Journalist Shot by Pakistani Soldiers

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Journalist Qari Muhammad Shoaib was shot by Pakistani soldiers while driving his car in Mingora in the Swat Valley of northwest Pakistan.  Pakistani soldiers were stationed in the Swat Valley patrolling the area in response to threats of a suicide attack.

Shoaib was accompanied by a family member driving home.  The family member said, “They shot at us as we reached Airport Road.  We received no indication that we should stop.”  On the other hand, the military stated that warning shots were fired, yet the vehicle did not stop and as a result, they opened fire.  Police official Khaista Rehman said that “the security forces personnel gave him several warnings, he was signalled to stop, then they shouted and also fired shots in the air, but he kept moving towards a military convoy and finally one of the bullets hit him.”  He continued by saying that shots were fired because suicide bombers have attacked in the past in a similar manner.

Military officials said that they regretted the incident and promised to compensate his family.  Shoaib was a reporter for the Khabar Kar daily and survived by two wives, three daughters and a son.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, eleven journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 2000.  Several journalists allege that the soldiers fired intentionally at Shoaib stating, “If they had wanted to stop the vehicle they could have shot out the tires.”

Approximately forty journalists protested in Mingora on Sunday, demanding an investigation of the Shoaib shooting.  On Monday and Tuesday, more journalist protesters rallied.  They said that many journalists have been killed for no reason except performing their professional duties.  They also criticized the government for not providing protection to journalists and demanded that the soldiers involved in Shoaib’s killing be arrested and punished.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Pakistan Troops ‘Kill Journalist’ – 10 November 2008

Daily Times – Journalists Protests Colleague’s Killing – 11 November 2008

Pakistan Times – Security Forces Kill Seven Militants in Swat – 11 November 2008

Reporters Without Borders – Journalist Shot Dead in the Swat Valley – 10 November 2008

Pacific Freedom Forum Concerned With Fiji’s Media Intimidation

By Sarah E. Treptow
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – The Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF) has expressed their concern and alarm over the Interim Government’s intimidation of the Fiji media. The PFF is specifically appealing to Aiyez Sayed-Khaiyum, Fiji’s Attorney General, to halt his legal pursuits against the editor and publisher of the Fiji Times. Mr. Sayed-Khaiyum is in court with the paper for publishing a letter to the editor that was critical of the recent High Court validation of the 2006 coup, which put the current government in power. The PFF is also appealing to Interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, as he is responsible for the Ministry of Information.

The announcement by the PFF comes after Mr. Sayed-Khaiyum said he will insist the High Court give the editor and publisher of the Fiji Times jail sentences and also give the newspaper itself a heavy fine.

The Fiji Times has already made a public apology for any legal breach it may have committed and has offered to pay cost. PFF Co-Chair Monica Miller has said that in any other democratic country the apology would be sufficient. Ms. Miller continued, “The people of Fiji should realize that this is not just a media freedom issue. It is a human rights issue.”

For more information, please see:

Radio New Zealand International – Freedom Forum says intimidation of media in Fiji is a concern – 15 November 2008

Pacific Magazine – Media Group Alarmed By Fiji Govt’s “Intimidation of Media” – 14 November 2008

Canadian Reporter Held Hostage in Afghanistan Released

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KABUL, Afghanistan – Melissa Fung, a 35 year old reporter for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), was released after being held hostage for nearly four weeks on Saturday.

Fung was on her way to a U.N. refugee camp in outer Kabul when she was kidnapped and forced to the western part of Afghanistan.  CBC News publisher John Cruickshank said in a statement, “She had been in a refugee camp.  She’d been doing some reporting on conditions there and on difficulties in Kabul, and essentially, as she left the camp, within a couple of blocks of a police station, they pulled up in a van, jumped out and overpowered her and took her.”

Fung was held in the region of Wardak, located 50 kilometers southwest of Kabul, and controlled by the Taliban.  Fung stated that she was held in a small “cave.”  It was so small that she could barely stand.  She said that they dug a small hole which turned into a tunnel, then opened to a room.  She said that her abductors never mistreated her except for when they chained her.  For the first three weeks of being kidnapped, they guarded her constantly, but during the last week, they chained her arms and legs and then abandoned her.

Susan Ormiston of CBC stated that they received a threatening phone call saying that Fung would be killed if a ransom was not paid or if people in police custody were harmed.  Fung was rescued by the National Directorate of Security (NDS), an Afghan intelligence agency.  NDS arrested three people who were involved in the kidnapping, but seemed to only be middle men.  The agency is still looking for others.

The identity of the kidnappers is still unknown.  Fung said the man who guarded her went by the name “Khaled.”  However, she indicated that she didn’t believe it was his real name.  Fung said, “His friends called him ‘Hezbollah.'”

Hezbollah is a radical Shia group based out of Lebanon and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States.  It has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist acts, including car bombs, roadside bombs, rockets, booby-traps and suicide attacks.

