Pax Gaea Human Rights World Post

PAX GAEA WORLD POST HUMAN RIGHTS HEADLINES THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2007

TOPICS

• Transformation underway in Pakistan quake zone and economy, rights emerge from dust
• The global battle on AIDS, malaria need long term strategy versus 'brush fire' approach
• Food security needs to be global priority as Africa struggles to feed itself
• Developing nations need to do more to cut down on greenhouse gases, UN says
• 1 million children slaves to the sex trade, U.S. State Department reports
• Heroin poppies will bloom uninterrupted this year in Afghanistan, government says
• Most violent Haiti slum is confronted by UN forces
• Australian nationalism reveals fear of multiculturalism, xenophobia
• Accused Argentine 'dirty war' Blonde Angel of Death insists , "it wasn't me"
• Violence ensues in Beirut from Hizbullah general strike, curfew called

Brisk recovery in Pakistan's quake zone

More than a year after a powerful tremor killed 73,000, the disaster has brought about social change.

By David Montero Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

ALLAI VALLEY, PAKISTAN - The brisk sale of nails and iron sheeting is more of a silver lining than Anwal Faroze could have asked for. His small hardware shop, sitting in one of the most remote valleys in Pakistan's earthquake zone, sells more supplies now than ever before in 16 years of business. "There is more need now. People are busy reconstructing," says Mr. Faroze, his bushy beard underscoring a bright smile. His revival is symbolic of the nation's recovery more than a year and nearly two frigid winters after a devastating earthquake killed 73,000 people in one of the worst natural disasters in human history. But as Faroze's shop attests, progress cannot be measured in the brick and mortar of reconstruction alone. There are other encouraging signs in this destitute valley: Local organizations and relief agencies are picking up where the military and international relief organizations – both now considerably diminished – have left off. Old social and economic mechanisms have sprung back to life, and new, transformative processes brought by the outside world – whether in attitudes toward women or livelihoods – have taken on a life of their own, nurtured by locals intent not only on recuperation, but progress. The earthquake destroyed more than 200,000 homes – some 10,000 here in Allai Valley alone – in an area twice the size of Connecticut, leaving more than 3 million homeless in Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province. When the Himalayan winter came last year with brutal force, some 600,000 people huddled in hurriedly made tent camps. Now winter has come again, but this time, only 30,000 people are left in camps, according to the International Organization on Migration (IOM). Not that the challenge is over. Few homes are completely reconstructed, meaning that nearly 2 million will face the second winter in temporary shelters, according to an assessment by OxFam International. "This is what we wanted – that the communities take charge of their lives," says Lt. Gen. Ahmed Nadeem, Deputy Director of the government's Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA). "I already see signs that they're turning this adversity into an opportunity." Christian Science Monitor (1/25)

DAVOS-INTERVIEW- Time for long view on AIDS, says Global Fund

By Ben Hirschler

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 24 (Reuters) - After years of fire-fighting HIV/AIDS, the time has come to develop a long term strategy for tackling the pandemic, the head of the global fund set up to fight the disease said on Wednesday. "As we get the fire engine to the scene and begin to put out the blaze, which I think is what is happening, our attention now must begin to focus on the long term," Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, told Reuters. He was speaking as experts from international organisations and drug companies met at a satellite meeting during the World Economic Forum to discuss how the pandemic will develop by 2025. For the first 20 years, the world had failed to act to halt the carnage from AIDS in the developing world but that had changed in the last five years, he said. "Now we have some early successes, with 1.5 million on antiretroviral therapy -- and the number is doubling every year," Feachem said. The AIDS virus infects around 40 million people globally, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. It killed an estimated 2.9 million in 2006, according to UNAIDS, the U.N. programme on HIV/AIDS. But despite the recent advances in getting life-saving medicines to some of the world's poorest countries, for every person put on medication, 10 more are newly infected. The result is a "receding horizon" in getting to grips with the epidemic, which the world had to address, Feachem said. Reuters/AlertNet (1/25)

AFRICA: Help Africans to feed themselves, governments urged

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI, 25 Jan 2007 (IRIN) - Eighty percent of Africans who experience frequent food shortages live on poor land in rural areas - neglect of such communities is one of the main causes of hunger on the continent, campaigners for the right to food said. Speaking at a seminar on food security at the ongoing World Social Forum in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Michael Windfuhr, the human rights director of the German charity, Bread for the World, said 50 percent of the hungry were small farmers who lived in areas without reliable infrastructure or credit facilities. "Governments should try to use the maximum available resources in order to enable people to feed themselves," Windfuhr said on Wednesday, citing cases of forced evictions where people lose access to land and water and lose their livelihoods. Other speakers said governments often seemed unaware of people's right to food. Mike Anane, coordinator for FIAN, an international NGO that campaigns for the right of people to feed themselves, said violations of the right to food in Ghana also resulted from poor water management. "Entire rivers and streams are diverted by mining companies towards their tributaries, thus depriving these communities of water for irrigation purposes," Anane said. In addition, he said, the dumping of mining rock waste on farmland also rendered the land unfit for cultivation. IRIN News (United Nations) (1/25)

UN urges developing countries on climate change

Reuters

TOKYO - The head of the UN’s climate body on Thursday urged major developing countries such as China, India and Brazil to play more active role in combating global warming. Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Secretariat, said efforts to combat global warming could fail unless a follow-up agreement to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change involving both advanced and major developing countries was reached this year. “The year 2012 is drawing very close. It takes a very long time to reach an agreement on such complicated global negotiations,” de Boer told reporters. He was speaking after senior officials from 20 countries wrapped up an “informal” two-day conference on climate change in Tokyo. The Tokyo conference, the fifth of its kind, was aimed at helping pave the way for the international community to set rules on combating climate change after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. “I fear if we don’t manage to resolve the future negotiations this year, we may well run the risk of not having policies in place by the year 2012,” de Boer said. He repeatedly said that more active participation by major developing countries such as China, India and Brazil was ”crucial” to bring global efforts to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. But he said that those countries had shown “clear indications” that they would be committed to taking further action on climate change. “But for this they need international help,” he said. The Kyoto Protocol obliges 35 developed nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases to 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. But the nations signed up to the protocol account for only about one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates) (1/25)

