North Korea Releases Two U.S. Journalists

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea – Two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, have been released by North Korea after former U.S. President Bill Clinton made an unannounced visit to North Korea to negotiate the journalists’ release. 

Journalists released by nk Laura Ling and Euna Lee leaving North Korea (Source: APTN)

Clinton met with top North Korean officials, and “expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it.”  North Korean leader Kim Jong Il then issued an order which granted special pardons to the two American journalists from their 12-year labor camp sentences. 

North Korean News Agency (NKNA) announced that the pardon was “a manifestation of the DPRK’s humanitarian and peace-loving policy,” adding that Clinton’s visit “will contribute to deepening the understanding between the DPRK and the U.S. and building the bilateral confidence.”  NKNA also said Clinton apologized on behalf of the women and relayed President Barack Obama’s gratitude.

The two journalists were arrested back in March while working near the border between North Korea and China.  Thereafter, they were sentenced in June on charges of entering the country illegally.  Since then, the U.S. has been working on their release through Sweden since the U.S. and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations.  The U.S. State Department was also working with the North Korean Mission to the UN for the journalists’ release by asking that North Korea grant the women amnesty.

The families of Ling and Lee are “overjoyed” by the news of the pardon.  They have posted a statement on their website thanking Clinton, the U.S. State Department and President Obama for their efforts in getting the two women released.  Ling’s father, Doug Ling, described today as “one of the best days in my life” after hearing that his daughter has been released.

The two journalists flew out of North Korea with Clinton and are en route to Los Angeles where they will be reunited with their families.

For more information, please see:

BBC – North Korea pardons US reporters – 4 August 2009

CNN – U.S. journalists head home from North Korea – 4 August 2009

MSNBC – North Korea frees 2 jailed U.S. journalists – 4 August 2009

India to Execute 2003 Bombing Suspects

By Alishba I. Kassim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NEW DELHI, India -The debate over the death penalty has emerged in India after three people were found guilty for the 2003 bombing in Mumbai. During this shocking attack, over 50 people were killed and around 180 were injured. The defendants, Ashrat Ansari, Haneef Sayyed, and his wife Fahmeeda, have been sentenced to death, as Judge MR Puranik presiding over an anti-terrorist court claimed they “should be hanged by the neck until dead”.

The defendants’ lawyers will appeal the conviction; Haneef Sayyed’s counsel has reasoned that a life sentence without parole would be just and his wife’s lawyer claims that Fahmeeda unwillingy participated in the attacks due to pressure from her husband. However, the chief public prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam, said that anything less than capital punishment would be a “mockery of justice”. Interestingly, the death penalty is not a common punishment in India, and tends to be either postponed for long periods of time or commuted.

The three defendants practice Islam, and have declared that their attacks were a response to the violence against Muslims in Gujarat the previous year. They are supposedly connected to the dreaded Lashkar-e-Tayyiba group, which conducts attacks against India in opposition to its occupation in Kashmir. The group was banned in Pakistan after 9/11, and has been held responsible for numerous acts of terrorism in India, as well as linked to the three-day attacks in Mumbai last November. Pakistan has now increased its search for those responsible for the attack, asking Interpol to step in as well. The defendants have denied all allegations about their suspected involvement with the group.

For more information, please see:

BBC – India to Execute Bomb Trio – August 6, 2009

CNN – Pakistan Launches Global Manhunt for Mumbai Suspects –    August 6, 2009 

BBC – India and the Death Penalty – August 4, 2009  

Rape Used As Weapon of War

By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

GOMA, DR Congo – In the rape capital of the world rape is being used as a weapon of war and instances of this atrocity have recently increased.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has reported that rapes are committed by both militias and police and military officers.  Ten percent of rape cases involve male survivors, according to the ABA sexual violence clinic in Goma.

Male rape is on a sudden incline since the joint military operations between Congo and Rwanda rebels began.  Rape is being used as a tactic to humiliate and dehumanize the Congolese people and force them into submission.

Most men are afraid of the social stigma attached to the homosexual act and fail to report rape or sexual abuse.  Most that do have suffered extreme abuse, including castration and assault leading to continued and severe bleeding.  Many men would rather die than report rape and some have.

Brandi Walker, aid worker at a local hospital, said, “Everywhere we go, people say men are getting raped, too.”

Male rape cases are greatly less in number than female rape cases but aid workers say it is a lot harder for men to recover.  According to Waker, a man’s identity is too connected to power and control.

“I’m laughed at. The people in my village say: ‘You’re no longer a man. Those people in the bush made you their wife,'” said one survivor.

Women for Women International, an aid organization based in Washington, focuses on how devastating rape is to society.  The organization trains top police and military officials.  They are learning how to prevent rape under their command.

