Nepal must bar human rights violators from UN peacekeeping missions
Amnesty International has called on Nepal’s government to immediately fix the flawed vetting process that allowed an army major charged with murder to participate in the United Nations peace keeping mission in the Central African Republic.
Major Niranjan Basnet is charged with murdering 15-year-old Maina Sunuwar on 17 February 2004. She died in military custody after she was subjected to electrocution and drowning during interrogation. Her body was later exhumed from an army barracks where Nepali UN peacekeepers are trained.
In a letter to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal the organization said the inclusion of Major Basnet in the peace keeping force revealed serious shortcomings in the vetting of troops from the Nepal Army to UN missions that could put civilians at risk in countries where they are deployed.
“The Nepali government has failed to provide accountability for the many atrocities committed by Nepali security forces as well as Maoist cadres during Nepal’s civil war. The resulting culture of impunity undermines the rights of victims and their families, and potentially carries over to the Army’s involvement in UN missions and threatens the rights of those they have been assigned by the United Nations to protect,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific Director.
Amnesty International urged Nepal’s government to re-assess every member of the Nepal Army currently participating in UN missions to ensure that they are not implicated in serious human rights violations.
Major Basnet was recently expelled from the United Nations Mission in Chad because of his human rights record and repatriated to Nepal, but the Army has so far refused to hand him over to the civilian authorities.
“The Nepali army is shielding Major Basnet from serious and credible allegations; he should be immediately surrendered to a civilian court for trial. The ongoing failure to address his case properly casts serious doubt on the Nepali government’s commitment to international human rights standards and the fitness of Nepali forces to serve as UN peacekeepers,” said Sam Zarifi.
In a separate letter to the United Nations Under-Secretary-General of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Amnesty International welcomed the United Nations decision to expel and repatriate Major Basnet and called on the United Nations to insist that the government of Nepal review the troops it contributes to UN peacekeeping.
“Nepali troops have played a very important role in UN peacekeeping around the world. The Nepali government should work closely with the UN to ensure no Nepali troops accused of human rights violations are deployed as UN peacekeepers,” said Sam Zarifi.
Amnesty International repeated its call for the government to ensure that Major Basnet is arrested without further delay and transferred to the civilian courts for trial.
The organization also called for all outstanding allegations of crimes committed by the Army, the police and Maoist forces to be investigated and, where there is sufficient admissible evidence, prosecuted by competent, independent and impartial civilian courts.
Impunity and injustice are legacy of deadly July riots in Mongolia
The Government of Mongolia has failed to effectively respond to human rights abuses that took place during the July 2008 riot in Sukhbaatar Square, Ulaanbaatar, and its aftermath, leaving a legacy of impunity and injustice, Amnesty International said in a report released on Friday.
Amnesty International’s report describes how hundreds of people were taken to police detention centres where they were held in over-crowded cells without food or water for up to 72 hours during the riots. Police beat detainees while they were in custody and during interrogations to extract “confessions”.
Over 700 people were arrested and over 100 more in the weeks following, for suspected offences committed during the riot.
One year on from the riot, the scope of the investigation conducted remains limited. Allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in detention, and excessive and unnecessary use of force by police have largely been ignored.
“Investigations into allegations of human rights violations have been delayed, ignored or inadequately investigated”, said Roseann Rife, Asia-Pacific Deputy Programme Director at Amnesty International.
“A year on from the riot and there is no accountability on the part of authorities and no justice for the victims.”
Procedures for prosecution of ten police officers and four senior police officials suspected of using and authorizing the use of live ammunition during the riot was stalled by the defendants and their lawyers for over seven months until early November 2009. The case file is now being read by the families of the victims and their lawyers.
“There has been a failure on the part of the Mongolian government to seriously investigate allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of those held in detention following the riot or to prosecute those suspected of carrying out and ordering the use of live ammunition,” said Roseann Rife.
Mongolia has failed to comply with its international obligations which require them to take a range of legislative, judicial, administrative and other measures to prevent human rights violations and bring those responsible to justice and ensure victims receive reparations in line with international standards.