Girl, 6, embodies Cambodia's sex industry

By Dan RiversCNN

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (CNN) -- At an age when most children might be preparing for their first day of school, Srey, 6, already has undergone trauma that is almost unspeakable. She was sold to a brothel by her parents when she was 5. It is not known how much her family got for Srey, but other girls talk of being sold for $100; one was sold for $10. Before she was rescued, Srey endured months of abuse at the hands of pimps and sex tourists.Passed from man to man, often drugged to make her compliant, Srey was a commodity at the heart of a massive, multimillion-dollar sex industry in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. "It is huge," said Mu Sochua, a former minister of women's and veteran's affairs who is an anti-sex trade activist. The precise scale of Cambodia's sex trade is difficult to quantify. International organizations -- such as UNICEF, ECPAT and Save the Children -- say that anywhere from from 50,000 to 100,000 women and children are involved. An estimated 30 percent of the sex workers in Phnom Penh are under the age of 18, according to the United Nations. The actual figure may be much higher, activists say. Around the world, more than 1 million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade each year, according to the U.S. State Department. The State Department believes Cambodia is a key transit and destination point in this trade. "Trafficking for sexual exploitation also occurs within Cambodia's borders, from rural areas to the country's capital, Phnom Penh, and other secondary cities in the country," the State Department wrote in a 2006 report. "The Government of Cambodia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so." Sochua said that with millions of Cambodians struggling to live on less than 50 cents a day, many women turn to the sex industry. Poverty is also often what drives parents to sell their child or themselves on the streets. "Always a child is left behind, often a girl, who is preyed on by traffickers," Sochua added. CNN (1/25)

Afghanistan won't spray poppies

JASON STRAZIUSO , Associated Press

KABUL — Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppies will not be sprayed with herbicide this year despite a record crop in 2006 and U.S. pressure for President Hamid Karzai to allow the drug-fighting tactic, a spokesman said Thursday. However, Mr. Karzai told foreign and Afghan officials this week that if Afghanistan's poppy crop isn't reduced this year he would allow spraying in 2008, according to a Western official who requested anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity. Mr. Karzai's cabinet decided Sunday to hold off on using chemicals for now, according to Said Mohammad Azam, spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Counter Narcotics. “There will be no ground spraying this year,” Mr. Azam told The Associated Press. He said there would be more pressure to destroy poppy crops with “traditional” techniques — typically sending teams of labourers into fields to batter down or plow in the plants before they can be harvested. “If it works, that is fine,” Mr. Azam said. “If it does not, next year ground spraying will be in the list of options.” Fuelled by the Taliban, a powerful drug mafia and the need for a profitable crop that can overcome drought, opium production from poppies in Afghanistan last year rose 49 per cent to 6,700 tons — enough to make about 670 tons of heroin. That's more than 90 per cent of the world's supply and more than the world's addicts consume in a year. Globe and Mail (Toronto) (1/25)

UN soldiers move into Haiti slum

UN peacekeepers in Haiti say they have set up a stronghold in one of the largest and most violent slums of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The stronghold is to be a centre for operations against armed gangs, a UN spokesperson told the BBC. The UN troops came under fire as they moved into the Cite Soleil shantytown, but the UN contradicted reports that several people had been wounded. UN peacekeepers, in Haiti since 2004, have stepped up patrols in Cite Soleil. They were sent to the country to maintain order after a revolt ousted the former President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. On Wednesday, Brazilian soldiers of the UN mission took over an abandoned building used by gangs. Hundreds of people have died in Port-au-Prince in clashes between rogue police officers, ex-rebels and gangs. The Brazilian-led UN force includes more than 8,000 soldiers and police supported by some 1,000 civilian personnel. BBC (1/25)

Diversity breeds a stronger identity

Differing values pose no threat to national cohesion, contends a new Australian citizen

Masako Fukui

THIS is the first Australia Day I celebrate as an Australian, and a proud new citizen at that. And I'm pretty sure if you asked the other 100,000 or so people who, like me, pledged their allegiance to Australia in the past year, most would concur with my sentiments. So why does a discussion of citizenship in Australia evoke such fear and divisiveness? Why is there so much uncertainty about multiculturalism on a day when we should be affirming our identity? It seems to me that this paranoid nationalism is a reaction to some choice words emitted by one or two members of our Muslim community, yet there is little evidence that our country is about to be swamped by extremist Muslim values. If anything, we are more likely to be swamped by British values. According to the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs' 2005-06 annual report, the largest group of people to take up Australian citizenship in that period were British, at more than 20,000. The second largest group were Chinese, at about 10,000. The department's figures do not indicate religious affiliation or the values espoused by these new citizens, but as they came from about 180 different nations, there are bound to be divergent sets of beliefs represented. Should differing values necessarily lead to multicultural doubts? Do they diminish our national identity and sense of cohesion? Quite the opposite, in my view. Australian (1/25)

Ex-Argentine navy captain denies involvement in abduction of French nuns

By Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - A former Argentine navy captain dubbed the ”Angel of Death” by human rights groups denied in his first court appearance Wednesday that he helped abduct two French nuns during the country’s ”dirty war” against leftists. Capt. Alfredo Astiz, 56, is accused in the 1977 disappearance of nuns Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet, along with a dozen other people, including the founder of the human rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Azucena Villaflor. All were reported held at the former Navy School of Mechanics, the chief clandestine torture center of the 1976-83 military dictatorship. Judge Sergio Torres is investigating torture at the Navy Mechanics’ School in one of several junta-era human rights cases reactivated since the Supreme Court two years ago annulled a pair of 1980s amnesty laws. In his testimony Wednesday, Astiz declared his ”complete and total innocence” in the nuns’ disappearance and deaths. Nearly 13,000 people are officially listed as missing from the dictatorship era’s state crackdown on leftist dissent. Human rights groups say the toll is closer to 30,000. Duquet was abducted Dec. 8, 1977, in what lawyers say was a commando-style operation by state security agents working on behalf of the dictatorship. Domon was taken that same month. Lawyers for the nuns said they were targeted after befriending mothers of illegally detained dissidents. After they were seized, the nuns were taken to the Navy School of Mechanics and later disappeared, prosecutors said. Argentina Star (1/25)

Beirut under curfew after street battles kill 3

BEIRUT (AFP) - The Lebanese army declared an overnight curfew in Beirut after rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims fought street battles that left three people dead and 152 wounded, police said.The rioting was at a level not seen since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, and came 48 hours after the Hezbollah-led opposition called a general strike which was also marred by deadly clashes. The chaos overshadowed an international aid meeting for Lebanon in Paris where donors pledged more than 7.6 billion dollars to bolster the Western-backed government and help the country recover from war. The army imposed the curfew from 8:30 pm (1830 GMT) until 6:00 am (0400 GMT) on Friday. Apart from army vehicles, Beirut's streets were deserted after the curfew took hold. The curfew, Lebanon's first since violent labour demonstrations in 1996, will not be enforced for journalists, doctors, pharmacists and bakeries. "The curfew will not disrupt activities at Beirut international airport, but passengers will have to respect it. Those arriving will stay at the airport until the end of the ban," a senior airport official told AFP. The danger of further violence erupting prompted Hassan Nasrallah, head of the powerful Shiite fundamentalist Hezbollah party which spearheads the pro-Syrian opposition, to respond with a call for army orders to be obeyed. "We are using a Fatwa (religious decree)... in the interests of the country and civil peace... everyone should evacuate the streets... we call for the measures of the Lebanese army to be respected," he said. Agence France Presse (1/25)

posted by Dave Carroll @ 1/25/2007 04:18:00 PM 0 comments

PAX GAEA WORLD POST HUMAN RIGHTS HEADLINES WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2007

TOPICS

• Security concerns of guerrillas spurs Indonesia to supplement force
• China's one child policy not likely to change despite sex imbalance
• Iran takes delivery of Russian air defense missile system, both countries confirm
• Israeli journalist murdered in Vladivostok
• Reporters group condemns bombing of media building in Gaza, no claim of credit
• 10,000 children still missing in Uganda, many pressed into rebel armies
• Five star dining at World Poverty Summit? Poor raid food tents
• Davos forum kicks off with German President Merkel warning on "protectionism"
• UN condemns assault by Sudan police on social gathering at NGO compound

