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

Human Rights Violations Against Members of Tlapaneco Activist Organizations

By Maria E. Molina
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

GUERRO, Mexico – On Tuesday, Amnesty International demanded the immediate release of five Indian activists jailed in southern Mexico on suspicion of homicide.

Amnesty International contends that all five are innocent of the murder charges and their detention and prosecution is politically motivated. The activists were detained in connection with the Jaunary killing of a government supporter in the mountain community of El Camalote. Leftist rebel groups and drug traffickers have been active in this area over the past decade.

The five activists, belonging to the Organization of the Tlapaneco Indian People, were arrested in April.  The organization is an activist group that has protested army patrols and forced sterilization of some men in their remote mountain communities in the 1990s.

A court ruled in late October that there was not enough evidence to continue holding the five men, but federal prosecutors appealed that ruling, guaranteeing the men would remain in jail.  It is believed that the men’s continued prosecution is aimed at quashing the protest movement. The Mexican government has sought to decimate and disband the Tlapaneco organization.

This story illustrates a wider pattern of abuse against human rights activists in Guerrero in Mexico. Authorities have often misused the judicial system to punish those who promote respect for the rights of marginalized communities and dare to speak up about abuses. In June, Guerrero state authorities agreed to pay 35,000 pesos ($3,400 at the time) in compensation to 14 indigenous Mexican men coerced into having vasectomies, and give them water storage tanks and cement to build homes.  Other parts of the compensation agreement, the punishment for the authorities who coerced the men into the procedure, and the construction of rural health clinics have been unfulfilled.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International – Mexico: Amnesty International adopts five indigenous rights defenders as prisoners of conscience – 11 November 2008

Taiwan News – Amnesty demands Mexico release Indian activists – 12 November 2008

UK MSN – Amnesty International says Mexico Indian activists are prisoners of conscience, demands release – 12 November 2008

Fiji High Court Upholds Human Rights

By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji – Today, the Fiji High Court dismissed all charges against a businessman who was accused last year of plotting to kill Fiji’s interim prime minister.

Last November, Mr. Ballu Khan, a businessman from New Zealand, was viciously beaten by police and subsequently hospitalized. He was then arrested on suspicion of conspiring to assassinate Fiji’s interim prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, as well as two other cabinet members. Mr. Khan was kept in custody for 60 days without appearing before a judge.

After suffering the beating, Mr. Khan was unable to walk, and he underwent two operations to remove blood clots.

“I probably came very close to either being paralyzed or killed. The most dangerous injury I had was at the base of my skull, and the doctors thought I had a basal skull fracture,” Mr. Khan told New Zealand Herald reporters.

Mr. Khan’s lawyer, Peter Williams QC, says that Mr. Khan has been granted a permanent stay as a result of the police and military’s unlawful treatment.

Today, Justice Andrew Bruce of Fiji’s High Court, held that Mr. Khan was unlawfully detained after police failed to both charge him with an offense in a reasonable period of time, and to provide him with access to an attorney. These failures, Justice Bruce says, are a denial of Mr. Khan’s fundamental human rights.

“. . .Mr Khan’s rights were violated on a sufficiently egregious basis that to countenance such behavior would indeed bring the system of justice under law in Fiji into disrepute if it was simply left to pass,” Justice Bruce said.

Justice Bruce admitted that granting a stay is unusual, but was necessary in this case because Mr. Khan’s fundamental right to personal liberty was violated.

Justice Bruce added, “Personal liberty is a basic human right. While it is invidious to rank human rights, personal liberty must, on any view, be in the upper ranks of human rights. The right to confidential legal advice is, on any view, fundamental to the maintenance of the rule of law and must rank in the same level as rights to access to justice and the courts.”

The High Court’s decision to uphold Mr. Khan’s human rights comes at a pivotal time in Fiji’s political landscape. In 2006, Bainimarama led a bloodless coup of Fiji’s Federal Government. Since that time, he has promised to restore democracy to Fiji but has yet to relinquish power or hold elections. Last month, a three judge court validated the 2006 coup, giving legitimacy to the interim government.

Mr. Khan told reporters today that he hopes to go home to New Zealand as soon as possible.

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International – Fiji court drops charges against NZ man Khan – 12 November 2008

Fiji Times – Ballu Walks – 13 November 2008

Radio New Zealand International – Ballu Khan’s lawyer says compensation will be sought – 13 November 2008

New Zealand Herald – NZ businessman held in Fiji to claim damages – 13 November 2008

Myanmar Sentenced 14 Democracy Advocates to Jail for 65 Years

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

YANGON, Myanmar – Fourteen democracy advocates of the 88 Generation Students were sentenced to prison terms of 65 years each, according to regional news accounts and reports on a Web site for exiles. The activists were sentenced during a closed-door hearing in Yangon.  “Family members were not allowed to attend the hearing,” the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said in a statement.

Many of the activists were arrested during anti-junta protests last year.  The protests lead to massive pro-democracy demonstrations, which were resulted in a military crackdown by the Junta.  Amnesty International and other international human rights groups condemned the Junta’s action.  “It’s a powerful reminder that Myanmar’s military government is ignoring calls by the international community to clean up its human rights record.” Amnesty International said in a statement.

Nyunt Nyunt Oo, mother of 31-year-old Pandeik Tun, one of the 14, said her son and others were sentenced under various charges including the so-called 5/96 law declaring that anyone who demonstrates, makes speeches or writes statements undermining stability will face up to 20 years in prison. She said the other charges involved the Video Act, the Foreign Exchange act, the Electronics Act and links with illegal groups.  Oo stated she will not appeal the decision because she does not think any effort will make a difference.

On Monday, a court gave a 20-year sentence to blogger Nay Phone Latt, who was arrested in January after his blog in Myanmar was banned.  Also, a leading Myanmar poet Saw Wai, who is accused of penning a secret anti-junta message in one of his works, received two years at the same hearing, according to the spokesman Nyan Win of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.

For more information, please see:

AP – Myanmar: Long sentences for democracy advocates – 11 November 2008

AP – Relatives: Myanmar activists get long prison terms – 11 November 2008

AFP – Govt slams jailing of Myanmar activists – 11 November 2008

International Herald Tribune – Myanmar sentences 14 dissidents – 11 November 2008

Reuters – Myanmar jails dissidents for 65 years – 11 November 2008