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Tag: Law and crime prevention

  • Myanmar: Secretive military courts sentence scores of people to death

    Myanmar: Secretive military courts sentence scores of people to death

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    “The military continues to hold proceedings in secretive courts in violation of basic principles of fair trial and contrary to core judicial guarantees of independence and impartiality”, Volker Türk added, calling for the suspension of all executions and a return to a moratorium on death penalty. 

    Dealing out death  

    On Wednesday, a military court sentenced at least seven university students to death.  

    “Military courts have consistently failed to uphold any degree of transparency contrary to the most basic due process or fair trial guarantees”, underscored Mr. Türk.  

    Meanwhile, on Thursday, reports revealed that as many as four additional death sentences were being issued against youth activists.  

    The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) is currently seeking clarification on those cases. 

    No justice 

    In July, the military carried out four State executions – the first in approximately 30 years.  

    Despite calls from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the international community to desist, a former lawmaker, a democracy activist, and two others, were put to death. 

    Close to 1,700 detainees out of the nearly 16,500 who have been arrested for opposing last year’s military’s coup have been tried and convicted in secret by ad hoc tribunals, sometimes lasting just minutes.  

    They have frequently been denied access to lawyers or their families and none have been acquitted. 

    The latest convictions would bring the total number of people sentenced to capital punishment since 1 February 2021 to 139 individuals. 

    Unaligned with ASEAN 

    Mr. Türk reminded that the military’s actions are not in keeping with the ASEAN peace plan, known as the five-point consensus – that includes the “immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar” – which the regional bloc had re-committed to upholding last month during the ASEAN summit. 

    At the summit, Secretary-General António Guterres had warned that the political, security, human rights and humanitarian situation in Myanmar was “sliding ever deeper into catastrophe”, condemning the escalating violence, disproportionate use of force, and “appalling human rights situation” in the country. 

    “By resorting to use death sentences as a political tool to crush opposition, the military confirms its disdain for the efforts by ASEAN and the international community at large to end violence and create the conditions for a political dialogue to lead Myanmar out of a human rights crisis created by the military” the UN human rights chief spelled out. 

    Forced evictions

    At the same time, the Myanmar military is forcibly evicting over 50,000 people from informal settlements and systematically destroying homes in what two UN-appointed independent human rights experts called a fundamental violation of core human rights obligations.

    Without providing alternative housing or land, last month more than 40,000 residents living in informal settlements throughout Mingaladon, a township in northern Yangon, were evicted – with most given only a few days to dismantle the homes that they had lived in for decades.

    After receiving eviction notices, the lack of options swayed some residents to remain while two reportedly committed suicide out of desperation.

    “Forced evictions from Mingaladon are only part of the story. Violent arbitrary housing demolitions continue across the country”, the Special Rapporteurs on the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, and situation of human rights in Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, said in a statement.

    UNHCR/Roger Arnold

    Rohingya Muslims forced from Myanmar flee to Bangladesh.

    ‘Scorched earth’ policy

    According to the experts, not only those living in informal settlements in Myanmar’s cities were subjected to forced evictions and housing demolitions.

    “Homes continued to be systematically destroyed, bombed and burned down in orchestrated attacks on villages by the Myanmar security forces and junta-backed militias”, they said.

    Since the military coup last year, more than 38,000 houses have been destroyed, triggering the widespread displacement of over 1.1 million people.

    On 23 November, 95 of 130 houses in the Kyunhla Township were burned down when the Myanmar military set fire to the settlement.

    These incidents follow patterns of violence used against Rohingya villages during genocidal attacks in 2017.

    “The policies of scorched earth in Myanmar are widespread and follow a systematic pattern,” the experts said.

    Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not paid for their work.

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  • Cambodia: In visit to genocide museum, UN chief warns of the dangers of hate and persecution

    Cambodia: In visit to genocide museum, UN chief warns of the dangers of hate and persecution

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    Mr. Guterres was speaking at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, memorial site of the infamous S-21 interrogation and detention centre under the bloody regime, which lasted from 1975 to 1979.

    ‘An essential reminder’

    It is estimated that up to 18,000 people from across Cambodia were brought to the facility, located in a former secondary school in the heart of the capital.  

    Only a few survived.

    “Tuol Sleng is an essential reminder. Its bloodstained bricks and tiles are a warning to us all: This is what happens whenhatred runs rampant. This is what happens when human beings are persecuted, and human rights are denied,” said Mr. Guterres.

    Forced labour and executions

    The Secretary-General was at the Museum  to pay tribute to all the victims and survivors of the Khmer Rouge’s brutality throughout Cambodia.

    The regime followed a radical ideology rooted in different communist beliefs and politics. Religion, traditions, and deep-rooted family relations were forbidden.

    People were forced to leave major cities to work in agricultural communes in the countryside.

