http://www.irinnews.org/irin-fp.aspxUpdated everydayen-gbFri, 20 Nov 2009 13:34:04 GMTNAIROBI Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Residents of a coastal town in Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland saved the crew of a fishing boat when they foiled an attempt by pirates, who had captured the boat, to sail away.NAIROBI Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - Residents of a coastal town in Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland saved the crew of a fishing boat when they foiled an attempt by pirates, who had captured the boat, to sail away.

The pirates had commandeered the boat off the Somali coast on 1 November and sailed it to the town of Eil in Puntland, northeastern Somalia. However, the boat, manned by nine Indians and Bangladeshis, hit a sandbank and ran aground in Eil, prompting the inhabitants to demand the mariners’ release.

“I think when they realized they where all Bengalis and Indians they decided to use the boat to hunt other ships and use the crew to run it," Abdirahman Hassan Koronto, a businessman in Eil, said.

He said the pirates tried to get the boat back in the high seas but residents stopped them. The pirates resisted for about five days but finally surrendered the crew, Koronto added.

"This is one case were their plan did not work out the way they wanted," said Koronto.

“If they went back to sea they were going to use them [the crew] so we decided that we would not let them harm these poor people," said Asha Abdikarim, a resident.

The residents asked the Puntland authorities to send forces to help them keep the boat, she told IRIN.

“I think when they saw the whole town - women, men and children - were out and confronting them, they thought better of it and released the crew to us," said Abdikarim. "For once we showed them that they cannot do their ugly deeds in our town."

She said residents of coastal towns were fed up with pirates. "No one wants them here," she said.

Elders took the nine crewmen to a hotel in town where they stayed until Puntland forces arrived.

Abdimahdi Abshir, the director of administration of the Puntland presidency, told IRIN the boat and crew were now in the hands of the authorities.

"The boat is being repaired and will be brought to Bosasso," he said, adding that the crew had been taken to Garowe, the Puntland capital, where they were under the care of the administration.

"They are doing well and we are trying to arrange for them to be sent home,” he said.

Abshir said the authorities had asked humanitarian agencies to help repatriate the seamen.

Phuban Das, a member of the boat's crew, told IRIN they were in Garowe and safe.

"We are free and here," he said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87113MONROVIA Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - In Liberia rape survivors are increasingly speaking up and seeking help as awareness of rights increases, but social taboos persist and seeking justice does not always mean that justice is served.MONROVIA Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - In Liberia rape survivors are increasingly speaking up and seeking help as awareness of rights increases, but social taboos persist and seeking justice does not always mean that justice is served.

Sexual violence consistently comes first or second (after armed robbery) in monthly police crime listings in the capital Monrovia. The majority of rape victims are children, according to treatment centre statistics. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Monrovia reports their youngest survivor at 21 months old.

“The civil war is over,” said Monrovia resident Tupee Kiadi. “But the new war is rape, especially targeting teenagers and babies. During the war we had peacekeepers to prevent further violence…but women do not have peacekeepers to stop rape.”

During the war women and girls were subjected to rape (commonly gang rape) and sexual slavery, many becoming pregnant from rape. Since peace was sealed in 2003, sex crimes – and impunity – have persisted throughout the country.

Awareness up

MSF launched a campaign on 26 October with the message “Rape is a hospital and clinical business”, to bring rape out into the open and to educate Liberians about the free MSF-run medical and psychological services at Island Hospital in Tweh Farm, western Monrovia.

Clinic visits are up over recent years, said MSF psychologist Elias Abi-aad, who hopes further awareness has been raised by the campaign.

Elizabeth Zro, a social worker and counsellor at the clinic, told IRIN, “Rape is a huge problem here, but people are more open about it now than they used to be a few years ago.”

The MSF clinic takes in on average 70 patients per month, 80 percent of whom are girls under 18; just under half of those aged 12 and under.

In addition to a medical examination, survivors are given protection from sexually transmitted infection, means to block HIV infection and pregnancy if it is within 72 hours of the crime, a medical certificate that can be used in court and several rounds of counselling.

Deweh Gray, president of the Association of Female Lawyers in Liberia (AFELL), told IRIN: “The changing attitude we see is the increased reporting of these cases by people who want to access the system.”

Taboo persists

While awareness has improved, rape is still taboo in many families, said counselor Zro. “Lots of communities question it – ‘Did he really rape you?’ they ask.”

The silence extends to any subjects surrounding sex, family planning or reproductive health, she added.

Some NGOs, including Catholic Relief Services, are trying to encourage families to openly discuss sexual violence and sexual health, and to educate children about “good” and “bad” touching.

Only by facilitating discussion can the stigma be broken down, CRS health and nutrition officer Suena Sambola told IRIN.

Seeking justice

AFELL, along with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and other institutions helped the Liberian government set up a special court on rape and sexual violence in September 2008 and is now trying to encourage more survivors to bring cases forward.

So far the court has processed just four cases. There is still a big discrepancy between the number of medical cases reported and the number of police reports filed county by county, according to Sadiq Syed, Gender Based Violence (GBV) adviser at UNFPA.

This is partly because it still takes so long for national courts to pass cases onto the special court, he added.

But he said the system should speed up now that public defenders are in place, and the ministries of gender, social welfare and justice are starting to work more closely on sexual violence issues.

“We realize everyone is anxious to see cases being tried but…the dynamics of a rape trial are not easy,” AFELL’s Gray told IRIN. Delays in cases mean witnesses may disappear or evidence is destroyed, which means some cases are dropped.

UNFPA supports the government on SGBV issues, and has trained half of Liberia’s 400 magistrates in witness protection, confidentiality and other areas vital to making a rape trial work.

Just 5 percent of Liberia’s magistrates went to law school said Syed.

Felecia Coleman, chief prosecutor at the sexual violence court, told IRIN over 140 people in Montserrado County are awaiting trial on rape charges. “The fact that people are in prison and trials are going on for rape is a good signal in the fight,” she said.

But more training is needed for staff of the police’s women and child protection section, aid workers say. And more social workers are needed to counsel victims said Abi-aad.

“The government is taking rape seriously but more social workers are needed…rape is mainly a psychological issue,” he told IRIN.

UNFPA is working with the Ministry of Social Welfare to try to train more social workers to support survivors, said Syed.

Women continue to live in fear, Monrovia inhabitant Macdell Smallwood, aged 13, told IRIN. “Because of rape cases in Monrovia I am afraid to even move around with my friends…We cannot go out or play freely, as we used to when we were younger.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87122JAKARTA Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (IRIN) - Indonesia has become a key transit point for illegal migrants in the region, but efforts to curb people-smuggling are being hampered by a dearth of stringent laws to punish offenders, officials say.JAKARTA Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (IRIN) - Indonesia has become a key transit point for illegal migrants in the region, but efforts to curb people-smuggling are being hampered by a dearth of stringent laws to punish offenders, officials say.

Eko Daniyanto, head of the people-smuggling unit for the Indonesian national police, said international people-smuggling syndicates had operated in Indonesia since 2005.

But the absence of laws criminalising people-smuggling meant suspects could only be charged under a 1992 immigration law, and those found guilty faced a maximum sentence of four years, he said.

A number of alleged people-smugglers have been arrested since last year, including Iraqis, Afghans and Indonesians, Daniyanto said. He did not give figures.

Tracking the journeys

Every year, hundreds of migrants from conflict-ridden countries such as Afghanistan and Sri Lanka enter Indonesia illegally, capitalizing on its poorly patrolled and porous borders, said the spokesman for Indonesia's Directorate-General of Immigration, Maroloan Barimbing.

Many illegal migrants travel to Indonesia through Malaysia by boat, said Anggaria Lopis, spokesman for the police in Indonesia's Riau Islands province, which has become a key entry point.

"People-smugglers arrange asylum-seekers' accommodation in Malaysia and travel to Indonesia. They are paid as much as US$3,000 to take the migrants by boat," he said. From Indonesia, they set out for Australia [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87080], often in unseaworthy boats.

Despite cooperation between Indonesian and Malaysian police, people-smuggling rings were hard to break, he said.

Damien Kingsbury, associate professor with the School of International and Political Studies at Australia’s Deakin University, said: "Indonesia has done little to stop people-smuggling, but it is not a major issue for Indonesia - few people want to end up there."

Even so, about 1,600 asylum-seekers have arrived in Indonesia this year and applied for refugee status with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Barimbing said.

The deteriorating humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka and good weather, which is conducive to small boats crossing the oceans, are partly behind this year's influx of asylum-seekers, Kingsbury said.

Political tensions

In recent weeks, tensions have arisen between Australia and Indonesia over how to tackle the flow of migrants and asylum-seekers.

In the latest incident, 78 Sri Lankans refused to disembark from an Australian customs vessel docked off Indonesia’s Bintan Island, and demanded they be taken to Australia.

Australia wanted the refugee claims of the Sri Lankans, who were rescued in international waters on 18 October, to be processed in an Australian-funded immigration detention centre on Bintan Island.

Indonesia agreed to take them for processing on humanitarian grounds - but ruled out a similar move in the future.

Australia promised all the migrants that genuine refugees among them would be speedily resettled abroad.

Legal solution

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd met Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta on 20 October, with technical cooperation to fight people-smuggling on the agenda.

Australia has in the past jailed several Indonesians for people-smuggling, and Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Teuku Faizasyah, acknowledged there was a need for similar laws in Indonesia to make people-smuggling a criminal offence.

"We need laws that mete out the heaviest punishment possible to people-smugglers. The existing law doesn't provide for tough sanctions," Faizasyah told IRIN.

