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Die Situation der Rohingya-FlĂĽchtlinge aus Myanmar hat sich verschlimmert. Auf der Flucht nach Thailand oder Malaysia kamen FlĂĽchtlinge zu Tode oder werden vermisst. Aus diesem Grund hat Amnesty International den nachfolgenden offenen Brief an die Regierungen von Bangladesch, Indien, Indonesien, Malaysia, Myanmar und Thailand gesendet.
Im Anschluss daran haben wir eine Appellaktion zur Verbesserung der Situation der Flüchtlinge veröffentlicht, die per Email oder brieflich versandt werden können.
Date 29 January 2009
To the governments of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand
Your Excellencies,
We write to you to raise our serious concern about the plight of the Rohingyas, a Muslim minority from Rakhine State, western Myanmar. Thousands of Rohingyas have fled in recent months on boats sailing for Thailand and Malaysia, and hundreds are missing, feared drowned. Their situation has reached a critical stage over the last two months, as the Thai military have forcibly expelled approximately 1,000 Rohingyas arriving in southwest Thailand by boat, while the Indian and Indonesian authorities have rescued hundreds of them.
In order to address this crisis, Amnesty International makes the following recommendations to the governments of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand as a matter of urgency:
♦ Myanmar must immediately stop the systematic persecution of the Rohingya minority, which is the root cause of the crisis; ♦ All governments should meet their obligations under the law of the sea and provide assistance to those in distress at sea, including search and rescue service; ♦ All governments should provide immediate access to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to all Rohingyas in their territory; ♦ All governments should ratify the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, its 1967 Protocol, and the UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.
With lives still at risk, Amnesty International reminds regional governments of their specific obligations under the law of the sea which are applicable to situations of migrants found or intercepted at sea. In addition to the UN International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR), both the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), to which Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Myanmar, Thailand and India are parties, include obligations to provide assistance to those found in distress at sea. These obligations exist concurrently to human rights obligations.
Specifically, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) obliges state parties to require the master of a ship flying its flag to render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost and rescue persons in distress. The obligation to provide assistance applies regardless of the nationality, status or circumstances of the individuals. Moreover, all coastal states are obliged to establish and maintain search and rescue services for this purpose, including through regional cooperation arrangements.
Ensuring the safety and dignity of those rescued and of the crew must be the immediate consideration in determining where individuals rescued at sea are taken. Under international law, the state responsible for the search and rescue region in which survivors were recovered is responsible for providing a place of safety or ensuring that such a place of safety is provided. However, each state must ensure that individuals are not returned or transferred to a place where they may be at risk of serious human rights violations. Where individuals may be seeking or be in need of international protection, the rescuing state must transfer them to territory where access to a fair and satisfactory asylum process with full procedural safeguards is guaranteed.
Amnesty International calls on regional governments to cooperate in providing follow-up care for Rohingya survivors, deliver persons rescued at sea promptly to a place of safety, and ensure that they have access to a fair and satisfactory asylum process to assess their protection needs.
Amnesty International welcomes Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s stated commitment to convene a regional forum on the Rohingyas. Flows of Rohingyas from Myanmar to neighbouring countries present an enormous challenge which can only be addressed regionally. Any regional solution must ensure that those Rohingyas who have a well-founded fear of persecution in Myanmar are not returned there, and that those found not to be in need of protection are returned in a humane manner. Specifically, the Thai government must stop forcibly expelling Rohingyas and provide them with immediate humanitarian assistance and cease any plans to proceed with more expulsions, as has been credibly reported. Hundreds of Rohingyas are missing or have died after the Thai security forces set them adrift in unseaworthy boats with little or no food and water. Some of the Rohingyas reported being beaten by the Thai security forces, which the Thai government has categorically denied. On 29 January Indonesia announced it was still determining the fate of almost 200 Rohingyas and Bangladeshis, who had landed in Weh Island, Aceh province on 7 January. The Indian navy have rescued hundreds of Rohingyas on or near the Andaman Islands.
