Amnesty Urges Sri Lanka to Allow Aid

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Amnesty International urged the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels to allow aid to the more than 300,000 people displaced by the fighting in the northern Wanni region.

“More than 300,000 people face the next few months crowded together in temporary shelters, surrounded by mud, with no promise of regular access to food or adequate sanitation. Our information indicates that the situation in Wanni is rapidly becoming critical, despite that government’s statements that it is coping,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific Director.

Nearly two-thirds of the civilian population in the Wanni region have been displaced by the conflict. Amnesty International states that the need for shelter is increased by the approaching of the monsoon season. Only 2,100 temporary shelters have been provided, leaving more than 20,000 families without shelter.

Amnesty International urges the government to allow additional aid by human rights groups since it believes that the government lacks the capacity to uphold international human rights standards and to ensure that the support is provided to protect the lives of the civilians. Moreover, the Tigers are called upon to ensure the freedom of movement to safer places.

On Thursday, the Sri Lanka government rejected the charges of humanitarian aid blockage to the people in Wanni. Presidential Secretariat said that the government is satisfied that the maximum assistance is being provided considering the circumstances dealing with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The Tigers have been at war with the government in order to achieve their goal of a separate homeland for the LTTE. The battle taking place in the Wanni region has lasted for several weeks now, causing the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The civilians are trapped because of both the fear they have of the government and the restriction of movement from the Tigers who currently occupy the territory. The government hopes to end the war with the Tigers by taking back this region.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Amnesty in Urgent Sri Lanka Plea – 19 November 2008

Colombo Page –  Sri Lanka Government Rejects Amnesty International Report of Aid Blockage – 20 November 2008

TamilNet – Amnesty Urges Sri Lanka to End Policy of Blocking Humanitarian Aid– 19 November 2008

Federal Judge Releases Five Guantanamo Prisoners

By Maria E. Molina
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, U.S. – A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release of five Algerian detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.  The cases largely hinged on the definition of an enemy combatant, which was argued to include al-Qaida or Taliban supporters who directly assisted in hostile acts against the U.S. or its allies.

The government’s evidence linking the five detainees to al-Qaida was found to be not credible as it came from a single, unidentified source. Therefore, the five detainees could not be held indefinitely as enemy combatants, and should be released immediately.

There was a sixth detainee that was not released because there was sufficient reason to believe he was close to an al-Qaida operative and had sought to help others travel to Afghanistan to join the terrorists’ fight against the United States and its allies.  Much of the evidence against the detainees is classified and was not discussed in open trial or the detainees themselves.

The Justice Department claimed the six men were caught and detained before they could join a global jihad.

One of the men to be released is Lakhdar Boumediene, whose landmark Supreme Court case last summer gave Guantanamo detainees the right to challenge their imprisonment. The government initially detained the five men on suspicion of plotting to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo in October 2001. They were transferred to Guantanamo in January 2002.

The Bosnian government already has agreed to take back the detainees, all of whom immigrated to Bosnia from Algeria before they were captured in 2001.

The cases of more than 200 additional Guantanamo detainees are still pending.

For more information, please see:

Washington Post – Another Falsehood Exposed -21 November 2008

Yahoo News – Judge orders release of 5 terror suspects at Gitmo – 21 November 2008

NY Times – Judge Declares Five Detainees Held Illegally – 20 November 2008

Vietnam to Enforce Two-Child Policy

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

HANOI, Vietnam – The Vietnamese government will pass a new law strictly enforcing a 2-child per couple policy. Communist Officals in Vietname are worried about the growing-population in Vietnam.

Many Vietnamese families have a third child because of the longstanding preference for a male heir to carry on the family name.  Thus, many of the families that have more than two children have previous children who are daughters. According to government sources, for the first nine months of this year, childbirth has already increased by 10% from last year.

There is already an existing 2-child policy that was ratified in the 1960s; however, the policy was never strictly enforced.  That decree was “so general that people haven’t understood it and have sometimes taken advantage of it” said the deputy head General Office for Population and Family Planning, Duong Quoc Trong.  Trong added, “The demographic boom is damaging the country’s sustainable development.”