But Faizasyah said some of those jailed were poor fishermen who were enticed by the prospect of making more money by allowing their boats to be used to carry asylum-seekers. "Having said that, as willing partners they deserve to be punished," he said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87096JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (IRIN) - The number of Zimbabweans displaced after some of their shacks in an informal settlement outside De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, were attacked and demolished by local South African residents, has risen to about 3,000, said the South African Red Cross Society. JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (IRIN) - The number of Zimbabweans displaced after some of their shacks in an informal settlement outside De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, were attacked and demolished by local South African residents, has risen to about 3,000, said the South African Red Cross Society.

The Red Cross has appealed for R2 million (about US$270,880) to help provide urgently needed blankets, water, food, first-aid kits, toiletries, clothing, fuel for transport, and logistical support for the displaced.

Red Cross spokesman Kelvin Glen told IRIN that the aid agency had responded to a call for help by local authorities on 15 November to provide meals and blankets for about 80 people, "but the numbers have risen since". Most of the displaced are being sheltered in a marquee tent pitched on the local sports ground.

More Zimbabweans fled following attacks by local residents early in the morning of 17 November. The South Africans were unhappy that local farm owners were employing Zimbabweans, according to police at De Doorns. The situation was stable at the moment, said the police.

jk/he http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87107JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (IRIN) - Fearing a resurgence of xenophobic attacks, around 2,500 Zimbabwean migrants have taken refuge in government buildings in De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, after some of their shacks in an informal settlement were attacked and demolished, said a police official. JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (IRIN) - Fearing a resurgence of xenophobic attacks, around 2,500 Zimbabwean migrants have taken refuge in government buildings in De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, after some of their shacks in an informal settlement were attacked and demolished, said a police official.

The attacks took place early in the morning of 17 November in Stofland, meaning dustland in Afrikaans, the largest squatter camp in De Doorns. All the displaced Zimbabweans are documented.

The local police station commander, Superintendent Desmond van der Westhuizen, told IRIN the local residents were unhappy that farm owners had been employing Zimbabweans for "less money", and had complained that farmers were "excluding the local community".

The global economic recession has hit South Africa hard; the government's latest labour force survey said 484,000 jobs had been lost in the last six months, and unemployment stood at 24.5 percent for the period July to September 2009, up from 23.2 percent during the same period in 2008.

Van der Westhuizen told IRIN that the situation had been tense since 13 November, when Zimbabweans had been involved in a violent spat in an informal tavern. "Following that incident, some 68 Zimbabweans" had fled the area, fearing a resurgence of xenophobic violence.

In May 2008 a tide of xenophobic violence erupted in Johannesburg and quickly spread through most parts of the country, killing more than 60 people and displacing about 100,000 others.

"The same area was affected in 2008," van der Westhuizen said. The 68 Zimbabweans took refuge in government buildings in De Doorns during Saturday and Sunday.

The police, accompanied by local government and disaster management officials, held a meeting with the informal settlement residents on the evening of 16 November to calm the situation. "But the residents threatened to prevent the Zimbabweans from going to work on 17 November [Monday morning]," van der Westhuizen told IRIN.

Police had to fire rubber bullets to disperse the residents, who attacked some more shacks in Stofland, forcing the Zimbabweans to flee. "Fortunately, none of the Zimbabweans were harmed and they all moved out with their personal belongings voluntarily," the police superintendent said.

The local authorities are trying to erect a tent shelter and provide portable toilets for the displaced people on the town's sports ground. Van der Westhuizen told IRIN: "We are making interim arrangements to keep them here for a week until we try and mediate with the local residents to get the Zimbabweans integrated back into the community."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87090CONAKRY Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The Diallo family in the Guinean capital, Conakry, has found no trace of Thierno Abdoulaye Diallo, 20, a student, since he set off on 28 September for a football stadium in the city.CONAKRY Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The Diallo family in the Guinean capital, Conakry, has found no trace of Thierno Abdoulaye Diallo, 20, a student, since he set off on 28 September for a football stadium in the city.

Civil society representatives, political leaders and citizens were gathered at the stadium, waving the national flag, praying on the pitch and chanting, calling on military junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara not to run for the presidency, when soldiers gunned down and raped demonstrators.

Diallo's father and other relatives have come from their village in Dalaba, about 360km from Conakry, to search for him. They have been to military camps, hospitals and morgues in the city, but have found no record or other sign of him.

The Red Cross continues to receive calls from families seeking relatives missing since 28 September, according to the UN in Guinea.

Children in the Diallo household wonder where their big brother is. An aunt showed IRIN the closed door of the young man's now-unused room in the extended family home in Conakry and kept referring to him in past tense.

"He was a gentle, respectful young man and he was always kind with the children – the children in the house ask where he is.

"All we know is that he was with a friend at the stadium that day – not a trace since then.

"On 1 October, the day before the authorities were going to bring bodies out of the morgue for identification, his older brother had to call their mother, who is still in the village. He told her Abdoulaye was at the stadium and we have not heard from him since.

"We are in despair but we continue to search. We have a bit of hope, since we do not have proof that he is dead.

"The situation in Guinea is extremely difficult today – there is no security.

"We go through our days in the household living in worry. I really don't have the words to express what we're going through."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87059HANOI Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The birth rate in rapidly developing Vietnam has dropped in recent years while maternal health and antenatal standards have risen – albeit only for the dominant ethnic groups. Ethnic minorities mostly still give birth at home, without a healthcare worker or midwife, specialists say.HANOI Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - The birth rate in rapidly developing Vietnam has dropped in recent years while maternal health and antenatal standards have risen – albeit only for the dominant ethnic groups. Ethnic minorities mostly still give birth at home, without a healthcare worker or midwife, specialists say.

Vietnam has 54 ethnic groups, with the Kinh comprising more than 80 percent of the population of 85.8 million, according to government figures. They are the dominant ethnic group. A few others, such as the Tay and Hoa (ethnic Chinese), have similar standards of living and education.

But most other ethnic minorities - more than eight million people - live mostly in the mountainous and remote areas, and are economically disadvantaged. The poverty rate is 69.3 percent, compared with 23.11 percent for the majority Kinh and Chinese ethnic groups, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). [http://www.unicef.org/vietnam/overview.html]

Maternal mortality rates vary widely across the country. In Cao Bang province, with a 98 percent ethnic minority population, there are 411 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births, according to UNICEF. In Binh Duong province, near Ho Chi Minh City, the rate is less than one-tenth of that.

H’Mong struggles

Minorities such as the H’Mong mostly still give birth at home, and are far less likely to access healthcare, especially antenatal care, health specialists say.

The H’Mong, who make up less than 1 percent of the population, have much lower standards of living, and are often confined to remote areas, in the mountains.

Women “don’t know how to recognize problems and this may lead to obstetric emergencies”, said Nguyen Van Hai, manager of the Save Newborn Lives project at Save the Children.

Barriers to care cited by experts include a lack of confidence when it comes to accessing and dealing with the healthcare system and health workers, and poor fluency in Vietnamese.

In addition, H’Mong women traditionally give birth at home with their husbands or with traditional birth assistants (TBAs), who lack formal training.

The cost of healthcare is also prohibitive, including the US$10 to give birth at a health centre. “For ethnic minority groups, it's too much,” said Hai.

Hoa Binh leads the way

Since 2001, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has been working with local government in Hoa Binh province, 80km south of Hanoi, to improve the use of antenatal services among H’Mong communities.

UNFPA officials say visits by H’Mong women to two commune-level health centres have increased since 2001, and there has not been a maternal death since 2003.

Tran Thi Tuyet Minh, a government doctor who works with UNFPA, said 65 percent of her patients now are H’Mong or another minority, against 8-10 percent in 2001.

“Hoa Binh province achieved some results. However, we must try more,” she told IRIN.

The rise in attendance of H’Mong women at one commune-level health centre is partly thanks to one of the midwives being ethnic H’Mong. Patients are more apt to trust her as they share a culture and, more importantly, language. Many H’Mong girls do not complete middle school, or even attend primary school for more than a year or two. Poor education and lack of fluency in Vietnamese keep them confined to the house and fields.

“If it [the commune-level health centre] is run in a city way, rural people won’t go,” said Duong Van Dat, national programme officer with UNFPA’s reproductive health unit in Hanoi. “It must be culturally adapted to needs.”

The Hoa Binh programme is still something of a pilot project, but Dat said there were hopes the lessons learned could be replicated and applied to other areas, even though it is near the capital and far northern mountainous areas, such as Ha Giang and Cao Bang province, might provide different challenges.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87061GARISSA Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Armed with a university certificate, Hubbie Hussein Al-Haji returned to her pastoralist community in Garissa, northeastern Kenya, expecting to serve as a veterinary health assistant. But she was refused the job.GARISSA Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Armed with a university certificate, Hubbie Hussein Al-Haji returned to her pastoralist community in Garissa, northeastern Kenya, expecting to serve as a veterinary health assistant.

But she was refused the job. "When I came back to Garissa [Northeastern Province capital], I was told you [a woman] cannot treat our animals because you menstruate - it will make our cows perish," she told IRIN.

Al-Haji and a colleague then started a local NGO, WOMANKIND Kenya (WOKIKE) to provide leadership training to women. They also set up a sanctuary for girls at risk of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).

"Girls are often seen as an object for the pleasure of men," Al-Haji said. In her community, FGM is a highly valued ritual, marking the transition from childhood to womanhood.

At present, the centre is supporting 120 girls aged around six years old because they are at risk of FGM/C from age eight. The girls, most of whom have escaped FGM/C, are enrolled on the recommendation of the government children's department and the community.

"When we started the campaign against FGM, the community turned against us; it was a taboo subject," Al-Haji explained. "The most difficult men to work with were the educated ones who see you [an educated woman] as a challenge."

With time, WOKIKE received the support of local religious leaders, most of whom are Muslim. "[Now] the religious leaders are telling the community that FGM is not a religious obligation," she said.

