López narrates how her 19-year-old daughter, Jahaira Guadalupe Vaena López, was abducted in Tlacolula, Oaxaca. She describes her efforts to get the authorities to investigate the crime, how she was warned not to press the matter, how informants told her that her daughter was murdered in a turf battle between fractured drug gangs. Just days before leaving for the United States with the Caravan for Peace, she faced one of the assassins who had been apprehended and listened as he described in detail how her daughter was raped and beheaded.

Margarita has joined some 50 grieving family members to accompany caravan leader Javier Sicilia on a trip across the United States. Sicilia, a poet who lost his son to drug war violence in March of 2011, catalyzed a movement of victims and Mexican citizens fed up with the bloodshed that has claimed more than 60,000 lives and left tens of thousands more disappeared since former President Felipe Calderon launched the drug war five years ago.

Mexico’s Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity decided to organize the U.S. caravan after taking two caravans from Mexico City–one north to Ciudad Juarez on the U.S. border, and one south to the border with Guatemala. Both drew out victims of the drug war and registered their cases to provide support for family members seeking justice and solace.

The decision to take their pain across the border came after discussion with the San Francisco-based group Global Exchange. Soon a coalition came together that included Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, the Latin American Working Group, the RFK Center, the Washington Office on Latin America, our CIP Americas Program, the Drug Policy Alliance, and the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, among the key players. The coalition later expanded to include the NAACP, and local organizations in each of the cities along the route.

A binational meeting in June defined five demands of the U.S. caravan: to open public debate on humane alternatives to drug prohibition, to ban the import of assault weapons and crack down on illegal gun smuggling over the border, to combat money-laundering with full investigation and strict enforcement, to suspend all aid to the Mexican armed forces and end the war on drugs abroad, and to halt the militarization of the border and criminalization of migrants.

I joined the caravan on the final east coast leg of its 6,000-mile trip. I had heard most of the stories before in Mexico, having accompanied the northern caravan and numerous marches and meetings.

I was curious to see the impact on people in the United States. As the women in the room told their stories, each one struck like a cold blade in the heart. Although women are a minority of the war’s deaths, attacks on women usually include brutal sexual violence, and women make up the majority of those actively seeking justice and an end to the war.

Along the route, caravan members like these women have become confident and eloquent spokespersons to end the drug war. They speak from the heart and appeal to the heart. Their empowerment as leaders is one of the most important achievements of the caravan. Another is the sympathy and outrage their testimonies evoke.

And it’s not a one-way street. Caravan members also listened to the stories of U.S. citizens. Like Kimberly Armstrong in Baltimore, whose 16-year-old son was shot and killed by a 14-year-old in endemic drug violence. Or Carole Eady, who struggled her way out of the stigma and life disruption of imprisonment for a drug offense in New York City.

The threads begin to come together. In her brilliant book The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander notes that in Washington, D.C., the caravan’s last stop, it’s estimated that three out of four black men can expect to serve time in prison. She calls this mass incarceration of black people a new racial caste, the latest Jim Crow system of social control, where young black men and women are jailed, stigmatized, and in many cases disenfranchised for life by discriminatory drug laws.

Based on the shared sorrow of losing loved ones to jail, violence, death, or disappearance, Mexicans and Americas found they fight the same unjust system of social control of the poor and people of color. The drug war generates profits for the defense industry and siphons public funds into perpetuating itself. It rips apart families and communities, north and south of the border. The bogus attempt to eliminate rather than regulate something in great demand creates a multibillion-dollar black market run by groups that become more violent as they are selectively attacked. It pits security forces against the public, providing them with the tools to violate human rights and life with impunity. It erodes democracy and the rule of law it purports to uphold.

Whether it’s through imposing a military/police state in Mexico or shunting youth into the margins of society, the drug war machine runs on the human lives it destroys.

A binational peace movement?

The caravan’s call to end the drug war resonated in city after city. But has the caravan forged a binational movement for peace?

Not yet. As the Mexican caravaners go back home, their U.S. hosts return to daily life. Many will simply guard the memory of Mexico’s pain and begin to read the news a little differently.

But others will act. The Peace Caravan has already achieved something remarkable. It brought together groups in U.S. cities that scarcely knew each other before. Some community organizers in the scores of cities from San Diego to the nation’s capital plan to continue the dialogue with the Mexican movement and among themselves.

In New York City, the Latino and African-American communities plan a meeting to discuss the impact of mass arrests and detention. In Baltimore, the movement to block construction of yet another multimillion-dollar prison in one of the nation’s most economically devastated cities is making common cause with movements for drug policy reform, racial justice, and youth rights.

In Texas, faith-based organizations advocating stricter enforcement of gun laws are intensifying their campaign against gun show sales and arms smuggling after seeing close up the human cost of the flow of guns to Mexico. In Arizona, human rights organizations working against the militarization of the border and the death and detention of migrants came face-to-face with activists protesting Mexico’s militarized drug war in a cross-border reflection. In Washington, members of Congress received caravan lobbyists whose power to convince came not from money or influence, but from human empathy and reason.

The way many U.S. citizens understand the drug war has changed through meeting the Mexicans who bear the brunt of it. While U.S. politicians and media portray it as a necessary fight against the threat that organized crime supposedly poses to national security in both countries, the victims spoke of the violence that resulted from the war on drugs itself. Audiences and congressional representatives were surprised to learn that many of the victims on the caravan accused not gangs but the U.S.-funded Mexican police and military for the murder or disappearance of their loved ones.

Organizers now face the question of how the moral victory can lead to a political one. On the drug policy front, U.S. society seems to be moving toward a tipping point despite push-back from law enforcement and private prison interests that make big money off incarceration, as well as from politicians who convert insecurity into “law and order” votes. A recent poll shows Colorado could legalize marijuana in the November elections after a similar measure narrowly lost in California. The award-winning film The House I Live In presents a stunning indictment of the domestic drug war through the words of its enforcers, its participants, and its victims.

But the federal government continues to be on the wrong side of the trend. Some hope that President Obama, if he is reelected, could make bolder moves toward reorienting a policy that imprisons so many mostly African-American youths and costs the nation $51 billion a year, according to the DPA. I’m inclined to agree with a LEAP editorial that warns the reform movement to watch the actions, not the rhetoric, of the Obama administration. It will take a stronger push from constituents to get the administration to take on the interests that benefit from sustaining America’s longest war.

Moral victories plant seeds that are often slow to bear fruit. Evaluating the experience on the last morning in a church hall, exhausted caravan members saw a mix of catharsis and consciousness-raising that gave them strength. Lopez noted that the “the tragedy I’m living through can be useful to a lot of people.” Melchor Flores, whose son was arrested in January of 2009 in Monterrey and never seen again, stated that the caravan had “touched consciences”.

