Recent attacks on independent journalists and human rights activists illustrate the risks under which they work in Russia, Amnesty International said on the eve of the second anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya’s murder. The organization urges the Russian authorities to end impunity for violence against human rights defenders and the media.

“Human rights activists and journalists are the ones who bring to the public’s attention the failure of governments to live up to their promises of justice and rights protection made in national law and their obligations under international human rights treaties,” Amnesty International said.

“However, it is the human rights activists and journalists in Russia who too often themselves face harassment by the authorities and even become victims of human rights abuses themselves.”

In a country where TV and many other media outlets are controlled by the state, there is less and less space for independent reporting. Those journalists who attempt to report independently are obstructed from conducting their professional work and they may face intimidation and possibly prosecution. For example, the radio station Ekho Moskvy was repeatedly asked to provide transcripts of their programmes to the prosecutor’s office in relation to preliminary investigations into allegations that they had aired extremists’ views.
 
The space to express critical views in the Russian Federation has been gradually and progressively curtailed in recent years.

“Two years after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, human rights activists and journalists are still at risk in the Russian Federation, in particular in the North Caucasus region. They may be abducted and tortured, have their property attacked, receive death threats or killed in suspicious circumstances,” Amnesty International said.

Anna Politkovskaya was murdered on 7 October 2006 in the centre of Moscow. Two years after the killing, three people accused of involvement in the crime are in detention, but her murderer is still at large and there has been no independent investigation into those who may have ordered the killing.

“Anna Politkovskaya was one of those courageous people who tirelessly stand up for those who have suffered human rights violations. She was in all likelihood killed because of this,” Amnesty International said.

Amnesty International urges the Russian authorities to ensure on all levels that justice will be done in regard to her murder and to demonstrate clearly that there is no impunity for attacks on human rights defenders and journalists. The human rights organization will continue to follow the case closely and will continue to call for the protection of journalists and human rights defenders in the Russian Federation.

Cases
The disputed killing in police custody of Magomed Evloev, owner of an independent Ingush website, on 31 August 2008, needs to be investigated with utmost impartiality, to ensure that the circumstances under which he died are brought to light and that those who are responsible for his death are charged and tried in accordance with the law.

On 25 July 2008, human rights defender Zurab Tsechoev, working for the human rights organization MASHR (peace) in Ingushetia, was taken away from his home in Troitskaia, Ingushetia by armed men, thought to be federal law enforcement officials. A couple of hours later he was found on a roadside near Magas, the capital of Ingushetia, with serious injuries. He had to be hospitalized. Amnesty International calls for the perpetrators of this act against Zurab Tsechoev to be identified and to be brought to justice.

Late on 1 August 2008, an arson attack was allegedly made on the flat of human rights defender Dmitrii Kraiukhin from the town of Orel in the Central Russian Federal District. The arsonists had also allegedly tried to block the entrance door. Luckily, Dmitrii Kraiukhin was reportedly not in the flat, but his relatives who were, were able to alert the fire brigade in time. So far, to Amnesty International’s knowledge, no criminal investigation into this case has been undertaken, as the authorities allegedly considered the damage too insignificant to warrant a criminal investigation. However, this is not an isolated incident as far as threats to Dmitrii Kraiukhin are concerned.

On 14 August 2008, unknown assailants threw a brick through the window of the flat in Nizhnii Novgorod where human rights activist Stanislav Dmitrievskii lives. Luckily, nobody was hurt. At the same time, the entrance of his apartment building was covered with abusive language and threats against Stanislav Dmitrievskii. A criminal investigation into this attack has been opened.

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Tens of thousands of civilians require immediate international humanitarian assistance as a result of escalating fighting on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border since the beginning of August, Amnesty International said today.

More than 20,000 people have fled from Pakistan to eastern Afghanistan to avoid fighting between government forces and pro-Taleban insurgents in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), while FATA authorities have asked Afghan refugees in Bajaur Agency to leave the area.

“Both the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as international forces operating in Afghanistan, have a legal obligation to provide safe passage, consistent security and humanitarian assistance to the refugees and internally displaced people on both sides of the border. They should also ensure that local and international humanitarian agencies are able to work safely in providing assistance to those in need,” said Sam Zarifi, Asia Director at Amnesty International.

“The continued fighting in southern Afghanistan and the more recent conflict in northern Pakistan are creating a very dangerous situation in the region for civilians trying to find refuge. With the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, there is an expectation that even more civilians will leave their homes to avoid the fighting.”

