Whose Land Is It Anyway?

Vedanta Resources has decided that it will mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa. The Dongria Kondhas, who have inhabited the region for centuries, have decided that they won't let them. Vedanta plans to go on an expansion spree soon, with a mine and extended refineries. With the work they have been doing for the last few years, they have successfully polluted local perennial streams, forests and the very air the Kondhas breathe. A tribe that had been masters of the art of horticulture can no longer grow rich fruit. Their subsistence economy, largely agrarian and based on shifting cultivation, is being jeopardized. The tribals know all of this, but not from the horse's mouth. Vedanta has not bothered to educate locals about the adverse effects of their industrial ambitions. Disease, poverty and many outraged rights later, the tribals are up in arms, having vowed to protect their forefathers' land, and not let the London-based company call the shots. What has probably created the most recent ferment is the fact that the Kondhas faith has been called into question, then derided and ignored, given that Vedanta plans to build their mine atop the hill, where the Dongria Kondha deity, Niyam Rajah Penhu, is believed to be incarnated. At this point, the clans are ready to fight tooth and nail, for this is their land, a land they live and love in, and cherish and treasure.
To help the Amnesty International efforts towards safeguarding the natives of the region, sign the following petition. With your vote, you can make a difference.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/stop-mining-and-refinery-projects-devastating-communities-india

Myanmar elections will test ASEAN’s credibility.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public statement

Southeast Asian nations should press the Myanmar government to protect the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association throughout the elections period and beyond, Amnesty International said today on the eve of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Ha Noi.

ASEAN has repeatedly emphasized that the elections should be held in a “free, fair and inclusive manner”. Yet those calls do not go far enough to highlight the human rights that are most at risk in the elections context. Indeed, the Myanmar government has not taken any steps to improve its poor human rights record as the polls approach.

More than 2,200 political prisoners continue to languish behind bars in Myanmar. This is double the number since the start of the mass peaceful anti-government protests of August – September 2007—a huge indictment of the grim human rights situation there.

Under Electoral Laws enacted in March, no political prisoner can take part in the elections, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The same laws also prohibit them from membership in any political party.

ASEAN should unequivocally call for the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience at the Ministerial Meeting, something they conspicuously failed to do at the organisation’s summit in Ha Noi in April.

The Electoral Laws also list a number of offences and penalties, among them—a blatant violation of freedom of expression—a vaguely worded provision against "exhorting" persons to vote or not to vote in the elections.

Moreover, in a 21 June directive issued by the Union Election Commission, political parties are prohibited from campaigning activities that “harm security, the rule of law and community peace”. These regulations allow for an excessively broad interpretation of what constitutes a threat to “security”. For decades the authorities have routinely used vaguely worded laws to arbitrarily criminalize peaceful political dissent.

New censorship rules introduced in June also serve to undermine any remaining scope for independent journalism around the elections process.

The “three freedoms”—of expression, peaceful assembly, and association—must be safeguarded for all, whether people choose to participate in the elections or not. It is not enough for ASEAN to adopt a “wait and see” attitude.

Jammu and Kashmir authorities urged to end detention of lawyers

The Jammu and Kashmir state government must immediately end the preventive detention of the leaders of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

Mian Abdul Qayoom, the President of the Bar Association and Ghulam Nabi Shaheen, its General Secretary, have been arbitrarily detained under the J&K Public Safety Act (PSA) since 7 July and 18 July 2010 respectively.

The vaguely formulated PSA allows for detentions of up to two years without charge or trial on the presumption that future acts harmful to the state may be committed.

"The detention of the Bar Association leaders appears to be an attempt to stifle legitimate and peaceful protest, as part of the ongoing crackdown by the authorities in parts of Kashmir," said Sam Zarifi, Asia-Pacific Director at Amnesty International

The grounds of detention prepared by the Srinagar District Magistrate relating to Mian Qayoom allege he is attempting to turn the Bar Association into "a secessionist outfit" indulging in "illegal activities".

Four previous criminal cases registered involving Mian Qayoom between October 2008 and June 2010 are also mentioned in the document which accuses him of instigating recent protests that have reportedly left at least 18 people dead.

"The state administration has resorted to preventive detention under the PSA, which subverts the judicial process," Zarifi said. "If the government has criminal charges to bring, it should do so in a properly constituted criminal trial where Mian Qayoom will have the protections afforded under the law, for instance, the ability to post bail."

