Clinton Meets South African President Zuma

By Jennifer M. Haralambides
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

PRETORIA, Zimbabwe – Today United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, met with South African President Jacob Zuma in Durban in order to discuss ways to build stronger ties between the two countries.


The U.S. wants South Africa to boost its leadership role in Africa, especially regarding international trade.

“We believe that South Africa has so much more economic potential and it cannot exist as an island of relative prosperity amid a sea of untapped opportunity elsewhere on the continent,” said Mrs. Clinton.

Increasing trade with African countries may be more complex than it may seem because the region is currently in a recession and must first respond to the major domestic issues, such as their struggle with AIDS, widespread poverty, and unemployment.  Also, countries such as Somalia suffer from bouts of impunity that need to be resolved before the country can focus on trade.

Previous relations between South Africa and the U.S. have not always been smooth.  President Zuma’s predecessor Thabo Mbeki and President Bush established uneasy relations regarding the fight against AIDS and the Iraq invasion.

This new relation between Pretoria and Washington will also help with issues such as the long-serving Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.  Both the European Union and the U.S. are upholding a travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe, and his family, for alleged human rights abuses by his government.

“We are attempting to target the leaders of Zimbabwe with sanctions that we think might influence their behavior without hurting the people of Zimbabwe,” said Clinton.

Zuma, who assumed the presidency in May, has a different mentality then his predecessor, Mbeki, who scoffed at the U.S. regarding their attempts to punish Mugabe.

While at an American-financed clinic, Clinton declared that, “we have to make up for lost time.”

Clinton is on the second leg of an African tour which will take her to Angola on Sunday before she heads to Nigeria, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cape Verde.


For more information, please see:
AFP – US and S. Africa Pledge Work for ‘Free” Zimbabwe – 7 August 2009

BBC – Clinton Meets South Africa’s Zuma – 7 August 2009

New York Times – Clinton Seeks South African Support on Zimbabwe – 7 August 2009

VOA News – South African President Zuma, US Secretary of State Clinton Meet in Durban – 8 August 2009

Indigenous Families in Paraguay Continue to Organize


By Don Anque
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Asunción, Paraguay – Indigenous families living in a squatter settlement on the outskirts of the Paraguayan capital of Asunción have organized themselves. Now, they have a community soup kitchen and are producing handicrafts to sell. Many of the families say they do not want to return to panhandling on the streets of Asunción, far away from their home villages.

Cerro Poty soup kitchen located on the outskirts of Asunción pictured here.  Photo by Reuters.

“We used to go out on the street and ask for money, with our children, at the stoplights,” Petrona Ruiz, one of the women running the Cerro Poty soup kitchen. “But we haven’t gone out to beg on the streets in three months.”

Earlier this year, Amnesty International claimed that the government of Paraguay is failing to adequately protect the rights of its indigenous peoples. Amnesty International’s March 2009 report on Paraguay stated that many of its indigenous peoples were forced to live in misery and effectively condemning some to death.

Many years ago, the Yakye Axa and Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous communities were displaced from their traditional lands and were promised by the Paraguayan government that their lands would be returned to them.  For more than 10 years of living at the side of the Pozo Colorado-Concepción highway, these communities lived without access to their land they live in precarious conditions, unable to source water and food for themselves and with inadequate provision of health and education.

After a breakthrough court decision, the Paraguayan government was ordered to a return the ancestral lands to the Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous People in a span of three years as well as to undertake a series of measures to ensure their survival in the interim.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International  – PARAGUAY’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN PERIL – 31 March 2009

IPS News  – Indigenous Squatter Communities Organise Self-Help – 02 August 2009

Amnesty International- Indigenous Peoples’ Rights – Solidarity across borders – 16 July 2009

China Should Cancel Quake Advocate Trials

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NEW YORK, United States– The Chinese government should cancel the criminal trials of Huang Qi and Tan Zuoren in the absence of any credible proof that they endangered state security during their investigation of schools that collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

Sichuan quake(AP) School destroyed during the quake (Source: AP)

Huang is a well-known civil rights campaigner and is accused of possessing state secrets, a crime punishable by imprisonment for five-years to life in China.  His charge is based on Huang’s investigation which found that poor construction lead to the collapse of the schools during the Sichuan quake.  Tan is also a famous civil rights and environmental advocate and can be jailed for five-years for his subversion charge.  Tan’s sentence stems from the fact that he compiled a list of children killed during the earthquake.

“Subversion” and “state secrets” charges have long been used by the Chinese government to silence dissidents who exercise their constitutionally guaranteed rights.  Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch said, “These trials are not about a reasonable application of the law, but about silencing government critics whose work has considerable public benefit….”  Richardson also commented that there is no evidence to suggest that Huang or Tan did anything more than to embarrass the government, which is not a crime.