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), since mid September more than 600 families have fled fighting in Bajaur Agency in the FATA, where in recent months a Pakistani military campaign against anti-government insurgents has increased tensions. This is in addition to the 3,364 families which took refuge in the districts of Shigal, Marawara, Dangam, and other areas of Afghanistan’s Kunar province in early August.

UNHCR reports that the majority of the families fleeing Pakistan are living with tribal relatives or host families in Kunar but some 200 families are living in the open. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the majority of the displaced from Bajaur Agency are women and children.

“These refugees could be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. They are escaping fighting in Pakistan but they are at risk of being caught in the crossfire of the current fighting in Afghanistan between coalition forces and the Taleban and other anti-government groups,” said Zarifi.

Humanitarian assistance to the Pakistani refugees in Kunar province is being sent via the Afghan government because routes to the area, and the area itself, are not safe for direct humanitarian response.

It is essential that all government and international security forces in Afghanistan, as well as anti-government forces, ensure that free and safe passage of humanitarian assistance to these vulnerable refugees is made a priority, especially as the winter months approach. Particular attention should be given to groups with special protection needs, such as women, children, and the elderly.

“People who have fled the fighting, whether they have crossed the border or not, have the right not to be forced to return to Bajaur or other FATA areas and Afghans in the FATA are offered safe alternatives to returning to Afghanistan’s conflict-ridden south, until the security situation has improved,” said Zarifi.

Background
The armed conflict in Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Swat District of the North West Frontier Province began in early August but intensified in September. More than 250,000 people have reportedly been displaced.

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Measure to Prosecute Recruiters Abroad Puts Commanders on Notice
Under a new law signed today by US President George W. Bush, leaders of military forces and armed groups who have recruited child soldiers may be arrested and prosecuted in the United States, Human Rights Watch said today. The law could apply to leaders of dozens of forces that have recruited and used child soldiers in over 20 armed conflicts.
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Roma and Sinti populations continue to face discrimination and remain divided from mainstream society across Europe, says an OSCE report launched on the margins of the Organization’s annual human rights conference in Warsaw today.
The report, prepared by the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), says significant gaps remain in areas such as education, housing, employment and access to social services and justice.
The report reviews progress made by governments in implementing an OSCE Action Plan on improving the situation of Roma and Sinti adopted in 2003.

“Five years after the adoption of the OSCE Action Plan, we unfortunately have to conclude that progress has been minimal,” said Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, the Director of ODIHR. “The picture is still bleak, and it is clear that improving the situation of Roma and Sinti is unfinished business.”

The report stresses that, in a positive step, many OSCE states have tightened their anti-discrimination legislation and adopted national policies and strategies to address the situation of Roma and Sinti during the past years.
“Too often, however, the implementation process suffers from a lack of political will at the national level, and from a failure to implement policies at the local level,” says the report.
Insufficient funding, and scattered and piecemeal programmes mean that efforts to improve the situation of Roma and Sinti have been largely ad hoc and symbolic, with little hope of long-term sustainability.

“We do not need any more new declarations, strategies and policy papers. What we need is a genuine commitment by the OSCE participating States to take the existing Action Plan seriously, and use it as a concrete road map for tangible action to end the discrimination of Roma and Sinti,” said Andrzej Mirga, the head of ODIHR’s Contact Point on Roma and Sinti Issues.

Finnish State Secretary, Teija Tiilikainen, who represented the 2008 Finnish OSCE Chairmanship, called on states to implement the Action Plan. “We are very much urging participating States to study the recommendations of this status report and consider, but preferably also carry out intensified measures. For example, one concrete issue requiring our serious investment is the provision of early education for Roma children,” she said.

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Forty years after one of the worst incidents of mass killing in Mexico’s history, the Mexican government still hasn’t given answers to questions surrounding the massacre that took place in Mexico City, said Amnesty International.

The organization called on Mexican President Felipe Calderón to establish once and for all the truth behind the massacre that took place in La Plaza de Las Tres Culturas, Tlatelolco, Mexico City, just days before the 1968 Olympics opened. It also urged the government to provide justice and reparations for the families of the victims.

Estimates vary on how many were killed when the Mexican army opened fire on students peacefully demonstrating in Tlatelolco on 2 October 1968. The massacre began at about 6 pm, when police, military and unidentified armed men surrounded the square and opened fire from armoured cars and tanks, using heavy weapons. They fired on students gathered in the square and on surrounding residential buildings. Forty-four bodies were eventually released by the government – ten have still not been identified.

“Forty years on from the Tlatelolco massacre, so many disturbing questions remain unanswered,” said Javier Zúñiga, now a special advisor at Amnesty International who witnessed the arrival of government troops from a nearby bridge overlooking the square.

