Global Voices Online » Law

Hungary: Violence “Behind Doors”

Marietta Le — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:51:54 +0000

“At least one woman a week dies in Hungary as a result of domestic violence,” said Krisztina Morvai to the Central Europe Review in 2001, when she had published her book “Terror in the Family,” while working as the director of the office of the Hungarian Women's and Children's Rights Foundation (now she is an MEP delegated by Jobbik party). The mentioned fact has been announced several times in Hungarian media, but it seems as if nothing has changed about the situation by 2009.

In January this year, at the time of a debate on introducing a new law against domestic violence, the Hungarian Spectrum blogged:

President Sólyom doesn't seem to be too concerned, although according to Hungarian sociologists every week at least one woman dies as a result of domestic violence. And that statistic doesn't include old people and children who are abused or even killed. There was something on the books allegedly dealing with the issue, but it was totally ineffectual. Police couldn't act on the spot and weeks might go by before the case ended up in court. By that time, the plaintiff could be dead. Moreover, the police rarely acted. They simply didn't want to get involved in “family squabbles.” It was, for example, totally useless to call the police and report threats. The answer was: as long as there is no blood no action can be taken. I remember one specific case when such threats were uttered by a young boy against a young girl. The girl's family reported the situation. The police did nothing. A few days later the girl was dead. […]

Because of the refusal of the law in January by László Sólyom, the Hungarian president, the law was changed and the Hungarian Parliament voted on it in June again, and it came into force in October. The law, which has changed the regulation of limiting the freedom of movement to the person accused of committing violent acts, is still criticized (HUN) as not being effective enough.

This month, Hungarian NGOs joined (HUN) the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign. Amnesty International Hungary started a Facebook event where they published their two campaign videos from 2005.

Giving the title of a Hungarian singer Zséda's new song dealing with domestic violence (”Behind Doors”) to his post, tegla07 wrote this (HUN) on his blog:

[…] You're walking on the street and you have no other possibility: you are either one of them, or not. You can't do anything else. You can't be independent - you are among them, or next to them. But a lot of people, and among the lot there are more and more, who try to live as if all this didn't exist. Until it turns out that their best friend, a friend of a friend, a colleague, a cleaning lady or a secretary, a female director, teacher, CEO, is beaten at home…

And why? Every situation is different, every fate is unique, but. But there are rules, there are limits which are impossible to step across. There are situations when the “why” fades, and you can't ponder over it - and mostly, you can't judge.

You can't judge somebody because of her “weakness” (weakness? she stands up to something that you, probably, would never be able to), because of her “powerlessness” (powerlessness? she re-builds herself every morning from nothing)… If somebody's hurt, there's no question there. You must get there, from anywhere you are. You must hug her, to let her know that she's valuable. To let her know that she deserves something different. […]

Nobody, nobody deserves those slaps. Nobody, nobody can think that he has club-law in his family. Nobody, nobody can just pass by a humiliated woman. Nobody, never has the right to speak in another person's ear about a woman hurt… When will we understand this?

Cambodia: End of first Khmer Rouge Tribunal deemed a relative success

Chhunny Chhean — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:58:46 +0000

Many in the international community are calling the first Khmer Rouge Tribunal trial of Kaing Kek Iev, or Duch, a relative success as the trial closed. The Open Society Justice Initiative recently issued a report that the trial “generally satisfied international standards of fairness and due process.” However, according to the report, there have been indications that Cambodian government officials may not participate in future cases, making it difficult to conduct a fair trial for the four Khmer Rouge members awaiting trial: Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith.

One marker of success is found in the fact that Cambodians finally had a forum through which they could share their stories. The Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia (ASRIC) collected survivors' testimonies in cities across the United States for use in the Khmer Rouge trials. Below is a video of ASRIC at work:

The Tribunal also increased worldwide awareness of the Khmer Rouge, including this article, which profiles several Cambodians. One of those profiled is Bou Meng, a survivor of the S-21 prison Duch headed, who sought closure in the trial:

For [Meng], having a former S-21 staffer tell him where his wife was killed and buried would also bring a good deal of closure. He cannot perform a traditional Cambodian cremation because it would be too difficult to identify her bones. But, Bou Meng told Duch at the tribunal, if he could find out where she spent her final moments, he would ‘go to that location to get the soil from there to pray for her soul.’

However, neither the staffer nor Duch could remember where Meng's wife spent her last moments.

Another survivor is Dr. Sophal Ear, who fled the Khmer Rouge as a child and is now a professor and TED fellow. Dr. Ear shares his reaction to Duch's trial with a memory of his mother:

I never entirely understood the saying ‘Justice delayed is justice denied.' With my mom's passing at age 73, before she ever saw a single defendant serve a prison sentence, I now understand.

