j’s blog

Yahoo! News - S. Korea bars secret video of the North

Tue Mar 29, 3:00 AM ET

A tape of a public execution, smuggled into South Korea, is kept off the air.

By Robert Marquand, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - On a bleached and scratchy video image smuggled out of Kim Jong Il’s closed regime, blindfolded prisoners are tied to white posts on a rocky landscape, shot three times, and dragged away. The rare video footage of summary executions in North Korea - a practice considered routine in the North but never captured on film - was taken by hidden camera March 1 and 2, and smuggled through China to South Korea.

At the time, refugee groups in Seoul were ecstatic. It looked like a human rights slam-dunk: Refugees from the North have long described summary executions - public spectacles where prisoners are shot moments after a death sentence is proclaimed. The shootings are a form of social control via terror, experts say.

Yet in a twist not anticipated by underground groups that carried off the filming, South Korean TV authorities have not let the video be broadcast. The tape has been aired worldwide; Japan recently aired three exhaustive reports.

But due to intense though indirect pressure by Seoul officials, the North Korean execution tapes, purportedly of “middlemen” who help refugees escape to China, are not yet available for viewing by Koreans in the South. The indirect censure adds to frustration among those documenting the gulags and torture in the North. They charge indifference in the South to evidence of manifold suffering by ethnic siblings across the demilitarized zone.

It also raises anew questions about a five-year policy in Seoul of studiously avoiding acts that might upset Pyongyang, for fear of harming fragile North-South relations. South Korea’s ambivalence about a get-tough policy with North Korea may also factor into the mechanics of the six-party talks over the North’s recently declared nuclear program.

“We have told of many public executions [in the North]. But officials in Seoul always ask us for material evidence,” says Pak Sang Huk, an escapee from the North. “Now that we have evidence, they don’t want to see it…. The people who brought this tape through China were speechless when they visited KBS [Korean Broadcast Service] studios, and were shunned.” Mr. Pak claims those who filmed the executions risked their lives to do so.

Seoul’s effort to avoid broadcasts of negative images or facts about North Korea is part of a larger strategy dating to the Sunshine Policy and Korean summit of 2000. In this view, unification of North and South can’t be achieved if the South criticizes or acts in a manner that the North deems hostile.

“Kim Jong Il holds public executions to show the Kim family is omnipotent,” says Jae Jin Suh of the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. “It is naive to think that Pyongyang will respond to a push by Seoul to change and treat its people better. We need to focus on what is effective, not what we think we should say.”

Of late, the South has stopped raising the North’s abuses in international bodies. In 2003, South Korea withdrew from a UN Geneva process when it required a vote on North Korea’s human rights record. In 2004, Seoul abstained from voting. A new South Korean defense white paper released this month after a three-year delay, deletes a former reference to the North Korean Army as the “main threat.”

Critics say that to stifle or disallow comment about the unpredictable Kim leaves the South in the position of being influenced or governed by Kim’s own whims. Supporters of Sunshine say that patience is needed, and a return to hostile accusations could create a standoff that would slow foreign investment in the South. Critics say millions are suffering now.

The taped executions took place near Hoeryang, along the Chinese border. South Korean intelligence officers have told Western reporters the tape is far too detailed to be a fake. Yet officially the tape’s authenticity is “still under investigation.”

North Korean refugees claim that an underground group called Youth League for Freedom shot the tape, which records about 104 minutes over two days.

The camera is held at mid-body and initial images are of a rush of dark winter coats, a thronging crowd, police officers pushing people into line. Some 1,500 persons appear scattered around a rocky ravine. At one point, a white “propaganda truck” pulls up and over a megaphone one hears a charge read out. The accused are described as prostitute traffickers. (Sources insist the executed were helping Koreans escape the North.)