“While we are an organization that values investment in women, you have to engage larger communities,” says Lyric Thompson, policy analyst at Women for Women. “In many places we work, the community leaders are men, so we use men’s position of influence. Our program in Congo is a model for other programs. It involves a huge paradigm shift from approaching men as the perpetrators – the enemy – to engaging them as allies; as fathers, sons, brothers.”

Last year the rape epidemic seemed to be easing but that has since disappeared.  Between 50,000 and 100,000 women have been raped in the past decade of conflict.

For more information, please see:

Ms. Magazine – Rape of Men Used as Weapon of War in Congo – 06 August 2009

VOA – Clinton Says DRC ‘Worst Example of Man’s Inhumanity to Women’ – 06 August 2009

NY Times – Symbol of Unhealed Congo: Male Rape Victims – 04 August 2009

Christian Science Monitor – Congo: Confronting Rape as a Weapon of War – 02 August 2009

Venezuela halts economic deals with Colombia

By Don Anque
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela – Today, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared policy measures that would effectively halt trade between Colombia and Venezuela.  He also announced that he would halt the import of 10,000 cars from Colombia and ban a Colombian energy firm, Ecopetrol, from taking part in an auction to develop the heavy crude in Venezuela’s oil-rich Orinoco region.

The move comes after last week’s incident when President Chavez recalled his envoy from the Colombian capital of Bogota when President Chavez was accused that Venezuela had sold arms to the Colombian rebel group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC).

“We absolutely deny that our government or our institutions are providing assistance to criminal and terrorist organizations,” Venezuelan Minister of the Interior and Justice Tareck El Aissami told reporters after Venezuela was accused of weapons trafficking. “It’s laughable, it sounds like a cheap film made by the American government.”

Currently, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is visiting Chile and Argentina to talk with South American leaders about the possible deployment of US troops in South America.  According to Washington DC analysts, the United States of America wants to increase its military capabilities in Colombia to counter drug traffickers and left-wing rebels.  Colombia has already agreed to open at least seven of its bases to US troops.

President Chavez called Colombia’s plan to host more US troops a “hostile act” and a “true threat” to Venezuela and its leftist allies.  Chavez also warned that a possible US military buildup could lead to the “start of a war in South America.”  Despite the lack of an official government declaration of military counter measures, President Chavez has announced that Venezuela will buy “several battalions” of tanks during his trip to Russia in September.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Chavez turns up heat on Colombia – 6 August 2009

Associated Press – Chavez: Venezuela to buy more tanks over US threat – 5 August 2009

CNN – Colombia: FARC arms traced to Venezuela – 27 July 2009

MSNBC – Chavez freezes diplomacy with Colombia – 28 July 2009

Georgia Accused of Stoking Tensions in South Ossetia

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
 
MOSCOW, Russia – Tensions in the South Caucasus are rising as the one-year anniversary of the war in South Ossetia and Georgia approaches.
 
On August 1, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Georgia of “aggressively rearming” and trying to incite violence in South Ossetia. The Ministry vowed that Russia would “use all means and resources available to protect the citizens of the republic of South Ossetia and the Russian servicemen.” The statements came after the South Ossetian government reported that two rounds of mortar fire entered from Georgian territory earlier that day.
 
Last summer, tensions between separatist government in South Ossetia and President Mikheil Saakashvili’s government in Georgia erupted into a five-day armed conflict that began on August 7, 2009. Georgia attacked the Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, in response to reports that South Ossetians had attacked ethnic Georgian villages in the province. Since French-brokered ceasefire, the region has been home to 240 members of the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM), which monitors signs of aggression between Georgia and the breakaway provinces.
 
Even with the EUMM observers, tensions have remained high. Russia has refused to fully withdraw its troops, as called for in the ceasefire agreement, and has said it plans to maintain its force of 7,000 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia indefinitely. Small skirmishes continue to plague the border regions, though the EU special envoy has downplayed the violence, vaguely calling the hostilities “more virtual” and posed little threat that any substantial violence would erupt.
 
In response to the Russian Defense Ministry statement, Georgia accused Russia of restarting “with enhanced vigor its information war against Georgia” on the eve of the anniversary of last year’s war.
 
On August 6, Russian Defense spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said that Georgia could not regain the trust of its regional neighbors until it signed a non-aggression treaty with South Ossetia and Abkhazia. After the August 2008 war, Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent republics, while the majority of the international community continues to recognize the areas as Georgian provinces.
 
For more information, please see:
 
China View – EU Envoy Dismisses Tensions in S Ossetia as “Virtual”– 6 August 2009
 
RIA Novosti – NATO’s Eastern Expansion Has Stopped Short– 6 August 2009
 
Al-Jazeera – Georgia Not “Aggressively Rearming”– 5 August 2009
 
Voice of America – Russian FM Lashes Out at Georgian President– 5 August 2009
 
New York Times – Russia Accuses Georgia of Raising Tension After Report of Attack in South Ossetia– 1 August 2009