Duch, who had offered his apology during the trial, has now asked for the charges against him to be dropped.

China: Law or Justice?

Robert Woo — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:17:25 +0000

According to Chongqing Evening News, by November 15^th 2905 suspects had been arrested during a massive crackdown on gangs in the municipality of Chongqing, a major city with 30 million population and provincial status. The campaign was unprecedented both in its scope and its depth as it brought down a large number of government officials including the Director of Justice Bureau Wen Qiang, Deputy Police Chief Peng Changjian, plus scores of other police officers, government officials, prosecutors and judges. It is one of the first times that the linkage between political power and the black underworld in so many parts of China has been so publically exposed.

The success of the campaign has won tremendous popularity for Chongqing’s leadership, especially for the party secretary Bo Xilai, also a member of the powerful Politburo. However, many people expressed doubts as to whether the procedural justice was respected, whether Bo launched this campaign solely out of his own ambitious agenda, and also whether such a Mao-style campaign would be effective in solving long-term problems. In September, John Kennedy of GV reported on this debate by asking whether Bo Xilai’s corruption crackdown was good for China.

The debate reached another dimension when the State-run newspapers started to report on the sensational drama that was involved in Wen Qiang’s interrogation. The following quote comes from a tabloid-style ‘news story‘ reported by Yangtse Evening News, a widely distributed regional affiliate of Xinhua News Agency, based on the information provided by an ‘anonymous insider':

被“双规”后，文强知道自己不招供一些违法事实难以过关，最初装出很坦白的样子，在审讯时天天讲自己喜欢女人和玩女人的大量故事，他还主动讲述一些强奸少女、玩女明星的过程，“他说但凡有女明星、女歌星到重庆走穴演出，只要能想到办法搞定她们，包括用钱买、利用女星的隐私恐吓她们等，他都要和这些明星睡一觉。”但文强聪明反被聪明误，他老婆得知文强交代的这些情况后，“大哭不止，一直骂文强是个畜生，”消息人士说，“然后她交代了文强的一些问题，还带着我们去挖鱼塘取出了赃款。”

After being internally disciplined, Wen Qiang understood that he could not avoid pleading guilty for some of his crimes therefore he pretended to be very honest and during the interrogation, he bragged about the great number of tales on how he had loved women and seduced women. He even recounted the stories of how he had raped young girls and seduced actresses. He said whenever there was an actress or a female singer came to perform in a show in Chongqing, he would always go to bed with them by bribery or extortion or any other means. However, he outsmarted himself. When his wife was informed of these stories, “she cried and kept calling Wen Qiang a beast”, said the anonymous insider. “Then she gave up some information about Wen Qiang and took us to dig out the bribes he had hidden at a fishing pond.”

This story raised the eyebrows of many, notably those of columnist Chang Ping, who wrote an article on the matter in The Financial Times’ Chinese website. In the article, Chang Ping suggested that the so-called ‘anonymous insider' could only be one of the investigators of Wen Qiang’s case. He went on to question whether the investigators had followed the proper procedures by making this criminal case into a tabloid sensation. He speculated that the police most likely had not even verified the information with any of the so-called ‘actresses', neither did them follow the principle that no matter how bad a suspect seemed to be, they should not be treated and vilified as a real criminal before the formal indictment took place.

在中国，几乎所有的腐败官员都有八卦消息，但是这些消息的源头并非八卦人士，而是非常严肃的机构，不是警方就是宣传部门。与媒体略有不同的是，他们释放消息时有着非常严肃的目的，那就是证明此人道德堕落，生活腐化。而且，在他们看来，在这个阶段，从道德上打垮他，比从法律上认定他的犯罪事实更重要。

In China, there will almost always be some gossip about fallen or corrupt officials. Yet, the source of the gossip is not gossipers, but government institutions, either the police or the propaganda organs. Different from regular media, they have very serious motivation for releasing such gossip, namely, to allege that the person in question is morally degenerate. Moreover, in their perspective, to degrade and defeat this person on moral grounds is more important than to verify the facts through legal procedures during this stage.

那么专案小组为什么认为文强“强奸少女、玩女明星”是最重要的消息呢？这跟中共的历史传统有关。在这个传统中，当权者并不满足于从法律上指控落败者或犯罪嫌疑人，而是要将他全面“搞倒”、“搞臭”。生活作风问题，是一场永远不会终结的连续剧，这个国家的人民也越看越上瘾了。

So, why do the investigators think that ‘raping young girls and seducing actresses’ is the more important information? Is has to do with Chinese Communist Party’s historical tradition where the authority is never content with simply indicting the fallen or the suspect through legal processes, but has to completely ‘topple him’ and to ‘defame him’. The ‘life-style issue’ is an endless TV series, and the people of this nation have been more and more entertained.

