Human Rights

Friday, June 13, 2008

No one is living now in my country

A poem by Juan Bañuelos

For the tortured and assassinated Indios and campesinos

Imprisoned country

Turbulent
Clamoring
Grieving

It’s not the light

It’s the smoke that awakens
with the viscera of dust in its hands

It’s the rotten rust exhaled
by the disappeared

It’s the children who play with skeletons

It’s the moon that can discern
all the tortured by their own terror

And on the edges of eyelids
ulcers of hunger

Suddenly

our language

spits out
the gravedigger’s liquor

assassins shout
through the anus

obsidian winds sweep away
the saltpeter the haze the red vapor
of the massacre

the last second preceding
enlightenment

Let the sun set itself in motion
Let the heavens never again fall upon the earth

widows scream
sheltering our foreheads

with thin mouths
and the dead eye of the moon

The hummingbird’s egg:
an aurora borealis

There is a faraway country so turbulent
so great And yet again so far

Note: This poem was translated by Barbara Paschke, for the book First World, Ha Ha Ha! The Zapatista Challenge (1995).

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Bravery - Burma Monks

There may be 10 to 20,000 of them, instead of one - but they are still standing in front of a tank. 

,

Myanmar police, soldiers deployed to pagodas and monasteries

Agence France-Presse
Last updated 10:34am (Mla time) 09/26/2007

YANGON—Military-ruled Myanmar deployed armed soldiers and riot police to key pagodas and monasteries around Yangon on Wednesday, in a bid to prevent Buddhist monks from staging anti-junta protests, witnesses said.

Also during the night, Myanmar’s most famous comedian Zaganar, who had publicly thrown his support behind the monks, was arrested at his home, a friend told AFP.

“Zaganar was arrested around 1:30 am at his home,” because he brought food and water to the monks to support the protests, a friend told AFP.

Zaganar, along with other prominent movie stars and artists, had vocally urged the public to support the monks leading the most serious protests against the military regime in nearly two decades.

On Monday and Tuesday, he delivered food and water to monks as they prepared for their protests that drew 100,000 people into the streets.

Protesters defy junta (The Hindu)

The barefoot art of war (Salon)

Not my area of expertise, but I would say this is shaping up to be an unstoppable event - my hopes are with it having a good outcome.

[update: 9/26 4;30pm] Police Clash With Monks in Myanmar

collection of links from Kai

Marisacat also has an excellent pulling together of news reports and events. 

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

US Citizen Deported - By The US - For Looking Foreign

Via Steven D at the Booman Tribune comes this ridiculous (and possibly tragic) story. And, as belledame points out, it’s almost a case of fact imitating fiction. 

Reuters:

ACLU spokesman Michael Soller said 29-year-old Pedro Guzman was serving a 120-day sentence in a Los Angeles jail for trespassing when he was deported to Tijuana, Mexico, on May 10 or May 11 for an alleged immigration violation.

The group’s suit filed in U.S. District Court seeks to have the deportation order suspended and for the U.S. government to help locate Guzman.

Guzman, who was born in Los Angeles and lived about 70 miles north in Lancaster with his mother, could barely read and write, Soller said. He did not know his phone number and kept his brother’s telephone number on a piece of paper. But the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in a written statement denied Guzman’s deportation, which followed immigration checks at the jail, was improper.

“ICE only processes persons for removal when all available credible evidence suggests the person is an alien,” ICE officials said. “That process was followed here and ICE has no reason to believe that it improperly removed Pedro Guzman.”

[....]

The only telephone call Guzman made came shortly after his deportation, on May 11 and was received by his sister in law, Soller said.

“The last thing she heard him do was ask someone nearby ‘Where am I?’ and then the line went dead,” Soller said. Guzman has not been heard from since and is assumed lost in Mexico.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Kennedy: Families Pay The Price For Failed System

They apparently name this mess “Operation Return to Sender”. How… cute. 

Boston Herald

All over New Bedford on Tuesday, hundreds of women and men woke up, kissed their children goodbye and left for another day of work at Michael Bianco Inc. They knew it would be a grueling day because there was no other kind of day in the sweatshop-like conditions of the factory. But they were willing to work hard and without complaint because they believed in the American Dream, in which hard work creates a hope for a better life - if not for them, then for their children.

