A Voice for the Voiceless

China Court Sentenced A Pro-Democracy Activist 6 Years in Jail

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – A 65-year-old democracy activist, Wang Rongqing, has been sentenced to six years in jail.  He is charged of “subversion against the state,” having supported and spread the “China Democracy Party” (CDP). The sentence was handed down on Thursday by the people’s court in Hangzhou (Zhejiang), according to a Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

Wang is a veteran of pro-democracy activism.  He had helped to set up CDP in the late 1990s, and and was imprisoned on a number of occasions.  Wang continued to “participate in an active way, organizing and developing it” even after the ministry of public safety had branded CDP an “enemy organization”, according to the crimes listed in the sentence.  Before the Olympics in Beijing, Mr. Wang organized the first national meeting of the CDP and published many articles on the web, and a book entitled “The opposition party.”

The sentence of six years is one of the highest ever handed down in Zhejiang for pro-democracy activists. According to the CHRD (Chinese Human Rights Defenders), after Wang’s arrest, the police advised his family to remain quiet and to accept a public attorney for the trial.  The police told Wang’s family, in this way, Wang could have received a lesser penalty. Wang’s family followed the advice, never gave interviews, and accepted court-appointed lawyer Liu Yong.

According to Zhou Wei, a dissident who attended the trial, says that the sentence was so heavy because the government is trying to suffocate any democratic criticism after the publication of Charter 08, a call for sweeping political change in China.  Wang’s friends say that Wang is ill, and is able to move only with the use of crutches.  At the reading of the sentence and asking him whether to appeal in court, Wang shrugged his shoulders as if to say this would be useless.

For more information, please see:

AP – Chinese democracy activist sentenced to 6 years – 08 January 2009

AsiaNews – Pro-democracy activist Wang Rongqing sentenced to six years for “subversion” – 08 January 2009

BBC – Veteran Chinese activist jailed – 08 January 2009

Reuters – China court jails dissident for 6 years – 07 January 2009

Papuan Activists Jailed After Waving Banned Flag

Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

JAYAPURA, Papua – A High Court in Papua has sentenced 11 peaceful protesters to prison for waving a banned flag.

Jack Wanaggai was among the activists arrested in March 2007 for participating in a peaceful demonstration in support of Papua’s independence from Indonesia. The Indonesian government has harshly condemned separatist demonstrations including waving flags containing separatist symbols.

Indonesia’s criminal code strictly prohibits the display of the Morning Star Flag in Papua, the South Maluku Republic Benang Raja flag in Ambon, and the Crescent Moon flag in Aceh. Activists caught displaying such flags may receive as much as life in prison.

Wanggai’s lawyer, Yan Christian Warinussy said that, “the activists were carrying out peaceful demonstrations … and they brought the Morning Star flag.”

On Thursday, a High Court in Jayapura, Papua’s provincial capital, increased the sentences of the 11 Papuan activists. Wangggai received a three and a half year prison sentence, while the other 10 protestors received three years.

Separatist protests and demonstrations for independence have long marked Papua’s history. Once a Dutch colony on New Guinea’s western end, Papua became Indonesia’s largest province in 1969. Violence erupted in 2003 after President Megawati Sukarnoputri separated Papua into three provinces: Central Irian Jaya (Irian Jaya Tengah), Papua (or East Irian Jaya, Irian Jaya Timur), and West Irian Jaya (Irian Jaya Barat).

The separation has divided Papuans who accuse the Indonesian military of violating human rights. In addition, many Papuans complain that the money earned from Papua’s natural resources mostly ends up profiting Jakarta. As a result, Papuans have campaigned peacefully for their independence.

For more information, please see:
Sydney Morning Herald – Indonesia jails 11 Papuans over flag – 09 January 2009

Radio New Zealand International – 11 Papuans jailed in Indonesia for separatist activities – 09 January 2009

Jakarta Globe National – Verdicts Upheld for Morning Star Raisers – 09 January 2009

BRIEF: France Will Spend $80 Million to Clean Up Hao After Nuclear Testing

PAPEETE, French Polynesia– France has signed a deal with French Polynesia to spend over 80 million US dollars to clean up Hao, an atoll that was a key military base during the thirty years of nuclear weapons testing in the South Pacific.  France quit nuclear weapons testing in 1996 but continues to be blamed by veterans for failing to compensate those who suffered poor health because of exposure to the nuclear blasts.