One success story has strengthened Al-Haji’s resolve to support disadvantaged women in northeastern Kenya. Hafsa, who has been supported by the centre for 14 years, is about to join the University of Nairobi to study pharmacy.

"I was rescued from traditional practices like FGM and early marriage," Hafsa told IRIN, adding that she came to the centre from Ijara [a district south of Garissa] at four.

"You are discriminated against either way by the community if you have not been circumcised and by friends in schools outside northeastern if you have been circumcised," Hafsa, who went to a high school in eastern Kenya, said.

At least 32 percent of Kenyan women have undergone FGM/C, according to a report by the Population Council. Among communities such as the Somali, Abagusii, Kuria, Maasai and Samburu, more than 90 percent of women undergo it.

Women’s work

The situation of girls and women in neighbouring Wajir is no better, said Haretha Bulle, a programme manager with the Wajir South Development Association (WASDA).

"In a typical Somali household, the woman's labour is needed for cooking, taking care of small babies, and it is for this [reason] that girls are often pulled out of school," Bulle told IRIN.

A lack of awareness of the value of education and no boarding-school facilities for girls has had adverse effects.

"There is no man who will trust his daughter to go to school [alone] in town without her mother," she noted. "Yet for you to go to high school you have to go to primary [school]."

Many of the girls suffer FGM/C and cannot report the practitioners. "In April, a girl who underwent FGM bled to death. The circumciser was arrested, and then released," she said.

"They are often very old women who sometimes cannot even see," Bulle added. "FGM/C cannot go away overnight. You cannot tell the Somali not to circumcise - though they don't like the Pharaonic type."

The Pharaonic form of FGM, also known as infibulation, involves the total removal of all external sex organs before the vagina is sewn up, leaving a small opening for the passing of menstrual blood.

At home, the girls too are exposed to gender-based violence, but the communities do not see it as a problem, Bulle added.

"If you try to intervene, you end up being accused by the woman herself of interfering," she explained. "[However], I cannot say that the [reported] cases of rape here are alarming."

The bigger problem was lack of support systems. "Care services for abused women in this part of the country are almost non-existent," she said. For instance, if a woman has been raped, "PEP [post-exposure prophylaxis] ... [is] only in the books in this part of the world". PEP services within 72 hours of HIV exposure help to prevent infection.

High divorce rates

In the town of Moyale, along the border with Ethiopia, women and girls were seen as "inferior" to men, assistant chief for Odda location, Rashid Osman, said.

"A woman can get married but at the end when there is a divorce, she does not get her rights," he said. "Here, people seem to marry and divorce anyhow. Consequently, there are many divorcees and neglected children."

Despite awareness-raising, traditional perceptions are hard to change. "You hear men saying that by the end of the next rains, I must marry a fourth wife then I will go for Hajj. You would expect Hajj to be more of a priority," he said.

"Sometimes people marry for very strange reasons... like to take care of the cows since the town is growing and herders have to go further out to the fields."

Across northeastern Kenya, said Rashid Karayu, chairman of the Global Integrated Development Programme, a local NGO, women were more disempowered than in other areas.

"The perception from the people and even the women themselves is that they are inferior," he told IRIN. "Even in school committees, women who are best placed to speak for their children often shy away."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87063BAGHDAD Sunday, November 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Iraq’s minority communities in the northern province of Nineveh have appealed to local and national authorities for protection amid warnings of an increase in attacks against them in the run-up to January’s national elections.BAGHDAD Sunday, November 15, 2009 (IRIN) - Iraq’s minority communities in the northern province of Nineveh have appealed to local and national authorities for protection amid warnings of an increase in attacks against them in the run-up to January’s national elections.

“As Christians we have been feeling insecure since the 2003 [US-led] invasion as we are subjected to killings, kidnappings, extortion and displacement by different parties due to either political agendas or extremist ideologies,” said Ihsan Matti, a 33-year-old taxi driver in Mosul, provincial capital of Nineveh.

Matti said Iraq’s security forces were slow to respond to any anti-Christian attacks and left their communities vulnerable to more violence. “The government still doesn’t deal with the threats we face seriously. We are still facing the same threats without any sustainable measures [to counter them].”

Since 2003, minority communities have been repeatedly attacked by militants, the majority of whom were affiliated to al-Qaida in Iraq, by their own admission. The militants accuse minorities of being crusaders, devil-worshipers, infidels or traitors for co-operating with US forces.

The main groups of minorities targeted in Nineveh Province are the Shabaks, whose numbers are estimated at 300,000-400,000 and have a religion containing elements of Islam, Christianity and other religions; the Yazidi community, which worships Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel; and Christians, which are made up of Chaldeans, Orthodox, Catholics, Assyrians, Anglicans and Armenians.

The deadliest attack on a minority group was in August 2007 when four truck bombs detonated simultaneously in the small village of Qahataniya, killing more than 300 Yazidis. Some five months before that, truck bombs hit markets in the northwestern city of Tal Afar, killing at least 152 Turkomen people.

In October 2008, a new wave of anti-Christian violence erupted in Mosul when gunmen started attacking Christians and threatening others, forcing them to leave the city either to displacement camps or outside the country.

Government measures

Abdul-Raheem al-Shimari, head of the provincial Security and Defence Committee, warned that such attacks were likely to increase in the province in the run-up to January’s national elections, as minority communities had a significant stake in them.

“I do believe that there will be some security disturbances not only for the minority communities but for the whole province as we approach the elections,” al-Shimari told IRIN. “All parties, especially those with influential militias, will have a role in destabilizing the security situation to embarrass the other.”

He added that plans were underway to recruit 14,000 new police officers and soldiers from the province. The new recruits are to be spread around Nineveh but with a greater concentration in the areas where minorities live.

“This will help the residents of these areas to protect their communities,” al-Shimari said, adding that 50cm-wide trenches were being dug around the Christian towns of Tilkaif and Hamdaniya to prevent car bombs getting in.

Ridha Jawad, 54, of the Shabak community complained of the government’s “lax measures”, which he said encouraged militants to increase their brazen attacks.

“If there were tough measures from the government against those who attack us, such as arrests and executions, we would never see such an increase in these attacks,” Jawad said. “We want quick and effective measures.”

“On vulnerable ground”

On 10 November, New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) shed light on another source of repression for these minority communities in Nineveh; the longstanding territorial dispute between the central government and the Kurdish regional government.

It its 51-page report titled "On vulnerable ground", HRW said minorities in the disputed northern areas are caught between the semi-autonomous regional authorities of Kurdistan and the central government in Baghdad. It said the ongoing dispute threatens to create a "human rights catastrophe" for these communities.

"The competing efforts to resolve deep disputes over the future of northern Iraq have left the minority communities who live there in a precarious position, bearing the brunt of conflict and coming under intense pressure to declare their loyalty to one side or the other, or face consequences," the report said.

"They have been victimized by Kurdish authorities' heavy handed tactics, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, and intimidation directed at anyone resistant to Kurdish expansionist plans," it added.

The rights watchdog called upon the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government to protect minorities and to create an independent inquiry body to determine those responsible for the orchestrated killings of minorities.

Yazidi community member Hamoo Khalil, 44, said that if the government did not do more to protect them from attacks they would be forced to take matters into their own hands.

“If the situation continues like this we’ll find ourselves taking up our own arms to defend our families,” said Khalil, a father of six who runs a small supermarket in Baashiqa town, about 15km north of Mosul. “I’m afraid that we’ve reached the point where we have no trust in the government’s forces.”

sm/edhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87044KATHMANDU Friday, November 13, 2009 (IRIN) - The government’s continued failure to investigate and prosecute extrajudicial killings during Nepal’s civil war (1996-2006) is ruining lives and devastating victims’ families, while creating a culture of impunity, the UN and rights activists say.KATHMANDU Friday, November 13, 2009 (IRIN) - The government’s continued failure to investigate and prosecute extrajudicial killings during Nepal’s civil war (1996-2006) is ruining lives and devastating victims’ families, while creating a culture of impunity, the UN and rights activists say.
 
Families are still struggling to find justice and see the prosecution of the alleged perpetrators of abuses and killings during the Maoist rebellion.
 
“There is so much frustration among the families of victims as the denial of justice is totally devastating their lives,” Mandira Sharma, a prominent human rights lawyer and executive director of Advocacy Forum [http://www.advocacyforum.org], told IRIN.
 
The human rights NGO has been assisting families of the victims of extrajudicial killings to lobby the government to prosecute the perpetrators.
 
“So many of them have been displaced, become impoverished and their livelihoods destroyed every day as they fight for justice,” said Sharma, outlining the toll on families in their struggle.
 
During the conflict, security forces committed hundreds of extrajudicial killings and widespread torture, while the Maoist rebels also abducted, tortured and killed civilians, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). [http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/10/15/nepal-years-terror-then-broken-promises]
 
Rights groups allege that the perpetrators remain protected by the Nepal Army and the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPNM).
 
Hardship for the families
 
On 17 February 2004, Maina Sunuwar, 15, was abducted, tortured and killed by uniformed soldiers from the Nepal Army, who falsely accused her of being a Maoist rebel.
 
Two months later, officials at army headquarters admitted to Maina’s mother, Devi, that her daughter had died while in detention.
 
Following pressure from the international community, human rights groups and the UN, the military took steps to conduct an internal inquiry into three officers allegedly involved in the killing. (See report: [http://nepal.ohchr.org/en/resources/Documents/English/reports/IR/Year2006/2006_12_01_HCR%20_Maina%20Sunuwar_E.pdf] by UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - OHCHR)
 
However, they were only charged with minor offences and were released after serving six months’ imprisonment.
 
Although it became the most high-profile case of an extrajudicial killing and has been held up as an example of a lack of accountability over conflict-related human rights abuses, Sunuwar, 40, has yet to win justice.
 