He added, “Wherever my son is, he should be satisfied because he knew I wouldn’t let him down.”

Teresa Carmona, a tiny, white-haired woman whose son Joaquin was murdered in Mexico City, has become a powerful voice before the public and the media. She believes the caravan met its goal.

“We brought the faces of our beloved children, parents, and relatives all the way here, and so we legitimated this pain and this reality.”

In the nation that first invented the drug war and exported it to their country with deadly results, the Mexican bereaved have left a mark in the hearts of thousands of men and women. Sometimes it takes tragedy to make change. The cumulative histories recounted in the peace caravan represent a tragedy of mammoth proportions.

That should be more than enough to act on.

AUTHOR: Laura Carlsen
URL: www.cipamericas.org and http://americasmexico.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: lecarlsen [at] gmail.com

On October 8, the Chihuahua government announced that it had captured the assassin of Marisela, who confessed to authorities. José Enrique Jiménez, (“El Wicked”)  told the press that he shot Escobedo on orders from the Zetas. He said Sergio Barraza, who murdered Rubí, was a member of the Zetas and Escobedo’s very public mission to bring him to justice upset the nation’s most ruthless organized crime group.

But human rights organizations have their doubts regarding the resolution of the crime. Luz Esthela Castro, Escobedo’s attorney noted in Reforma (Oct. 9, 2012) that the government already “solved” the case, announcing in December 2011 it stated that investigations had established the guilt of Hector Flores, a decesased crime figure. But videos of the crime show only one shooter.

Castro also noted that the latest alleged assassin used unusual legal terms in his confession, implying he had been coached. The governor of Chihuahua, Cesar Duarte, reacted angrily to the doubts raised by human rights organizations.

“Whoever doubts, is simply adding elements to try to make sure that things are not resolved,” he told Reforma.

The murders of Marisela Escobedo and her daughter Rubí are on a short list of crimes against women presented to the Federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) by an international delegation of women human rights defenders and journalists led by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams. These crimes were identified as priorities for the gravity of the crimes and as a signal that the Mexican government was serious about investigating and prosecuting crimes of violence against women.

Everyone wants to see this brutal assassin behind bars–that’s why as the Mexico host committee and the delegation we included the case on the list of priorities. But there has been a recent spate of captures and cases being closed in the final days of the Calderón government that are surrounded

For more information on Marisela Escobedo’s case and the demand to the PGR, see the report from the delegation organized by Just Associates and the Nobel Women’s Initiative that I had the privilege of being part of here.

After talking with colleagues in JASS and others about the recent developments in this important case, the concern is, first, that we could be seeing another case of scapegoats presented to deflect public pressure and criticism.

Second, if this is the assassin, the problem remains that the men who hired him and Sergio Barraza who killed Rubí are still at large. The justice system that repeatedly failed to prosecute and then imprison the guilty is still deeply flawed. And the public safety system that stood by as a woman human rights defender was shot practically on the steps of the state building still cannot guarantee women’s safety.

AUTHOR: Laura Carlsen
URL: www.cipamericas.org and http://americasmexico.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: lecarlsen [at] gmail.com

1. On 26th June, 2012 Ms. Shirin Shabana Khan, senior member of management committee of PVCHR posted in Odisha Watch an article published in Asia News. This article includes the quotation of Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi on Kandhamal issues. After more than a month three gentlemen (Mr. Saubhagya Panigrahi, Mr. Chinmaya Kumar Panda and Mr. Bahara Mihir Mohanty) from Odisha attacked on her religion identity.
2. Shruti Nagvanshi was struck down in the ground and villagers were beaten by Guddu Dubey, known for his links to the underworld in Ahirani Nathaipur, Block – Baragaon under Phulpur Jurisdiction, Varanasi.. After they complained that a social audit was being fabricated, and that many of their names were being misused. The audit was to look into the operation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (MNREGA), which is operated by the Village Panchayat. We have also learned that although the office of the village head was reserved for a female candidate and was won by the wife of a local landlord, it is her husband who runs the village.

Lalji and Mr. Magala Rajbhar, an activist associated with the PVCHR, tried to intervene and keep the peace, but were beaten by Singh. The BDO called off the meeting and made moves to leave. When asked to call the police by two female PVCHR staff members (Ms. Shruti and her sister Ms. Anupam), he claimed that he would rather report it personally. Shruti requested that she and Lajli go with him and the three tried to leave, but a mob of upper caste men led by Singh reportedly surrounded the vehicle and demanded that Lalji get out. At this point Mishra allegedly pushed Lalji out of his vehicle, and Shruti followed, fearing for his safety. The two were beaten, and one man, Guddu Dubey, known for his links to the underworld, struck Shruti to the ground. Villagers were able to intervene and the two victims were taken to Phulpur Police Station to make a report.

3. Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi was detained under Section 151 and released after four hours while the other three activists were charged under Sections 107/16 for the legal proceeding. As on 8 August 2003, the children held a Child Parliament in front of the district headquarters and demanded a school in their area. On 26 August 2003, observed as tehsil diwas (day), 250 children walked 5 km from the Sant Kabir Jan Mitra Kendra to Pindra tehsil and submitted their demand to the SDM of Pindra. The SDM misbehaved with the children and ordered a lathi-charge on the children and the villagers.

Rajendra Tiwari, present village head of Belwa village, does not plan to open any school for the Musahars he engages as bonded labourers in his brick kiln factory. Even the BRC co-ordinator in his report stated that 211 children were present in the brickfields and this ghetto was marginalised due to politically biased enmity.

In 2007 false charged imposed on Dr. Raghuvanshi and his colleagues under Section 505(b) were highlighted by NDTV in a special news report. It was aired in India, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom on 10 December 2010. As the national media wrote front-page editorials, the electronic media gave wide coverage to the issue by allotting prime time news coverage to these cases.

The state administration, meanwhile, haphazardly responded to the issue. Its response was in two different directions, unfortunately opposing each other. Once the appeals were issued, the administration immediately dispatched some of its senior most government officers to the remote villages to study the situation. In one such case, some of the top officers literally flew into Anei village at Varanasi in a helicopter. Anei is the village from which the Jigar case was reported. The officers, under the direction of the chief minister’s office, took immediate steps to ensure that there would be no further starvation deaths in the village. The officers made overnight arrangements to measure the land and even allotted land to the lower caste community in the village within hours.

Various political parties in the state picked up the issue of starvation and malnourishment. Rahul Gandhi, a Member of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh, came to know about the case of Mukesh from Jaunpur district and made arrangements for his treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Mukesh was shifted to AIIMS and is now receiving treatment there. While this was going on, the chief minister appeared on television and gave a statement that the reports made by PVCHR and AHRC concerning starvation and deaths from malnutrition were false. Simultaneously, I started receiving threat calls on my mobile phone.