In due course, white posts are hammered into the ground. Then two men are escorted from a tent. Their arms are tied to the post. People stand on top of bicycles to see. A woman is heard to say, “I can’t watch this.” A police chief’s voice calls out, “Aim, fire, fire, fire.” Nine shots by three soldiers ring out from behind the prisoners, who instantly fall. An official with a megaphone can be heard saying, “How pathetic is the end of these traitors of the fatherland.”

Such footage is rare, coming from one of the world’s most closed states. Since 1956, North Korea has been sorted into a hierarchy of those with greater or lesser adoration for the ruling Kim family. At the top is a “core class” of supporters, followed by a “wavering class” whose loyalty is questioned, and a “hostile class” that are outcast. The Kim family “recognizes only a part of the population,” notes Stephen Bradner, a veteran US adviser in Seoul. “The rest are considered disposable.”

Evidence of a system of gulags where hundreds of thousands of the hostile class live has been confirmed by satellite imagery. From 1995 to 1999, between 1 and 3 million starved to death. Detailed knowledge of the North is difficult to obtain.

Nearly half the geographical area is off limits. Distrust of foreigners is profound. A fifth of the population are alleged to be informers, and a half dozen security agencies compete with each other to quash dissent, say US sources.

What the tape shows, apart from punishment seemingly in excess of the alleged crime, is that the accused have no lawyer, are not allowed to speak, and have no appeal, says Abraham Lee, a human rights lawyer in Seoul who also heads Refuge Pnan, which offers sanctuary for refugees.

US and Japanese sources describe a practice of stuffing rocks in the mouths of the accused - making them unable to shout out last words against the regime.

Many activists express dismay at a disinterest in the fate of fellow Koreans. Gyeng-seob Oh, who runs the newsletter NKnet, says, “When I first saw the footage, I thought it would be front-page news. But South Korea, the most important market for this information, was not interested.”

The only public airing of the tape in Korea came March 25 in a basement room of the Seoul National Assembly Library. One refugee testified that Pyongyang had in recent years declared that executions should be kept indoors. A large public outdoor gathering suggests that a crackdown may be under way, experts mused.

Another refugee plaintively asked the group what South Koreans will say to North Koreans “once North Korea is liberated. “What will we say when they ask us, ‘What did you do to help?’ “

Yahoo! News - Kuwait Professor Gives Up on Speech Fight

By DIANA ELIAS, Associated Press Writer

KUWAIT CITY - A liberal university professor — tired of legal and verbal assaults from fundamentalists who say he mocks Islam — has given up his fight for freedom of speech in a country he says has become infested with the "germs and viruses of hatred and tyranny."

Ahmed al-Baghdadi — sentenced last week to a suspended one-year prison term for mocking Islam — said he has written his last newspaper column. Earlier, he said he would seek asylum in a Western country to protect his life, his family and his freedom of expression.

On Saturday, the Kuwait University political science professor told The Associated Press he also was considering less drastic options, such as retirement or spending a year abroad, which would be easier on him and his family.

"Writing and living in the shadow of fear is impossible, and dignity is above all," al-Baghdadi wrote in his final column Saturday.

He said legal battles have broken his only weapon — his pen — and there was nothing left for him but to surrender.

Al-Baghdadi’s decision came a week after the Appeals Court convicted him of mocking Islam and handed down a suspended one-year prison sentence, overturning an acquittal by a lower court. It also ordered him to pay a $6,825 deposit, which would be forfeited if he commits the same offense within the next three years.

Al-Baghdadi, an archrival of religious extremists who also took him to court in 1999, has appealed the verdict to the higher Cassation Court, but he said Saturday in his final column for the Al-Siyassah daily newspaper that he would not return to writing even if he won the case.

"It is not a matter of a court ruling here or a court ruling there," he wrote. "It is the sick climate that is filled with germs and viruses of hatred and tyranny."

The legal battle stemmed from a June 5, 2004, column in which al-Baghdadi wrote that he sent his son to an expensive foreign school rather than a state school because he did not want "ignorant" teachers to teach him "how to disrespect women and non-Muslims." Wrong teachings could lead his son to terrorism, he said.

