Indonesia: End Policies Fueling Violence Against Religious Minority

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Human Rights Watch

Rescind Laws That Oppress the Ahmadiyah Community

August 2, 2010

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Indonesian officials have again reacted to official discrimination and vigilante violence against the Ahmadiyah by restricting their right to practice their religion. The government should show that it is serious about ending religious violence by holding those responsible to account.


Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director


(New York) - Indonesian authorities should end discriminatory policies against the Ahmadiyah religious community and investigate and prosecute anti-Ahmadiyah violence, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to revoke a local government order to close Ahmadiyah mosques and a repressive national decree against the Ahmadiyah community.

Since July 26, 2010, municipal police and hundreds of people organized by militant Islamist groups have made several attempts to force an Ahmadiyah mosque in Manis Lor village, Kuningan regency, West Java, to close, resulting in violence. The municipal police were acting on the orders of the regent of Kuningan to close the mosque. On July 29, the religious affairs minister, Suryadharma Ali, publicly stated that the Indonesian government would not tolerate violence in religious disputes, but he also warned that the Ahmadiyah followers "had better stop their activities" and said the police would enforce a 2008 decree barring them from spreading their faith.

"Indonesian officials have again reacted to official discrimination and vigilante violence against the Ahmadiyah by restricting their right to practice their religion," said Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The government should show that it is serious about ending religious violence by holding those responsible to account."

About two-thirds of Manis Lor's approximately 4,500 residents are Ahmadiyah, making it the largest Ahmadiyah community in Indonesia. Ahmadiyah identify themselves as Muslims but differ with other Muslims about whether Muhammad was the "final" monotheist prophet; consequently, some Muslims perceive the Ahmadiyah as "heretics."

A June 2008 national decree requires the Ahmadiyah community to "stop spreading interpretations and activities that deviate from the principal teachings of Islam," including "spreading the belief that there is another prophet with his own teachings after Prophet Mohammed." Violations of the decree can result in prison sentences of up to five years. Human Rights Watch has long called for the government to rescind this decree as it violates freedom of religion, recognized in various human rights treaties that Indonesia has ratified.

Aang Hamid Suganda, the regent of Kuningan, reportedly ordered the closure of eight Ahmadiyah mosques following a recommendation in June by the Indonesian Ulama Council, the country's top Muslim clerical body. Suganda claimed that the Ahmadiyah's religious activities had provoked conflict and that the closures were necessary to prevent the conflict from escalating.

On July 26, the municipal police - Satuan Polisi Pamong Praja, or Satpol-PP - acting on an executive order issued by Suganda, tried to close the An Nur mosque, where some of Manis Lor's Ahmadiyah conduct religious services. The police withdrew after hundreds of Manis Lor residents blocked the street leading to the mosque.

On July 28, police and local government security officers again tried to seal the mosque. Ahmadiyah residents resisted by throwing rocks and sticks. Later, hundreds of protesters organized by militant Islamist organizations, including the Movement against Illegal Sects and Non-Believers (GAPAS), the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), the Indonesia Mujahidin Council (MMI), and the Islamic Community Forum (FUI) attempted to forcibly close the mosque. Police blocked the mob from reaching the mosque.

The next day, at least 300 protesters again tried to close down the mosque. About 600 officers, including Mobile Brigade police (Brimob) and public order officials, tried to block their advance, using tear gas, but were unsuccessful. Protesters briefly clashed with approximately 200 Ahmadiyah members. Minor injuries and some property damage were reported. Suganda then issued an ultimatum to the Ahmadiyah community, saying that he would order the municipal police to close the mosque if religious activities there did not cease two days before the beginning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which starts on August 11.

West Java police reportedly deployed around 500 reinforcement officers from the anti-riot and Brimob units to the area in response to the violence. On July 30, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, Djoko Suyanto, called on the police to be "stern" in dealing with "anarchic action," and reported that President Yudhoyono had asked him to make sure that the police are "strict" in doing so. To date however, the police have not arrested anyone in connection with the violence and intimidation.

"When the Indonesian authorities sacrifice the rights of religious minorities to appease hard-line Islamist groups this simply causes more violence, as in Manis Lor," Pearson said. "While the police rightly stopped mobs from entering the mosque, their failure to arrest a single person will only embolden these groups to use violence again."

Suganda, the Kuningan regent, has said that he and other community religious leaders will travel to Jakarta in August to press senior government officials to do more to carry out the June 2008 national decree.

Indonesia's 1945 constitution explicitly guarantees freedom of religion in article 28(E). Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Indonesia ratified in 2006, states are to respect the right to freedom of religion. This includes freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching." Members of religious minorities "shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of their group ... to profess and practice their own religion." Restrictions on the right to freedom of religion to protect public safety or order must be strictly necessary and proportional to the purpose being sought.

"Indonesia is obliged to prosecute those responsible for anti-Ahmadiyah violence and to repeal discriminatory laws and decrees, which militants rely on to justify their actions," Pearson said. "These laws actively undermine religious freedom in Indonesia and jeopardize the safety of members of religious minorities."

ILO aids child soldier but many march on

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Friday, 02 July 2010 18:00 Perry Santanachote

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Young Thu Zin Oo made his daily trip across the Pun Hlaing River from his village in North Okkalapa Township to the Sinmalite dock in Rangoon on December 15 last year. He and his family sold pork rinds for a living and needed to replenish their supply.

He never arrived at Sinmalite and failed to make the trip home that day either. Instead, he ended up in the Burmese army at the age of 17.

Thu Zin Oo’s story is all too common in Burma, which the UN has repeatedly cited as one of the world’s worst perpetrators of child recruitment to its army. Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimated that Burma had “enlisted” 70,000 child soldiers in 2002. The rights watchdog has yet to report a drop in this figure, despite the regime’s purported attempts to curb underage recruitment. On that ominous day in December, Thu Zin Oo became another statistic.

His bus trip required a transfer at Bayintnaung Junction. As Thu Zin Oo waited for his connection he noticed a man beckoning him from a distance. Curious, he went to him.

The man asked how he was earning his wage and Thu Zin Oo told him he made 1,500 Kyats a day selling pork rinds. The mystery man suggested he could make more as a mechanic and that he would help him get a job.