“I survive only for the sake of finding justice for my daughter,” an emotional Devi Sunuwar told IRIN. “Now I am hanging [on] to that hope.”
 
Devi and her husband fled their village in Kavre District, about 50km south of the capital, for fear of being targeted over their daughter’s case, and live in extreme poverty in Kathmandu. She suffers from serious health problems and cannot afford any medicine.
 
“So many families have been devastated, not only due to lack of justice, but watching these perpetrators walk scot-free,” said Sharma.
 
Not one prosecution
 
Advocacy Forum has listed more than 60 cases of extremely violent extrajudicial killings but the government has failed to prosecute anyone.
 
“Concrete measures have to be taken, starting with successful prosecutions so that messages are sent that there are consequences for wrongdoing,” Richard Bennett, OHCHR representative in Nepal, told IRIN.
 
“The aim is to create a culture of accountability to replace the culture of impunity,” he said.
 
Bennett said the lack of prosecutions for serious human rights violations was encouraging impunity in the country.
 
“The conflict has finished, but there have been serious politically-related crimes which have not been addressed,” he said.
 
The UN and human rights groups say they are mostly concerned about obstacles created by the military and the Maoists to prevent police investigations of extrajudicial killings.
 
The Nepal Army has denied the allegations of abuse and killings, and officials told IRIN they were committed to the rule of law and would abide by any court decisions relating to cases.
 
But activists say such rhetoric is not enough.
 
“The government could start by taking on a few emblematic cases to send a message widely across the board that it intends to move forward to end this culture of impunity,” said Sarah Levit-Shore, the country director of the international rights NGO, The Carter Center [http://www.cartercenter.org].
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87021KABUL Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Armed conflict in Afghanistan claimed the lives of over 2,000 civilians from January to October 2009, and the numbers are rising, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).KABUL Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Armed conflict in Afghanistan claimed the lives of over 2,000 civilians from January to October 2009, and the numbers are rising, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

“In the first 10 months of 2009, UNAMA recorded 2,021 civilian deaths, compared with 1,838 for the same period in 2008, and 1,275 in 2007,” Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner on human rights, said in a statement sent to the UN Security Council on 11 November by her deputy, Kyung-wha Kang.

Civilians have increasingly been caught in the cross-fire and their basic human rights such as access to health, education, food and shelter have been violated by the warring parties, the statement said.

“Civilian casualties continue to mount, with hundreds killed every year by armed anti-government elements, government forces, and international forces carrying out both air strikes and ground assaults,” it said.

More civilians have died in attacks by Taliban insurgents than by aerial strikes and military operations by pro-government Afghan and international forces: According to UNAMA, 1,397 were killed by anti-government elements, 465 by pro-government forces and 165 by other actors.

August was the deadliest month for Afghan civilians, with 294 reported deaths, UNAMA said.

However, a purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, rejected UNAMA’s findings and blamed pro-government forces for most of the civilian deaths.

Impunity

Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM), a local rights watchdog, said a culture of impunity had exacerbated human rights violations.

“Thousands of civilians have been killed by warring parties over the past few years but not a single individual has been convicted of crimes against humanity or war crimes,” Ajmal Samadi, the director of ARM, told IRIN.

Similar criticisms were voiced by Nader Nadery, a commissioner with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC): “There is a total state of impunity on the part of the Taliban who often deliberately harm civilians.”

In UN rights commissioner Pillay’s statement to the Security Council “more political will and less political exceptionalism” has been requested in order to protect civilians in situations of armed conflict.

“A higher level of political will must be mobilized to take timely and effective action to prevent atrocities, protect the vulnerable, hold perpetrators to account, and ensure redress for victims,” Pillay was quoted in a press release on 11 November as saying.

“The failure to pursue a credible transitional justice strategy including holding to account those responsible for the gravest of crimes over more than three decades of war, and the climate of impunity created thereby, is a significant factor in the challenging political context and growing insecurity that now envelope Afghanistan,” it said.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87003CAIRO Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - A new report on religious freedom in Egypt says Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the 80 million population (CIA factbook), face major rights violations and are being increasingly persecuted.CAIRO Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - A new report on religious freedom in Egypt says Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the 80 million population (CIA factbook), face major rights violations and are being increasingly persecuted.

The quarterly 36-page report (see Arabic version) by independent rights organization the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), said the government denies Copts the right to build churches or pray at home.

It said the homes of some Copts, particularly in southern Egypt, were demolished or closed because the government suspected them of being clandestine churches, and that physical attacks against Copts had continued over the past three months, with at least three losing their lives.

According to EIPR, there are an average of four attacks against Copts every month; there have been 144 attacks nationwide over the past three years.

ae/ed/cbhttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87004FREETOWN Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Some 20,000 people wounded in Sierra Leone's war are receiving micro-grants as part of efforts to rebuild lives and livelihoods in the still fragile country. FREETOWN Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Some 20,000 people wounded in Sierra Leone's war are receiving micro-grants as part of efforts to rebuild lives and livelihoods in the still fragile country.

The initial grants of 300,000 leones (US$80) each are part of a government "reparations" programme, implemented by the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA). The cash is aimed at boosting people's livelihoods, through training or a business start-up, as they await further health, education and other assistance.

NaCSA's Amadu Bangura said they planned to continue assistance in 2010 but were short of funds for the reparations programme; current funding of $3 million was made available by the UN Peacebuilding Fund. The commission is working on securing more funds and appealing to various donors.

Sierra Leone is still facing socio-economic challenges – some remnants of the war, others new. Finance Minister Samura Kamara noted falling diamond prices, decreasing remittances and imports, and drug-trafficking as new burdens. Sixty percent of youths are unemployed, according to the government.

With 300,000 leones a small-scale farmer could buy tools and rice seeds; an informal shopkeeper could purchase a start-up stock of biscuits and other goods.

Peace

Grant recipients told IRIN that nothing would erase the gang rapes endured in the war or restore amputated limbs, but they were grateful for the assistance.

"I am no longer able to do farming with the pain I experience from time to time," said Thomas Masuba, whose hand was amputated. "I will use the money to start a small-scale business, probably selling food and drink."

Madam Kailakkah was a breast-feeding mother when she was gang-raped during the war. She said the initial grant was small but she would do her best to invest in farming. "The 300,000 leones cannot appease me, but [through the country's peace and reconciliation process] I have forgiven those rapists whom I still see around in nearby villages."

Assistance to war victims was among the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Amputees, victims of sexual violence, and others injured in the war are entitled to free medical care, and education and housing assistance under the reparation programme, Bangura said.

Alhaji Lamin Jusu Jarka, head of the national amputees and war-wounded association, said it was good that the government was providing micro-grants to "kick-start" reparations – many injured, unable to find jobs, depended on reparations – but "Delay in the overall implementation of the TRC recommendations is frustrating."

sr/np/hehttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87007DAKAR Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Six weeks after the deadly military crackdown on civilians in Guinea, families are still searching for loved ones, the wounded continue to need medical care and aid agencies are assisting state health workers cope with the aftermath, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Guinea.DAKAR Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Six weeks after the deadly military crackdown on civilians in Guinea, families are still searching for loved ones, the wounded continue to need medical care and aid agencies are assisting state health workers cope with the aftermath, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Guinea.

The UN on 9 November approved $416,056 from its Central Emergency Response Fund for a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) project to restore medical supplies, stock public hospitals, help treat people wounded in the 28 September violence and address nutritional and water and sanitation needs.

Following the December coup d'état many donors reduced or suspended development assistance, including some for the health sector. Philippe Verstraeten, head of OCHA-Guinea, told IRIN: “It is critical that the UN and aid agencies continue to help Guinea deal with the fallout of 28 September as well as stave off further humanitarian crises, as the situation remains volatile.”

The latest (2-9 November) OCHA bulletin says:

-The Red Cross continues to receive calls from families seeking relatives. “For the moment, access to Camp Alpha Yaya [Diallo / the main military camp and the junta’s headquarters] and to the detention centre at Kassa Island has not been permitted.”

-Hospitals have reported cases of secondary infections in some victims who had hesitated to seek medical care after 28 September for fear of reprisals by the army

-Protection experts say at least 225 victims of the 28 September violence remain seriously traumatized, 45 of whom victims of sexual violence

-Among the remaining protection needs are identification of rape victims, referrals and medical and psycho-social care

-The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), in collaboration with the Health Ministry, on 2-6 November held seminars to reinforce local capacity for treating sexual violence victims; the workshops included training in using rape kits

np/oahttp://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=87017SVAY KHLEANG Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Cambodia marked a milestone in its history when the first of a series of UN-backed trials began in February to hold five Khmer Rouge leaders accountable for crimes during their rule (1975-79).SVAY KHLEANG Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (IRIN) - Cambodia marked a milestone in its history when the first of a series of UN-backed trials began in February to hold five Khmer Rouge leaders accountable for crimes during their rule (1975-79).

More than punishing a few individuals, providing answers for a nation still suffering from collective post-traumatic stress may be the most vital function of the specially created war crimes tribunal, known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), [http://www.eccc.gov.kh/english/] say experts.

However, rights groups have questioned the independence of the tribunal and accused the government of interference in its workings.

Meanwhile most of Cambodia’s population has had little access to the tribunal and lacks awareness of its proceedings.

According to a survey [http://hrc.berkeley.edu/pdfs/So-We-Will-Never-Forget.pdf] published in January 2009 by the Human Rights Center of the University of California, Berkeley, 85 percent of those surveyed had little or no knowledge of the ECCC.

The tribunal, established in early 2006 and based in the capital Phnom Penh, is a welcome but distant phenomenon for most people, since about 80 percent of Cambodia’s population of 14.4 million live in rural areas, according to UN figures.

Moreover, half the country’s population is under 20 and never lived under the Khmer Rouge, an ultra-Maoist regime.

