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Iran: Systematic suppression of dissent continues
By: IFEX, February 4, 2010
Iranian authorities are carrying out a lethal campaign to silence independent journalists and critics, report the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Two Iranian netizens and human rights activists are possibly facing the death penalty. RSF has accused the Iranian regime of crimes against humanity.
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An Iranian artist in jail
By: RFE, February 4, 2010
According to rights groups, over 2,000 political and human rights activists, students, and intellectuals have been arrested in Iran's postelection crackdown. Among those reported arrested are an internationally renowned photographer, Mehraneh Atashi.
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Iran: Ban on participation in book fair for printing Mir-Hossein Mousavi photographs
By: IHRV, February 3, 2010
Following a protest by Davoud Ali-Babaei, chief editor of Omid Farda, a publishing company which has composed a 10-volume collection entitled "25 Years of What Happened in Iran? - from Bazargan to Khatami", refused to remove a picture of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the acting Prime Minister during the war period, from the cover of the ninth volume.
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Iran arrests rights activist, campaign group says
By: CNN, February 3, 2010
A leading Iranian human rights activist and journalist was arrested Wednesday, activists said. Kaveh Ghasemi Kermanshahi was taken by seven security agents who searched his home and took personal belongings including his computer, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said in a statement.
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Student denies charges as Iran protest trial resumes
By: Reuters, February 3, 2010
A 20-year old university student arrested for participating in antigovernment street protests in Iran in December rejected charges of spreading moral corruption as the trial of 16 opposition supporters resumed today.
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Opposition hardens line inside Iran
By: Nazila Fathi, NY Times, February 2, 2010
Mir Hussein Moussavi, the Iranian opposition leader, made some of his harshest remarks to date against Iran's rulers on Tuesday in an interview on his Web site, calling their behavior dictatorial and terrifying.
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In response to Iran's nuclear program, German firms are slowly pulling out
By: Judy Dempsey, NY Times, February 2, 2010
German companies, long Iran's biggest trading partners in Europe, are finding it increasingly difficult to do business there as the United States, Israel and others campaign for tougher United Nations sanctions in response to the country's nuclear program.
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Iran to execute nine more protesters, as opposition leader denounces 'dictatorship'
By: RFE, February 2, 2010
The deputy head of Iran's judiciary says nine more protesters are to be executed soon over the unrest that erupted following the controversial June presidential elections. Iran's Fars news agency quoted Ebrahim Raisi as saying that the nine were linked to counterrevolutionary groups and planned to topple the Islamic regime.
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They're wearing green in Dubai
By: Jeffrey Gedmin, Foreign Policy, February 1, 2010
The Iranian diaspora is gearing up for Feb. 11. Dubai may be possibly the closest thing to being in Iran itself. In five days here I've met with nearly three dozen Iranians from different walks of life to try to get a better impression of what's happening inside the country.
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Kyrgyz protesters defy ban to rally for jailed politician
By: RFE, February 3, 2010
More than 200 protesters rallied today in the southern Kyrgyz village of Sopu-Korgon to demand the release of imprisoned former Defense Minister Ismail Isakov, who was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to eight years in jail on January 11.
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Kyrgyzstan: Who sponsors the murder of dissidents?
By: Bakyt Beshimov, Ferghana, February 2, 2010
Kazakhstani investigators revealed the track of Kyrgyz special services in the murder of journalist Gennadiy Pavlyuk. The persecution of believers in the southern part of the republic, the Nookat events, the murders and assaults against politicians, journalists, public figure, the conflicts in the Petrovka village and the Balykchi events prove that current regime, its characteristics and application are the major source of troubles.
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Kazakh newspapers seized for alleging corruption by president's son-in-law
By: RFE, February 2, 2010
Kazakh officials have seized editions of at least five opposition and independent newspapers that contain an article alleging corruption by President Nursultan Nazarbaev's son-in-law, Timur Kulibaev, who is suing the newspapers.
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Indonesia: Buffaloes banned at protests
By: Straits Times, February 5, 2010
Enraged by protesters likening him to a 'big and stupid' water buffalo, Indonesia's president has ordered the beasts and other animals banned at street rallies, a decision some Indonesians said shows their leader can't handle criticism.
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Vietnam: Expanding campaign to silence dissent
By: Human Rights Watch, February 4, 2010
The Vietnamese government should immediately drop all charges and free the prominent writer and democracy activist Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, Human Rights Watch said today. She is to be put on trial February 5, 2010, on assault charges after thugs attacked and beat her in front of her home, as undercover police looked on.
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Vietnam: Convictions of activists could hurt US-Vietnam relations
By: Monster and Guardian, February 3, 2010
The recent sentencing of 15 Vietnamese democracy activists to prison could damage the country's image and its diplomat relations, the US ambassador to Vietnam said Wednesday.
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Burma: Four women activists awaits court verdict
By: Myint Maung, Mizzima, February 2, 2010
District Court in Rangoon's notorious Insein prison has set February 15 for pronouncing the verdict of four women activists including popular activist Naw Ohn Hla, who are supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi. The East District Court on Monday announced that it would pronounce the verdict on February 15.
