Leadership Council for Human Rights

Nour thanks supporters in rare interview from prison

2008-07-31T08:44:00.000-05:00

In a rare interview on July 26, imprisoned Egyptian dissident Ayman Nour spoke to reporters with Abu Dhabi’s The National about his ongoing detention and international efforts on his behalf.

Nour was jailed in 2005 on dubious forgery charges after challenging President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt’s first – and last – contested presidential election.

President Bush earlier this month called for Nour’s release.

“Bush’s initiative is kind and very important in its, as it came just 24 hours after Mubarak decided to keep me in prison,” Nour said, referring to the Egyptian president’s pardon of 1,500 prisoners on July 23. “But I can’t say that the American administration has always been serious in pushing for my release. Sometimes it gave priority to principles, but more often interests prevailed.”

Nour also commented on attempts by Egypt’s state-run media to tarnish his image.

“Despite grave losses to my health, my family, my party and finances, I feel prison has earned me more credibility among the youth and average Egyptian, despite the state’s tarnishing campaigns against me,” he said. “The enlightened people, and those who hate the regime, and they are many, know that they are lying.”

For the full article, click here.

Iran must ban death penalty for juvenile offenders, human rights groups say

2008-07-30T10:37:00.000-05:00

A group of human rights organizations on Tuesday urged Iran to ban executions of juvenile offenders, Human Rights Watch said in a press release the same day.

The coalition included Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Iran last week executed Hassan Mozafari and Rahman Shahidi, who were both under 18 when they committed their crimes.

As HRW notes, “Iran leads the world in executing persons for crimes committed under the age of 18. As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Iran is obligated to abolish such executions.”

The group adds: “The situation of juvenile offenders facing execution in Iran has reached crisis levels, making Iran’s violation of international standards much greater than any other country. There are at least 132 juvenile offenders known to be on death row in Iran, although the true number could be much higher.”

For the full release, click here.

Friedman derides ‘bumper sticker’ views towards Afghanistan, offshore drilling

2008-07-30T09:21:00.000-05:00

In a New York Times op-ed Wednesday, Thomas Friedman chastises Republicans and Democrats for narrow-mindedness in their views towards offshore drilling and Afghanistan, respectively.

“Republicans, by mindlessly repeating their offshore-drilling mantra, focusing on a 19th century fuel, remind me of someone back in 1980 arguing that we should be putting all our money into making more and cheaper IBM Selectric typewriters – and forget about these things called the ‘PC’ and ‘the Internet,’” Friedman writes. “It is a strategy for making America a second-rate power and economy.”

On Afghanistan, Friedman maintains that bringing in more U.S. troops is not the answer, saying that “producing islands of decent and consensual government in Baghdad or Kabul or Islamabad would be a much more meaningful and lasting contribution to the war on terrorism than even killing bin Laden in his cave.”

He adds: “The truth is that Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Pakistan are just different fronts in the same war. The core problem is that the Arab-Muslim world in too many places has been failing at modernity, and were it not for $120-a-barrel oil, that failure would be even more obvious.”

For the full op-ed, click here.

Iran not protecting Kurdish minority from widespread discrimination, Amnesty says

2008-07-30T08:33:00.001-05:00

Iranian Kurds endure widespread discrimination and Tehran is doing little to prevent the abuses, Amnesty International said in a report released Wednesday, according to Reuters.

The rights group said the suffering has been particularly acute of late, as Kurds have been sentenced to death or long prison terms after unfair trials.

“Iran’s government is failing in its duty to prevent discrimination and human rights abuses against its Kurdish citizens, particularly women,” Amnesty said. “We urge the Iranian authorities to take concrete measures to end any discrimination and associated human rights violations that Kurds, indeed all minorities in Iran, face.”

According to the article, the report “also cited abuses against Kurdish women and girls, and cultural and religious discrimination against the group in areas such as housing, education and employment.”

For the full article, click here.
For the Amnesty report, click here.

U.N. says Afghanistan getting help in heroin production process

2008-07-29T15:28:00.000-05:00

The United Nations said Monday that Afghanistan should not shoulder all of the blame for the global heroin problem, Agence France-Presse reported the same day.

While over 93 percent of the world’s opium comes from the war-torn nation, the chemicals used to turn the crop into heroin are smuggled from China, South Korea, the Russian Federation, Europe and other nations, according to U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Afghanistan representative Christina Oguz. She said the chemicals are produced for industrial purposes and in most cases legally exported, only to be diverted and smuggled once they reach their destination point.

Oguz also noted that government corruption in Afghanistan is undermining efforts to punish drug lords.

“They are people with power and people with powerful friends who can use their mobile phones to release a suspect from detention without a fair trial,” she said of the drug lords. “I would call it telephone justice.”

For the full article, click here.

Indigenous Guatemalans hit hard by expansion of agrofuels

2008-07-29T14:37:00.000-05:00

Efforts to enhance the production of agrofuels have caused displacement and deforestation in Guatemala, according the World Rainforest Movement’s July bulletin.

According to the article, Guatemalan indigenous communities have been hit hard in particular, as companies deforest their land “to plant sugar-cane for ethanol production.”

It adds that paramilitary forces associated with the ethanol company Ingenio Guadalupe have violently suppressed recent attempts to protest the confiscations and reclaim indigenous land, shooting and wounding one man, arresting two women, and issuing death threats.

For the full article, click here.

Peruvian protestors call for respect for indigenous rights

2008-07-29T14:03:00.001-05:00

A large coalition of Peruvian indigenous and peasant groups held a nation-wide protest from July 8 to 10 to demand respect for indigenous rights, according to the World Rainforest Movement’s July bulletin.

The protestors lashed out at the government for proposed policies that would promote private industry in the Amazon region, but negatively impact the environment and violate communal property rights and other collective rights of indigenous inhabitants.

According to the article, the protest “coincided on July 9 with a national general strike called by the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP).”

Some 200 people were arrested during the strike.

For the full article, click here.

Thousands of Kurds protest election law

2008-07-29T10:24:00.000-05:00

Thousands of Iraqi Kurdish protestors rallying against a controversial provincial elections law took to the streets of Erbil Tuesday, Reuters reported the same day.

The demonstration came in the wake of a suicide bombing that struck a similar protest in the disputed city of Kirkuk Monday, killing 23 people.

As the article notes, the elections law “would have delayed voting in Kirkuk, assigned fixed seat allocations to each ethnic group and replaced Kurdish Peshmerga security forces in the city with troops form other parts of Iraq, all measures Kurdish parliamentarians rejected.”

For the full article, click here.

EU drops initiative to admit more Iraqi refugees

2008-07-29T10:23:00.000-05:00

The European Union last week heeded the recommendation of Iraq’s prime minister and abandoned calls to take in more Iraqi refugees, Reuters reported on July 24.

The initiative to take in more displaced Christians was spearheaded by Germany, but Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki convinced the government to drop its calls after visiting Berlin last week. Maliki cited improved security and the need for help in the reconstruction effort.

According to the article, “An EU statement agreed on [July 24] said the priority was to create the conditions allowing refugees to go back home and noted that some EU countries have taken in refugees, without calling other countries to do the same.”

For the full article, click here.

Vietnamese protestors detained over farmland disputes

2008-07-29T09:23:00.000-05:00

Vietnamese authorities have arrested three people for protesting the government’s seizure of village farmland, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Hanoi on Tuesday acknowledged the arrest of elderly war veteran Pham Trung Phon, who camped out for two months inside a local government building. According to the article, the other two individuals were arrested in June for protesting the seizure “of rice fields in northern Thai Binh province to be used for industrial parks and residential areas.”

As the article notes, “The unrest began a year ago when villagers became enraged with the government’s offer of 21,600 dong (US$1.30) per square meter of land confiscated…They demanded payment of 135,000 dong (US$8) per square meter, arguing that the seizure was affecting more than 1,000 families.”

For the full article, click here.

Rights group calls for release of Egyptian Facebook activists

2008-07-28T10:46:00.000-05:00

The Egyptian government should immediately release 16 activists involved in a peaceful protest last week that was organized on the social networking site Facebook, Amnesty International said on July 27, according to Agence France-Presse.

The protests occurred on a beach in Alexandria on July 23. Those detained were ordered jailed for 15 days for “threatening national security.” The protestors were members of the ‘6 April Youth’ Facebook group, which, as the article notes, “earlier this year called for a day of protest at rising prices.”

Amnesty voiced particular concern for two activists, Ahmed Afifi and Mohammed Taher, saying: “It is not known where they are held and Amnesty International fears they are at risk of torture of ill-treatment.”

For the full article, click here.

Egypt bans book critical of president

2008-07-28T10:27:00.000-05:00

The Egyptian government has banned a book critical of President Hosni Mubarak, The Associated Press reported on July 25.

Government censors imposed the ban, according to the publisher of the book in question, “Inside Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution” by John Bradley.

The publisher says the book describes Mubarak’s regime as a “ruthless military dictatorship.”

For the full article, click here.

Mass execution draws ire of Iranian Nobel laureate’s group

2008-07-28T10:11:00.000-05:00

Iran’s mass execution of 29 men Sunday was denounced the next day by a human rights group led by Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, Agence France-Presse reported.

In addition to lashing out against capital punishment in general, the Defenders of Human Rights Center claimed that the hanged men – convicted of crimes including drug trafficking, murder, and rape – were “deprived of a fair judicial procedure.”

As the article notes, “The latest hangings brought to at least, 155 the number of people executed in Iran this year, according to an AFP count.”

Iran is said to be considering a bill that would designate as capital offenses crimes such as corruption, prostitution and apostasy on the Internet.

For the full article, click here.

Afghan religious leaders encouraged to raise awareness about new anti-trafficking law

2008-07-25T11:10:00.000-05:00

With their government last week enacting historic anti-trafficking in persons legislation, Afghan religious leaders met Tuesday for a roundtable on the matter, ReliefWeb reported the same day.

The meeting, convened by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Afghan government, was designed to encourage the leaders to raise awareness in their communities through discussion and prayer. It dovetails with IOM information campaigns targeting schoolchildren.

As the piece notes, “Afghanistan faces serious problems as a country of origin, transit and destination for human trafficking.”

For the full piece, click here.

Nearly half of Egyptian women sexually harassed on daily basis

2008-07-25T10:41:00.000-05:00

Sexual harassment is pervasive and on the rise in Egypt, with almost half of women harassed on a daily basis, Agence France-Presse reported on July 17, citing a recent survey by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights.

Eighty-three percent of the Egyptian women polled reported being harassed at some point, and 46 percent said they were harassed daily.