In the past, people were reprimanded by fines, pay-cuts, and expulsion from work for having a third child. The Vietnamese government has not yet disclosed what the new punishments will be for the 2-child policy. Certain minority ethnic groups will be exempt from the 2-child policy.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) estimates that Vietnam’s population growth is currently at 1.3% and will continue to grow for the next 30 years. However, Tran Thi Van of UNPF fears that the 2-policy will be problematic for Vietnam’s development in the future.

Van said the government should rethink the 2-child policy because “life expectancy is rising, the fertility rate is decreasing and in the next 20 years many people will be in the senior group” and “if there is not [a sufficient] labor force as the population is ageing, the country will face a lot of problems.”

For more information, please see:

APF – Vietnam to Tighten Two-Child Rule– 21 November 2008

BBC – Vietnam to Enforce Two-Child Rule– 20 November 2008

Channel News Asia – Vietnam to Tighten Two-Child Rule– 21 November 2008

Protests Against Ortega Elections Continue in Nicaragua

By Karla E General

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – The protests sparked by the 146 mayoral elections on November 9 continue to rage across Nicaragua. The opposition is taking to the streets and demanding a full recount to be overseen by impartial international and local observers. Supporters of the Sandinista government have responded by patrolling the capital of Managua with clubs and rocks to deter the opposition from mobilizing.

“This election has everything to do with whether Nicaragua remains a democratic nation or not,” said Francisco Aguirre, a former Nicaraguan ambassador to the United States and an opposition leader. “Until now, since 1990, Nicaragua has held open elections. Now something is rotten in the state of Nicaragua. They say we don’t want the gringos to sort it out for us. Okay. The Europeans then. Or Latin American observers. But they didn’t want anyone looking into this mess, because it stinks.”

The Sandinistas say the opposition is making a stink because its candidates were spanked at the polls. Bayardo Arce, a former top Sandinista commander said the elections were clean and the opposition “is just making a lot of noise…If the Sandinistas become successful entrepreneurs, it is because we are thieves. If we win an election, it is because of fraud. But we reject that.”

Preliminary results show the Sandinistas winning 106 of 146 municipalities.

For more information, please see:

The Guardian – Violence After Nicaragua Poll – 20 November 2008

Los Angeles Times – Voter Fraud Allegations Directed at Nicaragua’s Sandinistas – 20 November 2008

Washington Post – Democracy in Nicaragua in Peril, Ortega Critics Say – 20 November 2008

HRW Accuses Nepali Police of Torturing Children

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

Kathmandu, Nepal – Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Nepali police of torturing children in police custody for petty crimes. HRW had received over 200 credible claims of young boys and girls being tortured in Nepalese prisons. Some of the boys and girls were as young as 13 years old and many of the children were convicted of petty crimes or were working on the streets. Methods of torture included kicking, blows to the body, inserting sharp object under children’s toe nails and beatings to the feet, arms, and thighs with bamboo sticks and plastic pipes.

Torture is prohibited by the Nepalese Constitution and the torture of children is a criminal and civil crime. However, the maximum punishment for the torture of children under Article 7 of the Nepalese civil code is a fine and one year in jail. Asia researcher for HWR Children’s Rights Division, Bede Sheppard, said that police are supposed to protect children and “by torturing children in custody they are committing crimes against those they are supposed to be protecting.” Sheppard also added “it is surprising that not a single police officer has been prosecuted” despite the widespread allegations of torture of children in police custody.

HRW also expressed grave concern on the condition of surrounding of children in police custody because children are separated from their parents and adults in Nepalese prisons and could face assault from other prisoners. One 15 year old boy accounted being tortured by each of the three different police stations he was transferred to. The boy faced beatings, kicks, and was threatened with a gun to his temple to force him to confess to robbery. Sheppard said sometimes the purpose of torturing children was to force confessions or can be “purely for the entertainment of officials.”

November 20th marks Nepalese National Children’s Day and HRW urges the Nepalese government to stop the abuse of children under policy custody. A Nepalese police spokesman said that several police officers have been punished in the past for torturing children; however, the spokesman denied any ongoing torture claims. The foreign minister, Nabin Kumar Ghimire, joined the police spokesman and said the allegations of torture were “wrong and baseless.”

For more information, please see:

ABC News – Nepali Police Accused of Torturing Children – 20 November 2008

BBC – Nepali Police ‘Torture Children’ – 19 November 2008

HRW – Nepal: End Torture of Children in Police Custody – 18 November 2008