A Voice for the Voiceless

North Korea Releases South Korean Worker

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea– North Korea released Yu Seong-jin, a South Korean employee for Hyundai Asan Corporation, on Thursday after detaining him for 137 days on charges of denouncing North Korea’s political system and persuading a North Korean to defect.

A North Korean official has said, “(Yu) criticized our honorable regime with malignant intention, interfered with the sovereignty of our republic, and committed grave and serious acts that violated relevant law.” 

South Korea and Hyundai Group have been holding negotiations with the North to free Yu for the past two months.  Hyun Jung-eun, the president of Hyundai Group, has actually been in North Korea for the past several days negotiating Yoo’s release with Pyongyang.  Hyundai Group is South Korea’s biggest corporate investor in North Korea.

Yoo released by NK (AP) Yoo Seong-jin talking to reporters following his release (Source: AP)

Yoo was released to South Korean officials in Kaesong, a North Korean town where a joint industrial park is run by the two Koreas, and he has crossed the border and has been reunited with his family.

Inter-Korean relations have been at the lowest point in years since a conservative president was elected in South Korea last year, but Yoo’s release is seen as a sign that the North could be ready to take a more conciliatory approach with its southern neighbor, as well as revive private business ventures between the two countries.  However, the North is still holding four South Korean fishermen who were captured by the North when their boat strayed into North Korean waters two weeks ago.

Accordingly, an analyst at Seoul’s Korea Research Institute for National Unification said, “It is still too early to say that this will lead to a resumption of official dialogue between the two sides.”  The two Koreas have never signed a peace treaty following the Korean War, which ended in 1953, and are technically still at war.
For more information, please see:

BBC – N Korea releases S Korea worker – 13 August 2009

Donga Ilbo – NK Frees Detained S. Korean Worker after 137 Days – 14 August 2009

NYT – South Korean Worker Freed by North – 13 August 2009

Venezuelan Protestors Clash over Education Bill

CARACAS, Venezuela – Scuffles broke outside the Venezuelan parliament building as lawmakers debated a bill that would broaden government control over schools.  Venezuelan police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.
Thousands of teachers, union leaders, community activists, and militants of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela gathered near the National Assembly building in support of the law.  In a smaller march led by high profile politicians, opponents of the law demanded that discussions of the law be further postponed.

University and private school authorities fear that the law will allow an increase in government influence on campuses by involving grass-roots community groups, often loyal to President Chavez, in school operations.

One of the contentious parts of the law is that it strengthens the role of the state in education. Article 4 states that is the responsibility of the “Estado Docente” or the Educator State  is to guarantee “education as a universal human right and fundamental, inalienable, non-renounceable social duty, and a public service… governed by the principles of integrality, cooperation, solidarity, attentiveness, and co-responsibility.”

President Hugo Chavez claims that the bill is based on the ideals espoused by 19th century Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar. Opponents say the changes would amount to indoctrination.

“This law is very dangerous,” said legislator Pastora Medina of the Humanist Front, a former government supporter and a member of the education commission. “It turns schools into centers for community activists and ignores the pedagogical aspect.”

Supporters of the law generally discount the claims that it’s aimed at indoctrinating children and downplay concerns, saying the legislation reflects the government’s efforts to ensure equal opportunities and teach social responsibility. The law, they claim, requires that education be “open to all forms of thinking.”

For more information, please see:

Reuters – Venezuela passes education, land laws after clashes – 14 August 2009

BBC News- Venezuelan clash over education – 14 August 2009

Venezuela Analysis – Venezuelan National Assembly Passes New Education Law – 14 August 2009

El Universal – Oposición se declara en rebeldía y anuncia acciones contra Ley de Educación – 14 August 2009

Nigerian Government Accused of Arresting a Rights Activist in Order to Silence Protest

By Jennifer M. Haralambides
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

NIAMEY, Niger – Niger rights activist, Marou Amadou, has been arrested twice in one week.  Some suspect the new claims have been falsified in order to silence his protest.

Amadou has been placed in police custody and will faces new charges after having been jailed and then released on Tuesday.   He was originally arrested for calling for a protest against President Mamadou Tandja’s extension of his hold on power in a controversial referendum on extending presidential term limits.

Reports from Niamey say that while Amadou was preparing to leave the Niamey prison he was picked up by armed men in pick-up trucks.  He was subsequently faced with new charges claiming that created an illegal association.  This comes of course after he was released from custody on Tuesday for breaching state security, only to be released a day later.

Fellow activist say that when they saw Amadou through the prison gates he looked to have sustained injuries.

Justice Minister, Lompo Garba, reassured sources by saying that the government in Niamey was “at work, conducting investigations on the allegations of torture against Marou Amandou.”

Amadou’s activist group is called the United Front for the Protection of Democracy (FUSAD).  The group is allied to opposition parties that have been campaigning against a new constitution that extends Mr. Tandja’s term by three years.  The new constitution was approved earlier this month in a referendum that allows the president to run in subsequent elections, potentially giving him the opportunity to stay in power for life.