Indonesia boosts security in Sulawesi

Indonesia has sent 200 elite police to enforce security in the troubled Poso region of Sulawesi island after 14 people were killed during a raid on a suspected Muslim militant hideout, police said. Officials defended Monday's raids in downtown Poso after criticism from Islamic groups and some local media that innocent people were killed in the gunfire that erupted between the suspected militants and police. "PKS (Prosperous Justice Party) regrets the Poso incident because many victims have fallen, particularly people who have no link to the dispute," said Tifatul Sembiring, head of the PKS, an Islamic party and part of the government coalition. But Badrodin Haiti, police chief of Central Sulawesi, said there was evidence that security forces had been attacked with illegal firearms. "Jakarta has sent 200 more policemen to help. We are searching thoroughly in the jungles for possible injured people and bombs that could endanger the community," Haiti told Reuters. The bodies of two suspected militants found in nearby bushes on Wednesday took the death toll to 14. A policeman was among the dead. Police had arrested 25 suspected militants and seized ammunition and bombs from the militant base. Sydney Morning Herald (1/24)

Sex imbalance won't alter one-child policy in China

AP

BEIJING -China says it will not loosen its so-called one-child policy, despite a top family planning official's acknowledgment yesterday that the policy was partly to blame for creating the problem of too many boy babies and not enough girls. A baby-boom generation born in the early 1980's has reached marriage and childbearing age, putting China at risk of another massive population boom if the restrictions are dropped, said Zhang Weiqing, minister of China's National Population and Family Planning Commission. Since the late 1970s, China has limited urban couples to one child and rural families to two children in order to control the population and conserve natural resources. Beijing contends that the policy has helped prevent 400 million births and has aided rapid economic development. Zhang said many migrant workers have been found to be evading the birth restrictions by having two or more children despite living in cities where couples are only allowed to have one.Both factors have convinced the government not to alter the basic policy, which the central government had reviewed and renewed without change last month, he said. However, he acknowledged that the policy has accelerated a growing sex imbalance among newborns, with some 118 boys born for every 100 girls in 2005. Taipei Times (1/24)

Iran receives Russian air defense missiles, defense minister says

Iran has received a Russian air defense missile system, the Iranian defense minister said Wednesday. Iran's announcement came as it launched three days of military maneuvers its first since the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions against it in late December. "We have had constructive defense transactions with Russia and we purchased Tor M-1 missiles that were recently delivered to us," the official Web site of Iranian state television quoted Minister of Defense Mostafa Mohammad Najjar as saying. Najjar did not say how many missiles were delivered or say when they arrived. A Russian news agency on Tuesday quoted Sergei Chemezov, the head of the country's state-run weapons exporter, as saying that Russia had fulfilled a contract to sell air defense missiles to Iran. Chemezov comments were reported by the Itar-Tass news agency in Bangalore, India, where he was on a visit along with Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov. Previously Moscow said it would supply 29 of the sophisticated missile systems to Iran under a US$700 million contract signed in December 2005, Russian media has reported. Last week, Ivanov said that at least some of the missiles had been sent. The United States last year called for an international halt of arms exports to Iran, and for an end to nuclear cooperation Iran as a means of pressuring it to halt uranium enrichment. Israel has also criticized arms deals with Iran, reports AP. Pravda (Russia) (1/24)

Israeli journalist killed in Vladivostok

By HAVIV RETTIG

Journalist and Jewish Agency activist Konstantin Borovko, who was beaten to death by unknown assailants on the streets of the eastern Russian town of Vladivostok over the weekend, will be laid to rest Thursday in the city's cemetery. While the motive for the assault was not yet known, Jewish Agency officials told The Jerusalem Post it was most likely a criminal act, perhaps a robbery, which quickly turned violent. Local police have yet to ascertain the identity of the assailants. An Israeli citizen, Borovko ran several projects for the Jewish Agency in the area. The 25-year-old reporter for one of Vladivostok's largest television stations, Borovko was known in the Jewish community and was a frequent master of ceremonies at community events. The attack took place on the evening of January 19, when Borovko left a night club with a friend. The two were attacked, and Borovko received several hard blows to the head which killed him on the spot. The local Jewish community and Jewish Agency officials have been helping the family following the attack, particularly with funeral arrangements. According to a Jewish Agency statement, Agency chairman Ze'ev Bielski has called on local authorities to fully investigate the murder and bring those responsible to justice. Jerusalem Post (1/24)

RSF Condemns Al-Arabiya Channel Attack

PARIS, January 24, 2007, (WAFA)-Reporters sans frontières (RSF) condemned the bombing of the Gaza City offices of the Dubai-based pan-Arab satellite TV station Al-Arabiya. In a press release issued Wednesday, RSF said that this attack highlights the climate of violence in which journalists are working in the Palestinian territories, calling on the Palestinian Authority to thoroughly investigate such attacks. RSF added that "In the current political tension, we urge the country's authorities not to refer to journalists as 'enemies' any more. When senior officials, especially the prime minister, stigmatize the work of journalists, this kind of attack is to be feared." The bomb that was set off on 22 January outside the offices of Al-Arabiya, which also houses the bureau of the Saudi TV station MBC, caused considerable damage but no injuries. The bureau of the British news agency Reuters, which is located on the same floor, was slightly damaged. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Less than a week earlier, threatening phone calls were received by several of Al-Arabiya's staff in Gaza and their families. The Hamas-led government had also threatened to prosecute the station and suspend its broadcasts in the Palestinian territories if it did not formally apologise for broadcasting footage of a cabinet meeting on 15 January in which Prime Minister Haniyeh said: "No conditional aid will be accepted, not even if it comes from God." Hamas accused Al-Arabiya of broadcasting the footage out of context. WAFA Palestine News Agency (1/24)

