A Voice for the Voiceless

Junta Leader May Run for President

By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

CONAKRY, Guinea – Guinea junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara may run for President of the West African country during its next election cycle.

Camara took power when former President Lansana Conte died in December.  When he took power he promised that he would step down in order to hold elections later this year.  Elections have been postponed until 2010.

It is yet to be announced whether or not Camara will be running.

(Source:AFP)

“I have nothing more to say, except that I might or might not stand,” he said.  “We shall follow your advice.  We shall do what you have requested.”

On Saturday hundreds of Camara supporters rallied in Conakry to ask him to remove his military uniform and stand in the presidential election.  Camara’s run for the presidency would be another move in this year’s push toward more power by West African leaders.

Guinean opposition parties, unions, and civil groups joined Sunday to urge people to oppose Camara’s candidacy should he choose to run.  Camara says, however, “it is they who don’t understand anything about democracy” if they want to stop him from running for president.

“It is for Guineans alone to freely choose their leaders without internal or external pressure or discrimination,” said The National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD) junta.  “Therefore any member of the CNDD, of the government including the prime minister and any other citizens, is free to put forward their candidacy for the national election if they so desire.”

A statement from the US embassy expressed disappointment and concern, saying that any junta member’s candidacy “would undermine the transparency and credibility of the elections.”

Elections are currently set for January 31, 2010.  Legislative elections will be held on March 26.

For more information, please see:

IRIN – Guinea: ‘Yesterday was Better than Today’ – 25 August 2009

AFP – Guinea Junta Chief May Run in Polls – 24 August 2009

BBC – Guinea Leader ‘May Contest Poll’ – 24 August 2009

VOA – Guinea Military Ruler May Run for President – 24 August 2009

Reuters – Guinea Rejects U.S. Call for Junta-Free Election – 23 August 2009

Venezuelans March against Cuban Indoctrination in Schools Ends with Tear Gas

By Mario A. Flores
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela — Thousands of Venezuelans marched in Caracas this weekend over a controversial new education law passed last week that critics say it not only strengthens Chavez’s grip over schools and universities but also aims to instill his authoritarian nationalist ideology into the schooling system.

Police forcibly dispersed opponents of President Hugo Chavez’s government as thousands demonstrated both for and against an education law that critics fear will lead to Cuban-style political indoctrination in schools. Some opposition marchers carried placards that read: “I can’t stand your Cuban law.”

The police forces, in full riot gear and backed up by the National Guard, launched several attacks against the protesters. Helicopters hovered overhead as a water cannon drenched protesters and there were unconfirmed reports that dozens of people had been hurt.

The government claims the police used the water cannon and fired tear gas and rubber bullets only when government opponents knocked over a fence marking the end of the authorized route.

Teargasattack

The organizers of the march charge that the police started attacking well before the protesters approached the headquarters of the Chavez-nationalized telecommunications company, CANTV, which the government had set as the end site for the march.

The Minister of Interior and Justice, Tareck El Assaimi, had banned protesters from going on to the National Assembly, as the opposition originally wanted.

Oscar Perez, from the opposition party Alianza Bravo Pueblo claimed El Assaimi was responsible for “violations of human rights.” And National Assembly Deputy Juan Molina, from Podemos, the social democratic party which once backed Chavez but is now against him, denied that protesters had tried to get past the barricades at the final destination point, as the police claimed.

The new education law allows community councils, which are often pro-Chavez, to play a larger role in the operations of schools and universities. It also calls for the education system to be guided by the “Bolivarian doctrine,” a term Chavez uses to describe his socialist government.

Chavez’s previous attempt to reform education in 2002 led to mass protests at that time, eventually culminating in a failed coup attempt against him.

Church and university authorities oppose the new law. The church says it will hinder religious teaching and free the state from its obligation to subsidize private, church-run schools in poor neighborhoods.

“We have to fight for this country and for our children,” said one middle-aged woman shrouded in tear gas at the protest who was interviewed on the independent Globovision television station.

For more information, please see:

The Latin American Herald Tribune – Chávez Government Cracks Down on Venezuela Opposition March – 24 August 2009

Globovision – Dirigentes políticos denunciaron ante el MP la actuación de los cuerpos de seguridad en marcha contra la LOE – 23 August 2009

The Washington Post – Venezuelans march over schools law, police use gas – 22 April 2009

Shift in Power in Tunisia’s Journalist Union Causes Concern

By Ann Flower Seyse
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TUNIS, Tunisia– On August 19, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) announced that a group of pro-government reporters in Tunisia have taken control of the largest Tunisian union for journalists only two months before the general election. 

RWB stated their concern for the independence of the national union of journalists, and stated that this change does not “bode well” for the fairness of the upcoming election. 

Tunisia’s current president, Zine El Abdine Ben Ali, will be seeking a fifth term in this election. He has been in power since a bloodless coup in 1987.  In 2002, Ben Ali challenged the constitution so that he could have more time in office. He has also continued to poll ninety-percent in elections.