However, Chang Ping’s essay has sparked a heated discussion in the following comment section which seems to suggest that many people believe sometimes to attack the evil, political tactics may take precedence over the due process of law. In this sense, the very mindset Chang Ping is attacking still possesses a great deal of currency. Following is a sample of such comments.

打黑是一种正义的行为，你们还说成官场斗争；我看你就有黑社会的细胞。说是官场斗争也好，是一批好官要斗倒一批黑官，对于人民来说，就是好事！当年共产党斗倒国民党，你也可以说是一场官场斗争，但是，广大的穷苦人—中华民族的根基所在，确是翻身了。这是天意！！！！黑社会是社会的毒瘤，哪个官养他，就是与人民为敌，这样的官一定要斗下去。

The anti-gang crackdown is an act of justice. How dare you call it power struggle? I think you are precisely the one who has the mafia sympathies. No matter whether you call it power struggle, if good power struggles successfully against the bad one then it is good for the people. In the past, when the Communists fought the KMT, you could also name it as a power struggle. However, the great majority of the poor – the roots of Chinese civilization – were indeed liberated! Such is the will of heaven!!!! Gangsters are a tumor in the society and whichever public official feeds them, he is an enemy of the People. We must struggle against them!

看到你写这样的文章，真是感到悲哀。我一贯对中国知识分子抱有好感，对于政客和普通老百姓对他们的奚落和嘲笑感到不平，但是，看到你这篇文章，只有一个感觉——迂腐，可恨！

After reading this essay, I feel really hopeless. I always have high opinions of you intellectuals and feel offended when politicians and masses scorn people like you. However, after reading your essay, I only have one feeling – pedantic, despicable!

你在纠缠于一些细枝末节的时候，知不知道自己已经偏离了大道？在中国当前的情况下，不采取特别手段能将这帮恶人制服吗？人家在那里冒着危险举起大刀劈向豺狼，你这里却批评人家违反了动物保护法，你这不是助纣为虐么？

When you entangle yourself in meaningless details, do you realize how far you have digressed from the right path? Given present circumstances in China, will those evil people be punished if not by exceptional measures? These brave people are wielding machetes on the ‘jackals and wolves' of our society at the risk of their own lives, while you sit there and criticize as if they have violated some sort of ‘animal protection' laws. Aren’t you aiding the evil so that they can become even more evil?

这个作者显然对中国的政治还不了解，就来这里试图忽悠别人。记住了，一件事，不看动机，而是看结果。如果这件事情最终的结果是让坏人死掉，好人受益，那就是好事。这件事情，文强是个坏人，付出代价，那是正常的。现在作者在这里矫情西方的所谓‘无恶意假定’，想要说明什么？难道想说审问农夫和蛇中的蛇，也要给他仁义道德？作者明显是为了稿费炮制这么一出添西方媒体屁股的文章～

Obviously, this author wrote here to dupe others even though he knows very little about Chinese politics. Remember, when we look at something, we don’t ask about the motivation, but the result. If this thing eventually leads to the death of bad people and the benefit for good people, then this is a good thing. In this case, Wen Qiang is a bad person and it is only natural for him to pay the price for being bad. Now, what do you try to prove by flirting with this Western notion of ‘presumption of innocence’? Do you want to say that in the parable of the farmer and snake, kindness should be granted also to the snake? Obviously, by writing this kind of essay the author was kowtowing to the western media and all he wanted was only his payment.

长平，总觉的自己都是对的，嘴里叫着法制，就站在道德制高点，他的评论无论对还是错，都是特别的专业，总能从一些事情中抓住事物的本质，比如就这件事，贪官有几个不乱淫，在中国都报道很多，可是法制联系在一起，人权就出来了，就把人带到另外一个境界，忽悠的好像就是那么一回事，特别有逻辑

Chang Ping always thinks he is correct. His mouth is always full of rule of law and he always takes the moral high ground. No matter whether his comments are correct or not, they all sound so professional, so close to the crux of matter. Take this case as an example. All corrupt officials indulge in debauchery and there is plenty of this kind of report in China. But when he brings out the rule of law, then human rights floow and readers are suddenly elevated to a whole new level. It is as if this should actually be the case. He is so logical.

To be fair, many people also show support for the ideals that Chang Ping stands for.

如果没有证据，那这些消息不是炮制出来的是什么？司法机关又不是娱乐媒体，说话不应该负有严肃的责任么？

If there is no proof offered then isn’t all this just fabrication? Judicial institutions are not media entertainment companies. Shouldn’t they be held accountable for their own words?