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China punishes Canadian university over Dalai Lama visit
By: Phayul, February 5, 2010
The Chinese government has removed the University of Calgary from its list of accredited institutions - a move school officials say is connected to the Dalai Lama's visit last fall.
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North Korea appears to ease markets crackdown
By: Chow Sang-Hun, NY Times, February 4, 2010
Facing food shortages, severe price increases and social unrest, North Korea appears to have relaxed, at least temporarily, its broad crackdown on private markets, news reports and officials in Seoul said Thursday.
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China: Authorities ruthlessly censor independent reporting
By: IFEX, February 3, 2010
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has released a new report that highlights the arbitrary manner in which Chinese authorities forbid reporting on numerous issues, manipulating the flow of information.
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The fate of one lawyer as a comment on China's rulers
By: Kerry Brown, Open Democracy, February 3, 2010
The disappearance of a Chinese lawyer after his arrest by China's security agents amplifies the wider dilemma of the country's political elite, says Kerry Brown.
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Net firms quizzed on China plans
By: BBC News, February 3, 2010
A top US Senator has asked 30 leading internet firms to provide details of their operations in China. It is ahead of a hearing on how well a voluntary code of conduct, signed by many of the firms, is working.
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China warns U.S. on meeting with Dalai Lama
By: Edward Wong, NY Times, February 2, 2010
A senior Chinese official strongly warned President Obama on Tuesday against meeting with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of the Tibetans, saying it would damage relations between China and the United States.
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China: Activist sent to mental hospital
By: RFA, February 2, 2010
Chinese dissident He Jian, a signatory to the Charter 08 petition calling for broad political and democratic reforms, has been confined to a Shanghai mental hospital, according to knowledgeable sources.
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China's defiance stirs fears for missing dissident
By: Andrew Jacobs, NY Times, February 1, 2010
A year ago this week, Chinese security agents made a midnight visit to the home of Gao Zhisheng, one of China's most high-profile human rights lawyers, and led him away. They told his family he was wanted for a brief chat.
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North Korea: The legacy of racist teaching
By: Christopher Hitchens, Slate, February 1, 2010
Visiting North Korea some years ago, I was lucky to have a fairly genial "minder" whom I'll call Mr. Chae. One evening, as we tried to dine on some gristly bits of duck, he mentioned, the people of South Korea were becoming mongrelized. They wedded foreigners-even black American soldiers, or so he'd heard to his evident disgust-and were losing their purity and distinction.
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Hundreds of thousands of Papuans rally to support IPWP launch in European Parliament
By: Free West Papua, February 2010
"We Papuans question the political status of the Papuan nation," said rally participant Damaris Onawame in front of the Mimika Regional House of Representatives yesterday. The rally also supported the registration of International Parliamentarian for West Papua (IPWP) and International Lawyers for West Papua in Brussels (ILWP), Belgium.
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Power vacuum leaves Nigeria on life support
By: Lauren Gelfand, WPR, February 4, 2010
When Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua left the country in November 2009 to seek treatment for a heart ailment, few anticipated that both he and Africa's most populous country would end up on life support.
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Malawi man arrested for posters on gay rights
By: AP, February 3, 2010
A man has been arrested for putting up posters championing gay rights, police said on Tuesday, adding they were searching for other Malawians they believe are working with foreigners in the campaign.
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Morocco, Polisario to resume informal Western Sahara talks
By: Patrick Worsnip, Reuters, February 3, 2010
Morocco and Western Sahara's independence movement will resume talks next week to try to make headway in the 35-year dispute over the Northwest African territory, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
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Human Rights Watch report draws fire in Morocco
By: Sarah Touahri, Magharebia, February 2, 2010
Morocco has strongly criticised a recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, and the response to the document in Moroccan civil society has been divided.
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Zimbabwe: Mining giant hails Zim operating environment
By: Andrew Moyo, ZimOnline, February 2, 2010
Zimbabwe's biggest platinum miner, Zimplats, has hailed the calm operating environment in the country since formation of a unity government between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai but noted that the September 2008 power-sharing agreement had not been fully implemented.
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After massacre, Guinea sees hope of lifted chains
By: Adam Nossiter, NY Times, February 2, 2010
Something rare has happened in a region often given to brutal autocracy: power has been peacefully transferred to a civilian, just four months after an army massacre that recalled the worst of Africa's past.
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Guinea: Nation's road to democracy
By: All Africa, February 1, 2010
Recent moves to return Guinea to democracy are commendable and should be supported by all. The West African state has been in a state of limbo since December 3, 2009 when the leader of the military junta, Capt Moussa Dadis Camara, was wounded in an assassination attempt by a former aide.
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US: Obama condemns Uganda anti-gay bill as 'odious'
By: BBC News, February 4, 2010
US President Barack Obama has criticised as "odious" proposed anti-homosexuality legislation in Uganda. The bill calls for long jail terms or the death penalty in some cases of homosexual intercourse.
