Human Trafficking Across North Korea-China Border

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PYONGYANG, North Korea – North Korea is a source for men, women, and children trafficking.  The men, women, and children are used for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. North Korea was rated as a Tier 3 country in US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Person Report in 2005. Since then, the government has failed to comply with minimal international standards to prevent the human trafficking from its borders.

Between 80 percent and 90 percent of the refugees from North Korean, especially women and young children, end up as trafficking victims in China. Reports estimate tens of thousands of North Koreans are believed to be hiding in China. Women and children are particularly vulnerable to traffickers in China because the Chinese government’s policy of detaining the refugees and sending them back to North Korea.

In the most common form of trafficking, North Korean women and children who voluntarily cross the border into China are picked up by trafficking rings and sold as brides to Chinese or placed in forced labor. However, sometimes North Korean women and girls are lured out of North Korean by the promise of food, jobs and freedom, only to be forced into prostitution, marriage, or exploitative labor arrangements once in China.

A young woman was sold to a 34-year-old Chinese man for marriage and deported to North Korea. There, she was thrown into a North Korean State Safety and Security Agency Camp, where she was forced to undress and physically abused. According to her statement, pregnant inmates were forced to miscarry on the grounds they were bearing Chinese children. She also expressed that she is willing to go back to the Chinese man who bought her first because she had a better life with him, as well for the benefits to her blind mother and young brother.

A senior U.S. official urged China to change its law to protect victims of trafficking instead of returning them home, and also to allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to operate along the border region with North Korea.

For more information, please see:

The Chosun Ilbo – Human Trafficking Thrives Across N.Korea-China Border – 2 March 2008

U.S. Department of State – North Korean Refugees Frequent Victims of Human Trafficking – 20 July 2005

U.S.State Department Trafficking in Persons Report – Human Trafficking & Modern-Day Slavery – June 2007

YonHap News – US Blames China on NK Human Trafficking – 3 March 2008

Land Clashes Break Out in Western Kenya as Power-Sharing Talks Resume

By Ted Townsend
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya – At least 13 villagers were killed early Monday when dozens of people with assault rifles and machetes stormed a village in western Kenya. Among the dead were six children. Police in the area placed the blame on the Sabaot Land Defense Force, a militia group fighting for the redistribution of land in the Mount Elgon region in western Kenya. The victims were accused by the militia of not paying protection money, according to the police.

A National Police spokesman said the attack was in Embaski village, 300 miles northwest of Nairobi.  The village sees frequent, bloody clashes over land.

The militia reportedly shot some villagers, while others were burned alive in their homes. Eyewitnesses reported seeing a three-year old child hacked to death as he ran from his parents house and a pregnant woman burned alive in her own home.

The bloodshed in western Kenya was not necessarily linked to the chaos that has engulfed the country for months. However, land disputes were one of the major unresolved issues as power-sharing talks between the government and the opposition resumed in Nairobi.

Last week, the power-sharing deal was signed, ending months of turmoil that followed the disputed December 27, 2007 election in which over 1,000 were killed, and 300,000 more were left homeless. The committee in charge of the mediation talks will next work with “Agenda Four.” This covers, among other items, essential changes in law and the Constitution, and their application to disputes over land and wealth.

Former United Nations leader and Chief Mediator Kofi Annan left the country this week, after forty-two days of diplomacy. He left “confident Kenyans would finally have the peace they so much desired following the turmoil that saw community rise against another, leaving behind an unprecedented trail of blood, death, injury and destruction.” Annan paid tribute to both President Mwai Kibaki and opposition rival, Raila Odinga, for their leadership in coming to agreement. He added that the next phase of talks, led by a new mediator, Oluyemi Adeniji, were crucial especially as they pertained to land issues.

Annan urged Kenayns to support the agreement and hold their leaders to the promises made, believing long-term issues could be resolved within a year. Political negotiators for each side, however, expressed a desire to speed up their work.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Land clashes break out in Kenya – 3 March 2008

Associated Press – 13 dead in attack on Kenyan village – 3 March 2008

Reuters – Kenyan rivals see speedy resolution to crisis issues – 3 March 2008

allAfrica.com – Annan Leaves as Talks Team Tackle Agenda 4 – 3 March 2008

allAfrica.com – Annan Peace Deal – The Crucial Steps Ahead – 3 March 2008

BRIEF: Questions Surface Regarding Hunter’s Deportation

SUVA, Fiji — Australian publisher Russell Hunter’s expulsion fro Fiji last week has led Deposed Opposition Leader Mick Beddoes and others to ask questions about the interim government’s respect for the rule of law.  Specifically, Beddoes questions an amendment to the Immigration Act of 2003 that took effect the day after Hunter’s removal, which stipulated that orders of removal cannot be reviewed by the judiciary.  Beddoes said, “They’re saying it is pure coincidence that the law was brought in when Mr Hunter was being expelled and they think for some reason that the citizenry in Fiji are a bunch of idiots, and we can’t see through the lies that are being told to the people.”