The new union president Neji Bghouri stated that he believes that the government took over an organization that was meant to be independent. The new president of the journalists’ union denies any government involvement with the vote that resulted in his placement.

These alleged problems with the press only add to several other human rights violations that human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) reported on August 20. 

Amnesty International’s report documents continued abuse in the name of counter-terrorism and security. AI’s focus surrounds the continued reports of mistreatment and ‘pervasive’ torture in Tunisian detention centers. 

The report also criticizes other countries that continue to return prisoners to Tunisia against the prisoners’ wills, and with full knowledge of likely mistreatment.  Extraditing a person to a country where it is known they are likely to face mistreatment, a practice sometimes called ‘Extraordinary Rendition,’ is a violation of the Convention Against Torture, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment.  

Amnesty has called for the immediate end to torture and a clampdown on mistreatment and unlawful ‘security’ measures used in Tunisian detention centers.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International – Tunisia Continues Human Rights Abuses in the Name of National Security – 20 August 2009

Afrique en Linge – Tunisian Journalists Change Leadership– 19 August 2009

BBC – Tunisia Reporter Move ‘Bodes Ill’ – 19 August 2009

Reuters – Row as Tunisia Journalist Picks Pro- Government Boss – 16 August 2009

Fatah Denies Holding Political Prisoners

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East   

RAMALLAH, West Bank – On August 22, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad reiterated Fatah’s assertion that it did not hold any political prisoners.   

The Prime Minister spoke at a ceremony for Protect the Palestinian Flag in Ramallah. Fayyad’s statement contradicted claims by several human rights organizations, which have confirmed that prisons in both the West Bank and Gaza hold prisoners arrested for political reasons. Fatah’s rival party, Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has also claimed that several of its members have been detained by Fatah security forces because of political motivations.   

Hamas claimed earlier this month that one of its members, Fadi Hamarna, who was imprisoned in Jneid Prison in Nablus in the West Bank, died at the hands of Fatah security forces. The Palestinian government in the West Bank stated that Hamarna had committed suicide in his cell after interrogation.  
 
The Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) attributes many of the abuses within the Palestinian security system to its chaotic power struggles between the nine security forces operating under the Palestinian Authority (PA). The PA employs almost 40,000 people, one of the highest ratios of police to citizens in the world. The PA security forces are often characterized as having wide-spread corruption and little systematic regulation. The Gaza Strip, which is smaller than the U.S. state of Rhode Island, has at least twenty-four detention centers, the locations for which were kept secret until April 2009. According to MERIP, search and arrest warrants are rare, and mistreatment of prisoners is the norm rather than the exception.
 
On August 21, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with the Palestinian interior minister about security issues, focusing on the release of so-called “petty criminals” ahead of the end-of-Ramadan festival, Eid-al-Fitr. President Abbas also noted that the PA had already recently released approximately seventy prisoners, and he encouraged efforts to maintain order within the Palestinian Territories.   

For more information, please see:   

Ma’an News Agency – Fayyad: PA Has No Political Detainees – 22 August 2009  

International Middle East Media Center – Hamas Political Prisoner Dies at a Palestinian Prison – 11 August 2009

Middle East Report – Palestinian Political Prisoners – Fall 1996

Caning of Malaysian Model Delayed

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia– Caning of a Malaysian model and mother of two, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, who would have been the first women in Southeast Asia to be caned for drinking beer in public, has been delayed.  Malaysia’s Islamic court postponed the caning until after Ramadan saying that the punishment was too harsh.

Kartika was arrested by Islamic morality police in December 2007 for drinking beer at a beach resort.  60% of Malaysia’s population of 27 million are Muslims, and they are prohibited from drinking alcohol.  If found guilty of violating this Islamic law, such offense is punishable by up to three years in prison and caning. 

Malaysia also has a dual-track justice system where Islamic courts operate alongside civil courts.  Malays are subject to Islamic laws while Chinese and Indian minorities are not.  Further, caning is used as a supplementary punishment for about 40 crimes in Malaysia, but caning is not a punishment for drinking alcohol in public in Malaysia’s civil courts.

Malaysia caning women Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno (Source: AFP)

Had the sentence been carried out, Kartika would have received six strokes with a rattan cane in addition to a $1,400 fine.

This case and Kartika’s plight has drawn widespread international attention regarding the use of Islamic laws in addition to raising questions as to whether radical Islam was starting to grow in a traditionally moderate Muslim country.

However, Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil of Women, Family and Community Development, who was once concerned that Kartika’s sentence “projected a ‘cruel image’ of Malaysia,” said, “I am impressed with, and commend, the chief judge’s wisdom for making the order of revision.” 

Malaysia’s prime minister is urging Kartika to appeal since she is unique in that she has chosen to go through with her sentence.  However, she has told reporters that she will not file an appeal.  Her family is refusing to comment. 
 

For more information, please see:

AP – Malaysian court puts caning of woman on hold – 25 August 2009

BBC – Malaysia to review caning woman – 25 August 2009

CNN – Malaysia postpones woman’s caning – 25 August 2009