The article adds that 62 percent of Egyptian men “admitted harassing women, including those wearing Islamic headscarves.”

“This shows that the belief that harassment is linked to women who wear indecent clothing is false,” said Nihad Abul Qomsan the center’s director, denouncing the idea that women should feel responsible for the abuse.

According to the center, only 12 percent of Egyptian women filed a harassment complaint with the police last year.

For the full article, click here.

Reporter recounts horrors of Bosnian war

2008-07-24T09:50:00.000-05:00

As former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic prepares to stand trial in The Hague on charges of genocide, Roger Cohen describes his experiences covering the war in Bosnia in a New York Times op-ed Thursday.

“You talked of your ‘love’ for Sarajevo, the ethnically mixed city your boozy forces kept shelling,” Cohen says of Karadzic. “You told me, 32 months into the fighting that you were ready ‘to declare a state of war.’

Cohen also writes of those he met during the war and the tragedy they endured, remembering the words of a wounded Sarajevo resident: “If I remain a paraplegic, I will be better, anyhow, than the Serb who shot me. I will be clean in my mind, clean with respect to others, and clean with respect to this dirty world.”

For the full piece, click here.

China continues to violate human rights as Olympics approach, Berman says

2008-07-24T09:12:00.000-05:00

China has reneged on its commitment to improve its human rights situation in advance of the Olympics, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) said Wednesday in his opening statement for the hearing “China on the Eve of the Olympics.”

Among the transgressions Berman highlights are the recent crackdowns in Tibet; Beijing’s support of Burma, Sudan, and Zimbabwe; and widespread restrictions on press freedoms.

Berman notes that the committee will on Thursday “mark up a resolution that calls China to account for its actions.”

For the full statement, click here.

Eight Vietnamese dissident writers among recipients of human rights award

2008-07-24T08:46:00.000-05:00

Pro-democracy leader Father Nguyen Van Ly and seven other Vietnamese dissidents have been recognized as 2008 recipients of Human Rights Watch’s Hellman/Hammett award for writers displaying courage in the face of political persecution, the group said Tuesday.

According to Human Rights Watch, Vietnamese “dissident writers have been harassed, assaulted, indicted, jailed on trumped-up charges, dismissed from their jobs, socially isolated, detained and interrogated by police, publicly humiliated in officially orchestrated ‘Peoples’ Tribunals,’ and injured by officially sanctioned mobs or targeted traffic ‘accidents.’”

This year’s awards went to 34 writers from 19 countries.

For the full press release, click here.

Mideast rethinking agricultural policies in light of global food crisis

2008-07-23T13:07:00.000-05:00

Amid rising food prices and declining water availability, countries in the Middle East and North Africa are struggling to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population, The New York Times reported Monday.

“For decades nations in this region have drained aquifers, sucked the salt from seawater and diverted the mighty Nile to make the deserts bloom,” the article notes. “But those projects were so costly and used so much water that it remained far more practical to import food than to produce it. Today, some countries import 90 percent or more of their staples.”

However, The Times says that the global food crisis is prompting a regional reassessment, as countries are “turning anew to expensive schemes to maintain their food supply.”

For the full article, click here.

Prominent Iranian activists granted asylum

2008-07-23T10:41:00.000-05:00

LCHR has learned that high-profile Arab-Iranian human rights activists Imad and Mohsen Bawi were released last week from a Basra, Iraq detention center and have been granted refugee status by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and transferred to camps on the Jordan-Iraq border.

The Bawi brothers were in 2006 convicted after an unfair trial of hiding explosives, establishing an illegal group and propaganda against the Iranian government. Both men were serving lengthy prison sentences in Iran, but earlier this year were given leave to spend time with their family following the execution of their brother, Zamel. In February, Imad and Mohsen fled to Iraq and were subsequently arrested in Basra.

Rights group calls for investigation into Syrian prison deaths

2008-07-23T10:40:00.000-05:00

In the wake of a shooting two weeks ago at Syria’s Sednaya prison that left inmates dead at the hands of military police, Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called for an independent investigation into the incident.

Police opened fire on the inmates to quell a riot that began after an aggressive search at the prison. During the search, prisoners were insulted and copies of the Qur’an were thrown on the floor and trampled upon. After the shooting, several security guards were taken hostage by the prisoners. In response, the authorities sent army troops and tanks as reinforcements.

Since July 8, three days after the shooting, families of inmates have been unable to obtain any information on their relatives.

Human Rights Watch has previously documented torture of Sednaya detainees.

“The bloodshed at Sednaya highlights the need to improve the treatment of prisoners there,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Torture should immediately be halted and all detainees properly charged should get a fair trial.”

For the full article, click here.

The importance of book distribution in Afghanistan

2008-07-21T13:54:00.000-05:00

The ability of citizens to access printed materials is critical to the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, Nancy Hatch Dupree writes in an op-ed in the July 19 edition of The New York Times.

Dupree, the director of the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University, argues that a lack of access has undermined health care, education, and democratic governance. Without written materials, she writes, patients are unable to reacquaint themselves with the instructions of community health workers; students are unable to read about relevant subjects; all citizens are unable to obtain basic information on the democratic process.

Dupree, whose Center has “placed more than 100,000 books in 160 libraries in 32 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces,” says that the Afghan government and foreign donors need to support efforts to develop and distribute books and other printed materials.

For the full piece, click here.

Nine Iranians sentenced to death by stoning despite moratorium

2008-07-21T13:11:00.000-05:00

Iran has handed down death by stoning sentences to eight women and one man convicted of adultery, despite an alleged moratorium on the punishment, The Guardian reported Monday.

Iranian lawyers highlighted the cases Sunday as they campaigned to eliminate stoning in the Islamic Republic. They claim that most of the nine have in fact been the victims of violence.

“These women mostly come from the illiterate masses and did not have money or access to a lawyer. Many did not understand Farsi and, of course, all the interrogations were in Farsi,” said Shadi Sadr, a prominent human rights lawyer. “In all of the cases, there has been violence against them, or they have been forced into marriages, or their divorce applications have been refused. In some cases, they couldn’t apply for a divorce due to family pressures.”

While the lawyers are urging Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the country’s judiciary chief, to issue pardons, it is believed that his influence is limited.

For the full article, click here.

Iran’s rights violations widespread and on rise

2008-07-18T10:14:00.000-05:00

Iran’s human rights record has deteriorated to new lows under the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, furthering a precipitous decline set into motion by the 1979 Islamic revolution, Nir Boms and Shayan Arya write in an op-ed in Monday’s Washington Times.

Boms and Arya detail a wide array of abuses, including executions of juveniles, religious persecution, and imprisonment of nonviolent political dissidents and rights activists. They note the case of Iraqi refugee and activist Hassan Abdul Hussein Tafah, who was sentenced to 15 years in an Iranian jail for attending an international conference that included discussion of human rights issues. They also call attention to a bill under consideration in the country’s parliament “that could result in the death penalty being used for those deemed to be promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy on the Internet.”

For the full piece, click here.

U.S. lawmakers blast Viet Nam for rights violations in advance of PM’s June meeting with Bush

2008-07-16T15:14:00.000-05:00

In an article published on Asian Fortune News.com, Jackie Bong-Wright reports on a June 19 Capitol Hill press conference that saw Members of Congress and human rights advocates, including the Leadership Council for Human Rights, denounce the Vietnamese government for its record of abuses.

Speaking just days before Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung discussed bilateral cooperation at a White House meeting with President Bush, the lawmakers and activists took Hanoi to task for violations related to, among other issues, religious freedom, political prisoners, freedom of the press, and human trafficking.

“The thugs in Hanoi continue to imprison and torture at will,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). “The regime must be held accountable for its actions.”

For the full article, click here.

Critics say Egyptian government absolved of blame in film on Muslim-Christian divisions

2008-07-16T14:28:00.000-05:00

Critics of a new Egyptian film that takes a lighthearted look at Muslim-Christian relations in the North African country say it doesn’t do enough to address the government’s role in exacerbating religious tensions, Agence France-Presse reported Wednesday.

According to the article, in “Hassan wi Morkos” (Hassan and Morkos), the lives of a Muslim sheikh and a Christian priest are put in danger, forcing each “to go into hiding and take on new identities from the other side of the sectarian divide.”

Some say the film only scratches the surface of Egypt’s sectarian issues, though. The film “does not come anywhere near to dealing with the problem because it is too deep, especially in the last few years, as opposed to the 1930s and 1940s when Hassan and Morkos would have loved each other,” film critic Tarek Shennawi told AFP, adding, “The state itself is behind the spread of corruption among the security apparatuses who have taken on the sectarian issue, turning the tensions into the full-blown crisis that we are witnessing today.”

For the full article, click here.

Iran again holding Baha’i leaders incommunicado

2008-07-16T13:20:00.000-05:00

In spite of the fact that no charges have been filed against them, seven leaders of Iran’s oppressed Baha’i community remain in prison and without access to an attorney, Baha’i World News Service reported on July 4. No contact has been made with the individuals since they were each allowed one brief phone call several weeks ago.

Six of the leaders were arrested in pre-dawn raids on May 14. The seventh was detained in early March. It is thought that the group is being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.

Baha’i spokeswoman Bani Dugal rejected suggestions by Iranian officials that the arrests are “related to security.”

“Such allegations are utterly baseless,” Dugal said. “They are not new, and the Iranian government knows well that they are untrue. The documented plan of the Iranian government has always been to destroy the Baha’i community as a viable entity in Iran, and these latest arrests represent an intensification of this campaign.”

For the full update, click here.

Afghan female athlete is threatened, seeks asylum in lieu of attending Olympics

2008-07-15T15:14:00.001-05:00

Instead of competing in the Olympics this August as planned, Afghan athlete Mehboba Ahdyar is instead seeking asylum in Europe after receiving death threats from religious extremists. According to a report Monday in Spiegel Online, Ahdyar, 19, ran away from a training camp in Italy because of the negative reaction she has faced since receiving media attention earlier this year. Neighbors accused her of prostitution and extremists objected to her participation in sports as a Muslim woman.

According to the article, after disappearing, “she told [her family] that she was in Europe and would not be coming back. She said she was scared of reprisals because of her sports career. Her parents are now reportedly under pressure from members of the Afghan Olympic Committee, who say that if she does not come back they will be held responsible and could be thrown in jail.”

For the full story, click here.

Tortured Iranian activist finds asylum in U.S.

2008-07-15T12:16:00.000-05:00

An article in Sunday’s New York Times provides a window into the harrowing experiences of prominent Iranian dissident Ahmad Batebi.

