Month: September 2022

Lesotho’s authorities and incoming government must address unresolved cases of police brutality, torture and unlawful killings and ensure accountability for these human rights crimes beyond the electioneering period for the 7 October vote, Amnesty International said today.

“A dangerous pattern of human rights violations, including torture, unlawful killings, and excessive use of force by members of the security forces in Lesotho has been a common feature of the past five years under the current coalition government,” said Muleya Mwananyanda, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.

“Political candidates vying for leadership positions, including parliamentary seats, in the upcoming general elections must make a commitment to put respect for human rights and accountability for past human rights violations front and centre of their campaigns. If elected, they must ensure access to justice and effective remedies for the victims of these human rights crimes.”

Since 2017, Lesotho has seen a number of human rights violations, including excessive and disproportionate use of force by the security forces. There have also been reports of unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment of suspected perpetrators of crime by members of the security forces, including the Lesotho Mounted Police Service and the Lesotho Defence Forces.

Unlawful killings

The unlawful use of force by police in Lesotho has resulted in unlawful killings, including on 16 June 2022, when police opened fire at students at the National University of Lesotho, who were protesting cuts to their living allowance, even though they did not pose an imminent threat. The gunfire killed one student, Kopano Francis Mokutoane, and injured several others. Several police officers were suspended for their use of excessive and unlawful force during the protests.

On 2 September 2021, officers from Thetsane Police Station in Maseru arrested Tseliso Sekonyela on suspicion of stealing liquor. He later died in police custody with officers delivering his body to a morgue on 4 September 2021 without stating the cause of his death.

Sekonyela had told his mother when she went to see him in the holding cell at the police station that police officers had beaten him. His mother also alleged that a police officer had threatened to break her son’s ribs in her presence. Three police officers were later suspended pending an investigation into Sekonyela’s death.

Although some members of the police were suspended for their actions, including the killing of Mokutoane, other members of the security forces remain in their posts despite ample evidence including research by human rights NGOs pointing to serious human rights violations.

Torture and other ill-treatment

Amnesty International also documented cases of torture and other ill-treatment by the security forces.

In one such case, on 13 January 2022, 34-year-old human rights lawyer, Napo Mafaesa was arrested by members of the Lesotho Mounted Police Service on allegations of concealing a gun belonging to his client. According to information available to Amnesty International, police officers took him to Ha Mabote Police Station and subjected him to torture in order to extract a “confession” from him, even though he told them he knew nothing about the gun.

Police shackled Mafaesa’s legs and bound his hands before putting a deflated tyre pressed to his face causing him to struggle to breathe through his nose and mouth. They repeatedly poured cold water on his face while assaulting him. Mafaesa was freed in the early hours of 14 January in serious pain and is suing the police for about US$28,000 for the torture he claims he suffered.

In another case, Mateboho Matekane, from Ha Pita in Maseru was arrested on 30 November 2021, accused of stealing group savings funds.

She told Amnesty International that she was taken to Lithoteng Police Station where she was beaten with a spade, including on her buttocks until she urinated on herself and passed out. She later lost her job because the torture she suffered meant she was in too much pain to be able to work. She is also suing the police for torture.

On 19 May 2022, 35 people were tortured by police officers and members of the Lesotho Defence Forces for protesting against power cuts in Liseleng in the district of Thaba-Tseka. The victims, 19 men and 16 women, were beaten up and made to roll for several metres along a muddy road leading to nearby Matsoku River and then back again. They were charged with disturbing the peace.

Legal action against the police

Police authorities in Lesotho are facing a number of legal claims over crimes ranging from murder, cover-up and defeating the ends of justice, to assault, torture and death in police custody. One law firm in Maseru is pursuing 58 cases of police brutality recorded since 2018.

Police authorities, including Police Commissioner Holomo Molibeli, admitted to Amnesty International during a meeting at police headquarters in Maseru in July that torture and other human rights violations cases have come up within their ranks, blaming this on “rogue police elements”.

“It is the duty of the police to protect the public, yet Lesotho’s track record of police brutality shows that the public have much to fear from their law enforcement officers. It is time for the Lesotho authorities to take a zero-tolerance attitude to unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment by their security forces and ensure that those suspected to be responsible are held to account. Victims must be provided with access to justice and effective remedies,” said Muleya Mwananyanda

Source: Amnesty International

A top U.N. official last week said the syndicates running Asia’s massive online fraud industry will rotate operations among lawless areas of Southeast Asia unless governments cooperate to bring them down, after Cambodia said it was cracking down on cybercrime compounds.

The networks have swindled hundreds of millions of dollars, regional police have told VOA, setting up fake profiles offering romance, moonshot investment schemes with huge returns or posing as police officers to solicit payoffs. They target residents of countries from China to Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, the United States and Australia.

“The response needs to be strategic and regional, because today it might be a location in Cambodia but tomorrow a group uproots under pressure and shifts to Myanmar, Laos or the Philippines,” Jeremy Douglas, the Bangkok-based regional representative of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime told VOA.

“Until governments across the region address, disrupt and police the places organized crime groups are using to run online casinos, scams and other illicit businesses, and in particular special economic zones and autonomous regions, the situation won’t fundamentally change,” he said.

Compounds for industrial-scale scamming in are operated in converted casinos in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, as well as special economic zones in Myanmar and Laos by Chinese gangsters who dominate regional gambling but lost their main income source during the pandemic, according to Douglas and victims who spoke to VOA.

