A Voice for the Voiceless

Tensions High as Fiji Plans to Expel NZ High Commissioner

By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – This afternoon, Fiji’s interim government plans to expel New Zealand’s acting High Commissioner over travel sanctions.

FijiLive reports that interim prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, is throwing High Commissioner, Caroline McDonald, out of the country in response to what he perceives are unfair travel bans on family and members of the interim government.

New Zealand and Australia introduced travel bans to punish Fiji for Bainimarama’s bloodless military coup of Fiji’s Federal government in 2006. Tensions between Fiji and the Pacific community have increased since a High Court in Fiji declared the military coup legal in October. Fiji’s ousted prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, has challenged that judgment, calling it a “miscarriage of justice.” An appeal of that decision is scheduled to be heard in March 2009.

According to reports, New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Murray McCully, spoke with Bainimarama over the phone yesterday.

“There’s been no agreed pathway” for resolving the issue. It’s work in progress. … Taking the matter forward is in the hands of the Fijians now. We want our acting High Commissioner to stay there,” McCully said.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith says that his country will not be removing travel bans until the political situation in Fiji is addressed.

“Australia will continue with its travel bans… until such time as we see the interim Fiji government moving towards and making progress to an election and the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in Fiji,” Smith said.

For more information, please see:
ABC News – Fiji to expel NZ’s acting High Commissioner: reports – 17 December 2008

International Herald Tribune – NZ diplo faces Fiji expulsion in sanctions dispute – 17 December 2008

The National Business Review – Report claims NZ envoy to be expelled from Fiji today – 17 December 2008

TVNZ – Diplomat still at her Fiji post – 17 December 2008

UN Rights Repporteur Deported From Israel

By Yasmine S. Hakimian
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

TEL AVIV, Israel – Richard Falk, professor at Princeton University and the United Nations Human Rights Council´s Special Repporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territory was  deported from Israel. Falk was barred from entry into Israel when he arrived in Tel Aviv on the evening of December 14. He spent the night at Ben Gurion airport before he was deported the next morning.

Falk is currently working on a report about the human rights conditions in the occupied Palestinian Territories to raise it at the UN Human Rights Council session in March 2009. He went to Israel to examine violations of international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian Territories. During his trip, Falk had been scheduled to hold meetings in Ramallah with representatives of many human rights organizations.

After Falk was appointed as the UN’s special Repporteur on the Palestinian territories earlier this year, Israel stated that it would deny his entry because in 2007 he said Israel’s blockade on Gaza was a “Holocaust in the making.” Israel allowed Falk to enter in June in order to attend a conference in Ramallah in the West Bank.

Israel is defending their decision to deport Falk, saying he had used his personal visit in June to write an official UN report and because of his comparison of Israel’s practices to the Holocaust.

Yigal Palmor, the Israeli Foreign Minister, stated that “Falk came as a reporter for the UN Human Rights Council and we find the mandate of the reporter is completely distorted. It has been instrumentalized for Israel-bashing.”

Palmor claims Falk has made unprofessional extreme comments about Israel, with no factual basis. Palmor did not cite any examples but stated that the fact that Falk believes in conspiracy theories is enough reason to discredit him.

The Adalah rights organization has sent an urgent letter to Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, demanding that they lift the ban on Falk. The organization has noted that the ban is a severe blow to the rights of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. The letter states that it is Israel’s obligation, as a member of the UN and a signatory to various international human rights conventions, to respect the work of UN representatives and enable human rights missions without fear of repercussions.

It is the third time this year that Israel has barred a high-profile critic from entering. In May, Israel deported Norman Finkelstein, a controversial Jewish American academic who has accused Israel of using the Holocaust to justify its actions against the Palestinians. In the same month, Israel also refused Archbishop Desmond Tutu entry while he was on a UN fact-finding mission in Gaza.

For more information, please see:

New York Times – U.N. Rights Investigator Expelled By Israel – 16 December 2008

American Chronicle – U.S. Professor Richard Falk Denied Entry Into Israel And Deported From Ben Gurion Airport – 15 December 2008

Electronic Intifada – Israel Denies Entry to UN Rights Reporter – 15 December 2008

Ha’aertz – Israel Expels UN Rights Envoy Who Compared Israelis to Nazis – 15 December 2008

Coalition of Six Political Parties Back Interim Government in Fiji

By Sarah E. Treptow
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – A new council made up of six political parties met in Suva to express support for the interim government to hold elections in 2011.  The council is called the Peoples Movement for Political Reform (PEMPOR) and is demanding that Australia and New Zealand withdraw sanctions against Fiji.  PEMPOR also proposes elections be held only for the right reasons and not due to threats of isolation, they also call for respect for the integrity of the judicial system in Fiji.

The parties involved in PEMPOR are the General Voters Party, the Conservative Alliance / Matanitu Vanua Party, the Justice & Freedom Party, the National Allicance Party, the Party of National Unity, and Soqosoqo Ni Vakavulewa Ni Taukei.  The chair of the meeting, John Sanday of the General Voters Party, said Fiji People’s Party General Secretary, Charan Jeath Sing also indicated his support.

