Individuals at Risk

Denmark is preparing to deport four Iraqi men convicted of criminal offenses to Iraq, where they will face torture, ill-treatment or death at the hands of any one of the dangerous armed groups roaming the country. All four men had become legal residents of Denmark. Danish authorities are also attempting to reach an agreement with Iraqi officials to deport another 364 rejected Iraqi asylum-seekers.

With 4.7 million people displaced in the years since the invasion of Iraq, the situation in Denmark highlights the international community's negligent response to the plight of these refugees.

"Governments have done little or nothing to help Iraqi refugees, failing in their moral, political and legal duty to share responsibility for them...Instead, apathy and rhetoric have been the overwhelming response to one of the worst refugee crises in the world," Amnesty International said in a recently released report on the plight of Iraqi refugees.

Traditionally, Denmark had been kinder to Iraqi refugees than many other countries. When Danish troops pulled out of Iraq in 2007, they brought with them 370 Iraqi interpreters, drivers and support staff that assisted their troops.

Unfortunately now Denmark has been struck with anti-immigration sentiment that has caused them to shift their policies. These policies, however, violate the various international treaties against sending asylum-seekers, refugees or rejected-asylum seekers back to countries where they would face a risk of human rights violations.

The "little or nothing" that Amnesty International is talking about in its recent report partly refers to the United States, which has allowed less than 5,000 Iraqis to enter the U.S. in the past five years. Those 5,000 are provided with about $400 a month for four months, plus $100 in food stamps, according to a recent article in The New York Times.

Approximately 2 million Iraqis now live as refugees in Jordan or Syria, where they are met with hostility and often live in hiding. Children of refugees rarely receive education and are often left on the streets to beg or are forced into child labor.

To take action to prevent the deportation of the four Iraqi men in Denmark, please take part in this Urgent Action.

Chelsea Toy - Urgent Action Network

The situation in Zimbabwe is deteriorating, and the Zimbabwe Civic Action Support Group has documented 1429 cases of political violence across the country. With levels of political violence in Zimbabwe reaching new highs, I'm having a hard time today nailing down what to say about the country and its human rights abuses. There is so much to talk about. 

Yesterday,  MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew his name from the runoff election because of the violence surrounding the election process. Tsvangirai said that he did not want to endanger his supporters as they went to the polls and that the violence surrounding the election process makes it instead a war "and we will not be part of that war."

Doctors treating victims of the violence have confirmed that at least 85 people have died as a direct result of political violence, and many, many more have been severely injured. Army trucks have brought loads of youth militiamen to areas where MDC supporters gathered, beating them with sticks and metal poles.

Last night, 30 people, many of them women and children, were arrested and taken to an undisclosed location in a raid on the MDC headquarters in Harare. Here, you'll find a link to a short film documenting how the MDC headquarters served as a refuge to those displaced and injured by political and state-sponsored violence. In the video, it's obvious that the headquarters served as a safe haven for MDC supporters before the raid.

Zimbabwean bloggers are reaching out to the rest of the world for help, and Zimbabwean ex-pat newspapers are running full-length memos written by the Movement for Democratic Change's leaders. Also, this interactive map of political violence shows how dire the situation really is.

Amnesty International has a quick online action for stopping violence against human rights defenders in Zimbabwe. Also, Individuals at Risk is highlighting the case of Women of Zimbabwe Arise!, a women's human rights group in Zimbabwe. These women have been illegally detained for expressing their opinions and are in grave danger of torture or other ill-treatment. Please take part in this Urgent Action Appeal by clicking here and writing a letter to those listed.

Oh, and check out today's headline in Zimbabwe's leading (government-run) newspaper...

Up to 820 Eritreans have been forcibly returned from Egypt to Eritrea, where they are in grave danger of arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention, torture or other forms of ill-treatment. Amnesty International has released an Urgent Action asking members to write to Eritrean leaders, urging them to disclose the names of all the Eritreans who have been forcibly returned from Egypt and to not detain, torture or ill-treat those who have been returned.

Two asylum-seekers who were returned in May by German authorities were arrested on arrival and have not been seen since. These deportations go against international law. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) opposes return to Eritrea of rejected Eritrean asylum-seekers because of Eritrea's egregious human rights record.

 Click here to take a quick internet action to stop Egypt from deporting Eritreans, and click here to prevent the torture and detention of those already deported.

