BRIEF: At Least 68 dead in Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo – Fighting in the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has left at least sixty-eight people dead and the numbers could be much higher according to a UN report leaked to the BBC.

Budu Dia Kongo is a political and religious group that has its own militia and accuses the central government of corruption. The group wants to establish its own authority in the west. Currently, more than 300 members of the BDK are missing.

A Congolese army captain was killed last month and it is alleged that BDK is responsible for the killing. Since this date, the Congolese police have been destroying BDK churches and houses believed to be owned by members of the group.

Many members of BDK have been seen at local hospitals for gunshot and machete wounds alleging they were tortured by police.

The governor of Bas-Congo, Simon Mbatshi Mbatsha, estimated that 24 civilians had been killed on 4 March 2008 during fighting between police and the BDK.

Mbatsha blames the government for causing violence because people are killed with firearms and there houses are burnt down.

While there are over 200 UN peace keepers in the area, they have been unable to maintain the peace.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Deadly clashes in west DR Congo – 16 March 2008

allAfrica.com – Congo-Kinshasa: Fears Over Increasing Sect-Related Violence in Southwest – 6 March 2008

Kony and LRA Commanders Demand ICC Lift Warrants Before they Agree to Sign Peace Deal

By Christopher Gehrke
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, South America

KAMPALA, Uganda – Joseph Kony, the head of the Lord’s Liberation Army (LRA), will not sign a peace deal before the International Criminal Court (ICC) quashes international arrest warrants issued against him and other LRA commanders.

The ICC issued warrants for Kony, Vincent Otti, Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odhiambo, and Dominic Ongwen in July 2005 for 33 counts – war crimes, crimes against humanity, abduction, sexual enslavement, mutilation, and using children as fighters – according to New Vision.

The LRA members have to sign the peace agreement before the ICC will do something about the warrant, says the Ugandan government.  President Yoweri Museveni said last week that the government can save Kony and the other accused.

“We can save him because we are the ones who sought assistance from the ICC,” he said to journalists in London.

“Because he was not under our jurisdiction, we sought assistance from the ICC.  If he signs the peace agreement and returns to our jurisdiction, it becomes our responsibility, not any other party’s, including the ICC.”

Museveni explained that the Ugandan government sought the ICC’s help because Kony fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The ICC intervenes in cases of impunity or where governments cannot punish those involved in crimes against humanity.  Uganda would use its domestic justice system in place of the ICC if Kony and the others sign the peace agreement and return to Uganda.

Kony has recently moved more than three quarters of his forces from the DR Congo to the Central African Republic.  This change of bases raises doubts as to whether he will be available to sign a peace deal before the March 28 deadline, reports AllAfrica.com.

“Kony has moved most, if not all, his troops out of Garamba,” said Walter Ochora, an acquaintance of Kony who keeps an eye on the LRA.  “He only left a teenage commander in Ri-Kwang-Ba named Lt. Okello.  This is worrying [as] it seems LRA is not for peace.”

For more information, please see:

allAfrica.com – Uganda:  ICC Softens on Kony’s Case – 16 March 2008

allAfrica.com – Uganda:  We Can Save Kony – President Museveni – 11 March 2008

New Vision Online – LRA case to determine fate of ICC – 16 March 2008

allAfrica.com – Uganda:  Kony Crosses Into Central Africa Republic – 16 March 2008

Interim Government Accused of Media Intimidation

By Ryan L Maness
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji — Coming on the heels of Russell Hunter’s removal earlier this month, new accounts of media intimidation are coming to light in Fiji. 

The first report comes from Graham Leung, the lawyer of New Zealand businessman Ballu Khan, who says that he received a threatening phone call from someone in the Army  Leung, who was writing an article about the difference between the facts on the ground in Fiji and the interim government’s rhetoric, said that he was told by the unnamed caller that the article had been intercepted by the military.  Leung told Radio New Zealand International that the interim government is interfering with freedom of the press and freedom of expression. 

The second report comes from Fiji Times publisher, Evan Hannah, who says that he was summoned to interim Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum’s office on Thursday.  The meeting apparently concerned an upcoming Fiji Times article entitled ‘Exposing the Lie’, which was thought to appear as an opinion piece. The interim AG said that the article “contained factual inaccuracies, was highly emotive and discussed matters that were in court.”  The AG told Hannah that Hannah was not being told what to write or publish, but that as a publisher he should be concerned about the factual accuracy of what is in his paper. 

Hannah has also said that he was told by Sayed-Khaiyum that the article was now a matter of national security.  Of this he said, “This is exactly the situation they used to deport Russell Hunter as publisher of the Sun. I’m not suggesting that the government is lining up to deport me, but I think they are trying to intimidate us.” 

The interim AG insists that the meetings were not at all meant to intimidate members of the press, saying that such meetings have always been common place in Fiji and had been conducted by previous governments.  He said that he merely wanted to meet with the publishers so that all matters could be “resolved amicably.”  He also said that he had received word that the article at issue was not in the Fiji Times database and was not set to be published. 