The agreement was signed by the French high commissioner in Papeete, Adolphe Colrat, the French Polynesian vice-president, Jules Ienfa, and the mayor of Hao.  Mr. Colrat told RFO radio that the process will take seven years and the financial commitment will be ten times that of what has been dispersed to Hao so far.  He added that this shows France keeps its commitments and will help the development of Hao.

For more information, please see:

Radio New Zealand International – France to spend US $80m to clean up Hao after end of nuclear weapons tests – 09 January 2009

Human Rights Watch Urges Sri Lanka to Stop Violence Against the Media

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – One of Sri Lanka’s most prominent newspaper editors, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was shot dead on Sunday.  The death of Lasantha Wickramatunga demonstrates the Sri Lankan government’s failure to investigate these murders and protect these journalists, urge several human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders.

“Sri Lanka prides itself as a functioning democracy. Yet media freedom, a vital pillar of democracy, has increasingly come under attack,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should not take its recent military victories as a signal that it can stifle dissent.”

Wickramatunga was editor and senior journalist of the Sunday Leader. He was shot on his way to work in Colombo by two unidentified men on motorcycles.  He was rushed to the hospital where he died shortly thereafter.

Wickramatunga was known notably for his in-depth investigations into corruption of the government.  He was often a target of threats and lawsuits for libel.

“Mr Wickramatunga’s death is a serious blow for press freedom because he was one of the few reporters in the country who could write authoritatively about the government and Tamil Tigers’ conduct of a brutal war which has claimed thousands of lives over the years but has been consistently under-reported by much of the world’s media,” said Priyath Liyanage, editor of the BBC’s Sinhala service.

Human rights organizations blame the government directly for the deaths of journalists and repression of speech.

“Sri Lanka has lost one of its more talented, courageous and iconoclastic journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said. “President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his associates and the government media are directly to blame because they incited hatred against him and allowed an outrageous level of impunity to develop as regards violence against the press. Sri Lanka’s image is badly sullied by this murder, which is an absolute scandal and must not go unpunished.”

According to Reporters Without Borders’ 2008 press freedom index, Sri Lanka was ranked 165th out of 173 countries. This was the lowest ranking of any democratic country.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Grievous Blow to Sri Lankan Media – 8 January 2009

Human Rights Watch – Sri Lanka:  Attacks Highlight Threat to Media – 8 January 2009

Reporters Without Borders – Outrage at Fatal Shooting of Newspaper in Colombo – 8 January 2009

Amnesty International: Yemen Experienced Rollback in Human Rights in 2008

By Lauren Mellinger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 SANA’A, Yemen – In December 2008, Amnesty International released in Annual Report on the State of the World’s Human Rights, stating that human rights and the rule of law in Yemen have experienced a major setback over the course of 2008.

2008 experienced a rollback of civil and political and human rights, which negatively affected the economic and social standing of many Yemeni citizens.  The Amnesty International report made reference to several instances of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment carried out by the government against Yemeni citizens.  Such treatment included violence carried out by Yemeni security forces against citizens, cases of arbitrary and prolonged detentions without legally charging the individual, unfair trials, and several cases of forced disappearances, extrajudicial execution and threats of physical liquidation.   According to the report, in several cases, individuals were detained solely for requesting information regarding a relative who was in detention.  In addition, the report called for the Yemeni government to promote women’s rights in Yemen, and abolish all forms of discriminatory treatment against women.

While the Yemeni government denies that it permits the execution of delinquent minors, Amnesty International alleges otherwise, citing the execution of Adel Muhammed Said Al-Ma’mari, who was executed despite appeals by the international community as well as medical evidence that Al-Ma’mari was not yet 18 at the time he committed the crime and was sentenced by the court.  Currently, Radfan Razaz, another minor, is at risk of imminent execution.

In December 2008, human rights and media activists from Yemen participated in the third regional training course, with other Middle Eastern and North African states, to improve existing regional human rights networks and establish new coalitions and organizations that will serve to foster further inter-governmental cooperation, develop additional mechanisms to protect human rights defenders, and to cooperate in the preparation of both governmental and non-governmental reports.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International – Amnesty International Report 2008: The State of the World’s Human Rights – December 2008

Yemen Observer – Conclusion of the Third Regional Training Course on Human Rights – 30 December 2008

Yemen News Agency – 3rd Regional Training for Human Rights and Media Activists Wraps Up – 26 December 2008

Yemen Post – Amnesty International: Human Rights in Yemen See Major Setbacks in 2008 – 22 December 2008