One Rajendra Tripathi has filed a complaint against him and his colleagues at the Phulpur police station making false allegations against PVCHR and myself. Tripathi, the head of Belwa village who is also the complainant in the case, is a person against whom I, in the past, as the member of the District Vigilance Committee against Bonded Labour, filed complaints, based on which there is a warrant of arrest issued by the magistrate’s court. The arrest order is pending against Tripathi. The FIR states that Tripathi himself reported at Phulpur police station along with his brother, and has given the First Information Statement.

To
Police Station Officer,
Phulpur, Varanasi
Sir

The applicant Mr Rajendra Prasad Tripathi, son of Raj Narayan Tripathi is a resident of Belwa village within the jurisdiction of Phulpur police station of Varanasi district. He is a peace loving person. In the applicant’s village, now Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi, Ms Anupam Nagavanshi and Ms Shruti Nagavanshi of village Pandeypur and Daulatpur and Mr Prem Nut, son of Mahangu, Ms Kalawathi, wife of Sherbahadur of Belwa are running various NGOs – Jan Mitra Nyas (funding organisation), People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights, Sawitri Bai Phule Samiti, Bagath Singh Youth Singh Samiti, Voice of People, etc. They are giving fake assurances and attractions to the illiterate and poor people in the name of money, Anthyodaya Anna Yojana Card (AAY card), housing, pension, allotment of land and jobs and they are earning money. They have compelled the villagers into class conflict and are interfering in the village committee politics by agitating the villagers by provocative speeches. It is their work to gather against the administration and other respected people of the village and they regularly conduct gherao in the district head quarter and against other high officials.

The above people and their NGO’s work is to create class conflict and lawlessness. If legal action is not taken against the above people, the situation of conflict and disorder will be created. Sir, I urge you to take legal action against the above people so there could be peace in the village.

9 December 2007
Applicant
Mr Rajendra Prasad Tripathi
Village Belwa

The complaint reflects the worry of a Brahmin who finds his family’s thus far unchallenged domination upon the lower caste being challenged. The accused persons in the complaint also include members of the Dalit community. The mere fact that the complaint is false and made with malicious intention calls for action against the complainant under provisions of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and also under the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The allegations of ‘making promises’ are false. Free speech is a fundamental right in India, so is the freedom to associate. The registration of the crime based on this complaint will amount to registering a crime for exercising a person’s fundamental right guaranteed in the Constitution. This ground of the complaint has no legal basis whatsoever.

In spite of repeated reminders, the Phulpur police refused to produce anything in court. Even though the law mandates a report to be filed by the police in court within 48 hours, the police filed a report after 10 days informing the court that a crime has been registered. Meanwhile, the PVCHR activists against whom the crime was registered also appeared in court, informing it that they are present within the jurisdiction of the police and in public in case the police wanted them to be arrested. The police, however, refused to arrest them. Ironically, PVCHR has also been requested by the state police department to address their senior officers on human rights principles in a meeting organised by the state police department in Varanasi on 28 January 2008. In December 2007, the PVCHR staff and the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh even had a live discussion telecast regarding the issues of starvation and hunger of Dalits in the state.

In fact, in August 2005, PVCHR promoted a contest against the candidature of Tripathi as the village head in the local election. Tripathi immediately responded by ordering Ramasray Singh, a local criminal, to call the candidate S N Giri and me over telephone saying that he has been asked by Tripathi to kill both me and Giri for promoting a competition in the village election, which thus far was never contested. Against this, the AHRC issued an Urgent Appeal, which was responded to by three rapporteurs from the United Nations, who wrote to the Government of India to provide protection to Giri and me. The Election Commission of India also responded to the appeal by sending their representative to monitor the election and ordering the then District Magistrate to provide every security to Giri and also to the Dalit voters during the election. A criminal case was registered against Ramasray Singh and he was arrested. The District Magistrate also issued shoot-at-sight orders against the criminals sponsored by Tripathi, if they tried to prevent the Dalits from participating in the electoral process. Due to this, for the first time since Independence, the Dalits in Belwa exercised their right to vote.

4. Mangal Singh son of Ghasite resident of Vishal Nagar, district Mahoba of Uttar Pradesh. Mangal Singh, a farmer is fighting against the illegal mining & heavy blasting activities near town Kabrai Mahoba district, which has affected the residents of that areas. He has filed PIL in Honb’ High Court, Allahabad CIVIL MISC. WRIT PETITION NO 63396 OF 2009 that turned the stone crusher association against him. On which Mangal Singh sought security from Honb’ High Court. The Honb’ Court ordered but till now he did not get any security.

5. Ms.Rehana Adeeb, founder of ASTITWA (Action Social team for Women) Social Organization in Purkoji Street, District Muzaffarnager of Uttar Pradesh. Her organization starts having friendly relation with Muslims and dalits women and share their high and lows faces in their life and experience how they individually struggled in their life and run their families.

Astitwa is making effort with this aim and some people or some groupis strictly opposing it because they are in the fear of seat and they are playing politics in the name of religion and women. They are raising their voice and doing against Astitwa because they are feared of political game will be ruined. For example provoking with worker, forcefully taking money by entering in office, showing vulgar picture and mentioning it on the piece of paper to women worker, communicating on the mobile etc. several times it was complained in the police station but police respected people of the society unite for doing harassment. Administration entirely oppositely behaving with us “they are already in trouble and we also came to troubled them”. In this situation it is very challenging to work. Entire day she work in the field because her house is 90 Km far from my work place. It is very dangerous to sleep alone in the office. Female colleagues help her in day during her work but she is alone in the night.[iii]

6. Mr. Mahesanand, Secretary, Gramya Swaraj Samiti organized protest march from Dudhi tehsil to Robertsganj district header of Sonbhadra. In which five thousand tribal will cover 100 km starting from 10- 15 March on the resolution taken by villagers of Sundari on 15th January, 2011 after inauguration of Kanhar Dam. He faced threat from the local contractor, state and political parties.

7. When the world recognises and shows solidarity with the non violent protest of Irom Sharmila, that entered into the 10th year for demanding establishment of rule of law and repeal of AFSPA entirely from the State, the political system both in Delhi and Manipur get into the brass task to undermine the strength of non violence through their silence and ignorance. Her’s is the longest protest for a social cause by any single individual anywhere in the world. Reacting to her hunger strike, and the public support across the globe, the frustrated Mr Okram Ibobi Singh, the Chief Minister told in the Manipur State Assembly that the State Government had to spend around Rs 147,000 in two years to keep Sharmila ‘alive’. We are sure; the Britishers never said such thing against Gandhiji. Neither the security agencies, nor the political class have learned the meaning and experience of non violence, except using it as a debit card.

