Exactly nine years ago today, this blog appeared for the first time. Since then, I have posted 22,347 articles from a wide variety of sources, covering over 500 topics.
I could not have done this without the support of readers - and the cooperation of media sources. In many cases, writers and journalists put their lives at risk to bring us stories of unimaginable horror. Far too many have been injured or killed. Without these brave men and women, we would be ignorant to the injustice and cruelty in this world.
Today also marks another milestone.
In January 2012, in "The Road Ahead." I announced that the blog would cease publication on May 08, 2015. That means, the blog is in it's last year.
Oh have no fear, the blog will remain online, unaltered. All articles will be fully accessible. If something should happen to Blogger, I have back-up copies in various locations. I have also made the decision that if necessary, the blog will return for "Special Editions".
Time has passed quickly. It doesn't seem that long ago since, "The Road Ahead" was published. I have no regrets. Other pastures and avenues await.
Finally, I would like to thank "Dearest." Without her support, encouragement, patience and strength, this blog would not have been so successful. She helped release a calmness and sense of perspective I never knew lay inside me. Whenever I ask myself, "Does this blog make a difference? Will I never cease hearing, 'must never happen again' " only to see it happen over and over, she helps me see the answer, "Maybe. Maybe not, but even if it's just the tiniest of difference - give it a shot."
The Road Ahead wont be walked along - it will be skipped along:)
Wherever you may be - be safe
Thursday, May 08, 2014
Brazil: Thousands occupy land near Brazil stadium
The Arena Corinthians stadium in Sao Paulo will host the opening World Cup match next month. But people in a nearby working class neighbourhood say rents have tripled in recent months. Hundreds of families are camping out to draw attention to the lack of affordable housing in the city. Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo reports from Sao Paulo.
South Africa: SA Elections - local media keep an open mind
Source: ISS
As votes are being tallied following yesterday's general elections in South Africa, a gruelling period comes to an end for the nation's media. The question can be asked to what extent the country's influential media houses impacted on the vote. How independent are they? In the run-up to the elections, the majority of the country's most influential newspapers chose not to endorse a particular political party.
The major Sunday papers, City Press, Sunday Times and The Sunday Independent all urged their readers to cast their ballots, because, staying away, they believe, would be a betrayal of our young democracy. None of them gave any instructions about which party readers should vote for.
The Mail&Guardian, which vies for the position of the most influential print medium in South Africa with City Press and Sunday Times, however, called upon readers to vote against the African National Congress (ANC) ‘to dilute overweening political power.’
It gave no clear instruction on which opposition party to vote for. The Afrikaans weekly, Rapport, also asked for an anti-ANC vote in its editorial. Is this a cop out? Are newspapers and media houses reneging on their role as watchdogs by failing to take a stand; or is non-partisan reporting what is required of media in a democracy? Social media platforms, digital offsets of election coverage like News24’s election app, and online forums like Daily Maverick were also abuzz with election activity, but no one clearly nailed their colours to the mast.
In many countries, the advantage of incumbency is linked to the ruling party’s control of state-owned media. Having a pro-government mouthpiece almost goes without saying in many democracies – let alone in places with tight media control, such as China. In many African countries it would be unthinkable not to have at least one major title clearly favouring the ruling party. Yet, in South Africa, as 25 million voters prepared to go to the polls with very few openly party-affiliated media, the quality and diversity of the print media served the democratic process. The structure and ownership of the media in South Africa have drawn criticism from the ruling ANC ever since the end of apartheid. Some have lamented the ‘white-owned media’ and its ‘unpatriotic’ stance towards government.
In 2010, the ANC supported the launch of The New Age, a national daily owned by the wealthy Gupta family. The paper was destined to provide the ‘good news’ of South Africa, and it certainly covers much government-related news. The appointment of some of the country's top editors – like former Die Burger editor Henry Jeffreys, who resigned in June 2011, and Moegsien Williams, the current editor – however, seems to have kept it from becoming purely a government mouthpiece. Apart from free airport handouts, distribution of the paper still seems problematic and it can’t, at this stage anyway, genuinely be described as an effective propaganda tool for the ANC. The regular ‘The New Age breakfasts,’ which often feature ANC politicians and are held in conjunction with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), are nevertheless a clever way to promote the ruling party and the government.
