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Thursday, 04 June 2009 |
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AFRICA
Radios bring civic education to southern Sudan
By: Debbie DeVoe, ReliefWeb, May 31, 2009
A group of women are sitting and talking under the shade of some large mango trees in Juba, South Sudan-a common sight. But today, instead of talking about the weather, the conversation is taking a different tack. One woman asks about the best way to put a stop to corruption in local government. Another says she wishes their discussion could be heard by all government officials. Welcome to the first meeting of the Women Group Cultivators radio listening group.
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Zimbabwe PM admits lack of progress
By: Al Jazeera, May 31, 2009
Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's prime minister, has said that his efforts to restore democratic freedoms and the rule of law to Zimbabwe have so far failed. Tsvangirai made the comments on Saturday at his party's annual convention, blaming supporters of Robert Mugabe, the president, for frustrating progress. Tsvangirai said his party remained committed to democratic ideals, but said there were severe problems still to be addressed.
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Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai tells journalists to ignore media commission
By: Journalism.co.za, May 29, 2009
Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has ordered both local and foreign journalists, as well media houses not to pay registration fees until a new media body has been constituted, writes a journalism.co.za correspondent. His directive comes against a background of letter of complaint by the Zimbabwe National Editors Forum (ZINAEF) which noted continued harassment and demands for accreditation by the now defunct Media and Information Commission (MIC).
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Ethiopia's opposition cancels public meeting, blames government
By: Sudan Tribune, May 27, 2009
Ethiopia's biggest opposition, Unity for Democracy and Justice party (UDJ) on Tuesday accused the government of obstructing its constitutional rights and preventing from conducting a peaceful political meeting. Hailu Araya, vice president and person in charge of public relation to the party told Sudan Tribune that the UDJ is forced to cancel a public meeting it called for May 31, which was planned to be held at Addis Ababa's Meskel square. "This is one of the ruling party's deliberate games aimed to weaken our political role in the country" Hailu said.
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The new climate of fear in Ethiopia
By: David Dadge, Gulf News, May 24, 2009
The European Union, the United States and other major donors will pump about $2.5 billion (Dh9.19 billion) into Ethiopia this year, a sum that does not include the cost of medicines, famine relief, and countless other services provided by non-profit groups in one of the world's most impoverished countries. But for all this generosity, an authoritarian government rules Ethiopia with virtual impunity. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, in power for 18 years, has crushed the opposition.
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AMERICAS
Television station president arrested in Venezuela
By: Victor Ray Garza, Impunity Watch, May 31, 2009
The President of Venezuela's only independent media outlet was arrested on Saturday for charges stemming from another one of the businesses he owns. Guillermo Zuloaga was arrested by state officials after a raid on a car dealership he owns turned up what the government calls irregularities. The investigation and arrest of Zuloaga follows a pattern being set by the government of President Hugo Chavez. Zuloaga is another person targeted for investigation by the criminal justice system of Venezuela after making statements critical of the President.
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Brazil: Murder, death threats amid environmental protests
By: Fabiana Frayssinet, IPS, May 26, 2009
Activists in Brazil are demanding clarification of the murder of Paulo Santos Souza, a fisherman and trade unionist who was fighting irregularities in the construction of a gas pipeline for Petrobras. The Associação dos Homens do Mar for which Santos Souza was the treasurer, and other unions and civil society groups have called for a demonstration Wednesday in front of the headquarters of the state oil firm Petrobras.
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Fallen banker with ties to Citigroup involved in shooting of Brazilian landless workers
By: Isabella Kenfield, Center for International Policy, May 26, 2009
On April 18, seven members of the Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement (MST) were shot by private security guards on a farm in the Amazon that belongs to Agropecuária Santa Bárbara Xinguara S/A, a company controlled by international banker Daniel Dantas. A billionaire with former ties to Citigroup, Dantas is Brazil's largest producer of cattle, and presently embroiled in a major financial and political scandal. About 120 families organized in the MST have been occupying part of the thousand-acre ranch since February.