Beddoes also believes that the change to the law represented a direct subversion of the judiciary.  He has questioned whether or not the judges issuing the injunction of Hunter’s removal were aware of the change or in the law, or if “the ink on the new law still drying when the court decision was handed down.” 

The interim government insists that the timing of the change in the immigration law was purely coincidental.  Interim Immigration Minister Ratu Epeli Ganilau said, “It would have been better for Government had this law come in before Russel Hunter was removed but it didn’t come into force until the day after. And I think the current immigration act was sufficient to actually effect the decision by Government to remove Russel Hunter on the grounds that he had breached the conditions of his work permit.

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International — Fiji immigration law change not linked to Hunter expulsion, says interim minister — 03 March 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Fiji Immigration law amended to stop challenge over Hunter expulsion – Mick Beddoes — 03 March 2008

Fiji Times — Regime’s vote of no confidence — 04 March 2008

One of Three Missing Chadian Political Opposition Members Reappears in Cameroon

By M. Brandon Maggiore
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Africa

YAOUNDE, Cameroon – Ngarlejy Yorongar has reappeared in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, after disappearing 3 February when armed uniformed men took him into custody at his residence. Yorongar is a deputy in the Chadian assembly and was a candidate in the 2001 presidential election running against the Chadian president.

The seizure of Yoronger occurred during a government crackdown when rebels tried unsuccessfully to take power of the country. Another politician, former Chadian President Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh, is still missing. According to an e-mail received by Agence France Press (AFP) sent by a Chadian opposition representative in France, Yorongar said it would be a miracle if Ibni is alive after an alleged beating by the Chadian Presidential Guard.

Yoranger needed medical treatment upon his arrival in Cameroon according to Yorangar’s oldest son who spoke with Yoranger via telephone. The details of his release in Chad and his arrival in Cameroon are disputed at this time.

The Chadian government announced it would launch an investigation into the disappearance of the missing politicians and the coup attempt by the rebels. State run radio said it will create a commission “to investigate and produce information on people declared missing and into damage sustained by the state and the population in districts occupied by the forces of aggression.”  President Deby announced the creation of the international commission upon the termination of the visit of French president Nicholas Sarkozy. The commission will include representatives from the African Union, France, the European Union, and the organization of French-speaking nations. There is concern that the commission will not be neutral because it will be led by parliamentary speaker Nassour Ouaidou, a close aide to President Deby.

Chad will remain under a state of emergency until at least 15 March 2008. The state of emergency permits house to house searches and a crackdown on media outlets.

For more information, please see:

LeMonde.fr – Un des trois opposants tchadiens disparus réapparaît au Cameroun – 3 March 2008-03-03

AFP – Missing Chad opposition leader in Cameroon: sources – 3 February 2008

AFP – Chad opposition leader ‘safe abroad’; Ndjamena launches probe – 3 February 2008

Impunity Watch – Human Rights Groups Urge Chad to Release Suspected Prisoners – 27 February 2008

Yoranger.com – Biographie – accessed 3 March 2008

BRIEF: U.S. Missile Strike in Somalia

The United States has confirmed that it fired a missile at a terrorist target in southern Somalia near Dhoobley.  The strike near the Kenyan border in a region controlled by Islamists was a “known terrorist target” according to a U.S. official. The strike occurred during the night between March second and third. Residents next to the house targeted said that the house was totally destroyed and three planes were flying overhead. Residents in the town have fled or are staying under trees in fear that another strike might occur.

The U.S. has not confirmed any casualties but local officials state four people were killed. LeMonde reports that three strikes were made, two of which targeted residences. The U.S. conducted two strikes in Somalia in 2007 aimed at terrorist targets. The U.S. later confirmed that none of those targeted were hit. Local government officials stated that one-hundred people were killed in the January 2007 strike which targeted two targets.

For more information, please see:

CNN.com – U.S. official: Missiles fired at Somalia terror target – 3 March 2008

LeMonde.fr – Un raid aérien américain en Somalie aurait fait quatre morts, selon les chefs locaux – 3 March 2008