Much of the younger generation is unfamiliar with the details of the regime’s atrocities, in part because of a complete lack of Khmer Rouge history in schools until very recently.

Victims’ Unit

According to estimates from most scholars, some 1.7 million Cambodians died from overwork, starvation and murder under the Khmer Rouge’s vision to transform the country into an agrarian utopia.

As part of attempts to give victims of the Khmer Rouge a chance to participate in the tribunal proceedings, a Victims’ Unit started operating under the ECCC in January 2008, although rights groups say it is sorely under-resourced.

To date, 4,460 Cambodians have filed with the court as victims, providing information used by the prosecutors’ and court judges’ investigating teams to gather evidence and solicit testimony.

“It makes it more accessible for Cambodians to have other lay people sit in the court and explain the horrors and atrocities,” Lars Olsen, a spokesman for the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT) [http://www.unakrt-online.org/01_home.htm] division, told IRIN.

“It also provides essential information to the investigators as they gather research,” he said.

The crimes victims describe range from forced marriage and sexual abuse to the murder of loved ones, according to the Unit.

Around half of this group has also filed for civil party status, which gives victims an official role in the court to provide testimony and request reparations.

Outreach efforts

Efforts to make the tribunal reverberate in homes throughout this impoverished country include those of the non-profit Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) [http://www.dccam.org/]

DC-Cam, which documents the crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge, is seen as the leading custodian of primary documents on the regime and is providing material to the ECCC.

Last month, in the remote village of Svay Khleang in the eastern province of Kampong Cham, DC-Cam workers spoke to villagers about the tribunal’s work and how they could participate by sharing their experiences as victims of the regime.

Going on record rattled 62-year-old Man Maisan - under the Khmer Rouge, having your name on a list meant certain death, and for her, the terrifying association had not faded.

“Are others doing this, too?” she asked. Despite her initial trepidation, she had plenty of reasons to come forward: her parents and only child died under the regime.

Villagers watched clips of court proceedings, including a confession and apology to the tribunal by Kaing Guek Eav, the chief of the Khmer Rouge’s most notorious torture centre, codenamed S-21.

Older members of the crowd gasped when images of black-clad Khmer Rouge soldiers appeared during a documentary on the regime’s rule - for many, these figures were in the flesh the last time they had seen them.

“It reminds me of my experiences then, how my parents were killed,” said Yim Somlok, 80, who watched the tribunal for the first time like many others in the audience.

“It’s good to show everyone but it’s also difficult for me to see the children watching such terrible things.”

Muslim minority

The Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror was especially hard on Svay Khleang, which, historically, had been the heart of Cambodia’s minority Muslim community.

It was here, after the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975, that the Khmer Rouge implemented with particular fervour their xenophobic campaign to stamp out identities they considered foreign to the country.

“I’m hoping the tribunal will acknowledge the particular suffering of the Muslim people,” said Piyamin Yusoh, 56, the village’s current Muslim leader.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86980JERUSALEM Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid groups and several members of parliament (MPs) are outraged by what seems to be the toughening of Israeli policy towards asylum-seekers illegally entering the country.JERUSALEM Tuesday, November 10, 2009 (IRIN) - Aid groups and several members of parliament (MPs) are outraged by what seems to be the toughening of Israeli policy towards asylum-seekers illegally entering the country.

An “infiltration” law, the first draft of which has passed through parliament, is up for approval in the coming weeks despite efforts by NGOs to stop it. If approved, the law will regard anyone illegally entering the country as a criminal, and will allow a sentence of up to seven years for any asylum-seeker from an “enemy” country.

"Enemy" countries are Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Libya. However, very few if any asylum-seekers try to enter Israel from all but the first three of these countries. Almost all enter via Egypt.

The law would also incriminate NGOs and volunteers assisting such people and would allow for the detention of illegal minors.

Oded Diner of Amnesty International has urged immediate action to stop approval of the law but was dismayed when MPs Danny Danon (Likud party), Dov Khanin (Hadash) and Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) had their proposal to exclude the detention of illegal minors and children rejected on 3 November by parliament’s legislation committee.

Amnesty International has called on parliament [http://www.amnesty.org.il/blog/?page_id=1305] to “reject the draft law and to ensure that any immigration or national security provisions that are introduced into law fully respect Israel’s international human rights obligations by ensuring that individuals within their jurisdiction are protected, regardless of their immigration status, and that individuals are not returned to a state where they could be at risk of serious human rights violations”.

Exasperated aid workers told IRIN they were fed up and uncertain of their future. One, who did not want to be named, said she worked with asylum-seekers near the Egypt border and that she would be forced to become a criminal if the law is passed.

Work camps planned

The Israeli army’s Radio Galgalatz on 4 November said the Ministry of Finance had come up with a plan to “deter illegal infiltrators from coming to Israel”.

Under the plan, basic accommodation would be provided for asylum-seekers in camps in Israel’s southern Negev desert and the Arava region. They would be given food, shelter and basic medical care in return for unpaid work, mainly in agriculture.

Asylum-seekers would be forced to stay in the camps until their status is determined, though it is unclear what would happen to those not granted refugee status. Israel does not allow Southern Sudanese and Eritreans (the bulk of asylum-seekers) access to refugee status determination.

“This will deter those so-called asylum-seekers from coming here,” a member of the Israeli government told IRIN on condition of anonymity. “They are not refugees, they are simply migrant workers using the refugee story to get work, medical care and free education for their children in Israel. We believe that over 80 percent are not refugees.”

There are some 7,500 Eritrean and 6,000 Sudanese asylum-seekers in Israel, according to the Refugee Rights Forum [http://www.hotline.org.il/english/refugees_rights_forum.htm], an umbrella group representing eight human rights organizations in Israel. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) puts the total figure of asylum-seekers at around 18,000.

However, Israel’s immigration authority says there are over 24,000, mainly from Sudan and Eritrea, have “infiltrated” Israel over the past five years. Only about 450 from Darfur have received legal residency in Israel as a “humanitarian gesture”.

According to sources in the Israeli army, 400-600 African asylum-seekers illegally enter Israel every month. While many are able to find work in Israel, some rely on aid from NGOs. About 2,000 are detained at any given time in various detention facilities.

"The migrant workers and refugees will bring diseases and other problems to Israel, including AIDS, tuberculosis and drug abuse," Eli Yishay, Israel's interior minister, said in an interview on 2 November on Israel's Channel 2 TV.

For and against the plan

While many in the government are in favour of the deterrence plan, some MPs are horrified. Khanin told IRIN: "The war waged by Israel against the refugees is rolling the state of Israel down the morality slope. This agenda is anti-humanitarian and anti-Judaism. It has no place in a state that was erected by refugees."

Other MPs told IRIN they found the plan so offensive they would not credit it with a response.

NGOs working with refugees in Israel have also expressed their concerns. "These work camps will not deter people escaping horrors from coming here," said one aid worker who did not want to be named. "It will only take away the meagre living they were able to make up until now and provide, in fact, slaves in work camps."

When asked about the plan, the spokesperson’s office at the Ministry of Finance refused to discuss the draft law in detail.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86964NAKAI PLATEAU Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Over 6,000 people have been resettled to make way for a controversial dam in central Laos: The Nam Theun 2 Dam, the country’s single largest infrastructure project, will produce electricity for Thailand, and domestically.NAKAI PLATEAU Friday, November 06, 2009 (IRIN) - Over 6,000 people have been resettled to make way for a controversial dam in central Laos: The Nam Theun 2 Dam, the country's single largest infrastructure project, will produce electricity for Thailand, and domestically.
Resettlement consultations with villagers in the densely forested Nakai Plateau, where the dam is located, took over 10 years. The Aheu, a minority ethnic group, were reluctant to move because of their spiritual connection to the land but started to do so from April 2008. By the end of 2008 they had been resettled in a number of different villages around the reservoir. One village accommodates 14 extended families in wooden stilt houses with electricity and clean water, which they did not have previously.

Among the last to move was Grandmother Khamsone, 85, the matriarch of the Aheu in Nakai.

"When the water rose high in the reservoir, I was scared because water was everywhere. I had seen a dam on TV which broke and the water came out. Also there were warning signs everywhere telling us to be aware of water rising suddenly, so I was worried the water would suddenly rise higher. That's why I moved here.

"My old house had bamboo on the floors and walls, and the roof was made of leaves. I still miss the old house, but I couldn't do anything because of the flood. It's more comfortable here than the old house. We are happy, but the only thing is the spirits, who don't want to be here.

"The spirits are from the forest. Four shamans spoke to the spirits and asked them to come here, but they don't like this area. They aren't used to staying here. I really want to ask the spirits why they don't want to come here, but I can't see them or talk to them. If I could see them, I would urge them to come here with me. If I could make the spirits happy, I could stay here longer.

"I need to go back to the old house to see the spirits. I should raise them once a year to keep them happy. If I don't, they might come and kill me. I have to take a boat [to the old house], but I'm scared of getting into a boat in the water and drowning. I had an accident - I fell down the stairs going to collect a rice donation from the NTPC [Nam Theun Power Company]. Now I can't move my hands and legs very well.

"It's good to have electricity, but if you don't give me money, I can't pay the bill, so please get rid of it. I will light a fire instead. I used all my money to buy a TV and a CD player for my children and I don't have any more. I don't want to trouble my children to pay the electricity bill, because if they earn money, they want to spend it on something else."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86907MAPUTO Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Helena Numaio was 12 years old in 1990 when she lost both her legs and a finger in a landmine explosion while collecting firewood in the Moamba district of Maputo Province, Mozambique. MAPUTO Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Helena Numaio was 12 years old in 1990 when she lost both her legs and a finger in a landmine explosion while collecting firewood in the Moamba district of Maputo Province, Mozambique.