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ASIA/SOUTH ASIA
The Facebook controversy in Indonesia
By: Bruce Einhorn, BusinessWeek, June 1, 2009
Indonesians still seem to be talking about the suggestion by some Muslim clerics last week that the government should regulate Facebook to prevent users in Indonesia from trading gossip or accessing porn. Peter Gelling, writing in the Global Post, has a useful take on the story. Some eye openers: According to Gelling, Indonesia has the world's fifth-largest Facebook population, behind the U.S., Britain, France and Italy. (This despite the fact that Internet penetration in Indonesia last year was just 10.5% of the total population.) Moreover, according to Gelling, Facebook has become "the most visited website" in the country.
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China: Paint-throwing born of frustration
By: Radio Free Asia, June 1, 2009
China has developed tremendously over the last two decades, but "in terms of political and democratic reforms" the system is unchanged, one of three men jailed for splattering paint on Chairman Mao Zedong's portrait during the 1989 Tiananmen protests has said. Yu Zhijian, who along with fellow paint-thrower Yu Dongyue was just granted U.S. asylum, described their high-profile May 23, 1989 act of vandalism as a product of frustration directed at the Chinese authorities and prompted by the failure of protest leaders to devise a response when Beijing declared martial law.
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China silences human rights lawyers as Tiananmen date looms
By: Jane Macartney, Times Online, June 1, 2009
Chinese authorities effectively disbarred some of the country's leading civil rights lawyers yesterday, dealing a blow to a group than has done more to hold the Government to account than any other in recent years. The lawyers described the move as part of a carefully orchestrated government campaign to prevent them from taking on controversial or high-profile cases. They have faced intimidation, threats and violence in the past to deter them from doing so. The timing of the move is no coincidence. The 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown falls on Thursday and the Government is eager to suppress dissenting voices.
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Gutsy Pakistan protesters march against the Taliban
By: Mark Magnier, LA Times, June 1, 2009
The first thing you notice about the protest is the protesters. They're all men. Given the conservative nature of the group and the charged nature of the issue, women are not taking part, even if they have a great stake in the outcome. The second thing you notice are the signs. "Go Taliban Go!" they exclaim, like some high school cheerleader. Wait a minute. Isn't this an anti-Taliban demonstration, being staged in front of a posh Islamabad shopping center? It takes a few seconds to realize that the signs are missing a word or two after the "Go," as in "away" or "to hell" or "get lost." As in "Go away, Taliban, Go Away."
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North Korea: Jailed U.S. journalists are expected to get prison terms
By: John M. Glionna, LA Times, June 1, 2009
When North Korea detained two American TV journalists in March, accusing them of illegal entry and "hostile acts," analysts believed the script would be familiar: The pair would be tried, convicted and soon released in exchange for U.S. concessions. But after a nuclear test in the secretive state that was harshly criticized worldwide, experts say the women could be sentenced to longer prison terms with little chance for negotiation. Laura Ling and Euna Lee are set to stand trial Thursday in Pyongyang's top Central Court, where few appeals are granted. Many say they could face up to 15 years of hard labor.
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Winners and losers in Indonesia's elections
By: Scoop, June 1, 2009
Despite serious problems with flawed voter lists and complicated voting procedures, last month's elections in Indonesia passed off relatively peacefully with a rainbow of secular and religious parties winning seats in the national parliament and regional assemblies. An analysis of the winners and losers is provided in 'A victory for mainstream politics in Indonesia', published online today by TAPOL in its latest Election Update (http://tapol.gn.apc.org/elections.htm).
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Burma: Junta publicly defends Aung San Suu Kyi's trial
By: Mizzima, June 1, 2009
Burma's military rulers said on Sunday that pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's trial is in keeping with its law and is an internal affair, where other countries should not interfere. Major General Aye Myint, Burma's Deputy Minister for Defence, at the Asia Security Conference in Singapore on Sunday said legal action was taken against Aung San Suu Kyi according to the law and as a respect to the rule of law.