“Who ordered the massacre? For how long had it been planned? How many were killed? Who are those whose bodies still have not been identified?”

“It was getting dark at the time the gunfire started, so it was difficult to see exactly what was happening,” recalled Zúñiga. “But I remember, as clearly now as at the time, that the army moved into the square before the gunfire started and not as a consequence of it, as many government sources have maintained. People panicked and started running in different directions crying ‘the army is coming, the army is coming!’ Before long, it seemed as if the square was full with bodies.”

“I went back early the following morning and saw piles of belts and shoes. Pools of blood remained on the ground despite obvious efforts to wash them away. I also saw large bullet holes on concrete pillars at adult head height.”

Despite continuous efforts by victims, relatives and participants in the student movement to establish the truth of what occurred that night, the full facts have never been established and those responsible have not been held to account.

“The failure of the Mexican government to establish the truth of what happened on the night of 2 October 1968 has left a deep scar in Mexican society that can only be healed by full disclosure, bringing the perpetrators to justice, and providing reparations to the victims or their families,” said Kerrie Howard, Deputy Director of the Americas Programme at Amnesty International.

President Calderón’s government has been all but silent on this dark chapter in Mexico’s history,” said Kerrie Howard. “We challenge this administration to open all relevant archives and records, establish a new and independent inquiry, and lift the obstacles preventing those responsible for this horrific crime being brought to justice.”

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Secret Detainees Interrogated by US Officials Are Still in Custody
At least 10 victims of the 2007 Horn of Africa rendition program still languish in Ethiopian jails and the whereabouts of several others is unknown. Several of the detained men were interrogated by US officials in Addis Ababa soon after they were secretly transferred from Kenya to Somalia, and then to Ethiopia in early 2007.

The 54-page report, ‘Why Am I Still Here?’: The Horn of Africa Renditions and the Fate of the Missing, examines the 2007 rendition operation, during which at least 90 men, women, and children fleeing the armed conflict in Somalia were unlawfully rendered from Kenya to Somalia, and then on to Ethiopia. The report documents the treatment of several men still in Ethiopian custody, as well as the previously unreported experiences of recently released detainees, several of whom described being brutally tortured.

“The dozens of people caught up in the secret Horn of Africa renditions in 2007 have suffered in silence too long,” said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “Those governments involved – Ethiopia, Kenya and the US – need to reverse course, renounce unlawful renditions, and account for the missing.”

In late 2006, the Bush administration backed an Ethiopian military offensive that ousted the Islamist authorities from the Somali capital Mogadishu. The fighting caused thousands to flee across the border into Kenya, including some who were suspected of terrorist links.

Kenyan authorities arrested at least 150 men, women, and children from more than 18 countries – including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada – in operations near the Somali border and held them for weeks without charge in Nairobi. In January and February 2007, the Kenyan government then rendered dozens of them – with no notice to families, lawyers or the detainees themselves – on flights to Somalia, where they were handed over to the Ethiopian military. Ethiopian forces also arrested an unknown number of people in Somalia.

Those rendered were later transported to detention centers in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and other Ethiopian towns, where they effectively disappeared. Denied access to their embassies, their families, and international humanitarian organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, the detainees were even denied phone calls home. Several have said that they were housed in solitary cells, some as small as two meters by two meters, with their hands cuffed in painful positions behind their backs and their feet bound together.

For the most part, detainees were sent home soon after their interrogation by US agents ended. Of those known to have been interrogated by US officials, just eight Kenyans remain. (A ninth Kenyan in Addis Ababa was rendered to Ethiopia in July/August 2007, after US interrogations reportedly stopped.) These men, who have not been subjected to any interrogation since May 2007, would likely have been repatriated long ago but for the Kenyan government’s longstanding refusal to acknowledge their claims to Kenyan citizenship or to take steps to secure their release.

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As European Union monitors take up their posts in Georgia, ongoing security concerns, unexploded ordnance from the 7-13 August Georgia-Russia conflict and the large scale destruction of property in some parts of the conflict area continue to undermine the right of tens of thousands of people to return to their homes.

“Shootings, looting and ethnically motivated attacks in South Ossetia and the adjacent Russian-controlled ‘buffer zone’ are undermining the welfare of the remaining residents and the right to return of those ethnic Georgians who fled their homes,” said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International.

“The Russian and Georgian authorities, as well as the de facto South Ossetian administration must make every effort to guarantee security and provide assistance to all people without discrimination. Those forced to flee their homes must be allowed to return safely and those unable or unwilling to do so, must be resettled,” Nicola Duckworth said.