Thousands of children missing, captive in Uganda

About 10 000 children are still missing in Uganda with as many as 1 500 held captive by rebels engaged in stalled peace talks to end a two-decade war in the country's shattered north, an aid agency said. Children's charity Save the Children UK has urged donors to pressure the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels not to allow peace talks in south Sudan to collapse. "The future of Uganda's children is under severe threat," the aid agency said in a statement late on Tuesday. "Any hope of reconciliation is fading fast and needs international support." Stop-start negotiations since July have produced a truce that has been mostly respected, despite frequent walk-outs by the LRA and accusations of violations on both sides. But talks stalled this month when the rebels said they could not go back to south Sudan because they feared for their security after Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir vowed to "get rid of the LRA from Sudan". The war in northern Uganda, one of Africa's longest, has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 1,7-million into squalid refugee camps. The LRA, who are notorious for killing civilians and hacking body parts off victims, are estimated to have abducted more than 20 000 children during the insurgency, according to aid workers. Once abducted, children are forced to fight or carry loot and girls are made "wives" of rebel commanders. "Children are still the principle victims of violence," the statement said. "1 500 children are still in LRA ranks and at least 10 000 children remain unaccounted for." Mail & Guardian (South Africa) (1/24)

Street kids raid poverty summit

Dozens of street children have invaded a five-star hotel food tent and feasted on meals meant for sale at the World Social Forum in Kenya's capital. The hungry urchins were joined by other participants who complained that the food was too expensive at the annual anti-capitalist get together. The police, caught unawares, were unable to stop the free-for-all that saw the food containers swept clean. The gathering in Nairobi is discussing social problems, including poverty. A plate of food at the tent being operated by the prestigious Windsor Hotel was selling for $7 in a country where many live on less than $2 a day. The children, who had been begging for food, launched the raid after being told they would have to pay for the food. The hotel management declined to comment on the incident. Two days ago, World Social Forum organisers were forced to waive entry fees for participants after Nairobi slum dwellers staged a demonstration against the charges. Participants were originally being asked to pay a 500 Kenyan shillings ($7) accreditation fee. "We are now not charging anybody, the event is free so that many people can participate," Boniface Beti, the event's media officer, told the BBC. Mr Beti also said hawkers had recently been allowed in to sell cheap food to participants as up until a few days ago five-star catering firms had dominated business. Tens of thousands of people are attending the World Social Forum, which is being held at the same time as the World Economic Forum - hosted in the Swiss town of Davos. At Davos, the world's largest corporations are discussing business and hammering out trade deals, while the Kenyan event is addressing a wide spectrum of the world's social problems - including poverty. BBC (1/24)

Davos elite warned over protectionism, climate change

DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel lectured global leaders on the perils of protectionism, as the annual Davos forum kicked off with bullish predictions on growth but warnings about global warming. In her keynote speech opening the annual gathering of world movers and shakers at the Alpine ski resort, Merkel staunchly rejected protectionism as a solution to the economic and social challenges of globalisation, saying that free trade was essential for economic growth. In the capacity of Germany's presidency of the European Union and G8 industrialised nations, Merkel cautioned that some developed countries might be tempted to confront globalisation by selfishly consuming global resources and setting up customs barriers to protect "their own weaknesses". "My clear and succinct answer is: No!" Merkel told the gathering. In a wide-ranging address, the German leader called for greater flexibility from all sides to resolve the blocked Doha round of world trade talks and stressed the need for a binding global pact on carbon emissions. Merkel's audience contained a healthy quota of the impressive Davos guest list that includes the likes of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. This year's theme -- "The Shifting Power Equation" -- sought to take in everything from the growing geopolitical clout of Asia to the increasing influence of the Internet in business and information gathering. "We have a shift of power in many ways ... with the rise of China and India, and the next layer of countries like Vietnam, Brazil and Korea," said World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab. Agence France Presse (1/24)

UN probes police assault of staff at social gathering in Darfur

22 January 2007 – The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) is investigating an incident in which 20 people, including five UN staff, taking part in a social gathering in a Darfur town were arrested by local police and assaulted – in some cases causing serious injuries – before being released. The Mission said today that the UN will officially protest to the Sudanese Government over the arrests and physical and verbal assaults that followed the raid on a gathering in the compound of an international non-governmental organization (NGO) in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state. UNMIS said in a press statement that it is “deeply concerned at the treatment of the detained staff,” and added the assaults by police and security officials were “in violation of basic principles of rule of law and due process.” Some of the injuries sustained by the staff members were so serious they required treatment at the UN clinic in Nyala. The people arrested included African Union peacekeepers and aid workers as well as the UN staff. UNMIS said it would continue its inquiry into Friday’s events in cooperation with the relevant Sudanese authorities in both Khartoum and Nyala. The UN Staff Council’s committee on staff security also issued a statement in which they condemned the attack, called the recent increase in cases of harassment of UN personnel and aid workers operating in Sudan unacceptable and requested a complete review of the security situation in the UNMIS area of operation. MaximsNews (United Nations) (1/24)

What's At Stake?

Cuban Human Rights Lawyer Threatened With Jail

Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leiva is a human rights lawyer and President of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights, a human rights monitoring group that exposes human rights violations by the government and reports on attacks against peaceful activists and independent journalists. Gonzalez Leiva also established and heads the Independent Fraternity for the Blind in Cuba, which advocates for the rights of the physically disabled. As a staunch advocate for freedom of expression, he has also created several independent press agencies and founded various independent libraries in Cuba. Gonzalez Leiva frequently speaks out on behalf of other activists and journalists who have come under threat. In particular, he has called international attention to the situation of political prisoners in Cuba, including those imprisoned in the spring of 2003, and has denounced the substandard conditions and treatment the prisoners have received. In March 2002, Gonzalez Leiva was arrested in Ciego de Avila, along with seven other activists and journalists. They were at a hospital, visiting a colleague who had been beaten by state security agents and police when he tried to attend a monthly meeting of the Cuban Foundation for Human Rights. During their visit, Gonzalez Leiva and several others prayed for their colleague and shouted "Long live human rights." When the hospital staff asked them to stop, they immediately resumed their quiet vigil. Soon after, state security police arrived and dragged the activists out of the hospital and arrested them. Gonzalez Leiva was apparently beaten during this incident and required four stitches in a wound on his forehead. After 26 months in pre-trial detention, during which he was reportedly held in substandard conditions, Gonzalez Leiva and nine other activists were put on trial. In April 2004 Gonzalez Leiva was sentenced to four years of house arrest on charges of disrespect for authority, public disorder, disobedience, and resisting arrest. Since then, Gonzalez Leiva and his family have been subject to harassment, intimidation, and violence on the part of government officials and mobs of civilians (who are widely believed to be organized by the government) who have repeatedly surrounded his home for hours at a time, shouting threats and banging on windows. Human Rights First (1/24)

posted by Dave Carroll @ 1/24/2007 05:32:00 PM 0 comments

PAX GAEA WORLD POST HUMAN RIGHTS HEADLINES TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2007

TOPICS

• Fijian willingness to send troops to Iraq spurs soft pedalling by NZ, UN about coup
• Filipino merchant seaman added to growing hostage list of Nigerian extremists
• Law and order take precedence over human rights, Nepal Prime Minister tells UN rep
• U.S. to introduce UN resolution condemning deniers of Holocaust
• India sends all woman police force to help peacekeeping effort in Liberia
• Hizbullah led general strike in Lebanon strikes violence concerns by majority party
• Women must struggle for rights in face of globalisation, advocates declare at forum
• Argentina vets of Falklands War outcasts among society
  West 'pleased' with Serbian elections but current PM could tilt it left or right
• Report damns North Ireland Police, accuses law enforcement of complicity in Catholic killings