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Suu Kyi trial: Burmese protest with small signs of defiance
By: The Huffington Post, June 1, 2009
The spray-painted demands appear overnight: "Free Aung San Suu Kyi" read the scrawls on walls across this city - only to be whitewashed by security forces as soon as they are discovered. Since the trial of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader began two weeks ago, these small signs of defiance hint at the undercurrent of anger over the treatment of a woman considered to be a living icon by many of her compatriots. But out in public, under the watchful gaze of the military regime, supporters feel helpless to do more as the trial winds to an end, with closing arguments scheduled for Friday.
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Burma junta justifies Suu Kyi detention
By: CNN, May 31, 2009
The trial of Aung San Suu Kyi has been postponed until Friday while the country's military junta once again justified -- albeit indirectly -- its detention of the opposition leader. Without mentioning Suu Kyi by name, a full-page article in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Saturday laid out the penalty for someone running afoul of the state's subversion laws -- under which the pro-democracy advocate is being tried. "The restrictions can be extended up to a total of five years with the prior approval of the government in accordance with the law," the article said.
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China: The end of revolution
By: Victor Gao, CNN, May 31, 2009
Victor Zhikai Gao currently practices private equity consulting and serves as a director of the China National Association of International Studies. He was a former employee of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served as interpreter for senior Chinese officials. In this essay, he says, "When the 1989 Beijing Event unfolded, I was transfixed with disbelief, unease, apprehension, pain, shock, and eventually devastation. Unlike millions of people around the world who watched the events as outsiders, I knew intimately well the forces on both sides of the political melodrama."
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China: Hong Kong protest over Tiananmen
By: BBC News, May 31, 2009
Thousands have marched in Hong Kong to mark the forthcoming 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen killings, in one of the few such events on Chinese soil. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people were killed in China's crackdown on pro-democracy protests. There has been no official inquiry so the exact death toll remains unclear. Among the crowds in Hong Kong on Sunday was Xiong Yan, a leading student protester during the 1989 demos, now living in exile in the US. Police said at least 4,700 people had gathered. Tens of thousands more are expected to attend a candlelit vigil on Thursday.
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In China, a new breed of dissidents
By: Loretta Chao, Wall Street Journal, May 30, 3009
As she strolls through a park near her temporary home, Shen Lixiu glances warily at passers-by who may be listening in on her conversation. The 53-year-old mother of two illustrates the changing dynamics of the Chinese protest movement since the military crackdown on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square 20 years ago. Many activists today aren't college-educated. The latest crop of college students -- most of whom are too young to remember the tumultuous events of 1989 -- are focused on career advancement in a market-driven economy, and have little time for political activism.
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Burma: Suu Kyi trial adjourned further
By: Htet Aung Kyaw, Democratic Voice of Burma, May 30 2009
The next hearing in the trial of Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi has been delayed by the court until 5 June, with no reason given, said the opposition leader's lawyer. In a letter sent to lawyer Kyi Win yesterday evening, the court at Rangoon's Insein prison, where Suu Kyi is on trial for alleged breaching of conditions of her house arrest, announced the trial would be further adjourned until 5 June. The next hearing had originally been set for 1 June.
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Donor nations ask Vietnam to crack down on corruption
By: Asia-Pacific News, May 29, 2009
Vietnam has reformed its corruption laws, but has made few concrete moves to crack down on offenders via the legal system or the media, foreign diplomats told Vietnamese officials Friday. Ambassadors and representatives of international aid organizations told Vietnamese government inspectors at a semi-annual dialogue on corruption that ending widespread malfeasance would require transparency, contracting reform, and greater freedom for journalists and civil society groups to denounce violators. 'In the current context of Vietnam, anti-corruption measures are still not very effective,' acknowledged Vietnamese anti-corruption officer Le Van Lan.
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China: Zhao memoir goes on sale
By: Radio Free Asia, May 29, 2009
The memoir of China's late former leader Zhao Ziyang, who fell from power at the height of the student-led pro-democracy movement 20 years ago, went on sale Friday in Hong Kong, the only Chinese city where its publication wasn't banned. The book, titled in English Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Zhao Ziyang, was compiled from audio recordings made by Zhao, a former general secretary of China's Communist Party who died under house arrest at his Beijing home in 2005.