The official grounds of detention against Mian Qayoom state that he is being detained for questioning the conduct of government security forces and for his political views.

Reports indicate the General Secretary of the Bar Association, Ghulam Nabi Shaheen, is being detained on similar grounds as well as for organizing public rallies seeking the release of Mian Qayoom.

"The arbitrary use of the PSA to detain government critics is yet another demonstration of why this law must be repealed," Zarifi said.

The Kashmir valley has witnessed mass public protests over the past several months, initially over the extrajudicial executions of three men at Machil, Baramulla district, and subsequently by killings of protesters by Central Reserve Police Force personnel.

At least 18 people, many of them teenagers, were allegedly killed during a crackdown on protests that began on 11 June 2010.

Amnesty International has previously demanded that the Indian authorities avoid excessive use of force and investigate all the deaths due to the shootings.

The State administration has also responded by placing a large number of people in preventive detention instead of charging and trying them – including those reportedly suspected of throwing stones at the police and others suspected of inciting violence by posting inflammatory material online.

A number of political leaders have also been recently detained including Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani, and his aides Mohammad Ashraf Sahrai, Ayaz Akbar, Mohammad Yousuf Mujahid and Zafar Akbar Bhat. Prominent Kashmiri leaders including Shabbir Shah and Nayeem Ahmed Khan also continue to remain in detention under the PSA.

Rape and the Sri Lankan War.

If you've read Homer, you'll know that the wrath of Achilles, around which The Iliad revolves, was because he'd been deprived of his war prize, a beautiful maiden named Chryseis. There's another story I remember, by Somerset Maugham, called The Unvanquished, that describes a French mother's determination to destroy the baby born to her by a German soldier who raped her, during World War 2. Literature reflects reality, and rape was widely practiced in war time from antiquity through the modern age. We've seen it in the Great Wars, the Indo-Bangladesh War, the Bosnian War and the Gulf War. Over 20000 Japanese women had also been taken sex slaves in the Second World War. The Sri Lanka government's deadly war with the Tamil Tigers, lasting a span of over two decades, was no exception, and it has been alleged that rape had been used a planned strategy to decimate the Tamil population in the northern and eastern fringes of the island.
Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State of the United States, commented that the SLA used rape as a war tactic, to which the government responded that Clinton had apparently forgotten the Monica Lewinsky affair and needed to clean up her own backyard. They denied the charge but did not state that Tamil women had not been raped by armed forces.
The general trend in the rapes perpetrated by the SLA were on women held in detention, and refugee shelters for Tamil civilians could well be described as rape camps. Often, the sexual violence was carried out on very young women, and there's one instance of a nine-year-old girl being molested by a gang of seven men. Grenades were sometimes dropped on the victims' abdomens to wipe out the crime. More often than not, families were witness to the crimes, and any reportage in such cases resulted in their being tortured and usually shot.

Here's the Amnesty International online petition for the cause of improving conditions in war ravaged Sri Lanka:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/call-un-investigate-sri-lanka-rights-violations

Avoid excessive use of force, investigate killings in Kashmir valley.

Authorities in India should avoid excessive use of force while dealing with demonstrators in the Kashmir valley, Amnesty International said today.

Over the last month, a total of 11 persons, at least eight of them children between 13 and 19 years old, were allegedly killed in shootings by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) paramilitary personnel stationed across the Kashmir valley, as protestors defied curfew regulations, held violent demonstrations and often clashed with the security personnel in Srinagar, Sopore and other towns which were put under curfew.

Amnesty International has learned that the state authorities have ordered probes into some of the killings during the demonstrations at Srinagar, Sopore and Anantnag. The organization is calling on Indian authorities to investigate all the killings and bring to justice the security personnel, as well as any protesters who have violated an internationally cognizable criminal provision, in trials conforming with international standards.

The authorities have blamed the armed Lashkar-e-Toiba and other Kashmiri separatist organisations for instigating the protestors to throw stones and engage in violence. At least 35 people sustained injuries during the demonstrations so far.

On 11 June, 17-year-old Tufail Ahmed Mattoo of Srinagar was killed, according to initial reports, by a teargas shell fired by the police at the protestors. However, later reports said he was shot in the head. On 19 June, a Srinagar court has directed the state police to investigate this killing and submit its report by 28 June.

