Peter Haschke

Repression or Not?

I was coding for the Political Terror Scale, yesterday and today continued to browse through the latest State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Consider the following four excerpts. How are they different?

Madagascar

There was a sharp increase in politically motivated detentions immediately before and after the 2009 coup. The number of such arrestees remained disputed during the year, ranging from 35 to 60 detainees, depending on the source. As of August 1, local human rights activists named 35 individuals who remained in detention as “political detainees” for alleged participation in plots against the de-facto regime, some dating to 2009. The majority were military officers reportedly held without due process.

Tajikistan

On July 24, Sabzali Mamadrizoyev, the head of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) in the GBAO, was killed during government security operations in Khorugh. Several days before his death, a video posted on YouTube and other sites showed him making anti-government remarks at a demonstration in front of a government building in Khorugh. On July 30, the IRPT chairman vehemently condemned the killing and called on the government to conduct a full investigation.

Zimbabwe

On September 28, two army soldiers killed Trust Barwai in Marange, after Barwai refused to pay his regular bribes to the soldiers in an illicit diamond smuggling ring and also threatened to expose the soldiers’ complicity in the ring. The soldiers, Farai Muzombi and Birias Zingori, buried Barwai after killing him. Witnesses informed the police, who arrested the soldiers. Premeditated murder charges were pending against the soldiers in the Mutare High Court at year’s end.

Brazil

Paraiba State military policeman Gleson Campos Pereira, arrested in the state of Pernambuco on charges of torture during the apprehension of four persons suspected of robbery in August 2011, was released on bail in January. At year’s end he was awaiting trial.