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China: 20 years on - Memories of Tiananmen
By: BBC News, May 28, 2009
On 3-4 June 1989, hundreds - possibly thousands - of Chinese protesters were killed when their call for democracy on Beijing's Tiananmen Square was brutally crushed. China's unofficial leader at the time, Deng Xiaoping, said the crackdown was necessary because the government was dealing with "a number of rebels" and people who were "the dregs of society." Here some of the people affected by the massacre describe their experience to the BBC.
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China: Breaking on Twitter -- Thugs harrass and detain journalist
By: Danwei, May 28, 2009
Yesterday saw new developments in the case of Deng Yujiao, who stabbed a government official to death. According to Deng, she was acting in self-defense against a man who was sexually assaulting her. Deng has become China's latest Internet hero for standing up to what Chinese netizens assume are licentious and corrupt government officials. This afternoon this statement is all over Twitter and its Chinese clones: "I am Yang Xiao, a Southern People journalist based in Beijing. My colleague Wei Yi was at Deng Yujiao's grandmother's home (at Yesanguanmulongya). When he was interviewing her, men of unknown identity beat him up and took him away (New Century Weekly journalist Kong Pu was present)."
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CENTRAL ASIA
Azerbaijan: Youth groups look to pre-Soviet past to build democratic-secular future
By: Mina Muradova, EurasiaNet, May 29, 2009
They say they have no interest in politics. Just in promoting social change. Youth groups that promote Azerbaijan's pre-Soviet Azerbaijani Democratic Republic have become a fresh force in Azerbaijan's public life, but one that the government isn't embracing. The Azerbaijani Democratic Republic was founded on May 28, 1918, and ranked as the Muslim world's first democratic and secular government. It lasted, however, only 23 months, falling to the Red Army in 1920.
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Uzbekistan: Political persecution prompts rise in refugees
By: Ahror Ahmedov, EurasiaNet, May 28, 2009
Human rights activist Nadezhda Atayeva is president of the Paris-based Association for Human Rights in Central Asia. The number of refugees and asylum seekers from Uzbekistan has risen significantly over the past three years -- since the Andijan events of May 2005, when security forces opened fire on mostly unarmed demonstrators in the Ferghana Valley city.
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Kazakh campaigners battle internet curbs
By: Aygerim Beysenbaeva, Institute for War & Peace Reporting, May 28, 2009
As a controversial internet bill nears the end of its progress through Kazakstan's parliament, media rights activists have been putting up a last-ditch defence. The campaign to persuade lawmakers that the proposed changes to current legislation are a bad idea was stepped up with a symbolic hour's blackout protest by websites on May 13, the day the bill was passed by the lower house of parliament, the Majilis. Around a thousand Kazakstan-based websites blanked out their screens in an "Hour of Silence", organised by the Free Internet campaign group and backed by a number of media NGOs and leading websites.
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EUROPE
Former South African activist fights discrimination in Ireland
By: Henry McDonald, The Guardian, June 1, 2009
A former African National Congress activist who faced constant arrest under apartheid is standing in Ireland's local government elections to highlight racism and discrimination against foreign migrants. With Ireland mired in recession the presence of tens of thousands of immigrants has prompted fears of rising xenophobia in a country that once exported its people to all parts of the world.
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EU condemns South Ossetia elections
By: Al Jazeera, June 1, 2009
The European Union has condemned parliamentary elections in South Ossetia, a breakaway Georgian province, as "illegitimate" and said it will not recognise the results. Parties supporting Eduard Kokoity, the region's pro-Moscow leader, won Sunday's poll by a landslide, with Yedinstvo (Unity), his party, in the lead with half the votes. The election, which Kokoity has hailed as a vindication of the region's independence, is its first since last year's Russia-Georgia war over the status of the province. The EU said the vote "represents a setback in the search for a peaceful and lasting settlement of the situation in Georgia."
