UN Accuses Sri Lanka of War Crimes

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka The United Nations (UN) calls upon the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to stop the war in the northeast.  The UN believes that war crimes have been committed.

Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, stated, “Certain actions being undertaken by the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE may constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.”  She continued, “The brutal and inhuman treatment of civilians by the LTTE is utterly reprehensible and should be examined to see if it constitutes war crimes.”

The UN accused the military of shelling safe zones to protect civilians.  The UN also accused the LTTE of using civilians as human shields and shooting those civilians who attempt to escape.

The Sri Lankan minister of human rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe, spoke for the government and said that the UN misrepresented the number of civilian casualties.

“We have very clearly stated that we have not at any time fired at the no-fire zone,” Samarasinghe said.  “We are very disappointed and we are very surprised that this kind of unprofessional statement has been issued,” he added.

But B. Nadesan, political leader of the LTTE, claims that the total number of casualties is much higher than the UN’s estimate.  Moreover, they have proof of the government’s crimes of “deliberately targeting civilians, their humanitarian supplies and the hospitals.”  “There are thousands of evidences among the civilians, officials and local aid workers.  The ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] has witnessed the Sri Lankan attacks on the civilians,” said Nadesan.  He added that the witnesses would be able to provide detailed accounts of how civilians are “jailed inside barbed wire internment camps” and “hundreds of civilians have gone missing.”

According to Human Rights Watch, parties to a conflict must take all necessary precautions to minimize civilian casualties, yet “[t]he government shows callous indifference by saying civilians should not expect the government to consider their safety and security” when they fail to enter the safety zones.

For more information, please see:

BBC – UN Fears Sri Lanka ‘War Crimes’ – 13 March 2009

Human Rights Watch – Sri Lanka: Disregard for Civilian Safety Appalling – 3 February 2009

TamilNet – Nadesan Urges UN to Investigate Colomb’s War Crimes – 15 March 2009

Taiwan Abandons Files of Deceased Political Prisoners

By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Asia

TAIPEI, Taiwan – At an abandoned Ministry of Justice building, reporters discovered deceased political prisoners’ files and interrogation records from the White Terror period.  Along with the files, reporters also discovered body part in jars.

Both the government and the reporters contend the body parts were from homicides, not political prisoners. Among the documents found inside were records of the interrogations of late DPP chairman Huang Hsin-chieh; the late writer, human rights activist and one-time political prisoner Bo Yang; and former national policy adviser Hsieh Tsung-min, who was also once a political prisoner.

Most of the files found were from Taiwan’s White Terror period, when the Kuomintang government of President Chiang Kai-shek persecuted dissidents and people it suspected of sympathies for communism or for Taiwan Independence.

The abandoned building where the files were found was once the Ankeng Guesthouse.  It was previously used by the notorious Taiwan Garrison Command as an interrogation center and for detentions.

The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau [MJIB] apologized for the oversight.  It contended that the building had been guarded but recent personnel cuts had affected security.  The MJIB also said the files only contained the most basic information, including fingerprints and photographs.

Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] members have demanded that the files be sent to the National Archives Administration.  DPP Legislator Lin Shu-fen stated that the materials were “important witnesses to history and national documents” and declared that the MJIB had violated the National Archives Law by failing to hand them over to the National Archives Administration.

For more information, please see:

Taipei Times – White Terror Documents Cause Uproar – 19 March 2009

Taiwan News – Taiwan DPP Slams Investigative Bureau over White Terror Files – 19 March 2009

Taiwan News – Taiwan Reporters Find Investigation Bureau Dissident Files in Abandoned Building – 18 March 2008

Labor Activist Released After 7 Years Jail Term in China

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Yao Fuxin, a leading labor activist in China, has been released after serving a seven-year prison term.  He was arrested in 2002 along with another laid-off factory worker, Xiao Yunliang, after speaking at a peaceful demonstration involving at least 5,000 workers from six state-owned factories in Liaoyang. According to Human Rights in China, Yao was initially charged with “gathering a crowd to disrupt social order,” but that was later changed to “subversion of state power”, which is more serious charge.

Human Rights in China said Yao had been beaten while in detention.  He had difficulty walking, and suffered two heart attacks and a stroke in prison.  According to the Human Rights website “In the Liaoyang Detention Center, he and 19 other inmates were made to sleep on one bed. There, a guard named Lang arranged for two death-row prisoners to watch Yao. Every time Yao closed his eyes to sleep, the two prisoners would step on him.”