“I was really interested in what he’d said and agreed to follow him,” Thu Zin Oo said. “At that time I was thinking I would be able to make a better life for my parents.”

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), Burma’s self-styled ruling clique of generals, has repeatedly stated that its policy prohibits recruitment of anyone under the age of 18 but the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers names Burma as the only Asian country where government armed forces forcibly recruit and use children as young as 12 years old.

The US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report released this month, also listed Burma as a top offender. The report said: “The regime’s widespread use of and lack of accountability in forced labour and recruitment of child soldiers is particularly worrying and represents the top causal factor for Burma’s significant trafficking problem.”

It also chided Burma’s leaders for failing to not making significant efforts to eliminate the problem.

Under international pressure, Burma’s government officials agreed to comply with international standards and publicly vowed to crack down on the recruitment of children to the army, especially after the Security Council’s adoption of Resolution 1612 in 2005 to monitor the use of child soldiers. Working with the UN workers’ right body, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the government created a complaint system in 2007 to provide a way for victims to seek redress.

Yet reports of forced child recruitment, mostly of boys aged between 14 and 16, remain.

“The army at the senior level has passed military orders saying that no child under the age of 18 should be recruited,” ILO liaison officer in Rangoon, Steve Marshall, said. “I think the problem exists at a lower level where there are some conflicting pressures placed on personnel in the military.”

Marshall said senior level commanders had required battalion commanders to meet ambitious recruitment quotas amid high-desertion and low-enlistment rates.

There is also a disparity between the penalties for failing to meet the quota and the crime of underage recruitment. The UN reported in 2008 that punishments for recruiting a child included official reprimands and monetary fines, whereas battalion commanders faced loss of rank if they failed to meet recruitment quotas.

The quota in turn made recruitment a profitable business in which brokers or police are compensated for new recruits. Marshall estimates that recruiters pay around 30,000 Kyats (about US$4,700) for each boy.

According to HRW, unaccompanied and poor children are often targeted because they are easily lured with the promise of compensation, food or shelter. The ILO estimates that roughly one-third of child soldiers are recruited in this manner. If they refuse, recruiters use force or threaten to arrest them on some frivolous charge. One-third volunteer for the army and another third are simply abducted.

“Often a broker will say to a kid, ‘Hey, I can find you a job that pays money’,” said Marshall. “They think they’ll get a job in a tea shop or something and the next thing they know they’re in the army.”

With the promise of a good job, Thu Zin Oo went with the man from the train station but realised his grave mistake when they arrived the Danyingone Soldier Collection Centre. It all happened so quickly, he said, and before he could process what was going on, he was branded “Soldier Number TA/427438”. Later that night he was loaded into a locked train car with other boys in the same situation.

“In that carriage I saw about 100 young guys like me,” Thu Zin Oo said. “We were never allowed to use the toilet so the guy next to me urinated on the floor. As punishment he was badly beaten by some sergeants.”

Through the night the train transported the boys north to Pegu (Bago) Division. The camp was in the Yaytashay Township of Taungoo District.

During his 18 weeks of basic training, Thu Zin Oo was forced to cut and carry sugar cane while bullied by superiors. He recalled one instance of a group of trainees being beaten about the head with wooden poles for singing the national anthem too softly.

The Coalition reports that child soldiers are forced required to perform tasks that include combat, portering, scouting, spying, guarding camps and cooking. Escape attempts are punishable with up to five years in prison for “desertion”.

Near the end of his basic training, Thu Zin Oo was allowed to call his parents. “I told them I wanted to go home as I wasn’t happy,” he said.

His parents, relieved to find their son, contacted the ILO for help. The ILO investigated Thu Zin Oo’s case and compiled proof-of-age documentation. He was discharged from the army on June 8.

The ILO received 128 child soldier complaints between last April last and this April – a dramatic increase on previous years, with 50 complaints between 2007 and last year.

“The number of complaints that we have received has definitely increased,” Marshall said. “However, we believe it is a reflection of people’s understanding of the law and awareness of their right to lodge a complaint.”

Marshall said the government and the ILO had been working to increase awareness in Burma. The government has undertaken awareness workshops for military personnel, and the ILO with the Ministry of Labour have started conducting awareness-raising programmes targeted at local authorities. The former started distributing government-approved flyers this month that detail people’s legal rights and how to file a complaint.

“Progressively, we have been in a position where we’re in agreement with the government and an increased number of children have been discharged from the military,” he said.

The ILO had been able to aid in the release of all but three children whose parents had filed complaints. One has yet to be found and two claimed they wanted to stay in the military, Marshall said.

“The reality is that if the parents lodge a complaint and we’re able to obtain their proof of age, the success rate is extremely high,” he said. “The government, I must say, is very co-operative when the evidence is placed in front of them.”

On the other hand, obtaining the evidence can be difficult. It is a process that can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months. To prove that the person was recruited at an age below 18, the ILO must find official proof-of-age documentation.

“In Myanmar [Burma] that is not always easy. A lot of families do not have birth certificates and in many poorer families the kids are not in the formal schooling system,” Marshall said.

Before the ILO, Marshall said a lot of citizens thought child recruitment was a fact of life and did nothing. Others knew it was wrong but were too scared to raise the issue.

Advocacy group Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB) director Aung Myo Min said that this fear of reprisal was still deeply rooted, which was why the number of cases reported to the ILO failed to reflect the true extent of the problem. He recalled instances in which individuals were arrested, harassed or intimidated by officials for reporting the existence of child soldiers in the past.

“The ILO’s rate is successful but think about the hundreds of cases that are never reported to the ILO,” Aung Myo Min said.

He added his concern that the military regime’s newfound enlightenment on the issue may be disingenuous.

“They just want to save face because of international attention on the use of child soldiers by the army,” he said. “If they really wanted to change it, blaming their own army is not enough. They have the power and the responsibility to actually stop the use of child soldiers, prevent the children from entering into the camps and take legal action against those who recruit the children into the army.”