我认为长平的想法是值得重视的。事实上媒体对性的过度关注，从某种程度上转移了对更严肃主题——政治腐败的注意力；同时，我们重视严肃的法律审判，保护犯罪嫌疑人的基本权益，就是为了从制度上进行更深刻的反思，避免“胜者为王、败者为寇”的循环。

I believe Chang Ping’s thoughts deserves to be heeded carefully. In fact, the over-emphasis our media has placed on sex has diverted the attention from the more serious theme which is corruption. In addition, we must take legal processes seriously and uphold the basic rights of the suspect because we have to profoundly re-examine our system and to avoid the present cycle of ‘winner is the king, loser is the prisoner’!

长平是中国为数不多的谨守职业操守的媒体人之一，可惜的是，大多数国人不在乎这些。

Chang Ping is one of the few media people who still stick to professional ethics. Yet unfortunately, most people don’t care about this.

为什么没有人关注程序的合法性了？难道将一个堕落分子从灵魂到肉体都批烂、批臭就是我们追寻的目标？我们如何保证不会在消除罪恶的同时，产生更多的罪恶？

Why is it nobody cares about the legitimacy of the procedures? Is it really the case that all we want is to publicly humiliate the fallen one both body and soul? How can we make sure no more evil will be spawned after eradicating the one at hand?

缺乏现代公民意识的中国人民,只能继续在这种清官的盼望中轮回.

Chinese people, without the knowledge of a modern citizen, can only keep going around in circles in this fantasy about this upright official who will eventually save us all.

曲高和寡, 这是痛苦.

You sing so nobly, yet those who sing with you are so few. It is so painful.

A third, more cynical sentiment can also be found occasionally in the comments. For these people, not only this story on Wen Qiang’s sexual affairs but the whole crackdown is merely a part of a power struggle. Therefore, in their opinion, there is simply no point in arguing whether it follows procedural justice or not.

法只不过是打倒异已的手段,

Law is no more than a tool used to defeat the enemy.

政治斗争自古以来尔虞我诈。什么打黑，什么严打之类其实就是对本来就不健全的法律的践踏。没有什么合理合法的事。

Political struggle is all about deceiving each other since the ancient time. Political movements such as this crackdown are a violation against the already defective laws. There is no such thing as ‘lawful’ or ‘proper’ in this affair.

政治斗争, 谈不上什么正不正义, 手段而已, 多点娱乐资料, 没什么不好.

Political struggle has little to do with justice. It is all about scheming and tactics. At least it provides more material for entertaining ourselves.

现代人都活的太压抑，在这个全民娱乐八卦时代，把注意力放在花边上也可以理解。

People’s lives are too repressed. In such an era of universal entertainment and universal gossiping, relishing such peripheral matters is understandable.

如果愚蠢到认为在中国还可以按法律程序来处理社会问题，尤其是黑社会问题，那对中国的国情实在太不了解了。如果说世界上还有什么非法治国家，中国自然不会不出现在名单上。历来的运动或事件是从来不会考虑社会进步和百姓需要的，而总是政治工具而已。等什么时候中国各级当权者真正为老百姓的利益考虑事情，中国也就真正开始强大了。只是，这种愿望可能永远都不会实现。

If you think that China can solve her social problems, especially mafia-type problems, through legal processes, then you know little about China’s realities. If you list in which countries there is no rule of law then China will surely appear on that list. All the movements or incidents of the past seldom take into consideration people’s needs or society’s progress. It is all just a tool for politic gain. If the time comes when China’s rulers become truly concerned for the people’s interests, then China will become truly strong. But, such a wish may never come true.

Russia: At Least 25 People Killed in the ‘Neva Express' Train Crash

Veronica Khokhlova — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:19:43 +0000

An express train traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg derailed at 9:34 PM on Friday, Nov. 27, near the town of Bologoye, killing at least 25 people and injuring 87; as of 4 AM Saturday, 32 passengers are reported missing. The #166 train, known as the Neva Express, was carrying over 600 passengers in its 14 carriages; three rear carriages have been damaged due to the accident. A one-meter hole has allegedly been discovered next to the railway track, prompting speculation that this could have been a terrorist act.

On Aug. 13, 2007, the same Neva Express train was derailed due to an explosion; some 60 people were injured then. Coincidentally, in the past few days, there has been an increase in the Russian media coverage (RUS) of the trial of Maksharip Khidriev, one of the suspects charged in connection with the 2007 attack; an Ingushetia native, he is alleged to have links to Chechen rebels. (GV posts on the 2007 Neva Express train derailment are here and here.)

No witness reports of the tragedy seem to have appeared in the Russian blogosphere yet, but there are plenty of reactions still, and below is a small selection.

LJ user peresedov recalls the 2007 accident and the ongoing trial of one of the suspects, and posts this comment (RUS):

[…] Whether you want it or not, these two events [appear related].

