A Voice for the Voiceless

Sri Lanka’s Tamils Illegally Detained in Camps

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NEW YORK, U.S.– Nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamils, who are not among the rebels fighting for secession, are being illegally detained by the Sri Lankan government according to Human Rights Watch.  Tamils are being held against their will in overcrowded, barbed-wire camps with sanitation problems.  Most detainees are being kept at Menik Farm, which the United Nations described as the world’s largest displacement camp.

The Tamil rebels were defeated by Sri Lanka’s government last month after decades of civil war.  Despite the victory, the government is still wary of Tamils rebels and fear that some civilian Tamils may still have links to the rebel group.

Thus, for over a year, Sri Lankan government, in violation of international law, has detained almost all civilian Tamils, including entire families, who have been displaced by fighting in northern Sri Lanka.  Although the government is claiming that the detainees will be released by end of this year, concerns over indefinite confinement have been expressed since there are no concrete plans for the release.

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Civilian Tamils at Menik Camp (Source: Reuters)

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said, “Treating all these men, women, and children as if they were Tamil Tiger fighters is a national disgrace.  Displaced Tamil civilians have the same rights to liberty and freedom of movement as other Sri Lankans.”

In addition to being held against their will, Tamils in the camps are facing misery and hardship according to the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader.  TULF leader, Mr. V. Anandasangaree described the situation in camps saying, “Health, water and sanitation situation is horrible.  Many people are having skin diseases as they didn’t get a chance to have a shower because of water shortage.”  He added, “Pregnant mothers and newborn babies go through a harrowing time…due to scorching heat.”

The United Nations and other aid organizations have demanded for better access to the camps so that they can carry out humanitarian work, but the Sri Lankan government, suspicious of aid agencies, has accused the agencies of helping the rebels in the past.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Sri Lanka Tamils ‘facing misery’ – 1 June 2009

Gulfnews.com – Rights group calls on Sri Lanka to release civilians held in displacement camps – 12 June 2009

Human Rights Watch – Sri Lanka: End Illegal Detention of Displaced Population – 11 June 2009

Free Speech Debated as Canadian Human Rights Commission Regulates Hate Speech on Internet

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

OTTAWA, Canada – Canada’s Human Rights Commission presented a special report to the Canadian Parliament in which it asserted a continued need for the commission to regulate hate speech on the internet.  The report expressly opposed a suggestion to relegate the policing of internet hate speech to the criminal code.

The new report has several proposals for changes to section 13, the hate speech provision of the Canadian Human Rights Act.  These include a clear, legal definition of hate speech, repealing the $10,000 fine the commission can impose for hate speech, and an allowance to award legal costs in some cases.

The Chief Commissioner argued that the flexibility in the “dual approach” of the Human Rights Act and the criminal code provide an effective resolution to internet hate claims.  While the criminal code is intended to punish those who engage in hate speech, the Human Rights Commission focuses on removing hate speech from the internet. Proponents further argued that hate speech can be very dangerous on the internet because it has the capability of spreading undetected without constant attention.

Conversely, some experts are opposed to the broad provisions in the Human Rights Act.  Individuals like law school professor Richard Moon contend that the broad nature of the Act may end up limiting free speech.  Others contended that the new report suggests tinkering of a system that is in need of an overhaul.

Debate about section 13 heated up after a Muslim group filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission against Maclean’s magazine in 2007.  The complaint was dismissed after an investigation.  Opponents cite to this example as evidence that very little action is actually taken under section 13 and to suggest that it should be used for extreme hate cases only.

The Commons Committee will consider the new report as it considers the future of section 13 this fall.  The text of the report is available here.

Nicaragua Grant Asylum to Peruvian Indigenous Leader

By Nima Nayebi

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

Alberto Pinzango – Photo: Correo HuanucoMANAGUA, Nicaragua – Nicaragua has granted asylum to exiled Peruvian Indian political leader Alberto Pizango, after he requested shelter at the Nicaraguan Embassy in Peru earlier this week.
The Peruvian government has accused Pizango, and indigenous political leader, of instigating a series of clashes in the Amazon that left at least 33 dead. He is wanted for sedition, conspiracy and rebellion.

Tomas Borge, the Nicaraguan ambassador to Peru stated: “Our only choice, keeping in mind the spirit of solidarity that [Nicaraguan] President Daniel Ortega has [with] those thought to be politically persecuted, was to grant political asylum to Mr. Alberto Pizango. We have no other choice and no other alternative than to grant Pizango asylum since this is a strictly political case and this is a person being politically persecuted.”