The secrecy surrounding the operations of police and other law enforcement agencies is further damaging their reputation leading to mistrust and fear. Such sentiments will persist as long as the authorities fail to take concrete steps to conduct independent investigations and prosecute any alleged perpetrators of offences involving human rights violations, and implement reforms to ensure non-repetition.
Background
Amnesty International calls on the Mongolian government to:
Ensure that the Special Investigation Unit of the State General Prosecutors’ Office is provided adequate funding and support to enable it to carry out prompt, independent, impartial and thorough investigations into allegations of offences involving human rights violations against officials and that procedures are in place to ensure that parties involved in the investigation are not able to stall or otherwise delay procedures unreasonably and prevent cases being prosecuted.
Ensure that any complaints or reports of human rights violations are investigated promptly, independently, impartially and thoroughly, and that those suspected of related offences are prosecuted. Investigations should be conducted by personnel who are competent, impartial and independent of the alleged perpetrators and the agency they serve.
Initiate a review of regulations, policy, and training to ensure that the practices of the police, including the use of force, in policing demonstrations are consistent with international human rights standards, including the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms.
Establish effective mechanisms to receive complaints, provide timely and accessible information on the progress of cases, and ensure that any person wishing to submit a complaint against law enforcement officials is not in any way obstructed from doing so. Where a complaint is rejected as inadmissible, the complainant should be given clear and detailed reasons for the decision, in writing, and information on appeals mechanisms and alternative avenues of recourse.
Ensure that victims of crimes committed by law enforcement officials have access to an effective remedy and receive adequate reparation, including compensation, restitution, rehabilitation, and guarantees of non-repetition in accordance with international standards.
On 1 July 2008 thousands of people protested at Sukhbaatar Square amid allegations of widespread election fraud. The riot was unexpected and unexpectedly violent. At least nine people were shot by the police, four fatally, and a fifth person died allegedly from smoke inhalation.
The Government called the country’s first state of emergency since transitioning to a democratic system of government in 1990 for four days from midnight 2 July, 2008.
Yemen: Asylum Seekers Run Gauntlet of Abuses
(New York) – The Yemeni government should stop systematically arresting Ethiopian asylum seekers and forcibly returning them to Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch also called on the United Nations refugee agency to do more to press the Yemeni government to meet its obligations toward all asylum seekers and refugees.
Côte d’Ivoire must stop attempt to defraud toxic waste dump victims
An attempt to defraud victims of the Trafigura toxic waste dump disaster out of $45 million must be stopped, Amnesty International said on Friday in an open letter.
An organization known as the National Coordination of Toxic Waste Victims of Côte d’Ivoire (CNVDT-CI) is falsely claiming to represent some 30,000 victims who brought a court case against Trafigura in the UK. The organization has applied for the $45 million compensation owed to the victims to be transferred to its bank account.
CNVDT-CI will today appeal a decision in the Ivorian courts that blocked it from receiving the compensation awarded in the UK settlement.
In an open letter to Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Justice, Mamadou Koné, Amnesty International said that there is no evidence that CNVDT-CI represents the 30,000 victims and described it as a “blatant attempt to perpetrate fraud”.
“This is a barefaced attempt to steal from the victims of this toxic waste scandal,” said Widney Brown, Senior Director, International Law and Policy at Amnesty International. “These people have suffered enough and the Cote d’Ivoire authorities must ensure that justice is done so that the claimants receive the money that is owed to them.”
The $45 million is currently subject to a freezing order and the victims have yet to receive their money.
Background
In August 2006, toxic waste was brought to Abidjan on board the ship Probo Koala, which had been chartered by oil-trading company, Trafigura.
This waste was then dumped in various locations around the city, causing a human rights tragedy. More than 100,000 people sought medical attention for a range of health problems and there were 15 reported deaths.
On 23 September 2009, the High Court of England and Wales approved a $45 million settlement between nearly 30,000 victims of the toxic waste dumping and Trafigura.
Sahrawi activist on hunger strike in Lanzarote airport admitted to hospital
A Sahrawi human rights activist, on hunger strike in Lanzarote airport since she was expelled from Western Sahara by the Moroccan authorities, was admitted to hospital on Thursday morning as her health had deteriorated.
