A Voice for the Voiceless

UN and Human Rights Groups Alarmed with Nepal Disappearances

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

Kathmandu, Nepal –The UN and human rights groups have been concerned with the high number of disappearances in Nepal.  In August 2004, after Amnesty International reported that more than 378 people disappeared in 2003, the UN issued a warning to Nepal on the International Day of Disappeared. However, the situation did not improve. In December 2004, the UN has sent a fact finding team to Nepal to investigate the large number of political disappearances.

The four-member UN fact finding team will interview families of the disappeared and a detention facility.

Many of these disappearances are politically motivated. Amnesty International reported that most cases are from the Nepalese government who detained suspected Maoists. There are also cases of rebels abductions, extrajudicial killings, and tortures of suspected security forces. Since 1996, 9,500 people, many of them civilians, have reportedly died since the internal fighting between the security forces and Maoist rebels. Brad Adams, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, said, “Disappearances were perhaps the worst aspect of a dirty and ugly war in Nepal … Yet so far no one has been held accountable.”

Human rights groups say that Nepal has the highest number of disappearances, about 1,400 cases since the conflict began, which surpasses Colombia in the most number of disappearances.  Amnesty International said, “The unprecedented number of ‘disappearances’ is one of the most pressing human rights issues facing Nepal. Only by tackling the culture of abuse, ending the impunity of security forces and putting in place comprehensive legal and institutional reforms can the government halt the slide towards a human rights disaster.”

The Nepalese government denies these allegations. Nepalese officials says about 1,000 people have been released after being held in custody and only 300 people are still currently detained.

Human Rights Watch and Advocacy Forum sent a letter to the Nepalese government that urged the government to pass a bill to hold perpetrators accountable and to provide appropriate compensation to families of the disappeared.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International – Nepal: Alarming Rise in “Disappearances” Fueling Human Rights Crisis – 31 August 2004

BBC – Alarm over Nepal Disappearances – 31 August 2004

BBC – UN Probing Nepal Disappearances – 6 December2004

HWR – Nepal: Adopt a Bill on ‘Disappearances’ – 25 November 2008

Fiji Commission Sets Strict Rules for Foreign Missions

By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – The Fiji Human Rights Commission has instituted a set of strict conditions that must be met before foreign missions are allowed to review Fiji’s laws.

Establishment of the new policy follows allegations that Fiji’s interim attorney general, Sayed-Khaiyum,  threatened a group of lawyers planning to conduct a review of Fiji’s justice system. Last week, the London-based, International Business Association (IBA) claimed they received a letter from the interim-attorney-general which made clear that the interim government would not welcome the group and would take “appropriate steps” if IBA delegates came to Fiji.

While Mr. Sayed-Khaiyum denied these allegations, the interim government has barred the IBA in the past from reviewing Fiji’s justice system.

Dr. Shaista Shameem, chairperson to the Fiji Human Rights Commission, says that the new policy calls for “advance comprehensive terms of reference and information about the purpose of the visit as well as an opportunity to discuss findings before their publication.”

According to Dr. Shameem, the purpose of this policy is to protect the Commission’s intellectual property rights. Dr. Shameem argued, “While many foreign visitors and missions pontificated about the rule of law and good governance, they did not practice the basic and minimum principles of due process by discussing the findings with the relevant agencies of the State before publishing them or sending them to other international agencies for action.”

Dr. Shameem added that the Commission will no longer stand for, what they consider, are pointless questions.

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International – Fiji interim AG denies claims he threatened IBA group – 26 November 2008

AFP – Fiji blocks International Bar Association visit – 26 November 2008

Fiji Times – FHRC refuses to meet with foreign missions – 03 December 2008

Radio New Zealand Interational – Fiji Human Rights Commission sets new terms to meet foreign teams – 03 December 2008

FijiLive – FHRC gets strict on foreign missions – 03 December 2008

A Brother Strangles his Sister in Honor Killing

By Yasmine S. Hakimian
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

JERASH, Jordan – On December 1, an unidentified Jordanian man was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for strangling his 16-year-old married sister. Using wire and his sister’s scarf, the 20-year-old man strangled his sister to cleanse his family’s honor. The man testified it took 30 minutes to strangle his sister to death. He killed her in January in the Gaze refugee camp in the town of Jerash after she visited a female friend.

Girls younger than 18 can legally wed in Jordan. The girl was married for six months at the time of her death.

The presiding judge on the case, Judge Hassan Amayreh, reported the man confessed to the killing. He testified to killing his sister to cleanse his family’s honor after her husband complained that she regularly disappeared from home without a reason. Investigations indicated the girl was visiting her female friend when she wasn’t at home.

Judge Amayreh explained he originally sentenced the man to a 15-year prison term on November 30. However, the judge reduced the sentence since the girl’s family gave up their legal rights. In Jordan, prison sentences are reduced if the family drops the charges against the person who committed the honor killing.