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US: Clinton says no to swapping U.S. hikers for Iranians
By: Jill Dougherty, CNN, February 3, 2010
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday "there are no negotiations taking place" between Washington and Iran on the idea of exchanging three U.S. hikers held in Iran for Iranians being held in the U.S.
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'Partner, not enemy': Depoliticising civic space in Nicaragua
By: Mark Nowottny and Adam Nord, CIVICUS, February 2010
Daniel Ortega remains an unavoidably contentious figure in Latin American politics. Known most widely outside of the region as leader of the armed struggle which brought about the end of the Somoza dictatorship in July 1979, his political reincarnation as a democratically elected leader in 2006, for many at the time, pointed to the latest shift towards the left in Latin America. What, in such a politically charged environment, are the prospects for cooperation and collaboration between government and civil society?
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Cuba's internet revolution edges forward, with limits
By: Isabel Sanchez, AFP, February 3, 2010
Yoan used to earn 25 dollars a month working as a computer technician for a state company -- and an extra 500 dollars selling Internet access on Cuba's vast and varied black market. The 31-year-old managed 10 accounts for government employees who had authorized email access and would rent out their passwords to trusted clients under certain rules: they could only connect at night or in the early hours, and had to avoid political references.
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Canadian mining and popular resistance in Honduras
By: Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber, The Bullet, February 2, 2010
Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber interview Carlos Danilo Amador, General Secretary of the Regional Environmental Committee of the Valle de Siria, about Canadian Mining and resistance in Honduras.
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Argentina: Tomas Eloy Martinez, author of novels about the Perons, dies
By: Emma Brown, Washington Post, February 4, 2010
Tomás Eloy Martínez, 75, an Argentine journalist and novelist who wrote two international bestsellers about former Argentine president Juan Domingo Perón and his glamorous, beloved-by-the-masses wife, Eva Perón, died Jan. 31 at his home in Buenos Aires. He had a brain tumor.
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Belarusian journalist jailed for hooliganism
By: RFE, February 4, 2010
Independent Belarusian journalist Ivan Shulha was convicted today of petty hooliganism and sentenced to 10 days in jail, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.
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Belarus: Opposition activists expelled from universities
By: Charter 97, February 3, 2010
Professors of the Belarusian National technical University were forced to low grades to an opposition activist to expel him from university. He was a first year student of instrument-making faculty of the BNTU.
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Britons get a Western Sahara moment
By: Cathrin Lemoine, PR Fire, February 3, 2010
The increase of reports of violence and human rights abuses against Saharawis in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara has alarmed human rights organisations and activists all over the world. Gordon Brown's Western Sahara moment during Prime Ministers Questions session (January 13th) highlighted the general lack of awareness in Britain about the grave human rights problems afflicting the former Spanish colony.
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Russia: Kremlin shocked as Kaliningrad stages huge anti-government protest
By: Luke Harding, The Guardian, February 2, 2010
Dmitry Medvedev sent his special envoy to the western outpost of Kaliningrad - today after thousands of Russians took to the streets in the largest rally since the fall of the Soviet Union. The protest, staged at the weekend, saw between 10,000 and 12,000 people gather in Kaliningrad's main square to demand the resignation of the governor and shout slogans against the ruling United Russia party.
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Ten questions to people-power your activist campaign
By: Brian Fitzgerald's Blog, February 4, 2010
Over the weekend, a few of us who've been doing public engagement and movement building work gathered with some of our campaigners to talk about what works and what doesn't when creating campaigns that are intended to draw on the power of the public. We came up with what I think is a pretty good list of questions that an issue expert or campaigner can ask if they want to win their campaign with people power.
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Protestors gather at Tiffany stores worldwide
By: Survival International, February 3, 2010
Survival supporters demonstrated today outside Tiffany stores in London, San Francisco, Madrid, Paris and Berlin to protest at the company funding water boreholes for game animals on Bushman land where the people are forbidden access to their own borehole.
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Iran: Ouverture d'une nouvelle série de procès staliniens
By: RSF, February 3, 2010
Le 30 janvier 2010, s'est ouverte - devant la 15e chambre du tribunal révolutionnaire de Téhéran - la nouvelle audience du procès chargé de juger les opposants à la réélection de Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Seize personnes comparaîtront pour avoir participé aux récentes manifestations, notamment celles du 27 décembre 2009.
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Guinée: Nuages sur la transition
By: Jean-Claude Kongo, Courrier International, February 2, 2010
A moins de six mois de l'élection présidentielle, la transition démocratique tarde à se mettre en place. Le nouveau gouvernement n'est toujours pas formé, et l'arrestation, pendant vingt-quatre heures, du colonel Moussa Keita a semé encore un peu plus le trouble.
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On the anthology Civil Resistance and Power Politics
By: The Middle Stage, February 2010
One of the key emphases of Civil Resistance & Power Politics is that it understands civil resistance not as an ideal of moral action and non-violent "conversion" of the adversary through "truth-force" as Gandhi saw it, but simply as a strategy of practical politics.
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