Unexploded devices must be cleared urgently  and Amnesty International is calling on all parties to the conflict to disclose all information about the munitions used.

International monitoring missions, which are currently excluded from operating in South Ossetia, should cover all areas affected by the conflict, include human rights monitoring in their mandates and report publicly on their findings.

Hundreds of civilians were killed and many more were wounded during the conflict and afterwards. Civilian property, mainly that owned by ethnic Georgians was looted and destroyed.

Information collected by Amnesty International in fact-finding visits to the region in August 2008, together with that from other sources, indicate that serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law may have been committed by all sides during the conflict and its immediate aftermath.

“Those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law must be brought to justice.  International law requires it and the long term peace and stability of the region depends on it,” said Nicola Duckworth.

Amnesty International therefore calls on the parties to the conflict to agree to, and the international community to deploy, a full fact-finding mission to carry out a thorough investigation of all allegations of serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law in the course of the conflict.

“Present needs should not be allowed to obscure responsibility for past deeds,” Nicola Duckworth said.

Background
According to UNHCR, an estimated 163,000 people were forced to flee their homes, including 127,000 displaced in Georgia proper and another 36,000 to the Russian Federation. Since the cessation of hostilities the great majority of the South Ossetians who fled to the Russian Federation have reportedly been able to return.
Of the estimated 127,000 persons displaced within Georgia, only around 68,000 have been able to return home, and another 5,000 were expected to be able to do so late this year. A further 23,000 are expected to be able to return in 2009. However, UNHCR has warned that 31,000 people may not be able to return in the foreseeable future. Of this figure, approximately 22,000 were displaced from South Ossetia, 8,000 from inaccessible parts of the buffer zone, and 1,000 from Abkhazia.

See also:
Georgia-Russia conflict: Protection of civilians and accountability for abuses should be a priority for all, AI Index: EUR 04/004/2008;
Council of Europe: Monitoring of the human rights impact of the Georgia-Russia conflict must continue, AI Index: EUR 04/003/2008.

Note to editors:
Amnesty International has also written to the governments of Georgia and the Russian Federation and the de facto administration of South Ossetia to request further information regarding alleged violations of international, humanitarian and human rights law, prior to publishing a report on its findings.

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For every two children released, five are taken and forced to be child soldiers, said Amnesty International, in a new report released today on the ongoing conflict in the province of North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Many of those recruited had already been reunited with their families after having been freed from armed groups who had previously kidnapped them and forced them to fight as child soldiers.

According to Amnesty International, of the former child soldiers who had been reunited with their families in North Kivu through a national demobilization programme, as many as half may since have been re-recruited by armed groups.

“It is precisely their previous experience with armed groups that makes them valuable recruits and puts these children at greater risk,” said Andrew Philip, Amnesty International’s expert on the DRC, who collected eyewitness testimony in the region. “The more they know, the more they are at risk of re-recruitment. In this case, experience can be deadly.”

The report also uncovers the extent of continuing physical and sexual abuse of women and children in the conflict, despite government and armed group commitments to bring such atrocities to an end.

Child soldiers who attempt to escape are killed or tortured, sometimes in front of other children, to discourage further escapes.

One former child soldier told Amnesty International how two youths were beaten to death in front of him and other child recruits “as a lesson to all of us not to try to escape”:

“[The boys] were brought out of a pit in the ground and presented to us during a training session. [An armed group senior commander] then gave the order to beat them. Two soldiers and a captain pushed them down into the mud. When they tired of kicking them…they beat them with wooden sticks. The punishment lasted 90 minutes, until they died.”

Other children, taken captive by the DRC army on suspicion of being armed group fighters, reported that they were ill-treated and tortured in military detention.

But it is not only children who face extreme abuse in the eastern DRC.

“The human rights situation in North Kivu is appalling,” said Andrew Philip. “Armed groups and government forces continue to rape women and girls. Even infants and elderly women are among the victims – some of whom have been gang raped. Disturbingly, rapes are often committed in public and in front of family members, including children.”

One 16-year-old rape survivor described how she had been abducted by two junior army officers and held captive in an army camp in North Kivu for several days before she was released. In the camp, she was raped nightly by one of the officers.
“The other officers and soldiers in the camp didn’t seem to care or be willing to take responsibility”, she told Amnesty International. She now suffers flashbacks and persistent headaches.

In its report, Amnesty International issued comprehensive recommendations to the armed groups, DRC government and the international community aimed at stopping human rights abuses. The recommendations include a call on armed groups to immediately release all children associated with their forces, and measures to end to the horror of sexual violence.