The trials of Huang and Tan appears to be part of China’s plan to repress those who are challenging the government’s death toll of the quake and those who are seeking answers as to why 7,000 classrooms collapsed.  Furthermore, prosecuting advocates like Huang and Tan violates international law as well as China’s constitution.  That is, China implemented its first-ever national human rights campaign in April 2009 in which the government promised to “[r]especting earthquake victims (and) registering the names of people who died or disappeared in the earthquake and make them known to the public.”

  Mother, amid quake rubbles, mourning her daughter (Source: Reuters)

Independent research by a renowned architect suggested that the death toll is more than 6,000.  Moreover, outspoken parents of children who died in the school collapse have been harassed, detained or punished by government officials.

For more information, please see:

AP – Trial of Chinese dissidents ends without ruling – 5 August 2009

Human Rights Watch – China: Cancel Trials of Quake Victim Advocates – 4 August 2009

NYT – China Urged to Cancel Quake Trials – 5 August 2009

Gambia: Six Journalists Jailed for Criticizing the President

By Dahee Nam
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Africa

BANJUL, Gambia – Six Gambian journalists were jailed for two years on Thursday for publishing a statement criticizing the president.  They were convicted of six counts of defamation and sedition.

Those convicted include three executive members of the Gambian Press Union, two reporters from The Point newspaper, and one from Foroyaa newspaper.  One of the journalists for The Point also contributed to Reuters.  The journalists were sentenced to two-year prison term and heavy fines after criticizing President Yahya Jammeh’s declaration that the government was not responsible for the 2004 death of prominent journalist Deyda Hydara.

Hydara, the editor and co-founder of The Point and the Gambia correspondent for Agence France-Presse, was killed by unidentified gunmen in his car on the outskirts of the capital city of Banjul in December, 2004.  He was also a member of Reporters Without Borders, which advocates freedom of the press.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the sentencing was a “politicized judgment,” saying that it “reflects a partisan judicial system controlled by the president.”

Gambia is regularly criticized for violating press freedom.  President Jammeh warned journalists last month against tarnishing Gambia’s image.

“Any journalist who thinks that he or she can write whatever he or she wants and go free, is making a big mistake. … If anybody is caught, he will be severely dealt with,” Jammeh said in a television interview.

“Nobody can write or say anything that does not favor Yahya Jammeh and his government. The few people who do it have been sentenced to jail or have been arrested or have been harassed, some of whom are not even journalists.  Even thought it’s the six journalists who have been sentenced to jail, it’s the whole issue of expression that is now dead, so to speak. That is now in a very serious situation,” Gambian journalist Amie Joof said.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Gambia Media Jail Terms ‘Unjust’ – 07 August 2009

Guardian – Six Journalists Jailed in Gambia – 07 August 2009

VOA – Six Gambian Journalists Jailed for Sedition – 07 August 2009

AFP – Six Gambian Journalists Jailed for Criticising the President – 6 August 2009

Ethnic Tensions Lead to Clash in Algeria

By Ann Flower Seyse
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

ALGIERS, Algeria– After a brief argument between a migrant Chinese worker and an Algerian store owner over the parking space in front of the Algerian’s store a brawl broke out between about one hundred Algerians and migrant Chinese.

Many people wielded knifes and bludgeons. The parties dispersed after the local police showed up with an ambassador. Ten people were injured in the dispute, and two Chinese stores were looted according to an unnamed official at the ministry of foreign affairs.

The attack took place in the Bab Ezzour district in the eastern part of Algiers. An estimated 35,000 migrant Chinese workers live in Algeria. An estimated 8,000 work in the building sector, according to Agence France Presse.

Tensions have existed since the migrant workers came to Algeria. During the recent economic downturn, many Algerians blame the migrant workers for taking jobs that would otherwise go to Algerians, increasing tensions.

Additionally, the June 26 brawl between Uighur Muslim Chinese and ethnic Han Chinese stirred more negativity against the Chinese. Al Queda in the Islamic Mahgreb, or AQIM threatened revenge for their fellow Muslims that were injured in that attack. After this threat the Chinese embassy encouraged it’s citizens living in Algeria to exercise caution.

China is hoping that this attack is an isolated incidence, and is waiting for Algeria to take any necessary action. Given China’s extensive economic interests in Algeria, with multiple engineering contracts, and a stake in Algeria’s eleven billion dollar highway project, they will be hesitant to tell their citizens to abandon their jobs and come home.

For more information, please see:

Afrik- Xenophobia against Chinese on Rise in Africa – 5 August 2009

China Daily- 10 Chinese Injured in Clash with Algerians – 5 August 2009

BBC – Chinese Migrants in Algiers Clash – 4 August 2009

Reuters- Factbox: China’s Economic Interests in Algeria – 4 August 2009