Yao also confirmed the abuse in prison and said he planned to take legal action against prison authorities.  “In the coldest weather, they put me under the window, which they left open,” he said. “My legs were twitching. My lower body was numb with cold.”

Yao Dan, Yao’s daughter, told AFP that her father is very happy to be out of prison.  “When he got out of prison, workers gave him a big banquet and thanked him for all the suffering he has gone through”, she says.  Yao expressed that he felt to fight for the interests of the people and the country is his duty.  “There’s nothing wrong in what I did,” Yao said in a telephone interview. “I was just exercising my rights, which are given by the constitution. What did I do wrong as a citizen? It was worth it. I feel no regret at all.”

“It is tragic for Yao and for China that a labor activist who was demanding back wages and pension payments was imprisoned for seven years and abused,” said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China.  She urge the Chinese government to focus on protecting workers basic rights instead of cracking down on them.

For more information, please see:

AFP – China labour leader freed after 7 years in jail – 17 March 2009

AP – China labor activist free after 7 years jail – 17 March 2009

ChinaWoker – Yao Fuxin, leader of 2002 workers’ protests, is released from prison – 17 March 2009

Human Rights in China – Labor Leader Yao Fuxin is Released After Completing Seven-Year Term – 17 March 2009

United States Delays Gun Smuggling Control Laws into Mexico

18 March 2009

United States Delays Gun Smuggling Control Laws into Mexico

By Maria E. Molina
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – Ninety percent of the guns that are used in Mexico to commit heinous crimes come from the United States.  Machine guns get smuggled into Mexico from the United States all the time.  While the United States has just begun to consider the violence in Mexico a threat to United States safety, the threat of lax United States gun laws have affected Mexico’s fight against drug cartels for the past year.  The United States maintains a staunch immigration policy but a loose gun control policy. These policies not only affect the violence in Mexico but human smuggling into the United States.

With the death count last year in Mexico at 6,290, more than the United States has lost in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Mexican officials are pleading with United States counterparts to help stop the southbound gun smuggling and focus.  Yet, the United States government has delayed any proliferation of new laws that would help gun smuggling.  In 2007, there were 7,600 federally licensed arms dealers in United States border states and 50,000 nationwide, but the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms inspected just 5 percent of them. As well an assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004 has not been renewed by Congress.

Lawmakers are not sure how high-powered weapons get in the hands of drug traffickers, but some come from the United States military.  The Department of Defense doesn’t track what it purchases, so the possibility that United States military guns end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels is extremely feasible.  Also, the weapons are becoming more sophisticated and now include .50-caliber rifles with five-inch shells capable of penetrating walls.  A law that speaks to tracking of military weapons would also assist in controlling gun smuggling into Mexico.

Federal United States efforts to stop the smuggling of weapons were clearly not enough.

For more information, please see:

Alternet – Mexico’s Drug War Bloodbath: Guns from the U.S. Are Destabilizing the Country – 18 March 2009

Los Angeles Times – U.S. shares blame in Mexico drug violence, senators say – 18 March 2009

San Francisco Chronicle – Focus shifts to flow of cash, arms into Mexico – 18 March 2009

The Washington Post – U.S. Efforts Against Mexican Cartels Called Lacking – 18 March 2009

Human Rights Commission Calls Fiji Courts Independent

By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – After a Fiji court convicted eight soldiers and a policeman of manslaughter last week, the Human Rights Commission in Fiji says the decision shows the country’s legal system has remained independent.

Last week, Justice Daniel Goundar found nine members of the military and a police officer guilty of manslaughter for the death of a 19-year-old man.

In 2007, the nine assaulted and beat Sakiusa Rabaka to death during an interrogation at a military training site called Black Rock.

“They were made to strip and do military type physical exercises. During the exercises they were continuously kicked, punched and hit,” Justice Goundar said. He added that Rabaka was subjected to“degrading and inhumane treatment as a form of punishment.”

Justice Goundar sentenced the nine men in Lautoka High Court to 4 years in prison.

Human Right’s Commission chairperson, Shaista Shameem, says this decision demonstrates that Fiji military and police are not immune from punishment.

“One of the important that Judge Goundar said in his judgement was that no one can take, no officers even if there law and order can not take the law into their own hands because we have separation of power in the country. You know, the Police and the Military do the arrests and it is the court that decides on the appropriate punishment,” Shameem said.

The Fiji Military Force plans on appealing the conviction later today.

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International – Fiji’s law system is independent, says Human Rights Commission – 18 March 2009

FijiVillage – Military to appeal sentence – 18 March 2009

Fiji Daily Post – FOUR YEARS – 18 March 2009