Pax Gaea Human Rights World Post

PAX GAEA WORLD POST HUMAN RIGHTS HEADLINES WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2006

• New French Polynesia president ally of Chirac as election delivers blow to independence movement
• As talks open between China and Japan, WWII atrocities against Chinese hover historically
• Historic British massacre of peaceful Indian protesters being taught in English schools, causes furor to Empire defenders
• 1/3 of Israel's children live in poverty, state report concludes
• Soap production provides economic hope in drought-stricken Kenya
• Holland makes record donation to UNICEF of $201 million
• Sex trafficking major issue for Romania and Bulgaria
• Jolie, Pitt spend Christmas with Colombian war refugees
• NATO must do more to assist Afghan civilians
• New UN appointee to Darfur a true rights warrior

French Polynesia elects new president

PAPEETE - A politician close to France's ruling UMP party was elected President of French Polynesia on Tuesday, replacing the pro-independence former incumbent after a vote denounced by the loser as "robbery". Gaston Tong Sang, 57, an ally of longtime regional boss Gaston Flosse, who is a friend of French President Jacques Chirac, was elected by the assembly which runs day-to-day affairs in the French territory by 31 votes to 26 for his rival Oscar Temaru. The vote, which follows a censure motion earlier this month to oust Temaru's government, followed months of protests against high prices in the territory which includes Tahiti and is supported financially by Paris. The former president attacked the procedure before the vote had even been taken."There can be no democracy in a country that is under the control of another power," he said in remarks given mainly in Tahitian rather than French. "The UMP is interfering in the running of the state, it's robbery, it's a coup d'etat that's being prepared." New Zealand Herald (12/27)

Nanjing Massacre can not be denied, says Chinese FM spokesman

The Japanese invasion of China and the Nanjing Massacre are historical facts that can not be denied, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Tuesday. "There is a mass of ironclad evidence for the Nanjing Massacre, and the international community has reached a final conclusion on it long ago," said Qin. He was responding to a journalist's question on whether the Nanjing Massacre would be discussed at the first joint China-Japan study of history which opened here Tuesday. Qin did not confirm whether Chinese and Japanese experts would discuss the Nanjing Massacre issue. Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed in October to begin the history research of the two countries by the end of the year, and the two foreign ministers agreed to release the results by the end of 2008. Qin said he hoped the experts could conduct the study on the basis of principles of the three political documents signed between China and Japan and face history "correctly." "We hope the study of 2,000 years of history between China and Japan as well as modern and post-World War II history will enhance the objective understanding of historical facts," said Qin. People's Daily Online/Xinhua (China) (12/27)

Jallianwala Bagh massacre stirs Britain

Rashmee Roshan Lal

LONDON: Britain is to teach its schoolchildren about the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in an optional curriculum course offered nationally for the first time ever, 87 years after trigger-happy General Dyer ordered a peaceful, unarmed, pro-independence meeting of civilians in Amritsar to be tragically fired upon. The new curriculum, with its allegedly relativist view of the legacy of the Raj, aims to give British schoolchildren aged 11 to 14 years "valuable insight" into shared, if painful and often controversial aspects of the relationship between India and Britain. Britain's lead curriculum watchdog said on Wednesday that the course was designed to end in students being able to evaluate different interpretations of the Amritsar massacre. However, in a deeply cautious, some say derisory, reference to India's own interpretation of events surrounding the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the official guidance warned teachers over 13 pages to monitor web-based resources carefully, as aspects of Indian history are "produced with a heavy bias and may contain materials that could cause offence". Times of India (12/27)

33% of Israeli children live under poverty line

By RUTH EGLASH

More Israeli children than ever are suffering from divorce, poverty, abuse, neglect, trauma and crime, according to the annual report published Wednesday by the National Council for the Child. "For many children in Israel, life is really, really bad and nothing is done to help them," said council director Dr. Yitzhak Kadman in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. "It has not always been like that. Twenty years ago, for example, only eight percent of the child population lived under the poverty line; today that figure is 33%." Kadman presented the report, which puts Israel's child population at 2,326,400 or 33% of the total population, to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Wednesday. "He promised millions of shekels to help children at risk and to improve early childhood education, including protecting the Tipat Halav system [early development health clinics]," said Kadman of his meeting with Olmert. "I hope the prime minister means what he says. We just can't continue on like this. Instead of helping children whose life is really bad, most people just see a growth in the number of bad or violent kids." Jerusalem Post (Israel) (12/27)

Soap that offers a clean start for drought-hit villagers

In an arid region of Kenya, access to know-how can prove life-changing

Xan Rice in Namoruputh

As locations for soap factories go, this one takes some beating. There is heat, dust, and a vista of semi-desert. There are some cattle. There is no electricity. The nearest town is more than an hour's drive away. Yet in a small building off the main road - the only road - a group of Turkana women sit proudly next to neatly stacked piles of their stock. Hand soap for 40p. Cream soap for an extra 10p. Perfumed soap, 60p. Shampoo and body lotion too. Here, smell it, they say. Rub some lotion into your hands. Santina Epat, a young woman with braided hair, leaves the building and walks towards a dry riverbed. Next to it, in neat rows, are dozens of prickly aloe vera plants, ready to be harvested for their sap - a key ingredient in the soap. "These plants can survive drought," said Ms Epat, chairwoman of the Aloe Soap Growers in Namoruputh, north-western Kenya. "They make our lives feel more secure." She explained that the soap-making project had started in 2005, when the Turkana region was in the grip of one of the ever more frequent droughts. The pastoralists' animals - the main source of wealth and income - were dying. Money was as scarce as the rain clouds. Guardian (United Kingdom) (12/27)