Despite continuous campaigns by local and international human rights activists, those who commit honor killings receive reduced sentences because parliament has refused to reform the penal code to ensure harsher sentences.

Between 15 and 20 women are murdered each year in the name of “honor” in Jordan. Last year around 18 honor killings were recorded.

In the past, Jordan has been criticized for giving lenient sentences in so-called honor killing cases. Some honor killings have carried jail sentences of just six months.

According to the United Nations, over 5,000 women and girls are killed every year by family members in honor killings. These crimes occur where cultures believe that a woman’s unsanctioned sexual behavior brings such shame on the family that the female must be murdered. Honor killings have resulted from talking to a man or in suffering rape.

Honor killings are a controversial issue within the Muslim world. Although a tradition in some teachings of Islam, they are increasingly criticized by Westerners and moderate Muslims around the world.

For more information, please see:

Bare Naked Islam – It Took Him 30 Minutes to Strangle his Sister to Death with a Metal Wire and Her Own Scarf – 3 December 2008

International Campaign Against Honour Killings – Girl Strangled Slowly in Sick ‘Honour Killing’ – 2 December 208

WA Today – ‘Honour Killing’: Man Strangles Sister – 2 December 2008

BBC – Jail for Jordan ‘Honour Killing’ – 1 December 2008

Two Journalists Sentenced as Judicial Crackdown in Myanmar Continues

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar Junta continues its judicial crackdown on political activities.  Two journalists were sentenced for seven years each.  Thet Zin, editor of the local Myanmar-language journal Myanmar Nation, and Sein Win Maung, the paper’s manager, were convicted for undermining the government under the country’s Printing and Publishing Law.  They were also being charge for possessing documents deemed to be subversive, including a UN Special Human Rights Report on Myanmar. The same day, 13 members of the ’88 Generation students group’ were sentenced to six years in jail.

Thet Zin founded the Myanmar Nation in 2006.  He is a former political prisoner and had previously worked as a reporter and editor for several weekly journals, including News Watch and Ah Lin Tan.  Thet Zin and Sein Win Maung were arrested in February in a raid in which military intelligence officers seized the UN Special Human Rights Report on Myanmar, Shan ethnic leader Shwe Ohn’s book on federalism, and a VCD containing footage of the 2007 September uprising.

“In the case of Thet Zin and Sein Win Maung, the judges have imposed the maximum penalty allowed under the press law. What is the most shocking is that none of journalists, bloggers, poets, activists or monks who have recently been sentenced, committed a crime defined as such under Burmese law. Their sole crime is to peacefully oppose the junta”, the worldwide press freedom organization said.

Myanmar courts sentenced more than 100 people, including activists, writers, musicians and Buddhist monks to jail since last month.  Myanmar Junta, which has held power since 1962, frequently arrests artists and entertainers regarded as opposing the regime.

For more information, please see:

AP – Journalists caught in crackdown by Myanmar junta – 01 December 2008

Reporters Without Borders – Two journalists jailed for seven years as wave of sentencing continues – 29 November 2008

The Irrawaddy – Judicial Crackdown in Burma Continues – 28 November 2008

Journalist Gunned Down in Bihar, India

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BIHAR, India – Journalist Vikas Ranjan was shot dead on November 25 in Bihar, a northern state of India. Ranjan, 32, was killed outside his office in Rosera, located in the Samastipur district, by three armed men. The gunmen waited at the entrance of the office, shot Ranjan and fled on motorcycles. Ranjan was pronounced dead upon arrival to a local hospital.

It is alleged that Ranjan’s murder was connected to his investigations on local drug trafficking in recent weeks.

Bihar regional director of Hindustan’s sister newspaper, the English version of the Hindustan Times, said that his family had received threats about two weeks before his death. He reported them to police but did not get any protection.

“We call for the investigation into Vikas Ranjan’s murder to be immediate, thorough and transparent,” said Bob Dietz, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Asia Program coordinator. “Correspondents in remote areas should be protected from attacks made in retribution for their reporting.”

Relatives of Ranjan and fellow journalists gathered outside the hospital where Ranjan died, calling for immediate action by the police and protesting police failure to afford him protection against threats.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar ordered proper police investigations into the murder. The official in charge of investigations said that three suspects had been identified and would be arrested in the next few days.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has spoken with authorities in Assam and Manipur, two other northeastern states where killings of journalists are prevalent, asking them to effectively investigate their deaths and protect journalists.

“Ranjan was the third Indian journalist to be murdered in the past two weeks,” said Reporters Without Borders.

According to CPJ’s Impunity Index, India ranks at number 13. The Impunity Index is a list of those countries where governments have failed to solve journalists’ murders.

For more information, please see:

Committee to Protect Journalists – Journalist Shot Dead in Bihar – 1 December 2008

Hindustan Times – Hindustan Reporter Shot Dead in Bihar – 2 December 2008

Reporters Without Borders – Journalist Investigating Drug Trafficking Gunned Down in Bihar State – 27 November 2008