A Voice for the Voiceless

Pacific Nations Speak Out Against Bainimarama

By Sarah E. Treptow
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – Tuilaepa Sailele Malilelegaoi, Samoan Prime Minister, has said Fiji must get rid of their armed forces to have peace.  Tuilaepa said he thinks Fiji’s future is uncertain and even if the country holds elections there is no reason why a civilian government could not be toppled.

Tuilaepa just returned from Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea where Pacific leaders were to discuss Fiji’s return to a civilian government.  He said, “If Bainimarama goes and there is a return to civilian government I feel there will be many other Bainimarama’s who may come forward in the future.”  The Samoan PM continued, “This is because it is very easy to pick up a gun and wave it at people.”

Tuilaepa explained Pacific nations wanted Fiji to hold elections because it is a condition for membership in the Pacific Forum that governments are democratically elected.  He mentioned that Bainimarama has accounced it could take up to ten years before elections can be held in Fiji.  He thinks this is negligent of Bainimarama as the leader of Fiji.  He then described Bainimarama as inexperienced in international relations, unused to governing a country, and only wanting praise.

Suspension from the Forum was discussed in Port Moresby and in a unanimous decision Fiji was given until May 1 to come up with an election date this year.  Failure to meet the deadline will result in suspension.

For more information, please see:
Islands Business – Fiji strongman losing Pacific goodwill – 30 January 2009

Samoa Observer – No peace in Fiji with army: PM – 01 February 2009

Radio New Zealand International – Samoa PM says no peace in Fiji unless military goes – 03 February 2009

Chinese Court Postpones A Trial of Earthquake Critic

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – A Chinese court delayed a trial of a rights activist in the nation’s southwest.  Huang Qi often openly criticized the Communist Party’s restrictions on political rights.  He was charged with “illegal possession of state secrets” after he gave help to parents of children killed in Sichuan earthquake.  According to Huang’s wife, Zeng Lin, the Sichuan authorities detained Huang last June and a court told her that Huang would be tried on Moday. “They didn’t say what specifically he was accused of and they have not allowed him or the lawyers to see any documents or evidence,” Zeng said.

After the Sichuan earthquake, Sichuan authorities tried to stop citizen protests, ban media coverage of allegations of shoddy school construction and offered money to grieving parents. According to Zeng, her husband documented the scene at the collapsed schools and delivered food and other rescue equipment to the epicenter.  He also posted the appeals and complaints of parents on his Web site at http://www.64tianwang.com.  “Besides that, he did nothing. And the reports he posted online were also covered by other media,” she added.

Zeng said Huang had lost weight, but she is not allowed to send him medicine.  According to Huang’s lawyer, Mo Shaoping, public security officials told him if he promised not to continue human rights work after his release, they would let him go at once. But Huang refused.

Illegal possession of state secrets can bring jail terms of up to 3 years in China. Lawyers and even judges are not allowed to see the documents in question or challenge their classification, said Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch.  Huang’s attorney, Mo also said, “There’s no real avenue to challenge the validity of whatever authorities classify as a state secret.”

Earlier Monday, Mo said that he first learned of the sudden announcement of the trial date via Zeng, and he had called the court to complain that the lack of forewarning was highly irregular.  Mo also accused the court of “intentionally creating difficulties.” According to Mo, rules demand that lawyers be informed of a trial date at least three days in advance.

For more information, please see:

New York Times – Chinese Rights Advocate Faces Trial – 02 February 2009

Reuters – China to try earthquake critic on secrets charge – 02 February 2009

Washington Post – Chinese dissident’s trial postponed, lawyer says – 032 February 2009

Washington Post – China Postpones Trial for Activist – 02 February 2009

Protesters in Papua Claim Police Brutality

By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

JAYAPURA, Papua – A human rights group is speaking out after Indonesian police beat and shot at a crowd of demonstrators earlier this week.

Papuan demonstrators held an overnight vigil outside a local elections office in Nabire to protest the government’s delay in holding elections that had been scheduled for last October.

Paula Makabori, a representative from the human right’s group ELSHAM, says the demonstrators were threatening to boycott this year’s legislative and presidential elections if the government did not explain the delay.

Makabori also claims that police attacked the protestors in their sleep.

“And this brutal attack and gunshots against the people resulted in some people suffering of bruises and open wounds, and five people suffering from serious bullet wounds. So the victims have been hiding because they think that the police will go there and then take them out,” Makabori said.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, police shot into a crowd of nearly 300 angry protestors in Timika, seriously injuring four. The hostility began as a demonstration against police brutality and, specifically, the death of one Timika resident, Simor Fader, who was shot by police.

Local police commander, Jasim Hoda, says “a number” of protestors will be questioned in this matter.