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Armenia: Transparency International shocked by yesterday's elections
By: PanArmenian, June 1, 2009
"We are just shocked by what we saw with our own eyes. Never before were such kind of cynical and illegitimate elections held in Armenia. If elections in our country are marred by such disgrace, why do we conduct them at all?" Amalia Kostanyan, Chairwoman of Transparency International-Armenia, told a news-conference. Mrs. Kostanyan distinguished 3 stages of falsifications and wrongdoings during elections. First stage (08-10 a.m.): minor breaches, including ballot box stuffing and repeated voting. Second stage (around 12:00): intimidation of observers and journalists. Third stage (from 05:00 p.m.): disputes among commission members on the number of ballots to be cast in favor of this or that candidate.
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Armenia: Opposition ready to rock Yerevan following disputed municipal vote?
By: Frontline Club, May 31, 2009
An opposition supporter friend and blogger calls it a travesty of democracy, but many of us are instead resigned to elections being business as usual in Armenia. Indeed, Josef Stalin summed up the situation perfectly. "Those who vote decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything," he reportedly said, and after speaking to an American journalist who witnessed a count in one district of the capital, it seems like the Soviet dictator was spot on. Reporting that the opposition was neck and neck with the main governmental candidate for most of the time, the latter eventually overtook the former after ballot after ballot marked in his favour appeared towards the end.
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Belarus: The last dictatorship of Europe
By: Riccardo Valsecchi, World Press, May 31, 2009
In Minsk, the capital of Belarus, behind Oktyabrskaja Square there is the residence of President Alexander Lukashenko. First elected in 1994 and confirmed in subsequent presidential electoral contests in 2001 and 2006, Lukashenko has built a strong and powerful government around himself, based on the state monopoly of economic resources, on holding all executive power in his hand, on media demagogy, as well as on repression of the opposition. The Western media refers to him as "the last dictator of Europe," while his supporters call him "bat'ka" (father), but Belorussians prefer not to speak at all, as 21-year-old Natalya confesses, "I'm afraid to talk about him."
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Old dissidents still a voice in Russia, but fading
By: Douglas Birch, Washington Post, May 31, 2009
They would meet in secret, terrified of a KGB knock on the door. They laboriously typed out banned publications. Many ended up in prison, labor camps and exile. They were the Soviet dissidents, the human faces of the Cold War, waging nonviolent resistance against a cruel and cynical system. Today, 20 years after Eastern Europe shook off its communist chains, the Berlin Wall fell and the death knell sounded for the Soviet Union, Sergei Kovalyov might have expected to be feted for his role in breaking the chains of communism. Yet the man regarded by some as the patriarch of the dissident movement is almost forgotten at home.
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Georgian opposition protest masks inherent weakness
By: Tamar Kadagidze and Tamar Kvirtia, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, May 29, 2009
When Georgia's opposition leaders summoned a 60,000-strong protest against President Mikheil Saakashvili on May 26, it looked like a show of strength - but it masked major differences over strategy that may destroy their challenge to his rule. Opposition activists have been protesting for weeks against Saakashvili, and demanding his resignation for - among other things - alleged mismanagement of the disastrous war against Russia last August. They have blocked the main street in the capital Tbilisi, and lined it with tents made up to look like prison cells. But many of these tents are now empty, and activists appear to be exhausted by their failure to achieve results.
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UK: 'Invisible' protestors condemn tribe's destruction
By: OneWorld, May 29, 2009
"Invisible" demonstrators in London protested Wednesday the Indian government's decision to permit a British company to mine the Dongria Kondh tribe's sacred mountain and source of livelihood in Orissa, India. Wearing t-shirts spelling out the word "invisible" and carrying blank placards, protesters from the indigenous rights group Survival International targeted the Indian High Commission in London, drawing attention to how the human rights of the Dongria peoples have been largely ignored.
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MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA
Syrian dissident praises Syria-US talks
By: The Boston Globe, June 1, 2009
Syria's leading dissident yesterday said US efforts to improve ties with Damascus could help democratic reform in his homeland. In a rare interview, Riad al-Turk, 79, said President Obama's initiative could also undermine an "unconvincing alliance" between Syria and Iran. Arrests of opposition figures continue, despite US-Syrian diplomatic contacts, but mending relations would make it difficult for Damascus to crush dissent, Turk said. "The rapprochement helps stabilize the Middle East and puts pressure on the Syrian regime to improve its policies," he said.