Batebi arrived in the U.S. in June, ending a chapter in his life during which he endured nearly eight years in Iranian prison. During his detention, he was subjugated to repeated episodes of torture and months of solitary confinement. According to the article, Batebi’s “jailers thrashed him with a metal cable, beat his testicles and kicked in his teeth…They held his face down in a pool of excrement. They tied his arms behind his back and hung him from the ceiling.”

Batebi was initially arrested at 20 for his involvement in the large-scale student protests of 1999 – his role indelibly captured on an Economist magazine cover featuring hum holding the bloody T-shirt of a fellow demonstrator. After gaining medical leave in March of this year due to a stroke and several seizures, he began his escape. With the help of volunteers from the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, he made his way to the Erbil, Iraq offices of the U.N. refugee agency, where his placement in the U.S. was arranged.

For the full article, click here.

Afghan refugees bearing brunt of mismanaged reconstruction effort

2008-07-15T09:56:00.000-05:00

In a July 10 Newsweek blog, Katie Paul describes the dire circumstances facing Afghan refugees.

In one telling example, Paul writes of a Refugees International (RI) team that found in the northwestern area of Taghi Naghi a haphazardly planned land allocation site for returning refugees. The government had ignored U.N. recommendations and built shelters in the desert as part of the $2 million project, one of 55 planned across the country. To make waters worse, access to water and employment was blatantly inadequate.

According to a recent RI report, Afghanistan’s worsening food crisis and security situation have made life more difficult for returnees. In addition, Paul writes that “an impending Pakistani threat to bulldoze camps in their country by the end of 2009 has contributed an added time pressure to deal with the problems.”

The report says an ill-planned and coordinated reconstruction effort lies at the heart of the refugee crisis and it urges international donors to help resolve the situation at a joint U.N. and Afghan conference in Kabul in November.

“What we’d like to see is the returnees being integrated into the mainstream national programs,” said RI advocate Patrick Duplat.

For the full post, click here.

Viet Nam to consider reduction in crimes punishable by death

2008-07-15T08:57:00.000-05:00

In an effort to make its legal system more in line with international norms, Viet Nam’s National Assembly will vote on eliminating the death penalty for 12 crimes, The Associated Press reported Tuesday, citing state media.

According to the article, the offenses range “from fraud and bribery to counterfeiting, hijacking and war crimes.”

If the move goes through, it would follow another significant measure nine years ago that cut the number of crimes punishable by death from 44 to 29.

According to state media, Viet Nam handed down 116 death sentences in 2006 and 95 last year.

For the full article, click here.

Iran detains university students on counter-revolutionary charges

2008-07-15T08:36:00.000-05:00

Iran has detained two university students on charges of having contacts with anti-government groups based outside the country, Reuters reported Monday, citing the state-run IRNA news agency.

IRNA named the two individuals in question as Bahareh Hedayat, a woman, and Mohammad-Taghi Hashemi, a male student.

According to a source at Tehran’s revolution court, the charges stem from the students’ “contacts with illegal, counterrevolutionary groups outside the country” and are not related to their “university student activities.”

For the full article, click here.

Sweden no longer haven for Iraqi refugees

2008-07-14T13:49:00.000-05:00

In an article in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times, writer Kim Murphy tells the story of Naseir, an Iraqi Christian man who took his family from Baghdad to Sweden, but is now facing deportation as the Scandinavian country tightens its standards for Iraqi asylum seekers.

Earlier this year an appeals court ruled that there is no armed conflict in Iraq, exacting a major blow to Iraqis looking to join the thousands of their brethren who have already gained refuge in Sweden. Approvals on Iraqi asylum cases have dropped from 72 percent last year to 43 percent this year.

“I’m afraid that what is really happening is the system is sending political signals to the courts and to the migration boards,” said Kalle Larsson, a Left Party member of parliament who has sought to preserve asylum opportunities in Sweden. “And these signals are saying, ‘There are too many people coming to Sweden.’”

For the full article, click here.

Sudan’s Bashir charged with genocide

2008-07-14T12:54:00.000-05:00

In its first indictment of a sitting head of state, the International Criminal Court on Monday charged Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir with genocide, The Washington Post reported the same day.

Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo also accused Bashir of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In his remarks, Ocampo said Bashir “masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part” three ethnic groups in the country’s western Darfur region that the government considered rebel constituencies.

Khartoum said Monday that it would mount a legal battle against Ocampo’s accusations. Over the weekend, the government warned of “dire” consequences should Bashir be indicted and, according to the article, “moved several fighter jets into the western region.” As a precautionary measure in case of retaliation, all non-essential U.N. staff are being temporarily removed from Darfur.

For the full article, click here.

U.S. intelligence official calls for engagement with Iran

2008-07-10T14:17:00.000-05:00

In a Thursday entry in his blog in the online edition of The Nation, Robert Dreyfuss recounts statements on Iran made the previous day by U.S. intelligence official Thomas Fingar.

Fingar, whom Dreyfuss calls America’s “top intelligence analyst,” spoke to an audience at the Center for National Policy and apparently made the case for diplomacy. “It argues for engagement,” he said. “From bilateral to multilateral to using international institutions.”

Fingar also drew an explicit connection between energy supplies and the Iran issue, saying that “the competition for energy” would fuel future instability.

For the full piece, click here.

Afghanistan, U.N. ask for $400 million in food aid

2008-07-10T09:54:00.000-05:00

Afghan and U.N. officials on Wednesday urged the international community to contribute over $404 million to feed the country’s poor and vulnerable, Reuters reported the same day.

The article notes that Afghanistan has been “hit hard by rising food prices, poor harvests and drought,” adding that the country’s “wheat harvest this year is expected to be 36 percent lower than 2007.”

“We really appeal to donors to continue their generosity and support of the Afghan people because really, through no fault of the people or the government, the situation has really become exacerbated since January,” U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan Bo Asplund told a news conference in Kabul attended by diplomats and donors.

In May, Afghanistan received international pledges amounting to some $20 billion in development aid, but officials say much of that money has already been put into long-term agricultural investment. The new appeal is intended for more short-term needs.

For the full article, click here.

Egypt’s Christian-Muslim divide growing amid recent tensions

2008-07-09T13:21:00.000-05:00

In an article in Monday’s Washington Post, Ellen Knickmeyer describes the increasingly strained relationship between Egypt’s Coptic Christian and Muslim communities.

Knickmeyer notes that sectarian attacks and the rise of fundamentalist Islam have driven Copts to isolation, while adding that the efforts of Pope Shenouda III, the faith’s current leader, have made the church a center for “schooling, sports and socializing, as well as religion” and also contributed to the separation.

Among those interviewed for the article was Brother Viner, a monk attacked by Arab Bedouins in a May 31 incident at the historic Abu Fana monastery. “When he was a boy,” Knickmeyer writes, “[Brother Viner] and his neighbors played together without paying attention to who was Muslim and who was Christian. But recently, he said, his niece came home from her first day at school with tales of Muslim and Christian first-graders refusing to share desks with children of the other faith.”

For the full article, click here.

Egypt says Shiite mosques not allowed, as government cracks down on rise of sect

2008-07-09T12:45:00.000-05:00

A leading Egyptian official has said that the government will reject any Shiite presence within the country’s mosques, the independent daily El-Masry El-Youm reported Monday.

Minister of Religious Endowments Mahmoud Hamid Zaqzouq told a press conference that Egypt “won’t allow the existence of a Shiite tide in Egyptian mosques,” adding “Nobody applied for a mosque for Shiites and we won’t approve that.”

Zaqzoug’s declaration comes in the wake of an El-Masry El-Youm report alleging that the government has begun to use religious officials to train state security officers on how to combat the rise of Shiite beliefs. According to the Los Angeles Times, “The report quoted a prominent scholar as saying that the state security apparatus is concerned about the creeping influence of Shiite Islam since the influx of thousands of Shiite Iraqis to Egypt.”

For the full El-Masry El-Youm article, from Monday, click here.
For the full Los Angeles Times article, click here.

Government interference expected in funeral of Viet Nam’s top dissident monk

2008-07-09T11:37:00.000-05:00

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday urged the Vietnamese government not to interfere in the funeral of the country’s leading dissident Buddhist monk, Agence France-Presse reported the same day.

Since the passing last week of Thich Huyen Quang, head of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), UBCV members have been attacked in state media as “extremist elements disguised as Buddhist monks.”

While the UBCV has announced plans to have UBCV deputy and likely successor Thich Quang Do preside over a ceremony on Friday, Hanoi has moved to ensure that the funeral will be a government-controlled affair, saying that the state-sanctioned Buddhist church will run the event.

“Thich Huyen Quan gave up his liberty for 30 years in a quest for greater human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “His followers should be allowed to pay their last respects without government interference.”

For the full article, click here.

Cairo schools bar Baha’i students

2008-07-09T10:54:00.000-05:00

Baha’i students have been refused enrollment in some Cairo schools on the basis of their faith, The Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights said on July 1, citing the independent daily Al-Masri al-Yom. According to the article, the schools are under orders “not to accept applicants who are neither Muslim nor Christian.”

Ministry of Education officials have not responded to parents’ complaints.

Yousef Labib, the parent of one of the affected children, told Al-Masri al-Yom: “I went to admit my daughter to a school, but its administration refused to accept students who do not state their religion in their birth certificates.”

The Egyptian government does not recognize Baha’is as an official faith group, blocking access to the full slate of identity documentation needed to obtain basic citizenship rights.

For the full article, click here.

Another Afghan summer brings with it renewed violence, chaos and disappointment

2008-07-02T11:16:00.001-05:00

As another winter slowly recedes, giving way to what should be a green season of growth and plenty, many Afghans are filled only with despair and disappointment, the BBC News reported on June 13.

Doubt seems to plague every Afghan interviewed for the article. A Government official said he is confident of military victory, if only the Taliban were deprived of their strongholds in Pakistan. Without that significant change, he doubts he will see victory soon.

Urban residents readily welcome the changes promised to them after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. But nearly seven years on, it is impossible to ignore the new government’s inability to accomplish even the most basic of tasks.

“We are not asking for skyscrapers,” said Saqib Baghlani, a Kabul school teacher. “The demands of our people are simple.” Instead of clinics or roads, he points to the “millions of dollars going towards land cruisers and salaries,” adding “everyone is corrupt.”

Baghlani’s frustration and distrust are shared by many. Poor Afghans don’t understand why so many basic problems remain unsolved despite the billions of dollars of international aid flowing into the country.

Corruption is among the most pervasive problems in Afghanistan. Yet despite the promises from President Hamid Karzai, cabinet ministers and parliamentarians, corruption remains. It has come to the dangerous point where Afghans expect failure. “Every night I hear ministers and MPs talk about corruption,” laments Ajmal Haidary, a shopkeeper in West Kabul. “This is all talk.”