South African newspapers in general tend to reflect class, regional and language divisions, rather than party-political bias. However, can one really say that the man at the coffee shop reading the Sunday Times will vote for the Democratic Alliance (DA)? The country’s largest Sunday paper could very well also be read by the ANC voter. Or could you tell that the security guard paging through the Daily Sun, the Media24-owned tabloid, votes ANC? He could well be the supporter of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). The person in the airport lounge paging through The New Age probably got it for free at the South African Airways counter, but it doesn’t mean he or she will vote for the ruling party.
In London, it would perhaps be unlikely that the loyal Guardian subscriber would vote for the Tories, or that the man displaying Le Figaro at a Parisian street café vote for the Socialist Party, but not here. In a country like Zimbabwe, a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporter is unlikely to be seen with a copy of The Herald, and for a long time in the heated pre-2008 years, reading the Daily News could have been seen as a provocation.
In its latest survey on the freedom of the press, Reporters Without Borders rates South Africa at 42 out of a total of 180 countries – not bad, given the potential threats to media freedom posed by the planned Protection of State Information Bill. The bill has led to extensive protest from the media and civil society, and is yet to be signed into law. In its 2013 index, Reporters Without Borders cited the bill as one of the main threats to press freedom in South Africa.
For now, voters in South Africa are benefiting from a reprieve – but this could change. A number of factors are to be taken into account. Firstly, the attempt to prevent journalists from accessing information, investigative reporters especially, may intensify in the years to come and lead to a closing up of the political space. So far, civil society organisations have managed to keep the pressure on to ensure that this doesn't happen.
Secondly, newspapers, as high quality and informative as their reporting may be, do not have the same influence on the general voting public as other media. One could argue that if newspapers were really that influential, certain issues, like corruption, would probably play a much larger role in the elections. Opinion polls show that even though opposition parties hammered on about the scandal around President Jacob Zuma's R246 million homestead at Nkandla, the ANC has managed to downplay it through their own communications strategies: at rallies, via door-to-door campaigning and by preventing Zuma from taking part in any televised debates with the leaders of the opposition parties.
Most newspapers, led by the Mail&Guardian, kept the Nkandla story on their front page week after week – but with little result, it seems. Studies of reporting on the elections, as the one by Media Monitoring Africa, also indicate that corruption was ‘over-reported’ compared to other issues in the run-up to the polls. Yet, the ANC is expected to lose only a few percentage points compared to its 2009 score of 64%.
In a press conference on the eve of the elections, Zuma also blamed the media for what he called inaccurate reporting on Nkandla – an issue which, according to him, wasn’t important to voters.
Finally, even greater control of the SABC, with its dominant free-to-air television channels and a myriad of radio stations in all official languages, will be a great advantage to the ruling party. During election time, parties are bound by the regulations of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to provide equitable coverage to all parties, according to size – but this changes in non-election periods. The ruling party can now also rely on some support from another ‘good news,’ Gupta-owned media outlet – the ANN7 news channel.
South Africans love to debate and almost every other radio station devotes hours to phone-in debates – be it privately owned stations like Primedia's 702 and Cape Talk, SABC radio talk shows or community radio stations. These programmes are relatively uncensored and are another example of real post-1994 democratic freedom of speech.
The ANC has been largely successful in communicating its message in these elections. But it might not always be the case, and there will certainly be those within the party who will blame the ‘biased’ or ‘anti-government’ media when things don’t go their way. The need for a government mouthpiece is likely to be an issue again in future. Reports of a more powerful communications team in government, led by presidential spokesperson, Mac Maharaj, are therefore worrying. According to the Mail&Guardian, the aim of the planned new information ministry is to manage Zuma’s image and push through ANC propaganda. If this happens, it could mean open confrontation between the government and the mainstream media, which have been playing fair up to now.
Liesl Louw-Vaudran, ISS Consultant
8 May 2014
As votes are being tallied following yesterday's general elections in South Africa, a gruelling period comes to an end for the nation's media. The question can be asked to what extent the country's influential media houses impacted on the vote. How independent are they? In the run-up to the elections, the majority of the country's most influential newspapers chose not to endorse a particular political party.