What happened next was a tragic example of the desperate state of our current immigration policy. Hundreds of armed police and immigration officers raided the factory, creating panic among the workers. They handcuffed unarmed men and women in the same factory where the workers had already known nothing but indignity at the hands of their employer.

While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was ready with hundreds of officers to subdue a group of frightened workers, they were woefully unprepared to deal with the aftermath of their own raid. The DHS knew that it would be detaining young parents, and yet had no effective plan to identify and help the children who would be left alone. The photographs of bewildered, crying children told with eloquence the story of a government operation distinguished by its callousness.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Turkish Court Blacks Out YouTube

Insulting the country’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, is a crime in Turkey punishable by prison.

ISTANBUL, Turkey—Four college students on Thursday asked a Turkish court to revoke the ban it imposed on YouTube for running videos that prosecutors said insulted the founder of modern Turkey.

The group condemned the videos in question but said blocking access to the Web site violated their rights to free speech, the private Turkish news agency Dogan reported.

“Banning access to the Web site does not punish those who did that (posted the videos) but the citizens of the Turkish republic,” said student Kursat Cetinkoz, reading from a petition the group submitted to the court in Istanbul.

[...]

Turk Telekom, the country’s largest telecommunications provider, immediately began enforcing the ban Wednesday. Those who tried to access the YouTube site from Turkey encountered the message: “Access to this site has been blocked by a court decision!...”

The court—acting on a petition from Turk Telekom—ruled later Wednesday that it would revoke the ban as soon as it ascertained that the offending videos had been removed from YouTube. YouTube is owned by internet search engine giant Google.

From the Chicago Tribune.

I suppose there is a historical reason for the ban on insulting ‘Turkishness’, but I don’t know what it is, or how one could justify punishing the insults with a court case and possible prison time. I know (or at least, I believe I know) that in Germany it is illegal to deny the Holocaust - am not sure if there are prison consequences attached to that, nor am I sure that I agree with the law itself. But, then, I’m not German and that is no doubt a very sensitive issue for them. From what I understand, however, neo Nazi groups flourish in spite of the law.

Anyway, though… the situations are not analogous because in Turkey, it was the Armenians who were the victims of the genocide.

Google/YouTube did take the video down, by the way, after apparently thousands of letters of complaint.

Monday, December 11, 2006

50 Bullets-No Memory; Dancing in Santiago; Israel Blocks Tutu?; Questioning Diamonds

Newsy Bits

The New York Times adds details and layers to this story that is in not going to go away. Unarmed men, a wedding day, and a hail of bullets have combined to make this story something that even those whose common reflex is to blame the victim in police shootings have a hard time justifying.

50 Bullets, One Dead, and Many Questions

A police sergeant who arrived seconds later described the scene this way: The Nissan had crashed into a van in the middle of the street. Smoke was coming from its radiator. The man in the driver’s seat was slumped back. His passenger was lying across his lap with his arms hanging outside the driver’s window.

The sergeant, Michael Wheeler, later told investigators that both men appeared seriously injured and likely to die, according to the records. A plainclothes officer stood close by, his pistol still trained on the two men in the car. A third man lay on the street nearby.

Minutes later, the shooting scene on Liverpool Street in Jamaica, Queens, was choked with patrol cars and the scrum of officials that follows a police shooting. A captain ordered another uniformed sergeant, Donald Kipp, to locate and inspect the weapons of the men involved in the shooting. In all, five plainclothes officers had fired a total of 50 bullets.

But one after another, in conversations with Sergeant Kipp or Sergeant Wheeler, the men said they could not say how many shots they had fired. Two said they were unsure whether they had even fired at all, including a detective who investigators later learned had fired 31 shots, emptying his 9-millimeter Sig Sauer pistol, reloading and emptying it again during the frenzied barrage.

How safe can you feel, even not being a young Black man, with police officers on the streets that can fire 31 one bullets at someone, stopping to reload, and then not remember even doing it?

via P6

   * * * *
From the BBC:

There was dancing in the streets of Santiago - and water cannons

Thousands of Chileans have taken to the streets following the death of the country’s former military ruler, Augusto Pinochet, at the age of 91.