Amnesty International is encouraged by reports on 27 January that Prime Minister Abhisit invited UNHCR to participate in the proposed regional forum. This move is crucial given that the Thai authorities have not yet granted UNHCR access to all Rohingyas held in detention, so that their protection needs can be assessed. Most notably, UNHCR had requested access to a group of 126 Rohingyas reportedly detained by the Thai authorities. According to subsequent reports, the group may have been collectively expelled by the Thai military on 23 January. Amnesty International urges the governments of India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand not to return these individuals, to grant UNHCR immediate access to the Rohingyas in their countries in order to determine their protection needs, and to ensure that no one who would face serious human rights violations in any country be returned there.
It is only through a regional initiative, involving Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand, and with the participation of UNHCR, that a durable solution can be found to the plight of the Rohingyas. For the last three decades hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas have fled systematic persecution to neighbouring countries in Asia, the vast majority to Bangladesh. Moreover, within Myanmar, the Rohingyas suffer from specific deeply discriminatory policies targeting them. They are denied citizenship and are thus effectively stateless. Rohingyas who are returned to Myanmar continue to be at serious risk of human rights violations, including forced labour, forced eviction, land confiscation, and severe restrictions on freedom of movement. Such violations have had a severe impact on the group’s livelihood and food security. It is imperative that the Myanmar authorities immediately stop subjecting the Rohingyas to these violations and change discriminatory policies aimed at denying them their fundamental rights. Until these root causes are addressed by the Myanmar government, Rohingyas will continue to flee to neighbouring countries.
Until the human rights situation in Myanmar improves, Rohingyas and others facing persecution in Myanmar will continue to flee their homes and seek safety elsewhere. In this context, Amnesty International also urges the governments of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand to ratify the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, its 1967 Protocol, and the UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. Ratification of these Conventions will provide a suitable legal framework for a consistent, coherent regional approach necessary to address this growing problem.
We thank you for your immediate attention to this urgent matter.
Yours very truly,
Sam Zarifi Asia-Pacific Director Amnesty International
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Please write a courteous letter to the government of Malaysia:
- Express your serious concern about the plight of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingyas, many of whom are fleeing to neighbouring countries, including Malaysia.
- State that, while it is a regional concern requiring regional solutions, lives are at risk, and Malaysia can take immediate steps to provide protection for those who are sailing to seek asylum there.
- Urge that Myanmar's Rohingyas be given protection under the international law of the sea, which obliges states to provide assistance to those in distress at sea, including search and rescue service.
- Call for those who arrive in Malaysia to be given immediate access to the UN High Commission for Refugees in Kuala Lumpur.
- And call on Malaysia to ratify the UN Convention on Refugees, its 1967 Protocol and the UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.
SEND TO:
Prime Minister Dato' Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi Prime Minister's Department Block 1 Federal Government Administration Centre 62502 Putrajaya Selangor, Malaysia
Copy to: Edmund Bon Chair, Human Rights Committee Malaysian Bar Council No. 13, 15 and 17 Liboh Pasar 50050 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
In Malaysia ist leider wieder ein Mensch in Polizeihaft ungekommen. Es handelt sich um Herrn Kugan Ananthan. Todesfälle in Polizeihaft kommen leider häufiger vor in Malaysia. Dieses Mal hat seine Familie die Sache in die Hand genommen. 50 Bürger haben den Obduktionssaal gestürmt und Photos aufgenommen. Hintergrund ist, das bei ähnlichen Todesfällen in Polizeihaft häufig keine Obduktionen durchgeführt wurden oder keine glaubwürdigen Ergebnisse dabei herauskamen. Eine Presseerklärung von AI, in der auch auf Zusammenhänge mit anderen Fällen von Polizeigewalt hingewiesen wird, folgt in englischer Sprache. Aktuelle Informationen auch unter www.aimalaysia.org
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
22 January 2009
The Malaysian authorities must initiate an independent, impartial, prompt and effective investigation into the death of 22-year-old Kugan Ananthan, Amnesty International said today, amid reports that he may have been tortured in police custody.
The young man died on 20 January after being held for five days in the Taipan Police station in Subang Jaya in west Malaysia on suspicion of stealing cars. State Police Chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar has said that Kugan was being questioned by an investigating officer when he asked for a glass of water and suddenly collapsed. Police initially claimed that Kugan had died of “breathing difficulties”, and a post-mortem report said he had died due to fluid in his lungs.
His family strongly contest the police claim of how he died. On the night of the incident, an estimated group of 50 people, including members of Kugan’s family, stormed the Serdang Hospital mortuary where Kugan's body was taken for a post-mortem. Some of them took photographs of his body, showing signs of injury, which were later published on the blog of a Member of Parliament.