The major Sunday papers, City Press, Sunday Times and The Sunday Independent all urged their readers to cast their ballots, because, staying away, they believe, would be a betrayal of our young democracy. None of them gave any instructions about which party readers should vote for.
The Mail&Guardian, which vies for the position of the most influential print medium in South Africa with City Press and Sunday Times, however, called upon readers to vote against the African National Congress (ANC) ‘to dilute overweening political power.’
It gave no clear instruction on which opposition party to vote for. The Afrikaans weekly, Rapport, also asked for an anti-ANC vote in its editorial. Is this a cop out? Are newspapers and media houses reneging on their role as watchdogs by failing to take a stand; or is non-partisan reporting what is required of media in a democracy? Social media platforms, digital offsets of election coverage like News24’s election app, and online forums like Daily Maverick were also abuzz with election activity, but no one clearly nailed their colours to the mast.
In many countries, the advantage of incumbency is linked to the ruling party’s control of state-owned media. Having a pro-government mouthpiece almost goes without saying in many democracies – let alone in places with tight media control, such as China. In many African countries it would be unthinkable not to have at least one major title clearly favouring the ruling party. Yet, in South Africa, as 25 million voters prepared to go to the polls with very few openly party-affiliated media, the quality and diversity of the print media served the democratic process. The structure and ownership of the media in South Africa have drawn criticism from the ruling ANC ever since the end of apartheid. Some have lamented the ‘white-owned media’ and its ‘unpatriotic’ stance towards government.
In 2010, the ANC supported the launch of The New Age, a national daily owned by the wealthy Gupta family. The paper was destined to provide the ‘good news’ of South Africa, and it certainly covers much government-related news. The appointment of some of the country's top editors – like former Die Burger editor Henry Jeffreys, who resigned in June 2011, and Moegsien Williams, the current editor – however, seems to have kept it from becoming purely a government mouthpiece. Apart from free airport handouts, distribution of the paper still seems problematic and it can’t, at this stage anyway, genuinely be described as an effective propaganda tool for the ANC. The regular ‘The New Age breakfasts,’ which often feature ANC politicians and are held in conjunction with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), are nevertheless a clever way to promote the ruling party and the government.
South African newspapers in general tend to reflect class, regional and language divisions, rather than party-political bias. However, can one really say that the man at the coffee shop reading the Sunday Times will vote for the Democratic Alliance (DA)? The country’s largest Sunday paper could very well also be read by the ANC voter. Or could you tell that the security guard paging through the Daily Sun, the Media24-owned tabloid, votes ANC? He could well be the supporter of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). The person in the airport lounge paging through The New Age probably got it for free at the South African Airways counter, but it doesn’t mean he or she will vote for the ruling party.
In London, it would perhaps be unlikely that the loyal Guardian subscriber would vote for the Tories, or that the man displaying Le Figaro at a Parisian street café vote for the Socialist Party, but not here. In a country like Zimbabwe, a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporter is unlikely to be seen with a copy of The Herald, and for a long time in the heated pre-2008 years, reading the Daily News could have been seen as a provocation.
In its latest survey on the freedom of the press, Reporters Without Borders rates South Africa at 42 out of a total of 180 countries – not bad, given the potential threats to media freedom posed by the planned Protection of State Information Bill. The bill has led to extensive protest from the media and civil society, and is yet to be signed into law. In its 2013 index, Reporters Without Borders cited the bill as one of the main threats to press freedom in South Africa.
For now, voters in South Africa are benefiting from a reprieve – but this could change. A number of factors are to be taken into account. Firstly, the attempt to prevent journalists from accessing information, investigative reporters especially, may intensify in the years to come and lead to a closing up of the political space. So far, civil society organisations have managed to keep the pressure on to ensure that this doesn't happen.
Secondly, newspapers, as high quality and informative as their reporting may be, do not have the same influence on the general voting public as other media. One could argue that if newspapers were really that influential, certain issues, like corruption, would probably play a much larger role in the elections. Opinion polls show that even though opposition parties hammered on about the scandal around President Jacob Zuma's R246 million homestead at Nkandla, the ANC has managed to downplay it through their own communications strategies: at rallies, via door-to-door campaigning and by preventing Zuma from taking part in any televised debates with the leaders of the opposition parties.