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Human rights report threatens aid to Pakistan - washingtonpost.com

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, April 6, 2010; A06

ISLAMABAD -- The Pakistani army has allegedly committed hundreds of retaliatory killings and other ongoing human rights abuses in the Swat Valley since the end of its successful anti-Taliban offensive there in September, threatening billions of dollars in U.S. military and economic aid to a crucial ally in the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said it had documented the extrajudicial execution of as many as 300 alleged Taliban supporters and sympathizers in the area around Mingora, the Swat capital, in interviews with more than 100 Swat families in February and March. A report on the alleged abuses, including torture, home demolitions, illegal detentions and disappearances, is scheduled for release this month.

Based on a continuing pattern, "we can only assume it is part of the counterterrorism effort by the security forces to shoot people in the back of the head," said Ali Dayan Hasan, the organization's senior South Asia analyst.

The Obama administration has been aware of reports of abuse since last summer, U.S. officials in Washington said, even as it has strengthened its relationship with Pakistan. Last month, the administration held a "strategic dialogue" with top Pakistani military and government officials.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Monday that "we take allegations of human rights abuses seriously" and that the U.S. military was "working with the Pakistanis" to address the situation and that progress was being made.

A senior U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the administration has provided Congress with regular updates on the allegations since last summer as well as on steps taken to address them. "We are mindful of the legislative requirements," the official said.

Most U.S. aid to Pakistan falls under congressional restrictions requiring the administration to certify the country's adherence to human rights laws and norms. Since 2002, the United States has provided $11.6 billion in military aid and $6 billion in development assistance, according to Congressional Research Service figures. The administration has requested an additional $3 billion in combined aid for 2011.

Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas denied allegations of abuse, saying that the military had invited human rights groups to investigate earlier charges during the June-to-September offensive in the former Taliban stronghold. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, he said, issued written directives ordering troops operating in Swat and other regions to respect the rule of law.

"If we are seen as becoming terrorists against the terrorists," Abbas said, "all we have gained will go up in the air." He suggested that reported killings or other abuses were the result of "scores being settled between the people and the Taliban," many of whom remain in the mountains surrounding settled areas in Swat.

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The army is holding about 2,500 detainees from counterinsurgency operations in Swat and elsewhere in the north and west, about 1,000 of them in Swat. The military has no judicial arm to prosecute them and has complained that Pakistan's slow-moving civilian judiciary was unable to handle them.

Hasan, of Human Rights Watch, said the military has not released the names of those being held or allowed outside access to them.

Despite the abuse allegations, the army presence appears to have the support of many Swat residents. In Mingora, members of the military could be seen rebuilding roads, schools and libraries, buying computers for women's vocational institutes and providing solar-powered streetlights to villages, in the absence of government reconstruction efforts.

The Swat offensive marked the start of several major Pakistani military operations against strongholds of the Pakistani Taliban, which the Obama administration says is tied to al-Qaeda and to Taliban forces fighting in Afghanistan. About 150,000 Pakistani army troops have been involved in operations in Swat and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghanistan border, including Bajur and South Waziristan.

The administration has urged Pakistan to extend full offensive operations into North Waziristan, Orakzai and Khyber regions of the FATA, which it has described as havens for al-Qaeda leaders and the Taliban-allied insurgent network of Afghan commander Jalaluddin Haqqani.

U.S. officials have also worked to develop close ties with the Pakistani military, which has ruled the country for nearly half of Pakistan's 63-year existence and has an uneasy relationship with the civilian government. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visits Pakistan regularly, as does Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan.

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Under a $7.5 billion, five-year economic and development aid package signed by President Obama in October, the secretary of state must certify that the military is "not materially and substantially subverting the political or judicial processes of Pakistan" -- a provision that drew sharp protests from the Pakistani military, which charged that it interferes in the country's internal affairs.

Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and national security adviser James L. Jones have met with the army chief, Kiyani, as well as civilian leaders, during recent visits to Pakistan, as has Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who co-sponsored the new developmental aid package. An aide said Kerry had raised the human rights allegations "with senior Pakistani officials" during a trip in February.

Hasan said Human Rights Watch had investigated about a third of the abuse reports the group had received from the Mingora area and found most of them substantiated. "Certainly, some of these people are Taliban supporters and sympathizers," he said of Swat, but many are "caught in the middle."

The group has been unable to verify the military units involved in alleged abuses, as required by U.S. law before a cutoff of aid.

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World Report: Abusers Target Human Rights Messengers

Rights-Respecting Governments Should Speak Up to Protect Defenders

January 20, 2010

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Special Feature: World Report 2010

(Washington, DC) - Governments responsible for serious human rights violations have over the past year intensified attacks against human rights defenders and organizations that document abuse, Human Rights Watch said today in issuing its World Report 2010.

The 612-page report, the organization's 20th annual review of human rights practices around the globe, summarizes major human rights trends in more than 90 nations and territories worldwide, reflecting the extensive investigative work carried out in 2009 by Human Rights Watch staff. The volume's introductory essay by Executive Director Kenneth Roth argues that the ability of the human rights movement to exert pressure on behalf of victims has grown enormously in recent years, and that this development has spawned a reaction from abusive governments that grew particularly intense in 2009.

"Attacks on rights defenders might be seen as a perverse tribute to the human rights movement, but that doesn't mitigate the danger," Roth said. "Under various pretexts, abusive governments are attacking the very foundations of the human rights movement."

Attacks on human rights monitors are not limited to authoritarian governments like Burma and China, Human Rights Watch said. In countries with elected governments that are facing armed insurgencies, there has been a sharp rise in armed attacks on human rights monitors. Although the armed conflict in Chechnya has wound down, there was a devastating series of killings and threats against lawyers and activists fighting impunity in the North Caucasus.

Human Rights Watch noted that some governments are so abusive against individuals and organizations that no domestic human rights movement can function, citing Eritrea, North Korea, and Turkmenistan.

The introduction to the report said that in addition to Russia and Sri Lanka, other countries where human rights monitors were murdered in order to silence them in in cluded Kenya, Burundi, and Afghanistan.

Human Rights Watch cited Sudan and China as countries that routinely shut down human rights groups and Iran and Uzbekistan as countries that openly harass and arbitrarily detain human rights workers and other critics. Colombia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua threaten and harass rights defenders. Human rights advocates face violence in countries such as The Democratic Republic of Congo and Sri Lanka. Some governments such as Ethiopia and Egypt use extremely restrictive regulations to stifle the work of nongovernmental organizations. Other countries use the disbarment of lawyers (China and Iran, for example), criminal charges - often faked from staged attacks (Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan), and criminal libel laws (Russia and Azerbaijan) to silence critics.