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International – Protestors in Papua say police beat them – 30 January 2009

Jakarta Globe – 4 Wounded as Officers Open Fire on Antipolice Protesters in Papua – 28 January 2009

AFP – Indonesian police open fire on Papuan protesters: witnesses – 27 Janurary 2009

Reuters – Police fire on crowd in Indonesia’s Papua, 3 hurt – 27 January 2009

Sri Lankan Newspaper Editor Killed

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Newspaper editor Upali Tennakoon and his wife were stabbed by four men on motorcycles on while driving to work in Colombo.

Tennakoon is editor for the Rivira, a weekly newspaper that is said to be neither pro-government nor pro-rebel.

The hospital treated Tennakoon and his wife for lacerations to the face and hands.  They are currently in stable condition.  After treatment, Tennakoon’s wife described the attack.  “They smashed the windscreen and began to attack us.”  She further stated, “I clung hard to them when they began to hit us with sticks and stab us.”

Reporters Without Borders stated, “We firmly condemn this latest attack on a newspaper editor, which highlights the severity of the crisis that journalists are currently experiencing in Sri Lanka.”  They continue, “The government must conduct an investigation in order to identify those responsible and their motives.”

President Rajapaksa reportedly ordered an investigation into the matter.  Media minister Anura Yapa said, “We totally condemn this type of attack, and we will do everything possible to find the culprits.”

Meanwhile, five journalists have fled the country and gone into hiding and a website stopped reporting due to threats of violence.  The five journalists are known to be Upul Joseph Fernando and Rathnapala Gamage, political reporters with Lankadeepa; Iqbal Athas of the Sunday Times and Anuruddha Lokuhappuarachchi, a photographer for Reuters.

The Press Freedom Organization stated, “It is deplorable that no concrete measures were taken to protect the news media after newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunga’s murder two weeks ago.  As a result of the climate of fear, the most independent journalists are fleeing the island, and the most outspoken media, such as the news website Lankadissent, are closing.”

In a report by Amnesty International in November, at least 10 media employees had been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006.

For more information, please see:

Associated Press – Sri Lankan Editor, Wife Wounded in Knife Attack – 23 January 20009

BBC – Fresh Media Attack in Sri Lanka – 23 January 2009

Reporters Without Borders – Newspaper Editor Injured in Stabbing Attack, Other Journalists Forced to Flee Island – 23 January 2009

HRW Urges Syria to Reveal the Fate of the Sidnaya Inmates

By Lauren Mellinger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria  – On January 27, Human Rights Watch released a statement reporting that the  status of inmates at Sidnaya military prison is still unknown.  The prison has been at the center of controversy since July 2008, after prison guards were accused of using lethal force in order to put down a prison riot.   

At least 1,500 inmates are imprisoned in Sidnaya, located northwest of Damascus.  Syrian authorities maintain that prison guards “quickly restored” order after the riot began, and publicly blame Sidnaya inmates convicted on charges of terrorism and religious extremism for instigating the riot.  According to Syrian human rights organizations reports, at least 25 inmates have died as a result of the prison guards use of lethal force in quelling the riots, although HRW reports indicate that ten people died in the riot, including one police officer.

In October 2008, after several attempts to obtain an update on the status of the prisoners from the Ministry of Justice failed to produce any information, 17 mothers of prisoners detained in Sidnaya publicly appealed to the Syrian government, in particular to Syrian President Bashar al-Asad.  They urged the government to provide them with information on family members detained at the prison.  According to the statement released by the mothers, they were aware of “the burial of bodies in [the town of] Qatana at night,” on the order of the Syrian security services and they were concerned their relatives may have been among the dead.

Since July, the fate of the inmates has been unknown, as government authorities have prohibited any outside contact with the prisoners, “imposing a complete information blackout,” including banning the use of cell phones around the perimeter of the prison. 

On December 18, residents of the town of Sidnaya reported seeking smoke emerge from the prison and the sound of gunshots.  One resident reported to HRW that after smoke was seen emerging from the prison, Syrian authorities closed the road leading from the town to the prison in order to accommodate military trucks en route to the prison but that the road was reopened the following day.

According to Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa Director at HRW, “Syria’s long blackout on the fate of at least 1,500 detainees is nothing less than scandalous…The lack of information about Sidnaya has caused enormous anguish to the families and fueled fears and rumors…The Syrian authorities need to come clean and allow families and lawyers access to Sidnaya.” 

HRW urged the Syrian government to reveal the status of the inmates, and to begin an allow lawyers to begin an independent investigation into the fate of prisoners who were injured or killed as a result of lethal force used by prison guards in the July riot. 

For more information, please see:

Human Rights Watch – Syria: Reveal Inmates’ Conditions – 27 January 2009

Reuters – Reports of More Trouble at Syria Jail-Rights Group – 27 January 2009

Taiwan News – HRW: Syria Must Speak Out on Prison Riot Victims – 27 January 2009