"Only through a prompt and impartial investigation will people really know what happened to Kugan," said Hazel Galang, Amnesty International's Malaysia Researcher. "The government needs to show it is taking a strong stand against torture, especially with the country's human rights record set to be scrutinised by the United Nations Human Rights Council in February."
Several people, including Kugan's family and political party representatives, have lodged reports with the police, urging a thorough investigation.
This death in custody follows the case of B Prabakar, a 27 year old car park attendant, who alleges that he was tortured by at least ten police officers at the Brickfields police district headquarters in Selangor State in December 2008. Seven police officers have pleaded not guilty, after being charged at Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on 15 January with committing an act of "criminal intimidation" and "voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession".
Mr Prabakar says the police beat him with a rubber hose, splashed boiling water on his body, and asked him to stand on a chair, with a cloth around his neck, and threatened to hang him. He was arrested on 23 December in connection with a robbery, and released five days later.
Following his release, police took him to a private clinic for medial treatment during which, he says, the doctor spoke only to officers and not to him. He stated further that he was offered the equivalent of US$140 in return for not lodging a complaint against the police. Prabakar's 18 year old cousin, C Soloman Raj, who was arrested at the same time as Prabakar, also claims that he was tortured.
Amnesty International has previously reported on cases of torture in Malaysia, including Sanjeev Kumar, who was detained under the Internal Security Act for a year and released in 2008; and M. Ulaganathan, who died in police custody in 2003. Sources close to Sanjeev gave an account of his torture and ill-treatment during his first eight weeks of detention at the Federal Police Headquarters in July 2007 in Kuala Lumpur. In July 2008, in a rare case, the High Court awarded damages to the mother of Ulaganathan who died while in police custody in 2003.
"These cases are violations of international human rights standards governing law enforcement officers," said Hazel Galang. "Police are failing to respect the rights of detainees in custody. The government must act on this, and prosecute police officers who have violated the human rights of these detainees."
Background
Malaysia is scheduled to be reviewed by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations on 11 February 2009. Under this procedure the human rights situations in all UN member states are reviewed on a periodic basis.
In a 2005 report, the government-created Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police made recommendations regarding the conduct for the police when investigating cases. The Commission proposed an independent external police oversight body to oversee complaints on police misconduct and a code of practice relating to the arrest and detention of persons, which would provide for an independent custody officer responsible for the welfare and custody of every detainee. The Commission also proposed procedures for the conduct of police interviews, including the use of tape recordings, video surveillance and access to lawyers for all suspects during interrogation.
None of these recommendations for police reform have been implemented. The non-implementation of such recommendations from the government-constituted body demonstrates a lack of commitment on the part of the Malaysian government to bring about reform and to establish compliance with human rights standards as a norm in policing work in Malaysia.
Amnesty International calls on the Malaysian government to implement these recommendations.
zurĂĽck AI Index: ASA 21/020/2008 16 Oktober 2008
Die sog. Balimomber Amrozi bin H. Nurhasyim, Ali Ghufron und Imam Samudera wurden wegen Beteiligung an den Bombemanschlägen am 12. Oktober 2002 auf der Insel Bali zum Tode durch Erschießung verurteilt. Ihre Hinrichtung erfolgte am 08.11.2008. Amnesty International bedauert sehr mitteilen zu müssen, dass die drei Gefangenen am vergangenen Samstag hingerichtet wurden. Vielen Dank an alle, die sich für sie eingesetzt haben!
Ergänzende Expertenmeinung von Dr. Rohan Gunaratna unter
asiadeathpenalty.blogspot.com
AI Index: ASA 21/011/2008 10 July 2008 zurĂĽck
Amnesty International bedauert sehr mitteilen zu mĂĽssen, dass Achman Surjadi am Donnerstag Abend um 21:58 Uhr Ortszeit hingerichtet wurde.
Wir bedanken und fĂĽr Ihre MĂĽhe und bitten Sie, sich weiter gegen geplante Hinrichtungen einzusetzen. Es geht um jeden Einzelfall, es geht aber auch darum, die indonesische Regierung zu ĂĽberzeugen, sich dem internationalen Trend zur Abschaffung der Todesstrafe anzuschlieĂźen.