Zimbabwe: US Senate says Mugabe sanctions remain By: Hendricks Chizhanje, ZimOnline, June 11, 2009
The US senate has resolved to maintain targeted travel and financial restrictions on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party inner circle despite the formation of a coalition government. In a resolution passed unanimously on Tuesday, the US senate said targeted sanctions and an arms embargo will remain in place until there is sufficient proof that Harare was moving towards the restoration of the rule of law and upholding of human rights. Read full article...
Zimbabwe activists' trial postponed By: Reuters, June 10, 2009
Zimbabwe's High Court on Wednesday postponed the trial of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists charged with attempting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe, in a case that has strained the new government. Four MDC members, part of a group of rights activists, including prominent campaigner Jestina Mukoko, were abducted and unlawfully detained between October and December last year, their lawyers say. Read full article...
Western Sahara: President calls UN to stop Moroccan repression By: Bir Lehlu, Sahara Press Service, June 10, 2009
The President of the Republic (in exile) and the Secretary General of the Polisario Front called on Wednesday the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, to "undertake all necessary measures and sufficient measures to bring Morocco to stop its repression against defenseless citizens in the occupied territories of Western Sahara." Read full article...
Bullets don't stop Guatemala green activist By: Ken Ellingwood, LA Times, June 11, 2009
Yuri Melini was shot seven times by an assailant nine months ago. The outspoken champion of environmental causes has made many enemies, and gained recognition too. The 47-year-old Melini is the lead agitator of a Guatemalan environmental advocacy group, the Center for Legal, Environmental and Social Action, or CALAS. Read full article...
Peru Congress suspends decrees that upset Indians By: Franklin Briceno, AP, June 11, 2009
Peru's Congress indefinitely suspended on Wednesday two key legislative decrees that spurred the Amazon Indian protests that erupted in bloodshed during a government crackdown last week. The suspension was widely seen as an attempt to re-establish negotiations with leaders of Peru's 400,000 Amazon natives. But a leader of Peru's largest indigenous group indicated the gesture wasn't enough to halt protests, beginning with nationwide marches called for Thursday. Read full article...
Interview: U.S. official says 'engagement' best way to promote rights, democracy By: RFE/RL, June 11, 2009
Engagement and dialogue will be the hallmarks of the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama in its approach to regimes struggling with democracy and human rights, according to Karen Stewart, the principal assistant deputy secretary at the U.S. State Department's bureau of democracy, human rights, and labor. Read full article...
Venezuelan military targets Chávez critics in its ranks By: Casto Ocando, Miami Herald, June 10, 2009
Venezuela is clamping down on criticism of Hugo Chávez that circulates through the military ranks. Officers and soldiers in the Venezuelan army must now report messages considered offensive, critical or contrary to the government, according to a recent official order. Read full article...
Gangs and the new insurgency in Latin America By: Hal Brands, World Politics Review, June 10, 2009
Throughout the developing world, the post-Cold War era has seen the emergence of increasingly powerful and violent criminal organizations, often referred to as "third-generation gangs." These groups have exploited the major international trends of the past 20 years -- including economic and financial integration -- to seize control over a myriad of illicit commercial networks. Read full article...
Peru: Indian leader forced into exile as President calls protesters 'savages' By: Survival International, June 10, 2009
The President of Peru's Amazon Indian organisation AIDESEP has been forced into exile. Alberto Pizango sought refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy in Peru's capital Lima after a warrant was issued for his arrest. Nicaragua has granted him asylum. Read full article...
Peru: Voices raised against violence By: OneWorld, June 9, 2009
Following deadly clashes between indigenous protesters and the Peruvian military, one indigenous rights organization is urging the Peruvian government to withdraw all armed forces and recognize the rights of indigenous peoples to their land. Read full article...
Nicaragua: An independence claim By: Blake Schmidt and Marc Lacey, NY Times, June 9, 2009
After declaring independence from the rest of Nicaragua in April, a group of indigenous activists from the Mosquito Coast readied a grand celebration to commemorate the occasion. Their feast would be ruined, however, when the regional government sent in the police to seize the main course. Read full article...
US: Shell settles Nigerian human rights abuses lawsuit for $15.5m By: David Usborne, The Independent, June 9, 2009
The son of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the social activist and poet who was executed by a former military regime in Nigeria, claimed victory against Royal Dutch Shell last night after the company agreed to pay $15.5m (£9.7m) to settle a lawsuit he and others had filed against it in a New York court. Read full article...