The landmine put an end to her education. Nearly 20 years later Numaio has fled an abusive marriage and now is solely responsible for bringing up her three children aged five, eight and 10. She sells food and second-hand clothes on the streets of the capital, Maputo, to make a living.

Mozambique's only local NGO dedicated to assisting victims of landmines and unexploded ordnance, RAVIM, gave her a wheelchair in 2007 and she went back to school, but had to withdraw after two years. The fees were US$4 a year, but an extra levy of $2 a month to pay for the after-hours security guard at the local school meant she would have to choose between providing for her children and improving her education.

"Before getting the wheelchair I was dependent on others to take me anywhere," Numaio told IRIN. The wheelchair enabled her to set up a small business, but the city's broken roads and sidewalks were unforgiving, and the wheelchair that had given her a new lease on life now stands immobile.

Emmanuel Mounier, seconded to RAVIM from Handicap International (HI), which works with landmine victims, told IRIN the harsh environment shortened the lifespan of crutches, wheelchairs and other aids used by the disabled, but spare parts were hard to come by and there were few specialized workshops, so repairs were expensive.

No assistance for victims

Landmines are the third leading cause of amputations in Mozambique, after diabetes and road accidents, and the threat they still pose - more than 17 years after peace came to the country following four decades of independence and civil wars - is deemed big enough for HI to spend 40 percent of its annual country budget on mine clearance.

Both conflicts saw the extensive use of landmines and HI believes that the handful of recorded victims killed or maimed each year grossly underestimates the ongoing impact of these hidden weapons.

Yann Faivre, HI's programme director in Mozambique, told IRIN that "the number of mine accidents each year are given as a minimum by the authorities, but we just don't know the number of accidents."

There are no benefits for the survivors of landmine blasts, or those who died, or their next of kin, so there is no incentive to report incidents of landmine accidents to the authorities, Faivre said.

In one of the world's poorest nations, assistance for the disabled is often far down the list of priorities. There are government-run orthopaedic centres in the 10 provincial capitals, except Manica Province, where it is situated in Chimoio, but all share a common bond of "essential equipment not working or not being replaced," Faivre said.

"For example, in Inhambane [in central Mozambique, currently the most mined province] the [orthopaedic] centre is not open. In Beira [Mozambique's second city] the oven to make prosthetics is broken and has not been replaced," he said. "The situation [at orthopaedic centres in Mozambique] is not at the level of the minimum standard."

The majority of Mozambique's 20 million people live in rural areas, and the poor reputation of the orthopaedic centres means that "most people needing assistance don't bother to go [to the provincial capital] as they see it as a wasted and expensive journey," Faivre said.

The plight of landmine victims and the lack of assistance in many of the world's mine affected territories will be a major focus of the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World, or the second five-year Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty, which begins on 29 November 2009 in the Colombian port city of Cartagena.

HI, which works with all disabilities, said it supported the Cartagena summit's aims of providing greater assistance to mine victims, as it might also lead to improved resources for all the disabled in impoverished countries. "No one is going to ask someone without a leg, who goes to an orthopaedic centre, how they lost it. Improved facilities will be made available for all the disabled," Faivre said.

Self help

Luis Silvestre Wamusse, national coordinator and a co-founder of RAVIM, which was established in 2005, told IRIN: "If you compare someone who was born disabled, they had no choice but to adjust to their situation. It is more difficult for someone who lived a first life as a normal person and then, from one day to another, suddenly sees their dreams broken. They have to first accept their new condition and then start their second life."

In 1984 Wamusse was a 22-year-old student in Tete Province in northwestern Mozambique, when he lost a leg and two fingers to a landmine while looking for firewood. His family brought him back to Maputo for rehabilitation. Manuel Amisse, co-founder and programme director of RAVIM, was a 26-year-old government soldier when he stepped on a mine on 11 August 1982 while on patrol in Tete.

After being evacuated by donkey cart, Amisse was eventually treated by a "not very skilled intern" in Songo, a town east of the Cahora Bassa dam, and underwent two more amputation procedures to produce a "proper stump".

"The main priorities for victims are psychological rehabilitation, the healing of the wound, and getting a prosthesis - but that first need is already not covered," Wamusse said.

In March 2007 an armoury exploded in the city of Maputo, spewing rockets, ammunition and other ordnance into the surrounding suburbs, killing more than 100 people and injuring hundreds more. RAVIM provided counselling to people who had lost limbs or sustained other injuries.

"People did not believe that we [Wamusse and Amisse] were also victims and had had limbs amputated, so we had to take off our prosthetics in the hospital and show them that we have adapted to live a normal life ... I told them, 'You lost your leg, you did not lose your life, so please do not lose your will to live'," Wamusse said.

Tales of a child soldier

Paulino Alfredo Sambo was a 15-year-old rebel soldier when he was caught in an ambush by government soldiers near Vilanculos in Inhambane Province in 1991, a year before the civil war ended. The impact of a rocket propelled grenade severed one leg below the knee and left his remaining foot in tatters. It was amputated by a nurse in a primary health care facility soon after.

After a stint in rehabilitation and attending a government re-skilling programme for former soldiers, where he trained as a metal worker, seven years after the ambush, HI provided him with prosthetics.

"After the incident I excluded myself from society - I was ashamed of my condition - but I have accepted that I will not have legs for the rest of my life," Sambo told IRIN.

He lives with his wife, Nilsa, and three children aged two, three and four in Matola City, about 20km from Maputo. He has a lathe in the front garden and from the proceeds of his work is gradually building a family home.

The stigma associated with landmine victims and the disabled in general nearly thwarted their marriage. "Neighbours [of his prospective wife's parents] spoke against me. They told Nilsa and her parents that I would not be able to support her. I told Nilsa, 'You have the choice - I will never change."

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86892JOHANNESBURG Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's rough diamond trade has escaped a six-month suspension by the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) - an international initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds - after its own investigating team recommended earlier in 2009 that the country be temporarily barred from importing and exporting the gems.JOHANNESBURG Thursday, November 05, 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's rough diamond trade has escaped a six-month suspension by the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) - an international initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds - after its own investigating team recommended earlier in 2009 that the country be temporarily barred from importing and exporting the gems.

No consensus on Zimbabwe's suspension could be reached at the annual plenary, said Annie Dunnebacke, of Global Witness - a UK-based NGO that seeks to prevent the use of natural resources to fuel conflict, and a prime mover in setting up the KPCS - who described the meeting in the Namibian coastal town of Swakopmund, as "the most disorganized plenary session ever held."

The KPCS, established in 2002, brings together governments, the diamond industry and concerned NGOs to police the trade in conflict diamonds, also known as blood diamonds. The organization has 49 members representing 75 countries, and covers about 99.8 percent of the global production of rough diamonds.

The credibility of the KPCS has been on a knife edge since the decision not to take action against Zimbabwe. According to one delegate, who declined to be identified, Zimbabwe's escape from suspension was ensured by its neighbours, but would not divulge which countries in the region objected to punitive measures against the offender.

Southern Africa's economies are already seeing the effects of the global recession in depressed diamond sales, and any return to international boycotts against diamonds originating in Africa would further impact these fragile economies.

"We [civil society] are very disappointed" with the outcome, Dunnebacke told IRIN. Instead of suspension, an action plan to ensure Zimbabwe's compliance with the KPCS was called for, with the dispatch of an official to monitor the country's adherence.

In July an 11-person KPCS review team, led by Kpandel Fiya, Liberia's deputy minister of mines, visited the Chiadzwa diamond area in Marange district, Manicaland Province, bordering Mozambique in eastern Zimbabwe, and documented a litany of human rights abuses.

Yet the action plan did not address human rights abuses or the militarization of the Marange alluvial diamond fields. "The implementation of the action plan depends on Zimbabwe showing commitment and sincerity," she pointed out.

The KPSC had been "undermined by this decision ... the KP [Kimberley Process] has to look at itself ... it is too important to fail, and that is why we have not walked away from it yet ... are we endorsing a system that we cannot believe in anymore?"

Ian Smillie, of Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), one of the architects of the certification scheme, has walked away. He resigned as civil society representative to the KPCS in June 2009, saying: "When regulators fail to regulate, the systems they were designed to protect collapse ... I feel that I can no longer in good faith contribute to a pretence that failure is success, or to the kind of debates we have been reduced to."

In the KPCS review team's report, addressed to Obert Mpofu, Zimbabwe's minister of mining, Fiya said: "Sir, I was in Liberia throughout the 15 years of civil war, and I have experienced too much senseless violence in my lifetime, especially connected with diamonds. In speaking with some of these people [in Zimbabwe], minister, I had to leave the room. This has to be acknowledged, and it has to stop."

A report in June 2009 by the international watchdog, Human Rights Watch, accused Zimbabwean security forces of killing more than 200 miners in 2008 - an allegation denied by President Robert Mugabe's government - and recommended that Zimbabwe be suspended from the KPCS.

A 2009 report by PAC - Zimbabwe, Diamonds and the Wrong Side of History - said, "Zimbabwean diamonds are produced from mines that benefit political and military gangsters, and they are smuggled out of the country by the bucket load."

Another KPCS review team is expected to visit the country within the next six months.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86903DHAKA Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - A new report by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says most children in Bangladesh are regularly exposed to physical abuse at school, at home or where they work. DHAKA Tuesday, November 03, 2009 (IRIN) - A new report by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says most children in Bangladesh are regularly exposed to physical abuse at school, at home or where they work.

The study [http://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/media_5661.htm] entitled Opinions of Children of Bangladesh on Corporal Punishment involved nearly 4,000 families and was published on 8 October 2009.

“In all regards, the children of Bangladesh are in a very vulnerable position,” Mohammad Kafil Uddin, director of Bangladesh Children’s Rights Forum, an organization of 235 NGOs working in the children’s rights sector, told IRIN in Dhaka.