The European Union and France have both criticized this referendum and called on Niger to restore a more democratic framework.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Niger Rights Activist Faces New Charges After Release – 12 August 2009

BBC – Niger Vows Inquiry into “Beating” – 12 August 2009

VOA – Niger Opposition Vows to Continue Challenging President Tandja – 12 August 2009


Allegations of Fraud in Fatah Leadership Vote

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RAMALLAH, West Bank – After the election for Fatah’s leadership body, the Central Committee, many of Fatah’s Gaza leaders have quit, citing massive voter fraud.  In addition, Fatah leaders in both Gaza and the West Bank have composed a memorandum to President Mahmoud Abbas, calling for the rejection of the August 12 elections.

The election determining Fatah’s eighteen-member leadership council has come under scrutiny, as allegations have surfaced regarding last-minute ballot substitutions and unilateral decisions for or against candidates.  The election has also sparked underlying tensions between members of the older Fatah leadership, who came of age immersed in the ideologies of Fatah’s founder, Yassir Arafat, and younger, more pragmatic locally-born leaders who have negotiated with Israel. 

One member of the “old guard” who lost his seat was top Palestinian negotiator and former Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei.  Qorei claimed that “interventions” marred the balloting, and said that he had formally complained to the Fatah leadership, “not only against the results but also against the entire process of elections.”

Fourteen out of the eighteen seats on the Central Committee were won by individuals who had never previously served on the Committee.  Many Palestinians see the election as a response to Fatah’s reputation for corruption, cronyism, and infighting, and the embodied hopes of Palestinians in favor of a more transparent, pragmatic approach to the Israel-Palestinian peace process.  Jailed leader Marwan Barghouti and Mohammad Dahlan, former head of the Fatah security forces in Gaza, were two of the most well-known newly elected members, and both are considered possible unifying, pragmatic leaders of Fatah.

Saeb Erekat, another leading Palestinian negotiator and newly elected member of the Central Committee said the August 12 election was “a coup against a leadership that had monopolized the movement for a long time without even presenting a report about its work.”

President Abbas said that Fatah came out of the elections “energized” and dismissed any speculation that the party had suffered a split.

For more information, please see:

Jerusalem Post – Fatah’s Gaza Leaders Quit, Citing Massive Vote Fraud – 14 August 2009

AFP – Abbas Rules Out Talks Unless Israel Halts Settlements – 13 August 2009

Ma’an News Agency – Angry Fatah Members to Deliver Rejection Memo to Abbas Over Elections – 13 August 2009

BBC News – Young Leaders Dominate Fatah Vote – 11 August 2009

New York Times – Fatah Party Election Brings in a New Generation – 11 August 2009

Intense Debate Continues Over Release of the Man Convicted for the Lockerbie Bombing

By Nykoel Dinardo
Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

GRENOCK PRISON, Scotland – As rumors arise that Scottish authorities will agree to release Abdel Basset Ali al Megrahi, the man convicted for the terrorist act known as the Lockerbie Bombing, debate continues over whether he should be released. 

Abdel Basset Ali al Megrahi was convicted for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie Scotland, which killed 270 people and is known more commonly as the Lockerbie Bombing.  He was sentenced to a minimum of 27 years in prison for his involvement in the terrorist act and has been serving his sentence in Grenock Prison in Scotland since his conviction.  However, in October 2008, after al Megrahi was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, he filed for compassionate release. 

On August 12 Scottish Government Spokesman Kenny MacAskill made a statement to the press saying that no decision has yet been made on the request.  However, information from other sources has led to speculation that al Megrahi’s request will be granted.  According to al Megrahi’s wife, she has recieved confirmation from Libyan authorities that her husband will be released and that she will see him soon.  Other reports have said that al Megrahi will be released and returned to Libya before the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan begins on August 21. 

Following these reports, several relatives of those who were killed in the Lockebie Bombing have spoken out.  Susan Cohen, whose daughter Theodora, a member of a group of students from Syracuse University, who was on board Flight 103, stated that the thought of al Megrahi’s release “makes [her] sick” and that it would be “vile.”  An editorial written to Arab News argues that his release “is wrong” and that the way his case has been treated thus far is “a miscarriage of justice.”  Kathleen Flynn, whose son was killed in the bombing told the BBC that al Megrahi “should never qualify for anything compassionate.”

Others, however, have come out to speak in favor of his release.  Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the bombing, stated that al Megrahi’s release would be to Scotland’s credit, and that “the sooner he is back with his family the better.”  Moreover, tthers claim that al Megrahi was wrongly convicted and should not be in prison at all.  According to Bob Monetti, whose son was killed, the families should “understand that Megrahi was just a tool in this.  He wasn’t the person who decided what to do.” 

Regardless of the debate over his release, al Megrahi continues his appeal and his request for release.  He awaits a statement from the Scottish Government, expected to come out later this week.

For more information, please see:

Arab News – Editorial: Lockerbie Bomber – 14 August 2009

IOL News – Wife of Lockerbie Bomber Counts the Days – 14 August 2009

BBC – Lockerbie Bomber ‘To Be Released’ – 13 August 2009

Bloomberg – Scottish Government Has Yet to Decide on Al Megrahi – 13 August 2009

New York Times – Release of Lockerbie Convict is Debated – 13 August 2009

Telegraph – Lockerbie Bomber: US Says He Should Complete Sentence – 13 August 2009]

Impunity Watch – Libya Asks for Return of Terminally Ill Lockerbie Bomber – 28 July 2009