Clark stance over Fiji troops 'weak'

By Ruth Berry

The Government is refusing to criticise a United Nations decision to enlist more Fijian soldiers in Iraq, despite having urged it to stop using them following the coup. The stance of both has annoyed National foreign affairs spokesman Murray McCully, who describes the UN decision as "unacceptable and unprincipled" and Helen Clark's as a "substantial backdown". He said Helen Clark, who defended the UN by saying it was struggling to recruit peacekeepers, had made a weak response. The criticism comes as the Government struggles over what stance to take on Fiji, where it is increasingly clear there is no real prospect of the ousted Government of Laisenia Qarase returning to power. Before the coup, then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned Fiji would be asked to withdraw from international peacekeeping operations if one occurred. Helen Clark and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters also regularly raised the threat in the coup lead-up, warning the loss of peacekeeping revenue could substantially undermine the military's power. More than 200 Fijian soldiers were stationed in Baghdad before Christmas. In mid-December, Mr Peters called for the UN to ban the use of Fijian military, saying: "I think some principled responses from the West are required." This week, however, the Fijian military confirmed 12 soldiers would head to Iraq to provide security for UN personnel. New Zealand Herald (1/23)

Nigerian gunmen begin negotiations for release of 24 Pinoys

The Philippine Star

Gunmen have started negotiating for the release of 24 Filipino seafarers taken hostage aboard a German cargo ship in Nigerian waters, a foreign affairs official said Tuesday. The government initially said six sailors had been kidnapped. But in a press briefing Tuesday, foreign affairs undersecretary for migrant workers affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. said they received information from the owner of the oil cargo vessel that the entire crew of 24 Filipinos were abducted. The ship was near the Nigerian oil city of Warri when the gunmen took 17 sailors to a nearby village Saturday and forced the remaining sailors to stay on board, Conejos said. "Based on new information, the German-owned Baco Liner II was manned by a 24-Filipino crew," he said. "There’s reasonable belief to assume that the entire crew and the ship were hostaged. The ship owner has no radio communication and contact with the ship." Conejos met Tuesday with representatives of the local manning agency who handed him a letter from the ship’s owner stating what happened last Saturday. Local Nigerian government officials had already identified a negotiator and talks were underway, Conejos said, adding that all the Filipinos were apparently "safe and sound." The gunmen are from the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which has been seeking the release of the movement’s leader and two other men charged with treason, he said. ABS-CBN News (Philippines) (1/23)

Law, order scene cause for worry: PM

Government offers talks to agitating Terai outfits

Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, January 23:- Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today emphasised the need to be “patient and not be reactive” keeping in view the current “fluid” political scenario in the wake of the Terai outburst in the run-up to the elections to the constituent assembly. He expressed this view at a meeting of the Nepali Congress (NC) Parliamentary Party (PP), which was held at his official residence at Baluwatar today. He said if there were people who were ‘reactive’ there are likely to be others who could ‘turn destructive.’ Referring to the Lahan incident, Koirala conceded that the Maoists leaders, who met him yesterday, were “compelled to accept” their mistake. “They were compelled to realise their mistake in the Lahan incident,” Koirala said. He, however, assured his party-men that everything, including the Lahan incident, would be sorted out soon keeping in view the nation’s sovereignty and independence. “We are on the verge of success,” he said. Referring to concerns raised on human rights by the visiting United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louis Arbour, during their meeting, PM Koirala said: “She raised concern over the human rights situation here. I told her that the state’s sovereignty and independence cannot be compromised in the name of human rights.” Himalayan Times (Nepal) (1/23)

U.S. to present UN resolution condemning Holocaust deniers

By Reuters

The United States intends to introduce a United Nations resolution on Tuesday condemning deniers of the Holocaust, a document drafted in response to a conference in Iran last month dominated by delegates who questioned the extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis in World War II. U.S. officials hope the resolution, which so far is backed by 39 nations including European nations, Russia and China, could be adopted on Friday in the 192-member UN General Assembly. The measure urges member states "to reject any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event" and "condemns without reservation any denial of the Holocaust." It does not mention Iran by name, although American officials said it was a reaction to the Tehran conference convened in December by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Most speakers threw doubt on the mass extermination of Jews. Since coming to power in August 2005, Ahmadinejad has caused an international outcry by terming the Holocaust a "myth" and calling Israel a "tumor" in the Middle East. At the urging of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the General Assembly in 2005 held its first ever session on the Holocaust to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. The Assembly designated January 27 as the International Day of Commemoration for victims of the Holocaust and the U.S. resolution is timed to coincide with that date. Up to 1.5 million prisoners, most of them Jews, were killed in Auschwitz alone. A total of six million Jews and millions of others including Poles, homosexuals, Russians and Gypsies were murdered by the Nazis and their allies during the war. The UN was founded on the ashes of World War II and the UN Charter includes the words "untold sorrow" as the world was learning the full horror of the Nazi German death camps. Ha'aretz (Israel) (1/23)

Indian all-women UN peace force arrives in Liberia

By Indo Asian News Service

United Nations, Jan 23 (IANS) The commander of an all-women Indian UN police unit has arrived in Liberia to head the world body's first ever such specialized force sent on a peacekeeping operation. Commander Seema Dhundiya, who heads the Formed Police Unit (FPU), arrived in the capital Monrovia Sunday as part of an advance team that will pave the way for the landmark deployment of a 125-strong force this month. With her came logistics and engineering specialists who will prepare for the rest of her unit, expected around Jan 29, said Ben Dotsei Malor, spokesperson for the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). The FPU contingent will be made up of 103 women officers and 22 male staff serving in logistic roles. The women will be formed into three platoons of 30 women each, comprising one platoon leader and 29 officers. While the contingent will be based in Monrovia, they may be deployed anywhere in the country. India's decision to send the all-women officers to assist the UNMIL operation was announced in September, and the team has been undergoing intensive training over the past few months. The UN has had increasing success with FPUs over the past few years as a means of bridging the gap between regular and lightly armed police and fully armed blue helmets. The FPU, which will be better armed than a regular unit, will provide general support to UN police activities in Liberia, including protecting UN officials and civilian police as they perform their duties. It will also act as a rapid reaction force for crowd control and help train local police officers, the world body said. Daily India (1/23)

