Further memorandum from Amnesty International
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
FOR FAC AND
CORRECTIONS TO
TRANSCRIPT
I enclose the additional information requested
by various members of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee at
the evidence session on 30 April, and some amendments to the text
of the hearing.
1. Maldives
In response to the enquiry by Mr McKinlay on
the human rights situation in the Maldives, I enclose the section
on the Maldives from the Amnesty International Annual Report 2007.
This details the situation in the country in 2006-07. Amnesty
International will be releasing a statement on the Maldives in
mid-June which I will send to you as soon as it becomes available.
2. Overseas Territories
Unfortunately, we have little amplifying work
on women's rights issues in Britain's overseas territories.
28 May 2008
Annex
MALDIVES
Taken from the Amnesty International Report
2007
Head of state and government: Maumoon Abdul
Gayoom
Death penalty: abolitionist in practice
International Criminal Court: not ratified
Political freedom continued to be undermined
by the slow pace of constitutional reforms. More than 100 people
were arbitrarily arrested ahead of public rallies. Scores of them
were believed to be prisoners of conscience. At least six political
prisoners were sentenced to terms of imprisonment. Police reportedly
used unnecessary force while detaining political activists who
offered no resistance. Torture and other ill-treatment continued
in custody. Several long-serving prisoners of conscience were
released.
BACKGROUND
In March, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom announced
the government's Roadmap for the Reform Agenda Ushering In a Modern
Democracy. It promised a new constitution by June 2007 and the
first multi-party elections in October 2008.
In September, the Maldives acceded to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Optional Protocol
to the ICCPR, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights.
Resistance from conservative elements within
the government and disruptive moves from the opposition threatened
to derail political and judicial reforms.
FREEDOM OF
EXPRESSION
Scores of government critics were accused of
breaking the law while peacefully expressing their views or attending
rallies.
— Member of Parliament Ahmed Shafeeq
was briefly detained in April for attending a peaceful rally in
Malé. He was reportedly severely beaten at the time of
arrest and admitted to hospital. No investigation was carried
out.
— More than 100 people were detained
in advance of a planned anti-government protest scheduled for
10 November in Malé. The riot police also prevented people
from leaving the islands for the demonstration. A boat full of
opposition supporters was allegedly raided by the police and all
passengers detained. Scores of detainees were held for weeks without
charge, while at least 22 were released after being charged with
apparently unsubstantiated, politically motivated criminal offences.
Intense pressure on the media to refrain from
publishing articles critical of the government continued. Journalists
ignoring this pressure were harassed, detained or charged with
criminal offences.
— Aminath Najeeb, editor of the Minivan
newspaper, received a summons in May to appear before the criminal
court, apparently as part of the government's attempt to close
Minivan. Before the summons, she was harassed by masked men circling
her house.
— Mohamed Yooshau, Imran Zahir and
Ibrahim Manik were detained for weeks at various times during
the year. Abdulla Saeed (Fahala) was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment
for carrying drugs which were believed to have been planted on
him by the police after his arrest.
UNFAIR TRIALS
AND PRISONERS
OF CONSCIENCE
Courts continued to sentence political activists
to terms of imprisonment.
— Ahmed Abbas, a political cartoonist,
designer of Maldivian banknotes and prominent critic of the government,
was sentenced in November to six months' imprisonment without
knowing he was being tried. His conviction related to his remarks
in a newspaper in August 2005. He only found out about his conviction
by chance, when checking the government's website. Fearing ill-treatment,
he sought sanctuary in the UN building in Malé but had
to leave after government pressure. He was then detained by the
police and transferred to the prison island of Maafushi. He was
believed to be a prisoner of conscience.
— Several prisoners of conscience were
released. Ahmed Ibrahim Didi and Naushad Waheed were released
in February and Jennifer Latheef was released in August. Chairperson
of the Maldivian Democratic Party, Mohamed Nasheed, was released
in September.
TORTURE AND
OTHER ILL-TREATMENT
Police tortured and otherwise ill-treated detainees
arrested while taking part in peaceful demonstrations.
— 16-year-old Moosa Afaau was reportedly
grabbed around his neck by a plain-clothed officer in February
while watching a street rally. He was reportedly dragged to the
ground, his trousers were pulled down and he was hit with a baton
on his thighs and genitals. He was then taken to a police station,
tied to a chair and punched in the face every time he fell asleep.
No one has been held accountable.
AI REPORTS/VISITS
Report
— Maldives: Renewed repressive measures
against the opposition (AI Index: ASA 29/010/2006)
SOMALIA
Somalia has been without an effective central
government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.