Jubilant opponents danced in the centre of Santiago, Chile’s capital, before clashes broke out. Police used water cannon and tear gas to control crowds.

Supporters mourned Gen Pinochet outside the military hospital where he died.

The general took power in a 1973 coup, and more than 3,000 people were killed or “disappeared” in his 17-year rule.

He was accused of dozens of human rights abuses as well as fraud but poor health meant he never faced trial.

I may not rejoice in the death of any person but, for some, I do not mourn.

Update: via Tapped, Randy Paul of Beautiful Horizons augments the New York Times’ rather thin list of key dates in Pinochet’s career with a few of the “forgotten” items, in Wanted: A Strong Wooden Stake and Several Garlic Bulbs

   * * * *
Also from BBC, this doesn’t look (or sound) too good.

Israel ‘blocks Tutu Gaza mission’

Israel has blocked a UN fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip that was to be led by South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, the UN says.

Mr Tutu’s team would have investigated last month’s killings of 19 civilians in an Israeli artillery barrage in the northern town of Beit Hanoun.

But Israel had not granted the former Archbishop of Cape Town the necessary travel clearance, a UN official said.

The Israeli government said it had not formally denied visas to the UN team.

Mr Tutu’s team was supposed to report its findings to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council by Friday.

Spokeswoman Sonia Bakar said Mr Tutu had other engagements and could not wait any longer for Israeli permission to travel.

“It has been cancelled. We were supposed to go yesterday (Sunday),” she said.

An Israeli government spokesman said it had not made a final decision on whether to grant visas for Mr Tutu’s team.

He said the government did “not have a problem not with the personalities, we had a problem with the institution. We saw a situation whereby the human rights mechanism of the UN was being cynically exploited to advance an anti-Israel agenda”.

[...]

It [the Human Rights Council] asked Mr Tutu to assess the situation of victims, address the needs of survivors and make recommendations on ways to protect Palestinian civilians against further Israeli attacks.

Maybe it’s considered less of a gamble to keep him out completely, than to have him speak and the world listen.

   * * * *
From Canada.com

Some good news -

Diamond trade on the defensive

Betsy Vereckey, The Associated Press
Published: Monday, December 11, 2006

NEW YORK—This holiday season some diamond retailers say they are seeing heightened consumer concern about conflict diamonds, the gems mined in war zones that are sold to fund armed conflict and civil war.

Sales of so-called conflict diamonds have helped finance wars that killed millions in Angola, Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia over the past several decades, and efforts to address the problem have been made within the diamond industry.

But human rights groups are now taking the issue straight to consumers, and with Friday’s release of Warner Bros. Pictures’ new film Blood Diamond, diamond retailers are preparing to face more scrutiny than ever before.

Many large retailers, such as Tiffany & Co. and Zale Corp., say they have enacted policies to help stem the flow of conflict diamonds. And during the all-important holiday season, when at least half of annual jewelry sales are recorded, retailers want their customers to feel they can shop guilt-free.

There is more there, including various sellers of diamonds and jewelry and what measures they are taking to ensure that their diamonds are not drenched in blood.

I’ve never liked diamonds.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Newsy bits - Chechens in Lebanon; Mercenary Review; BUGS!

From the St. Petersburg Times:

Chechen Soldiers Relish Tour of Duty in Lebanon

SIDON, Lebanon � Not so long ago, the Russian camp was a war zone.Today, the biggest bang most of the 250 military engineers here encounter is the 5 a.m. wake-up call at the sandy settlement of 50 or so tents nestled against the Mediterranean.

The relative calm is largely due to the end of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. But it’s also because two platoons of elite soldiers plucked from the Army’s 42nd Division’s East and West battalions, based in Chechnya, are standing guard.

Everything is calm here,” says Rasud Baimuratov, commander of one of the platoons. An ethnic Chechen with a towering figure, Baimuratov and his comrades have been welcomed by locals who say they trust Russians more than Western forces. Bilyal Adzhami, a store owner in the southern Lebanese town of Nabatia, explained that many locals see the Russian troops as a counterbalance to the French, Italian and Spanish forces, among others, helping maintain a UN-imposed peace.