8. The reign of terror was such that even listening to Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) Radio Station would lead to public beatings and incarceration. “There were lots of stories in our childhood about sending behind bars anyone caught murmuring signature tune of AJK radio-today many have put this as ring tone in their cell phones. Those days it was seditious to tune in any other radio station other than the Radio Kashmir. We heard stories about sleuths eavesdropping and people being cane charged and even fed with hot potatoes by dreaded cops for listening to AJK radio”.

9. Police firing in Paramakudi area of Ramanathapuram District, Tamil Nadu, on 11September 2011, in which 6/7 persons died and several injured. Pursuant to the directions of the Commission to the DGP, Tamil Nadu, the SP, Ramanathapuram District, has sent his report dated 29.02.2012. As per this report, Crime No. 300/11 U/S 147/148/149/427/324/435/332/307 IPC and Section 3/4 of the TNPPDL Act, was registered at Town Police Station of Paramakudi on the incident in question. Vide Government Order dated 29.11.2011 the investigation of the case has since been transferred to the CBI. The report further says that the State Government has appointed a one man Commission of Inquiry, headed by Justice Shri Sampath, a retired Judge of the Madras High Court, to conduct an inquiry into the incident. The report is yet to come. The report further says that vide Government Order dated 29.11.2011, the State Government has announced relief of Rs.5 lakhs each to the NOK of the deceased persons. The Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu, is directed to inform the Commission of the status of the inquiry by the Inquiry Commission within four weeks. He should further forward to the Commission proof of payment of the announced relief to the NOK of the persons who died in the police firing. The Additional Director, CBI, Chennai, is also directed to inform the Commission of the current status in the case within four weeks.

Dr. B.R Ambedkar rightly says “Indian today are governed by two different ideologies. Their political ideal set in the preamble of the constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their social ideal embodied in their religion denies them”

Therefore it is an appeal to Government of India to assert the Liberty (Freedom of Expression) and to invite UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly to visit to India.

AUTHOR: Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi
URL: http://www.pvchr.net/
E-MAIL: pvchr.india [at] gmail.com

Mrs. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, pm@pmo.gov.bd

Re: Bangladesh: Immediately release illegally arrested gay men by police

Dear Prime Minister,

I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com.

I have been informed regarding an alarming situation by Boys of Bangladesh, popularly known as BoB, is the oldest and the largest network of self-identified Bangladeshi gay men from home and abroad. Based in Dhaka, this non-registered, non-funded and non-formal group is run by a pool of volunteers.

I came to know that three gay men were illegally arrested by Bangladesh in Sylhet. While Bangladeshi young gay men Sumon, Jakir and British citizen Alen were enjoying their time in a hotel in Sylhet, the Kotwali police breach the privacy and illegally detained them in custody.

I have been informed by local sources that police have physically and mentally tortured Sumon and Jakir upon arrest.

The kotwali have filed a case against british citizen Alen and charged under Section 377A of BPC, for adult homosexual sex acts with Sumon and Jakir.

I want to remind you this 377A is an unconstitutional law and against the basic human rights and breach the inspiration of the constitution.

I am really concern with this inhuman law the three innocent men may be punished with fines and/or up to 10 years, sometimes life imprisonment.

I want to remind you that this law is inhuman and against the inspiration of our constitution:

• Part II Article 19 – Promises equal opportunity for all citizens.
• Part III Article 27- Promises equality before the law for all citizens.

I also want to remind you that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be able to enjoy their human rights.

I urge you to prosecute the kotwali police who are involved in human rights violations by arresting the three young men who identify them as gay and the police based on sexual orientation or gender identity arrested them because they are different from them, please bring the perpetrators held accountable and brought to justice.

I also urge you to take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to prohibit and eliminate prejudicial treatment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity at every stage of the administration of justice;

AUTHOR: William Nicholas Gomes
URL: www.williamgomes.org
E-MAIL: williamgomes.org [at] gmail.com

Bangladesh, formerly eastern province of Pakistan remained 2,000 miles away in between India. The nation revolted against Islamic Pakistan against refusal of political and civil liberties and established a secular country. Defense counsel Abdur Razzaq pleased that the case against Golam Azam be dismissed. The tribunal ruled that the petition was not tenable since there was no provision of hearing the defense or the prosecution before charges was taken into cognizance.

Meanwhile, the prosecution indicted six other suspects who are Sunni Muslims for crime against humanity perpetrated during the 1971 war against Pakistan.

AUTHOR: Saleem Samad
URL: http://bangladeshwatchdog.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: saleemsamad [at] hotmail.com

Mr Mafabi said Uganda have in the past year seen their liberty, justice and dignity attacked by government policies and military action. “Those who demanded improvements in their rights and freedoms including the right to work and freedom to walk to work through peaceful demonstrations, were attacked by the government using disproportionate force which resulted in deaths, injuries and the detention of innocent people, some of whom were charged with treason, a capital offence that is punishable by death,” he said.

He went on to add that since the National Resistance Movement (NRM) came to power in 1986, corruption has remained widespread at all level of society and the country faces major implementation challenges. “We have seen many ministers being accused and resigning over corruption in Uganda so there is no doubt for me when I say that 2011 has been the worst year of Museveni’s rule,” the FDC parliamentary chief said.

The leader of the Conservative Party, John Ken Lukyamuzi also described 2011 as the worst of Museveni‘s 25 years of rule. “I have never seen a worse situation in Uganda like what has taken place during the 9th Parliament. The country is now under economic attack and Museveni cannot manage to continue ruling it,” Lukyamuzi said. Popularly nicknamed ‘Ken the Man’, Lukyamuzi jokingly laughed and added: “I am impressed when I hear of Museveni talking about Oil Money. Uganda has no oil, am not joking. Seriously speaking, Uganda has no Oil and no one knows if there is Oil. If Uganda at this point cannot even transport oil in the raw material form, how can you talk of oil?” he asked. He said Uganda could no longer be ruled by the NRM. “It will be day dreaming for Museveni to say he will come back in 2016 when only one year in office has failed him,” Ken the Man said.

AUTHOR: Nangayi Guyson
URL: http://www.thelondoneveningpost.com
E-MAIL: n.guyson [at] yahoo.com

Marisela Escobedo, with a wanted sign for her daughter's murderer

A Background Paper by Andrea Medina Rosas and Laura Carlsen

I. INTRODUCTION

Mexico is facing a major human rights and humanitarian crisis. Fifty thousand people have been murdered in the war on drugs just since 2007. Thousands more have been displaced, orphaned and forcibly disappeared. Mexican society is divided by fear between those who welcome a military approach to the growing chaos and those who believe that the military approach is the cause of it. The Calderon government, with encouragement and financial support from the U.S. government, refuses to consider alternatives to its drug war, even as the situation grows worse and the ruling conservative party risks paying a high political price in the 2012 presidential elections.

