A Voice for the Voiceless

South Korea Grants Amnesty to Former Daewoo Chairman

By Juliana Chan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea – Kim Woo-choong, 71, the founder and former chairman of the collapsed conglomerate Daewoo Group, was pardoned Monday under a traditional New Year amnesty. Mr. Kim was one of 75 people to receive a presidential pardon. Others, including businessmen and six death-row inmates, received reduced sentences or had suspended rights restored.

Daewoo, which was once the country’s second largest conglomerate, collapsed in the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis with over $80 billion in debt and leaving the South Korean government to spend over $32 billion to rescue its component companies. Mr. Kim fled the country in 1999 and has been accused of “ordering his executives to inflate the group’s assets between 1997 and 1998 to obtain bank loans.” He returned in 2005 from Vietnam “to make peace with his past.” He was arrested soon after landing.

Mr. Kim was convicted of accounting fraud that involved borrowing illegal loans from banks, as well as smuggling funds overseas. He was sentenced to prison for eight and a half years in 2006 for embezzlement and accounting fraud. One month later, however, the court suspended the sentence because of Mr. Kim’s health issues.

The justice ministry said Monday’s presidential amnesty pardoned 21 businessmen, two former spy chiefs convicted of illegal wiretapping of political and business leaders, and six death-row inmates who had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. South Korea has placed a moratorium on executions since the last hangings on December 30, 1997.

For more information, please see:

AFP – SKorea pardons tycoon over huge financial collapse: ministry – 31 December 2007

BBC News – South Korea pardons Daewoo boss – 31 December 2007

Financial Times – Korea pardons Daewoo fraudster – 1 January 2008

BRIEF: Mob Burns Church Killing 50

NAIROBI, Kenya – The crisis in Kenya has shifted from a battle between political groups to a full on ethnic feud between President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe and his opponent, Raila Odinga’s Luo tribe. In an effort to escape the violence, thousands of people, mainly Kikuyus, have sought refuge in police stations and churches.

However, even the churches aren’t safe from vigilant gangs. Earlier today, a mob torched a church killing at least 50 people, according to a Red Cross volunteer who helped count the bodies. The Kenya Assemblies of God Pentecostal church, located 5 miles from Eldoret, was harboring a group of Kikuyus. According to witnesses, a group of youths over powered the boys guarding the church and set it on fire.

The gruesome attack is being compared to the slaughter in churches of tens of thousands of victims of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. Despite the riots, mounting death toll, and today’s ruthless attack, Odinga insisted he would go on with plans for a march of a million people in the capital Thursday against Kibaki. Odinga accuses Kibaki of stroking the chaos and says it is Kibaki’s administration that “is guilty of genocide.

Most deaths have come from police firing at protesters. At midday, the police estimate the number of deaths to be at 143; however that number is expected to rise by the end of today.

As one of Africa’s most stable democracies and strongest economies fall into complete chaos, January 1, 2008 will be marked as one of Kenya’s darkest moments since its 1963 independence from Britain.

For more information please see:

Yahoo News – Kenya Church Fire Kills 50 Who Fled Mob – 1 January 2008

Reuters: Africa – Massacre at Church, Kenya Death Seen at 250 – 1 January 2008

BRIEF: Haditha Marine Officer’s Charges Reduced

The marine officer in charge of the soldiers who are alleged to be responsible for the death of 24 Iraqis in the village of Haditha has had the most serious charges against him dropped.

The charges of unpremeditated murder have been dropped.  However, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich still faces charges of voluntary manslaughter for the killings that were committed by his marines.

Wuterich’s lawyer, Neal Puckett, viewed the reduction of evidence of their client’s claim that the marine officer’s orders were justifiable responses in accordance with the situation of a roadside bomb.  “We are confident that a military jury will acquit Staff Sgt. Wuterich of all remaining charges, because he is, in fact, not guilty.”   (Washington Post)

For more information, please see:

Washington Post- Marine Faces Reduced Charges in Iraq Killings- 1 January 2008

BRIEF: Maori Concerned Over Clause in Land Bill

AUCKLAND, New Zealand – Maori have worked for six years toward getting Mount Maunganui, known by the Maori name Mauao, given back to them.  Mauao is an extinct volcanic cone that rises above the town of Mount Maunganui, a suburb of Tauranga.  Mauao is a former Maori pa, a fortified village from the 19th century or earlier.