Local and international human rights groups working in Israel have experienced a more hostile climate than ever before after documenting abuses committed by Israel, as well as Hamas, during the December 2008 - January 2009 fighting in Gaza and Israel and in connection with Israel's ongoing blockade of Gaza.

Roth said that the only way that abusive governments will end their assault on rights defenders is if other governments that support human rights make rights a central part of their bilateral relations.

"Governments that support human rights need to speak out, to make respecting human rights the bedrock of their diplomacy - and of their own practices," Roth said. "They need to demand real change from abusive governments."

Roth said that the Obama administration, in particular, faced the challenge of restoring America's credibility on human rights. So far, he said, the results are mixed, with a marked improvement in presidential rhetoric, but an incomplete translation of that rhetoric into policy and practice.

The US government has ended the CIA's coercive interrogation program, but should still uphold domestic and international law against torture by investigating and prosecuting those who have ordered, facilitated, or carried out torture and other ill-treatment, he said. On closing the detention facility at Guantanamo, the deadline has slipped, but the more important issue is how it will be closed. Human Rights Watch and others have urged the administration either to prosecute detained suspects before regular federal courts or safely repatriate or resettle them elsewhere. The Obama administration has insisted on maintaining military commissions that provide substandard justice and on continuing to hold suspects indefinitely without charge or trial, both of which risk perpetuating the spirit of Guantanamo, Roth said.

Human Rights Watch also said in the introduction to its report that an emerging system of international justice including the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been the focus of attack. The assault unfolded after the court issued an arrest warrant in March for President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Sudanese forces and allied militia against the civilian population of Darfur.

After the court issued the warrant, many African democracies initially chose the comfort of regional solidarity rather than staking out a position of principle in support of international justice, the introduction to the report says.

Instead of applauding the ICC for taking action to redress the mass murder and forced displacement of so many Africans in Darfur, when the African Union resolved in July not to cooperate in executing the arrest warrant, a number of African leaders went along with the decision to protect Bashir rather than Darfurian victims of abuses.

Human Rights Watch research over the past year covered a wide range of abuses in virtually every region of the world.

An additional essay in the report, entitled "Abusing Patients," described government health policies that subject patients to torture or ill-treatment and the failure of national and international medical societies to prevent medical provider complicity in such abuse. The essay drew upon Human Rights Watch research from Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Iraqi Kurdistan, China, Cambodia, India, and Nicaragua.

In many countries, Human Rights Watch documented the human rights violations suffered by women and girls, including those related to pregnancy, birth, and women's role as caregivers and providers. For example, preventable maternal mortality and disability as a result of negligent policies and laws kill and maim more women annually than the impact of armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said.

In Iran, Human Rights Watch covered the continuing governmental crackdown on peaceful activists following the disputed presidential election of June 2009. Human Rights Watch documented the arrests of thousands of ordinary and high-profile people, providing detailed accounts of state violence against peaceful protesters, arbitrary detention of human rights defenders, and abuse and torture in Iran's illegal detention centers.

In China, in addition to its continuing work documenting the targeting and jailing of human rights defenders, Human Rights Watch issued a report that described the secret operation of "black jails," where authorities detain people they abduct off the streets of Beijing and other major cities. Most of those held are petitioners seeking redress for abuses ranging from government corruption to police torture.

In Cuba, Human Rights Watch documented how Raúl Castro's government, instead of dismantling the repressive machinery of the Fidel Castro years, has kept it firmly in place, keeping scores of political prisoners in detention and arresting dozens more dissidents.

In Zimbabwe, researchers continued to monitor and report on rights violations by President Robert Mugabe's former ruling party against its partners and their supporters in a power-sharing government. Human Rights Watch also documented brutal tactics by the army and police in the Marange diamond fields to control access to the fields and take over unlicensed diamond mining and trading.

A report about Burma showcased dozens of prominent political activists, Buddhist monks, labor activists, journalists, and artists arrested since peaceful political protests in 2007 and sentenced to draconian prison terms after unfair trials.

In Gaza and Israel, Human Rights Watch documented laws-of-war violations by both Israel and Hamas. Israel's military assault on Gaza a year ago included the unlawful use of white phosphorus munitions, the killing of civilians with missiles launched by drones, and the shooting of civilians waving white flags. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups launched rockets at Israeli population centers, and Hamas killed alleged collaborators and abused political opponents during the war.

In Libya, Human Rights Watch released a report critical of the government at a news conference in Tripoli. The event was the first open news conference in Libya. The report said that while limited improvements are under way, including expanded space for freedom of expression, repressive laws continue to stifle free expression and association, and abuses by the Internal Security Agency remain the norm.

In Democratic Republic of Congo, Human Rights Watch documented the deliberate killing of more than 1,400 civilians, a pattern of vicious rapes, and other abuses by government and rebel forces during two successive Congolese army operations against a Rwandan Hutu militia in the east of the country. Human Rights Watch also reported serious flaws in the UN peacekeeping operation in Congo that limited its ability to effectively protect civilians.

In Guinea, Human Rights Watch produced a detailed report on killings, sexual assaults, and other abuses at an opposition rally in the capital, committed largely by members of the elite Presidential Guard. The evidence suggests that the attacks were planned in advance and rose to the level of crimes against humanity.

Human Rights Watch said that despite the growth in the human rights movement, human rights defenders remain vulnerable and greatly in need of support by rights-respecting governments.

"Governments that consider themselves human rights supporters often keep silent in the face of these abuses by allies, citing diplomatic or economic priorities," Roth said. "But that silence makes them complicit in the abuse. The only proper response to serious human rights violations is to turn up the heat on the abusers."

World Report cover photo: Sri Lankan Tamils wait behind barbed wire where the government interned several hundred thousand people displaced in the final months of the war.

Rights group decries Iran’s ban on 60 foreign organizations

Image by wstera2 via Flickr

Updated: Wednesday, January 06, 2010

18:30GMT—1:30PM/EST

Washington, 6 January (WashingtonTV)—Amnesty International said on Wednesday that it fears that a ban by the Iranian government on contact between Iranian citizens with 60 organizations, including human rights groups, will further isolate the population.