Years of fighting between rival warlords and an inability to deal
with famine and disease have led to the deaths of up to one million
people.
In early 2006 Thousands of civilians fled as
the UIC fought a warlord coalition in Mogadishu. The UIC took
over Mogadishu in June and most of the south and central areas
of Somalia later. Throughout 2006, the TFG had little control.
Conflict between the UIC and the TFG, supported by the Ethiopian
army, broke out in December. The UIC were defeated and the Ethiopian
force entered Mogadishu and placed the TFG in power. Fighting
continued in the southwest of the country.
Somalia's internal crisis has been further exacerbated
by the tension caused by Ethiopia and Eritrea's support of opposing
sides in Somalia (respectively the TFG and the Islamic Courts).
An AU peacekeeping mission, AMISOM, has only been partially deployed,
with first Ugandan and now Burundian forces. The UN Secretary
General presented in his report to the Security Council on 14
March 2008 a contingency plan for a UN integrated peacekeeping
mission to Somalia, dependent on a broad-based political agreement.
MAJOR ISSUES
Security and Justice
— Security. The humanitarian
crisis in southern and central Somalia is largely fuelled by widespread
abuses and violations of human rights. The violence in Mogadishu
is worsening, and is extending to other regions of south/central
Somalia, and Puntland.
— Justice and rule of law. With
the exception of the self-declared autonomous Somaliland region,
there is a near total absence of the rule of law and effective
institutions of governance, in spite of the UNDP rule of law program
to assist the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in establishing
a functioning police and judiciary.
— Death penalty. Death sentences
were imposed by Islamic courts in the south until the end of 2006,
and continue to be imposed by ordinary courts in Somaliland, where
six people were executed in 2006, and three in 2007.
Freedom of expression
— Journalists. The threat to
Somali journalists trying to report on the continuing conflict
is the worst it has been since 1991. Eight journalists were killed
in 2007, and at least one more was killed this year. Journalists
regularly receive death threats when they report on casualties
suffered by any parties to the conflict. Threats are typically
delivered by calls to mobile phones, with the number of the caller
withheld, although in many cases the caller has identified himself
as an officer of the National Security Agency (NSA) of the TFG.
Other journalists have been arrested multiple times by TFG forces
or the Ethiopian military.
— Human rights defenders. Some
HR defenders and members of civil society organisations have fled
from Somalia/gone into hiding after repeated death threats and
attacks. HR activists have been largely silenced in Southern Central
Somalia and Puntland.
Internally displaced people
— Refugees. The UN estimates
that there are more than 1,000,000 internally displaced people
in Somalia. Conditions in camps and informal settlements are dire,
with significant hunger and lack of medical services. There is
obstruction and extortion of humanitarian agencies so very little
international assistance reaches the most vulnerable. Displaced
Somalis face banditry, rape and death on the road while fleeing
from the conflict, and large numbers die in smugglers boats that
leave from Bossasso north to Yemen. The border with Kenya is still
officially closed, although greater numbers of Somalis have been
able to flee south into Kenya.
Women
— Violence against Women. There
is widespread rape and sexual assault of women due to the conflict
in Southern/Central Somalia, including by TFG forces and Ethiopian
military. Displaced women are also at extreme risk of rape on
the roads, with women regularly raped at ambushes or checkpoints
on roads from Mogadishu north to Puntland and Somaliland. FGM
is pervasive in Somalia.
Recent political developments
The bodies of 10 people were found in a mosque
in the Somali capital, after two days of clashes between Ethiopian
troops and insurgents in April 2008. Local residents blamed the
killings on the Ethiopians, whose troops are in Somalia supporting
the government against Islamist fighters. Six of the dead are
religious leaders from the Tabliq Sufi sect, which is not involved
in the conflict. Amnesty International has accused the Ethiopian
Army of carrying out the killings and the subsequent abduction
of 40 children. They have denied these claims. In the FCO Report,
Ethiopia's care for the civilian population was lauded.
In May 2008 UN backed peace talks were held
in Djibouti but ended without any face-to-face meetings between
the government and opposition. The leader of the UIC later told
journalists that he did not believe the UN process was impartial
and would not seek peace through its mechanisms. He claimed that
the UIC would continue to fight until they had removed the Ethiopian
troops and TFG supporters from the country.
The situation remains incredibly insecure; in
May alone there have been food riots in Mogadishu, attacks on
police stations, and the abduction of aid workers.
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