The foot soldiers of the operations are young Chinese and Southeast Asians. Some joined willingly, many others thought they had obtained high-paying overseas work in call centers or online sales.

Malaysian, Taiwanese and Thai officials have said hundreds of their citizens remain trapped in a Myanmar border zone tied to scam operations, run by ethnic militias and beyond the law, despite its location a few hundred meters from Thailand.

Chou Bun Eng, vice chair of Cambodia’s National Committee for Counter Trafficking in persons, said Cambodia is a victim of sophisticated criminal gangs and is doing everything it can to put the syndicates out of business.

“We began an operation on August 22 throughout the kingdom,” she told VOA by phone.

“We are aware that there are victims all over the kingdom in what is a new form of crime committed by foreigners. … Cambodia does not serve criminals,” she said.

Social media videos since the crackdown have shown thousands of people apparently leaving several Sihanoukville megacompounds, in images shared by Douglas.

State media in China, the source of most of the workers and the biggest target, said the country is barring its citizens from traveling to Cambodia without good reason and warned telecommunications companies that they could be held responsible for scams carried out over their networks.

On Sept. 23, however, Cambodian authorities said at least one person had died after a boat carrying dozens of Chinese people sank on its way to Sihanoukville. Cambodian state media Fresh News said they had traveled from, Guangdong, hundreds of kilometers away. The incident is suspected of being tied to scam operations and now under investigation.

Ransoms and beatings

Disturbing testimony has emerged from scam agents who tried to leave the compounds, including reports of routine torture, sale to other networks and ransom payments required to gain freedom.

A 26-year-old Thai mother of three, told VOA she asked to quit her job in Manila after six days when she was forced to swindle women online.

She said she took an online sales job in early August, desperate for the $1,000 salary plus commissions. She said she soon realized her real job was to steal the identity of wealthy Thai men and persuade women looking for love to transfer money.

When she refused to work, she was taken to a room with others who had also refused.

“One by one, they took us out to kick, punch, claw our hair and zap us with electric wire,” she said, asking that her name not be used, out of fear of reprisal.

“They forced the head of one of the older women underwater in the bathroom and then beat her some more.”

It took another 14 days for her to get free with a $3,000 payment to break her verbal agreement and she returned to Bangkok on Aug. 27.

Once back, her boyfriend had to sell the equipment for his T-shirt business, sinking them further into money troubles, which had led to her leave Thailand in the first place.

Source: Voice of America

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has assured the country that an Ebola outbreak is under control and that no restrictions on movement are needed. The country’s health officials confirmed cases of a deadly Sudan ebolavirus with six reported deaths out of 31 confirmed cases. Uganda’s medical association says some of its members are critically ill and has threatened to join a strike by medical interns over what they say is inadequate personal protective equipment.

In an address to the nation Wednesday night, President Yoweri Museveni urged Ugandans to avoid coming in contact with body fluids such as blood, feces and vomit from infected people.

Even though the source for the Sudan ebolavirus, a strain for which the World Health Organization says cross-protection of vaccine for other Ebola strains has not been established, Museveni warned Ugandans against eating meat from monkeys, chimpanzees and gorillas.“I want to reassure Ugandans and all residents that the government has the capacity to control this outbreak as we have done before. Therefore, there’s no need for anxiety, panic, restriction of movement or unnecessary closure of public places like schools, markets, places of worship etc. as of now,” he said.

The 31 Ebola cases confirmed so far include six health care workers, including four doctors, one anesthesiologist and one medical student who was exposed to the first case in the district of Mubende, Kyegegwa and Kassanda.

Museveni who cautioned Ugandans against shaking hands also says Uganda is still discussing a vaccine for the Sudan ebolavirus that was first reported on August 6. Uganda only has a stock of the Zaire ebolavirus that was reported in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. There is currently no approved vaccine for the Sudan ebolavirus.

“One of the issues we were debating the other day was, why not use the vaccine of Ebola Zaire. Even though it’s not specific for Ebola Sudan, but it’s Ebola,” he said. “They share some of the characteristics. And it is safe. And we have used it on our soldiers. So, is there any harm in trying it?”

The government has now set up an Ebola treatment unit with a 51-bed capacity for confirmed cases and 80 beds for suspected cases.

To shorten the turnaround time of sampling, processing and improving patient care, two mobile diagnostic laboratories will be deployed in the Mubende district by Friday.Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Acheng also allayed fears among health workers especially those infected with the virus.

“We want to appreciate the work that they are doing. But also reassure them that they will be taken care of and given the necessary supportive care and treatment so that we ensure that we don’t lose them,” she said.

President of the Uganda Medical Association Dr. Sam Oledo, however, describes a different situation in the affected districts for health workers.

“When we start losing health workers, I don’t think it can be under control. It’s painful that this morning the intern and the SHO [Senior Health Officer] are on oxygen, and they are not doing well. What we are trying to mobilize now is ICU management. We cannot afford to have the corpse of a medic at such a time. And I assure you, if the worst happens, we shall withdraw services in Mubende,” he said.

The Sudan ebolavirus is less common than the Zaire ebolavirus and has no current, effective vaccine. Sudan ebolavirus was first reported in Southern Sudan in 1976. Although several outbreaks have been reported since then in both Uganda and Sudan, the deadliest outbreak in Uganda was in 2000 claiming over 200 lives.

Uganda’s last Ebola outbreak, in 2019, was confirmed to be the Zaire ebolavirus. It last reported a Sudan ebolavirus outbreak in 2012.

Source: Voice of America