Sanday said, “We are formed to support the Presidential Dialogue Forum, and we will work with the interim Prime Minister to move the country forward and help restore democracy in Fiji.”  The council said that general elections could be held in three years because the country needs time to make their operations “clean and transparent.”

Sanday added, “Fiji has a legitimate Government and elections should not be held with guns held to our heads and comply with the threat to do it their way or be suspended from certain groups.”

PEMPOR expects five more parties to join and plans to hold a meeting with the interim government to discuss ways to help move the country forward.  PEMPOR secretary Meli Bogileka said the members highlighted the fact that major political parties were working towards their own agenda.

For more information, please see:

Fiji Times – Parties criticise move to suspend Fiji – 15 December 2008

Pacific Magazine – New Political Coalition Backs Fiji Elections in 2011 – 14 December 2008

Fijilive – Political parties back 2011 poll – 13 December 2008

Vietnam Blogger’s Jail Term Sustained

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

HANOI, Vietnam – Today, nearly one in four Vietnamese use the internet and the number is steadily increasing. Vietnam authorities are worried over the growing number of bloggers and their increased use of the internet to express their views against the government. Currently, all Vietnam media agencies including televised news, radio and newspapers are state run. “They (state media) decide what we will hear, what we will read and what we will see,” said a blogger who identifies himself as Mr. Cold. “They are slaves of the Communists.”

In response, a senior Vietnamese internet security expert said that the Vietnamese authorities plan to police the content of dissident blogs through random checks and self-policing by the country’s blogging community. Authorities currently block some oversea websites that are critical of the government and authorities usually block anything they deem as encouraging public protest or any views that will anger China.

The government crackdown on bloggers has caused widespread criticism. “These new censorship regulations are not in accordance with freedom of speech, a right recognized by the Vietnamese constitution and international conventions signed by Vietnam,” said Le Minh Phieu, a Vietnamese legal scholar living in France.

On December 5, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court confirmed the September verdict and sentencing of Nguyen Hoang Hai, who uses the weblog name Dieu Cay and is a member of the online Free Vietnamese Journalists Club.

Dieu Cay has taken part in anti-Beijing demonstrations about a sensitive sea territory dispute with China and was arrested in April, days before the Olympic torch passed through former Saigon.
After a quick proceeding, the court upheld the sentence of two-and-a-half years imprisonment for Dieu Cay on the charge of tax fraud. “The police refused to let Dieu Cay pay his taxes in order to fabricate evidence of his guilt,” Dieu Cay’s lawyer told Reporters Without Borders. “This conviction was premeditated by the authorities.”

Many see Dieu Cay’s sentence as politically motivated. “The court took no account of new evidence submitted by Dieu Cay’s defence,” Reporters Without Borders said. “These rushed proceedings clearly show that the authorities are persecuting this blogger. The appeal court’s verdict was an unjust decision resulting from a trumped-up charge.”

Shawn Crispin, a Southeast Asia representative for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said “Nguyen Van Hai’s harsh treatment was meant to send a message to all of the country’s bloggers.”

For more information, please see:

AFP –  Vietnam Court Upholds Blogger’s Jail Term – 4 December 2008 

RFA – Vietnam to Police Blogs – 12 December 2008

RSF – Leading Blogger’s Conviction Upheld on Appeal – 5 December 2008

San Francisco Chronicle – Bloggers the New Rebels in Vietnam – 14 December 2008

Leaked Report: UN Will Not Deploy Fiji Peacekeepers

By Ryan L. Maness

Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Oceania
SUVA, Fiji – The Fiji Times is reporting that the United Nations has placed an immediate ban on deploying Fiji peacekeepers.  While Fiji peacekeepers will not be pulled out of any of their current positions, they will not be sent to any new locations.
The paper reports that a reliable source says that the directive was sent from UN Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon to the interim government, but had not yet been made public.  According to the source, the Secretary-General issued the directive because the Security Council adopted a resolution calling for the restoration of democracy in Fiji.

Interim Minister of Defence, National Security and Immigration, Ratu Epeli Ganilau denies receiving such a communication from the United Nations.  “If something like that was on the horizon, we would expect to hear it and not come in as a bang. It would come through my portfolio but I have not heard anything,” he said.

The struggle over Fiji’s role in international peacekeeping extends back to 2006, when then Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Fiji that he would limit their involvement in future peacekeeping duties.
Fiji peacekeeping forces are currently serving with the Multinational Forces & Observers Sinai (MFO) and the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
For more information, please see:
Fiji Times Online – No new mission for troops: UN – 15 December 2008
Pacific Magazine – Fiji Barred from New UN Peacekeeping Missions: Report – 15 December 2008
Radio New Zealand International – UN reportedly bans Fiji peacekeepers – 14 December 2008