This crisis has revealed a deeper and more ingrained institutional crisis. While thousands of crimes are committed in the context of the current violence, the justice system fails to prosecute even a tiny fraction of them. Rampant corruption, accepted as a way of life in normal times, now erodes any attempt to bring the situation under control.

Although a peace movement has arisen that seeks to support justice for the victims and advocates policy changes in dialogue with government officials, the number of new cases emerging far surpasses its capacity to address them. The gendered aspects of the crisis remain invisible. Women are a minority of the victims, but it is usually women who lead efforts to bring about justice in the cases of their loved ones and their communities. These bold human rights defenders have become targets, with little means of protection or support. Gender-based violence has risen precipitously under cover of a society engulfed in violence and lacking basic institutional capacity—or political will– to deal with it.

II. CONTEXT

1) Weak institutions, corruption and lack of justice. Although Mexico did not experience the armed conflicts and military dictatorships of other countries in the region, its democratic and judicial institutions are weak and do not comply fully with their obligations. This is the result of 71 years of authoritarian, one-party rule (1929-2000) and the persistence of systematic corruption and use of the State apparatus in the interests of those holding political and economic power.

The justice system successfully prosecutes only an estimated 2% of crimes committed, excluding those that are not reported due to lack of faith in the system, those that are never investigated by authorities, and those that are thrown out of court. This situation encourages the continued commission of political crimes, crimes by cartels, gender crimes and common delinquency—without punishment, social or legal consequences, or transparency.

The system also routinely discriminates on the basis of sex, class, ethnicity and age (see below). Moreover, there is a severe shortage of resources to respond to violations of human rights, exacerbated by the extreme rise in complaints since the onset of the war on drugs.

2) Femicides, human rights violations and simulation. An important precedent to the current crisis is the case of the femicides in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. First denounced in 1993, this case exemplifies gender-based violence since the murders of the young women share traits of extreme sexual violence and torture, and also reveals the lack of political will to investigate and resolve crimes against women in Mexico. In this case and others, the Mexican government has developed a response of carrying out formal and much-publicized actions to address the human rights problem without making any real changes or progress. Defenders call this tactic “simulation.” Thus, despite recent constitutional reforms on human rights and the fact that Mexico has ratified most international conventions, the enforcement of the law is totally inadequate due to the lack of real commitment by federal, state and local governments.

3) General violence and gender violence as part of the “war on drugs”. The war on drugs launched in December of 2006 by President Felipe Calderon and supported by the U.S. government led to the deployment of some 45,000 troops throughout Mexico and a dramatic increase in violence. More than 50,000 people have been killed and thousands more disappeared, displaced and orphaned. Complaints of human rights violations involving security forces have risen at least sixfold. Militarization has brought new threats and additional risks to women human rights defenders, especially in indigenous regions, along the northern border and in other zones of intense conflict. Cases of rape, abuse and murder attributed to the armed forces have risen, along with similar crimes attributed to the drug cartels.

II. The Current Crisis for Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico

Mexican women human rights defenders confront threats and graves risks in carrying out their work while trying to assure their own personal safety. Government officials and security forces are often those responsible for the threats, along with conservative groups, hostile media, and criminal groups. The challenges for the protection of defenders are to guarantee their immediate security through their own social and civil networks, since it is not possible to trust the government to do it. At the same time, to bolster the democratic state and rule of law they continue to demands that the government fulfill its obligations to assure the safety of human rights workers.

There are three main aspects that characterize the current human rights crisis:

1. Lack of justice. Human rights violations and threats to human rights defenders are often not even investigated properly. There are seldom sanctions, reparations for damages, or programs of prevention. This makes it possible for organized crime or individuals to become more violent against women and women defenders, in collusion with the authorities. To carry out the defense of human rights safely, it is urgent to en impunity, since that is what causes the chain of violence against defenders for demanding justice, which often extends even to the families of victims or their own families.

In alarming contrast to the lack of effective legal proceedings in cases of human rights violations and attacks on human rights defenders, there has been an increase in the use of the justice system to criminalize social protest and the work of many defenders, in an effort to repress their activity.

2. Culture of discrimination against women

The Interamerican Human Rights Court has pronounced sentences against Mexico affirming that the Mexican government and its officials maintains a culture of discrimination against women that propitiates violence against women. This discrimination is more intense against indigenous, young, migrant, poor and lesbian women and women who demand justice. There are also more attacks on defenders who defend women’s reproductive and sexual rights. Conservative groups are attacking those who promote the right to choose and defend women in jail for aborting, and those who defend sexual diversity. Discrimination exists not only in the laws and rules, but especially in practices of government officials that result in unequal access to justice and the preservation of a misogynist culture.

This aspect is important since the majority of those who seek justice, are searching for loved ones, or denounce violations of human rights are women. They are the mothers, wives, daughters that are emerging as the new group of defenders.

3. Lack of real and effective public policy and defense from the Mexican state.

Military presence in many parts of the country, and the absence of the state in others, reveals that the actions being carried out in defense of human rights are isolated, and not coordinated between the three levels of government or between different offices, agencies and branches of government. Citizens do not know their rights or how the institutions set up to guarantee them work. Worse, there is a campaign to link the work of human rights defenders with criminals. The few guarantees offered by the government to defend rights, such as precautionary measures, are near useless since there is no budget to implement them and they are not coordinated among the institutions charged with applying them.

III. Cases

1. Josefina Reyes: Grassroots leader from Valle de Juárez, Chihuahua who worked for peace and denounced violations of human rights by the armed forces sent into the region as part of the drug war. Reyes was assassinated Jan. 3, 2010. Following her murder, her family has suffered threats, harassment and attacks, including the assassinations of her brother Rubén Reyes (murdered prior to Josefina’s death); and brother, sister and sister-in-law María Magdalena Reyes, Elías Reyes and Luisa Ornelas (murdered in Feb 2011).

2. Marisela Escobedo: In August 2008, Rubi Frayre, daughter of Marisela Escobedo, disappeared. Her remains were found as a result  of a search by the family that led to the culprit, Rubi’s former boyfriend, Sergio Barraza, who confessed to the crime. Incredibly, three state judges let Barraza go free. As a result of Marisela’s protests and public outcry, Barraza was later sentenced for the crime but had already fled. Marisela continued to demand justice and on Dec. 16, 2010 she was shot and killed as she protested outside the State Capitol. The crime has not been solved.

