Urgent Appeal Case

PHILIPPINES: Activist forcibly taken by soldiers disappear while in custody

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that an activist, Ruel Munasque, who was forcibly taken by soldiers on 24 October 2007, has disappeared while in their custody. Ruel was together with Roger Morales, a farmer, when they were taken by soldiers at a checkpoint in Dumalinao, Zamboanga del Sur. […]

INDIA: One minor injured and another killed when Border Security Forces open fire in West Bengal

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned by yet another alleged extra-judicial killing committed by the Border Security Forces (BSF) in West Bengal, India. According to the information we have received, a young man was shot dead by indiscriminate firing by BSF personnel, while another minor sustained serious gunshot wounds, in […]

SRI LANKA: Absence of Investigation due to the alleged corruption of Bulathsinhala police

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the Bulathsinhala police who failed to conduct an investigation into the complaint of a man who was stabbed by some villagers on 1 October 2007. It is alleged that one of attackers bribed the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the police station concerned and the […]

SRI LANKA: No investigation after Piliyandala police assault a man

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the Piliyandala police beat a man on 27 September 2007. It was only after the victim produced a letter from the office of a government minister that a high ranking officer at the station allowed him to lodge a complaint. However no investigation […]

SRI LANKA: Several media personnel killed while investigation has failed

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from reliable sources concerning several cases of extrajudicial killings and threats to media personnel in Sri Lanka since 2004. Few cases have been investigated and to-date not a single person has been brought before the court. The AHRC is concerned by the impunity of […]

PHILIPPINES: Obvious surveillance on a legal aid office for workers continuing

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you of the renewed surveillance being carried out on a legal aid office for workers and labour organizations. Staff members of the Prolabor Legal Assistance Center (PLACE), has again noticed the suspicious movements of unknown persons immediately outside their office that began in October […]

SRI LANKA: Rattota police mishandle case of child rape victim

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding how the police at Rattota in Sri Lanka failed to collect vital evidence concerning the rape of a child in Matale on 8 November 2007. Furthermore, the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) made the suspect of rape sit in front of the minor while he interrogated them together, […]

SRI LANKA: Matale police torture a man but no investigation is conducted

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the torture and fabrication of charges, of a man by the Matale police in Sri Lanka, on 26 February 2007. He was brutally kicked and beaten by the police and fabricated charges were laid against him. Despite making a complaint to the Human […]

PHILIPPINES: Killing of three more persons in Negros Occidental; one victim’s body mutilated and sexual organ severed

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you of the extrajudicial killings of three activists in separate incidents in August and October 2007 in Negros Occidental, the latest in an ongoing series. Two victims: Rodrigo Siacor and Antonio Mercado were shot dead in separate incidents; Siacor front of his son […]

PAKISTAN: Higher police officers have impunity in the torture case of a French researcher

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed from Pakistan Women’s Lawyer’s Association that the police in Pakistan have been involved in beating, torturing and threatening a French researcher on 20 September 2007 and have not been charged. While no action has been taken against them, the police officials threaten local journalists […]

INDIA: Human rights activist facing threats for protesting against corruption

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) regarding the case of Mr. Mangala Prasad, a human rights activist who is now facing death threats for protesting against corruption of the local administration. It is reported that Mangala was threatened by the local […]

NEPAL: Three members of the Morang police engaged in serial torture

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from reliable sources concerning two cases of torture allegedly committed by the same perpetrators from the Morang District Police Office in Nepal on 4 and 10 September 2007 respectively. The AHRC has also received another two cases of torture by these persons that it […]

SRI LANKA: Kalutara South police tortured a man in order to fabricate charges

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the prolonged and brutally torture of a man by the Kalutara South police, Sri Lanka on 14 October 2007. The police took him to the police station where started assaulting with a wooden baton, suffocating him by slamming water from a hosepipe onto […]

SRI LANKA: Police assault on a man for refusing to pay bribe

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the assault on a man by several policemen of the Rakwana police allegedly for refusing to pay a bribe solicited from him on 9 October 2007. Accordingly, when he was travelling on his motor bicycle with a friend, the policemen stopped him and […]

SOUTH KOREA: Mentally handicapped minor kept for 15 days in police custody despite lack of evidence

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from DASAN Human Rights Center, a human rights oranisation in South Korea that a mentally handicapped minor was kept in police custody for about 15 days after her arrest on 30 May 2007. It is alleged that even though the investigating officers failed to […]

MALAYSIA: Violent police attack on peaceful protestors; Ten protestors reported to be charged

Dear friends The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from SUARAM, a human rights organisation in Malaysia that on 10 November 2007 the police cracked down on a peaceful demonstration for fair and free elections in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Police used teargas and water cannons to disperse the peaceful rally, which caused injuries […]

PHILIPPINES: Violent dispersal of workers by the police; workers denied from returning to work despite lawful order

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you regarding the violent dispersal of protesting workers by the police in Manila. The workers were about to commence a hunger strike on 10 October 2007 after negotiations with the Secretary of the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) failed to reach an agreement […]

NEPAL: Journalist abducted by Maoists, whereabouts still unknown

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from reliable sources in Nepal that a journalist Mr. Birendra Shah was abducted by the members of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) on October 5, 2007 from Pipra Bazaar, Kalaiya, in Bara district. It is reported that he was abducted for writing news […]

THAILAND: Husband of human rights defender shot dead in south

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the husband of a human rights defender in the south of Thailand has been shot dead. Ma-usoh Malong’s wife has been organising and supporting the victims and families of the Tak Bai incident. Other human rights defenders in Thailand believe that the killing […]

INDIA: Torture by pouring acid on the suspect in West Bengal

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM, a local human rights organisation based in Howrah, West Bengal regarding the case of a person who was tortured by the local police by pouring acid on the suspect. It is reported that the victim, an iron scrap dealer was taken into […]