Siniora Cabinet girds for rough ride as opposition launches general strike

Protesters ready to play 'cat and mouse' with security forces

By Rym Ghazal -Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: As the Hizbullah-led opposition forces move on Tuesday to launch a general strike that promises to paralyze the country, officials within the ruling parliamentary majority have urged Lebanese to ignore the calls for a work stoppage. After almost two months of an opposition sit-in in the heart of the capital aimed at bringing down the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the campaign has progressed to ambitions of paralyzing the periphery of the capital and the rest of the country. However, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Monday that "we will not raise arms against anyone." Speaking during an Ashoura ceremony in Beirut's southern suburbs, Nasrallah reiterated earlier pledges that "if they kill 1,000 of us, we will not use our weapons against them." "They will try to belittle the strike," he predicted, "with the media and officials showing open shops as proof that we have failed." Addressing his supporters, Nasrallah said: "I have faith that you will remain disciplined and will avoid any insults and sectarian slogans." But the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Michel Aoun, warned people that "if you have no business being out, then just stay home." In a news conference on Monday at his residence in Rabieh, Aoun said: "There will be people who will instigate riots and try to hamper the strike, so stay home and out of harm's reach." Daily Star (Lebanon) (1/23)

GLOBAL: Fight for your rights, despite globalisation, women urged

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI, 22 Jan 2007 (IRIN) - Women, especially in the developing world, who continue to bear the burden of the negative impact of globalisation, must fight for their rights, a Kenyan civil rights activist said on Monday at the World Social Forum (WSF). "We are not powerless; women are standing together in spite of the burden to dispossess us," Wahu Kaara, an activist and one of the organisers of the WSF, said at the United Nations offices in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The seventh WSF, under the banner, ‘People’s struggles, people’s alternatives - Another world is possible’, began on 20 January in Nairobi. It is intended to counter the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, where leaders from business, politics, academia, the media and civil society discuss how to improve the world economy. Monday's conference by the World Court of Women on Poverty was entitled ‘Lives, livelihoods and life worlds’. Anna Tibaijuka, the executive director of UN Habitat, said globalisation had contributed to the suffering of women as they continued to bear the burden of its negative impact. Because of globalisation, Tibaijuka said, increasing urbanisation had resulted in larger slum areas, thereby propelling many women into destitution and poverty and exposing them to violence and insecurity. "Slums pose a serious challenge to development and the girl-child and women continue to bear the brunt of urban poverty because they lack basic facilities, ownership, credit facilities and education," she said. "They are also exposed to prostitution, HIV/AIDS and risk being trafficked across borders." IRIN News (United Nations) (123)

Argentina: after Falklands defeat, outcasts at home

AFTERMATH REMAINS: A quarter of a century after the conflict, teens forced to fight remain haunted by the memory and are struggling to live

THE OBSERVER

BUENOS AIRES- As the train pulls into the central station of Buenos Aires, Jose is still walking down the aisle hawking a clutch of goods. An olive-green jacket, a patch with an Argentinian flag on his right arm and a silhouette of the Malvinas Islands signal he is one of the many veterans of the Falklands war supplementing their meager pensions. What he sells is patriotism -- small calendars and stickers bearing the slogan: "The Malvinas were, are and always will be Argentinian." But he tells a story of betrayal, of himself and 15,000 other veterans of the 1982 war with Britain. In a voice made automatic by repetition, he says: "A little help please, I am a veteran of the Malvinas, I have been repeatedly denied jobs simply for being a veteran, my pension is not always enough, I have been forgotten by my country for a long time." He has been saying it for 25 years. It is a story repeated by most veterans.Things have improved, but very late. The most important change came in 1991, when some veterans finally began to receive pensions. The next milestone was the election in 2003 of Nestor Kirchner. He became President on the back of promises on human rights, and increased the pension so the veterans felt able to pull down the green tents they had pitched in front of the government building on the Plaza de Mayo, protesting at lack of compensation and healthcare on the same spot where thousands congregated in April 1982 to cheer the capture of the Malvinas.But the difficulty of winning a pension is, veterans argue, evidence of neglect which goes back to the war itself. General Leopoldo Galtieri, "in his quest to stay in power, had no qualms in sending brave 18-year-old conscripts, with no military training whatever, into a war," says Norberto Santos, one of those 18-year-olds and now a member of the Center for Ex-Combatants Islas Malvinas.The troops had to endure shortages of ammunition, food, and clothing and suffered from cold, abuse and humiliation by their superiors. For Santos the war ended when a bomb blew off his left arm. A comrade, thinking he was dying, shot him to end his suffering. Instead, he prolonged it. The neglect continued despite the UK's victory, the fall of Galtieri and the re-establishment of democracy. Argentina Star/Taipei Times (1/23)

What's Next for Belgrade?

By Renate Flottau

Belgrade- The West seems pleased. Elections in Serbia appear to pave the way for a democratic coalition to take office in Belgrade. But with Kosovo looming, negotiations are going to be difficult. And then there's the Ratko Mladic question. Western politicians are celebrating -- for now. The democratic bloc composed of four major parties won the Serbian parliamentary elections over the weekend, thanks to an unexpectedly high electoral participation of about 61 percent. But the morning after may come soon. What looks like a clear majority on paper -- almost 150 cabinet members out of a total of 250 -- could soon encounter serious difficulties when it comes to forming a functioning coalition. The four parties still have substantial ideological differences, and each of them wants as many ministerial seats as they can get. Plus, Serbia's current prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, isn't keen on giving up his position either. Characterized and criticized in the Western media in the past for being more of a nationalist than a democrat, his Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) only received a less-than-impressive 16.51 percent of the vote, landing it in third place. To stay in power, the DSS is compelled to form a coalition , most likely with the Democratic Party (DS) of President Boris Tadic. The DS took second place with 22.7 percent of the vote.But there's also another possible outcome. The 62-year-old Kostunica could also cobble together a majority by teaming up with the ultra-nationalist Radical Party (SRS), which came out on top with fully 28.58 percent of the vote, and the Socialist Party of Slobodan Milosevic, which just managed to clear the 5 percent threshold necessary for parliamentary representation. Such an outcome would clearly not be to the West's liking. Der Spiegel (Germany) (1/23)

