Donors Need Accountability on Human Rights

(New York, November 16, 2005) — A recent attack by Pakistani police on a camp of earthquake survivors highlights why international donors must insist on human rights protection in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Human Rights Watch said today. International donors are gathering in Islamabad on Friday to discuss aid for victims of the October 8 earthquake.

Pakistani police used canes and rifle butts to break up a march on November 11 by approximately 200 earthquake survivors protesting eviction from their makeshift camp in the Kashmiri city of Muzaffarabad. Though the police denied attempting to forcibly evict the earthquake survivors, witnesses told Human Rights Watch that police arrived early last Friday at the Jalalabad Garden camp and told the quake victims to leave by sunset. Several protestors, including children, were injured as a result of police efforts to break up the demonstration. The authorities subsequently backtracked and only a few refugees have moved from the camp, which is still functional.

“The challenges of responding to the earthquake do not give the Pakistani police license to attack quake victims,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Homeless people understandably are worried if they are asked to move without assurances that they will have the scarce necessities of life at a new location.”

In the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir, an internationally disputed territory, the military essentially runs the region as its own fiefdom. The Pakistani government does not tolerate dissent in Kashmir, and the authorities ban or harass opposition political parties.

In recent weeks, the Pakistani military authorities have also discouraged negative media coverage of Pakistan’s response to the earthquake. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf expressed his displeasure at excessive criticism at a press conference in October.

On Monday, Pakistan’s government-run electronic media regulatory authority, PEMRA, stopped three local partners of the BBC from broadcasting two daily 30-minute “earthquake specials” produced by the BBC’s Urdu service. PEMRA officials, accompanied by dozens of armed policemen, seized equipment from one of the local partner’s Karachi offices and ordered two satellite television partners to stop running news content from the BBC. Pakistan’s information minister declined to comment on the incident when approached by the BBC.

“Now is the time for more information about the relief effort, not less,” said Adams. “Donors should make it clear to the Pakistani government that attempts to muzzle reporting on relief efforts are unacceptable.”

Human Rights Watch called on the international community to ensure that there is greater civilian oversight of relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts. So far, there has been little sign of any civilian oversight of aid inflows. Aid should be handled through a process that involves the Pakistan-administered Kashmir government, political parties in Pakistan-administered Kashmir as well as local, national and international non-governmental organizations, and civil society groups, particularly those working in the field.

In addition, Human Rights Watch called for independent auditing of relief funds and materials to ensure transparency and accountability. Contracts for reconstruction should be handled through proper procurement procedures that allow bidding by private agencies, and not just military entities.

Aid should be distributed without regard to political affiliation. In particular, there should be no discrimination against Kashmiri nationalists who do not support Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan or refugees who have entered Pakistan-administered Kashmir from Indian-administered Kashmir since 1991. These groups have faced systematic discrimination and violations of their human rights at the hands of the Pakistan Army, its security agencies, and the Pakistan-administered Kashmir government acting at the behest of Islamabad.

“Given its record of abuse and corruption, the Pakistani military should not be given carte blanche in the relief efforts,” said Adams. “To keep the process honest, civil society must be given a significant role both in delivery and oversight.”

Human Rights Watch urged donors to be as generous as possible in order to avert a humanitarian catastrophe as winter approaches in the mountainous regions of Northern Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.