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	UN independent expert on extrajudicial killings urges action on reported incidents by Philip Alston, Manfred Nowak United Nations   28 March 2007   A United Nations independent human rights expert on extrajudicial killings today called for action in response to reported incidents in the United States, Iran, the Russian Federation, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Indonesia.   “In recent years the United States has consistently argued that the UN Human Rights Council, and all other international human rights accountability mechanisms, have no legitimate role to play when individuals are intentionally killed, so long as it is claimed that the actions were part of the ‘war on terror,’ said Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.   “While this argument is convenient because it enables the US to effectively exempt itself from scrutiny, if accepted it would constitute a huge step backwards in the struggle to promote human rights.”   In a separate statement, he urged Iran to stop executing juvenile offenders, calling the practice “unacceptable.”   “It is time for Iran to demonstrate that its commitment to international law involves concrete action, not just empty words,” said Mr. Alston, calling on the country’s Government to “immediately commute all death sentences imposed for crimes individuals committed before the age of 18.”   In a statement directed at the Russian Federation, he called for an end to extrajudicial killings of journalists. “Murders are always tragic, but when journalists are being murdered to cover up human rights abuses, the stakes for the society are even higher than usual,” he said.   “The Government of Russia must bring to an end what appears to be a consistent pattern of failing to prosecute those responsible for these murders and of failing to take the measures required to prevent furthers assassinations of journalists.”   Egypt must instruct its police to stop using firearms to disperse crowds, he said in another statement. “Even if a country makes some demonstrations illegal, and even if the demonstrators ignore the law, that does not mean that the police are allowed to shoot at the demonstrators.”   In a report including several allegations he has received regarding Egypt, Mr. Alston expressed his appreciation for the detailed responses that the Government had made to his requests for further information regarding these incidents, but noted that his dialogue with the Government had revealed serious legal misunderstandings that required immediate reforms.   Bangladesh must stop the Rapid Action Battalion and other elite security forces “from using murder as a policing technique,” said the expert in a separate statement.   His report covers a series of allegations he has received regarding Bangladesh, “none of which were effectively addressed by the Government.”   He also called on Nigeria to “make good on its commitment to end extrajudicial executions by the police” but added in a separate statement that “unfortunately, it seems like business as usual with the Nigerian police continuing to get away with murder.”   In a letter to Nigeria Mr. Alston called for the Government “to underscore the fact that the imposition of the death penalty for offences such as sodomy is unconstitutional.” But his report indicated that the Government ignored his letter.   Indonesia should investigate all those implicated by the report into the murder of Munir Said Thalib, a leading human rights activist, said the expert said in another statement.   In a letter earlier this year, the Government responded to Mr. Alston’s inquiries in a manner that he characterized as “cooperative but incomplete.”   28 March 2007   "Torturers must pay victims" says UN Special Rapporteur. (Associated Press & agencies)   States that commit acts of torture should be forced to pay for victims" rehabilitation, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak has said.   Mr Nowak said torture victims required long and costly treatment, and usually rich nations footed the bill rather than the offending states.   Mr Nowak said the EU was the biggest donor to torture rehabilitation centres, providing $29m (22m euros). He was presenting his annual report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.   "Countries where torture is widespread or even systematic should be held accountable to pay," the UN rapporteur said.   Mr Nowak suggested that such states could then even pass the bill on to the individual torturers.   "If individual torturers would have to pay all the long-term costs, this would have a much stronger deterrent effect on torture than some kind of disciplinary or lenient criminal punishment.   "In reality, it"s almost never the state that tortures, but other states who provide asylum, who take victims of torture and who are then providing in state institutions rehabilitation."   Mr Nowak said the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture was the second biggest financier of torture rehabilitation, providing $17m (13m euros).   He also called for the application of a provision for universal jurisdiction within the UN convention against torture, which obliges countries to arrest alleged torturers who arrive on their territory.   A global average of the cost of treating a single torture victim was unavailable, but the London-based Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture said it spends about $2,750 annually per person for medical, therapeutic and case work costs.   Sune Segal, spokesman for the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, a Copenhagen-based umbrella group for 200 rehabilitation centers and programs worldwide, said Iraqis comprise perhaps the largest group of torture victims seeking assistance.   The rehabilitation council"s member centers treat about 100,000 torture victims and their relatives each year, he said. Large numbers of people from Russia"s war-shattered Chechnya province and the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan also have flooded into European centers for torture rehabilitation, he said.   28 March 2007   The Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions issued the following statement today:   Bangladesh: The Government Must Stop the Police from Murdering Suspects.   "The Government of Bangladesh must stop the Rapid Action Battalion and other elite security forces from using murder as a policing technique," says Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.   A report released by Alston yesterday devotes roughly ten pages to a series of allegations he has received regarding Bangladesh, none of which were effectively addressed by the Government. He presented his findings to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday.   His report states that, "The pattern of incidents would suggest that what the police and special forces report as "crossfire" deaths are in fact staged extrajudicial executions."   On 22 August 2006, Alston presented the Government with 27 cases of violent death reported by the police and special forces as having occurred in "crossfire" with criminals. Many of the deaths have involved the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), although the regular police and its auxiliary Cheetah and Cobra units are implicated as well.   In his communication of 22 August 2006, Alston requested that the Government provide detailed information on its independent investigations into the 27 cases presented. Alston emphasized that he would report on these cases to the United Nations, but the government responded only that "the contents of the communication have been duly noted" and that they would be "carefully considered". On 30 October 2006, Alston raised two further cases of persons who had reportedly been killed in "crossfire" by the RAB. The government responded only that his letter had been "duly noted".   According to Alston, "the Government"s apparent indifference to these grave allegations is deeply disturbing. The involvement of the police in extrajudicial executions is of great concern to the international community, and the reputation of Bangladesh is on the line."   Alston emphasizes that the current state of emergency does not affect Bangladesh"s legal obligation to immediately end extrajudicial executions by the police. Bangladesh became a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on 6 September 2000. When it joined that human rights treaty, Bangladesh made a legally binding commitment to only adopt measures that are consistent with its provisions. The Covenant permits some exceptions during states of emergency, but it includes a specific provision that bars any measures cutting back on the legal safeguards surrounding the right to life.   Editors Note: There are credible reports of the use of torture against a number of people whilst in detention by police and security forces. It has been reported that up to 200,000 people have been detained by police and security forces since January 2007.
	Political repression in Zimbabwe by AP / Mail & Guardian   April 2007   A UN human rights expert said police officers and soldiers in Zimbabwe who obey orders to shoot demonstrators could face prosecution for crimes against humanity. "The Zimbabwe government must immediately halt its use of lethal force against unarmed political activists," the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial or summary executions, Philip Alston, said in a statement.   Mr Alston underlined that military or police officers were only legally entitled to kill in self-defence or to defend another person"s life.   Human Rights Watch said Zimbabwe police were victimising ordinary citizens as they extend their political clampdown. "The police have been going door-to-door beating people up ... the crackdown has spread. It is not just targeted at the opposition but also at ordinary Zimbabweans," Human Rights Watch researcher Tiseke Kasambala told a news conference in Johannesburg.   Political analysts say Zimbabwe"s political crisis and rapidly shrinking economy threaten to destabilise the region as millions flee inflation of 1,700 percent, food shortages and more than 80 percent unemployment.   Mar 2007 (AFP/SAPA)   EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) lawmakers on Wednesday strongly condemned the latest attack on an opposition official in Zimbabwe and urged the government in Harare to cooperate with the political opposition to restore the rule of law.   EU lawmakers and representatives from 78 ACP countries meeting in Brussels also called on the government of Mugabe to investigate the attacks on opposition leaders, perpetrated by police and security forces.   Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai"s chief spokesperson Nelson Chamisa was badly injured by suspected state agents at Harare airport last Sunday when trying to board a plane for a meeting of EU and ACP lawmakers in Brussels. Chamisa has undergone an eye operation and also sustained a suspected fractured skull.   March 2007 (Mail & Guardian)   Tutu on Zimbabwe: Do we really care about human rights?   Africans should hang their heads in shame over what is happening in Zimbabwe, Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu said on Friday.   "We Africans should hang our heads in shame," the Anglican archbishop said in a statement released from Cape Town.   "What an awful blot on our copybook. Do we really care about human rights? Do we care that people of flesh and blood, fellow Africans, are being treated like rubbish, almost worse than they were ever treated by rabid racists?"   His words came as Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai left a Harare hospital in a wheelchair after being beaten by members of the country"s security forces.   Tutu, who was at the outspoken forefront of opposition to the apartheid regime in South Africa, asked how what is happening in Zimbabwe can elicit "hardly a word of concern, let alone condemnation", from African leaders.   He said that just when one thought that the news out of Zimbabwe could not get worse, "sure as anything, it does".   "What more has to happen before we who are leaders, religious and political, of our mother Africa are moved to cry out "enough is enough"   He expressed gratitude for the fact that the Congress of South African Trade Unions had spoken out so courageously on the issue.   "I share its consternation at the silence from those we would have expected to speak out on behalf of the voiceless, the powerless ones ...   "Oh Africa, my Africa, oh Africa our Africa, why are we betraying you so viciously in Zimbabwe, in Darfur, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, why are we letting you down so horribly badly?"
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