Notes:

• In an “Act of Engagement” signed on 23 January 2008, armed groups in the operating in the North Kivu province of the DRC agreed to end the killing, rape and torture of civilians, and the recruitment of child soldiers.
• More than 100,000 people have been displaced by renewed fighting in North Kivu since 28 August 2008, adding to more than 1 million people displaced by earlier violence in the region.

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Rich and powerful individuals and groups involved in land disputes in Cambodia are increasingly using their power to silence opponents through the criminal justice system, said Amnesty International today, as it called for greater protection for human rights defenders.

In the briefing paper ‘A risky business - defending the right to housing’, Amnesty International provides examples of abuses of human rights defenders working for the promotion of land rights and against forced evictions in Cambodia in the last two years.

Informal village leader Chhea Ny, released in December 2007 after 16 months in prison, told Amnesty International: “I was chained and held in a dark prison cell for one week. I was so miserable. And I was not allowed to wash. After one week they removed the chain from my legs. When they took off the chain they let me stay outside in daylight, and they offered an apology; they said they had made a mistake and [punished] the wrong man.” He had been arrested in August 2006 over a long-standing land dispute with local officials, business people and high-ranking military in Boeung Pram village, in Battambang province.

“His case is a blatant example of what happens when the legal system fails to protect human rights and to serve justice,” said Brittis Edman, Amnesty International’s Cambodia Researcher.

According to local human rights groups, over the past two years the number of land activists arrested has practically doubled from 78 in 2006 to 149 in 2007. This rise corresponds with an increase in the number of reports alleging that police have unfairly arrested land activists; prosecutors have pressed groundless criminal charges against them; and law enforcement and court officials have threatened people protesting against forced evictions with arrest or imprisonment.

“The rapid increase in the number of peaceful land activists in prison is a serious concern in its own right. But every imprisoned human rights defender becomes a tool for intimidation of other activists, demonstrating that detention, trials and imprisonment are a real threat,” said Brittis Edman.

“The Cambodian authorities must ensure that the legal system fairly protects all parties involved in land disputes and protecting human rights, and must investigate allegations of intimidation and unlawful arrests of human rights defenders.”

Background
Attacks against such activists violate international human rights law provisions guaranteeing the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly and the right to participate in public life. They run counter to the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which reflects and details these rights. In many cases, other rights of human rights defenders have been violated, including the right to equality before the courts and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention.

In 2008, some 150,000 Cambodians were known to live at risk of being forcibly evicted in the wake of land disputes, land grabbing, and agro-industrial and urban redevelopment projects. Tens of thousands have already been forcibly evicted in recent years, many left homeless, others relocated to inadequate resettlement sites with poor infrastructure, lacking basic amenities including sanitation, and with limited access to work opportunities.

In a report released in February 2008, Amnesty International showed how the Cambodian authorities are failing to protect - in law and practice - the population against forced evictions. By contrast, those with political or economic power are allowed to act with impunity in arbitrarily expropriating land. They do so by colluding with local authorities in ways that lead to the issuing of dubious land titles and eviction orders, and the misuse of the court system to prevent victims from acting to defend their rights.

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UN Should Press Military Leaders to Keep Their Promises
The international community should demand accountability from the Burmese military government for the brutal crackdown in September 2007 on monks, activists, and other civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. Repression in Burma has increased and the military government has failed to deliver on promises it made a year ago, despite international efforts at mediation.

The crackdown that began on September 26, 2007, was a brutal response to growing protests initially triggered in part by the doubling of fuel prices in mid-August 2007. In the following weeks, Buddhist monks in Rangoon, Mandalay, and other towns across Burma staged peaceful marches to protest government policies and poor living standards. Lay supporters gradually joined the marches, swelling to tens of thousands of people calling for political, economic and social reforms.

“Last September, the Burmese people courageously challenged their military rulers, and they were answered with violence and contempt,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The repression continues. While a handful of political activists have been released, more are being arrested and thousands remain in prison.”

On September 23, 2008, the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) announced the release of 9,002 prisoners from Burma’s jails, among them seven political activists, including 78-year-old U Win Tin, a prominent activist and journalist imprisoned since 1989.

But in August and September 2008 alone, the Burmese authorities arrested an estimated 39 political activists and sentenced 21 to prison terms. On September 16, Burmese authorities arrested Nilar Thein, a prominent activist in hiding since the 2007 protests. Zargana, a famous activist and comedian, has remained in prison since July 2008 for publicly criticizing the SPDC’s slow response to aid following Cyclone Nargis. The SPDC currently holds more than 2,100 political prisoners, including more than 800 arrested following the 2007 protests.
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