Aminatou Haidar, who is currently in intensive care, refuses to be fed through a tube and is determined to continue her hunger strike.
She started her hunger strike on 15 November in protest at her expulsion and to demand that she be allowed to return home. She was taken to Lanzarote General Hospital at about 1am.
Amnesty International said it was "deeply regrettable" that the Moroccan authorities have not yet allowed Aminatou Haidar to return to her home and her children in Laayoune.
The activist was detained at Laayoune airport, Western Sahara on 13 November when she returned from a month-long visit to other countries, including the USA where she accepted the 2009 Civil Courage Prize, awarded annually "for steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk."
She was questioned about why she had given her home as Western Sahara rather than "Moroccan Sahara" on her landing card; she was also asked about her travel, as well as her political opinions and affiliations.
Her Moroccan passport and identity card were then confiscated and she was detained in the airport overnight.
She says that on 14 November Moroccan officials offered to release her if she would publicly acknowledge Morocco’s “sovereignty” over Western Sahara. She refused to do so, and a few hours later she was put on a flight to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.
Amnesty International wrote to Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations on 11 December, urging him to continue his efforts to obtain Aminatou Haidar’s return to Western Sahara, unconditionally and without delay, and that her identity card and passport are restored.
On 7 and 10 December, he had expressed concern about the condition of Aminatou Haidar, and acknowledged the need for an urgent resolution of her case.
The Moroccan authorities have so far refused to comply with their international obligations, and insist that Aminatou Haidar "renounced" her Moroccan nationality.
"Aminatou Haidar’s expulsion appears to reflect a growing intolerance on the part of the Moroccan authorities to the exercise by Sahrawis of their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly," said Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme of Amnesty International.
In recent months, Amnesty International has noted an increase of reports of harassment of Sahrawi human rights defenders and activists including violations of their freedom of movement, verbal intimidation and threats, increased surveillance, the prevention of activists meeting with foreign observers, and the confiscation of travel documents.
Amnesty International’s letter to Ban Ki-moon highlighted the specific responsibility of the UN towards Western Sahara, which is a non self-governing territory under the UN Charter.
The organization called for a legal opinion by the UN on the legal status of the inhabitants of Western Sahara, particularly of those, like Aminatou Haidar, in a situation of statelessness or legal limbo as a result of actions of the Moroccan authorities, and to put such advice in the public domain.
It also reiterated Amnesty International’s calls for the inclusion of a human rights monitoring component in the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, in place since 1991 to monitor a cease-fire between Morocco and the Polisario Front, and to organize and conduct a referendum on the status of the territory.
"The incorporation of a human rights component in the UN Mission’s mandate, up for renewal in April 2010, would be an important step forward to addressing human rights violations in Western Sahara," said Malcolm Smart.
Migrants tell of exploitation and detention
People across the world leave their homes, families and countries in search of work and education, and to escape poverty, discrimination and conflict. Many risk everything, even their lives, for security and a chance to earn a living. At every step, they are vulnerable to exploitation, fraud and human rights abuses.
To mark International Migrants Day, migrants from around the globe have told Amnesty International how they have been exploited, detained and attacked on their search for a better life.
Migrants living in Malaysia, South Korea, Mexico and the US have described how they deal with appalling living and working conditions, unscrupulous employers, abusive immigration detention staff and the ever-present threat of arbitrary arrest and detention by the authorities. Migrants with irregular status* are particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses.
All interviews were conducted by Amnesty International researchers between November 2008 and July 2009. All names have been changed.
Migrant stories
Dev – "we waited for three months without any work"
Margarita – "he said if I didn’t have sex with him he would send me back"
Carmen – "instead of helping me, they handcuffed me"
Marcella – "I lived in a shipping container – one room with a window"
Dev’s story, Malaysia
Dev left his family and home in Nepal when he was 19 and made the journey to Malaysia to work as a cleaner. He is one of over three million migrant workers in Malaysia. He told Amnesty International:
“I left because of fighting in Nepal. The country had lots of problems between the communists and the army. Young men were being taken by communists to join the fighting. They kill you if you refuse. I was very scared so I applied for a visa for Malaysia.
