Sri Lanka: execution video shows need for international inquiry (HRW news)

Human Rights Watch (HRW) news: “Sri Lanka: Execution Video Shows Need for International Inquiry. No Action on Government Promises of Investigations to United Nations”…

A disturbing video recently provided to the media showing the apparent summary execution of prisoners by Sri Lankan soldiers underscores the need for an international commission of inquiry into possible war crimes committed by both sides during the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, HRW said today.The video shows men in Sri Lankan army uniforms firing assault rifles point-blank at two naked, blindfolded, and bound men sitting on the ground. Eight other bodies are visible on the ground nearby, all but one unclothed. According to Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, a multiethnic exile organization, the video was taken by a soldier with a cell phone in January 2009. While HRW could not confirm the video’s authenticity, an independent expert consulted found nothing in the video that would dispute its authenticity. The summary execution of prisoners is a violation of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and a war crime.

“The blood, blindfolds, and mud of this apparent atrocity makes nonsense of President Rajapaksa’s claims of a clean war against the Tamil Tigers,” said Steve Crawshaw, UN director at Human Rights Watch. “An international inquiry needs to get to the bottom of this and other war crimes committed during the past year’s fighting.”

HRW reported numerous violations of the laws of war by both the Sri Lankan armed forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the 25-year-long armed conflict, which ended with the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in May. Because independent observers, including the media and human rights organizations, were prevented from operating near the war zone, the information available on the fighting and potential laws of war violations by both sides has been limited.

Before the government could launch an investigation, a Sri Lankan army spokesman already labeled the video a “fabrication.”

HRW has long criticized the government’s failure to carry out impartial investigations and prosecutions of those responsible for the numerous human rights abuses committed by both sides during the conflict. There have been serious ongoing violations of human rights, and the backlog of cases of enforced disappearances and unlawful killings runs to the tens of thousands. Only a small number of cases have ended in prosecutions. Past efforts to address violations through the establishment of ad hoc mechanisms in Sri Lanka, such as presidential commissions of inquiry, have produced little information and few prosecutions.

HRW called for the United Nations secretary-general or other UN body to create an independent international commission of inquiry to investigate violations of the laws of war by all parties to the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, and to make recommendations for the prosecution of those responsible. On May 23, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, issued a joint statement from Sri Lanka in which the government said it “will take measures to address” the need for an accountability process for violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

In a July interview with Time magazine, Rajapaksa said that during the war, “[t]here was no violation of human rights. There were no civilian casualties.”

“Since telling the UN secretary-general three months ago that he’d conduct investigations, Rajapaksa has sat on his hands,” said Crawshaw. “Ban should stop relying on the president’s promises of domestic action and make it clear that an international commission is needed if the victims of Sri Lanka’s bloody war are to find justice.”

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Uzbekistan: new abuse against a political prisoner

Human Rights Watch (HRW) news: “Uzbekistan: New Abuse of Jailed Dissident. Family Visits Threatened After Relatives Publicize Mistreatment “…

August 27, 2009

Uzbek authorities should promptly investigate new allegations of abuse against a political prisoner, Yusuf Jumaev, and ensure that his family is permitted regular visits, HRW said today.

Jumaev’s daughter, Feruza Jumaeva, who saw him on August 17, 2009, told HRW that Jumaev was beaten by a prison guard not long before her visit. She said that she saw bruises on his body, which he told her came from being beaten, and that he told her he continues to be subject to insults and humiliation.

“The abuse of this peaceful poet and dissident needs to stop,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW. “Jumaev should never have been imprisoned in the first place, and Uzbek authorities should free him without delay.”

Jumaeva told HRW that her father said the beating was carried out by Jamshid Atoev, a member of the prison staff who oversees one of the prisoner brigades. The guard reportedly approached Jumaev as he was sitting in the exercise yard, and delivered a strong punch to his spine. Jumaev told his daughter that when he asked why he was being beaten, Atoev punched him repeatedly in the chest area and the head.

Jumaev is among the many dissidents and human rights activists jailed by the Uzbek authorities on political grounds. He is a poet and political dissident who called for President Islam Karimov’s resignation in the period before the country’s presidential election in December 2007. He has suffered repeated abuse in prison.

Jumaev is in poor health, his daughter said. He is emaciated, with his bones sticking out from under his skin, is very weak, and has started to stoop over.

She also said that prison authorities forced her to wait six days before permitting her to see her father and threatened to cut off family visits.

Jumaeva said she arrived in Jaslyk, the prison in which her father is being held, on August 11. She spent six days waiting in the “relatives’ hotel,” two rooms and a kitchen in a building inside the prison compound where the families of prisoners are permitted to stay during extended visits. Jumaeva described the rooms as very dirty, with beds infested with fleas and lice. At around 3 p.m. on August 17, prison guards finally permitted her to meet with her father.