"In short, I want to have a son with an education and a mind I can be proud of, not (a son) with backward thinking," he wrote.

Two Muslim fundamentalists complained to judicial authorities about the column and al-Baghdadi was tried and acquitted by a misdemeanor court.

The Appeals Court, however, ruled the professor had made "derogatory" comments about Islam by linking terrorism and "backward thinking" to religious classes at state schools.

For more than a decade, this small, oil-rich ally of Washington has been pulled between politically strong fundamentalists, who want to fully implement Sharia, or Islamic law, and the less powerful Westernized liberals, who call for more democracy and freedom of expression.

The 1962 constitution guarantees freedom of expression but laws penalize those who insult the country’s religion.

In his farewell column, al-Baghdadi said he could not play "the Kuwaiti roulette" by continuing to write without knowing when the next court case would come.

The U.S.-educated al-Baghdadi, who specializes in political Islam, has been campaigning for years against fundamentalists who he said "terrorize" writers and journalists.

"If terrorism spreads, nobody will be spared. Everyone could be gripped by the neck for a word or a joke unsuspiciously uttered, and accused of being against religion," he wrote in a December 1999 column.

That year, al-Baghdadi was convicted of blaspheming Islam when he wrote that the Prophet Mohammed initially failed to convert nonbelievers in the holy city of Mecca. Kuwait’s emir, Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, pardoned the professor and he was released from prison after serving about half of his one-month sentence.

Blogger wins conditional release - Breaking - http://www.smh.com.au/technology/

The Bahraini moderator of an online discussion forum said on Tuesday he and two web technicians detained on charges of defaming the ruler of the Gulf island state of Bahrain had been freed after two weeks in custody but could not change addresses until the case was closed.

“They released us last night, but the investigation is continuing,” Ali Abdel Imam, editor of the Bahrainonline website who had been in detention since February 27, said.

The three were detained on charges of “defaming the ruler, inciting hatred against the regime and spreading rumours and lies that could cause disorder,” lawyer Ahmed Al Arayedh said after their arrest.

He said the trio were accused of running a website that made it possible to publish such material, not of writing the material themselves.

The two web technicians, Hussein Yussef and Mohammad Al Musawi, were arrested on March 1.

The three were released after refusing an earlier offer to pay the equivalent of $US2660 bail.
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Abdel Imam said he and his colleagues had not been told when they would be questioned again or if the public prosecutor would respond to their request to bring an independent web expert into the investigation to help clear up technical matters.

“We sought to prove to the prosecutor that anyone can log on to the website and post any material. We can control the material after, not before, it is posted,” Abdel Imam said.

Last Thursday, police dispersed dozens of supporters who rallied outside the police station where the three were held. Another protest was staged outside the prosecutor’s office on Sunday.

Calls for the men’s release also came from Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

In 2002, Bahrain’s information ministry censored websites on the grounds of inciting sectarianism or propagating lies, sparking protests by activists.

Here’s a good overview on the lack of freedom of speech in many countries, especially the Middle East. Would you be brave enough to write what you do if there was the possibility of punishment such as 14 years in an Iranian prison? Don’t take your freedom of speech, if you have it, for granted:

Scoop: William Fisher: Blogging In The Middle East

Tuesday, 15 March 2005

By William Fisher

In democracies throughout the world, ‘blogging’ - setting up personal websites, known as weblogs, able to receive comments from readers - has grown exponentially over the past few years.

In the United States, there are literally millions of ‘blogs’. Their growth has been accelerated by five main factors.

1. First, the number of home computers has grown enormously. Some 61% of adults in the U.S. have Internet access at home and 71% have computers.

2. Second, access to the online technology for creating a blog has become easier and simpler.

3. Third, the U.S. has a relatively high literacy rate.

4. Fourth, for the past decade - but particularly after the historic and controversial presidential election of 2000 - Americans have become increasingly cynical about reporting by newspapers, radio, and broadcast, cable and satellite television controlled by giant corporations.