Most newspapers, led by the Mail&Guardian, kept the Nkandla story on their front page week after week – but with little result, it seems. Studies of reporting on the elections, as the one by Media Monitoring Africa, also indicate that corruption was ‘over-reported’ compared to other issues in the run-up to the polls. Yet, the ANC is expected to lose only a few percentage points compared to its 2009 score of 64%.
In a press conference on the eve of the elections, Zuma also blamed the media for what he called inaccurate reporting on Nkandla – an issue which, according to him, wasn’t important to voters.
Finally, even greater control of the SABC, with its dominant free-to-air television channels and a myriad of radio stations in all official languages, will be a great advantage to the ruling party. During election time, parties are bound by the regulations of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to provide equitable coverage to all parties, according to size – but this changes in non-election periods. The ruling party can now also rely on some support from another ‘good news,’ Gupta-owned media outlet – the ANN7 news channel.
South Africans love to debate and almost every other radio station devotes hours to phone-in debates – be it privately owned stations like Primedia's 702 and Cape Talk, SABC radio talk shows or community radio stations. These programmes are relatively uncensored and are another example of real post-1994 democratic freedom of speech.
The ANC has been largely successful in communicating its message in these elections. But it might not always be the case, and there will certainly be those within the party who will blame the ‘biased’ or ‘anti-government’ media when things don’t go their way. The need for a government mouthpiece is likely to be an issue again in future. Reports of a more powerful communications team in government, led by presidential spokesperson, Mac Maharaj, are therefore worrying. According to the Mail&Guardian, the aim of the planned new information ministry is to manage Zuma’s image and push through ANC propaganda. If this happens, it could mean open confrontation between the government and the mainstream media, which have been playing fair up to now.
Liesl Louw-Vaudran, ISS Consultant
Venezuela: Taking the Counter- out of Revolution
Venezuela: Taking the Counter- out of Revolution
Is the opposition to the excesses and failures of
Chavismo just the latest installment of popular revolution to hit
Venezuela? Not exactly, says Ivan Briscoe. The Maduro government’s
opponents have found newer and seemingly more effective ways to pursue
their aims.
This article was originally published March 30 2014 by openDemocracy
“Before, we wanted to change the world. Now we’re going to see if we can pave a few roads.” This epithet of José Mujica, avuncular president of Uruguay and former urban guerrilla, sums up the hard-earned wisdom of the Latin American left in power—in Chile, Brazil, Argentina and elsewhere. For the last 15 years, however, Venezuela’s government has read the message in reverse: forget the roads; change the world.
Wilfully eccentric and, on occasion, deeply flawed economic, social and foreign policies—none more so than vis-à-vis food and basic security—have resulted in a monumental challenge to the government of Nicolás Maduro, elected successor as president to Hugo Chávez. The protests, driven by students and whipped up by opposition leaders, have been classified by viral-media reflex as another instalment of popular revolt, centred on a basic middle-class wish for decent, effective, open government.
Fractal protests
A close reading of the violence that has claimed 37 lives since February 12th would suggest something different. A mass national polarisation has assumed fractal form—small, side-street sub-plots of irreducible antagonism, with contrasting accounts of who pulled the trigger. According to the opposition, 20 have been killed for demonstrating. But attributing responsibility is phenomenally hard in a society where no security or judicial institution is independent and most victims seem to have died in a chaos of reckless urban crossfire.
One centre-right Argentine news outlet gave this breakdown a few days ago: “23 died due to firearms; five after hitting or avoiding barricades; two with their throats cuts by barbed wire; two accidentally; one after being beaten by the police; one knocked down.” Take two deaths reported on March 6th in a suburb of Caracas. The Associated Press and others said 100 members of pro-government, paramilitary, motorcycle gangs (colectivos) had arrived in the neighbourhood of Los Ruices to dismantle an opposition street barricade (guarimba). They were greeted by wolf-whistles and pelted with bottles. According to AP, “In the melee, a 24-year-old motorcycle taxi driver was shot dead ... a 25-year-old sergeant was shot through the neck and killed.”