According to the report, 91 percent of the children surveyed faced various levels of physical abuse at school, while 74 percent were abused at home.

The report found that 87.6 percent of schools still used switches and sticks to discipline students, and that the most common forms of punishment were: hitting with a switch or stick, pinching or pulling an ear, hair or skin, and slapping.

Some 23 percent of students said they had to face different forms of corporal punishment every day. Seven percent reported injuries and bleeding resulting from the punishments administered by teachers.

The threat of corporal punishment was a major reason why children played truant or had lost interest in their studies, the report said, adding that only 75 percent of enrolled students regularly attended school.

“They [teachers] beat us with wooden and steel rulers and sticks,” Ishrat Jahan Ima, a seven-year-old second year student at the Sher-E-Bangla Nagar Government Girls’ School in Dhaka, claimed, recalling how one teacher proudly showed off a broken switch bragging that he had broken it by beating a fifth-year student.

In the workplace

Although child labour is illegal in Bangladesh, the practice is prevalent, say child rights activists, and the report indicated that about 10 percent of the children had jobs.

Of these - apart from having to put up with a heavy workload, poor wages and dangerous working conditions - a quarter of them were regularly beaten; 65 percent said they were punished in one form or another in their workplaces.

In the home

At home the survey found that 99.3 percent of the children reported being verbally abused and threatened regularly by their parents. Slapping was a common form of discipline for 70 percent of the children, while 40 percent were regularly beaten or kicked.

“Physical abuse of children is a daily occurrence and this is a problem which needs a complete mindset change… The level of awareness among the people of Bangladesh regarding the rights of children is very low,” Bangladesh Children’s Rights Forum director Mohammad Kafil Uddin said.

The report also correlated the household income and education of the parents with physical punishment: Parents from poorer and less educated households were more likely to resort to corporal punishment.

Bangladesh was one of the first countries to ratify the UN International Bill of Rights for Children in the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). [http://www.unicef.org/crc/] The UNCRC states that all forms of physical and mental abuse against children must be prohibited, and a 2006 UN report recommended a target date of 2009 for the universal prohibition of corporal punishment.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86850TEL AVIV Friday, October 30, 2009 (IRIN) - Migrant workers in Israel’s agriculture sector are among the most exploited, according to a 28 October report by Kav LaOved, an Israeli NGO campaigning for the rights of disadvantaged workers in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.TEL AVIV Friday, October 30, 2009 (IRIN) - Migrant workers in Israel’s agriculture sector are among the most exploited, according to a 28 October report by Kav LaOved, [http://www.kavlaoved.org.il/default_eng.asp] an Israeli NGO campaigning for the rights of disadvantaged workers in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Ninety percent of such workers work more hours than allowed under Israeli law, without overtime payments, said the report, which has been presented to members of parliament.

The report summarizes hundreds of complaints by agricultural workers and dozens of inspections by Kav LaOved volunteers at work sites around the country, and paints a grim picture of systematic exploitation and severe violations of workers’ rights in the agricultural sector.

Hanna Zohar, Kav LaOved director, said the workers, mostly Thai, are completely unaware of their rights.

“Having paid US$8-10,000 to work in Israel, they are prime material for abuse by the farmers, as they are afraid to lose their jobs and not able to pay off the loans taken to cover these payments to the middlemen,” Zohar said.

The launch of the report has been timed to coincide with the current campaign by farmers for additional permits for migrant workers, and is intended to further public debate on the issue.

Farmers have been demonstrating for more permits in recent weeks and there have been violent clashes with the police.

Some 30,000 migrant workers are employed in the agricultural sector, mostly from Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka and some from the Palestinian Authority, according to Kav LaOved and official figures from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour.

The Thai workers come from rural areas after paying middlemen in Thailand and Israel, and most work in remote and isolated locations, unaware of their legal rights, according to Kav LaOved’s research done in the past year.

The report said it is common practice in many agri-businesses to dock leave, and some employers give workers only one day off a month.

Employers who withhold passports - strongly condemned by the legal authorities - are still commonplace, according to Kav LaOved and Moked, another NGO which campaigns for the rights of migrants.

Since the beginning of 2009, 10 percent of agricultural workers (2,950) have been injured, the report said.

Harsh living conditions

Evidence of harsh living conditions and demeaning treatment crop up routinely in Kav LaOved’s inspection reports.

At a visit to one farm, IRIN found some workers living at a potato crop disposal site, in a small, stifling container. Workers told IRIN they cannot leave as they must pay off huge debts in their home countries.

The Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labour spokespersons’ unit said: “The department of foreign workers has been investigating private manpower and building cooperatives to prevent [the] charging [of] migrant workers sums that exceed those allowed by law… In 2009, dozens of licenses were revoked… We ask Kav LaOved to work jointly with the attorney in charge of foreign workers’ rights in the ministry, Iris Maayan, and allow the different enforcement factors in GOI [Government of Israel] offices to work more efficiently. The issue is of great importance for the Ministry.”

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86808JOHANNESBURG Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - An African international agreement has opened the door to a debate on the rights and protection of people displaced by natural disasters, with a nod to migration as a result of climate change. JOHANNESBURG Thursday, October 29, 2009 (IRIN) - An African international agreement has opened the door to a debate on the rights and protection of people displaced by natural disasters, with a nod to migration as a result of climate change.

The Kampala Convention, a ground-breaking treaty adopted by the African Union (AU), promises to protect and assist millions of Africans displaced within their own countries. Significantly, the treaty recognized natural disasters as well as conflict and generalized violence as key factors in uprooting people.

Jean Ping, chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, told IRIN that "more and more people are likely to be displaced" as Africa experiences more frequent droughts and floods brought about by climate change.

He said the inclusion of displacement by natural disasters was informed by the global debate on the need to develop a framework for the rights of "climate refugees" - people uprooted from their homes and crossing international borders - because the changing climate threatened their survival.

The treaty also calls on governments to set up laws and find solutions to prevent displacement caused by natural disasters, with compensation for those who were displaced. Migration expert Etienne Piguet said with the Kampala Convention the AU had "once again" tried to push the envelope.

In 1969 the Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, adopted by the then Organization of African Unity, had gone a step further than the 1951 UN Refugee Convention by using a definition of "refugee" that included not only people fleeing persecution but also those fleeing war or events seriously disturbing public order.

Piguet described the reference to people displaced by natural disasters as an "interesting attempt" to find "adequate answers to the new concern about migration linked to environmental degradation".

In 2008 climate-related natural disasters like droughts, hurricanes and floods forced 20 million people out of their homes, while 4.6 million people were internally displaced by conflicts, according to a recent joint study by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

The Representative of the UN Secretary-General (RSG) on the Human Rights of the Internally Displaced Persons in a submission to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change noted that people uprooted from their homes by natural disasters enjoyed protection under the existing human rights law and the guiding principles on internal displacement.

However, the Kampala Convention also calls on governments to "prevent or mitigate, prohibit and eliminate root causes" of displacement, and find "durable solutions" to them.

Moussa Idriss Ndele, President of the Pan-African Parliament, the legislative body of the AU, said the debate in Kampala on the rights of people displaced by natural disasters did not "quite evolve properly - we did not address the issue of climate change" because most people still believed conflict was the biggest trigger of displacement.

Can of worms

However, it was unclear which events could be linked to climate change. "More and more people are being displaced by floods, which are becoming more and more frequent and intense," said Rachel Shebesh, chair of the African Parliamentarian Initiative for Climate Risk Reduction.

The RSG said there was a need to clarify or even develop a legal framework to help people who moved inside or outside the country because environmental degradation and slow-onset disasters - like desertification, salination of soil and groundwater - made areas uninhabitable, and if displaced persons could not return to their homes they should be considered forcibly displaced.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected more frequent and intense floods and droughts in Africa during the next few decades, and the debate is not only set to continue, but to intensify.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86805DAKAR Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (IRIN) - Youths in the Guinea capital Conakry went on hunger strike on 28 October - one month after the deadly military attack on civilians - to call for political dialogue, an end to violence and the arrest of those who attacked demonstrators.DAKAR Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (IRIN) - Youths in the Guinea capital Conakry went on hunger strike on 28 October – one month after the deadly military attack on civilians – to call for political dialogue, an end to violence and the arrest of those who attacked demonstrators.

“No to violence, no to impunity, yes to national unity, yes to peace and social tranquillity” is written on a banner hanging outside the Dixinn Port youth centre, where some 30 people gathered for the five-day hunger strike.

“This is to draw our leaders’ attention to the need to engage in dialogue, preserve national unity, prevent further violence and arrest the authors of [the 28 September] massacre,” said Thierno Baldé, president of the Federation of Youth Associations of Guinea, which has organized the protest.

“The situation in Guinea today is extremely difficult, and no one knows how things will evolve,” he said. “This is why we want now to urge everyone to avoid more violence.”

Another participant, who requested anonymity, told IRIN: “One of the major problems has been a lack of dialogue between the CNDD [National Council for Democracy and Development, which the junta calls itself] on the one hand and civil society and political leaders on the other. They must go to dialogue. We say, no more killings in Guinea.”

He added: “It is the youths who are the real victims of the crisis in Guinea. We must remind our political leaders of that.”

Burkina President Blaise Compaoré, mediator in the Guinea crisis, has called for talks between the junta and a national coalition of political parties and civil society groups.

On 28 October large markets and stores in Conakry were closed, as were schools and banks and most people stayed home, heeding a call by Guinea’s political and civil society coalition to observe “a day of protest, prayer and meditation for the victims of 28 September”.

“This day is dedicated particularly to the women and girls who were savagely attacked,” a coalition communiqué says.

Interior Minister Frédéric Kolié on the eve of the one-month commemoration called for people to go about their activities as normal, saying the country has already observed several days for the victims.