I contacted an agent and came to Malaysia on a cleaner’s visa. I paid the agent 80,000 Nepali rupees (US$ 1000) to bring me here. I had to borrow money and I was supposed to pay back 1000 rupees per month with 320 rupees interest.
The agent told me that I would work as a cleaner when I arrived in Malaysia but I never got any work from the agent. When I arrived at the airport in Kuala Lumpur I waited for four hours. The agent finally came and picked me up with other people from Nepal who were coming as cleaners.
He took us to a flat where we waited for three months without any work. The agent never gave us any money so we had to go outside and meet Nepali people and explain what had happened and ask for food and money. The agent took my passport and never gave it back.”
Dev was later able to find work by himself, in a factory and also working for a construction company. His agent did not renew his visa and refused to return his passport.
Dev became an irregular migrant, without legal permission to stay or work in Malaysia. The wages he is paid are very low compared with other workers, but he knows he cannot complain because he does not have a work permit. He does not earn sufficient money to enable him to send funds back to his family in Nepal.
Dev would like to return home to Nepal but is now unable to do so as he does not have a passport and is scared of being caught by the authorities.
Margarita’s story, Mexico
Margarita and her partner Miguel left El Salvador in October 2008 in search of a better life in the United States. In El Salvador, Margarita worked in a clothes factory and made five dollars a day, which was not enough to feed her two young children and send them to school.
Like most Central American migrants, the couple planned to make the journey without documents, on the roof of a freight train, which would take them to Mexico’s border with the United States.
On 5 November 2008, Margarita and Miguel were travelling on the top of a freight train in Chiapas State, Mexico, when it stopped unexpectedly and military vans approached the train tracks.
The couple jumped off the train and ran into the bushes. They were followed by two armed soldiers who shot several times into the air until they caught up with them. Margarita told Amnesty International:
“You don’t imagine that your dreams can end in a moment on this journey. The soldier pulled me by the hand and told me to walk further into the bushes while pointing his gun at me.
He took me far away from the train tracks until we were completely alone. He told me to take my clothes off so that he could see if I was carrying drugs.
When I refused, he pulled my trousers down and sexually assaulted me. He asked me how I was going to repay him for the bullet he had to shoot because of me.
He told me I had to have sex with him to make it up to him. He said that if I didn’t have sex with him he would send me back to my country. He said it would be quick and that if I didn’t make a fuss he would let me go.”
The soldier eventually let Margarita go and she was not raped. Others do not escape. Amnesty International has received several reports showing that women migrants are frequently subject to rape, particularly by criminal gangs in Mexico. Those responsible are hardly ever held to account.
Carmen’s story, USA
Carmen arrived in the United States from Mexico in 1998 and has raised a family there. Two of her three children have US citizenship.
In April 2008, she was arrested for failing to appear in court for an alleged misdemeanour. She was taken to jail and interrogated by an immigration officer, who told her she would be deported.
Carmen spent 24 days in jail. At her court hearing the judge recommended that she be released. However, immigration authorities continued to hold her as an immigration detainee.
After almost three weeks in immigration detention with no indication of when she would be able to return to her family, Carmen tried to kill herself. She recalled:
“I felt I would have a nervous breakdown, being locked up. The kids needed me. I started hearing voices, criminalising me for not being with my children. I thought it was not worth being alive.
I had a sock that I used to clean everything. I heard a voice telling me – wrap the sock around my neck and kill myself. My cellmate was reading a book. She was a sweet African-American lady who spoke a little Spanish. I started hanging myself. She said, ‘what are you doing?’ I don’t know what happened but everything started turning dark.”
In response, officers handcuffed Carmen and took her to another cell. Carmen was later released but is still waiting for her case to be resolved.
"I was not respected as a human being. Whether I have the right documents or not, I’m still a human being. I was breaking down but instead of helping me, they handcuffed me…
The first morning I woke up after I got out, I didn’t know where I was. The kids were very happy to have me back. I had a lot of time to think and re-examine my life and spend more time with my family. I used to think birds in a cage were so pretty but no one should be deprived of freedom – no one should be caged."
