By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KARNATAKA, India – Monsoon rains catalyzed the worst flooding India has experienced in over 100 years on Monday.  India’s monsoon season annually leaves scores of flood victims dead and displaced, yet it has been decades since flooding as caused such immense destruction and alarm.  Between the southern states affected by the torrential rains, flooding has claimed the lives of over 270 victims and displaced more than 2.5 million people. 

Rescue workers responded expediently to the news of imminent tragedy.  Prior to the most intense flooding, relief organizations began reinforcing the embankments of the Krisha river with over 300,000 heavy sandbags to prevent the floodwater from penetrating the trade-center city of Vijaywada.  Rescuers also dropped rations and plastic sheets to the displaced population from helicopters.  In Andhra Pradesh, over a quarter-million people have been relocated to makeshift relief shelters.  Aid workers in Karnataka were able to move over 450,000 into similar temporary housing.  
 

 
While the government and relief workers have taken significant initiatives in their rescue mission, the relentless flooding in southern India carries risks and ramifications other than loss of property and life.  With so many people placed into temporary shelters, conditions at the shelters prove inadequate and resources scarce.  Displaced persons have questioned whether the government could have provided further amenities, but funds for improving the relief camps are currently insufficient.  The influx of rescued people into the makeshift shelters over the coming weeks will undoubtedly cause overcrowding issues while the government strains for the money to accommodate the homeless and rebuild the rain-ravaged cities.  Also, flooding of travel-ways has made the efficient distribution of already scant resources difficult for the government and aid workers.  

Furthermore, aid workers fear the rapid spread of water-borne disease to which hundreds of thousands of people are now vulnerable.  India must also bear the significant loss of agriculture, as the monsoon flooding submerged vast acres of corn, sugarcane, paddies, and other crucial crops.  

While the Indian government continues to calculate the monetary cost of the damage, relief workers continue to provide food and shelter to the displaced, and the military works continual rescue operations.  Though the lack of necessary funds keeps rescued persons in derisory conditions, measures are being  taken to secure the lives of the displaced.  
For more information, please see:

Al-Jazeera – Millions homeless in India floods – 7 October 2009

CNN – Over 270 killed in India floods – 5 October 2009

Times of India – Flood water recedes, new worries surface – 6 October 2009

Yahoo! News – India floods leave 2.5 million homeless, 250 dead – 5 October 2009

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia  

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan– A suicide bomber garbed in military uniform attacked the UN World Programme offices in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city, killing at least five people and injuring five others, according to police and U.N. officials.The interior minister of Pakistan stated that an investigation had begun into security lapses after guards had allowed the suicide bomber into the compound to go to the bathroom.

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