On 20 June, as protests over the killing of Tufail Ahmed Mattoo turned violent, a 24-year-old carpet weaver of Srinagar, Rafiq Ahmed Bangroo, sustained serious head injuries and went into coma. He died on 19 June at the hospital. Some reports suggest that he was beaten by the CRPF personnel during the protests. The next day witnessed further protests over the death of Bangroo, as youths returning from his funeral attacked a CRPF post and attempted to set fire to a CRPF armoured vehicle. A 19-year-old relative of Bangroo, Javed Malla, was killed in the CRPF firing.

On 25 June, two teenaged children, Firdous Ahmad Kakroo and Shakeel Ahmad Ganai were killed as the CRPF personnel fired at demonstrators demanding the bodies of two armed guerrillas killed by the security forces near the Sopore town, 55 km from Srinagar. Eyewitnesses had reported that the demonstrators set fire to the CRPF commanding officer’s vehicle and attacked a security bunker. The authorities claimed that the two were armed guerrillas with close links with Lashkar-e-Toiba and the CRPF claimed that it had fired in self-defence.

Over the next two days, Sopore witnessed two more deaths – of 22-year-old Bilal Ahmed Wani and 17-year-old Tajamul Ahmad Bhat - as the CRPF personnel fired to quell protestors repeatedly defying curfew. On 28 June, demonstrators on the outskirts of Baramulla town clashed with the CRPF personnel after which another youth, Tariq Ahmed Rather was shot dead; the next day. The next day, three protestors, 15-year-old Ishfaq Ahmed Khanday, 17-year-old Imtiyaz Ahmed Itoo and 19-year-old Shujatul Islam – were shot dead in Anantnag district. While the initial reports said they were killed in firing by the CRPF, later reports suggested that they had been initially detained and then killed.

Amnesty International reminds the Indian authorities that they have an obligation to protect the right to life in accordance with international law. This includes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which India is a state party, and standards such as the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials and the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, which state that firearms should be used only when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.

A meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 29 June, directed the CRPF to exercise “maximum restraint and sensitivity” while assisting the state police in enforcing curfew regulations in the valley. Amnesty International is urging the Indian government to ensure implementation of its directives, and ensure protection of the right to life under international law.

Background
The latest round of protests over extrajudicial executions in Kashmir commenced in late May after the Jammu and Kashmir authorities exhumed the remains of three young men allegedly killed by the Indian security forces at Machil in Baramulla district after they had been promised jobs as casual labourers for the security personnel stationed near the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan. An inquiry is being conducted into the killings.

The protests also coincided with the commencement of the annual Hindu pilgrimage to Amarnath in the valley, heightening security concerns and the recent Indo-Pakistan meeting at Islamabad last week.

Related
India: Extrajudicial executions must be investigated and suspects prosecuted, AI Index: ASA 20/015/2010, 8 June 2010 http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA20/015/2010/en

Escaping The Child-catchers of the LTTE.

Amnesty International is calling on the UN to set up an independent investigation into possible war crimes committed in Sri Lanka in the final months of the civil war which ended in May 2009. Both sides, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government’s armed forces committed human rights violations. The families who suffered deserve justice and if you want to know why, read young Kamla’s account of how she escahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifped capture.
Child-catchers of the LTTE
The bullets and bombs were scary but what struck terror in Kamla’s heart were the “child-catchers” of the LTTE. For months, Kamla (nearly 15) and her 2 younger sisters managed to escape them by hiding in barrels buried underground in the backyard. The lid would be closed and soil sprinkled on top, with only a small tube fitted for breathing.
However, during the final months of thttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhe war, shelling became so bad that the family were displaced 14 times and ended up in a hut without any of their possessions.
Caught in the cross-fire
One morning, when Kamla came out of the hut she found the place surrounded by more than 20 child-catchers. She ran in terror, ducking and hiding behind huts and somehow managed to escape. That night, her family decided they couldn’t continue like this anymore. Along with 150 other Tamils, they began moving towards the Sri Lankan army controlled areas, risking one final confrontation with the LTTE. “Tigers fired wildly. Parents fought against Tigers and some were dragged away,” recalls Kamla. But after a night of battle, the Sri Lankan army saved them and sent them to the Vavuniya camp.