For the full article, click here.

Iranian teenager executed in Tehran

2008-07-02T11:15:00.001-05:00

Iranian authorities on Tuesday hanged 19-year-old convicted murderer Hamid Reza Q, Agence France-Presse reported the same day. According to the article, authorities have not said what Reza’s age at the time of his offense was. It is only known that he was either 17 or 18-years-old when tried.

The Iranian judiciary insists that no one under eighteen is executed in Iran. However, there have been reports to the contrary both from domestic media and international human rights organizations. An Iranian media outlet reported last month that authorities hanged a 17-year-old boy convicted of murder in the western city of Sanandaj.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and rights groups have called on Iran to halt the scheduled execution of four more individuals whose crimes were committed while they were still technically minors. According to the article, it is widely feared that over a dozen other young offenders face the same punishment in other cities across Iran.

For the full article, click here.

U.N. human rights commissioner steps down after four-year tenure

2008-07-01T16:09:00.001-05:00

Former Canadian Supreme Court Justice Lousie Arbour on Monday left her post as the United Nations’ human rights commissioner, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported the same day.

Citing personal reasons, Arbour announced her retirement to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva in March. She added that the criticisms on her office from nations like the U.S. have, as the article puts it, “undermine[d] the credibility of her office and the entire U.N.”

While she has been commended for her work by many human rights organizations, Arbour drew pointed criticism for her staunch objections to the many questionable tactics employed in the American-led war on terror. Israel and its supporters also objected to Arbour’s outspoken criticism of the Jewish state after its 34-day war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006.

Before her position as U.N. human rights commissioner, Arbour was best known as a chief prosecutor for tribunals into the genocide in Rwanda and human rights abuses in Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

For the full article, click here.

U.N. official says humanitarian situation in Afghanistan ‘deteriorating’

2008-07-01T14:11:00.001-05:00

According to John Holmes, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, violence and natural disasters have caused the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan to “deteriorate,” necessitating increased efforts from the aid community to alleviate the suffering of vulnerable people, the United Nations’ IRIN news agency reported Monday.

Holmes visited Afghanistan for four days in late June to examine the humanitarian process first-hand. As the article notes, efforts there are hamstrung by “intensifying conflict, drought, and large-scale refugee repatriation.” It adds that aid groups like Oxfam International have been critical of what they see as the inefficient use of aid dollars.

“We need to have more of a humanitarian strategy, an action plan, than we had before,” Holmes said, adding that donors “will respond generously” to a “right kind of strategy and a right kind of scaling up of our activities.”

Even with new strategies, development efforts face major obstacles. Direct attacks against aid groups have been on the rise, blocking access to large portions of Afghanistan. As the article notes, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) suffered 40 attacks on its aid trucks in the past 18 months, costing $800,000 dollars worth of food.

“There is not a magic solution, and while the conflict is going on we have to work around the conflict,” Holmes said. “We cannot solve the conflict as humanitarian. What we can do is to help the victims of it.”

For the full article, click here.

Hanoi officials ban street vendors, threatening livelihoods

2008-07-01T12:46:00.001-05:00

The People’s Committee of Hanoi has banned the centuries-old street vending industry, threatening the livelihoods of thousands of Vietnamese and the families they support, the United Nations IRIN news agency reported on June 23.

In an attempt to modernize and “beautify” the city, the government enacted a ban to go into effect July 1 that will prohibit vendors from selling their wares on Hanoi’s congested streets.

Opponents of the ban say no employment alternative program has been instituted for the estimated 5,000 vendors, mostly women, whose income depends on access to the street.

“We will all go hungry,” said Nguyen Thi Lan, a mother of school-age children who began vending after her family’s rice paddies were seized by the government and sold to developers. “We are poor people. We have no land. We are dependent on the street.”

For the full article, click here.

Former Abu Ghraib inmates sue U.S. firms

2008-07-01T12:40:00.003-05:00

Four Iraqi men are suing two U.S. military contractors for torturing them during their detention in the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, BBC News reported Tuesday.

The four men were all released without charge after being held in the notorious prison between two to four years. They have each brought separate lawsuits in four U.S. courts.

CACI International and L-3 Communications Corp, in addition to three civilian employees of the two contractors, have been accused of taking part in various abuses during interrogations of the four plaintiffs. The contractors have denied the charges.

According to the article, the suits claim that the four men were variously subjected to electric shocks and beatings, threatened with dogs, and “hung from a pole for seven days.”

While military personnel have already been tried and convicted for criminal acts of torture at Abu Ghraib, this is the first case involving civilians.

For the full article, click here.

Lawmakers urge Bush to boycott Olympics after Chinese officials prevent activist meeting

2008-07-01T12:16:00.000-05:00

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday during a visit to Beijing, Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Frank Wolf (R-VA) urged President Bush to forgo his trip to the Olympics unless China releases political prisoners and takes other measures to shore up its human rights record, The Associated Press reported the same day.

The call comes in the wake of an incident Sunday in which Chinese officials prevented a group of nine dissidents from dining with the congressmen.

“This type of situation is not uncommon, we often experience similar restraints on our freedoms,” said Fan Yafeng, a legal scholar and researcher at the official Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who was among those barred from the dinner.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao seemed to imply that Smith and Wolf were to blame for the incident, which saw some invited activists detained or placed under house arrest. “We hope the U.S. congressman, while making a visit to China, while conducting relevant activities, respect Chinese laws and regulations and respect their commitments,” Liu told reporters.

The congressmen also used the occasion of the trip to present Li Zhaoxing, the head of the Chinese legislature’s Foreign Affairs Committee, with a list of 734 political prisoners and ask for their release.

For the full article, click here.

U.N. to address Egypt’s deportation of Eritrean asylum seekers

2008-07-01T11:23:00.001-05:00

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) has objected to Egypt’s forced deportation of some 1,000 Eritrean asylum seekers this June and is engaged in talks with Cairo to address the matter, Reuters reported Monday.

“We understand that countries have the right to protect their borders. . . But this is not incompatible with granting protection to those that are really in need,” said Commissioner Antonio Guterres, head of the U.N. refugee agency.

As the article notes, Egypt deported the asylum seekers “in its largest forced returns of probable refugees in decades, despite concern by Amnesty International that they might face torture.”

Egypt has housed tens of thousands of African migrants over the years, but recent pressure from Israel to halt African migration through the porous Egypt/Israel border has prompted a tougher stance on immigration.

Sixteen African migrants have been shot dead by Egyptian authorities at the Israeli border this year.

In addition to the Eritreans already deported, hundreds more are being held in detention centers and face imminent deportation, activists say.

Eritrean asylum seekers are often fleeing religious persecution and enlistment into the armed services. According to the article, “Many are not keen to stay in Egypt, where they face racism and economic marginalization.”

For the full article, click here.

Prison guards beat inmates to end hunger strike in Egyptian jail

2008-07-01T10:40:00.001-05:00

Seventeen inmates in an Egyptian jail near the city of Alexandria were beaten by prison guards attempting to end the group’s hunger strike, Agence France-Presse reported Monday, citing the lawyer of the prisoners.

The group had been arrested in connection with the April 6 Mahalla labor riots. The inmates began their hunger strike on June 23 to protest the conditions of their detention.

The prisoners’ lawyer, Ahmed Ezzat, rejected security officials’ claims that no beating took place. “Authorities at the Borg al-Arab prison went into cell number 24 and beat up 17 prisoners to force them to end their hunger strike last Tuesday,” he said, adding: “Nine of them had been ordered released on June 2 but they are still in custody.”

For the full article, click here.

Iranian youth appeals death sentence, case under review

2008-07-01T09:30:00.000-05:00

The case of an Iranian minor sentenced to death for murder is under review after the youth appealed the ruling, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing judiciary officials.

The conviction of Saleh Taseb, who was reportedly born in 1992, prompted an outcry from the European Union, which issued a statement last week calling on Tehran to halt his execution, as well as those of several other juveniles on death row.

Judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi maintained that Iran does not execute juveniles. “As I have said before, ‘qisas’ [The Islamic code of punishment or fair retribution] is a religious decree and we do not have execution under the age of 18,” Jamshidi said. “We often try to resolve the case through reconciliation and the payment of ‘diya’ [the payment of blood money] to avoid the implementation of the sentence [for a minor].”

As the article notes, “Amnesty International listed Iran as the world’s second most prolific executioner last year, with at least 317 people put to death.”

For the full article, click here.

Vietnamese leader’s visit sparks protest in Houston

2008-07-01T08:46:00.000-05:00

Vietnamese refugees were among a group of nearly 500 people who on June 25 protested against Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to Houston, the Houston Chronicle reported the same day.

As Dung spent the day meeting with Texas business leaders in the hopes of securing new trade agreements, the demonstrators gathered outside a local mall chanting, “No freedom! No democracy! No trade!” They said the U.S. was compromising its democracy promotion efforts by doing business with the communist country.

“I don’t hurt anymore,” said 64-year-old Thu Tran Nguyen, a survivor of North Vietnamese concentration camps. “But my relatives, my countrymen need democracy.”

Tram Pham, 36, added: “We still have family living under this oppressive regime. If our voices aren’t heard in the United States, they’ll never see change.”

For the full article, click here.

Kurdish girl stoned to death by family for eloping

2008-06-30T11:10:00.000-05:00

In a June 17 call to action, the international network Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) reports on an “honor killing” that left a 16-year-old Kurdish girl dead at the hands of her own family.

Kurdistan Aziz recently eloped with her fiancé to Erbil, where, cognizant of the risk posed by her actions, she sought the protection of the government’s domestic violence department. According to WLUML, the department accepted a bribe from Aziz’s father, and returned her to him.

Between May 17 and 18, Aziz was stoned to death by her own family, WLUML says, adding that authorities refused to intervene, calling the matter a “tribal issue.”

WLUML urges concerned parties to write a letter to Kurdistan Regional Government officials demanding that Aziz’s killers be tried as murderers and calling a for a full investigation into evidence of government corruption and negligence.

For the full story, click here.

Exiled activist demands government assurances for return to Egypt

2008-06-30T10:19:00.000-05:00

Egyptian rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim has written a letter to his country’s foreign minister expressing his intent to return to Egypt, but demanding assurances that we will not be arrested, the independent daily Al-Masri al-Yom reported on June 28.

Ibrahim, who has been charged with undermining the national interest and has spent several months in exile, says he has not received a formal response from the Egyptian government.

According to the article, Ibrahim’s letter also demanded “a declaration that the Presidency and the government were not a party in the legal disputes against him being considered by Egyptian courts.”

