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	China: Leading Civil Rights Lawyers face Threats to Licenses by Human Rights Watch   May 26, 2009   Government should guarantee independence of the Legal Profession.   More than 20 of China"s most prominent civil rights lawyers face the possible loss of their right to practice law as an apparent official reprisal for their rights advocacy efforts, Human Rights Watch said today.   Under Chinese law, lawyers and law firms must get their licenses to practice renewed annually, a process sometimes marred by political considerations. These civil rights lawyers say that in recent weeks the Beijing judicial authorities have been trying to pressure their firms not to endorse their re-licensing applications. The lawyers say that the firms heads have been warned by judicial officials in meetings and telephone conversations about possible adverse consequences for their business if they continue to employ lawyers who take up rights cases.   "Control over the yearly renewal of professional licenses remains one of the main obstacles to the independence of China"s legal profession," said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "Even when law firms that have been pressured decide to stand by their lawyers, this kind of interference has a chilling effect on the legal profession."   According to an official April 14, 2009, notice from the Beijing Judicial Bureau detailing the registration procedures, lawyers must present their annual applications prior to the end of the registration period on May 31. Lawyers who fail to renew their professional licenses are in effect temporarily disbarred.   A number of the lawyers currently targeted have been involved in some of the most high-profile efforts to date to litigate on behalf of victims of human rights abuses and press for greater accountability from the government. They have represented families of victims of the melamine milk-powder scandal, parents of children killed during the Sichuan earthquake who are pressing for an investigation into the causes of the disproportionately high rate of school collapses, and Tibetans arrested in connection with the massive crackdown in Tibet. Others have been involved in representing HIV/AIDS patients, victims of police abuses, farmers evicted from their land, and Falungong practitioners.   Over the past few years, Human Rights Watch has extensively documented abuses of lawyers, widespread violations of the right of the defense in legal procedures, and a pattern of interference and political control in cases viewed as politically sensitive by the authorities. Although the government vowed to establish new procedural protections for lawyers in June 2008 when it promulgated revisions to the Law on Lawyers, those efforts have been inadequate. No efforts have been made to effectively safeguard the security of lawyers discharging their functions or to allow the government-controlled All-China Lawyers Association - the country"s bar association - to play such role.   Human Rights Watch pointed out that instead of the promised reforms to protect the independence of lawyers, detention and physical abuses against lawyers by law enforcement officials have multiplied. In one such incident on May 13, 2009, lawyers Zhang Kai and Li Chunfu were arrested and beaten in police custody in Chongqing after meeting with the family of a man who had died while in a re-education-through-labor camp. The authorities have so far refused to investigate the incident.   "Interference and retaliation against lawyers are direct attacks on the rule of law," said Richardson. "Such actions perpetuate injustices, undermine confidence in legal institutions, and negate the government"s own commitment to governing the country according to law". Visit the related web page
	Forces must act to prevent civilian casualties by Reuters / The Independent Afghanistan   Kabul, May 15, 2009   US must act to prevent civilian casualties, by Peter Graff. (Reuters)   U.S. forces in Afghanistan should have known there were large numbers of civilians in a village they bombed this month, and need to change their procedures to prevent civilian casualties, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.   The Afghan government says 140 civilians were killed in the bombing of Bala Boluk district in Farah province on May 3, an incident that has stoked anti-American anger across Afghanistan. If confirmed, the death toll would make it the deadliest incident for civilians of the seven-year war.   U.S. officials acknowledge civilians died but dispute the death toll. They blame Taliban fighters for putting the villagers in harm"s way.   The dispute has stoked outrage against Western forces in Afghanistan and prompted President Hamid Karzai to demand an end to all air strikes. Human Rights Watch said a review promised by General David Petraeus into the use of air strikes in Afghanistan needed to produce "fundamental changes" to prevent similar incidents from occurring again.   "The U.S., working with its Afghan counterparts, should have known that there was a large civilian population in the village at the time of the air strikes," the group"s Asia director, Brad Adams, said in a statement.   "The U.S. needs to answer some basic questions about the sources and quality of information it requires before authorizing these kinds of devastating bombing runs."   Washington has said it has taken steps to reduce civilian casualties since another major incident last year in which the Afghan government and the United Nations say up to 90 civilians died. The latest incident has led to a further review of bombing procedures.   "Even if some Taliban remained in the village, dropping a dozen bombs into a residential area doesn"t seem to make much sense," said Adams. "The U.S. should do everything possible to ensure that disasters like Bala Boluk are not repeated. "Afghans are reeling from so much loss, and the anger it arouses clearly fuels the insurgency."   Kabul, 13 May 2009   Girls targeted in "Taliban gas attack", by Jerome Starkey. (The Independent)   The pupils were lining up outside their classrooms for morning assembly when one girl suddenly collapsed unconscious. "She was only little," said Gulcheena, a 13-year-old student of the school who fell ill herself moments later.   They were among 90 Afghan school girls rushed to hospital yesterday unconscious and vomiting, possibly victims of a gas poisoning attack on their school in Mahmud Raqi village.   "The teachers picked her up and carried her to the school office," Gulcheena said. "We went into our class and the teacher was calling the roll call when suddenly she told us to go outside."   Of the 90 girls from the Qazaam school admitted to hospital, at least five slipped briefly into comas, officials in Kapisa province, north-east of the capital, said. Six teachers and at least two other staff were also admitted.   One of the teachers, Zakira, collapsed in front of her students. The headmistress, Mossena, said there was a strange odour which engulfed the courtyard as girls began retching uncontrollably. Medics said most of the victims were between eight and 12 years old.   It was the third such attack against a girls school in Afghanistan in as many weeks, raising fears that the Taliban are resorting to increasingly vicious methods to terrorise young women out of education. Police officials blamed Taliban sympathisers.   Gulcheena described the gas smelling like a chemical known locally as Mallatin, which farmers sometimes spread on fields to poison foraging birds. The provincial police chief, Matiullah Safi, said none of the students, teachers or support staff had seen anything suspicious. "It looks like something was sprayed in the school but so far no one has been arrested," he said.   The alleged poisoning comes just days after girls at a school in nearby Charikar, on the road north of Kabul, complained of similar symptoms.   Last November, men on motorbikes used water pistols to squirt acid in girls faces as they walked to school on the outskirts of Kandahar. More than a dozen girls and several teachers at the Mirwais School for Girls had the acid thrown in their faces and one was so badly disfigured she had to go abroad for treatment. The attacks caused such distress and fear that many parents kept their girls at home for several weeks but most have since returned to school, vowing not to be intimidated.   Women"s education was banned under the Taliban, and girls schools are routinely torched or closed in areas where the insurgents hold sway. Prior to the acid attacks, the Taliban had strengthened their grip in the Mirwais area and other districts close to Kandahar and posters had started appearing warning local people not to let their daughters go to school.   Parwan province, where the two previous gas attacks took place, is widely considered to be one of the safest places in Afghanistan.   Speaking from her hospital bed, Gulcheena said she collapsed moments after rushing outside. "The teachers splashed water on my face, but when I opened my eyes the next thing I knew, I was in hospital." Seayahmuy, a 15-year-old student in her final year at the school, said doctors had ordered her to stay in overnight. She said she did not remember a strange smell, nor did she see any gas. Dr Abdul Mateen said most of the patients were suffering from vomiting, nausea and dizziness.   One girl, Leda, 12, said from her hospital bed: "We were very weak, sick and dizzy. When I opened my eyes we were in hospital. I am so sad, what went wrong with our school? I want to study."
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