I'd like to ask the experts: to which extent could these two events be interconnected, and is it really possible for Khidriev's associates (he has been proclaimed [Doku Umarov]'s person) to have prepared an attack like this in two days, and what the hell is going on here in general?

UPD. [LJ user] beri_llii links to a report claiming that the train explosion was carried out by yet another obscure nationalist group: [http://headshotboy.livejournal.com/137255.html]

(The post linked to in LJ user peresedov's update has since been deleted, replaced by another one (RUS) with an explanatory note, which says, among other things, that “the nationalists' statement” turned out to contain false claims of their involvement in the train blast.)

Some bloggers chose to draw parallels between Friday's train accident, the trial of Maksharip Khidriev, and Kurban Bayram (Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice), a three-day Muslim holiday, whose celebration began on Friday. LJ user warsh wrote this (RUS):

[…] I won't be surprised if this turns out to be a Kurban Bayram “gift” from the North Caucasus rebels (as it was with the attack on the Neva Express in 2007). I'm wishing them to join [the Chechen guerrilla leader Shamil Basayev, killed in 2006] as soon as possible.

And LJ user uliana wrote this (RUS):

All things considered, the newest Neva Express blast is someone's kurban. A consequence of the fact that those guilty of the first blast have been “appointed”…

LJ user aneta_spb mentions the 2007 attack and the trial, too, but points out (RUS) to other factors that might have caused the crash:

[…] The suspect in the previous catastrophe [case] has just admitted [his involvement] (and how many more they kept trying to implicate in this case!)

I can imagine what this night is going to be like for Novgorod's doctors… With roads like these… […]

***

murys:

We were just driving from the countryside, gave a ride to a man who, as far as I understood, worked for the Ministry of Emergency Situations or a similar kind of place. He said that this segment of the railway near Bologoye is so rotten in general that they don't have to explode anything there, and this could've been a secondary explosion, too. […]

aneta_spb:

Exactly - you don't even have to make an explosion. A couple weeks after [the 2007 Neva Express accident], we were on a train and spent some six hours waiting [not far from the site of Friday's crash], because there had been some accident in front of us. And prior to the rushed launch of the [Sapsan high speed train route], they were doing some urgent repairs, and it's likely that they haven't finished something or done something wrong. […]

And here's a comment (RUS) on the rescue effort, posted anonymously in the ru_railway LJ community:

In this situation, I'm most upset about the fact that they've spent so much time bragging about the Emergency Situations Ministry's cool new rescue center in Moscow, about all the info that they've got showing on the little screens, and the fact that they are now capable of taking urgent decisions, but what's the use of all these decisions if the local rescue equipment is not in the working condition, and that's why they had to send some [all the way] from Novgorod. The accident took place at 9:34 PM, and the rescuers from Novgorod set out [to the site of the accident] only at 10:40 PM, and it takes two and half hours to ride along those roads, if you can call them roads at all, and that's the best case scenario. They've sent the planes out - but why don't they have anything locally?!

St. Vincent & the Grenadines: ‘No' It Is

Janine Mendes-Franco — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:28:36 +0000

Vincentian bloggers discuss the fact that the citizenry recently voted ‘No' to “the current manifestation of a proposed constitution for this country.”

Russia: Social Networks Help Find Debtors

Vadim Isakov — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:01:49 +0000

Court enforcement officers in Russia actively use social networks to gather information on debtors and their properties, Russian news agency Prime-TASS reports [RUS].

Russia: Tatarstan Blogger Sentenced to Almost 2 Years in Penal Colony

Alexey Sidorenko — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:02:15 +0000

Irek Murtazin, photo by Sergey Varshavchik

On Nov. 26, the Kirov district court of Kazan, which is the capital of the Republic of Tartastan, convicted Irek Murtazin, a 45-year-old journalist and blogger, of defamation and incitement to hatred, reports Gazeta.ru [RUS]. The court sentenced Murtazin to one year and nine months of imprisonment in a penal colony (a form of imprisonment where convicts live not in a jail but in a special colony for prisoners).

About a year ago, in Dec. 2008, Murtazin - former head of Shaimiev's press service and currently an opposition blogger, aka lj-user irek-murtazin [RUS] - was accused of defamation against Mintimir Shaimiev, President of Tatarstan. On Sept. 12, 2008, Murtazin published a post in which he mentioned a piece of gossip about Shaimiev's death. He wrote [RUS]:

Пришла страшная весть…
…на 72-ом году жизни, во время отдыха в Турции (в Кемере) скоропостижно скончался Минтимер Шарипович Шаймиев.
Честно говоря – не верится. Точнее, не хочется верить. Потому что, если это правда, то начнется такая свара, такая нешуточная борьба за то, чтобы занять освободившееся кресло, что чубы у холопов будут трещать и вдоль и поперек. И именно из-за подобных перспектив, ближайшее окружение Минтимера Шариповича попытается скрыть эту информацию. Чтобы успеть перегруппироваться (вплоть до скоропостижной эвакуации из страны). Именно поэтому официальная информация, думаю, будет не раньше чем через неделю.