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Iran arrests 'rogues' over unrest
By: Iran Focus, June 1, 2009
Iranian police have arrested a group of people accused of instigating sectarian violence in the restive southeastern city of Zahedan, a senior police chief was quoted as saying. "Some rogue elements and agents of the enemy who want to divide Muslim brothers sought to create insecurity in some spots in Zahedan," deputy police chief Ahmad Reza Radan told the Mehr news agency. Those arrested "are both Sunni and Shiites and they sought a Sunni-Shiite divide," Radan said.
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The politics of Facebook in Iran
By: Babak Rahimi and Elham Gheytanchi, openDemocracy, June 1, 2009
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been and remains one of the world's harshest censors of the Internet, frequently blocking sites that are deemed "immoral" and politically offensive to the unelected authorities in power. In many ways, the Internet is viewed by the ruling clerics as potentially a dangerous domain, which requires harsh measures to control its content. In February 2009, however, Iranian authorities took an unusual step of unblocking the popular social networking website of Facebook. Surprisingly, the move coincided with the authorities' relentless push to block a number of dissident websites ahead of the presidential elections, scheduled in June this year.
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Egypt and human rights ahead of Obama's visit
By: The Star, June 1, 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a speech to the Muslim world from U.S. ally Egypt on June 4 aimed at repairing ties hurt under his predecessor George W. Bush. Egyptian rights activists worry that Obama, by choosing to give his speech in Cairo, will lend undue credibility to an autocratic ally that uses harsh tactics to stifle opposition and whose progress toward democracy has been slow. Many hope the Obama administration will press Egypt quietly for democratic reforms but doubt he will directly address the human rights situation in Egypt in his speech to the Muslim world.
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Egypt: Dissident Ayman Nour is pessimistic on eve of Obama visit
By: Jeffrey Fleishman and Noha El-Hennawy, LA Times, May 31, 2009
Egypt's leading dissident, his forehead singed from a recent attack, sits near a window in an armchair, depressed and wondering whether he was better off behind bars. "I want to go back to jail," says Ayman Nour, whom the government released in February as an apparent goodwill gesture to the Obama administration. "The government insists on getting the maximum benefit out of my liberation, but they are causing me the maximum harm. I am denied all rights. My party cannot return to the political scene. I am stalked by the police. There is no ceiling to the injustice and the revenge of this regime."
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Egypt: The justifications of the torturer
By: Alaa Al-Aswany, LA Times, May 31, 2009
Some years ago, I was invited to a relative's wedding, and at the wedding, I sat next to one of the bridegroom's relatives. He introduced himself to me by saying: "My name is such-and-such, police officer." I couldn't help but challenge him, and I will reconstruct the conversation that followed to the best of my ability: "Excuse me. You are religious, it seems," I said. "Thank God." He replied. "Don't you see any contradiction between being religious and working in State Security?" He started to get emotional and said: "First, those who are beaten deserve to be beaten. Second, if you study your religion thoroughly, you will find that what we do in the State Security department is fully compatible with Islamic teachings."
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Palestine: "Comrades, your enemy is yourselves!"
By: Mats Svensson, openDemocracy, May 29, 2009
It feels like a very long time ago. Between a then and a now walls have been built. The walls have also become higher, uglier, thicker and today the walls seem impossible to destroy. Then, four years ago, we told each other that it couldn't get worse. The suffering couldn't become deeper. And during this time of constant darkness and humiliation the Palestinian fractions gathered in mid-December 2004 to discuss a common future. At a conference hotel in the ghetto of Gaza the political leaders sat lined up like school boys to listen to Yvette Lillian Myakayaka-Manzini (Mavivi), vice president of the ANC women's department. Listen and discuss something important, the struggle against apartheid.