The UN News Service reported today that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour urged Egypt to stop deportations of Eritreans, saying, "People who could well be at risk in their home country should never be sent back before their asylum claims have been properly addressed."

According to AI sources, 690 Eritreans have already been sent back to Eritrea where they are at severe risk of torture and incommunicado detention. Many of these Eritreans originally fled Eritrea to avoid it's mandatory military service for every citizen between the ages of 18-40, and for this they will face severe punishment.

Amnesty International urges continued pressure on the Egyptian government to halt these deportations. Please take action immediately on behalf of these asylum-seekers. For more information, check out Urgent Action 165/08.

Chelsea Toy - Urgent Action Network

Iranian officials broke up a peaceful protest with tear gas and electric shock batons and then arrested 200 of the protestors. At the same time, plainclothed police officers arrested a female journalist and women's rights activist who happened to be riding a bus passed the demonstration.

When her bus drove past the anti-government corruption protest in Tehran that she was not involved in, Mahboubeh Karami was taken by plainclothed police officers from the bus and arrested. Karami's mother reported that her daughter was simply running an errand and was not at all involved in the protest. Currently, her whereabouts are unknown, and she is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

Karami is a member of the One Million Signatures campaign, which aims at ending gender discriminatory laws and practices in Iran.  This campaign was completely separate from the issue being protested at the time of Karami's arrest.

For more information on this case and to take action to release Mahboubeh Karami, see Urgent Action 169/08.

This video, filmed at an AI event in the UK in 2007, highlights what happens to bloggers and journalists who exercise freedom of expression in Iran.

Nearly a year after the International Federation of Journalists condemned attacks on journalists by paramilitary groups in Colombia, journalists again are the target of threats by the United Self-Defense groups of Colombia (AUC). In what international press organizations call "the most dangerous country for journalists in the Americas," six more journalists fear for their lives after receiving death threats.

On June 13, Amnesty International released an Urgent Action on behalf of Isneldo González, Élinda Parra Alfonso, Emiro Goyeneche Goyeneche, Ismael Antonia Rodríguez, Alexis Iván Rojas and Deibys Pantoja Cerrerño, all employees of Emisora Communitaria Sarare FM, a community radio station in the Arauca Department of Colombia.

On May 8, these employees received an identical text message that said, "For the wellbeing of you and your loved ones, do not meddle in subjects that do not concern the radio station. AUC Arauca." On May 28, the letters "AUC" were painted on the front entrance of the station.

Some employees of the radio station had participated in a public meeting on September 27, 2007, denouncing human rights violations by different factions fighting in the region.

For years, journalists have been in grave danger in Colombia, largely due to hostilities with paramilitary organizations, or right-wing, illegally armed groups. Amnesty International has been issuing Urgent Actions on behalf of journalists in Colombia who risk their lives throughout the decades long conflict.In 2004, AI released an Urgent Action on behalf of journalist Claudia Julieta Duque and her 10 year old daughter, who received death threats after Duque wrote articles on freedom of speech. Human rights defender and journalist Iván Cepeda was threatened via email in May 2006 for his criticism of the "supposed demobilization of the country's paramilitary groups and the impunity this process threatens to give to human rights violators, the limited opportunities given to the victims to seek justice and the role of the State in trying to hide violations of human rights." (UA 130/06)

Journalists in Colombia, as well as human rights defenders, lawyers, women's rights activists, unionists and farmers have faced threats from paramilitary organizations across the country.

The threats on journalists' lives in Colombia are not empty. On February 4, 2007, radio host Gustavo Rojas Gabaldo, 56, was shot in the head and clavicle and killed by paramilitary forces after he criticized links between the government and the groups. He had nine children.

On the Freedom House scale of press freedom, Colombia sits at a grim 120 out of 195 countries. The 2007 Freedom House report on press freedom in Colombia said, "Government investigations and prosecutions for crimes against journalists have been slow and inconclusive, contributing to an atmosphere of impunity. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, none of the 39 cases of journalists murdered since 1992 have been fully resolved." Reporters Without Borders ranks Colombia at an even grimmer 126.

To ask the government to protect journalists in Colombia, check out Urgent Action 167/08.