A horrible piece of news came in…
…Mintimir Sharipovich Shaimiev suddenly died on the 72nd year of life, while on vacation in Turkey (Kemer).
Frankly speaking - I can't believe it. To be precise - I don't want to believe it. Because, if it's true, then there will be such a mess, such a serious struggle to get into the vacant seat, that the peasants' forelocks will be cracking here and there. And it's because of these prospects that Shaimiev's closest circle will try to conceal this information. To win time to regroup (or even to leave the country). This is why, the official information, I think, will appear not earlier than in a week.

The rumor of Shaimiev's death was disproven on the same day, but the shares of the oil company allegedly owned by the representatives of the so-called “Shaimiev clan” dropped significantly, says Lenta.ru [RUS]. In Dec. 2008, Murtazin was officially accused of defamation and infringement upon personal inviolability of Shaimiev (It is important to note that the court acquitted Murtazin only on this latter charge).

The trial lasted almost a year, and prosecution kept adding new accusations, blaming Murtazin for defamation and libel not only on his blog, but also in Murtazin's book “Mintimir Shaimiev: The Last President of Tatarstan. Part 1″ as well as in his news bulletin “Our Kazan News” (”Наши казанские вести,” which Murtazin described [RUS] in Oct. 2008 as a “print digest” of his LiveJournal blog).

Murtazin said he didn't agree with the verdict and would file an appeal.

Photographs from the trial are available here.

***

Irek Murtazin's bio (according to Anticompromat.org)

Born in 1964 in Bogatye Saby settlement, Tatarstan
1981-1990 - served in the Soviet Army, also in GRU (military intelligence unit)
1985 - graduated from the Kazan Higher Tank College
1990-1991 - assistant to the legislator Vladimir Lopatin
1995 - graduated from the Moscow Government Law Academy
1991-1995 - editor-in-chief of newspapers “Russian North” and “Gubernskie Vesti”
1993-1995 - editor-in-chief of TV-7, a local TV channel in Vologda
1995-1999 - bureau chief of the VGTRK (the largest state-owned TV company) in Kazan
1999-2002 - head of the press service of the President of Tatarstan
2002-2003 - head of TV channel “Tatarstan”
2003-2004 - head of VGTRK's Minsk, Belarus, bureau
2006-2007 - member of the regional branch of A Just Russia party in Tatarstan
2008-2009 -publisher and editor-in-chief of the news bulletin “Our Kazan News” (printed outside Tatarstan in Cheboksary, Republic of Chuvashia)

St. Vincent & the Grenadines: No!

Janine Mendes-Franco — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:54:55 +0000

The people have voted no to the proposed new constitution in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Abeni and Repeating Islands report.

China: Prisons more modern & luxurious than schools

Oiwan Lam — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:00:50 +0000

Tingting from ChinaSMACK translated a local forum post that shows modern and luxurious design prison in China.

Russia: Defense Ministry Reports “Non-Combat Losses” Online

Andrei Skvarsky — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:20:28 +0000

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Nov. 20 that suicides, accidents, murders, and, possibly, manslaughter claimed 297 lives in the country's armed forces from January to October 2009, and that 149 of these deaths were suicides.

October alone produced a death toll of 24, including 12 suicides, according to the report (RUS), which was one of the monthly statistical bulletins on the so-called “non-combat losses” that the ministry publishes in the form of tables on its website, www.mil.ru.

The reports do not specify the proportions of draftees, soldiers doing contractual service and officers that make up the death tolls, and they only cover the Defense Ministry-run part of the military; no such statistics are available on armed services coming under the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service (FSB), or the Emergency Situations Ministry.

The Defense Ministry-controlled forces, where the term of draft service is one year, number about 1.2 million, including more than 300,000 officers.

The ministry's “non-combat losses” statistics have varied little from month to month, with this year's minimum and maximum monthly tolls being 23 and 37 respectively.

Accidents claimed more than 127 lives in the 10-month period, but the exact numbers of lives lost through accidents, murder, and, possibly, manslaughter are unclear because of the bulletins' rather confusing organization.

The reports have a category entitled “Accidents” (96 fatalities stated in the November report), but also separate categories on the mishandling of weapons (seven deaths) and road accidents (24), and a category entitled “Murders and Deaths through Negligence” (17). There is also a category (four deaths in the November bulletin) on “exceeding of powers” and the notorious bullying and brutal hazing by soldiers of fellow servicemen known as dedovshchina.