US: "Mud stencils" in Chicago By: Wooster Collective, June 9, 2009
On Saturday, June 6th in Chicago, local artists partnered with the Tamms Year Ten coalition to protest state-sanctioned torture at the supermax prison in Southern Illinois. And they did it with mud. Jesse Graves, a Milwaukee artist, developed the technique and on Saturday more than 30 volunteers stenciled the message "End Torture in Illinois" on walls and sidewalks around the city. Read full article...
Brazil: Land reform or deforestation boost for the Amazon? By: Thiana Biondo, GlobalVoices, June 4, 2009
National land will be donated to Brazilians in a program called 'Terra Legal' (Legal Land), a package of measures to boost the government-backed redistribution of land and to establish rules for those who have lived and cultivated national land without being its legal owners. Read full article...
Thousands of South Koreans stage anti-government protest By: Channel Asia News, June 11, 2009
More than 10,000 South Koreans demanding President Lee Myung-Bak resign held an anti-government rally on Wednesday on the 22nd anniversary of a pro-democracy uprising. The rally was led by opposition parties, who accuse Lee of ordering a politically motivated probe into former president Roh Moo-Hyun, who leapt to his death on May 23 after being investigated in a corruption scandal. Read full article...
Impunity bars justice for Burmese ethnic groups By: Aung Htoo, Democratic Voice of Burma, June 11, 2009
While the world has remained rapt by the trial of Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, the ongoing crisis over rights for ethnic minorities in the country has received little international attention. Burma's ethnic minority groups constitute one-third of the population. This population has borne the brunt of the government's well-documented and widely condemned human rights violations. Read full article...
Burma: Suu Kyi witness appeal goes to higher court By: Naw Say Phaw, Democratic Voice of Burma, June 11, 2009
Lawyers for Aung San Suu Kyi have submitted an appeal to Burma's central court to allow the remaining two witnesses disqualified last week to testify in her defense. Suu Kyi and her two caretakers met with the four defense lawyers yesterday to discuss taking the appeal to central court, following the readmittance on Tuesday of only one of the disqualified lawyers. Read full article...
Burma's trial of Suu Kyi hinders cyclone relief By: Tim Johnston, Washington Post, June 11, 2009
International donors have warned that the trial of Burmese opposition leader and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi has made it more difficult to raise money for the victims of last year's cyclone, an official said Wednesday. "We should be scaling up our efforts, but political considerations are going to make that difficult," a European diplomat said on the condition of anonymity. "It's not only the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, it is the whole political situation in Myanmar." Read full article...
A fugitive monk who defied the Burmese junta speaks out By: David Calleja, Foreign Policy Journal, June 11, 2009
Many individuals from Burma living in Australia all have a story of survival to share in which the common theme evolves around being on the run from the military regime. U Tay Zaw lifts up his robe and shows his ribcage before recounting the first of many instances in which he escaped with his life. Read full article...
Dalai Lama takes his case to Chinese émigrés By: Amy Yee, CS Monitor, June 11, 2009
When the Dalai Lama traveled to the Netherlands last week his Buddhist teaching was heard by 10,000 people and he was received by the mayor of Amsterdam. But the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader had another engagement that was less in the spotlight but equally important: a private meeting with Chinese pro-democracy activists. Read full article...
Impasse with China erodes Dalai Lama's patience By: Robert Marquand, CS Monitor, June 10, 2009
China's ramped up criticism of Europe's embrace of the Dalai Lama hasn't effectively blunted popular support here for the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. And European politicians are still giving him a platform. During a visit to Europe that ended in Paris Monday, the Tibetan offered a new and more urgent plea for help as well as a break with decades of a "turn the other cheek" policy. Read full article...
China defends mandatory web filter By: Press Association, June 11, 2009
China's state media has issued an unprecedented defence of newly required internet filtering software that must be packaged with every computer sold in China starting next month. There has been a massive public outcry over the issue at home and abroad. Although the government says the software is aimed at blocking violence and pornography, users who have tried it say it prevents access to a wide range of topics. Read full article...
China: Call for Tiananmen burial site By: Radio Free Asia, June 11, 2009
The mother of a 17-year-old student killed during the armed crackdown on student-led protests in Tiananmen Square two decades ago has called for a burial site for the victims. Retired university professor Ding Zilin said her son Jiang Jielan's ashes had been in her Beijing apartment since his death in the western Beijing district of Muxidi on the night of June 3, 1989. Read full article...
China: Tibetans held after gathering By: Radio Free Asia, June 10, 2009
Chinese authorities in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, detained six Tibetans this week after more than 100 gathered and marched in what they told police was an exercise of their right to practice Tibetan Buddhism, authoritative sources said. Residents say it was the first large public gathering of Tibetans in Lhasa since massive protests against Chinese rule ignited there in March 2008, spreading to three neighboring provinces and prompting a dramatically increased presence of Chinese security forces in the region. Read full article...
