Amnesty International Ceases Work in India Citing Years of Harassment

Courtesy of Flicker - Photograph by Bodo Tasche

By Madhavi Rao ’24 

Staff Writer

On Sept. 29, 2020, Amnesty International announced that it would be ending its operations in India. The human rights organization withdrew from the country after the government froze its bank accounts on Sept. 10, 2020, effectively ending its work there. This came after what Amnesty International has cited as years of harassment by the Indian government. In response, the government turned to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act as justification for its actions, claiming that the organization’s foreign funding violated the law. 

Executive Director of Amnesty International India Avinash Kumar stated, “The continuing crackdown on Amnesty International India over the last two years and the complete freezing of bank accounts is not accidental.” He claimed that the Indian government has been raiding Amnesty International’s offices for years and harassing the organization in an attempt to silence it, especially in reference to its work in reporting human rights abuses in the Delhi riots and the region formerly known as Jammu and Kashmir.

The Delhi riots, which started in December 2019, began after the passing of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Protests against the CAA were met with violence, and the situation escalated into riots, where a majority of the brutality was targeted at Muslim communities. 

Indian-administered Kashmir is the world’s most militarized zone, with 200,000 troops guarding 12 million civilians, as reported by Bloomberg. Kashmir is also the site of an excess of human rights violations, especially concerning dissent over the Indian administration. The tensions over the highly disputed territory were exacerbated by the change in Kashmir’s status from that of an autonomous region to a union territory on Aug. 5, 2019. This, coupled with telephone networks and internet access being cut off, increased concerns of human rights violations in the valley. 

Assistant Professor of History Abhilash Medhi said, “As much as organizations like Amnesty International and Human Right[s] Watch are important in drawing attention to what’s happening in Kashmir, there are fairly robust domestic circuits of information as well. In the valley and outside, more and more, Kashmiris have been creative in using the media to get their message out. This is something we can draw hope from.”

According to The Hindu, statements condemning the Indian government’s actions have been released by the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the U.K. Foreign Office, and the European Parliament. The Indian government responded to these allegations justifying their actions as an attempt to stop Amnesty International’s illegal funding from foreign investors. 

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Indian government blamed the organization’s continued violation of the FCRA. According to the MHA, “Amnesty’s failure to comply with local regulations does not entitle them to make comments on the democratic and plural character of India.”

The FCRA, created in 1976, aims to protect India’s democratic process from foreign influence by prohibiting external powers from funding operations in the country. It is now being used to target NGOs, such as Amnesty International, which was said to have received funding from foreign investors. However, in a statement responding to these allegations and the freezing of the organization’s accounts, Amnesty International reiterated that all their funding was raised domestically.

“The FCRA was put into place to limit foreign actors from meddling in domestic political affairs. But now it is used as a silencer of dissent,” Medhi said. “This in itself is telling of a larger project. Exceptions to laws, such as that of the FCRA, have been created in an effort to delegitimize these organizations and their work with human rights.”

Amnesty International is one in a line of many organizations whose operations have been terminated. More than 20 NGOs, including Greenpeace, Compass International and the Ford Foundation, are under fire from the government regarding the FCRA, according to The Hindu. Kumar said in a statement released by Amnesty International, “For a movement that has done nothing but raise its voices against injustice, this latest attack is akin to freezing dissent.”

Medhi said, “Their withdrawal from India is a worrying development. But it’s also part of a larger scheme. This process is occurring in slices, starting with NGOs and activists. What’s worrying is that if the current dispensation stays in power, this could happen to a huge chunk of the population.”

Extrajudicial Killing in Mozambique Leads To Mass Controversy

By Aditi Parashar ’22

Staff Writer

Content Warning: This article describes graphic violence and firearm use.

A recent video of a woman being shot at by men in military uniform sparked outrage in Mozambique after it was circulated widely on social media throughout the week of Sept. 14. The video shows a naked woman being beaten by sticks on a countryside road. She is then shot over 30 times. The video ends with one of the men making a victory sign and saying in Portuguese, “We've just killed Al-Shabaab,” which is the jihadi group operating in the region. 

The government of Mozambique condemned the act and claimed the violence was meted out by jihadi troops impersonating military personnel rather than the military itself. The insurgents in the region have done this in the past, according to the BBC. The government has promised to carry out an investigation of the “horrifying” video, reports Africanews. 

Interior Minister Amade Miquidade said, “The macabre acts that have been publicized are actions of subversion aimed at pitting the people against the forces that protect them. There is no relationship between those images with the defense and security forces.”

However, Amnesty International noted that the men in the video were wearing Mozambique Armed Defense Force uniforms, making them appear as if they were possible members of the FADM. They have also shed light on additional details. They claim the events in the video took place on Sept. 7 in the town of Awasse in the Cabo Delgado province. Amnesty International, while asking for a thorough investigation to be carried out, stated that the killing demonstrates “a repeated and unrelenting pattern of crimes being committed by the Mozambican armed forces.”

These allegations come amid heightened scrutiny on the Mozambican army after Amnesty International published a report claiming that the army was carrying out human rights violations in the region, such as executing civilians and dumping bodies into mass graves. These allegations came after it received video footage and photographs from its sources in the country. 

David Matsinhe, the Lusophone regional researcher for Southern Africa at Amnesty International, told AllAfrica, “People on the ground have been sending us numerous complaints of such violations since 2017. It just hasn't been in the spotlight.”

Africanews reported that the military forces have been fighting to take back control in northern Cabo Delgado since the extremist insurgency began three years ago. This province is one of Africa’s biggest liquefied natural gas projects, which makes it essential to the region. The rising violence in the area poses a threat to the billion-dollar investments by international firms for the development of gas projects. Al-Shabaab has escalated the violence since the beginning of the year, when a bid to establish an Islamist caliphate in the area was set forth. 

“Although the region is naturally rich in natural resources, the story is not the same for social markers such as employment and literacy rates, which remain incredibly low,” said Maha Ahmed ’21, an international relations major. “Additionally, foreign investments imply that the cheapest labor must be hired. This has a direct impact on the youth of the area who are then denied access to jobs that essentially exist to exploit the resources of their very land.”

“I think you can see the frustrations of unemployed youth who have been denied opportunities in the ongoing conflict in the region,” Ahmed continued.  

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project estimates that since the militants have carried out continuous attacks on the region’s towns and villages, more than 1,500 people have been killed while 250,000 have been displaced. Additionally, the total number of fatalities on either side stands at 1,854. Human Rights Watch reports that no one has been held to account for any of these abuses.

Professor of Africana Studies and Economics Lucas Wilson said, “There is no population more vulnerable, more dependent on respect for rights and dignity by those in authority than a population of incarcerated people. Based on the information I’ve read, the guards should face charges in Mozambique and in an international criminal court. I’m sorry this has happened and attention and care is needed to restore trust throughout society.”