Marcella’s story, South Korea
Marcella, a 34-year-old woman from the Philippines, arrived in South Korea in April 2006, on the Employment Permit System (EPS).
Through the EPS government work scheme, South Korea became one of the first Asian countries to legally recognise the rights of migrant workers and grant them the same status as Korean workers, with equal labour rights, pay and benefits. However, in reality, migrant workers continue to face hardships and abuse.
“When I arrived, I worked at a factory in Osan, Gyeonggi province where we manufactured heating coils for rice cookers. I was paid KRW 786,000 (US$815) per month.
My boss was not nice; he swore at me and pressured me to work faster. For example, he wanted me to produce 1,000 heating coils per day. It was very hard to do 1,000, as you have to connect the wires and because they’re so small, your fingers hurt, especially your thumb and index finger.
I lived in a shipping container – one room with a window. Sometimes I would hear knocks on my door in the middle of the night. I would get very scared. It was very cold in the winter. I had to buy a heater myself, but it was still cold. In the summer it got very hot even with a fan, which I had to buy with my own money.”
Marcella was unfairly dismissed from the factory after asking her boss for a day off at Christmas. 
Unfortunately, her story is not unique. Amnesty International’s researcher came across many similar stories of unfair dismissal between March 2008 and July 2009. Many migrant workers did not complain against dismissals because of the language barrier, unfamiliarity of their rights and due to the lengthy and complicated processes involved.
Image captions
1. The Spanish coastguard intercepts a traditional fishing boat laden with migrants off the island of Tenerife in the Canaries, 24 October 2007.
© UNHCR / A. Rodríguez
2. Immigration detainees at the Lenggeng Detention Centre, Malaysia, 23 July 2009.
© Amnesty International
3. Central American migrants on their way to the US ride a train headed north though Mexico.
© AP GraphicsBank
4. Migrants prepare to enter the US through a tunnel along Rio Grande border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
© AP GraphicsBank
5.South Korean Immigration officers (top, in blue uniform) arrest a migrant worker (R, red jacket) as two South Korean activists (bottom) try to stop the arrest, in front of the Seoul Immigration Office building on February 17, 2004.
© Private
*Many migrants start off with legal permission but become irregular migrants; that is, they do not have legal permission to remain or work in the country they are in. This can happen for a number of reasons, for example because employers or agents fail to renew work permits, or they provide fake ones.
Cambodia: Stop Forced Participation in Drug Trials
(New York) – The Cambodian government should immediately halt the forced participation of drug users in the trial of an experimental herbal formula to "cure" their drug dependence, Human Rights Watch said today.
Iran executes alleged juvenile offender
Amnesty International has condemned the execution of an alleged juvenile offender in Iran on Thursday, at least the fifth such execution in 2009.
Mosleh Zamani was hanged at Dizel Abad Prison at 4am, along with four other unidentified prisoners.
He was sentenced to death in 2006 for allegedly raping his girlfriend when he was 17.
"Once again, despite domestic and international calls for the Iranian authorities to uphold their international obligations, they have executed someone who was under 18 at the time of his alleged crime," said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme. "How many more will die before Iran stops this dreadful practice?"
Mosleh Zamani’s death brings the number of alleged juvenile offenders executed in Iran since 1990 to at least 46.
Amnesty International was told that 200 people demonstrated outside the prison on Wednesday in protest at the executions.
The organization has called since 2007 for Mosleh Zamani’s death sentence to be overturned.
Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Both of these prohibit the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders, people under 18 at the time of the offence of which they have been convicted.
Iran is one of very few countries in the world that still execute juvenile offenders.
According to Amnesty International’s information, Mosleh Zamani was convicted of abducting a woman several years older than him, with whom he was allegedly having a relationship, and raping her. His death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court in July 2007. He may not have had adequate legal representation.
Previously held in Sanandaj Prison in Kordestan province, Mosleh Zamani was recently transferred to Dizel Abad Prison in Kermanshah province, where he is believed to have been placed in solitary confinement on 11 December 2009, frequently a signal that execution is imminent. However, his execution was not carried out at that time, apparently for medical reasons.
