Bangladeshi security forces have killed at least 150 protesters since February, using excessive force during demonstrations against war crime trials for top Islamists, a rights group said Thursday. …read more
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Myanmar President Thein Sein denied on Friday accusations of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims, saying the claims were part of a “smear campaign” against his government.
On a visit to Paris, Sein told France 24 television that his government was not guilty of the charges.
“Outside elements are just exaggerating, fabricating news, there is no ethnic cleansing whatsoever,” he said.
“This is a smear campaign against the government. What happened in Rakhine was not ethnic cleansing.”
In April, Human Rights Watch accused Myanmar of “a campaign of ethnic cleansing” against the Rohingya.
It cited evidence of mass graves and forced displacement affecting tens of thousands.
The New York-based HRW said Myanmar officials, community leaders and Buddhist monks organised and encouraged mobs, backed by state security forces, to conduct coordinated attacks on Muslim villages in October in the western state of Rakhine.
Communal unrest last year in Rakhine left about 200 people dead and up to 140,000 displaced, mainly Rohingyas, who are denied citizenship by Myanmar.
Dozens more people died in Buddhist-Muslim clashes in central Myanmar in March.
Thein Sein, on a European tour that took him to Britain and France, said the unrest had been contained and insisted authorities were looking to prevent further violence.
“The government has been able to contain this communal violence and things have returned to normal,” he said.
“My government has set up an independent commission to investigate the root causes of this communal violence. We have also been implementing the recommendations issued by the commission.”
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A rights group says a prominent gay rights activist in Cameroon has been tortured and killed just weeks after issuing a public warning about the threat posed by “anti-gay thugs.”
Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that friends discovered the body of Eric Ohena Lembembe at his home in the capital, Yaounde, on Monday evening after he was unreachable for two days.
One friend said Lembembe’s neck and feet looked broken and that he had been burned with an iron.
Lembembe was executive director of CAMFAIDS, a human rights organization. In a July 1 statement, he condemned recent break-ins by “anti-gay thugs” at the offices of groups advocating for gay rights.
The precise motive for Lembembe’s killing was unclear Tuesday. HRW urged officials to launch a thorough investigation.
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More than a quarter of Chinese children with disabilities don’t get to go to school, while many of those who do are blocked from mainstream institutions or taught by untrained teachers, a human rights group said Tuesday.
The report by New York-based Human Rights Watch said young Chinese students with disabilities are denied access to regular schools unless they can prove they can adapt to the schools’ physical and learning environment, and that accommodations for such students are “little to none.”
In one example, the group said a mother went to school several times a day to carry her child up and down stairs because the restroom was on a different floor from the classroom.
The report sheds light on how China’s burgeoning problem of social inequality — even in education — applies to people with disabilities. In China, there is only a nascent public awareness of the issues that people with disabilities face.
Prejudice and social stigma run high in this deeply competitive society, driving many parents to abandon children with disabilities to China’s chronically underfunded state orphanage system.
Just days before the Human Rights Watch report was released, China’s Education Ministry issued its own report on the same topic.
The ministry’s report said that 28 percent of Chinese children with disabilities are not enrolled in China’s compulsory nine-year education. But it said the 72 percent enrollment rate represented a jump of nearly 10 percentage points from 2008, and that an increasing number of disabled students were in regular schools with proper accommodations.
Maya Wang, a researcher for the rights group, said the ministry’s report failed to show how it was making mainstream schools more accessible to disabled students, as the government is obligated to do under an international treaty on the rights of disabled people that Beijing ratified in 2008.
Yang Zhanqing, an independent advocate for people with disabilities, said the HRW report is “quite objective” but that the picture would be worse if interviewees from remote, mountainous regions were included in the research.
Another activist had harsher words on the overall situation.
“No Chinese student with disabilities has his or her rights fully protected,” said Cheng Yuan of the non-governmental agency Ganzhilu, which helps …read more
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An international rights group has condemned Gaza’s Hamas rulers for failing to investigate the public slayings of seven Palestinian men accused of collaborating with Israel.