China bans parts of gay festival By: Chris Hogg, BBC News, June 10, 2009
The organisers of China's first Gay Pride Festival have been told to cancel two of their sessions. The news came on the very day a state-run newspaper described the Shanghai festival as of "profound significance." The festival's organisers are confused and frustrated, but it could be that this is more the result of the authorities' nervousness about public events they do not control than about the official attitude to homosexuality. Read full article...
Philippines: Thousands march in Manila in anti-Arroyo protest By: Reuters, June 10, 2009
Thousands of people gathered in the heart of Manila's financial district on Wednesday, accusing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's allies of trying to amend the constitution and scrap next year's presidential election. Opposition groups warned of more frequent and bigger street protests in the days ahead until Arroyo and her allies in the lower house of Congress abandon the plan to convene a constituent assembly with the power to change the constitution and lift term limits of elected officials. Read full article...
Sri Lanka's stubborn war By: Brian Calvert, World Politics Review, June 9, 2009
Velupillai Prabhakaran, the deceased leader of the Tamil Tigers, once likened himself to a spider in the center of a web, comfortably in control of a sprawling network. But over the past two years, the Sri Lankan military methodically, unflinchingly pulled his web apart, ultimately dismantling one of the most sophisticated insurgencies in the world. Read full article...
India: Kashmir hit by renewed protests By: BBC News, June 9, 2009
Students in Indian-administered Kashmir have held further demonstrations to protest against the alleged rape and killing of two women. Their protests took place as businesses re-opened after a separatist leader called for an end to eight days of strikes, which paralysed the Valley. Read full article...
Kyrgystan: Harassment of journalists mounts in run-up to next month's presidential election By: Reporters Without Borders, June 8, 2009
"The increase in harassment of the media in the run-up to the 23 July presidential election is worrying," Reporters Without Borders said. "Every political crisis and turning point since the 2005 Tulip Revolution has been accompanied by violence in which journalists have often been targets. We urge the authorities to issue clear instructions that media diversity should be respected and that journalists should be able to work safely." Read full article...
Uzbekistan: Political persecution prompts rise in refugees By: Ahror Ahmedov, EurasiaNet, May 28, 2009
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. EurasiaNet asked rights activist Nadezhda Atayeva about conditions in Uzbekistan and the difficulties encountered by Central Asian refugees and asylum seekers abroad. Read full article...
British MPs vow to support democracy-human rights in Burma By: Mizzima, June 11, 2009
British Members of Parliament on Tuesday discussed Aung San Suu Kyi's trial, calling it an 'injustice' and vowed to continue to strongly support the restoration of democracy and human rights in Burma. Initiated by Alistair Carmichael MP and Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma (APPB), the debate was held in the main Chamber of the House of Commons. Read full article...
French President: Burma blocks call to detained opposition leader By: VOA News, June 11, 2009
French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he tried to telephone Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi but was prevented by Burma's military government. Mr. Sarkozy made the statement Thursday in Paris at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Read full article...
Russia: Theater of the absurd By: Galina Stolyarova, TOL, June 11, 2009
Virtually all election campaigns in Russia over the past eight years have been marred by resonant scandals revolving around the same topic: opposition candidates crying foul at what they see as restricted access to the media for anyone who raises his voice against the authorities, versus a generous avalanche of promotion for those backed by the people in power. Read full article...
Belarus: Religious freedom survey By: Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18, June 11, 2009
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko's repressive religious policies remain unchanged, Forum 18 News Service finds in its survey analysis of freedom of religion or belief. As one Belarusian Protestant notes, "They have created conditions so you can't live by the law. We would need to close half our churches in order to operate technically in accordance with the law." Read full article...
Italy: Students protest at Gaddafi visit By: BBC News, June 11, 2009
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has been heckled by students at Rome University, where he was taking part in a debate. Italian students jeered, let off smoke bombs and hurled paint, in protest at his human rights record and a deal with Italy to return African migrants. Read full article...
A wake-up call for Georgia, Ukraine - and the West By: Denis Corboy, William Courtney, and Kenneth Yalowitz, CS Monitor, June 10, 2009
The West has a large security and economic stake in the outcome of a little- known crisis in Georgia and Ukraine right now. The Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003 and later the Orange Revolution in Ukraine raised high hopes around the world for democracy in the former Soviet Union. But since then democratic forces - torn by personal animosities and corrupt interests - have put the future of both countries at risk. Read full article...