Ibrahim says Cairo has targeted him for his criticisms of the government of President Hosni Mubarak and his comments on the possibility that Mubarak’s son, Gamal, could succeed his father in office.

“Since I left Egypt, I have been verbally harassed by the Egyptian regime, especially in the international forums I have taken part in,” Ibrahim said. “Egyptian embassies, in fact, send their delegates to these forums specifically to attack me and deny what I say, which is often about the future of democracy in Egypt.”

For the full article, click here.

Event: Meeting on genocide planned in London

2008-06-26T15:12:00.000-05:00

Armenian, Assyrian and Kurdish groups will hold a panel on genocide on July 8 in London, according to Kurdish Media. The collaboration among these three groups, each of which has been the target of genocide throughout history, has led to three new motions in the UK Parliament, Kurdish Media reports. These include Genocide against the Assyrian and Armenian People, recognizing atrocities committed between 1915 and 1923 in Turkey as genocide; Genocide against the Kurdish People, regarding the Anfal Campaign; and Imperial War Museum Genocide Exhibition, welcoming an exhibition at the museum on Anfal, and urging the Government to declare as an act of genocide Saddam Hussein’s killing of the Kurdish people.

Meeting details are as follows.
Where: Room P of Portcullis House (on Victoria Embankment/Bridge Street corner next to Westminster tube station, facing Parliament)
When: 2.00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Speakers include Kurdish historian Prof Kamal Mazhar Ahmad and Kurdish expert and writer Dr Rebwar Fatah.
If you are planning to attend, RSVP to eilian@nant.wanadoo.co.uk
Telephone Rizgar Kocher: 07709435998
For the full story, click here.

Turkey found guilty of human rights violations in case of slain Cypriots

2008-06-26T14:27:00.000-05:00

Turkey has been found guilty of violating the European Convention on Human Rights in the cases of two Cypriots murdered during anti-occupation demonstrations in 1996, the Cyprus Embassy in Washington, D.C. said Thursday.

The European Court of Human Rights handed down the ruling, awarding monetary compensation to the families of Anastasios Isaak and Solomos Solomou, who were killed by Turkish nationals and Turkish Cypriots in the protests, which took place in eastern Cyprus.

Isaak was beaten to death by counter protestors, while Solomou was shot by Turkish snipers after entering a buffer zone near the spot of Isaak’s killing.

For the full article, click here.

Poll on torture finds world opinion mixed

2008-06-25T15:24:00.001-05:00

The results of a just released survey indicate that world opinion is mixed on the use of torture, Agence France-Presse reported Wednesday.

A majority of respondents in 14 countries – including the United States, Egypt and Iran – favor a total ban on torture, while majorities in four other nations – India, Nigeria, Turkey and Thailand – said the practice was acceptable when dealing with terrorists.

The poll was conducted by WorldPublicOpinon.org, a research project at the University of Maryland.

Yvonne Terlingen, Amnesty International’s U.N. representative said it was “really shocking” that “only half of all those interviewed in the poll…agree that all torture should be prohibited.”

According to the article, “The poll also found an increase in the number of people favoring the use of torture for terrorists in Egypt, the United States and South Korea.”

For the full article, click here.

Bush praises Vietnamese PM for progress on religious freedom

2008-06-25T14:45:00.000-05:00

Trade and religious freedom were both high on the agenda Tuesday as President Bush met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the White House, The Washington Post reported the next day.

In recent years, Washington’s efforts to push Hanoi on human rights have been tempered by a desire to open the communist country to U.S. trade.

While human rights groups have been critical of the Vietnamese government for its tight grip on religious expression, Bush took a different tone Tuesday. “I told the prime minister that I thought the strides the government is making towards religious freedom is noteworthy,” he said.

The article adds that the two leaders “agreed to launch negotiations for a bilateral investment agreement, to increase high-level talks on other issues, and to establish a task force to increase educational ties between the two countries.”

For the full article, click here.

Iraqi children face uncertainty in Lebanon

2008-06-25T13:51:00.001-05:00

In Lebanon, displaced Iraqis are struggling to provide for their children, having fled conflict in their homeland only to encounter a new set of troubles, the United Nations’ IRIN news agency reported on June 19.

While children make up an estimated half of the Iraqi refugee population in Lebanon, only 38 percent of the Iraqi households polled in a recent study there sent their children to school.

Many refugee children have suffered through highly traumatic episodes, and as the article notes, their distress is “compounded in Lebanon by the constant fear of arrest or deportation.”

Fourteen-year-old Harin fled Baghdad with her family after witnessing the murder by immolation of her father, a Christian.

In Lebanon, displaced Iraqis also face an inhospitable legal environment. The country has no domestic refugee law and authorities treat Iraqis as illegal immigrants, detaining them with the threat of deportation if they lack residency or work permits.

For the full article, click here.

Turkey convicts publisher of Armenian genocide book

2008-06-25T09:22:00.000-05:00

A Turkish judge has handed down a five-month prison sentence to the publisher of a book on the 1915 Armenian genocide, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on June 21.

Ragip Zarakolu was convicted for insulting the Turkish republic under the country’s notorious article 301. He has been freed on appeal and is not expected to serve time.

The ruling brings to a close a case that lasted more than three years and sparked an international campaign on Zarakolu’s behalf.

The central figure of the book in question is the author’s Armenian grandmother, who survived the Ottoman Empire’s massacre of 1.5 million Armenians. As The Herald notes, “Turkey disputes allegations that the Armenians’ deaths were a result of genocide.”

Sixty writers and journalists have been prosecuted under article 301 since its introduction in 2005.

Zarakolu served prison time in the 1970s for his human rights activism.

For the full article, click here.

Rising inflation continues to haunt Viet Nam’s poor

2008-06-25T08:39:00.000-05:00

With 1.2 million people entering the workforce every year and an inflation rate of 25.2 percent, Viet Nam’s poor are hard pressed to earn enough money to keep their families alive, the United Nations’ IRIN news agency reported on June 11.

Rising fuel and food prices – up 30 and 42 percent from last year, respectively – are making it more difficult for workers to feed their families on typical salaries.

“No matter how careful I am,” said Dinh To Trinh, a worker at a Japanese rubber factory, “at the end of the month, I have nothing left.”

All of these factors seem to be undermining the gains Viet Nam has made towards combating poverty.

Tens of thousands of workers across the country have been staging strikes – over 300 this year alone – to press for higher wages. According to the article, “the government opposes higher wages because salary increases fuel inflation and make Viet Nam less attractive to foreign investors, who generate employment.”

For the full article, click here.

HRW calls on Iran to ensure transparent hearings for Kurdish activists

2008-06-24T16:21:00.001-05:00

Human Rights Watch issued a statement Monday urging the Iranian government to ensure that Kurdish women’s rights activists Hana Abdi and Ronak Safarzadeh receive fair and open trials when their cases come up for a hearing.

Abdi, a member of the Change for Equality campaign, is waiting to appeal her June 19 conviction. Safarzadeh volunteered with the same campaign. Abdi faces a five-year sentence, while Safarzadeh, if convicted, faces a possible death sentence.

Human Rights Watch maintains that the government’s treatment of these two activists is in line with its well-documented pattern of using broadly defined “security laws” to justify large-scale repression. In the last two years, authorities have arrested over 35 activists involved in women’s rights campaigns.

“It’s become routine for the Iranian government to use vague security charges to detain and intimidate peaceful activists,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Now, they’re going further by handing down outrageous sentences.”

According to the article, Abdi’s official offence is “gathering and colluding to commit a crime against national security,” while Safarzadeh may be convicted of the more serious charge of “enmity with God.”

For the full article, click here.

Afghan journalists face mounting death threats, intimidation

2008-06-24T12:19:00.000-05:00

As Afghan journalists become increasingly aggressive in their reporting of the drug mafia, warlordism, and corrupt officials, they must deal with more formidable intimidation and frequent death threats, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported on June 10.

The recent kidnapping and murder of BBC reporter Abdul Samad Rohani is considered to be a reflection of the escalating hostility investigative journalists face in Afghanistan. The fact that the Taliban denied any involvement in his death brings to light the new dangers of reporting in Afghanistan. Increasingly, those risks stem not from war reporting, but attention given to criminal organizations and powerful corrupt politicians.

“Our reporters are working in some very risky areas and are taking on some very edgy topics,” said Jean MacKenzie, the Afghan country director for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). “That brings them into conflict with various members of Afghan society. Certainly, our reporters in the south are under constant threat from a variety of sources. And as the murder of Abdul Samad Rohani is testament to, it is not necessarily the Taliban or the insurgents who are the major source of risk.”

For the full article, click here.

Rape still a constant for Darfur’s women and children

2008-06-24T11:35:00.001-05:00

United Nations peacekeepers say the systematic rape of women and children is the now the biggest issue affecting Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, CNN reported on June 19.

Women and girls as young as four make up the thousands of rape victims caught in the fighting between rebel forces and government-backed militias.

“This is one of the biggest issues in Darfur: the rapes and crimes against women and children,” said Michael Fryer, police commissioner of UNAMID, the United Nations peacekeeping force deployed in Darfur.

According to the article, simple errands such as collecting firewood put teenagers at risk of rape by marauding militiamen. It adds: “Some relief workers say that almost every woman living in aid camps has been raped or become a victim of gender-based violence.”

Cases of rape are so widespread that some aid groups say the practice is being used as a weapon of ethnic cleansing. A report by Refugees International last year said rape was “an integral part of the pattern of violence that the government of Sudan is inflicting upon the targeted ethnic groups in Darfur.”

However, the statements of Sudanese officials have presented a troublingly stark contrast to reports from aid groups. “There is no rape in Darfur,” said Mohammad Hassan Awad, a Humanitarian Commissioner for West Darfur, who accuses foreign aid workers of inciting false claims from women in refugee camps.

For the full article, click here.

Vietnamese activist urges U.S. to push Hanoi on reforms

2008-06-24T10:30:00.001-05:00

In an op-ed in the New York Post on Tuesday, Vietnamese democracy advocate Nguyen Dan Que makes a compelling argument for reform in his home country and urges American interests to use their influence to push the government of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to further liberalize both the economic and political arenas.

Dan Que believes Viet Nam’s current troubles owe more to mismanagement and corruption than intrinsic problems with the Vietnamese economy. Citing rising inflation, soaring food prices, and increasing unemployment, Dan Que strongly condemns the communist government, labeling it an “oppressive state bureaucracy that is now the chief obstacle to progress.”