On Monday, the deputy intelligence minister for foreign affairs said that it was an offense to communicate with the groups, which were accused of having played a role in inciting unrest following June’s disputed presidential election.

Among the groups blacklisted were Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and the National Endowment for Democracy, as well as media outlets such as the BBC and the US-government funded Voice of America [VOA].

“The move leaves anyone making such contacts at risk of prosecution and appears designed to hide from the world the true scale of what is happening in Iran and to obstruct reporting on human rights violations,” Amnesty International said in a statement.

The deputy intelligence minister, who was not named, also stated that it is illegal for political groups and parties to receive any financial and non-financial aid from abroad.

The official also called on Iranian citizens to avoid “unconventional contacts” with embassies, foreign nationals or centers linked to the banned organizations, according to state broadcaster IRIB.

Amnesty International also condemned the recent arrests of journalists and human rights defenders in Iran, who it said have been instrumental in providing information on the “gross right violations occurring in Iran”.

Both the ban on contact with the 60 international groups and the arrests are a breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a state party, said the human rights group.

On Wednesday, the pro-reform website, Rahesabz, said that Iran has arrested more than 180 people in recent days, following anti-government protests on 27 December.

Sources: Amnesty International website, IRIB News, Rahesabz website

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Vietnam: End Attacks on Bat Nha Buddhists

Thich Nhat Hanh via last.fm

EU, Other Donors Should Condemn Officials’ Complicity in Pagoda Siege

December 16, 2009

(New York) - Heavy-handed tactics by Vietnam's central government to disband followers of Thich Nhat Hanh, a prominent Buddhist monk who has called for religious reforms, illustrate Vietnam's ongoing contempt for human rights and religious freedom, Human Rights Watch said today.

For three days, beginning December 9, 2009, orchestrated mobs that included undercover police and local communist party officials terrorized and assaulted several hundred monks and nuns at Phuoc Hue pagoda in central Lam Dong province. Phuoc Hue's abbot has provided sanctuary to the monastics since late September, when police and civilian mobs violently expelled them from their own monastery of Bat Nha, located in the same commune.

During last week's attack, mobs targeted Phuoc Hue's abbot, threatening and haranguing him until they finally forced his consent to a December 31 deadline for the Bat Nha monastics to vacate the pagoda.

Image by nd_architecture_library via Flickr

"Vietnam's international donors should insist that the government halt the attacks on the monks and nuns in Lam Dong, allow them to practice their religion, and prevent any further violent expulsions," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "And they should make clear they will keep close tabs on the situation."

The three-day vigilante assault on Phuoc Hue disrupted a December 9 European Union (EU) fact-finding mission to the pagoda, which was followed by an EU human rights dialogue with Vietnam on December 11. A European Parliament resolution passed in late November called on Vietnam to respect religious freedom and condemned the harassment and persecution of Buddhists in Lam Dong, as well as of followers of other religions and branches of Buddhism.

The EU, one of Vietnam's largest donors, pledged US $1 billion in aid to Vietnam at a donor conference in early December. Sweden - the current EU president - and other donors have pressed Vietnam to lift its restrictions on independent media, religious freedom, and peaceful dissent. A 1995 EU-Vietnam Cooperation Agreement affirms that respect for human rights and democratic principles is the basis for the cooperation.

"The vigilante action to prevent diplomats from meeting with the monks and nuns is a real slap in the face to the EU," Pearson said. "The EU needs to make clear that it has leverage and will use it."

Over the past year, government officials have intensified efforts to disband the community of young monks and nuns that until September was based at a meditation center at Bat Nha monastery established by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2005. Authorities began to take steps to close the center after Thich Nhat Hanh urged the government in 2007 to ease its restrictions on religious freedom.

Thich Nhat Hanh first drew international attention in the 1960s as a leader of South Vietnamese Buddhists opposed to the US war in Vietnam, critical of all sides to the conflict. He continued his anti-war activities from exile in France after he left the country in 1965. The government barred him from returning as he increasingly took on human rights issues, including the plight of the thousands of boat people who fled Vietnam after the communist victory in 1975 and the persecution of Buddhist clergy and patriarchs.

Since the September eviction at Bat Nha, authorities have relentlessly harassed and pressured the Bat Nha Buddhists to vacate Phuoc Hue and other pagodas that took them in, periodically cutting electricity and water and barring local lay people from providing food and supplies. According to government documents obtained by Human Rights Watch, in late November local officials were ordered to begin organizing civilians to demonstrate against the monks and nuns at Phuoc Hue, demand the expulsion of the pagoda's abbot, and pressure the monks and nuns to return to their home provinces.

Mob action at Phuoc Hue

On December 9, more than 100 people marched into Phuoc Hue pagoda. Many wore motorcycle helmets, baseball caps, and dust masks - common attire on Vietnam's roadways but not inside Buddhist temples. Coordinated by whistle-blowing leaders, the crowds dragged the abbot out of his room, shouting insults, and demanding that he expel the Bat Nha Buddhists. Video footage captured by some of the monastics show the attackers shoving aside monks and nuns trying to protect the abbot, and assaulting others trying to take photographs.

The crowds, which swelled to 200 people at times over the course of the three days, included people brought in from as far away as Nam Dinh province - 1500 km north of Lam Dong - who told observers they had been mobilized by government officials for three days' work, at 200,000 dong (US $11) a day.

Police cordoned off the streets around the pagoda, with officers posted at the homes of townspeople who had been providing food to the monks and nuns, to prevent them from leaving their homes. The police did nothing to stop the mobs - some armed with hammers and sticks - from attempting to break down the door to the abbot's room, overrunning the pagoda, and terrorizing the monks and nuns. When nuns sat down to pray and chant civilians loomed over them, pulling at their ears and shouting so close to their faces that the nuns had to wipe away the spit.

Leaders of the mob, who included local cadre from party-controlled mass organizations, used megaphones to blast the sounds of police sirens and intensely loud electronic dance music into the pagoda compound. In desperation, the monks began ringing the temple bell constantly to sound an alarm. An ambulance was parked in front of the pagoda.

The provincial head of a special police unit within the Ministry of Public Security called A41 was present during the three days of mob activity. Often called the "religious police," A41 monitors groups the government considers to be religious "extremists" throughout Vietnam.