The editor-in-chief of the Fiji Times has chastised the interim government for trying to create a situation that did not exist.  He said that the whole affair was a great disservice to the the AG’s office, the media and the country. 

In related news, Russell Hunter’s wife, Martha Hunter, who was given twenty-one days to leave Fiji after her husband’s removal, has left Fiji for Australia on Thursday. 

For more information, please see:
Fiji Times — Military threatened me, Leung tells Radio NZ — 17 March 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Publisher of Fiji Times suggests administration is trying to intimidate — 16 March 2008

Fiji Times — Media Council to meet on Tuesday — 15 March 2008

Fiji Times — Interim A-G calls in Times publisher — 15 March 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Fiji lawyer receives threatening phone call — 14 March 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Fiji Times publisher summoned by interim Attorney-General — 14 March 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Wife of deported Fiji Sun publisher leaves Fiji — 14 March 2008

Fiji Times — Interim AG summons Publisher — 14 March 2008

BRIEF: Israel Boycotts Al Jazeera

TEL AVIV, Israel – On March 12, Israel announced a boycott of Al Jazeera, an Qatar-based Arab broadcasting agency.  Israel accused Al Jazeera of bias and favoring militant organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.  Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Majali Wahbe announced that the government would deny visas to Al Jazeera employees and that the agency could no longer interview Israeli officials.  Also, Al Jazeera correspondents are banned from entering government offices in Jerusalem.

The decision to impose the boycott was influenced by Al Jazeera’s coverage of the recent Israeli operation in Gaza, which resulted in over 120 Palestinian and 5 Israeli deaths.  Israel accused the Arab station of bias because it rarely showed Israeli casualties or Palestinian rocket fire.  In general, the Israeli government complains that the station emphasizes Palestinian suffering while disregarding the rocket attacks targeting Israeli civilians.

Fatah has also criticized Al Jazeera’s coverage.  President Abbas complains that the agency supports Fatah’s rivals, Hamas.  Fatah lawmakers have criticized Al Jazeera of granting Hamas spokesmen a great amount of air time, while only minimal amounts to moderates.

Walid Al Omary, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Jerusalem, denied that the station was biased and accused Israel of trying to “intimidate Al-Jazeera to influence our coverage.”

For more information, please see:
Arab News – When Media Becomes the News – 15 March 2008

Yedioth News – Time to End the Show – 14 March 2008

Gulf Times – Tel Aviv Orders Boycott of Jazeera News Channel – 13 March 2008

Associated Press – Israel to Impose Sanctions on Al-Jazeera – 12 March 2008

BBC – Israel Accuses Al-Jazeera of Bias – 12 March 2008

Violence Escalates as Buddhist Monks Clashed with Police in Tibet

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – The largest demonstrations against the Chinese government in nearly 20 years erupted as Chinese security forces used tear-gas and gunfire to suppress protesters on Friday. Witnesses said angry Tibetan crowds burned shops, cars, military vehicles and at least one tourist bus.  Protesters appeared to be targeting shops and vehicles owned by Han Chinese, the predominant ethnic group in China.  A main market in the capital was set on fire, and some Tibetans were hospitalized with serious injuries, according to Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet.

Violence started when police tried to block a peaceful protest by monks at the Ramoche Temple on Friday, Tashi Choephel of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights told CNN. Witnesses said tanks were in the streets of the Tibetan capital Lhasa as part of a heavy security clampdown after violent riots erupted.  Several people lost their lives and many others were injured in Lhasa, an official at the city’s medical emergency centre told AFP, with Radio Free Asia reporting at least two people had been killed.

China warned Saturday it would use a firm hand to quell protests in Tibet, acknowledging seven people had been killed in unrest. It said seven people were killed in the rioting.  Most of them were business people and none were foreigners.  Independent verification of the news from the region has been difficult to verify because Chinese censors blacked out Western media reports about the developments in Tibet on Chinese television.

Chinese government also accused the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, of acting as the “mastermind” behind protests.  “The government of Tibet Autonomous Region said there had been enough evidence to prove that the recent sabotage in Lhasa was ‘organized, premeditated and masterminded’ by the Dalai clique,” Xinhua news agency said. “The violence, involving beating, smashing, looting and burning, has disrupted the public order, jeopardized people’s lives and property,” an official with the government said.

The United States, Britain and other European states expressed concern over the violence and urged both sides to show restraint.  The Dalai Lama, who heads Tibet’s government-in-exile in India, called on the Chinese leadership to “stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people.”  He also urges the fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence and rejected allegations that he and his government-in-exile in India were behind the uprising in Lhasa.

For more information, please see:

APF – China says seven killed in Tibet – 14 March 2008

BBC – Deaths reported in Tibet protests – 14 March 2008

BBC – In pictures: Protests in Tibet – 14 March 2008

CNN – A timeline of Tibetan protests – 14 March 2008

CNN – Tibet in turmoil as riots grip capital – 14 March 2008

Press Association – Violence erupts at Tibetan protests – 14 March 2008