The proposed bill would hand over Mauao to three Maori iwi.  [“Iwi” is a term roughly similar to “clan”.]  A clause in the proposed bill seems to suggest that the Crown would still own Mauao after the handover.  The Crown claims that the clause at issue refers only to public safety and that the Crown will take responsibility if someone gets injured on the mountain, which is a popular hiking spot open to the public.

There is also some controversy over the Waitaha iwi’s participation in management decisions but not ownership, according to Radio New Zealand.

For more information, please see:

Radio New Zealand – Iwi debate Mt Maunganui ownership – 31 December 2007

Stuff.co.nz – Iwi take issue with clause in handover bill – 31 December 2007

At Least 125 Killed after Kibaki is Named Victor in Kenya’s Election

By Myriam Clerge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Eastern and Southern Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya – It took a few minutes on Sunday, after Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki, was declared the victor of an intense and controversial election, for the country to fly into a rage. More than 100 people have been killed across Kenya in protest blamed on the disputed presidential election. Mwai Kibaki was officially re-elected president while Raila Odinga, the opposition, rejected the results saying he was robbed of victory by electoral fraud.

It was earlier predicted that the vote would be close, and the final results had Kibaki winning by a splinter, 46 percent to 44 percent. According to the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), Kibaki won 4,584,721 votes, beating Odinga by more than 230,000 votes. But that gap may have included thousands of invalid ballots. Before the final count, Kibaki trailed in all opinion polls.

Kibaki, in a statement, urged healing, reconciliation and unity going into the New Year in an effort to quell one of the most volatile moments in Kenya since the 1963 independence. However, Kibaki cautioned that his government would “deal decisively with those who breach the peace by intensifying security across the country.”

As riots spread across Kenya, the government took the first steps toward martial law on Sunday night and banned all live media broadcasts. Police, who have imposed a 6am to 6pm curfew, told the Associated Press that they had orders to shoot to kill. The orders have divided the police force, with many officers sympathizing with protesters.

Most of the violence has been between Kenya’s two largest tribes, Luo supporters of Odinga clashed with members of Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe. According to the local television stations, ten people were killed in the ethnically-mixed town of Kisii. The bloodiest attacks took place in Kisumu, the country’s third-largest city and a concentrated area of the opposition. According to witnessed, 25 bodies lay at the mortuary. In Nairobi, police fired live rounds and tear-gas to break up Odinga’s supporters in the Kibera slum, where a blackout forced the area into darkness while ethnic gangs set homes and businesses on fire. The death toll from clashes between protesters and police, or ethnic violence has risen today to more than 130.

Meanwhile, the opposition candidate, Odinga, has dismissed the presidential vote as rigged. After the police warned the opposition from holding a rally in Uhuru Park, Odinga has called on a million protesters to gather in the park on Thursday.

Many people have taken refuge in police stations as the violence spreads. Took make matters worst, food, water and fuel are in short supply in most of the country.

Bewildered tourists are left stranded in the chaos as flights have been delayed and airports turned into makeshift shelters.

The US, which works closely together with the Kibaki government on anti-terrorism issues, initially congratulated the president on his re-election but today withdrew its commendation.

For more information please see:

BBC News – Odinga rejects Kenya poll result – 31 December 2007

BBC News – Scores dead in Kenya poll clashes – 31 December 2007

Reuters: Africa- Kenya Election Violence Kills More Than 100 – 31 December 2007

Yahoo News (AP) – Kenya Rioting Death Toll at 125 – 31 December 2007

Washington Post – Kenyan Election protest Kill More Than 100 – 31 December 2007