The controversy arose when the Peruvian government passed Decree 1090, a law that indigenous people contend undermines their control over ancestral lands by empowering Lima to grant mining, logging and drilling permits without consulting area residents. The plans would also effectively ease environmental and developmental restrictions in the area.

In protest, indigenous people blocked main arteries of traffic and shut down a crude oil pipeline that traverses the Amazon and ends in Peru’s north coast. Police forcefully removed protesters from a highway last Friday, triggering an outbreak of violence between Peruvian authorities and the indigenous population. Peru maintains that 24 police officers and nine protesters died during the clash, while indigenous groups claim that 30 to 40 protesters were killed by police.

China Requires Filtering Software on New PC’s

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Starting next month, China, one of the world’s fastest-growing PC markets, will require mandatory Internet filtering software in all computers sold in the country.  Despite outcry from the computer industry, users and free speech advocates, the Chinese government is not backing down saying that the software is to protect citizens from violence and pornography.

Guangming Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper, ran an article promoting this new software called “Green Dam Youth Escort” as a breakthrough in “civilized Internet management and access.”

However, opponents of this new directive are not convinced.  Requiring mandatory filtering software raises the question of censorship and concerns of allowing the government to monitor Internet use to collect personal information.  Furthermore, computer experts are unsure as to of what this software is capable, its reliability, and whether this software could affect a computer’s operating system and other software.

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Chinese girl web surfing at an Internet cafe in Henan Province (Source: AP)

Li Fangping, a human rights lawyer in Beijing, has demanded a public hearing on the lawfulness and reasonableness of the government’s new plan saying, “This administrative action lacks legal basis.  Designating that the same software must be installed in all computers affects citizens’ right to choose.”  He told Reuters, “We know that [Chinese] citizens have been prosecuted because of their private emails, and we’re worried about more such cases.”

Chinese authorities rarely justify their actions and are quick to block dissent, especially contents that concern democratic reforms, policies toward Tibet or challenge the Communist Party’s positions.

Developers of the software have said that “Green Dam” can be uninstalled by entering a password, but others are worried that this technology can be expanded into a general censorship.

China currently has more than 250 million Internet users.

For more information, please see:

MSNBC – China defends filtering software amid outcry – 11 June 2009

New York Times – China Takes Heavy Criticism Over Software Directive – 10 June 2009

People’s Daily Online – Questions for China’s porn filtering software – 10 June 2009

The Washington Post – China Internet filter challenged in rights uproar – 11 June 2009

Water Consumption Continues to be Inequitable in the Palestinian Territories

By Meredith Lee-Clark
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – “We only get running water a few hours each day,” says Aziz Harbi, a Palestinian Authority security officer who lives with his family in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.  “The water is not drinkable.  We use it for cleaning and washing.  But it is dirty.  After a shower, the skin is irritated, and my children often come out with a rash.”

Since the Israeli military siege on Gaza in January 2009, only 7% of the available water supply meets the standards of the World Health Organization.  The World Bank reports that in 2005 the Gaza Strip began a “well-designed master plan for water and sanitation,” though less than 2% of the plan has been fully implemented, and since the end of the siege, progress has frozen.  In addition, the water filtration systems were damaged and the aquifer beneath the Gaza Strip dropped, saline water from the Mediterranean has flooded into the aquifer. 

A recent World Bank report found that Israel uses four times more water than the Palestinians from a vital West Bank aquifer.  Israelis use 240 cubic meters of water per person each year, compared with 125 cubic meters per person in the Gaza Strip and 75 cubic meters in the West Bank. Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli head of Friends of the Earth Middle East said there was a “clear failure” to meet the water needs of both Israelis and Palestinians, and that Israel was taking the “lion’s share.”

As severe as the water crisis is in Gaza, matters are more complicated in the West Bank.  According to several agreements, the mountain aquifer running the length of the West Bank is to be shared by Israel and the Palestinians, but the World Bank reports that the Palestinians have access to only a fifth of the water.  Palestinian water sources are often contaminated by pesticides and fertilizers from Israeli settlements.  Palestinians are also concerned by the impact of the Israeli separation barrier, which dips into the West Bank to include water sources, and which many Palestinians contend undermines Palestinians’ hope of a viable independent state.

For more information, please see:

The Guardian – Israelis Get Four-Fifths of Scarce West Bank Water, says World Bank – 27 May 2009

The Electronic Intifada – Israeli Army Contaminating Water Sources – 25 May 2009

The National – Water Fails to Flow Fairly in West Bank – 20 April 2009

Palestinian Hydrology Group – The Water and Sanitation – 12 January 2009 

Palestinian Monitor – Water – 18 December 2008