Chelsea Toy - Urgent Action Network

Egypt deported another 490 Eritrean asylum-seekers back to Eritrea, where they are at high risk of facing grave human rights abuses, such as torture and incommunicado detention, violating the 1951 Refugee Convention and the UN Convention Against Torture. Many of those being deported are women and children who have committed no crimes.  

On June 12, Egypt deported 200 Eritreans, and another 900 sit in detention at risk of deportation. On June 15, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt announced that the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Egypt would be allowed to access the Eritreans' asylum claims, something Egypt had been preventing for months prior to the start of the deportations.

Many of the asylum-seekers begged the security forces not to deport them and even threatened to kill themselves. They boarded the planes without a physical fight, yet they continued to beg for mercy.

Two asylum-seekers returned to Eritrea from Germany on May 14 were arrested immediately on arrival and have not been seen since.

Amnesty International welcomes the authorities' June 15 decision to give the UNHCR access to the Eritrean asylum-seekers held at the Central Security Forces camp in Shallat; however, Egypt is still in violation with various international agreements against deportation of asylum-seekers to Eritrea.

It is of the most urgent nature that these deportations be halted. People's lives are at risk. To prevent these deportations, 552 individuals have taken part in Amnesty International's online action asking the Egyptian government to obey international obligations. Please continue to take action on behalf of these asylum-seekers to stop them from facing imminent human rights abuses or, for further information, check out Urgent Action 165/08.

Chelsea Toy - Urgent Action Network

Amnesty International has just received word that the Egyptian government is deporting 1,400 Eritreans back to Eritrea in the coming days. Today, 200 Eritreans have already been deported and another 180 are waiting on a plane to leave for Asmara, Eritrea tonight.

These Eritreans, seeking refugee status in Egypt, are being told that they are going to Cairo to the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), when in actuality they are being boarded onto Egypt Air or other Egyptian planes and sent back to their home country.

When told where they were really going, some Eritreans fought hard and were beaten badly by Egyptian authorities. Upon returning to Eritrea, they will be at a serious risk of torture, incommunicado detention and other inhumane treatment while in detention, which could last for days, weeks or even years.

Before the first group of 200 asylum-seekers was deported, they were denied access to their lawyers who wanted to provide these Eritreans with food and medication.

Many of the Eritreans being deported have fled Eritrea to avoid the country's compulsory military service for anyone between the ages of 18-40. The military service could last indefinitely, and there are no exceptions for conscientious objectors and no alternative non-military service. The punishment for evading this service is torture - usually including having the evader's hands and feet tied behind his or her back in a position known as "the helicopter."

Already, thousands of people sit in incommunicado detention in Eritrea for reasons such as suspected opposition to the government, practicing their religious beliefs as members of evangelical or other churches, evading military conscription or trying to flee the country. 

See this video produced by Human Rights Concerns in Eritrea on what happens to Eritrean military evaders and returned refugees:

The UNHCR has issued guidelines to all governments, Egypt included, opposing the return of rejected Eritrean asylum seekers to Eritrea because of the serious human rights violations they would face upon return. In the past, Egypt has observed the principal of non-return, and it is unclear why the Egyptian government has chosen to act in violation of various international treaties prohibiting such action.

Amnesty International is calling on the Egyptian government to immediately stop all forcible returns asylum-seekers to Eritrea because of Egypt's international obligations under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the UN Convention Against Torture not to forcibly return asylum-seekers to Eritrea where they would be at risk of torture and other serious human rights abuses. Lastly, AI asks Egypt to ensure that all Eritrean asylum-seekers are given immediate access to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Egypt to assess their asylum claims.

Please take action on these Eritreans' behalf.

Check out the New York Times article from Reuters on this topic.

Chelsea Toy - Urgent Action Network

The Gambia is a West African country of just a little over 4,000 square miles where the rule of law rarely exists and many journalists live in fear of forced disappearances.

Falling in line with its history of press censorship, the Gambian government has held journalist Chief Ebrima Manneh in incommunicado detention as a prisoner of conscience for nearly two years without any public trial.

Chief Ebrima Manneh, a reporter for the pro-government Daily Observer, was taken by plainclothes police officers from the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) on July 11, 2006, from the paper's headquarters. The officers have since denied any involvement in the arrest.