3. Blanca Velásquez: Defender and organizer for the labor rights in Puebla, Velásquez founded and directed the Center for Worker Support (CAT). Since 2008 she has been attacked repeatedly for denouncing violations of labor rights by transnational corporations. She ahs received death threats, beatings, and threats against her and other members of CAT. The organization has had its offices raided, robbing the archives, equipment and resources; it has had its phone lines tapped. Publicly its business leaders have named Blanca as a social danger and affirmed that government officials back them up. This has endangered the organization and its members.

IV. FACT SHEET

1. Since 2010, six women human rights defenders have been registered as murdered in Mexico: Chihuahua-Marisela Escobedo, Susana Chávez, Malena Reyes, Luisa Ornelas, Josefina Reyes; Oaxaca-Beatriz Cariño.

2. An estimated 98% of crimes committed in Mexico are never solved or sanctioned.

3. The war on drugs has left 50,000 dead, thousands of displaced and disappeared. Women represent the majority of those who file complaints in the search for justice for victims and their families.

4. The number of femicides in Chihuahua since sending the army in has risen to 837 for the period 2008-2011 June—nearly double total femicides in1993-2007.

5. The last report by the Special Rapporteur on Defenders recognized that threats and especially “explicit death threats, against women human rights defenders are one of the main forms of violence in the region, with more than half coming from Latin America, most of those (27) from Mexico.

IV. Petitions to the Mexican Government and International Organizations

1. Include a gender perspective in the diagnosis and risk analysis.

This implies studying the gender-specific nature of threats to men and women, and of the impact of measures designed to protect them.

2. Effective local protective measures.

Applying only individual measures has been shown to be counter-productive since instead of protection and modifying the situation of risk, they increase risks by giving the government more control over the defenders and their work. Protective measures should include: a) an assurance that full investigations will be carried out and sanctions applied to officials involved in attacks on or discrimination against women defenders, b) guarantee psycho-social support, even in case of displacement, c) include processes with the media and with communities affected by the attacks on defenders.

3. International monitoring to implement protective measures. The international community should monitor the situation to distinguish the rhetoric from the reality and measure real results. Follow up by international human rights organizations requires real indicators of evaluation, benchmarks and mechanisms for monitoring by civil society.

4. Focus support on the organizations and women human rights defenders themselves. Although guarantees of rights is the responsibility of the government, it is fundamental to strengthen the organizations and create networks of women human rights defenders to assure their immediate and effective protection.

V. Links and resources for more information:

Centro de Derechos Humanos Tlachinollan  www.tlachinollan.org (Español). For information on the case of Ines and Valentina http://www.tlachinollan.org/Ines-y-Valentina/ines-y-vale.html

Caso Campo Algodonero http://www.campoalgodonero.org.mx/   English: “Cotton Field” case

Articles and Report:

Report on the Situation of Women Human Rights Defenders (on line 2011 report )

Amnesty International on Josefina Reyes http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/mexico-urged-protect-activists-after-campaigner-shot-dead-20100106

The Murdered Women of Juarez http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/3895

AUTHOR: Laura Carlsen
URL: www.cipamericas.org and http://americasmexico.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: lecarlsen [at] gmail.com

Nepomuceno Moreno, searching for his son

Mexican human rights defenders have been under attack over the past weeks. The murders of Nepomuceno Moreno of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD), whose son was forcibly disappeared apparently by government security forces in Sonora; and Trinidad de la Cruz, leader of the autonomous, indigenous community of Santa Maria Ostula, Michoacan; and the shooting of Norma Andrade, leader in the movement to bring justice to the victims of femicides and the disappearance of young women in Ciudad Juarez, sent shock waves through the human rights community. We were left with the loss, and a sense of fear and impotence that can only be countered with action.

Each case below ends with actions of solidarity. Not only is it vital to demand justice in these cases, there is an URGENT need to protect surviving relatives and activists. We have already seen too many cases of entire families (like the Reyes of Valle de Juarez) and communities systematically murdered or displaced because we did not protect them or demand an immediate end to the persecution.

In addition to the specific actions, please take a moment to send organizational letters of condemnation and solidarity to  info@cipamericas.org. We will channel them to the organizations at risk and to the authorities responsible for bringing these crimes to justice. Add your voice to the indignation and pressure to solve these crimes and protect human rights defenders in Mexico.

NEPOMUCENO MORENO NUÑEZ

The murder of Nepomuceno Moreno Nunez on Nov. 28, 2011 caused much consternation here, even in a nation accustomed to murder. Nepo, as he was called, was very well-known within the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity; he accompanied both caravans for peace and spoke out frequently at demonstrations regarding the forced disappearance of his son. According to Mr. Moreno’s testimony on July 1, 2010 his son Jorge Mario Moreno Leon was taken into custody by state police near Ciudad Obregon, Sonora. His family has not heard from him since. By available evidence, his disappearance was a crime carried out not by members of organized crime, but by police. Even with the clear implication that security forces were involved in the disappearance, the state Governor, Guillermo Padres, refused to meet with Mr. Moreno and there have been no effective investigations of the crime. Jorge Mario Moreno remains missing.

Mr. Moreno had received numerous death threats related to his demands to find his son and his protests against the government for its possible involvement in the crime and failure to act. He requested protective measures from the government, and delivered the case of his son and the request for protective measures directly to President Felipe Calderon at the second meeting with the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD). For his efforts, he was shot dead in broad daylight in the capital city of Hermosillo, Sonora. State government officials added insult to injury by immediately declaring that the main line of investigation had to do with supposed ties of the victim to organized crime. Smearing the name of the murdered to cover up government responsibilities has become a common procedure in this war on drugs that reveals itself more each day as a war on the people.

The MPJD issued a statement Nov. 29 saying “the bullets that killed him were the only response Nepomuceno received to his love as a father, his desire for justice and his decision to join the movement for peace in Mexico… We hold the federal and state  authorities responsible for the death of Nepmuceno, for omission, since they failed to respond to our friend’s demands for protective measures. We demand that the state of Sonora solve the homicide case and arrest the guilty parties, as well as providing the measures necessary to ensure the security of Nepomuceno’s relatives… ”

ACTION: Write in English, Spanish or your language to demand justice in the case of the assassination of Nepomuceno Moreno and the safe return of Jorge Mario Moreno Leon. Send mails to:

President Felipe Calderon felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx,
Secretary of the Interior secretario@segob.gob.mx

National Human Rights Commission correo@cndh.org.mx 

NORMA ANDRADE:

Human rights organizations and defenders strongly condemn the recent attack on Norma Esther Andrade, president of the organization Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa, A.C. (Bring Our Daughters Home), committed on Dec. 2 in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, and demand full protection for her and members of her family.

We demand justice and full protection for the Andrade family, an immediate impartial investigation and punishment of those responsible.