5. Finally, America has become a deeply divided nation politically and socially. Citizens with widely divergent points of view have found blogging a way to express their ideas and join or create communities of like-minded bloggers.

When satellite television arrived, it was hailed by journalism watchers as the ‘the new media’. But, predictably, its novelty was short-lived. Now, there are indications that, over the next decade, the Internet generally, and blogging in particular, may become the ‘new new media’ - America’s primary source of news.

However, it’s not there yet - a recent survey Gallup for CNN showed that only one in four Americans are either very familiar or somewhat familiar with blogs. So the jury is still out on whether virtual reality will replace Gutenberg. However, trends point in that direction.

Not yet in the Greater Middle East, though there are many parallels. For example, blogging technology is available to anyone with access to the Internet, and content can easily be created in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and other languages. While home computer ownership is still embryonic, there is pretty solid anecdotal evidence of deep suspicion of government-owned ‘mainstream media’ that spurred growth in the ‘blogosphere’ elsewhere.

But there is at least one critical difference. In most of the countries in the Greater Middle East, using a personal weblog to express political dissent can land you in jail as easily as taking part in an unauthorized political protest in the public square.

Iran is one of the worst offenders. Recently, an Iranian weblogger was jailed for 14 years for ’spying and aiding foreign counter-revolutionaries’ after using his blog to criticize the arrest of other online journalists. Despite the risks, an estimated 75,000 Iranians among its five million Internet users maintain online ‘blogs’. Especially among middle class youth, they have become an important way for Iranians to express dissatisfaction. As in Iran, most countries of the region impose varying degrees of restriction on weblogs.

Saudi Arabia, where authorities block some 400,000 websites, is among the most restrictive. It is unclear how many blogsites there are in the Kingdom, but those that are accessible focus largely on political dissent.

Typical is a site called "The Religious Policeman". One recent posting said, "What Reforms? There aren’t any Reforms! The government promised to set up a higher commission on women’s affairs, guaranteed women participation in the recent National Dialogue Forum… .and in the National Human Rights Commission… the National Dialogue Forum… agreed to change nothing, the ‘team photo’ had no women in it, anyone with any sense left in tears."

In Iraq today, there are hundreds of blogsites, most run by Iraqis, some by American and other coalition soldiers. They are communist, monarchist, Kurdish, Assyrian, Islamist, Shiite, Sunni, nationalist and secularist. Their political positions range from full support for the U.S. invasion and occupation to rabid calls for jihad against the Americans.

For example, on the one-year commemoration of the start of the Iraq war, a 24-year-old woman computer programmer wrote in her "Baghdad Burning" blog, "Occupation Day, April 9, 2003: The day we sensed that the struggle in Baghdad was over and the fear of war was nothing compared to the new fear we were currently facing. It was the day I saw my first American tank roll grotesquely down the streets of Baghdad - through a residential neighborhood. And that was April 9 for me and millions of others…and the current Governing Council want us to remember April 9 fondly and hail it our ‘National Day’ … a day of victory … but whose victory?"

Mona El Tahawy, a columnist at the daily Asharq Al Awsat, writes that bloggers in Iran and Iraq "have inspired others in the Arab world… Despite working in an elite medium, requiring a computer and literacy", she said, "bloggers are the voice of the true Arab street, especially the young." But free expression comes at a price.

In Egypt, authorities have tightened their control of the country’s 600,000 web users. The webmaster of the English-language Al Ahram Weekly was sentenced to a year in prison for posting a sexually-explicit poem, and a 19-year-old student was sentenced to a month in jail for "putting out false information" after reporting a serial killer on the loose in Cairo.