American influence, Dan Que writes, is the only agent strong enough to create the real liberalizing change Viet Nam needs to revive its failing economy and allow greater democratic participation. He suggests that a commitment from American industry and American politicians to pressure Hanoi could be the push Vietnamese people have been waiting for.

For the full article, click here.

Activist calls on U.N. to help fellow Burmese women

2008-06-23T12:00:00.000-05:00

Nilar Thein, a leading Burmese human rights activist, recently wrote an op-ed for the Bangkok newspaper The Nation. In it, she describes the personal trauma she has endured since August 21, 2007, when junta authorities seized her husband, a prominent dissident.

Other members of the 88 Generation Students activist group her husband leads were also taken from their homes in the raids. Fearing the same fate, Thein decided to flee, asking her parents to care for her then three-month-old daughter so as not to put her at risk.

Now, still on the run, Nilar writes of the inspirational “strength and determination” of detained Burmese Nobel laureate and human rights activist Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. She also calls attention to a U.N. Security Council resolution on women, peace and security. The resolution was debated on the day Thein’s op-ed was published, and she urges world leaders to use the opportunity of the debate to take “urgent action…to help the women in Burma.”

Burma, Thein writes, is mired in both a civil war – with the military fighting ethnic minority resistance forces – and a war “against its own unarmed citizens, who are calling freedom, justice and democracy.” In the former, Thein notes that innocent women have been murdered, raped, and forced to be “sex slaves.” In the latter, “women activists are beaten, arrested, tortured and then put in prison for many years,” she writes, adding that the ravages of Cyclone Nargis and subsequent government neglect have left 35,000 pregnant women “at extreme risk of death.”

For the full op-ed, click here.

Iran sentences woman activist to five years in prison

2008-06-23T10:57:00.000-05:00

A member of a prominent Iranian women’s rights campaign has been sentenced to five years in prison, Reuters reported on June 21.

The activist, Hana Abdi, was charged with attempting to commit a crime against national security, according to her lawyer.

Abdi is a member of the Change for Equality campaign, which aims to collect one million signatures in support of women’s rights. Some 50 women have been detained for their involvement with the campaign, with most held no longer than a few weeks.

Iranian Judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi recently said that gathering signatures was not a crime, but “making propaganda against the system and disturbing public opinion.”

Late last year, an unidentified Iranian judge said the Iranian government was charging Abdi, a resident of Iran’s Kurdistan province, with carrying out bombings along with the Kurdish PJAK rebel group – an Iranian counterpart to the separatist PKK group that operates from northern Iraq.

For the full article, click here.

20 arrested after attack on Coptic property

2008-06-23T10:13:00.000-05:00

Egyptian police said on June 22 that they arrested 20 people in a recent attack on Coptic Christian property in the village of Al-Nazla, some 60 miles south of Cairo, Agence France-Presse reported the same day.

The incident was apparently sparked by rumors that a local woman who had converted to Islam was kidnapped by her Christian family. The woman had in reality been on a three-day visit to relatives in Cairo and would later return home.

Police used tear gas to disperse the hundreds of Egyptian Muslims who took part in the attack.

“Al-Nazla residents threw stones at houses and shops owned by Copts…because the villagers believed that the woman had been kidnapped by Christian members of her family,” a security official said on the condition of anonymity, adding, “Some 50 Coptic homes and businesses, including pharmacies, grocers and electrical appliance shops were sacked.”

Coptic resident Sayyed Ghattas said, “I was surprised at this attack by people with whom we were on good neighborly terms and who, all of a sudden, turned on us. This matter had nothing to do with us.”

For the full article, click here.

Self immolation seen by some Iraqi women as the only escape

2008-06-20T11:27:00.000-05:00

Darun Mohammed (a pseudonym) wishes she had set herself on fire at 15, when she was forced into an arranged marriage with an abusive man. In a poignant interview published by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Mohammed describes her tortured life as a victim of domestic abuse. Her jealous husband refused to let her continue her education or leave the house alone, and blamed her for having daughters instead of sons.

She recalls the moment when she could no longer bear the abuse.

“With tears pouring from my eyes, I grabbed a gallon of kerosene with my left hand and poured it over myself, from the top of my head to my toes. When all of my clothes and body were soaked, I put the container aside, closed my eyes, flicked the lighter and placed it on my chest. All of a sudden, my body was on fire. I rushed out of the bathroom, screaming for help. In a minute, everything went black.”

Mohammed woke up several days later in a hospital burn unit. She has moved to a shelter in Sulaimaniyah, and she laments, “There are hundreds of women who have similar stories to mine, and it is just sad that no one is coming to their defence.”

For the full story, click here.

OSCE High Commissioner stresses importance of language rights

2008-06-20T11:26:00.000-05:00

At a conference Wednesday marking the 10th anniversary of the Oslo Recommendations on the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities, OSCE High Commissioner Knut Vollebaek called on states to protect language rights and said they were “a precondition for peace and stability.”

States should not promote one language at the expense of another, he said in a press release.

Vollebaek continued, “‘such thinking is harmful not just to minorities but also to majorities. When a majority demands mindless obedience and submission from a minority, this is usually regarded as subjugation and increases the chances of that majority not being respected.’”

The Leadership Council for Human Rights applauds Vollebaek for his efforts to protect this fundamental human right.

Click here for the full OSCE release.

Displaced Iraqis protest government inaction

2008-06-20T10:01:00.000-05:00

Some 500 internally displaced Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad on June 14, calling on the government to take action so they can safely return to their homes, the United Nations’ IRIN news agency reported the next day.

“We have been displaced for nearly two years now and we don’t see any serious action being taken by the government to end our suffering,” said Emad Taha Ali, a 39-year-old father-of-two who took part in the demonstration.

Another displaced Baghdadi, Ajeel Khalil Yawar, said the government is unable to effectively address the displacement problem because it treats it as a “de facto” matter.

The head of parliament’s Displacement and Migration Committee echoed the claims of the protestors. “We made numerous calls to the government to help ease this problem but we feel the government pays no serious attention to address this problem, which could take eight to 10 years to be solved if it is left like this,” said Abdul-Khaliq Zankana.

For the full article, click here.

U.N. deems rape a war crime

2008-06-20T09:30:00.000-05:00

The U.N. Security Council said Thursday that rape and sexual violence can be punished as war crimes, the Los Angeles Times reported today.

According to the article, the approved U.S.-sponsored resolution stipulates procedures for monitoring and reporting on sexual violence in armed conflicts, and “urges the U.N. to impose sanctions on violators” and hold accountable peacekeepers “who prey on vulnerable women and children instead of protecting them.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who chaired the session, rejected the stance explicated last year by China, Russia, and South Africa, who said sexual violence in conflicts should not be linked with international security. “We affirm that sexual violence profoundly affects not only the health and safety of women, but the economic and social stability of their nations,” Rice told the Security Council.

For the full article, click here.

Supporters of Burmese pro-democracy activist detained

2008-06-20T08:46:00.000-05:00

A dozen members of the pro-democracy party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi have been detained by Burmese authorities after protesting Thursday against her continued house arrest, The Associated Press reported.

The 12 were part of a larger group of protestors who, on the occasion of Suu Kyi’s 63rd birthday, massed outside the headquarters of her National League for Democracy party, in Rangoon.

Over 100 supporters of the ruling military junta responded with force to the demonstrations, punching and beating some of the protestors.

Suu Kyi’s house arrest has been extended for another year despite international leaders’ repeated calls for her release.

As the article notes, she “has spent more than 12 of the last 18 years under detention.”

For the full article, click here.

Detained Baha’i leaders allowed brief phone calls to families

2008-06-19T14:08:00.000-05:00

Seven Iranian minority leaders who had for weeks been held incommunicado have now been granted brief phone calls to their families, Baha’i World News Service reported Thursday.

The individuals are part of a committee that attends to the needs of Iran’s Baha’i religious minority. Six were arrested in pre-dawn raids on May 14. The seventh was arrested in March. No charges have been filed against any of the leaders.

It is believed that all seven are being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.

As the article notes, “In 1980, all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Iran were taken away and presumed killed as they were never heard from again. A year later, after the Assembly had been reconstituted, eight of the nine members were arrested or killed.”

For the full article, click here.

Rights group says 177 Iranian minors sentenced to death in past decade

2008-06-19T10:11:00.000-05:00

Over the course of the past decade, Iran has sentenced to death 177 minors and executed 34 over them, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.

The group, based in New York and Vienna, published a list of the accused on its Web site that it said was compiled by detained Iranian activist Emad Baghi.

According to the article, “many of the death sentences were based on confessions obtained from defendants under torture or interrogations in which they had no access to a lawyer.”

While Iranian judiciary spokesman Alireza Jamshidi asserted last week that “there are no executions of individuals under the age of 18 in Iran,” he noted that the government does carry out “qisas,” or eye-for-eye retribution for murder, and said that minors have been executed under this law when a settlement with the family of the murder victim cannot be reached.

The Campaign said that Iran executes more minors than any other nation, adding that two-thirds of all such executions in the past three years have taken place in the Islamic Republic.

For the full article, click here.

U.N. human rights chief lashes out at Egypt for deportations of Eritrean asylum seekers

2008-06-19T09:27:00.000-05:00

The large-scale deportation of Eritrean asylum-seekers from Egypt has “alarmed” the U.N. human rights chief, prompting her to call on Cairo to put an end to forced returns, the U.N. News Service reported Thursday.

“Egypt should respect its international obligations not to send home anyone who could face torture or other serious forms of ill treatment, as may well be the case with those who have apparently been deported in recent days,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said in a statement.

Some 700 Eritreans have been deported in recent days, according to reports.

According to the article, “Egypt has seen a surge of Eritreans entering the country illegally in recent months by land from Sudan or directly from Eritrea via the Red Sea.”

For the full article, click here.

Rights group calls on Hanoi to free activist blogger

2008-06-19T08:54:00.000-05:00

A media rights group on Thursday called for the release of an activist Vietnamese blogger arrested days before the Olympic torch relay passed through Ho Chi Minh City, Agence France-Presse reported the same day.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the April 19 arrest of Nguyen Hoang Hai – who blogs under the pseudonym of Dieu Cay – on charges of tax fraud was politically motivated. “Tax fraud was just a pretext to prevent Dieu Cay from demonstrating when the Olympic torch went through Ho Chi Minh City and from criticizing the communist party online,” RSF said in a statement.

“Dieu Cay had posted articles on his blog about protests worldwide during the Olympic torch’s progress through various cities, along with articles critical of China’s policy on Tibet and the [disputed] Parcel and Spratly archipelagos,” the group added, noting that Cay “had called for demonstrations as the torch passed through Ho Chi Minh City.”

