . was used for national defense.” However, prosecutors are most concerned that the bidding procedure was rigged to favor companies owned by Israeli citizen Moshe Rothschild and Peruvians Enrique Benavides and Claus Corpancho.

Rothschild and Benavides have been fugitives from justice since 2001, and Corpancho has been in prison in Lima since 2007, when he was extradited from Spain. Fujimori admitted that Montesinos accepted a bribe for the sale to Peru of thirty-six MiG-29 warplanes from Belarus. Rothschild, Benavides, and Corpancho organized the sale.

The charges are the reason for the recent motion to remove Giampietri as first vice president. “We view it as improper that a person accused by a prosecutor should be acting president,” said a spokesman for the opposition Peruvian Nationalist Party.

Giampietri was also a part of the trial for those responsible for the 1986 massacre committed by naval forces during a Sendero Luminoso riot. 118 people were killed. Giampietri is among those said to be responsible for the massacre.

For more information, please see:

IPS-Peru: Vice President Accused of Corruption-14 November 2009

Defense News-Peruvian Navy Officials Probed for Contract Fraud-6 November 2009

Radio Programas del Peru-Giampietri califica de “insostenible e infundada” denuncia en su contra-5 November 2009

Child Health Days Campaign Benefits Thousands of Somalis

By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – At least 83,000 Somali children and women benefited from the Child Health Days Campaign carried out with United Nations support in the Afgooye corridor, which hosts displaced people who fled their homes due to the violence in the capital, Mogadishu.

Child Health Days was launched with the purpose to improve child survival rates in the violence-wracked country. The five-day campaign, carried out with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO) and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), reached at least 46,000 children under-five and 37,000 women of child-bearing age with critical health services, including vaccinations, vitamin supplements and hygiene education.

The 30-kilometre stretch of road west of Mogadishu is the world’s most densely populated settlement for internally displaced persons (IDPs), who live in harsh conditions and lack even the most basic social services, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The Child Health Days were launched in Somalia in December 2008 reaching over one million children under five and 800,000 women across the country during the first round. It is repeated every six months to help promote child survival and boost immunization rates, in addition to promoting demand for public health services among communities.

The large-scale campaign was made possible, despite poor infrastructure and lack of appropriate health facilities, thanks to the efforts of more than 200 vaccinators and 300 health workers.

Fighting since early May between Government forces and Al Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam has displaced around 160,000 IDPs in the strife-torn country. Around 3.7 million people, about half the population, are dependent on humanitarian aid due to the combined effects of conflict, drought, high food prices and the collapse of the local currency.

For more information, please see:

AllAfrica – Tens of Thousands of Women and Children Benefit From UN Health Initiative – 12 November 2009

UN News Center – UN Agencies Launch Next Round of Child Health Initiative in Somalia – 14 August 2009

AllAfrica – UN Agencies Launch Child Health Initiative – 14 August 2009