South African Mercenaries Training Guinea Troops

By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

CONAKRY, Guinea – According to an unnamed Western diplomat, Guinea President Moussa Dadis Camara’s junta troops are being trained by South African mercenaries.

Violence reported in the capital led to news that Guinea forces were being trained.

The South African government is investigating reports that as many as 50 South African mercenaries are working with the Guinea coup leaders.  So far the country’s intelligence agencies have been unable to confirm the reports, a South African senior official said.

“We have instructions that they are mercenaries who are training people of the same ethnic origin as the head of the coup d’etat,” said the Western diplomat.  “We already have more and more reports of abductions and violence in the streets of Conakry.”

The recent training has led to fear of ethnic warfare.  On September 28 Camara’s forces raped and killed more than 150 protestors in a sports stadium.  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed a three-man African-led commission to investigate the incidents.  Since then there has been little violence.

International mediation is unlikely to resolve the political deadlock between Captain Camara’s National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD) and the opposition.  If mediation fails the country could potentially face a new bout of unrest.  Since the September 28 violence opposition leaders have called on Captain Camara to step down immediately.

Camara shows no signs of surrendering power.

“I think it’s unrealistic.  You can’t start a negotiation by saying ‘I don’t want power,'” said Guinea Foreign Minister Alexandre Ceceloua in response to the opposition’s demands in Ouagadougou, where Blaise Campaore is leading peace talks this week.

Campaore is the international community’s last hope at facilitating peace.

President Moussa Dadis Camara took power in a bloodless coup d’etat on December 23, 2008 when longtime President Lansana Conte died.

For more information, please see:

Kuwait Times – Mediation Unlikely to Solve Guinea Crisis – 15 November 2009

UPI – Mercenaries Said Training Guinea Troops – 14 November 2009

The Wall Street Journal – Hired Guns Help Junta in Guinea – 14 November 2009

Xinhua – Guinea’s Ruling CNDD Delegation Returns After Ouagadougou Crisis Talks – 14 November 2009

South Korea to Continue Aid Despite Naval Clash

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea– Despite North Korea’s threats of “merciless military measures” after a naval clash between the two Koreas earlier this week, South Korea said they remain committed to providing humanitarian aid to the North.

The North and South Korean navies clashed by the disputed maritime border on Tuesday, leaving a North Korean ship damaged.  Since then, the two countries have been accusing each other of illegally entering territorial waters and firing the first shot.

Korea navy  South Korean ships patrolling their waters.  Courtesy of AP.

Both sides have been demanding an apology, and North Korea has threatened South Korea with military actions over this naval skirmish. 

Nevertheless, the South Korean Unification Ministry released a statement saying, “With regard to North Korea’s request for humanitarian aid…[t]here is no change in the government’s stance.”

The North had asked for 100,000 tons of food back in October.  Furthermore, farmers and leaders are pressuring the South Korean government to send rice to North Korea, especially because there is a chronic oversupply of rice in the South.

Choi Young-ok, an official from a South Korean NGO, said, “Rice is the most suitable item for resumption of humanitarian aid to North Korea as it is the main staple grain for Koreas.  The [South Korean] government’s offer of 10,000 tons of corn is not nearly enough.” 

The South had stopped sending rice aid to the North after a new administration took over earlier this year. 

South Korean Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said, “The South had spent 200 30 300 billion won each year to send the rice under the previous administrations…Resumption of such massive aid will be determined after sufficient dialogue with the North, in consideration of inter-Korea relations.”

The U.S. has asked the North not to escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula, and the UN Secretary-General is urging the two Koreas to resolve this dispute through peaceful dialogue. 

UN spokesman said, “[Secretary-General] has called for maximum restraint by both parties.  The incident highlights the need to resolve all outstanding issues through dialogue and in a peaceful manner.”

For more information, please see:

The Korea Herald – Protests spread to restart N.K. rice aid – 12 November 2009

The Korea Times – Seoul to Offer Aid to NK Despite Clash – 11 November 2009

NYT – North Korea Issues New Threat After Naval Clash – 13 November 2009

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