Human Rights Watch says Gaza’s Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh had promised an investigation into the deaths.
The New York-based group says that four months after masked Hamas gunmen killed the suspects and dragged their bodies through the streets, Gaza’s authorities have done nothing to address the murders.
The men had been imprisoned in Gaza but were apparently handed over to the Hamas gunmen during a November bout of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants. The men were paraded into a public square, accused of aiding Israel and shot.
Islam Shahwan, spokesman for Hamas’ Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip, had no comment on HRW‘s charges.
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An international rights group says the Syrian regime has been carrying out indiscriminate and sometimes deliberate airstrikes against civilians that have killed at least 4,300 people since last summer.
Human Rights Watch says Syrian fighter jets have targeted bakeries, breadlines and hospitals in the country’s north. Parts of the region have fallen under the control of rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.
In a report Thursday, the New York-based group says its activists inspected 52 sites in northern Syria, documenting 59 attacks by the Syrian Air Force that killed at least 152 people.
HRW says that across Syria, more than 4,300 civilians have been killed in attacks by Assad’s jets since last July.
The United Nations says that more than 70,000 people have been killed in Syria‘s 2-year-old conflict.
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Human Rights Watch says people accused of being gay in Cameroon are being tortured in prison and mocked by judges in court.
A 61-page report released Thursday documents abuses undertaken by officials pursuing cases under Cameroon‘s notorious Article 347.
The law criminalizes sexual activity between members of the same sex, punishable by up to five years in prison.
Cameroonian officials could not be reached for comment Thursday on the report.
HRW researcher Neela Ghoshal said there had been a noticeable drop-off in arrests in recent months. But she said the criminalization of homosexuality nonetheless makes gay men and lesbians vulnerable to extortion and other forms of abuse.
Homosexuality is illegal in many African countries, though Cameroon has been especially active in prosecuting and convicting people.
An international human rights group has urged Yemen‘s government to crack down human rights violations it says have taken place since the country’s 2011 uprising.
In a statement issued Saturday, Human Rights Watch also urged Yemeni authorities to investigate the death of at least four protesters who died in clashes with security forces in the city of Aden on Thursday.
The group said President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi had failed to fulfill a pledge to form a committee to investigate human rights crimes committed during the uprising.
“President Hadi should crack down on rights abusers and consolidate the rule of law,” said Joe Stork, HRW deputy Middle East director.
The group noticed some improvements in Yemen but expressed concern over the slow pace of reform.
A U.S.-based rights group says Israel violated laws of war in a series of airstrikes during an eight-day military operation last November against the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip.
Human Rights Watch says it counted 14 airstrikes in which there didn’t appear to be a valid military target, and four others targeting militants, but which used disproportionate force.
HRW says the attacks killed more than 40 Palestinian civilians. It cites a bomb attack on a Gaza home that killed a father and two children, ages 4 and 2. The group released the report late Tuesday.
Israel‘s air assault came after increased rocket fire and other attacks by Gaza militants.
The military had no immediate comment. In the past, it has accused Hamas of using civilians for cover.
An international human rights group has accused Yemen of failing to investigate the 2011 killing of 45 anti-government protesters during the uprising against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Human Rights Watch says in a report released Tuesday that top former officials — including Saleh’s relatives, such as his nephew — should be held responsible for the slayings.
The New York-based group was referring to the March 18, 2011 incident, when the government unleashed security forces on the demonstrators in the capital, Sanaa.
Saleh stepped down last year, following year-long protests against his rule.
HRW‘s senior researcher Letta Tayler warned that “if Yemen doesn’t fairly investigate and prosecute those responsible for this deadly attack, it risks perpetuating the culture of impunity at the heart of Yemen‘s uprising.”
An international rights group says Lebanon has failed to enact political reforms to curb human rights abuses, promote women’s rights, and protect migrants and refuges as the country grapples with spillover effects from neighboring Syria‘s civil war.