We demand respect and security for all human rights defenders in Ciudad Juarez.

Norma Andrade has a long history as an organizer against femicides, and for justice and women’s rights. After the assassination of her daughter, Lilia Alejandra, in 2001, she co-founded with Marisela Ortiz the organization Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (NHRC), to bring to justice the cases of women murdered and disappeared in Ciudad Juarez.

According the report from NHRC, the attempt on her life occurred “when she was getting into her van to drive to work. At that moment and in the company of her two grandchildren, an unidentified assailant approached her and fired a gun repeatedly, shooting her five times in the abdomen, right shoulder and right hand.”

Since NHRC was founded, its members have received thirty threats and acts of harassment, none of which have been investigated by the authorities despite the fact that the majority were reported. Since 2008, four members of the organization have received precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The seriousness of the threats and attacks has forced members of the organization to change residence, and some of them to seek refuge in the United States.

The attack on Norma Andrade is not an isolated incident. It forms part of a disturbing pattern of attacks on women human rights defenders who denounce violence against women and impunity in Mexico, especially in the state of Chihuahua.

We reiterate that it is the responsibility of the State to provide protection for human rights defenders and guarantee the safety and security of individuals at high risk due to their activities to promote human rights and justice.

We charge the Mexican government with assuring the life, security and physical and psychological integrity of defender Norma Andrade and her family. We join in with the NHRC and other organizations and networks of human rights to  demand:

• That the Mexican government comply with its obligation to protect men and women human rights defenders in Mexico
• That immediate protection be provided for all members of NHRC, particularly the Andrade family
• That the government of the state of Chihuahua guarantee the resources and measures necessary for the care and protection of Norma Andrade, and the security of human rights defender Marisela Ortiz, and Norma Andrade’s daughter, Malu Garcia Andrade who is assisting her mother
• That the case be fully and promptly investigated with impartiality and professionalism and that the perpetrator or perpetrators of the attack be sanctioned according to the law
• That all acts of threats and harassment denounced by NHRC be fully investigated
• That local, state and federal government officials abstain from public acts and declarations that tend to criminalize the victim or minimize the case and its grave implications
• That federal and state government establish immediately a mechanism to guarantee the protection of all women human rights defenders in Mexico.  

Signed by: Network of Women Human Rights Defenders-Mexico (80 human rights defenders and organizations), CIP Americas Program, Just Associates, AWID

Update: Ms. Andrade was released from the hospital in Ciudad Juarez before full recovery because the hospital administration claimed it could not guarantee the safety of its staff due to threats. Her daughter, activist Maria Luisa (Malu) Garcia Andrade issued a statement denouncing that the Federal Police protection for her mother has been withdrawn and municipal police protection has been faulty.

ACTION:

Along with organizations of the National Network of Women Human Rights Defenders in Mexico we are seeking signatures to the following declaration. Please send signatures to natalia@justassociates.org as soon as possible. Thank you for your support, CIP Americas Program, Just Associates, AWID

Trinidad de la Cruz, shortly before his assassination

TRINIDAD DE LA CRUZ CRISOSTOMO

The following is information compiled mainly from our partner Desinformemonos, a Spanish-language e-magazine. Their team of reporters committed to social justice has spent long periods writing on and accompanying the people of Ostula.

On Dec. 6, Trinidad de la Cruz Crisóstomo was captured, beaten and kidnapped. His body was found shortly thereafter.  Trino–as he was known to many–accompanied members of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity to the Nahua autonomous community of Xayakalan, in Ostula, Michoacan that day. The group was kidnapped by an armed commando; the other members were released unharmed but Trino was brutally beaten in their presence and subsequently murdered.

The National Association of Democratic Lawyers has termed the crime an “extrajudicial execution”. The cars traveling to Xayakalan were originally escorted by Federal Police. As they approached the town, the police reportedly announced that they would go no further “due to the presence of armed groups” and withdrew. The group reached the village but was abducted shortly after leaving to return to Santa Maria Ostula. The abandonment by the official escort–mandated by law–was a critical contributing factor to the crime.

Trinidad de la Cruz, 73, was the head of the indigenous Nahua community communal guard and a leader in 2009 when the group recovered some one thousand hectares along the Michoacan Pacific coast by law belonging to them but coveted by powerful interests– drug traffickers, tourism and mining developers, and government.

Trino’s murder eliminates a key defender of human rights but also is aimed at weakening a community that has risked everything to defend its natural resources. The community opposes the government’s top-down development plans that hve not even been revealed to the community. Among these are a project to build a new highway as part of the Sustainable Regional Plan for Michoacan and that includes the construction of hotels and residential areas. The Plan also includes large tourist developments along the famous surfing beaches of the area. The community has begun small-scale tourist projects but refuses to cede its land to large developers. It also opposes the government’s rural land program Procede as a form of privatization of communal lands and has refused to enter into negotiations with mining interests, out of concern over the social and environmental effects.

Following the assassination of Trinidad de la Cruz, and the October assassination of community leader Pedro Leyva, the situation in the community is critical.  Gloria Muñoz of Desinformémonos writes:

The forty families who inhabit the village of  Xayakalan, in Ostula, Michoacán, are totally unprotected faced with threats from the armed group that assassinated Trinidad de la Cruz Crisóstomo. Although they put out a alert regarding their situation informing that they fear another attack, up to now the Secretarty of the Navy in charge of the zone has not initiated rounds, despite having established a checkpoint just minutes from the town.. thi is a violation of the agreement of lat Nov. 28 in a meeting between members of the community of Ostula, among them Trino, and representatives of the federal and state governments, in which they promised to apply security measures for the population, including rounds.

In this context, the current offensive follows the neoliberal manual on indigenous territories that stipulates first instilling terror through assassinations and disappearances, until families are forced to abandon their lands and displacement is complete…

We demand immediate guarantees for the security of the community of Xayakalan, investigation and prosecution for the murders,  and the legal resolution to disputes over the lands that belong to them, providing clear title to the community.

ACTION:

1. Sign this petition at change.org (in Spanish):http://www.change.org/petitions/gobierno-federal-mexicano-y-al-gobierno-de-michoacn-alto-a-la-guerra-de-exterminio-contra-la-comunidad-nahua-de-sta-ma-ostula (Translation: Stop the war of extermination against the Nahua community of Santa Maria Ostula, Michoacan)
2. Send statements of support, demanding government protection and justice in the assassinations to info@cipamericas.org

AUTHOR: Laura Carlsen
URL: www.cipamericas.org and http://americasmexico.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: lecarlsen [at] gmail.com

Eamonn McCann

Solidarity messages were received from Ireland… First one from Eamonn McCann, a leading Irish journalist, socialist and one of the legendary figures in the country’s civil rights movement…

On January 30 1972, British paratroopers opened fire on unarmed civil rights demonstrators in Derry in Northern Ireland, killing 14 people and wounding 14 others. The day has become known in Ireland as Bloody Sunday.

