Malaysia: Crimes against Rohingya refugees described in new report

A report published by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, entitled Sold Like Fish, describes how human trafficking gangs committed crimes against Rohingya refugees in the period from 2012 to 2015, the Daily Telegraph reports. The investigation reveals the discovery of mass graves and internment camps along with the documentation of how Rohingya refugees were enslaved, starved, raped and murdered. https://bit.ly/2uvOAdd

Syria: 215 Yezidis rescued

Since the beginning of the Syrian Democratic Forces’ liberation of the last Da’esh stronghold in Eastern Syria, 215 Yezidis, mostly women and children have been rescued, Kirkuk Now reports. According to the Yezidi Home Organization, rescued Yezidis will be sent back to Sinjar. (Original article in Kurdish). https://bit.ly/2OtPrUP

Iraq: 90 people missing after boat sinks near Mosul

Despite rescue efforts by national and international teams, 90 people are still missing after an amusement park boat capsized near Mosul,…

Zimbabwe CSOs call for missing persons database

Civil society organizations in Zimbabwe have urged the government to establish a missing persons database, specifically to gather information on victims of the 1980s anti-opposition “Gukurahundi”. Dumisani Nkomo, director of the Habakkuk Trust, a Christian organization based in Bulawayo, said a database could bring closure to victims’ families. “The Gukurahundi issue must be talked about in public,” he said, noting that this point was recently made by President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Nkomo said such a database could be used by survivors in terms of economic benefits for dependents of those who disappeared or who were killed. “There is need to put names to those faces of people who died.” https://bit.ly/2UfjvZu

Mexican government reopens search for 1970s victim

Mexican authorities have reopened the search for Rosendo Radilla, an activist who went missing in 1974 during the “Dirty War” in the state of Guerrero, the Reforma newspaper…

Hundreds of mass graves from 1971 “lie unmarked” in Bangladesh

The Dhaka Tribune reports on what it says has been a failure to identify and protect mass graves dating from the 1971 massacres in Bangladesh. Officials at the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs say they have identified 204 mass killing fields and mass gravesites, while the War Crimes Facts Finding Committee, Bangladesh says there were about 5000 mass graves. There are reported to be more than 70 mass graves in Dhaka city. https://bit.ly/2JMCWoq

Mexico: “no financial limit in the search for missing persons.”

Mexican President Andres López Obrador says the new government will launch a program to identify 26,000 missing people. He said the program will include participation and support from family members, civil society organizations and international organizations, and he promised that there will be “no financial limitations” in regard to efforts to account for the missing. (original article in…

ICMP on justice in the Western Balkans

The Sarajevo Times reports that, following the final verdict handed down by the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in the case of Radovan Karadzic, ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger commented that “a chapter in the history of conflict in the Western Balkans has closed”, adding that “as those who were responsible for crimes are brought to justice, it is important that their victims are not forgotten”. She noted that 12,000 people are still missing from the conflicts of the 1990s. https://bit.ly/2Oj7NaV

Additional coverage by FENA: https://bit.ly/2untwFv

Philippines: families of the disappeared oppose “delisting” of victims

The “Desaparecidos” group in the Philippines, Families of the Disappeared for Justice, has written to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance asking it not to accept the government’s move to “delist” 625 victims of enforced disappearance in the Philippines from 1975 to 2012, PhilStar…