PAX GAEA WORLD POST HUMAN RIGHTS HEADLINES (12/9)
Protestors march on US consulate
By Vincent Morello
MORE than a thousand protesters have marched on the US Consulate in Sydney to mark the fifth anniversary of Australian terror suspect David Hicks' detention. The rally began at Sydney's Town Hall with some protesters wearing orange prison jumpsuits, symbolic of Hicks' treatment at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he has been held since early 2002. Hicks was arrested in Afghanistan in 2001 and subsequently pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy. Herald Sun (Australia) (12/9)
Confusion over 'gunfire' at Fiji military barracks
By Paul Tait
SUVA - Sustained gunfire was heard coming from inside Fiji's main military barracks on Saturday, witnesses said, four days after the army overthrew the south Pacific island nation's elected government. A Reuters witness and local residents heard gunfire erupt in the Queen Elizabeth barracks on a hilltop overlooking Fiji's capital Suva and said it continued for about 30 minutes.Fiji military spokesman Major Neumi Leweni had confirmed there was firing inside the barracks but said it was an unscheduled shooting exercise and that people should not be alarmed, Reuters said. New Zealand Herald (12/9)
Rights Abusers Must Be Prosecuted: OHCHR-Nepal
THT Online
Kathmandu- Chief of the OHCHR-Nepal Lena Sundh today said the culture of impunity, especially for serious human rights abuses, must end and those who committed serious rights abuses during the conflict should be prosecuted to ensure that there will be no human rights abuses in Nepal in the future.Saying that serious abuses were committed by both sides during the conflict, Sundh said there will be dangerous consequences for future human rights protection if these are merely swept under the carpet – supposedly in the interests of peace. Himalayan Times (Nepal)
Indonesian House passes controversial bill into law
The Indonesian House of Representatives has approved a bill that requires citizens to state their faiths on legal documents, a regulation criticized for continuing discrimination against minorities, a media reported here Saturday. The civil registrations bill, endorsed on Friday after a tense debate, still requires citizens to state one of the six religions, Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism, recognized by the government on their identity cards. Activists said the requirement will continue discrimination against people of minority faiths. The debate over minorities proved a sticking point in the bill's deliberation, with three political factions, the secular Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Christian Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) and the Muslim United Development Party (PPP), rejecting the final draft. People's Daily Online/Xinhua (China) (12/9)
This means war
By Avraham Tal One after another lately, various Israeli-Arab organizations have been publishing papers dealing with the future of the Arab public in Israel and its relations with the state authorities. The papers present the problems encountered by Israeli Arabs in their contact with Israeli law, with the state authorities and state institutions, and call for a fundamental change in the relationship between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority. What led to this recent flurry of efforts to spell out "visions" of problems and solutions for the Arab public? The standard explanation: The worsening breakdown of trust between this public and the state institutions in wake of the events of October 2000. Yet there can be no ignoring the fact that these visions are blossoming just when Israel has come out of a difficult war in Lebanon, is still facing a possible war in the North, is in a fragile state of cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, is dealing daily with terror cells in the West Bank, and has an existential threat from Iran hovering over it. Ha'aretz (Israel) (12/9)
Blair Tells Muslims to Integrate
Mushtak Parker, Arab News
LONDON, 9 December 2006 — British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a hard-hitting lecture on religious tolerance and cultural assimilation to a specially invited audience at No. 10 Downing Street yesterday called on British Muslims to integrate into British society and to espouse British values of belief in democracy, rule of law and tolerance. He warned that British values take precedence over any cultural traditions or faiths. Blair was rekindling the debate on multiculturalism, which effectively took a battering in the aftermath of the 7/7 terrorist attacks on the London transport system in July 2005 in which over 50 people died. Although the speech was not aimed at the Muslim community per se, there is no doubt that the prime minister was targeting his comments at radical Muslim groups who seemingly favor separatism and extremism to the point of justifying violence for their cause. Arab News (Saudi Arabia) (12/9)
AFRICA:Women Take Some Steps Ahead of the West
Sabina Zaccaro
ROME, Dec 7 (IPS) - About half of the parliamentarians in Rwanda are women; many other African countries have more women in parliament than some western ones. It's taken some doing, as Gertrude Mongella knows - and as she tells IPS in an interview. When she was appointed Secretary-General for the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, Gertrude Mongella already had a long political history. A graduate from the East Africa University College in Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, she has strongly supported advancement of women in the African continent in her 34-year career. Inter Press Service News agency (Africa) (12/9)
US Congress backs Vietnam trade
The United States Congress has passed landmark legislation normalising trade ties with Vietnam. The legislation sweeps aside trade curbs in place since the Vietnam War. The bill had suffered a defeat last month in the House of Representatives ahead of President George W Bush's first visit to Vietnam. The vote was one of several which the outgoing Republican-controlled Congress has been trying to pass before the Democratic Party takes over in January. The trade vote package also expanded trade relations with Haiti, and tweaked Washington's trade preferences with several states in Latin America and beyond. BBC (12/9)
Uruguay extradites 'Dirty War' suspects
Big News Network(UPI)
Uruguay Friday extradited to Argentina six suspects accused of human rights violations during the countries' former military dictatorships, El Pais reported. The six men -- former police and military officers -- are accused of abducting 11 Uruguayan dissidents in Argentina in the 1970s, when both countries were ruled by the military. During Argentina's so-called Dirty War, some 30,000 people were killed or disappeared. Uruguay's own military dictatorship at the time reportedly cooperated with leaders in Argentina to capture and imprison political dissidents from its neighboring nation. Argentina Star (12/9)
Rep. McKinney's parting shot: Bill to impeach Bush
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In what was likely her final legislative act in Congress, outgoing Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney announced a bill Friday to impeach President Bush. The legislation has no chance of passing and serves as a symbolic parting shot not only at Bush but also at Democratic leaders. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, has made clear that she will not entertain proposals to sanction Bush and has warned the liberal wing of her party against making political hay of impeachment.McKinney, a Democrat who drew national headlines in March when she struck a Capitol police officer, has long said that Bush was never legitimately elected. In introducing her legislation in the final hours of the current Congress, she said Bush had violated his oath of office to defend the Constitution and the nation's laws.CNN.com (12/9)
Federal Raid on Offices in Troubled Mexican State
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
MEXICO CITY, Dec. 8 — Six days after President Felipe Calderón took office, federal agents raided the prosecutor’s office and state police headquarters on Friday in the troubled southern state of Oaxaca, where state law-enforcement authorities have failed to arrest anyone in the killings of at least 11 antigovernment protesters and a New York City journalist. Around 4:15 p.m., dozens of federal police officers flooded into the offices of the state prosecutor, Lizbeth Caña, and secured the arms cache used by the state judicial police responsible for investigating crimes, according to local news reports. A police commander, Ardelio Vargas, told the newspaper La Reforma that the federal authorities intended to seize all the police weapons to determine whether they had been used against protesters in recent months. There have been widespread allegations that the local police and municipal officials had abused demonstrators and in some cases killed them. New York Times (12/9)
posted by Dave Carroll @ 12/09/2006 06:55:00 AM
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