Some of us who had been on the demonstration on Bloody Sunday have campaigned since for the truth to be told and justice achieved for the victims. I served as chairman of the Bloody Sunday Trust, which has been at the heart of the campaign. After 38 years, on June 15th 2010, we finally forced the Government of David Cameron to admit that the massacre had been carried out by British soldiers and had been “unjustified and unjustifiable”. This was a great success for the campaign and a great joy for the families of the victims.

But the massacre had further poisoned relations between the Nationalist (Catholic) and Unionist (Protestant) communities in Northern Ireland. This enabled the British State to blame all violence on “religious differences” among the mass of the people and to claim that its forces were neutral and had to stand between the “warring communities” and keep them apart.

Numerous attacks on the Catholic community over the last four decades were blamed on the Protestant community. But many of these have now been PROVEN to have been set up by the British intelligence services. These attacks have included the murder of civil rights lawyers and community leaders.

These divide-and-rule tactics, used by imperialism in Ireland for generations, have consolidated a political system based on hostility and suspicion between Catholics and Protestants. This has made it difficult to achieve unity of the ordinary Catholic and Protestant people to defend civil rights and living standards and resist the austerity measures introduced in the past two years to solve the crisis caused by the greed of the bankers and the rest of the rich.

Many of us in the socialist camp in Ireland can see parallels with Egypt today. We send our greetings to our brothers and sisters fighting to defend the goals of the Egyptian revolution. We hope that our experience serves as a warning to all Egyptian socialists of the dangers of allowing State forces to strengthen their own position by dividing the mass of the people along religious lines.
Eamonn McCann

And another message was sent by Richard Boyd Barrett, member of the Irish parliament…

Condemn the Bloody Sunday Massacre! For Muslim and Christian unity against the counter-revolution.

It was with both sadness and anger that I heard of the terrible events of Sunday October 9th in Cairo, when over twenty Coptic Christian protesters were killed by the armed forces of the Egyptian State.

As an elected deputy (TD) in the Irish Parliament (The Dail) it was impossible not to recall the events of another Bloody Sunday – the one that occurred in the city of Derry in Northern Ireland on Sunday 30 January 1972, when 13 unarmed citizens were shot and killed by the British Army for the ‘crime’ of demanding their basic democratic and civil rights. In the case of the Irish Bloody Sunday it took 38 years of campaigning before the truth about that massacre was acknowledged by the British Government (on 15 June 2010, as a result of the twelve year long Saville Inquiry). There must be no repetition of this policy of cover up and denial in relation to the Egyptian Bloody Sunday. Rather the Egyptian Government should accept its responsibility and resign forthwith, and there should be an immediate open, democratic inquiry into establish the truth of what took place and hold the guilty to account.

We in Ireland have long experience of the suffering and bitterness caused by sectarian and religious conflict. Egypt must not go down this path. We know also that sectarianism, like racism, is always a weapon of reaction and counter-revolution. That it is invariably used to divide the people and deprive them of their rights. In Ireland Protestant was set against Catholic, in Egypt the attempt is made to set Muslim against Christian, in many parts of Europe it is Muslims who are the chosen scapegoats. In all these cases all genuine democrats have a duty to resist the tactics of divide and rule and defend the unity of the people.

In Ireland many of us followed with admiration and joy the magnificent and heroic revolution of the Egyptian people against the hated Mubarak regime. This great revolution has inspired freedom loving people throughout the Middle East and throughout the world. This revolution must continue, it must develop, it must move forward to achieve full democracy and full social justice for all. On no account should it allow itself to be diverted into the abyss of sectarian conflict.

Richard Boyd Barrett TD
People Before Profit Alliance

AUTHOR: Hossam el-Hamalawy
URL: http://www.arabawy.org
E-MAIL: hossam [at] arabawy.org

Graffiti in the shiite village of Malkiya depicts Bahraini opposition leaders Ibrahim Sharif (left) and Mohammed Habib al-Muqdad. (AP)

Amnesty International has voiced anger over the conviction, on 29 September, of 20 medics in Bahrain who got prison sentences of up to 15 years. The doctors and other health workers were found guilty by a military court in Manama of attempting to topple the government during protests earlier this year. Amnesty International calle the process a travesty of justice. At a seven-minute court session, the president of the military-run National Safety Court of First Instance read the names of the 20 defendants, announced the guilty verdicts and imposed prison sentences of up to 15 years.

Bahraini authorities have accused the group of using Manama’s Salamaniya Medical Complex, where they worked, as a “control centre” for pro-reform protests at nearby GCC Roundabout (formerly Pearl Roundabout), in February and March. The defendants deny all the charges, which include incitement to hatred of the regime, occupying the hospital by force, stealing medicines and stockpiling arms at the hospital.

“These are simply ludicrous charges against civilian professionals who were working to save lives amid very trying circumstances,” said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme. “It appears that the real reason for targeting these health workers was the fact that they denounced the government crackdown on protesters in interviews to international media.”

“We’ve repeatedly said that Bahraini authorities should never have used military courts to prosecute ordinary civilians, including doctors, teachers and human rights activists.

Other military trials in Bahrain this week have upheld guilty verdicts and harsh jail terms – including life sentences – for human rights activists and teachers on charges related to the protests earlier this year.

The paper The National reported that the eight activists sentenced to life whose verdicts were upheld, include Hassan Mashaima, head of the Shiite opposition Haq movement, Abdulwahab Hussein, who leads the Shiite Wafa Islamic Movement, and the Shiite human-rights activist Abdulhadi Al Khawaja, who is also a Danish citizen. Activist and Haq member Abduljalil Al Singace, who was released in February after six months in jail, was also sentenced to life.The other four are Mohammed Habib Al Muqdad, who holds a Swedish passport; his cousin Abduljalil Al Muqdad and Saeed Mirza, both of whom Wafa members, and Said Abdulnabi Shihab, who was sentenced in absentia.

Ibrahim Sharif, the Sunni leader of the Waed secular group, who played a prominent role in month-long protests for democratic reform that were crushed in March, received a five-year sentence.

On Thursday also one man got a death sentence. Bahrain’s official news agency, BNA, said the protester sentenced to death, Ali Yusof al-Taweel, had killed a policeman in the Shia area of Sitra, south of Manama. Earlier, the security court had sentenced two other protesters to death for killing a police officer.

AUTHOR: Martin Hijmans
URL: http://the-pessoptimist.blogspot.com/
E-MAIL: m.hijmans [at] planet.nl