Report: N. Ireland Police Shielded Killers

Protestant Informers Avoided Prosecution; Victims Often Were Catholics

By Mary Jordan, Washington Post Foreign Service

LONDON, Jan. 22 -- Police in Northern Ireland colluded with Protestant paramilitary informers, protecting them from prosecution even as they were implicated in murders and other violent crimes, often committed against Catholics, according to a government report released Monday. In dozens of cases, most of which took place during the 1990s, police officers essentially gave the criminals immunity in exchange for information, according to the three-year investigation by an independent police ombudsman. To protect informers, police officers blocked weapons searches, created fake notes of their interviews and even "babysat" informers so they wouldn't incriminate themselves in crimes that included drug-dealing and a bomb attack. Police paid one informer, believed to be involved in more than 10 murders, more than $150,000 a year, the report said. Prime Minister Tony Blair called the report "deeply disturbing" and said the actions "were totally wrong and should never have happened." He also stressed that the report was "about the past" and that changes had been made so that "these events could not happen now." The role of the police remains a formidable and emotional stumbling block as Northern Ireland's Protestant and Catholic political parties attempt to devise a power-sharing government after more than 3,600 lives were lost in three decades of sectarian violence. Minority Catholics in the province have long accused the predominantly Protestant police force of discriminating against them and often participating in violence against them. Martin McGuinness, a leader of Sinn Fein, the largest Catholic political party in the province, called the report "critically important" and said it confirms what many Catholics have long alleged. But he said in an interview that it "only scratched the surface" and that "hundreds of families want the truth" of what happened to their sons, daughters and parents. Washington Post (1/23)

posted by Dave Carroll @ 1/23/2007 04:26:00 PM 0 comments

PAX GAEA WORLD POST HUMAN RIGHTS HEADLINES SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 2007

TOPICS

• Australia Day concert promoter prohibits national flag as symbol of hate, racism
• As world watches China exalt to superpower status, put your money on India first
• Graves of the dead keep memories fresh for children of the Iran Revolution
• Jerusalem Muslims accuse Israel of tunneling under Temple Mount, attempting cave in to prompt erection of lost Temple
• Moroccan journalist prosecution decried by rights group, "wise" to government
• South Africa's vote against Burma UN sanctions "disappointment" to Tutu
• "Saving Private Ryan' type mission undertaken by Royal Marines in Afghanistan
• 25 American troops killed in one deadly day in Iraq as escalation forces begin arriving
• South American Union talks not as production as some had hoped
• Racism's ugly face in Georgia as mayor bans soccer, sport of refugees, from city parks but for the "Fugees", hope abounds

Ban concert, not flag: Robb

ORGANISERS should cancel the Australia Day eve Big Day Out concert in Sydney rather than ban the flag at Thursday's event, parliamentary secretary for immigration Andrew Robb said. NSW Premier Morris Iemma and the RSL also condemned the decision to ban the flag, describing it as "outrageous" and "unbelievable".The Daily Telegraph today reported that organisers of the Big Day Out at Homebush had decided they would confiscate any flag or bandana featuring the national symbol at the gates. Event organiser Ken West was quoted as saying fans' behaviour last year in the wake of the Cronulla riots and the recent ethnic violence at the Australian Open tennis tournament had forced his hand. "The Australian flag was being used as gang colours. It was racism disguised as patriotism and I'm not going to tolerate it," Mr West said. BDO organisers issued a statement this morning saying the flag was not banned, but they said they did not want concert-goers taking it into the event. "We are not banning the Australian flag but are simply discouraging its use for anti-social purposes at the Big Day Out," the statement said. Herald Sun (Australia) (1/21)

The dragon and elephant race to superpower status

Fomer 'Financial Times' reporter Edward Luce argues that though India is not on autopilot to greatness, it would take an incompetent pilot to crash the plane

By William Grimes, NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, NEW YORK All eyes are on China as it races to become the world's next great power. Smart bettors would be wise to put some money on India to get there first, and Edward Luce explains why in In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India, his highly informative, wide-ranging survey. Luce, who reported from New Delhi for the Financial Times from 2001 to 2005, offers an Imax view of a nation so enormous that it embraces every possible contradiction. Always it seems to be teetering on the edge of either greatness or the abyss. Right now, the future looks inviting. India's dizzying economic ascent began in 1991, when the government abruptly dismantled the "license raj," a system of tight controls and permits in place since independence in 1947. Luce, as you might expect from a Financial Times reporter, does a superb job of explaining the new Indian economy and why its transformation qualifies as strange. Unlike China, India has not undergone an industrial revolution. Its economy is powered not by manufacturing but by its service industries. In a vast subcontinent of poor farmers whose tiny holdings shrink by the decade, a highly competitive, if small, technology sector and a welter of service businesses have helped create a middle class, materialistic and acquisitive, along with some spectacularly rich entrepreneurs. Taipei Times (1/21)

Children of the revolution

About a mile before the cemetery of Behesht-e-Zahra you begin to spot the flower sellers. Young men lined up by the sides of the road, holding out carnations and tuberoses as offerings for the dead. The gates of the cemetery, the main resting grounds for the martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, are marked by red flags, the colour of tulips, commemorating the thousands who fought and died for their country. Two hundred thousand men were killed at the front, maimed by landmines and mustard gas dropped by Saddam’s brigades; while the number of those disabled by the fighting is approximated at 1.5 million Iranians — the unofficial number of martyrs is whispered to be closer to three hundred thousand. A man selling Shia Nouhay mourning tapes and books by Ayatollah Behesti, the assassinated founder of the Islamic Republic Party, told me that landmines planted by the Iraqi army have yet to be cleared and even today they bury men killed by the after effects of the war, and so the number of Shaheeds keeps rising and there is little respite from grief at Behesht-e-Zahra.The graves are marked by elevated steel and glass boxes that contain photographs of the dead. Personal belongings — an old watch, personal letters, a comb — and flowers are propped up against the photographs of the many men killed during the eight years of war. Tombstones, sometimes covering empty graves in cases when the body of the Shaheed is still missing, mark the date and location of the men’s death. Masoud Safarlou has no date of death on his tombstone; his body was found in a town called Faiyazi near the Iran-Iraq border; that is all his family knows. International News (Pakistan) (1/21)

Islamic Movement alleges Israeli dig under J'lem's Temple Mount

By Nadav Shragai, Yoav Stern and Meron Rapoport, Haaretz Correspondents

The Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement, headed by Ra'am-Ta'al chairman MK Ibrahim Sarsour, on Sunday accused Israel of carrying out excavations underneath Jerusalem's Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Sarsour also claimed the Israel Antiquities Authority paid a Palestinian vendor $60,000 for his store along the Temple Mount. The Israel Antiquities Authority denied the accusation. Earlier on Sunday, the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement presented pictures taken two weeks ago that allegedly documented excavations near the Temple Mount. Northern Branch leader Sheikh Ra'ad Salah said the excavations were meant to "create a stranglehold around Al-Aqsa Mosque, in order for the Israeli establishment to fulfill its darkest dreams of building a Jewish Temple [in its place]." Islamic Movements representatives added that they have information on an upcoming dig that they will soon reveal. Ha'aretz (Israel) (1/21)

Nichane case: NGO denounces verdict as 'aggression',

Minister deems 'wisdom has prevailed'