Despite Fung’s successful release with the help of the Afghan government, kidnappings of Western journalists are on the rise.  Reporters Without Borders said, “We are nonetheless very worried by the recent kidnappings of journalists in Afghanistan, where the security situation has deteriorated dangerously.”

For more information, please see:

CBC News – Kidnapped CBC Journalist Chained in Tiny Chamber Before Release – 9 November 2008

CNN – Freed Canadian Reporter:  I Was Kept in a Cave – 9 November 2008

Reporters Without Borders – Canadian Reporter Freed After Being Held Hostage for 28 Days – 9 November 2008

India’s Famous Painter Fears Returning to Native Country

By Shayne R. Burnham
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Maqbool Fida Husain still fears returning to his native country. Husain, 93, is the most renowned painter in India, though subject to self-imposed exile due to the “controversial” nature of his work. Most notably, he paints Hindu goddesses and in a few of his works, they are nude. This has caused anger on behalf of Hindu nationalists who attacked galleries exhibiting his work, vandalized his work and even offered an $11 million reward for his death. In response to violent threats, Husain removed himself from India and has lived in Dubai for the past two years.

There are three of Husain’s works which have caused most of the backlash from right-wing Hindus. Two are pencil drawings. One depicts Durga, the mother goddess. The other is of Saraswati, the goddess of the arts. Both portray the goddesses faceless and nude. The third, named Mother India, is a painting of a female nude, kneeling on the ground creating the shape of India. Husain believes that nudity is symbolic of purity.

In September 2008, the Supreme Court of India dismissed all charges against Husain. He was accused of obscenity, which under Indian laws, is a criminal offense. However, the Court ruled that Husain’s paintings were not obscene, in fact, nudity was common in Indian iconography. With the Court ruling, Husain looks forward to returning to India stating, “This is not a victory for me only, but one for the Indian contemporary art movement.”

Freedom of expression is one concept that has caused heated debate between democratic ideals and religious and ethnic diversity. Analysts state that most often controversy erupts as a result of politics. For example, last March, Taslima Nasreen, was forced to leave West Bengal after a Muslim political party denounced her novel. Another instance is that of political psychologist, Ashis Nandy. Nandy wrote an article criticizing the victory of Hindu nationalists in state election. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party controls the western state of Gujarat, where Nandy was subsequently charged with “promoting enmity between different groups.”

The government has responded to threats and violence by banning the works of art and literature.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Indian Painter Cleared By Court – 9 September 2008

New York Times – An Artist in Exile Tests India’s Democratic Ideals – 9 November 2008

TIME – Maqbool Fida Husain – 13 August 2007

Laos and Vietnamese Troops Attack Hmong Civilians

By Pei Hu
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia


BANGKOK, Thailand
– According to a statement by Vaughn Vang, Director of the Laos Human Rights Council, Inc., Laos Peoples Democratic Republic (LPDR) officials are pressuring the Thai government to repatriate all Hmong refugees and asylum seekers from Huay Nam Khao refugee camp in Thailand. Vang added many Hmong refugees that are deported from Thailand back to Laos have gone missing or are arrested in the middle of the night by LPDR authorities.

In June 2008, more than 5,000 Hmong refugees from the Huay Nam Khao refugee camp in Thailand held peaceful protests against Thai deportations of Hmong asylum seekers and refugees. Several witnesses confirmed with Human Rights Watch that Thai paramilitary forces surrounded protests with barbed wires and separated Hmong families when forcing them onto pick-up Trucks. Thai authorities moved the Hmong demonstration leaders to undisclosed locations. Additionally, Thai military and paramilitary forces arrested 873 Hmong protestors, including women and children, and forcibly deported them to Laos the next day.

Hmong refugees are prohibited to return home after they have returned to Laos after deportation. Some refugees are sent to relocations sites where they are enrolled in re-education camps. However, many human rights organizations say that Hmong refugees face arbitrary incarceration, sexual abuse, torture, and disappearances.

Bill Frelick, refugee policy director of the Human Rights Watch said, “The Laos government is notorious for treating deported Hmong harshly upon their return … By imprisoning these Hmong deportees, Laos authorities confirm the fear many Hmong asylum seekers and refugees have expressed of being persecuting if returned to their native country.”

The LPDR persecute Hmong communities because of a Hmong insurgency in the 1960s. According to several humanitarian agencies, the LPDR is responsible for sexual abuse, torture, and extrajudicial killings of Hmong civilians living in Laos suspected of being insurgents.

For more information, please see:

APF – Rights Group Says Laos Jailed Hmong Refugee Protest Leaders – 27 October 2008

HRW – Laos: Cease Arbitrary Detention of Deported Hmong – 28 October 2008

Media Newswire – Thailand’s Somchai Visits Laos Following Bloody Military, Chemical Weapons Attacks on Hmong – 3 November 2008