Amnesty International had also learnt that Mosleh Zamani’s alleged victim had asked that his life be spared, stating that they had had consensual sex. The Appeal Court judge refused to take that into consideration, stating instead that Mosleh Zamani should be executed in order to "set an example" to other young Iranians.
"It is all the more important in death penalty cases, where the accused faces an irreversible punishment, that international standards for fair trial are observed," said Philip Luther. "Time and again we hear of cases where proceedings do not appear to meet those standards."
In many cases, juvenile offenders under sentence of death in Iran are kept in prison until they pass their 18th birthday, after which their executions are scheduled. In this period, some win appeals against their conviction. Others have their sentence overturned on appeal and are freed after a retrial. Some are reprieved by the family of the victim in cases of murder and are asked to pay diyeh (compensation) instead.Some, however, do not benefit from such measures and are consequently executed.
UN: Back AU Call for Darfur Prosecutions
(New York) – United Nations Security Council members should express strong support for an African Union panel’s call for justice for victims in Darfur given the consistent failure by the Sudanese government to hold perpetrators of serious crimes accountable, Human Rights Watch said today.
Lithuania secret prison inquiry must set an example
The Lithuanian government must ensure that its inquiry into allegationsthat the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operated a secret prisonon Lithuanian soil sets an example in Europe for accountability forhuman rights abuses, said Amnesty International.
A Lithuanian parliamentary committee is currently investigating these allegations and its report is due to be issued next week.
Ahead of the report’s release, Amnesty International wrote a letter tothe head of the parliamentary Committee on National Security andDefence, which is conducting the inquiry. The organization reiteratedits call for a full, effective, independent and impartial investigationinto the allegations of a CIA "black site" in Lithuania and thepossible role that Lithuanian officials may have played in the prison’soperation.
Amnesty International said that the Lithuanian investigation shouldensure that, if the evidence points to the existence of a secretprison, "those responsible for human rights violations are held toaccount."
"The Lithuanian inquiry should chart a new course for truth-telling andaccountability in Europe with respect to human rights violationscommitted in the context of the US-led ‘war on terror’." said JuliaHall, Amnesty International’s expert on counter-terrorism in Europe.
"The evidence that secret prisons existed in Europe is compelling andthe governments at the centre of these allegations must respond byeffectively investigating the charges. We urge Lithuania to meet thatchallenge," said Julia Hall.
Many detainees held at such secret sites, known as "black sites", werevictims of unlawful rendition, enforced disappearance, torture andother ill-treatment by US agents, often with the cooperation andassistance of foreign governments.
Poland and Romania have also been named by the European Parliament andthe Council of Europe as allegedly having provided secret detentionfacilities for the CIA.
"If the Lithuanians fail to conduct this inquiry in a thorough manner,it will send a signal to other governments that they can effectivelyignore charges of serious human rights abuses," said Julia Hall."Lithuania’s efforts can and should set the standard in Europe for realaccountability."
The allegations against Lithuania were first made by US televisionnetwork ABC News in August. The story quoted unnamed CIA sources assaying that Lithuania provided a detention facility outside thecapital, Vilnius, where “high value” detainees were held and questionedin secret by the CIA until December 2005.
Following ABC News’ allegations, Amnesty International wrote toLithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite on 8 September, urging her toensure that any investigation of the allegations be prompt, thorough,independent, and impartial.
The organization pointed out that the duty to investigate charges ofsuch serious human rights abuses is an obligation under internationallaw and includes guaranteeing that perpetrators are held accountable,victims are provided with redress and measures are taken to preventsuch violations in the future.
A reply dated 17 September said that preliminary inquiries made byparliamentary committees to Lithuanian security officials and otheragencies had indicated that no secret site existed. In November, theLithuanian parliament issued a mandate for a full parliamentaryinquiry, indicating that those initial inquiries were not sufficient.
A November follow-up report by ABC News claimed that unnamed Lithuanianofficials provided ABC News with documents from a "CIA front company"indicating that it purchased a former riding academy in Antiviliai,outside Vilnius, and used it to construct the "black site" in 2004.