Rabat, Jan. 15 - A Moroccan Human Right NGO has described as "an aggression against the freedom of speech," the condemnation on Monday by a Casablanca court of two journalists of the Arabic-speaking Magazine Nichane, while Moroccan Minister of Communication Nabil Benabdellah deemed that "wisdom has prevailed" in the trial of the magazine. Weekly Director, Driss Ksikes and journalist Sanaa Al Aji were given a three-year suspended sentence and fined to USD 7,500, while their magazine was banned for two months by the First Instance Court of Morocco's largest city. They were tried following a long article published last month on Moroccan jokes on Islam, sex and politics, which were considered as "harmful to Islam. In a press release, the AMDH (Moroccan Association for Human Rights) denounced the verdict as "an abuse against the freedom of speech and press, and a serious regression with regard to the partial achievements attained in Morocco in this field." For his part, Secretary General of the Syndicat national de la Presse Marocaine (Moroccan Press Union) said the verdict was “severe”, in an interview with the satellite TV Al Jazeera. Earlier, Ksikes told MAP that the case was handled with "a lot of wisdom," by the court as it did not follow the public prosecutor who recommended a three to five-year imprisonment and banning the two defendants from practicing journalism. Nabil Abdellah who is also spokesman for the Government deemed that “wisdom has prevailed” in Nichane’s case. “We are undertaking a profound reform of the Press Code and, consequently, there is a need to strengthen this orientation”, he told 2M TV Monday evening. Maghreb Arab Presse (1/21)

Tutu 'disappointed' by SA's Burma vote

Celean Jacobson

Johannesburg, South Africa- Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu has expressed his deep disappointment at South Africa's vote to block a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an end to human rights abuses in Burma, saying it was a betrayal of his country's "noble past". The retired South African archbishop urged the Security Council to take action against the military regime of the South-east Asian country, in a 2005 report written with fellow Nobel laureate and former Czech President Vaclav Havel. "I am deeply disappointed by our vote. It is a betrayal of our own noble past. Many in the international community can hardly believe it. It is inexplicable," Tutu said in an e-mail no Saturday to the Associated Press. In its first vote since it secured a non-permanent seat on the Security Council last year, South Africa joined China and Russia in opposing the resolution proposed by the United States and backed by Britain and France. The vote in the Security Council on January 12 was nine to three in favour of the resolution, with three abstentions. However, China and Russia cast a rare double veto, which blocked the resolution's passage.South Africa does not have veto power. Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said in a statement that while South Africa was "deeply concerned at the situation in Myanmar [Burma]," the country's vote against the resolution had been technical.He said Myanmar did not pose a threat to international peace and security and was a matter best left to the UN Human Rights Council. Mail & Guardian (south Africa) (1/21)

Heroes of Helmand: the first amazing pictures

It was a daring rescue mission - two soldiers strapped to the wing pods of a helicopter, determined to bring back the body of a fallen colleague. Mark Townsend reconstructs the remarkable flight to Jugroom Fort

Robert Magowan gazed over the parched flatlands of Helmand and wondered what might lay ahead. The lieutenant-colonel of the Royal Marines knew his men were preparing for a trip into the unknown, a mercy mission that has already etched itself into contemporary military folklore. He had been told they were missing a man following a firefight that forced British troops to retreat from a dawn raid against a Taliban fort nearly four miles beyond the horizon. Now in a remarkable sequence of images, the bravery of the men involved in one of the most extraordinary, but ultimately tragic rescue operations carried out by the British army in Afghanistan can be revealed. Military photographers chronicle how, in a feat never previously attempted, four Royal Marines strapped themselves to the wing pods of two Apache gunships and flew back to heavily fortified Jugroom fort in an audacious attempt to recover Lance-Corporal Matthew Ford. The men are shown clinging to the side of a gunship as it rumbles just 100ft above the desert landscape at speeds of 50mph, lower than normal to avoid the effects of wind-chill during the Afghan winter.Earlier, hundreds of British troops led by the Royal Marines had retreated back over the Helmand river before word spread that Ford was missing. An unmanned probe was dispatched to Jugwood, a Taliban stronghold ringed by watchtowers, the command headquarters for insurgents' activity across the district. An alert RAF soldier noticed an unusual light blob, just outside the fort's imposing walls. It was Ford. Retrieving the stricken soldier with Viking amphibious vehicles might cost more men. A 39-year-old helicopter pilot, known only as 'Tom', said that strapping soldiers to the helicopter would be the quickest way to rescue Ford. When the request for volunteers rang out, everyone in the Helmand Operational Post at Garmsar stepped forward for a mission that carried echoes of Saving Private Ryan, the Hollywood film in which a battalion risk their lives to rescue a soldier behind enemy lines. Guardian (United Kingdom) (1/21)

25 US troops killed in a single day in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AFP) - At least 25 US troops were killed across Iraq in one of the deadliest days for the American forces since the invasion began, as the military said 3,200 new troops had arrived to quell Baghdad violence. On the political front, lawmakers from radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's group ended a nearly two-month-old parliamentary boycott in a significant boost for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's beleaguered government. According to the US military, 25 troops were killed on Saturday alone, making it one of the bloodiest days for the American forces since January 26, 2005, when 36 servicemembers died. The military in a series of statements piling up the body count, listed a helicopter crash, insurgent attacks and roadside bombs as being responsible for Saturday's high casualty rate. Five troops, it said in a statement Sunday, died in separate enemy attacks in the western Sunni Al-Anbar province, a hotbed of anti-US insurgency where the military has lost the bulk of its troops since the invasion. In another daring attack by militants, five soldiers were killed in the southern shrine city of Karbala during a meeting to plan security measures for the 10-day Shiite mourning ceremony of Ashura that began Sunday.The attack was carried out by militants wearing uniforms similar to those worn by Iraqi and US soldiers, the governor of Karbala Akhil al-Khazali said. Agence France Presse (1/21)

South American unification elusive at Mercosur summit

By Michael Astor, ASSOCIATED PRESS

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – South American leaders agree continentwide integration is a worthy goal. Now, if they could only agree on how to get there. Discord at the two-day Mercosur summit that ended Friday left many to wonder about the future of a trade bloc that has never lived up to its promise of integrating much of South America into an influential body like the European Union. Brazil's business-friendly President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva closed the summit proclaiming that “there has never been such a promising political climate for the integration of Mercosur.” But Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela – Mercosur's newest member – stole the show from the moment he arrived by threatening to “decontaminate” the trade bloc of its free-market impulses. Bolivia's President Evo Morales, another ardent leftist, joined his Venezuelan ally in saying Mercosur needs “profound reforms” – even while requesting full membership into the bloc. The Southern Cone Common Market, or Mercosur, unites some 250 million people with a gross domestic product of $1 trillion, or about 76 percent of the total for South America. Made up of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, the trade bloc has long suffered from internal bickering over matters as mundane as trade in pork and appliances. But this time, leaders such as Chavez and Silva vowed to reform and expand Mercosur so it can finally come through on promises to ease a long-standing South American divide between rich and poor. Argentina Star/San Diego Union Tribune (1/21)

posted by Dave Carroll @ 1/21/2007 05:54:00 PM 0 comments

PAX GAEA WORLD POST HUMAN RIGHTS SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2007

TOPICS

posted by Dave Carroll @ 1/20/2007 05:31:00 PM 0 comments