Human Rights Watch hailed the Lebanese government for keeping its borders open for tens of thousands of Syrians who fled their homes because of fighting between rebels and government troops. However, the U.S.-based watchdog called on authorities to do more to protect refugees from being detained by security services or deported despite a risk of persecution by the Syrian regime.
In comments released Thursday in the Lebanon section of its annual report, HRW also urged lawmakers to amend laws that discriminate against women, including those that govern access to divorce and child custody.
Three suspected jihadists arrested in the days since the liberation of the town of Timbuktu said Friday that Malian soldiers were torturing them with a method similar to waterboarding.
The three are being held in an earthen cell in what remains of the military camp in Timbuktu, which was freed earlier this week by French and Malian soldiers after nearly 10 months under the rule of radical Islamists.
The men, who were tied together with a turban and one handcuff, all acknowledged to The Associated Press having been members of the Al Qaeda-linked group known as Ansar Dine, or Defenders of the Faith.
“To force me to talk they poured 40 liters of water in my mouth and over my nostrils which made it so that I could not breathe anymore. For a moment I thought I was even going to die,” said one of the men, who gave his name as Ali Guindo and said he was from a village near the central Malian town of Niono.
“I sleep in the cold and every night they come pour freezing water over me. “
All three prisoners described similar treatment. Their account could not be independently verified. Soldiers holding the three asked reporters to leave after initially allowing journalists to speak with them.
Army Col. Mamary Camara told reporters that the three were arrested by Malian forces in the town of Lere, and he said that one of the men was from Libya and was caught wearing a foreign military uniform.
The Libyan jihadist was visibly frightened, crouching in a corner of his cell. He gave the AP contradictory information about his background, first saying he was born in a Malian village but of Libyan descent.
Later, he said he was from Tripoli but has lived for years in Mali. He initially denied being part of Ansar Dine but later confirmed that he belonged to the movement though he denied having an important role.
The Malian military said that when he was arrested he was wearing a watch with a memory card inside that they said was used to communicate with other foreign jihadists.
The allegations of torture made public Friday in Timbuktu come as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International released reports Friday outlining other allegations of misconduct by the Malian military and Islamists over the last month.
Both groups said they had documented cases of Malian soldiers killing suspected Islamist supporters in Sevare on the eve of the French-led intervention. Human Rights Watch document at least 13 killings, though Amnesty said the number could be as high as two dozen.
Human Rights Watch said the witnesses described seeing soldiers at a bus station in Sevare interrogate passengers suspected of links to extremist groups. Those who did not produce the proper identification were taken away, the witnesses said.
“Before the soldiers marched them off, many of the detained men frantically tried to find someone in the crowd at the bus station who could vouch for them and verify their identity,” the HRW report said. “They were driven or marched to a nearby field, where they were shot and their bodies dumped into one of four wells.”
The Associated Press had earlier reported killings of civilians by the Malian army in Sevare, with bodies dumped into a well.
The Malian government has promised to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by its soldiers.
France has said that it eventually wants to hand over responsibility for the mission to the Malian army and other African counterparts.
Friday’s reports also cited alleged human rights abuses committed by the Islamists. Human Rights Watch said Islamist rebels had killed at least seven Malian soldiers.
“One begged for his life saying, `Please, in the name of God.’ but they held him down and slit his throat,” a witness told HRW. “Two days later, as we picked up the dead soldiers to bury them, the Islamists saw that five of them were still living. Most were gravely wounded but they were still breathing and should have been given a chance to live. Instead the Islamists killed them — one after the other.”
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A New York-based rights group has urged Egyptian authorities not to repatriate asylum seekers to Syria, saying such a move would violate international laws since they could face violence and persecution in their home country.
Human Rights Watch says in a Friday report that two Palestinians held in Cairo International Airport are at risk of deportation to Syria, and could follow in the steps of two Syrians already deported. Egyptian authorities are also considering repatriating 13 other Syrians.
“Egypt may have a right to detain people temporarily or investigate them on grounds of false documentation but it may not under any circumstance return them to Syria,” said Bill Frelick, HRW refugee director.
Egypt has provided protection for more than 13,000 refugees from Syria.
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