For the full article, click here.

Global refugee total now at 11.4 million, U.N. says

2008-06-18T11:35:00.000-05:00

The number of refugees worldwide increased to 11.4 million in 2007, 1.5 million more than the 2006 total, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a recently report, according to The Washington Post.

The report cites the war in Iraq and the conflicts in Columbia, Darfur, and Somalia as large factors in the spike, which follows a decade-long decline.

“For a number of years the number of refugees worldwide was decreasing due to the success of massive voluntary operations in Afghanistan, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Angola,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said. “The number of refugees and internally displaced has started to rise again” during the past two years.

The article notes that, “Pakistan, Iran, Syria and Jordan shoulder the heaviest burden, together playing host to nearly 5 million refugees, mostly Afghans and Iraqis.”

For the full article, click here.

Rights group points to medical study as evidence of U.S. detainee torture

2008-06-18T10:35:00.001-05:00

The most extensive medical study of former U.S. detainees to date found evidence of U.S. torture and war crimes, as well as complicity and denial of care by military health professionals, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Eleven former terrorism suspects – seven from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and four from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – were examined in the recently-published Physicians for Human Rights study.

According to the article, “Those examine alleged that they were tortured or abused, including sexually, and described being shocked with electrodes, beaten, shackled, stripped of their clothes, deprived of food and sleep, and spit and urinated on.” One Iraqi prisoner recounts being subjected to electric shocks and sodomized with a stick.

“Some of these men really are, several years later, very severely scarred,” said Barry Rosenfeld, a psychology professor at Fordham University who conducted psychological tests on six of the 11 detainees covered by the study. “It’s a testimony to how bad those conditions were and how personal the abuse was.”

For the full article, click here.

Taliban offensive displaces hundreds of Kandahar-area residents

2008-06-18T08:49:00.000-05:00

Hundreds of Arghandab residents have been displaced by the Taliban’s recent incursion into the Kandahar-area district, BBC News reported Wednesday.

The offensive comes on the heels of last Friday’s Taliban-coordinated jailbreak in Kandahar, which set free some 350 militants.

Haji Lalai, the head of the local provincial council, said “2,000 families, numbering about 10,000 people” had already fled. “They need urgent help,” he added. “We have talked to U.N. agencies and other NGOs.”

According to the article, Arghandab residents have said that the Taliban has “blown up three bridges and planted bombs under others.” There have also been reports that the militant group has planted mines.

While U.S.-led coalition forces say they have not found evidence that would indicate Taliban control of the area, troops have begun to mass in Arghandab to meet potential threats.

For the full article, click here.

Armenian students discuss rights at International Children’s Day forum

2008-06-17T14:54:00.000-05:00

To mark International Children’s Day, 35 Armenian secondary school students took part in a forum on child rights in the city of Gyumri, Reuters AlertNet reported on June 12.

“For every one of us it is very important to know our rights, no matter if you are a child or an adult,” said 16-year-old Susanna Gasparyan. “My friends and I are eager to learn more about what rights we have, just as we know our responsibilities.”

Several human rights specialists were also involved with the forum, which was facilitated by the Christian relief group World Vision.

According to the article, one forum discussion compared “discussed rights with those included in the Armenian legislation, such as the right to health and education, free speech and religion, etc.”

For the full article, click here.

Expose on police brutality puts ex-state security official at risk

2008-06-17T12:57:00.000-05:00

Ex-policeman Omar Affi has faced harsh repercussions for writing an expose on policy brutality in Egypt, according to the American Islamic Congress’s Civil Rights in the Middle East (C.R.I.M.E.) Report e-newsletter.

Affi’s book, “How Not to Get Smacked on Your Neck,” was banned by the Egyptian government soon after its March release on the grounds that it constituted a “disturbance to public order.” According to the article, “the book featured questions and answers informing Egyptians of their rights and how to deal with abusive police officers accordingly.”

In spite of the ban, the book is available for free upload on the Internet.

Affi and his family recently fled Egypt after former colleagues warned that they were being targeted.

For the full article, click here.

Thousands of Iranian students stage sit-in over sexual harassment case

2008-06-17T10:44:00.000-05:00

Some 3,000 Iranian university students in the northwestern city of Zanjan staged a sit-in over the weekend to protest against an attempt at sexual harassment by their university vice chancellor, Agence France-Presse reported Monday.

The students called on the board of directors to resign over the incident, which involved a young female staff member, and handed the vice chancellor over to security after breaking into his office.

University officials have been on the defensive. “We have asked the students to keep calm and present relevant evidence because this issue needs further examination,” said Zanjan university director Ali Reza Naddaf. “Unfortunately some hardline students today forcefully prevented entry of the staff and academics and did not allow exams to be held,” he added.

Reports indicate that the official in question has been suspended until investigations are complete.

For the full article, click here.

Afghan government doing little to combat child sexual abuse, rights groups say

2008-06-17T09:06:00.000-05:00

Child sexual abuse is a pervasive, yet underreported problem in Afghanistan, with children who work at public places especially at risk, according to the United Nations’ IRIN news agency.

While the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) last year documented just 31 cases of abuse, the actual number per year is thought to be in the hundreds. “Some parents think by reporting sex offenses against their children they will bring dishonor on their families,” said AIHRC’s Hangama Anwary.

When cases are reported, measures to bring justice and assistance to victims are often severely lacking. Seven men who last year gang raped and tortured a 13-year-old girl were released after two days, with a government official citing a lack of evidence. In general, rights groups say that corruption and the weak rule of law have marred efforts to prosecute offenders. To compound the problem, state-funded victim support is nonexistent, as only offenders – and not the government – are required to provide compensation to victims.

The AIHRC says there are strong ties between child sexual abuse and human trafficking, but the group criticizes the dearth of available legal and judicial mechanisms to combat the latter. “Human trafficking has not been defined in our legal system so far,” Anwary said. “We also do not have legal clarity on issues related to child sexual abuse.”

For the full article, click here.

Activist bloggers face heightened crackdowns worldwide

2008-06-16T16:00:00.000-05:00

Bloggers are under increasing attack from governments around the world for posting material critical of the state, BBC News reported Monday, citing the annual World Information Access (WIA) report.

The University of Washington report says 64 individuals have been arrested since 2003 for expressing their opinions on a blog. More than half of these cases were in China, Egypt and Iran.

According to the article, the report says that “arrests tended to increase during times of ‘political uncertainty,’ such as around general elections or during large scale protests.”

The total number of blogger arrests increased threefold between 2006 and 2007, the report notes, adding that bloggers face an average prison sentence of 15 months.

The WIA says the actual number of bloggers arrested could be significantly higher than its estimate, noting unverified reports of hundreds of suspected bloggers arrested in Burma.

For the full article, click here.

Iran’s dress code enforcement sweeps now targeting shops, hairdressers

2008-06-16T15:16:00.000-05:00

Iran has stepped up its crackdown on ‘un-Islamic’ Western fashions, shuttering scores of shops and hairdressers as part of an annual dress code enforcement sweep that has traditionally only targeted pedestrians, The Associated Press reported Monday.

According to the article, Iranian authorities have acknowledged the closure of 32 shops and hairdressers in Tehran and “said 21 vehicles had been stopped because passengers were breaking dress rules.” No reports of arrests have been disclosed.

Police official Nader Sarkari defended the campaign. “Why should some individuals take it upon themselves to commit an act society has deemed a violation?” he told the official news agency IRNA.

For the full article, click here.

Iraq gives UNHCR Jordan $8 million for refugee assistance

2008-06-16T13:29:00.000-05:00

Fulfilling a pledge made last year, Iraq has given $8 million to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) office in Jordan to address the education and health needs of Iraqi refugees there, Agence France-Presse reported Sunday.

UNHCR announced the donation Sunday.

Jordan is home to between 500,000 and 750,000 displaced Iraqis and has put the cost of sheltering them over the past three years at more than $2 billion. According to the article, the kingdom “has said up to 50,000 Iraqi pupils were expected to enroll in already overcrowded state schools for the 2007-2008 academic year.”

For the full article, click here.

Egypt blocks marriage of elderly man, 17-year-old girl

2008-06-16T11:42:00.001-05:00

The Egyptian government has prevented a 17-year-old Egyptian girl from marrying a 92-year-old foreign man from the Gulf, BBC News reported on June 13, citing Egypt’s al-Akhbar newspaper.

The marriage was blocked under a national law that limits the age gap between spouses to 25 years.

According to the article, the law was enacted during the Gulf oil boom in “an effort to prevent wealthy men from the Gulf states seeking young poor prides from the Egyptian countryside.”

Egypt does grant exemptions for foreign men who deposit large sums of money in their wife’s name at the Egyptian National Bank. The article notes that: “According to the al-Akhbar newspaper, 173 such marriages were allowed in the past year after the foreign husband deposited a sum equivalent to about US $8,000 and was screened.”

For the full article, click here.

Viet Nam receives Vatican delegation

2008-06-13T10:31:00.001-05:00

A delegation from the Vatican arrived in Viet Nam Monday for a week-long visit, Agence France-Presse reported the same day.

Meetings were scheduled with government and religious officials, as well as the Hanoi People’s Committee, which has been involved in a dispute with the Vietnamese government over seized church lands.

The visit comes a little over a year after a landmark Vatican meeting between Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Pope Benedict XVI.

As the article notes, “Vietnam has Southeast Asia’s largest Roman Catholic community after the Philippines – about six million out of a population of 86 million – but relations have long been strained between Catholics and the Communist Party.”

For the full article, click here.

Iranian activists arrested on day of solidarity for women’s rights

2008-06-13T09:56:00.001-05:00

Nine women’s rights activists were arrested Thursday in Iran as they planned to participate in an assembly denouncing attempts to silence Iranian women, Women’s Learning Partnership reported the same day.

June 12 has been chosen by activists as the National Day of Solidarity of Iranian women.

“Women’s rights activists are continually denied the right of freedom and association and assembly,” the article says of the situation in Iran. “Even meetings in private homes are often broken up by security forces.”

For the full article, click here.

Congressional computers breached by Chinese hackers, U.S. lawmakers say

2008-06-13T09:13:00.000-05:00

The computers of two U.S. lawmakers have been hacked by perpetrators working from China, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Reps. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Chris Smith (R-NJ), both vocal critics of China’s human rights record, have reported multiple office computers compromised. According to the article, the machines “contained information about political dissidents from around the world.”

Wolf said the first breach in his office occurred in 2006, while two of Smith’s computers were hacked during separate incidents in 2006 and 2007.

The article also notes that, according to Wolf, “following one of the attacks, a car with license plates belonging to Chinese officials went to the home of a dissident in Fairfax County, Va., outside Washington and photographed it.”