“People don’t trust the NATO countries that sent peacekeepers here under the UN mission,” Adzhami said. “The local populations think their goal here is to protect Israel. And Moscow has always stood up for fair negotiations of the Middle East crisis and for keeping the peace in Lebanon.”

What’s more, as Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has noted, sending soldiers who are mostly Muslim to patrol a Muslim country has its benefits.

“We get along great with the local population,” said Malgobek Khamurzayev, one of the Russian soldiers deployed to southern Lebanon.

Still, the Chechen battalions, which report to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, are composed of an unusual bunch.

The East battalion includes former Chechen separatists who once battled Russian Army troops but later switched sides. Human rights groups have accused the battalion of atrocities against civilians in Chechnya during regular search-and-destroy missions.

Anatoly Tsyganok, head of the Center for Military Forecasting, voiced confidence that the Army engineers would fulfill their mission but had doubts about their Chechen protectors, who he said were not trained in peacekeeping.

[....]
“Conducting negotiations, coordinating with local police � these are difficult things,” Tsyganok said.

The East and West battalions were formed during the second Chechen war, which began in late 1999, in an effort to rely more heavily on local recruits in operations against Chechen rebels.

We’ll see.

From the Asia Times, David Isenberg does a book review of Robert Young Pelton’s Licensed to Kill

Mercenaries or ‘contractors’?

...For years now the media have increasingly publicized what is usually described in sensationalistic purple prose as the murky world of corporate mercenaries. While such firms started gaining attention back in the early 1990s with the exploits of, for example, the now-defunct South African-based Executive Outcomes, which did actual combat operations in Angola and Sierra Leone, and gained more publicity with the training contracts of MPRI in the Balkan wars of the mid-1990s, the war in Iraq propelled the industry to the top of the media and pop-culture food chain. Such firms as Blackwater Security, Triple Canopy, and DynCorp are now conversational staples.

And yet while there have been numerous articles in the periodical press and even many academic books, one of which - Peter Singer’s Corporate Warriors - even achieved a measure of popular acclaim when it was published in 2003, they all lacked one key ingredient essential to a real understanding of this world. And that is culture. The key to really understanding any society is to understand its culture. And, as anthropologists have long understood, true cultural understanding comes only from living in the midst of it.

[...]
...Just who is Robert Young Pelton? Originally from Canada, he moved to the US ... one day he decided to get out of it and start traveling to the world’s hot spots and war zones as a neutral observer and chronicler of the truth, which is never an easy thing to ascertain.

[....]
But as Pelton notes, “If there is a lesson in all of this, it is that once the security business is unhitched from established corporate or government clients, its proponents can quickly turn it into the insecurity business.”

Lots more there - go read it all. Very informative, pretty freaky too.

Maybe those “B” movies weren’t so far off after all… From LiveScience.com (via StevenD)

Global Warming Could Trigger Insect Population Boom

A rise in the Earth�s temperature could lead to an increase in the number of insects worldwide, with potentially dire consequences for humans, a new study suggests.

New research shows that insect species living in warmer areas are more likely to undergo rapid population growth because they have higher metabolic rates and reproduce more frequently. The finding has scientists concerned that global warming could give rise to more fast-growing insect populations and that we could see a spike in the number of six-legged critters.

[...]
Insect-borne diseases are also a worry. Malaria, Lyme Disease and a host of others rely on insect vectors to spread among humans, and a swell in their populations could mean more infections. 

Already, scientists have observed a widening of malarial zones with new cases appearing in previously unaffected areas. The change is thought to be due to rising temperatures and an expansion of areas habitable for mosquitoes. The new research, detailed in the October issue of The American Naturalist, shows rising temperatures would mean insects would not only spread out, but also multiply more quickly.

Well now… it’s possible that some don’t feel warming temperatures (or cooling ones), floods and so on to be all that big of a threat… but what about the bugs!?

[This post may or may not be updated throughout the day, as I find new stuff and add it.]