Holland Donates 201m Dollars to UNICEF

United Nations, Dec 26 (Prensa Latina) The government of Holland donated to the UN Children´s Fund (UNICEF) 201 million dollars to educate youths victim of armed conflicts and natural disasters, among other crisis. Finance Director Karin Hulshof says the largest donation from one single country in 60 years will be used in meeting the UNICEF main goal, educating the children victim of emergency situations, so the donation will help improve these programs. The funds are expected to benefit 25 million children from 40 countries, including 10 million youth deprived from education and improve teaching to another 15 million. As beneficiaries lie Sudan, Liberia, Central African Republic, Congo Kinshasa, Lebanon, occupied Palestine territories, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Swaziland. Prensa Latina (Cuba) (12/27)

FEATURE-Sex slavery plagues Romania and Bulgaria

This is part of a package of stories ahead of Romania and Bulgaria's entry into the European Union on Jan. 1)

By Justyna Pawlak

BUCHAREST, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Anca thought girls who spoke on television about being sold into sex slavery were paid to invent such stories to boost tv show ratings. That was until she answered a friend's invitation to join her in Germany and work as a dishwasher in a town near Hamburg. When she arrived, her passport was taken away and her captors forced her to work as a prostitute for their clients. Three months later she slid down two floors on a drainpipe, ran several kilometres (miles) through a forest and finally found a taxi that took her to a police station and safety. "The girl who invited me won her freedom by bringing in two other girls," said Anca, a quiet 20-year-old from a Romanian village. She asked for her real name to be withheld to protect her from her captors. As they prepare to join the European Union, Romania and Bulgaria are struggling to contain human trafficking and smuggling, particularly in drugs, which is endemic in the Black Sea region that will soon become the EU's eastern border. Every year, thousands of women such as Anca, some as young as 13, are kidnapped or lured by promises of well paying jobs or marriage and sold to gangs who lock them up in night clubs and brothels or force them to work on the streets. Reuters/AlertNet (12/27)

Jolie, Pitt spend Christmas with refugees

The United Nations says Hollywood couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt handed out presents to Colombian war refugees in Costa Rica on Christmas Day. Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and Pitt were without their three children as they visited refugees who had fled armed conflict in Colombia. Reuters says the lightning visit has only been revealed to the media to avoid paparazzi photographers. Jolie has called for more awareness of the plight of refugees around the world. "It is especially shocking that such a tragedy can go on, year after year, with the rest of the world paying so little attention to it," the UN agency reported her as saying. The central American country is home to an estimated 10,000 Colombian refugees. "My Christmas message to Colombian refugees and to the millions of displaced people in Colombia is that the world has not totally forgotten them," Jolie said. During their Costa Rican trip, the pair visited Colombian businesses funded by micro-credits, including a bakery where they were given a Christmas cake. ABC (Australia)/ Reuters (12/27)

NATO must follow U.S. lead in helping Afghan civilians

By Sarah HolewinskiIn Kabul a few weeks ago, I met Sahib Dad, an Afghan father. During the 2001 U.S. invasion, two of his girls were killed when a U.S. bomb missed its target and exploded in their playground. He says he never saw an American face, never received an apology. At the time, the United States had no program in place to provide compensation for his loss or aid for his family. Meanwhile, the Taliban brought cotton to wrap the dead and food, money and medical care for his wife's severe head injury. That's straight out of the insurgency playbook. And it's one reason the insurgents are winning small battles everyday. There is still time to avoid defeat (or a bloody debacle) in Afghanistan. But NATO forces, which in October took command of military operations there from the United States, must recognize what America has learned the hard way in Iraq: You can't win the war if you don't win the people. Because of its experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States is gradually, and belatedly, accepting what is still a radical principle in modern warfare — that militaries have a responsibility to compensate and comfort the civilians they harm, even if the harm is accidental. The U.S. military now hands out condolence payments for loss of life, injury and property. The payments are characterized in the military lawyer's handbook as a "symbolic gesture" only, but it's a gesture that is so important. The payments — usually a few thousand dollars — don't assign blame. They show compassion for families struggling with loss. USA Today (12/27)

A Major Victory on Darfur

In a major victory for our work on Darfur, last week Secretary-General Annan named Jan Eliasson, formerly foreign minister of Sweden and head of the U.N. General Assembly, as special envoy to Sudan. It was a critical step on the road to peace in the region, and a key development in a year filled with accomplishments. But to make this appointment a real turning point, Mr. Eliasson must use all his experience and stature to press the Sudanese government directly to fulfill its existing international obligations. He must also ensure that the European Union, the U.S., China, Russia and members of the Arab League are all actively engaged in resolving the conflict. We face 2007 determined to continue our work to re-energize the peace process in Darfur. One strategic focus for HRF will be China, which holds an important key to resolving the crisis through its economic and other ties with the government of Sudan. Human Rights First (12/27)

posted by Dave Carroll @ 12/27/2006 04:24:00 PM