Armenia: Opposition looks for a new strategy By: Haroutiun Khachatrian, EurasiaNet, June 10, 2009
Defeated repeatedly at the polls, the Armenian National Congress, Armenia's largest opposition movement, finds itself on a slippery slope and is struggling to gain traction. Angered by alleged election violations ranging from bribery to physical intimidation, the opposition movement has opted to boycott the council and to take its complaints to court. Read full article...
Norway: Women speak out at global forum on freedom of expression By: Rachael Kay, International Freedom of Expression eXchange, June 10, 2009
"The thing (the authorities) are most angry about is my voice," says Philo Ikonya, president of PEN Kenya. Ikonya has been involved in a number of protests and political readings recently and was arrested and severely beaten in police custody this past February. Ikonya was one of four extraordinary women who met across a table at a "Silenced Women's Voices" panel on 4 June in Oslo, Norway at the recent Global Forum on Freedom of Expression. Read full article...
Belarus: Jailed US lawyer begins hunger strike By: Reuters, June 9, 2009
A U.S. lawyer serving three years in a Belarussian jail for industrial espionage has begun a hunger strike to prompt authorities to review his case under a recent amnesty law, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Emmanuel Zeltser, 55, was arrested last year at the height of a diplomatic row between Belarus and the United States which led to the expulsion of the U.S. envoy in March. Zeltser was convicted in August. Read full article...
Iran: Poetic justice of a green revolution By: Pepe Escobar, Asia Times Online, June 12, 2009
From the moment cool, calm, collected Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi went all rhetorical guns blazing against President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in a debate on national TV, not only Iran but the West seem to have woken up and joined the fun. Mousavi now has a clear shot at winning the most important election in the 30 years of the Islamic Revolution in voting on Friday. Read full article...
Neither free nor fair, elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran By: F. Peykan, Iran Human Rights Library, June 12, 2009
The Islamic Republic of Iran has frequently responded to criticisms of its international behavior or human rights record by trumpeting the democratic aspects of the regime, especially its parliamentary and presidential elections. On the surface, and in comparison to most states in the Middle East, the claim appears credible. Read full article...
Iran's presidential vote is free, fair only on the surface By: Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL, June 11, 2009
It looks like an election in the West, with all the trappings. In practice, the Iranian presidential race does not meet the standards of free and fair on which elections are held in Western countries. The main reason is the screening process that prevents Iranians from having a real choice of candidates. Their choice is limited to present or former members of the Iranian establishment. Women are excluded, as are secular candidates and those considered unfaithful to Islamic and revolutionary values. Read full article...
Iran on the move By: Omid Memarian, openDemocracy, June 11, 2009
Iran has experienced of one of the most exciting presidential elections since the Islamic revolution of 1979. All of the four candidates who appear on the ballot-paper in the first round of voting on 12 June 2009 may be handpicked by Iran's Guardian Council, and each can be considered either a father or a child of the revolution. But two are reformists who embrace progressive agendas, and whose popular campaigns suggest that millions of Iranians - 70% of whom are under 30 years old - believe that Iran needs reform. Read full article...
Iran: Has President Ahmadinejad finally met his match in Mrs Mousavi? By: Kim Sengupta, The Independent, June 11, 2009
She has become one of the most high-profile figures in one of the most exciting Iranian election campaigns - and she is not even running for office. It would be easy to downplay the importance of Zahra Rahnavard as a creation of the Western media seeking an exotic angle. But the 64-year-old academic, artist and grandmother has, in fact, created enough of a stir to rattle the re-election campaign of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Read full article...
Women's rights activists pin hopes on Iran vote By: Fredrik Dahl, Reuters, June 11, 2009
Women's rights activists say pledges made by rivals of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Friday's election offer new hope for their drive to end what they call institutionalized discrimination against women in Iran. The position of women has become a prominent issue in campaigning for Iran's presidential vote Friday, in which moderates seeking political and social change are bidding to deny the hardline incumbent a second four-year term. Read full article...
Iraq: Under fire Anbar journalists arming themselves By: Uthman al-Mukhtar, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, June 10, 2009
Journalist Yasin al-Fadhawi's recent brush with death has prompted him to look for a new home - and a gun. He has submitted an application for a weapons license, but if it is not approved he said he will fork out up to a month's salary - 900 US dollars - for a gun on the black market. Police in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, report that at least 43 journalists in the province have applied for gun licenses since April, amid an increasingly hostile climate for journalists. Read full article...