The union representing the banking sector announced on 27 October that banks will remain closed until Monday because of harassment of bank employees by soldiers.

The youths going on hunger strike told IRIN this is the first time they have used this form of protest.

“Given the context [and the current tension], instead of going to the streets, we thought this would be a peaceful and effective way to protest,” the unnamed youth told IRIN. “We will just be in a room at the youth centre, protesting quietly.”

As of midday on 28 October all was calm at the Dixinn Port youth centre. One youth told IRIN from another area of Conakry he was trying to join his colleagues for the strike but his neighbourhood was at a standstill and he was awaiting public transportation.

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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86783KATUNAYAKE Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of jobs in Sri Lanka's crucial textile industry are under threat following a European Union (EU) report over alleged human rights abuses and the failure to implement human rights conventions in the country.KATUNAYAKE Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of jobs in Sri Lanka's crucial textile industry are under threat following a European Union (EU) report over alleged human rights abuses including the and failure to implement human rights conventions in the country.
 
As a result, a key trade concession worth more than US$100 million could be withdrawn, EU officials suggest.  
 
“It’s like foreign aid. It was there to help people like us get better pay,” Suwarna Malkanthi, a 27-year-old garment worker, said in the factory town of Katunayake, about 30km north of the capital, Colombo.  
 
“We appeal to those who are going to make a decision to think twice about suspending it. If they do that a lot of jobs will be lost and some of our families will lose all income.”
 
On 19 October, the EU released an investigative report examining whether Sri Lanka should continue receiving tariff concessions known as the Generalized System of Preference Plus (GSP+) [http://reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2009.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/SNAA-7WZ57X-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf].

The report refers to the lack of freedom of movement of civilians in camps: Serious restrictions have been placed on freedom of movement, notably concerning the thousands of persons interned in IDP camps.

According to the report, the Sri Lankan government was in breach of implementing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Sri Lanka has until 6 November to make representations to the EU and a final decision on the tariff’s extension will be taken in the next two months, EU spokesman for trade, Lutz Güllner, said.
 
The EU was the single largest importer of Sri Lankan apparel products in 2008, with trade worth $1.6 billion, and the GSP+ tariff concession helped to make the EU its biggest market, surpassing the US, according to the World Bank’s latest Economic Update. [http://siteresources.worldbank.org/SRILANKAEXTN/Resources/233046-1237173995853/SLEconomicUpdateOctober202009.pdf]
 
If the facility is suspended, it could raise the cost of the exports by 10-12 percent, one factory owner said.
 
Livelihoods threatened
 
More than 250,000 people are employed in the garment industry - a sector accounting for 10 percent of GDP. Many work 12 hours a day, six days a week, in mundane jobs paying just $150 per month. Their very livelihoods depend on the decision.
 
“I really don’t know much about GSP+,” Anusha Kumari, 29, a factory worker at the Katunayake Free Trade Zone, one of 12, with more than 100,000 employees, told IRIN.
 
“But we are nervous about what we hear and read in newspapers, that it can be removed and factories will close,” she said.
 
Achila Mapalagama, head of Stand-up, an activist group, said there were fears that withdrawal of GSP+ could affect 50,000 jobs.
 
“There is no clear data, but the small and medium factories will definitely feel the pinch. The larger ones with better and established buyers will survive,” she told IRIN.

Government under fire
 
The EU says it is still not clear what will happen in the coming weeks.
 
“We certainly want to keep the open dialogue going and discuss how we can work together,” Bernard Savage, EU Ambassador to Sri Lanka, told IRIN.
 
Meanwhile, the government says it is studying the report; however, it refused to cooperate with the investigation when it was announced in October 2008.
 
The report comes amid growing international pressure [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86712] on the government to allow thousands of Tamil civilians being kept in closed camps in the north to return home.
   
According to a government statement on 26 October [see: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/SKEA-7X7EVZ?OpenDocument], the resettlement process was proceeding well, and the number of displaced had fallen from 288,000 to 196,088.
 
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http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=86759BISSAU Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Below is a timeline of key political events to take place since the formation of the PAIGC political party in 1956. BISSAU Tuesday, October 27, 2009 (IRIN) - Below is a timeline of major political events since the formation of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) in 1956.

July 2009
Malam Bacai Sanha elected president

June 2009
Three senior politicians are killed by military police in what authorities call a foiled coup attempt

March 2009
President João Bernardo Vieira is shot dead by soldiers several hours after a bomb attack kills army chief-of-staff General Tagme Na Waie

July 2008
The PAIGC political party leaves the 'Pact of Stability' coalition government

April 2008
The mandate of the legislature ended on 21 April but President Vieira passes a temporary constitutional amendment to allow the continuation of Parliament until elections take place later in the year. The President also grants amnesty to individuals in the military and civilians who allegedly committed crimes from 1980 to 2004

March 2008
Legislative elections are postponed

July 2007
A tribunal declares the resolution making former Guinea-Bissau president, Koumba Yala, the head of Social Renovation Party (PRS) "null and void"

February 2008
The PAIGC withdraws backing from Prime Minister Martinho Ndafa Cabi, ostensibly to avoid acts of indiscipline threatening cohesion and unity in the party

March 2007
Parliamentarians form a majority coalition and the three major parties, the PAIGC, Party for Social Reform (PRS) and the United Social Democrat Party (PUSD) sign a pact of stability meant to create political stability. The pact gives them the right to force the departure of Prime Minister Aristides Gomes who was nominated by Vieira after the sacking of Carlos Junior, and to vote in a new prime minister, Marthinho Ndafa Cabi. Donors welcome the pact and start to re-engage in the country after a period of relative isolation

January 2007
Admiral Mohamed Lamine Sanha, chief-of -staff of the navy, is killed. Sanha, an ally of Ansumane Mané who led a military rebellion against President Vieira in the 1998 civil war, was implicated in several coups against the government

November 2006
Koumba Yala is elected head of the PRS

November 2005
President Vieira appoints Aristides Gomes, former PAIGC deputy chairman as Prime Minister


Photo: IRIN
Kumba Yala (file photo)
October 2005
President Vieira sacks PAIGC Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior who was nominated by the assembly, citing “personal reasons”. After announcing on the radio that the President ordered the assassination of old members of the military junta that deposed him in 1999 Junior flees to the offices of the UN Peacebuilding Office until President Vieira can guarantee him his security

2005
Joao Bernardo Vieira returns from exile in Portugal to participate in Presidential elections, with financial backing from Guinea-Conakry and Senegal and support from the military. In the June elections Malam Bacai Sanha of the PAIGC presents himself opposite Koumba Yala and for the first time against Joao Vieira who participates as an independent candidate. Bacai receives the largest number of votes but not enough to avoid a second round. Yala, who came third in the first round, goes on to support Vieira and Vieira becomes President for the second time. International observers deem the elections fair and transparent

The military, under chief-of-staff Tagme Na Wai, ensures President Vieira understands they are a powerful political force and that Vieira requires their support to retain his hold

October 2004
A group of soldiers led by Baoute Yanta Na Man attempt a failed coup. General Seabra, now chief of staff of the army, is killed by a group of military rebels who are protesting against salary arrears and the corruption of the military hierarchy, and General Tagme Na Wai, an ethnic Balante, is appointed in his place

March 2004
Legislative elections are held as planned and the PAIGC retakes the majority of the parliamentary seats. A new government is formed under the leadership of Carlos Gomes Junior as prime minister

September 2003
A military coup led by General Verissimo Correia Seabra ousts President Yala, a move that is welcomed by the population. A transition government is put on place to prepare for elections and in the interim, President Henrique Rosa is appointed President and Artur Sanha, once secretary-general of the PRS is nominated Prime Minister

2002
President Koumba Yala dissolves Parliament and calls for legislative elections but these do not take place and the country remains without a government for several months. Supreme Court judges are also sacked from their positions

2001
President Yala's rule is characterised by chronic political instability as he constantly sacks ministers and reshuffles his government. Between 2001 and 2003 four Prime Ministers are nominated and sacked. Political crisis sets in. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank suspend aid due to poor financial accounting by government

2000
General Anusmane Mane, a well-supported figure in the army, does not take up posts offered to him under President Yala's government, including adviser to the head-of-state preferring to stay independent. In November he is killed by Koumba Yala's men

January 2000
Presidential elections are held between Koumba Yala of the PRS and Malam Bacai Sanha of the PAIGC, a fierce opponent of Vieira. Yala wins with 72 percent of the votes and his victory is seen as progress for the Balante ethnic group as he is the first Balante to lead the country. Yala goes on to appoint many Balante in positions of power. Under his rule many members of the armed forces are promoted to become generals

November 1999
The transitional government organises elections in which the PAIGC loses its control over the national assembly for the first time. The PRS party under Koumba Yala receives 38 seats and becomes the dominant party in the assembly

1999
A military junta takes control of Bissau, the capital, and President Vieira seeks asylum in Portugal. Malai Bacam Sanha of the PAIGC party becomes President in May 1999

1998
Vieira sacks army chief of staff, General Ansumane Mané, leading to an army mutiny. A military junta led by Mané starts a civil war

1994
The first free elections are held electing João Bernardo Vieira as President. From this point on the PAIGC dominates politics until the present day

1992
Koumba Yala founds the PRS

1980
Luis Cabral is ousted in military coup orchestrated by Joao Bernardo Vieira

Below is a timeline of key political events to take place since the formation of the PAIGC political party in 1956

1974
Portugal grants Guinea-Bissau independence with Luis Cabral, brother of Amilcar, as President

1973
PAIGC declares Guinea-Bissau independent of Portugal. Amilcar Cabral assassinated

1963-74
PAIGC launches war of independence

1956
Amilcar Cabral establishes the PAIGC

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