According to footnotes to the table, the total “non-combat” death toll is definitive, but criminal investigations into soldiers' deaths sometimes take a long time, and so some of the reported cases may be moved from one category to another later.

One of the notes says the statistics do not cover fatal diseases.

The November report, which also says 11,653 crimes were committed in the armed forces from January to October, has hardly drawn any comments on RuNet so far, but quite a lot of comments followed the October bulletin (RUS), which said the period from January to September had produced a death toll of 273.

There was hardly any reaction to the October report from bloggers, but there were quite a few comments on various news websites: some purely emotional, others trying to get to the causes of “non-combat” fatalities, one comment providing a link to a law firm that offers to exempt young men from the draft, and one person arguing that the death toll of 273 was too low to worry about.

There was, for example, a discussion on the Novosibirsk-based Lyubimy Gorod site, and below is a small selection of opinions posted there:

Silxer:

But everyone chooses their own way. If all you do is drink and smoke, that's where you will be [i.e., drafted into the army]. These days tricking yourself out [of the draft is no problem]…

***

Tatyana and KOtyata:

Study and study [a reference to Vladimir Lenin's advice to young people], or phone here [a link to the website of a law firm in Novosibirsk that promises allegedly guaranteed exemption from the draft]

***

Zyklon_B:

Moreover, according to the Defense Ministry, 10,396 crimes were committed in the military since the start of the year, 1,023 of them in September. If one serves in the Russian military, there is a high probability that one will become a criminal.

There was also a debate (RUS) on the site of the Novy Region 2 online news agency:

Kapitan:

An I-couldn't-give-a-shit attitude on the part of officers, lack of REAL sergeants, moronic combat training programs – all these are results of these “non-combat” losses in the Armed Forces [he apparently means 'causes' rather than ‘results']. Russia is no exception either. The situation is just as crazy in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And the ultimate reason is there are more old-fart generals, colonels and rubbishy staff and logistics officers than soldiers in our armies. There're 10 officers for each rank-and-file soldier!!! There's one more little group of good-for-nothings with stars on their shoulders – the warrant officers. I'm not talking about those who command companies or are special forces fighters – I'm talking about the LOGISTIC services, where, at times, to get something out of a warrant officer in a combat or financial unit you have to either give him a bottle of brandy or simply blow his teeth out – an IMPENETRABLE BUNCH OF BASTARDS.

***

Dersu Uzala:

This is a very low ratio between non-combat losses and the total number of military personnel for any army in the world.

Why should NR [New Region] be running into hysterics?

***

SPETS:

In fact, in a large city with a population of a minimum of one million more people get killed by drugs […] than in the entire armed forces with all their losses. But they don't yell about that, do they!

***

Nerussky:

The main causes of non-combat losses are old armaments plus the fact that military personnel have very little experience of using them, the exceptionally low education standards of draftees and their exceptionally poor health, the shortage of officers and their being too busy with goodness knows what but not work with soldiers, exceptionally poor performance on the part of officers in working with soldiers – most of them simply lack the knowledge that's needed for this.

A lonely comment, posted by “a student” on the Velikaya Epokha (The Epoch Times) site, said (RUS):

Yet they keep taking young guys into the military, our state broke the lives of 273 people.

Reuters reported on Nov. 17, citing Gen. Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army, that about 140 soldiers in the Army had committed suicide in 2009.

Singapore: Illegal employment termination

Mong Palatino — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:14:45 +0000

Illegally terminated pregnant workers in Singapore can lodge complaints. Barnyard Chorus identifies the process on how to file a complaint with the Ministry of Manpower

Jamaica: Trafficking in Paradise?

Janine Mendes-Franco — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:43:17 +0000

Jamaica Salt takes a look at human trafficking and prostitution on the island.

China: Children who are left behind

Jennifer Cheung — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:38:35 +0000

On November 12, several days before the International Children's Day, an explosion erupted in an illegal fire cracker factory in Guangxi which resulted in 2 children workers dead and 11 others injured.

According to the Southern Weekend's report, these children victims were left behind by their parents, who are migrant workers and have to work in cities all year long to earn money and support their families. They lived with their aging grandparents and struggled to work before and after school time to earn some pocket money for snacks.

The children workers phenomenon is not rare in Yanghui village where the tragedy took place. The lack of government regulation is part of the reason behind, but on the other, “if these children have their parents around and being taken good care of, we will not have such a big tragedy,” Yang Youji, the village party chief, was quoted as saying.

According to the 2005 population census, there were 120 million farmers who worked or did business in cities, and the number of children they left behind amounted to 20 million. 88.2% left-behind children could only contact their parents by phone, but 53.5% of them talked with their parents in less than three minutes.