There are conflicting reports surrounding the reasons for Manneh's arrest, all of which point in some way to the idea that Manneh was showing dissent with the government. Some say he was arrested after a disagreement with managing editor of the Daily Observer and close government ally, Dr. Saja Taal. Many believe he was arrested after he contacted a foreign journalist prior to the Summit of the African Union, which was held in The Gambia, giving this journalist information that was "damaging to the country's image." Still, others report that Chief Ebrima Manneh wanted to publish reports critical of the government in the Daily Observer.

The government and police deny any knowledge of or involvement in Chief Ebrima Manneh's arrest and detention. His family and fellow journalists have followed this case closely but still do not know where he is or in what condition he is in.

The Media Foundation of West Africa filed an application summoning the Gambian government to answer charges over his disappearance with the Community Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in July 2007, just over a year after his disappearance. On June 5, 2008, the court ruled Manneh's detention illegal, ordered his immediate release and awarded him $10,000 in damages from the Gambian government. With the Gambian government still denying any involvement in Manneh's disappearance, though, the ruling may be of little good. 

This Daily Observer reporter is not the first Gambian journalist the government has held as a prisoner of conscience in The Gambia. Malick Mboob, a former reporter with the Daily Observer, was detained for 139 days without trial in 2006. Fatou Jaw Manneh, a female Gambian journalist based in the U.S. for 10 years who had written articles critical of the Gambian government while in the U.S., was detained and tried for sedition after arriving in The Gambia for her father's funeral.

A correspondent for the Agence France Presse (AFP) and Reporters Without Borders and editor of the privately owned daily, The Point, Deida Hydara, was killed after NIA followed him as he was driving his staff home. Police have undertaken no serious investigation into his death.

In March 2008, AI released an Ugent Action on behalf of Gambian journalist Yahya Danfa, who was at risk of enforced disappearance and had been receiving threats from Gambian officials for his work as a journalist. Once, while in the company of AI delegates, he was arbitrarily arrested and released.

The rule of law is at risk in The Gambia, says a report by the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute. The report says that the judicial system "suffers from neglect," creating "a climate where the protection of human rights is undermined and the rule of law subverted."

For more information, check out Amnesty's 2008 report on The Gambia.

Chelsea Toy - Urgent Action Network

Amnesty International released an Urgent Action today on behalf of missing journalist Rezger Raza Chouchani, a 31-year-old journalist in the region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Rezger Raza Chouchani was called to the headquarters of the Zeravani intelligence agency on June 3, after he received threats from agency officials to stop writing about corruption within the Zeravani. He has not been seen since he arrived at the agency.

The threat against journalists like Rezger Raza Chouchani is not limited to developing nations and regions of the world in turmoil. This threat to press freedom spans the globe.

In Chile, filmmaker Elena Varela López is being held in prison in order to halt her investigation into a land conflict between the Chilean government and lumber companies and the Mapuche Indigenous people. She's charged with "illegal association with intent to commit an offense." All of her filming equipment was confiscated, and AI fears that the Mapuche people documented in her film will face harassment. She has been in jail since May 7.

Iranian journalist Mohammad Sadiq Kaboudvand was arrested on July 1, 2007, after his newspaper printed articles the Iranian government did not like. He is charged with "acting against national security," "propaganda against the system" and "cooperating with groups opposed to the system." On May 19, he suffered a heart attack while in jail, and fellow prisoners were the only ones who helped him. His bail is set at the Iranian equivalent to $163,000, and his trial has been cancelled three times.

The United States held Sami al-Hajj, Sudanese cameraman for Al-Jazeera, in military detention in Guantanamo Bay for six years without ever formally charging him with a crime. Sami al-Hajj's lawyer said that his detention was based upon his attempts to contact Osama bin-Laden for an interview. He was just released this spring.  

Reporters Without Borders reports that 215 journalist and media personnel have been killed since the war in Iraq began in 2003.

To take action to save any of these and other journalists at risk, check out the Urgent Action site.

Chelsea Toy - Urgent Action Network

The torture of the five alleged al-Qaeda operatives that stand trial today in military court in Guantanamo Bay for the murders of those killed on September 11, 2001 has made the legitimate prosecution of these men more difficult while casting suspicion over the entire CIA interrogation process.

Because of the water boarding techniques used by the CIA to interrogate Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 mastermind, defense lawyers will argue that evidence against him is inadmissible. Waterboarding is a form of torture used by the CIA in secret interrogations, in which drowning is simulated by strapping victims to an inverted board, with their feet above their head, and placing a wet cloth on top of their mouth. Water is then dripped or poured over the cloth, so that when victims breathe in, they draw water into their lungs.  