In Syria, one blogger asked others to sign an online petition addressed to " The White House" and "The Elyses" (palace). "With the killing of Hariri in Lebanon" it said, "Syrian Ba’athists are out of control. Who’s next? Syria is inciting civil war in Lebanon." Another Syrian, calling himself "Kafka", wrote that President Assad’s speech "made the Syrian people forget that (he) "never cared to give a damn about us since he came to power… ."

In Tunisia, President Zine el-Abidine ben Ali has been determined to stamp out all cyber-dissidence. Among many others, a prominent lawyer was arrested for posting an article online. In Bahrain, two online forum moderators were arrested. Nonetheless, a Bahraini blogsite, called "Sabbah’s Blog" was busy organizing a "Middle East Bloggers Meetup". Dozens of enthusiastic comments were posted by readers.

Even in Afghanistan, poorest of the poor, blogging is beginning to catch on. One Afghan blog reports, "During the Taliban we didn’t have the Internet, but now there are about 25 net cafes in Kabul, and also some in Herat, Kandahar, and Balkh provinces. People are really interested to use the Internet but it’s too expensive… only rich people can afford it."

If political dissent via blogging has not yet risen to the level of "new, new media" in the western democracies, it is at least not yet constrained by government regulation (though Congress and the Justice Department have floated various proposals to do just that). In fact, there may be a bizarre inverse relationship between the suppression of free expression and the proliferation of blogs. In the U.S., the number of blogs has increased significantly during the Bush Administration, when millions of Americans feel passionately that their civil liberties are being eroded by the ‘war on terror’. That outcry has generated equally passionate response from bloggers on the right.

Maybe the lesson for heads of state in the Middle East is: Increase freedom of speech and reduce the challenge and expense of having to deal with this cyber uproar.

*************
William Fisher has managed economic development programs in the Middle East for the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. His weblog is THE WORLD ACCORDING TO BILL FISHER (http://billfisher.blogspot.com/)

In Bahrain, you’re ‘free’ to speak as long as those in power like what you say.  If the powers that be don’t like what you have to say they might take your freedom away:

Aljazeera.Net - Bahraini blogger to appear in court

The Bahraini moderator of an online discussion forum detained on charges of defaming King Hamad will appear before a prosecutor and then decide if he will go on hunger strike, his lawyer and a brother have said.

"Ali Abd al-Imam, editor of the Bahrainonline website who has been in detention for 15 days, will appear before a prosecutor tomorrow," lawyer Ahmad al-Arayadh told AFP on Saturday.

"He might be kept in detention for another 15 days, freed or put on trial," Arayadh said.

Abd al-Imam was arrested on 27 February, and two technicians with the website - Hussain Yussif and Muhammad al-Musawi - were arrested on 1 March, on charges of "defaming the king, inciting hatred against the regime and spreading rumors and lies that could cause disorder," Arayadh said after their arrest.

‘Defaming king’

But he stressed on Saturday that the trio were accused of running a website that made it possible to publish such material, not of writing the material themselves.

Ali Abd al-Imam "will decide whether he will go on hunger strike depending on the decision of the prosecutor tomorrow"

Hussain Abd al-Imam,
Ali Abd al-Imam’s brother
Abd al-Imam’s brother, Hussain, said he had visited him at the police station where he is being held and was told he had put off a hunger strike he had been due to start on Saturday.

Abd al-Imam "will decide whether he will go on hunger strike depending on the decision of the prosecutor tomorrow," Hussain said.

Abd al-Imam’s two colleagues, who are also under detention for 15 days, will presumably be referred to the prosecutor once that period expires.

Protests

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has meanwhile condemned the detentions.

Despite political reforms introduced by the Bahraini government in recent years, authorities have "criminally prosecuted journalists, censored foreign publications (and) censored political websites," the committee said in a statement, calling for the men’s immediate release.

Police on Thursday night dispersed dozens of people who rallied outside the police station where the three are held in solidarity with the men.

In 2002, Bahrain’s information ministry censored internet sites on the grounds of inciting sectarianism or propagating lies, sparking protests by activists.