Tong Dahuan, a Chinese blogger in Tianya, pointed out another social issue in this fire-cracker incident related blog post, “Who Should Apologize for the Tragedy of the Left-behind Children”:

前两年，来自北京、上海等地的有关调查即显示，新移民二代的犯罪率是当地户籍青少年的三倍！留守儿童和流动儿童的悲剧命运，正在引领着我们走向一个不可知的未来。

In the past 2 years, surveys conducted in cities like Beijing and Shanghai showed that the crime rate of the second generation of migrant workers (the children of migrant workers) is three times higher than their local peers who are resident certificate holders. The bitter destiny of left-behind and migrant children is leading us to an unpredictable future.

Tong argued that it is the unfair education system that resulted in this kind of tragedy.

中国数以亿计的农村人到城市打工，他们的孩子经常被城市的学校排除在外，或被收更高的学费，城市里也没有专门供这些孩子受教育的非正式学校（打工子弟学校常常被教育主管部门以教育条件不达标为由围追堵截甚至赶尽杀绝）。更有甚者，在户籍加学籍的高考报考制度下，即使打工子弟历尽千辛万苦过五关斩六将在父母打工所在地读完了高中，他们也将面临无处高考的命运。这一切导致大量孩子过早被迫与父母分离，成为“没爹没妈”留守儿童。

Hundreds of millions of Chinese farmers go to work in cities, but their children are often excluded by the cities they work in, or they are charged with higher tuition fees. There are no schools that are set specially for these children of migrant workers (migrant children schools are frequently shut down by education authorities in the name of substandard education conditions). Furthermore, under the dual systems of the resident registration plus student registration certificate (which shows the region the student geographically belongs to), even if the migrant worker children finish senior high school with great efforts and hardship, they can still be rejected from partaking the national college entrance exam. All these unfavorable factors lead to their separation from their migrant workers parents at an early age, who later become left-behind children with virtually no parents.

Tong said there have been a lot of criticism against the government’s outdated residents certificate system and education system since 1997, but there seemed almost no progress on these two issues.

现行户籍与教育制度，已经严重违反了人权、人道、人伦，也违反了我们1990年签署、1991年全国人大批准、1992年3月1日起即对我国生效的联合国《儿童国际公约》

China’s current residents registration system and education system have seriously infringed upon its citizens’s human rights, human morality, as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of Children which the Government signed in 1990 and the National People’s Congress approved in 1991 and which took effect since March 1 1992.

请问，不让孩子就地平等地接受教育和高考，是为了孩子的最大利益吗？用户籍制度生生将孩子和父母拆散，这样的分离符合儿童的最大利益吗?”

I want to ask, is it for the ultimate interest of children that the government doesn’t give children equal opportunities to receive education and take part in the national college entrance exam? Is it for the ultimate interest of children that the government separates children from their parents with the tool of residents registration system?

Another Tianya Blogger, Li Hui
, questioned why the children workers are always the left-behind children?

为什么黑童工都是留守儿童？这背后，不仅是一个非法雇佣童工的问题，更深层次的原因，是城乡二元分化，以及由此导致的教育资源发展严重不均衡。

Why the illegal children workers are always the left-behind children? What underlies this issue is not only the illegal employment of children workers, but more profoundly, it is an issue caused by China’s rural-urban dual structure, and the serious imbalance of education resources.

In the Southern Weekend report's comment section, many netizens left their comments, some blamed the residents registration system as the root of this tragedy.

For example, Yanchenyu said,

户籍制度是造成留守儿童的根源，城市人口享受农民工带来的繁荣，却不为他们的健康提供保障，不为他们的小孩提供教育。

The residents registration system is the root cause of the left-behind children tragedy. Urban population are enjoying the prosperity brought about by migrant workers, but they don’t provide due protection on migrant workers’ safety, neither do they provide education to migrant workers’ children.

li101947 questioned the role of law enforcement:

已经有多少儿童遭受了苦难？还有多少儿童将要遭受苦难？难道就不能有组织、制度保障他们的权益吗？法律的执行怎么了？

How many children have suffered the tragedy? How many more are going to suffer the tragedy? Can’t there be organizations and regulations to safeguard these children’s rights and benefits? What have law enforcement done?

Maldives: Child Marriages and Sexual Abuse Laws

Rezwan — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:58:42 +0000

Mohamed Nasheed discusses the complications arising out of the existing child marriages and sexual abuse laws in Maldives.

Malawi: President seeking more power

Ndesanjo Macha — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:15:35 +0000

Malawian President wants more power!: “Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika, whose party enjoys a parliamentray majority, is seeking to beef up his powers before he exits the political stage in 2014.”