"What's disturbing about this mob attack is that the Vietnamese government not only failed to protect its own citizens, but that the authorities actively participated in the abuses," said Pearson.

More than half of the Bat Nha monastics remaining at Phuoc Hue are young Vietnamese women recently ordained as nuns. "The nuns don't know where to go - they feel trapped now," one observer told Human Rights Watch. "The whole experience was very traumatic - some were pushed, shoved, spit upon, and even assaulted. Their community has been spiritually killed. They are afraid to be split up and sent back to their home provinces - they want to stay together, in a safe place."

The December 31 eviction deadline for the young monks and nuns at Phuoc Hue coincides with an International Conference on Buddhist women hosted by the Vietnamese government in Ho Chi Minh City. "It's ironic that as young nuns and monks face the possibility of another violent eviction on December 31, participants at a government-hosted international Buddhist conference in Vietnam will be discussing the role of female Buddhists in preventing conflicts and violence," said Pearson.

Orchestrated mob action is not a new phenomenon in Vietnam, particularly in remote "hot spots," where authorities want to prevent any interaction between local communities and international visitors such as diplomats and journalists.

"What was different in Lam Dong is that diplomats saw with their own eyes government-orchestrated suppression of religious freedom and basic rights," Pearson said. "As such, the EU is uniquely placed to convey its strong concerns to the Vietnamese government about what happened."

Human Rights Watch has obtained copies of a series of directives from the government, ruling Communist Party, and government-appointed Buddhist officials that appear to order the assault on the pagoda.

A November 26 directive from the government's Religious Affairs Committee instructed local Buddhist officials and the Communist People's Committee to "mobilize" the Bat Nha Buddhists to return to their "proper residences" in their home provinces. Similar directives were issued by the official Vietnam Buddhist Church - a government-appointed body - on November 30, and by the local People's Committee on December 7.

"The EU and other donors should make it clear that they hold the Vietnamese government responsible for last week's events in Lam Dong," Pearson said. "Vietnam's donors need to voice their strong concerns, monitor the situation very closely, and do their best to be physically present at Phuoc Hue pagoda on the December 31 eviction deadline."

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U.N. urged to cease aid to Congo regime accused of horrific acts

Image by Julien Harneis via Flickr

Human Rights Watch cites surge in brutal killings and gang rapes

By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 15, 2009

NAIROBI -- The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo is collaborating with known human rights abusers as it backs a brutal Congolese military operation that has led to the deliberate killing of at least 1,400 civilians and a massive surge in rapes, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.

The 183-page report, the fullest accounting so far of the operation, is a chronicle of horrors. It describes gang rapes, massacres, village burnings and civilians being tied together before their throats are slit -- many incidents carried out by a Congolese army being fed, transported and otherwise supported by the United Nations.

The report calls for the U.N. peacekeeping mission to "immediately cease all support" to the Congolese army until the army removes commanders with known records of human rights abuses and otherwise ensures the operation complies with international humanitarian laws.

"Continued killing and rape by all sides in eastern Congo shows that the U.N. Security Council needs a new approach to protect civilians," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch.

The Security Council is scheduled to meet this week to discuss the Congolese peacekeeping mission's mandate, which is the United Nations' largest and most expensive. A mission spokesman said officials are studying the report and declined to comment. The United States also has a small military team in Congo assisting the Congolese army.

The Congolese military operations, which began in January, were intended to root out abusive Rwandan rebels who have lived mostly by force among eastern Congolese villagers for years, fueling a long-running conflict that has become the deadliest since World War II.

The rebels -- known as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR -- include some leaders accused of participating in the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda. The initial phase of the military operations were backed by Rwandan troops.

But as the Rwandans departed in February, U.N. peacekeepers stepped in, supplying attack helicopters, trucks, food and other logistical support to a Congolese army known as one of the most abusive militaries in the world. At the time, the head of the U.N. mission, Alan Doss, said that the operations were necessary and that some civilian casualties were inevitable.

But the Human Rights Watch report does not document the story of civilians accidentally caught in the crossfire. Instead, it details a chilling pattern of deliberate civilian killings by Congolese and Rwandan soldiers and the rebels they are fighting. Both sides, the report says, have carried out a strategy of "punishing" villagers they accuse of supporting the wrong side.

To that end, the report says, Congolese soldiers and their Rwandan allies did not simply shoot their victims but beat them to death with clubs, stabbed them to death with bayonets or chopped them into pieces with machetes, making a pile of body parts for other villagers to see.

In one village, the soldiers called women and children to a school for a meeting and then systematically began killing them, the report says. In another case, a woman said she watched as soldiers beat six members of her family to death with wooden clubs. Four soldiers then accused her of being a rebel wife and gang-raped her. In general, the report found, rape cases skyrocketed in areas where Congolese soldiers were deployed.

The report documents a similarly ruthless pattern of retaliation by the FDLR, which killed with machetes and hoes, accusing villagers of betraying them. The rebels often targeted village chiefs or other influential people to frighten the wider population, the report says. They gang-raped women, frequently telling their victims they were being punished for welcoming the Congolese army.

In all, the report's authors documented more than 1,400 killings, roughly half by the Congolese army and their Rwandan allies and half by rebels. It said more than 900,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since January, the sort of massive displacement that has led to an estimated 5 million deaths from hunger and disease since eastern Congo's conflict began about 15 years ago.

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BBC - Africa backs Darfur crimes court

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African leaders have agreed to establish a new court to bring justice to the Sudanese region of Darfur.

The hybrid court would consist of Sudanese and foreign judges appointed by the African Union in consultation with the Khartoum government.

US-based Human Rights Watch told the BBC the new court should not replace the International Criminal Court.

The ICC is seeking to prosecute Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for committing war crimes in Darfur, which he denies.

A rebel leader is currently on trial in The Hague and the court has also issued arrest warrants for a Sudanese minister and pro-government militia leader.

DARFUR CONFLICT

300,000 died, 2.7 million homeless

Black African rebels say they face discrimination

Government denies mobilising Arab militias

Violence flared in Darfur in 2003 when black African rebel groups took up arms against the government in Khartoum, complaining of discrimination and neglect.

Pro-government Arab militias then started a campaign of violence, targeting the black African population.