    Institutions such as schools, pagodas, industries and factories were destroyed, and intellectuals, professionals and monks were killed.

    Overall, nearly two million people, roughly a quarter of the population, are thought to have died during these years of forced labour, starvation, torture and execution.

    Photographed, interrogated and killed

    People brought to Tuol Sleng were photographed and many were tortured, for example to extract false confessions that they were secret agents of the United States government. 

    Prisoners were detained, interrogated and killed, or taken to another site on the outskirts of the capital called Choeung Ek, one of the many “killing fields” where mass executions were carried out.

    Most of the rooms at Tuol Sleng have been kept in the same condition as they were when the Khmer Rouge were ousted by invading Vietnamese troops.

    “The suffering that took place within these walls is horrific and shocking. The stories of survival and resilience are moving and inspiring,” the Secretary-General remarked. 

    Pledge to never forget

    Mr. Guterres thanked the Museum for its extraordinary work to raise awareness of the atrocities committed under the Khmer Rouge, as part of efforts to ensure they can never happen again.  
     
    He recalled that the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia have held regime leaders accountable for these crimes and provided a voice to victims and survivors. 

    “Their voices are more important than ever, at a time when hate speech, abuse, discrimination and harassment are on the rise in every corner of the world,” he said.

    Uphold inclusion and dignity

    The UN chief stressed that preserving the memory of those who suffered and died at Tuol Sleng will help to prevent atrocities from being repeated.

    “I promised to tell the story that I heard from one of the survivors to my granddaughters and I’ll tell them to convey that story to their grandchildren. It is essential that the memory of what happened here is never lost,” he said.

    “By learning to recognize the first warning signs of genocide and other atrocity crimes, and honouring the values of inclusion and dignity, we can lay the foundations for a future in which such horrors can never happen again.”

    The Secretary-General was in Cambodia to address the latest meeting between the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), held last Friday in the capital.

    He will next head to Bali to attend the G20 summit, which begins on Tuesday.

    The UN chief travelled to the region from Egypt, host of the COP27 UN climate change conference which concludes on Friday.

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  • Afghanistan: Opium cultivation up nearly a third, warns UNODC

    Afghanistan: Opium cultivation up nearly a third, warns UNODC

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    Opium cultivation in Afghanistan – latest findings and emerging threats, is the first report on the illicit opium trade since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.

    The authorities banned all cultivation of opium poppy and all narcotics under strict new laws, in April 2022.

    Opium is the essential ingredient for manufacturing the street drug heroin, and the class of medical prescription opioids which millions rely on for pain medication worldwide. Opioids have also been increasingly abused, causing widespread addiction issues in countries such as the United States.

    This year’s harvest was largely exempted from the decree, said UNODC, and farmers in Afghanistan must now decide on planting opium poppy for next year amid continued uncertainty about how the Taliban will enforce the ban.

    Sowing of the main 2023 opium crop must be done by early November this year.

    Opiate limbo

    “Afghan farmers are trapped in the illicit opiate economy, while seizure events around Afghanistan suggest that opiate trafficking continues unabated,” said UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly, launching the new survey.

    “The international community must work to address the acute needs of the Afghan people, and to step up responses to stop the criminal groups trafficking heroin and harming people in countries around the world.”

    According to UNODC findings, cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan increased by 32 per cent over the previous year, to 233,000 hectares – making the 2022 crop the third largest area under cultivation since monitoring began.

    Hub in Helmand

    Cultivation continued to be concentrated in the southwestern parts of the country, which accounted for 73 per cent of the total area, and registering the largest crop increase.

    In Helmand province, one-fifth of all arable land was dedicated to opium poppy cultivation.

    Income triples

    Opium prices have soared following the announcement of the cultivation ban in April. Income made by Afghan farmers from opium sales more than tripled, from $425 million in 2021 to $1.4 billion in 2022.

    The new figure is equivalent to 29 per cent of the entire 2021 value of the agricultural sector. In 2021, the farm-gate value of opiates was only worth some nine per cent of the previous year’s agricultural output.

    However, the increase in income did not necessarily translate into purchasing power, the UNDP survey notes, as inflation has soared during the same period, with the price of food increasing by 35 percent on average.

    Yields down

    Following a drought at the start of this year, opium yields declined from an average of 38.5 kilogrammes per hectare (kg/ha), in 2021, to an estimated 26.7 kg/ha this year, resulting in a harvest of 6,200 tons – 10 per cent smaller than in 2021.

    The 2022 harvest can be converted into 350-380 tons of heroin of export quality, said UNDP, at 50-70 per cent purity.

    Traffickers plough on

    Seizure events collected by UNODC´s Drugs Monitoring Platform suggest that opiate trafficking from Afghanistan has been ongoing without interruption since August 2021. Afghan opiates supply some 80 per cent of all opiate users in the world.

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