The computer of Wolf’s chief of staff was among the machines in the lawmaker’s office breached. “They knew which ones to get,” said Dan Scandling, who currently is on leave of absence from his job as Wolf’s chief of staff. “It was a very sophisticated operation. The FBI verified that it had been done.”

Wolf said he had long known about the attacks but was discouraged from disclosing them by government officials he refused to identify.

The article also reports that, during the period of the Wolf and Smith breaches, hackers from China compromised House Foreign Affairs Committee computers.

For the full article, click here.

Iranian official orders stay of execution for two juvenile offenders

2008-06-10T15:30:00.001-05:00

Iranian judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi has agreed to a one month suspension for Mohammad Fadaie and Behnoud Shojaie, two men who were convicted of murder while legally minors, Agence France-Presse reported Tuesday, citing the Iranian Student’s News Agency.

The stays of execution came after U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour asked Iran to refrain from executing four condemned convicts sentenced to death for crimes committed when they were under the age of 18. However, it is not clear if Shahroudi’s order was in direct response to the U.N. request.

According to the article, the Iranian judiciary insists that minors are never executed in the Islamic republic. Yet human rights groups maintain that there have been several documented cases of the state executing convicted minors after reaching the age of 18.

For the full article, click here.

Egyptian parliament criminalizes female circumcision despite mounting conservative criticism

2008-06-10T15:14:00.000-05:00

The Egyptian parliament passed new legislation criminalizing female circumcision on June 7, despite fierce resistance from conservative theologians and members of parliament, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Even though female gentile mutilation was banned many years ago in Egypt, the practice is still considered to be widespread. According to the article, some 70 percent of Egyptian girls are believed to have undergone the procedure.

The new law, in addition to criminalizing female circumcision, also allows women for the first time to register their children without giving the father’s name. Under the old law, women could not register their out-of-wedlock children.

Members of parliament that belong to Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and conservative religious scholars have strongly objected to the law. They point to Koranic scripture in defense of both the surgery and naming rights. According to the article, they maintain that the removal of a girl’s clitoris is necessary to tame her sexual desires and that a woman carrying a child out of wedlock is a prostitute.

For the full article, click here.

Armenian returnees see signs of economic progress in homeland

2008-06-10T14:59:00.001-05:00

Large numbers of expatriate Armenians now returning to their homeland, The Associated Press reported Sunday.

The large Armenian diaspora is partially a function of the murderous World War I-era campaigns of Ottoman Turkey, which left 1.5 million dead and displaced countless others in what many have labeled genocide. In more recent times, large-scale displacement has resulted from the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The remittances of those living abroad today account for up to 10 percent of Armenia’s economy.

However, the last four years have seen the first positive trend in population inflow since the Soviet collapse, with Armenia gaining 33,200 residents. According to the article, many of the returnees are from the Russian diaspora, with some “lured back by economic improvements” and others “escaping growing xenophobia.”

Still, Armenia is not without its problems. Over 25 percent of its residents are poor, post-election protests have erupted of late, and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict continues.

Despite all this, returnees see signs of hope. “Today this country offers a lot of possibilities,” said Zorair Atabekian, who returned from Canada in 2005. “That is why many diaspora are returning here to start up businesses.”

For the full article, click here.

Investors promote growing flowers instead of poppies in Afghanistan

2008-06-10T14:37:00.001-05:00

A group of Afghan and foreign businessmen have been trying to offer an alternative to Afghan farmers by urging them to grow flowers for perfume instead of poppies for drugs, National Public Radio reported on June 4.

In the face of record breaking poppy harvests and heroin production, the Gulestan Company was formed several years ago by American and Afghan businessmen who sought to help farmers transition from the narcotic crop into the business of growing flowers for perfume. The production process for perfume and heroin are both similar and simple, but according to the article, the new venture has been a frustrating and costly endeavor.

Barnett Rubin is an Afghanistan expert at New York University and one of the founders of the Gulestan Company. He said that despite its potential, the business faced daunting obstacles, both from local farmers and the government.

“After my experience trying to start a legal taxpaying company in Afghanistan, I understand very well why people prefer to go into illegal businesses,” Rubin said, blaming corrupt and inefficient Afghan government officials for many of Gulestan’s problems. “We kept trying to pay this tax, and every time we did, the officials in the local treasury department would ask us for bribes,” he added.

The mounting obstacles are forcing Gulestan’s owners to close the company. But local entrepreneurs like Abdullah Arsallah are not giving up. He hopes to resurrect Gulestan and redirect Afghanistan’s agricultural sector.

“It’s very easy to go into the drug business, but… that will not get us anywhere,” Arsallah said. “It’s a cycle that one has to break.”

For the full article, click here.

Egyptian government defies judiciary, keeps labor group shuttered

2008-06-10T14:06:00.001-05:00

Human Rights Watch last week called on the Egyptian government to follow court orders and remove restrictions against the Center for Trade and Union Workers Services (CTUWS).

According to HRW, “In April 2007, the government forcibly shut down all three branches of [CTUWS], claiming that the organization was behind a wave of labor unrest and that it was not a recognized nongovernmental organization (NGO).” But in March 2008, the Giza Administrative Court ruled against the government, saying the closure was “without cause.”

Despite the court’s decision, which was “effective ‘immediately,’” the government has failed to comply with the order to reopen the organization and approve its NGO status.

“For more than two months, the Egyptian government has brazenly defied the country’s judiciary, and continues to suppress the peaceful activities of the workers’ group,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government’s claim that Egypt upholds the rule of law has lost whatever credibility it might have had.”

For the full article, click here.

Kurdish women seek greater rights in new personal status law

2008-06-10T13:15:00.000-05:00

Kurdish women are up in arms over proposed legislation on marriage and inheritance that they fear could have too much of a basis in Islam, the Institute for War & Peace Reporting reported Tuesday.

The new Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) personal status law would replace a 1959 Iraqi law lauded as progressive at the time for its restrictions on polygamy and child marriage.

According to the article, a government advisory committee said in April that it would be recommending that Islam “be the sole source of legislation for the [new] personal status law.” This prompted anger among women’s rights advocates who, while agreeing that the old law is outdated, want the new law to ban polygamy and child marriage and provide women with equal inheritance rights.

Over 40 Kurdish women’s rights activists have sent a memorandum to the region’s parliament “demanding that the new law promotes women’s rights,” the article notes. Activists have also successfully pressured the KRG into adding five women to the previously all-male advisory committee.

For the full article, click here.

Turkey to go before human rights court for PKK strikes

2008-06-10T12:28:00.000-05:00

Turkey will soon face legal claims related to the destruction caused by recent air raids on PKK rebel bases in northern Iraq, The Guardian reported Monday.

According to the article, the charges were lodged at European court of human rights “by the London-based Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP) on behalf of Muslim and Chaldean Christian villagers who say they lost their homes during Turkish air raids last October and December.” The claimants are seeking compensation for the deaths and damage that they say the attacks caused.

The attacks on PKK bases resumed this past weekend in Iraqi Kurdistan’s Zap region.

A Turkish military official recently confirmed that intelligence sharing efforts are ongoing with Iran, home to the rebel group’s Pejak wing.

There are conflicting reports on the extent of the damages cited in the charges. A British lawyer involved with the case said he “witnessed some of [the] atrocities and also saw that civilians have been traumatized [and]…displaced,” adding that the “military operations have compromised the human rights of Iraqi civilians.” However a Turkish embassy spokesman in London said he was not aware of any civilian casualties, only loss of livestock.

For the full article, click here.

Would-be teen suicide bomber says religious teachers ‘forced’ him into planned attack

2008-06-10T11:30:00.000-05:00

Fourteen-year-old Shakirullah was apprehended three months ago by Afghan troops in Khost Province, moments before he was to detonate his vest packed with explosives in a suicide bombing attempt. Now held in a detention center for minors, he admits it was his religious teachers who first encouraged and then forced him to attempt the attack, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported on June 6.

Living with his family in Pakistan, Shakirullah was sent to the Salib madrasah for religious education. After six months of Koran instruction, the boy says his teachers gave him the suicide vest and took him across the border into Afghanistan.

Told he would “never die” if he sacrificed himself, and assured he would “come back” to see his family, the teachers gradually increased their pressure on Shakirullah to commit the suicide bombing. Finally he was told that he would not be allowed to see his family again until he carried out the attack.

According to the report, Shakirullah now believes that his religious instructors took advantage of his young age. He says he is happy to be alive and safe, but also that he “misses his mother and wants desperately to see her again.”

For the full article, click here.

Thousands riot against new flour rationing policies in Egypt

2008-06-10T11:12:00.002-05:00

Thousands of demonstrators clashed with Egyptian police on June 7 in the coastal town of Burullus as they protested a new local policy that would give subsidized flour directly to bakeries instead of citizens, The Associated Press reported Sunday.

The state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram said that some 8,000 protesters took to the streets, blocking a major highway with burning tires. Police responded with force, firing tear gas into the crowds.

Eighty-seven demonstrators were taken in for questioning after the incident, a security official said.

According to the article, the protests were spurred in part by the town’s fishermen who rely on baking their own bread, which they say is heartier than the store-bought variety and can withstand long journeys to sea.

The government has made accusations of black market profiteering from subsidized flour sales.

For the full article, click here.

Iranian political prisoners in need of urgent medical care

2008-06-10T10:47:00.000-05:00

Human Rights Watch last week called on Iranian authorities to grant three political prisoners access to much needed proper medical attention.

Held in the notorious Evin Prison, cleric Ayatollah Kazemi Boroujerdi, journalist and activist Mohammad-Sadiq Kaboudvand, and prominent human rights advocate Emad Baghi are all reported by HRW to be in poor health and in need of “specialist medical attention.”

“It’s outrageous that these men’s health is being comprised for no apparent reason,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at HRW. “Iranian authorities have yet to produce evidence for why these men are in prison to begin with, and now they are refusing to provide them with adequate care.”

Boroujerdi, arrested in 2006, was allowed trips to the prison medical clinic until April of this year, but has consistently been denied access to a physician or clinic outside the prison system. HRW cited sources close to the case as saying that his mental and physical health were rapidly deteriorating.

Baghi has been in Evin Prison since 2007 and developed heart problems while in solitary confinement there. Released for a two-month period in early 2008 on medical leave, he was re-imprisoned and soon thereafter suffered a heart attack. After a brief period in the prison clinic, he was placed back in his cell.

Arrested in 2007, Kaboudvand also suffered a heart attack while in jail. According to his lawyer, frequent requests for treatment have gone ignored.

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