Friday, November 03, 2006

Oaxaca - News, Background, Action - & It’s a Feminist Matter, Too

Oaxaca, Mexico:

I don't really know enough to write intelligently about this important situation but, luckily, there are many others that do. Here is a brief compilation of news and commentary. I am putting just a few sites here, but there many others who are writing on this situation in depth and from a position of knowledge. There are links to some of these at the sites below.

I'll probably just keep adding to this post as I find things.

An appeal and call to action:

Why feminists must stand against government oppression in Mexico

Although even Indy Media tends to privilege male voices–you can’t help but notice the heavy presence of indigenous women in the pictures/videos and manifestos. Indigenous social justice movements invariably center the entire community within the movement. Wheras (white) feminist movements in the U.S. tend to call for “rights” and “equality,” indigenous women tend to call for the recovering of their communities. That is, their communities have been under a 500 year long attack, and it is through (radical women of color/third world) feminism that indigenous women seek to recover and heal their communities.

Thus, indigenous women are active participants in decision making, rebellions, and protests–and as such, these same women are often targetted by the nation/state for retribution and sexualized violence. Just as it’s not uncommon to see video tape of women shutting down mainstream corporate media’s negative coverage, it’s also not uncommon to have women imprisoned and sexually assaulted as well. Resistance comes at a price–and for indigenous women of Mexico, that price is often the murders of their children and the violent loss of their bodily integrity. But to not resist means poverty, sexual violence and death. As subcomendante Marcos has often noted, indigenous peoples are already dead–resistance just means dying a different way.

All feminists MUST pay attention to what is happening in Oaxaca. Indigenous women are leading the way to female liberation–which means that just as their demands for access to birth control carry the same weight in their actions that their demands for access to community radio do, they are also taking the brunt of the violence liberation often brings. But thier entire community recognizes that they will never have liberation (aka community health, freedom from poverty, clean air to breath, workers rights, sexual freedom, control of the land etc) as long as the nation/state has ultimate control over what happens to their bodies and souls–or as long as violence against women is acceptable in any form. (Lots more there, including action items and more background and reasons why it is important for feminists to participate. read it all.) Also, keep up with current updates by visiting the Women of Color blogs Oaxaca archive.

BBC News -

What are the origins of the crisis?

On 1 May 2006, teachers in Oaxaca handed in a document listing their grievances and demands. They then went on strike, saying they had received no answer from the local authorities.

The crisis reached a new level on 14 June, when local police tried to remove the protesters who had, since 22 May been occupying the centre of the city. Some 750 police officers took part in the operation. Media reports at the time said at least four people had died in the clashes - a claim denied by the local authorities.

What do the teachers want?

They are demanding better pay, as well as a series of measures to help poorer pupils, including: breakfasts for schoolchildren, scholarships, uniforms, shoes, medical services and textbooks. The teachers are also demanding the resignation of the Oaxaca Governor, Ulises Ruiz.

Are other groups supporting the teachers?

Yes. The teachers' movement is backed by an umbrella group known as the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (Appo), formed on 17 June by 365 grassroots organisations including unions, indigenous and peasant groups and women's movements.

The protest movement has also received the backing of Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos and former left-wing presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. (Read more at BBC)

BRINGING YOU AN IN-DEPTH PIECE OF BACKGROUND REPORTING on Oaxacan developments, as understood by one Rebecca Barroso. The Unapologetic Mexican cannot place his sterling silver reputation behind all opinions or facts in this piece, as he has not researched them. But he would be negligent in his duty to the underground newsgathering networks were he not to provide it to you for your own consideration.

Teachers, students, and other groups have engaged in increasingly violent demonstrations in and around Oaxaca City for several months, while leaders of social organizations and teacher unions demand the resignation of Ulises Ruiz as governor of Oaxaca.

The conflict has roots in what was allegedly a fraudulent election, when Ulises Ruiz, the candidate for the PRI party, was named victorious over Gabino Cué, the candidate for the Coalición Todos Somos Oaxaca party.

[...]