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Martin Ennals Award 2009 goes again to a human rights defender from Iran
By: Martin Ennals Award, May 20, 2009
Today the Jury of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA) announces as the 2009 Laureate. Emad Baghi, a leading Iranian human rights defender based in Tehran. He founded the Society for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights, and has been a vigorous and outspoken opponent of the death penalty in Iran. His campaigning includes a scholarly examination of Islamic law (shari`a) on the subject, in which he demonstrates the absence of any doctrinal requirement for maintaining capital punishment. In addition, Baghi's inventory of death row prisoners in Iran, including juvenile offenders, has been an important resource for UN human rights bodies as well as human rights groups outside the country.
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Working Paper: Freedom of association and civil society in Egypt
By: Kristina Kausch, FRIDE, May 12, 2009
The earthquake of unprecedented social mobilisation throughout 2005 triggered hopes that Egypt would finally move towards a genuine democratic opening and lead the region away from its long history of authoritarianism. However, these hopes have now largely faded away. For the time being, talk of democratisation in Egypt seems to be off the agenda. Egyptian rights NGOs are working under increasingly heavy pressure from the government. This paper by Kristina Kausch analyses freedom of association in Egypt and identifies the main obstacles that Egyptian NGOs, political parties and unions are facing.
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OCEANIA
Amnesty says Pacific facing unfolding human rights crises
By: Radio New Zealand International, June 1, 2009
An Amnesty International report highlights an increase in slums, as well as violence against women and a very high maternal death rate in many parts of the Pacific. The report released last Friday says the region is sitting on a social, political and economic time bomb fuelled by unfolding human rights crises in the past year. The organisation's chief executive officer in New Zealand, Patrick Holmes, says extreme poverty in the Pacific is a major abuse of human rights.
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NOTICES
20th Tiananmen commemoration: Remembrance and truth
By: Initiatives for China, June 4, 2009 from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm, Capitol Hill, West Lawn, Washington, DC
Join distinguished leaders of government, faith, human rights groups and leaders of 1989 Tiananmen Square student democracy movement. Stand by the people of China in their struggle for democracy, justice and the rule of law. Sponsored by Initiatives for China and more than 30 other human rights groups.
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Online discourse in the Arab world: Dispelling the myths
By: USIP, June 17, 2009 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM, U.S. Institute of Peace 2nd Floor Conference Room 1200 17th St, NW Washington, DC 20036
At this event, Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society will present for the first time its new report on the Arabic-language blogosphere. The unprecedented application of cutting-edge social network mapping analysis to more than 10,000 blogs from 18 countries will change your view of political and cultural discourse in the Arabic-speaking world. The report provides fresh insight to questions of critical concern as a new U.S. Administration strives to engage the Arab and Muslim worlds.
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IN PAST NEWS
For one Moldovan activist, 'We are freer, because we have nothing to lose'
By: Bernd Volkert, RFE/RL, May 15, 2009
The sudden outburst of public unrest that followed Moldova's recent parliamentary vote surprised many inside and outside the country. But not Oleg Brega, a journalist and filmmaker who says the upheaval was the natural outcome of years of political repression. A founding member of the Moldovan public activism group Hyde Park, Brega has been opposing the government for many years. But after glimpsing a brief chance for change in the April protests following the country's parliamentary elections, the 35-year-old now sees few opportunities left for activists like him.
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Moldova: The next generation revolution?
By: Jos Boonstra, Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior, April 16, 2009
Riots broke out in Moldova's capital Chisinau after the parliamentary elections held on Sunday, 5 April handed victory to the Communists for a third time in a row. Electoral fraud was widespread, but such a response came unexpected. Is Moldova heading towards another colour revolution or are we witnessing the first 'electronically' spurred revolution attempt through the increased communication possibilities offered by internet forums such as blogs and twitter offer?
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The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict is pleased to circulate this daily selective digest of world news related to past, present and potential nonviolent conflicts, including active civilian-based struggles against oppressive regimes, nonviolent resistance, political and social dissidence, and the use of nonviolent tactics in a variety of causes. We also include stories that help readers glimpse the larger context of a conflict and that reflect on past historical struggles.
If you have specific items that you would like us to include in the daily digest, please send them to us. If there is a news or information source that you believe we may not be accessing, for purposes of selecting items, please bring that to our attention. Thank you.
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