After World War II, the United States prosecuted Japanese soldiers for the use of the same technique against U.S. civilians. Before that, waterboarding was used in the Spanish Inquisition and the Cambodian genocide. The U.S. has also classified the use of waterboarding as torture in Sri Lanka; however, the current administration deems waterboarding a viable means of interrogation, not torture.

In March 2008, AI released a report recounting the experiences of 31-year-old Yemeni national Khaled Abdu Ahmed Saleh al-Maqtari who was detained in Abu-Ghraib and reports sleep depravation, beatings, induced hypothermia and various other forms of torture at the hands of the CIA.

Unfortunately, because of the secretive nature of many kinds of torture, the mainstream media is not able to cover all torture cases worldwide. Each day, Amnesty International receives information on new accounts of torture in countries across the globe and urges action on behalf of these individuals. AI leads campaigns to stop torture in any nation using these and other violent interrogation practices.

On June 2, AI released an Urgent Action on behalf of Isa Lechievich Khalitov, a Russian citizen being detained incommunicado with the threat of torture by Russian officials. AI reports he is being held in a small cell with many other individuals. In May, the Sudanese government detained hundreds of Sudanese citizens, many of them students and journalists, mainly from the Darfur region, without filing official charges against them. These people face the threat of torture and even execution while in secret prisons in Sudan. Both Isa Lechievich Khalitov and the Sudanese citizens continue to be held in secret prisons, and AI encourages action on their behalfs.

For further information and to take action to protect individuals at risk of torture, go to AI's Worldwide Torture Cases page.

Chelsea Toy - Urgent Action Network

Today the BBC reported that the Democratic Republic of the Congo's army has agreed to take military action against the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which is hiding out in the eastern forests of the DRC.

The DRC is still reeling from a war that proved to be the deadliest conflict on the planet since World War II, and child soldiers still fill the DRC's army after the war. According to AI reports, 11,000 children still serve in the Congolese army. Rape is still being used as a tool of war in the ongoing conflict in the eastern DRC, and AI reports that the Congolese army is responsible for the largest portion of these rapes.

The LRA is notorious for its use of child soldiers, as shown in the well-known documentary, Invisible Children. The LRA's leader, Joseph Koney, is hiding his army in the Congolese jungle because he fears prosecution on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

With the Congolese army pillaging through the jungle in search of the LRA, two forces with violent histories of human rights abuses are converging on a region already ravaged by war.

Currently, Amnesty International is concerned for well-being of lawyers and trial observers in the eastern DRC, who have received many anonymous death threats. They are observing a military trial in which four men are accused of killing a journalist. The military are suspected of being involved in the murder and thus conducting a cover-up. For more information and to take action, check out our Action Alert.

Chelsea Toy - Urgent Action Network

On the eve of the 19^th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, 60 to 100 prisoners still sit in Chinese jails for offenses committed during the 1989 pro-democracy protest, according to the US-based Dui Hua Foundation.

While estimates of the death toll from the massacre range from 200-300 by the Chinese government to 2,000-3,000 by the student protestors and the Chinese Red Cross, it can be certain that a large number of people were killed and many, many more were injured. The demonstrators were protesting a wide range of issues all centered on democratic reform in China.

Amnesty International is campaigning on behalf of the Tiananmen Mothers, a group of about 130 human rights defenders whose children and other close relatives were killed or injured during the massacre. The women and men of the organization peacefully call for an end to persecution of the victims of the massacre and their families, for a full inquiry into the events of June 3-4, 1989, and for a release of all those imprisoned as a result of the massacre. Often, the Tiananmen Mothers are harassed, detained and discriminated against.  

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will join a large number of Chinese, Tibetan, Uyghur and American human rights groups on June 4 at 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in Upper Senate Park, D.C. to commemorate the anniversary of the massacre and to support human rights in China.

Chris McGraw, Amnesty International USA's grassroots advocacy director, will speak, along with Carl Gershman president of the National Endowment for Democracy, Rebiya Kadeer, a former prisoner of conscience and president of the Uyghur American Association, and Dr. Yang Jianli, president of Initiatives for China and a recently released political prisoner in China.

For more information on China's human rights history and the Beijing Olympics, check out Amnesty International's China page.

Chelsea Toy - Urgent Action Network