In short, Oaxaca is experiencing nonconformities via three different groups of people: all those trampled by the fraud at the election process; the heads of the social organizations in charge of keeping the peace who used to live off the public monies now denied to them; and the teachers who are requesting an increase in their salaries. (Read more) - Also, for commentary on the current issues in Oaxaca, here is The Unapologetic Mexican's Oaxaca category archive.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Slated to be Stoned to Death, These Women Need Immediate Help

This is a call for action to do our small part in coming to the assistance of the women in Iran who have been sentenced to death by stoning.

1. Read the background and an explanation of the punishment for stoning to death in Islamic Law.

2. Realize that crimes against chastity in Iran are a pervasive problem by going to the website of one of the leading Iranian-American activists. There you may watch a detailed 48 minute documentary about a woman executed for a crime against chastity.

3. Spread word about this rally in Rome protesting the decisions by the Iranian government.

4. Sign these two petitions which refer to the two of the seven women sentenced. Activists in the US have gotten personal confirmation that Iranian officials were influenced by petitions when they previously ordered stays of executions. The first is for a woman named Kobra. The second is for a woman named Malak.

5. Submit the following letter...

8. If you fail to do any or even some of these, I assure you that you will remember the image of a bunch of stones pinging against a woman�s head cracking open her skull sometime after October 12. You have eight days.

Monday, September 25, 2006

The Tripoli Six - A Matter of Life and Death

From Declan Butler’s personal blog:

“Imagine that five American nurses and a British doctor have been detained and tortured in a Libyan prison since 1999, and that a Libyan prosecutor called at the end of August for their execution… on trumped-up charges of deliberately contaminating more than 400 children with HIV in 1998. Meanwhile, the international community and its leaders sit by, spectators of a farce of a trial, leaving a handful of dedicated volunteer humanitarian lawyers and scientists to try to secure their release.

Implausible? That scenario, with the medics enduring prison conditions reminiscent of the film Midnight Express, is currently playing out in a Tripoli court, except that the nationalities of the medics are different. The nurses are from Bulgaria and the doctor is Palestinian.”

These are the opening paragraphs of an unusually strongly-worded editorial — ‘Libya’s travesty‘ – published in tomorrow’s issue of Nature. It is accompanied by a news story over two pages — ‘Lawyers call for science to clear AIDS nurses in Libya‘ — explaining the case. (Both articles are on free access; to access free articles on Nature you just need to register once, and it is free.)

Here’s a key paragraph from the news story:

“ If international pressure isn’t stronger before the appeal, the risk is large that they will be condemned to death,” predicts Michel Taube, co-founder of Together Against the Death Penalty, a French non-governmental organization. “To avoid that outcome, diplomacy is not enough. We need international mobilization.”

It’s key, because what is needed is an immediate and sustained mobilization of international opinion, something which has been badly lacking so far. Bloggers, and the scientific community, can help create pressure on the authorities for the immediate release of the Tripoli six: Christiana Malinova Valcheva, Valia Georgieva Cherveniashka, Nasia Stoitcheva Nenova, Valentina Manolova Siropulo, Snezhana Ivanova Dimitrova and Ashraf Ahmad Jum’a

From Effect Measure / Science Blogs

This would seem to be a place for diplomatic pressure but the United States and the European Union have looked the other way:

At present, the case has been sidelined by broader geopolitical interests in the opening of oil-rich Libya to international relations, says Antoine Alexiev, another defence lawyer on the case. The United States decided in May to reestablish diplomatic relations with Libya. And Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has been given red-carpet treatment at the European Union's headquarters in Brussels -- without mention of the medics' situation.

That statement is from Declan's news article. The Nature Editorial is even stronger and blunter:

Despite the medics' plight, the United States agreed in May to reestablish diplomatic relations with Libya, 18 years after the bombing of an airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland that killed 270 civilians. Many observers had expected a resolution of the medics' case to be part of the deal. And the European Union has given Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, red-carpet treatment at the European Commission in Brussels.

International diplomacy, dealing as it does with geopolitical and economic realpolitik, by necessity often involves turning a blind eye. But its lack of progress in response to the medics' case in Libya is an affront to the basic democratic principles that the United States and the European Union espouse. Diplomacy has lamentably failed to deliver.