The following morning, Jumaeva was summoned by the head of Jaslyk prison, Qurolboi Berdiev, to his office. The prison guards who came to collect her told her that her visit with her father was over and that she should take her things with her. She said that Berdiev accused her of making up stories about Jumaev’s ill-treatment and telling them to Uzbekistan’s “enemies,” adding that he could see to it that she never gains access to the prison again.

Jumaeva and other members of the Jumaev family have reported previous abuse of Jumaev in Jaslyk prison to HRW as well as to media outlets such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Uzbek service, ozodlik.org, and Uznews.net.

“Uzbek authorities should be investigating the serious allegations of abuse at Jaslyk, not threatening to cut off visits by those who report them,” said Cartner.

This incident is the latest in a catalogue of abuse against Jumaev in the prison. Family members interviewed by HRW over the last year said that prison guards have harassed, insulted, and beaten Jumaev regularly since he was transferred there in July 2008. The “severe regime” prison is notorious for its harsh conditions, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture has called for it to be closed down.

Jumaev was originally sentenced to five years in a penal colony (kolonia poseleniye) – effectively a minimum-security prison – by Bukhara Regional Court on April 15, 2008 on charges that included ‘insult” and “resisting arrest.”

The Uzbek government should immediately and unconditionally free all wrongfully imprisoned human rights defenders, journalists, political opposition members, and other activists held on politically motivated charges, HRW said.

Colombia: massacre of 12 Awá indigenous, possibly army’s effort to eliminate witnesses

Human Rights Watch (HRW) news: “Colombia: Investigate Massacre in Southern Region. Possible Army Involvement and Effort to Eliminate Witnesses in Killings of 12 Indigenous People”…

August 27, 2009

The Colombian government should ensure a prompt, independent, and thorough investigation of the killings of 12 members of the Awá indigenous community, and take immediate measures to protect the community, HRW said today.

Armed men in camouflage broke into a home early on the morning of August 26, 2009, shooting and killing 11 people, including four children and three teenagers, and wounding three more. The killings took place in El Rosario, [80 km from the port city of] Tumaco, in the southern border state of Nariño. The massacre came on the heels of the killing of Gonzalo Rodríguez, another member of the community, on August 23. Rodríguez’s wife, Tulia García, who had witnessed his abduction, was among those killed on August 26.

“Initial reports suggest that members of the Army may have massacred these people, with the purpose of eliminating and intimidating witnesses of atrocities,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at HRW. “The government needs to make sure there is an effective investigation of this horrific crime.”

Official sources who spoke to HRW reported that Rodríguez had been killed by members of the Army’s Counter-guerrilla Battalion No. 23, who later told prosecutors that he was a member of the FARC guerrillas and that they killed him as he tried to escape. According to news reports, García saw armed men detain Rodríguez on August 23 and later found his body on the side of the road, his head riddled with bullets. She accused the Army of extrajudicially executing her husband. New armed groups linked to paramilitaries are also known to operate in the region, and may have assisted in the killings.

According to reliable sources, the August 26 killings took place in García’s home. The armed men killed her two children, a 6-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy. They also killed another woman, a 6-month-old baby, a 12-year-old, a 17-year-old, two 18-year-olds, and two men. The three people wounded included the son of the governor of the Gran Rosario Awá indigenous community and an 11-year-old boy.

There is a heavy presence of various armed groups and Colombian military forces in Nariño, creating one of the worst human rights and humanitarian situations in Colombia. Civilians from the most vulnerable sectors of society, including Afro-Colombians and indigenous groups, are among the most adversely affected by the violence there. The government routinely fails to respond adequately to reports of abuses there, HRW said.

According to the Awá Indigenous Association (known as UNIPA), 38 members of the Awá have been killed so far this year. In February, at least 11 Awá were killed by the left-wing FARC guerrillas in one massacre. HRW has met with Awá leaders in Nariño on several occasions, most recently in July. The Awá leaders reported a wide array of abuses, in addition to the killings, including death threats, the use of antipersonnel landmines in their territory, recruitment of children to serve as combatants in armed groups and massive forced displacement by various armed actors, including the FARC and new armed groups that the UNIPA describes as paramilitaries.

Despite repeated calls on the national government to improve protection of civilians in Nariño, HRW has continued receiving complaints that the state fails to act promptly to prevent abuses – even in the face of serious risk reports from the Early Warning System of the ombudsman’s office. HRW has also received numerous reports of inadequate investigations and insufficient humanitarian assistance by the state once abuses or displacements occur.

“In Nariño, as in many parts of Colombia, the conflict rages on and abuses are rampant, yet often civilians feel ignored by the state,” said Vivanco. “Instead of pretending the conflict doesn’t exist, the national government needs to do much more to protect civilians, ensure accountability for abuses, and provide assistance to the victims.”