The UN says some 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur's six-year conflict. Khartoum says about 10,000 died.

Speed

The African leaders, meeting in the Nigerian capital Abuja, agreed to the proposals in a report put forward by South Africa's former President Thabo Mbeki.

Thabo Mbeki himself is asked to head a new implementation panel. This will have an enormous remit, not only helping bring into force the former South African president's own proposals, but also helping Sudan's troubled north-south peace process.

Elections are planned for April next year, to be followed by a referendum on independence the year after. The timetable is tight and much needs to be done.

To strengthen Mr Mbeki's hand there are now suggestions that he will in due course take over as the joint African Union-United Nations mediator in Darfur and the north-south process. This would be an enormous task, but Mr Mbeki is a man of keen intelligence and great patience - skills he will need if he is to succeed.

Mr Bashir was invited to the meeting, but after an angry reaction from human rights groups, he stayed away.

The BBC's Africa analyst Martin Plaut says Mr Mbeki's 148-page report is written in diplomatic language, but makes clear that previous attempts to dispense justice in Darfur have made little progress.

Neither the special courts established by the Sudanese government nor the ICC warrant are considered to have contributed to peace.

Human Rights Watch's Georgette Gaignon told the BBC's Network Africa the organisation welcomed the proposal.

"It's part of the whole package of providing justice to victims in Darfur," she said.

"There are many who have suffered in Darfur and there are many alleged criminals.

"These people should be tried in a domestic system that conforms to fair trial standards, but the most serious cases are now before the International Criminal Court and those should be dealt with there."

She added that it was important that the court was set up as quickly and efficiently as possible.

But the response from the Sudanese participants in the Darfur civil war has been less than enthusiastic.

Sudan's Vice-President Ali Osman Taha, who was at the Abuja meeting, said the proposals needed closer scrutiny to see whether they were in line with the constitution.

One rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, described Mr Mbeki proposals as impractical, but did not reject them outright.

US: New Legislation on Military Commissions Doesn’t Fix Fundamental Flaws - Human Rights Watch

Proceedings to Try Detainees at Guantanamo Remain Substandard

October 8, 2009

The US Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay.

2008 Reuters

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Special feature on military commissions trials

Tinkering with the discredited military commissions system is not enough. Although the pending military commissions legislation makes important improvements on the Bush administration’s system, the commissions remain a substandard system of justice.

Joanne Mariner, Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program director

(New York) - Draft legislation on military commissions fails to remedy the system's serious flaws, Human Rights Watch said today.

The amendments to existing military commissions legislation - to be called the Military Commissions Act of 2009 - were included in the conference report on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The new rules are expected to be passed by Congress this week.

"Tinkering with the discredited military commissions system is not enough," said Joanne Mariner, Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program director at Human Rights Watch. "Although the pending military commissions legislation makes important improvements on the Bush administration's system, the commissions remain a substandard system of justice."

The Military Commissions Act of 2009 revises the procedures governing the use of military commissions to try alien "unprivileged enemy belligerents" (individuals labeled "unlawful enemy combatants" during the previous administration). The draft legislation addresses some of the worst due-process failings of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Notably, the bill limits the admission of coerced and hearsay evidence and grants greater resources to defense counsel. The revised system would still, however, depart in fundamental ways from the trial procedures that apply in the US federal courts and courts-martial. Nor does it satisfy the constitutional and policy concerns set forth by the Obama administration in recent months. It does not, for example, include a sunset clause to set a time limit on military commission trials, a provision the administration had specifically requested.

Human Rights Watch warned that as the latest version of the military commissions created by the Bush administration, the revised tribunals would be viewed globally as unfair, harming international cooperation on counterterrorism. It noted that trying only non-US citizens before the commissions would raise further concerns about fairness and discrimination. And it pointed out that by allowing child suspects to be prosecuted in military proceedings, the US was bucking a global trend to end this practice.

The very purpose of the military commissions is to permit trials that lack the full due-process protections available to defendants in federal courts, Human Rights Watch said. Tinkering with the procedures of tribunals created from scratch forfeits the benefits of using long-established civilian criminal courts whose procedures and protections have been tried and tested via years of litigation.

The federal courts have shown themselves to be fully capable of trying terrorism cases while protecting intelligence sources and the due-process rights of the accused. In the more than seven years since the military commissions were announced, only three suspects have been prosecuted, while the federal courts have tried more than 145 terrorism cases during the same period.

Unlike the federal courts, which enjoy constitutional protection against executive pressure, the commissions lack independence. Indeed, the previous commissions were highly susceptible to improper political influence, leading several military prosecutors to resign in protest.

Human Rights Watch also raised concerns about the overbroad scope of the commissions' jurisdiction, emphasizing that civilians should not be prosecuted before military tribunals. The administration has continued to deem terrorism suspects unconnected to armed conflict to be law-of-war detainees, and the new legislation even allows alleged supporters of terrorism to be tried in military proceedings.

In light of President Barack Obama's promise that the federal courts would be the first option for trying detainees, Human Rights Watch called on the Obama administration to prosecute terrorism suspects currently held at Guantanamo in the federal courts.

"Anyone responsible for terrorist activity against the US should be tried in the regular courts, whose verdicts, unlike those of military commissions, are recognized both domestically and internationally as legitimate," said Mariner. "Any verdict obtained in the military commissions will be controversial and subject to reversal on appeal."

Sudan: End Rights Abuses, Repression - Human Rights Watch

Envoys, UN, AU Should Press Ruling Party for Nationwide Reforms

October 6, 2009

Ongoing violence in Darfur continues to kill, injure, and displace people. Some 200,000 Darfuris live in camps such as this one in eastern Chad, while 2.7 million Darfuris live in displaced person camps inside Darfur.

Alvaro Ybarra Zavala/ Getty Images

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Sudan is at a crossroads. It can either make good on its promises or allow the situation to deteriorate further with its repressive practices.

Georgette Gagnon, Africa director

(New York) - The Sudanese government should end attacks by its armed forces on civilians in Darfur and make the major human rights reforms envisioned in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), Human Rights Watch said in a report issued today. Special Envoys to Sudan, concerned governments, and United Nations and African Union officials meeting in Moscow today should press Sudan's government to make these legal and policy changes a matter of urgent priority, Human Rights Watch said.