[snip]

Finding a scapegoat is easier than having to admit that the infection of the children was an accidental tragedy. But the most likely diplomatic compromise -- that the medics will be condemned to death, with this being commuted to a life sentence -- is unacceptable. They are innocent, and the law and science can prove it, if they get the belated opportunity. That is why scientists should lend their full support to the call by Lawyers without Borders -- a volunteer organization that last year helped win the freedom of Amina Lawal, who had been sentenced to death in Nigeria for having a child outside marriage -- that Libya's courts should order a fully independent, international scientific assessment of how the children were contaminated. (Editorial, Nature)

What you can do:

Effect Measure has a page of who to contact, how and the best way to go about it . They will be updating the information as more comes in.

Thanks to Bouphonia for highlighting the story. (And for the title of this post.)

Monday, September 18, 2006

Newsy Bits - Darfur Investment, Ancient Impersonations, Pope a Crusader?

Just things that have caught my eye, some of which should probably be developed into articles, eventually.

From the BBC

Sudan calls for Darfur investment

The Sudanese government has said war-torn Darfur needs investment rather than United Nations peacekeepers.

The Sudanese finance minister said Darfur had a “development problem”, requiring humanitarian aid and investment in basic infrastructure.

At least 200,000 people are estimated to have died and more than two million been displaced during the three-year conflict in the northern region.

The government, accused of stoking the conflict, has rejected UN intervention.

[...]

Sudanese Finance Minister Lual Deng....

He said the UN should spend its money on meeting Darfur’s basic social and economic problems rather than launching a peacekeeping mission.

“What Darfur needs most is resources for water, resources for schools, for hospitals,” he said.

“These resources, if they could be used in order to develop Darfur, it would be much better.”

This actually makes sense, in a way. I think they need both. From my (very imperfect) understanding of the ongoing conflict, beyond the issue of ethnicity, there is the matter competition for resources… water and so on. If people have food, water, security, and all that stuff… well I won’t say that they won’t go to war (just look at the US, the UK, and other quite well fed, well watered and secure Western nations).. but at least there are fewer issues to fight over.

I have to do more reading on this again, but places such as Sudan Watch have lots of information on not only current matters but background if you want to learn more.

Also from the BBC… heh.

Art student caught disguised among terracotta warriors

A German art student briefly fooled police by posing as one of China’s terracotta warriors at the heritage site in the ancient capital, Xian.

Pablo Wendel, made up like an ancient warrior, jumped into a pit showcasing the 2,200-year-old pottery soldiers and stood motionless for several minutes.

The 26-year-old was eventually spotted by police and removed from the scene.

Unearthed in 1974, the statues are said to be one of the 20th Century’s greatest archaeological finds.

The ancient clay soldiers were created to protect the nearby tomb of the legendary Emperor Qinshihuang who united China over 2,200 years ago.

They have a great photo of the soldiers at the BBC site.

From the Guardian.co.uk

Well, it was only a matter of time…

Pope has joined US crusade, says Iran

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday accused the Pope of committing the world’s biggest Christian church to what he claimed was a “crusade” launched by President Bush against Islam.

The Iranian leader’s words represented a setback to more than 25 years of Vatican diplomacy aimed at distancing Roman Catholicism from the west many Muslims regard as hostile and decadent. In his first comment on remarks on Islam made by Pope Benedict last week, the Ayatollah said they formed “the latest link in the chain of a crusade against Islam started by America’s Bush”.

I’m more of the “a pox on both their houses” mind… the Pope really needs someone to write/edit his speeches. What an absolutely inane thing to say and to think there would be no complaint. For people of Muslim religion it must be something akin to water torture… drip, drip, drip from all sides - suspect because of who you worship, suspect because of your skin tone, your religion reviled right and left, and now to have the head of the largest(?) Christian denomination say this… the media of course concentrating on the people in the streets so that they drown out everyone else saying things quite calmly and sensibly.

Oh well. I think probably everyone involved (at the head of things) was trying to play things in one way or another. The Pope for his flock, and whatever it was he was trying to tell them, and then the heads of these pretty oppressive governments (including the ones that are well tied to the West) pretty much promoting outrage… again, I believe, for some sort of benefit they gain from having people irate… concentrating on one thing so they don’t notice another, maybe?

More next time.