Lebanon: Video - Youth launch newspaper challenging politics and media By: Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, Huffington Post, June 10, 2009
In Lebanon, where divisions dominate both the political and media spectrum, a new and independent youth newspaper, is shaking up the status-quo. Sawt Ashabab, which translates to "Youth Voice" in Arabic, began as part of a media literacy project, but has evolved into the successful launch of an independent media organization challenging the country's polarized media landscape. Read full article...
Iran: More than an election, a green revolution! By: Sam Sedaei, Huffington Post, June 10, 2009
My first engagement with Iranian politics happened in 1997 in Tehran when the former Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, was running for president. The election was so exciting that it brought my parents to the polls for the first time since the 1979 Revolution. But that level of excitement in the 1997 elections was incomparable with what is going on in Iran today. Read full article...
Iran: Head of Human Rights Defense Center demands removal of padlock By: Iran Human Rights Voice, June 10, 2009
The head of the Human Rights Defense Center, Shirin Abadi, wrote a letter addressed to Mr. Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, and demanded the removal of the padlock seal to the office of the Human Rights Defense Center and the curtailment of security and political pressures imposed on civil rights, political and human rights activists. Read full article...
Iran: Debate and dialogue obliterate dictatorship By: Majid Mohammadi, Gozaar, June 9, 2009
Any display of democracy under an autocratic and totalitarian regime where there is limited political competition among the inside factions accelerates the competition and the dialogue among opposing factions because of the need for public participation. In the course of an election, a small breathing room opens up for political activists at the candidates' election headquarters; and finally, political control is somewhat relaxed. Read full article...
Iran: Video - Youth vote critical By: World Politics Review, June 9, 2009
Even in the calm of a Tehran café, the Presidential election's on everyone's minds. Shabnam, a student, won't say who she'll vote for, only that she wants change. "From the minute we leave the house in the morning, we worry. We wonder whether our coat sleeves are too short, but our problems aren't just with the morality police. We also worry about the economy, inflation, and unemployment. Read full article...
Iran: Assault of students in Tehran university By: Iran Human Rights Voice, June 8, 2009
After a brutal attack by Basiji Forces (volunteer militia) against students supporting presidential candidates Karoubi and Mosavi in Independent Central Tehran University, students in this university held a sit-in protest until late last night. The encounter occurred after a number of debates in this university within last few days between students supporting Karoubi and Mosavi and those who support the incumbent president, Ahmadinejad. Read full article...
Iran: Photos - Green wave, green people By: Massoumeh Ebtekar, Tehran 24, June 7, 2009
Green is the buzz word today. It is the color specifically chosen by supporters of Mir Hossein. In Iranian culture as well as Islamic tradition green is the most meaningful color. Now, green is taken as a sign of support for change, a sign of opposition to current government policies and as a sign of choosing Mir Hossein Mousavi. Read full article...
Maldives: Ex-president says government is "regressing" By: Maryam Omidi, Minivan News, June 10, 2009
Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has said the incumbent government is regressing from the democratic ideals established under his rule and has called on parliament to hold the government accountable through legislative checks and balances. Writing on the fifth anniversary of his reform agenda, Gayoom stated the government has "scant regard" for the constitution and rule of law, has attempted to undermine independent institutions, and has exercised censorship and control over the media. Read full article...
The free market's marked men, from the Niger Delta to the Amazon By: Amy Goodman, Huffington Post, June 9, 2009
Ken Saro-Wiwa and Alberto Pizango never met, but they are united by a passion for the preservation of their people and their land, and by the fervor with which they have been targeted by their respective governments. Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Nigerian government Nov. 10, 1995. Pizango this week was charged by the Peruvian government with sedition and rebellion, and narrowly eluded capture. Read full article...
The missing link of democratization By: Boutros Boutros-Ghali, openDemocracy, June 9, 2009
Over the past decades, democracy has spread continuously throughout the world. International polls show that a large majority of people in all world regions consider democracy to be the best system of government. This gratifying development should not divert our attention from the structural crisis democracy is facing in the wake of globalization. Read full article...
Peru: Protect indigenous rights - Save the Amazon! By: Avaaz, June 12, 2009
Peru is witnessing violent clashes between indigenous groups desperately trying to protect the Amazon and the government, who has pushed through legislation allowing intensive mining, logging and large scale farming in the rainforest. Sign the urgent petition below and support the courageous struggle of the indigenous peoples to protect the Amazon! Read full article...
Burma: 64 words for Aung San Suu Kyi By: Mong Palatino, GlobalVoices, June 5, 2009
Do you want to show support for Myanmar opposition leader and global democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi? A new website was launched last week where anyone from around the world can leave a 64-word message of solidarity for imprisoned leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The website 64forSuu.org is named as such to mark Suu Kyi's 64th birthday on June 19. Read full article...
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