The 25-page report, "The Way Forward: Ending Human Rights Abuses and Repression across Sudan" documents human rights violations and repression in Khartoum and northern states, ongoing violence in Darfur, and the fighting that threatens civilians in Southern Sudan. It is based on field research in eastern Chad and Southern Sudan in July and August.

"Sudan is at a crossroads," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "It can either make good on its promises or allow the situation to deteriorate further with its repressive practices."

Today's meeting of concerned governments and intergovernmental bodies in Moscow including the UN, AU and League of Arab States comes at a critical time in Sudan. The National Congress Party (NCP)-led Government of National Unity (GNU) is facing an interlocking mosaic of human rights and political challenges in the coming months.

Darfur peace talks, which have faltered in recent months, are set to resume this month in Doha. Under the terms of the 2005 CPA, national elections are scheduled for April 2010 and a southern referendum on independence for January 2011. Sudan's failure in any of these processes can undermine its overall progress.

"Those who care about the Sudanese people should put human rights first, through strong, comprehensive and coordinated pressure on the governing party to change its ways in the South, on Darfur and in Khartoum," said Gagnon.

The government should immediately end attacks on civilians in Darfur, charge or release people it has arrested arbitrarily, and end harassment of civil society activists, said Human Rights Watch. It should prioritize provisions of the CPA that have clear human rights and security implications, Human Rights Watch said. These include genuine reform of its national security apparatus, North-South border demarcation, and security agreements to withdraw and downsize troops and integrate former militias.

Arbitrary Arrests

Sudanese national security officials, acting under the sweeping powers of the National Security Forces Act (NSFA), have been arresting and detaining civil society activists, opposition leaders, and suspected rebels in Khartoum, Port Sudan, Kassala, Darfur and elsewhere, often for prolonged periods and without access to family or lawyers, Human Rights Watch research indicated. For example, at least seven Darfuri students who are members of the United Popular Front (UPF) have been in detention since April 2009. Their group held events at several Sudanese universities supporting the International Criminal Court (ICC), which on March 4 issued an indictment against Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir.

On October 1, security officers arrested two more members of the student group in Gazeera state following a university debate on Darfur. Government security forces have also harassed and arrested activists from Kassala in eastern Sudan and political opposition party members in Khartoum and Southern Kordofan.

On August 28, security officers arrested another Darfuri activist, Abdelmajeed Saleh Abaker Haroun, in downtown Khartoum and they continue to detain him without charge.

"The Sudanese government should end its practice of arbitrary arrests, release or charge people it has detained without legal basis, and it should genuinely reform national security laws," said Gagnon.

Harassment of Civil Society and Suppression of Information

The full extent of human rights violations in the northern states and in Darfur is unknown because of government censorship of the media. Its closure of three Sudanese human rights organizations following the ICC indictment further restricted the flow of information about human rights across Sudan. The expulsion of 13 international humanitarian organizations from Darfur around the same time has also restricted the flow of information about humanitarian needs.

The policy of pre-print censorship, which Human Rights Watch has documented, continued with security officers operating under the Security Forces Act censoring and suspending newspapers and blocking civil society activities, particularly on elections, while preparations are beginning for the April 2010 elections.

Human Rights Watch has found that on at least six occasions in the last four months, security and humanitarian authorities interrupted or prevented civil society groups and political parties from holding talks about elections in Khartoum, Port Sudan, Medani and elsewhere in northern states and Darfur. In one case, security officials detained and questioned members of the Communist party for distributing leaflets in Khartoum.

"By repressing civil society groups and political parties, the Sudanese government is restricting fundamental political freedoms at the time they are most important," Gagnon said.

Between January and June, security officials prevented publication of newspapers on at least 10 occasions through heavy censorship, harassed or arrested journalists and the author of a book on Darfur, and shut down an organization that was training and supporting journalists. In September, government censorship caused suspension of at least two major papers.

President Bashir announced on September 29 that his government would stop pre-print censorship, but also warned journalists not to exceed established "red lines." It remains to be seen whether this statement will translate into greater freedom of expression on critical matters of public interest.

Ongoing Clashes in Darfur

In Darfur, recent clashes between the governing party-led Sudan Armed Forces and rebels in September and the use of indiscriminate bombings demonstrate that the war is not over. Government air and ground attacks on villages around Korma North Darfur on September 17 and 18 reportedly killed 16 civilians, including women, and burned several villages.

Witnesses from the North Darfur town of Um Baru told Human Rights Watch that government bombing in May hit water pumps and killed and injured scores of civilians.

"They were dropping 12 bombs a day," one witness told Human Rights Watch. "They dropped in all the areas around the town."

Clashes between government and JEM rebels at Muhajariya, South Darfur, in February included an intensive government bombing campaign that killed scores of civilians and displaced 40,000. An estimated 2.7 million people in displaced persons camps in Darfur and 200,000 in Chad are unable to return to their villages for fear of the attacks and violence, including sexual violence, by government soldiers and government-allied militia.

Insecurity in Southern Sudan

In Abyei and other flashpoints along the North-South border, the GNU's failure to implement the peace agreement provisions on border demarcation and troop withdrawal and downsizing threatens to expose civilians to further abuse and danger. Both armies have failed to downsize and to integrate former militias fully, as required by the security arrangements in the peace agreement.

During the February clashes in Malakal between the northern government forces and the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army soldiers, former militias whom the armed forces failed to integrate instigated violence and human rights violations. The presidency has still not taken sufficient action to remove NCP-backed former militias from the area and reduce the threat of further violence.

Elsewhere in Southern Sudan, intense inter-ethnic fighting killed at least 1,200 civilians in the first half of 2009. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-led Government of Southern Sudan has so far been unable to protect civilians from the civilian-on-civilian fighting, or from a steady stream of attacks by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army operating in Central and Western Equatoria since September 2008.

"The people of Southern Sudan have borne the brunt of the intense inter-ethnic fighting, rebel attacks and clashes between the northern and southern armies," Gagnon said.

Both the southern government and the national government need to do more to prevent the violence and protect civilians, Human Rights Watch said. The United Nations Mission in Sudan peacekeeping mission should also increase efforts to prevent violence and protect civilians, Human Rights Watch said.