By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

WASHINGTON, United States – The U.S. nominee for North Korea human rights envoy, Robert King, said he will continue to pressure China to stop the deportation of North Korean refugees.

At the Senate confirmation hearing, King said, “The Chinese have been less hospitable than we would like in terms of accepting [North Korean] refugees and allowing them access to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.”

China views North Korean defectors as “economic migrants,” not refugees.  Therefore, China deports the defectors to North Korea where they face persecution.  China and North Korea have a secret agreement regarding deportation of North Korean defectors.

King also labeled North Korea as “one of the worst abusers of human rights in the world” and asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to continue supporting human rights in North Korea despite Pyongyang’s lack of cooperation.  The U.S. has taken in about 80 North Korean defectors since the passage of the North Korean Human Rights Act.

Furthermore, King described North Korea’s kidnapping of Japanese citizens as “one of the most egregious human rights violations.”  He said that the U.S. would support Japan in their efforts to obtain information of the abducted citizens.  Since 2002, North Korea has kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens.

Critics have accused the Obama administration of turning a blind eye on North Korean human rights issues.  Some have claimed that North Korea’s reprocessing of plutonium has overshadowed the country’s abysmal human rights record.

The UN has recently urged North Korea to immediately reverse its human rights record by providing food to millions of hungry citizens, stopping public executions and ending persecution of defectors who are sent back to North Korea.

The U.S. listed North Korea as one of the worst offenders of religious freedom last month, which put North Korea on the list of “countries of specific concern” for the ninth consecutive year. 

In addition, the U.S. State Department issued a human rights report earlier this year concerning human trafficking and repatriation of North Korean refugees.

Reports have said that the Senate is “virtually certain” to confirm King, however, North Korea has been critical of King’s nomination.

For more information, please see:

AFP – US envoy says to press China on NKorea refuges – 5 November 2009

Taiwan News – US envoy nominee presses NKorea on human rights – 6 November 2009

Yonhap News – U.S. envoy on N.K. human rights denounces China for refugee repatriation – 5 November 2009

By Megan E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

AHMEDABAD, India– In cities across India that have been struggling with organized crime groups, the response of crime fighters has been to have officers designated to killing these gang figures – all in the name of justice. These officers, known as encounter specialists, gained reputations as heroes, and became known as local celebrities by the number and particular gangsters they had killed.

Although such practice has occurred for decades, Indians have become increasingly wary of police officers taking on the role as judge, jury and executioner. According to the National Human Rights Commission, 346 people have been killed since 2006 in what seem to have been extrajudicial police killing, though this figure is estimated to be a low approximation.

A sensationalist account in June 2004 shed light on the issue when four Muslims were pummeled with bullets when intelligence reports had identified the four as terrorism suspects. The group had bomb-making chemicals and a suitcase full of money in the trunk of their car. It was believed they planned to assassinate the chief minister of India’s richest state when police intercepted.

Jay Narayan Vyas, a spokesman for the state government, said that the four people killed had been identified by the central government as terrorism suspects. A government intelligence report said that the four were possible terrorism suspects, but the central government has said that these were merely suspicions and could not justify the killings.

As suspicion mounted, forensic evidence revealed that the four were actually shot at point-blank range, and earlier than the reports given by the police. Civilian animosity then began to rise against “encounter killings.”

In many of these killings, investigations have found, the motive was not vigilante justice. The police often staged such killings for personal gain: eliminating a rival of a powerful politician in the hopes of a big promotion; killing a crime boss on behalf of one of his rivals; settling scores between businessmen. According to the New York Times, lawyers had known for years that something strange was happening in the Gujarat police force and that the killings of terrorism suspects were dubious. Such acts are dubbed, ‘fake encounters.’

Reports continue to show that these human rights violations and fake encounter killings are still being carried out by security forces in India. In New Delhi, political parties, with the exception of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), criticized the Gujarat government in a recent meeting and demanded that Chief Minister Narendra Modi resign over the June 2004 killing of Mumbai collegian, Ishrat Jahan, which created mass public awareness as a exploitive fake encounter. Governmental and official tension remains amidst human rights activists’ continued beckoning for the cessation of this crude ‘justice’ tactic.

For more information, please see:

New York Times – Questions on Executions Mount in India – October 3, 2009

Gulfnews: Modi government criticised for fake encounter killings – October 4, 2009

The Times of India – Another ‘fake’ encounter in Manipur – Septmber 11, 2009

Asia Human Rights Commission – INDIA: Encounter killing and custodial torture, a disgrace for the nation – September 14, 2009 

South Asia Citizens Web – ’Encounter Killings’ and the Question of Justice in India – September 6, 2009