It would be easy and temptingly cathartic to see the events as world punditry would have you see it: university kids against a tongue-tied tyrant, youth versus age, liberty versus oppression. But recent history cannot be blotted out. The 37 dead are not the classic fallen martyrs; nor are the protests a wave of the disenfranchised. Rather, they mark the most recent manifestation of the long and intransigent resistance to the low-income electoral juggernaut of chavismo. What began as a failed coup in April 2002 morphed eight months later into a general strike against the government; a recall referendum was essayed and lost in 2004; mass electoral abstention followed a year later.
A new and seemingly effective means of campaign has been chosen, in which both moderates and radicals in the opposition can find a purpose. Mass urban protests and civil disruption are the methods. To beat the left in power, the resistance to chavismo has borrowed from the now-pragmatic guerrillas: take the “counter-“ out of revolution and man the communal barricades.
Sources of discontent
It is difficult to begrudge the opposition their discontent. Statistics on poverty and public welfare confirm the gains made under Chávez through his social reorientation of oil revenues. But idiosyncratic and populist economic policies have done much to paralyse the most basic market flows. Anecdotes abound of four-hour queues in state-provisioned supermarkets and missing toilet-rolls. In January, scarcity stood officially at 28%, meaning over one in four goods was unavailable. According to the Venezuelan Pharmaceutical Association, 40% of medicines are out of stock.
Neo-fascist hoarders and dark conspirators of the right can be blamed, if wished. But the satirical depiction of government policy by the reputed pollster and moderate critic of President Maduro, Luis Vicente León, seems far more credible: “We’re going to close the businesses that close and control the prices of the goods which aren’t there.”
Nor is economic failure the inevitable fate of a left-leaning Latin American government. Comparisons between the trajectories of Bolivia and Venezuela show the popular benefits of the chavista regime but also the waste of its oil fortunes. Unlike Bolivia, Venezuela has spent its windfall and whittled down its foreign reserves. Argentina, under its profoundly Keynesian economy minister, Axel Kiciloff, has in the past two months skirted dire, Davos-like predictions of devaluation and ruin by giving free reign to a technocratic Central Bank governor. No such checks apply in Venezuela.
The economic malaise—the shortages, closures, 56% inflation, the latest devaluation this week—is much more than a minority, middle-class concern. Likewise, fear of crime touches all in Venezuela. Amid polarised government and independent estimates, the most distinguished expert on crime, Roberto Briceño-León, reported more than 24,000 killings last year—next to Honduras in presenting the world’s highest homicide risk.
The authoritarian drift of the government, whether in deploying armed militia, packing the Supreme Court or taking TV channels off air, garners the greatest international opprobrium and the most irate domestic opposition. And it has treated chavista hate figures—General Raúl Baduel, Iván Simonovis and even, on a lesser scale, a Financial Times freelance—with exceptional viciousness. Excuses are available, yet futile: a bombastic government represents the majority of its people with neither gentleness nor grace.
But successive election victories and consistent polling data underline that chavismo will not be defeated on the agenda of constitutional virtue. Economics and crime are what motivate mass popular discontent. Yet the past one and a half months tell a story not of a shared public platform, and an eventual if reluctant state response, but of a social dissolution into teeming individual claims, each in search of a protector.
An extraordinary film made by pro-government media in Mérida, the Andean town that has become a protest heartland, tells the story of two communities living along a main road. One, reportedly the richer, has set up a barricade, where hooded, darkened shapes lurk, catcalling and menacing the poorer neighbours, who find it hard to get to work or even go shopping. The poor shout insults back at the rich, calling them mantenidos (spongers). The first woman to appear in the film, Gisela Rubilar Figueroa, has since been shot dead. This is not mass protest so much as atomised class war, an iteration of grudges and rivalries emanating from the brain stem of an oil state.
Pulling to the extremes
How genuine discontent with a new government turned into a zero-sum conflict shattering to the micro-scale is the core question. Some protesters, notably the students of the Central University of Venezuela led by Juan Requesens, maintain a genuine mobilisation in the public interest—some have even led proselytising missions in the shanty towns, a peculiar reversal of the Peronist Youth’s doomed popular-education programmes of 1970s Argentina. Requesens and colleagues want political prisoners freed—there are 85 in jail for their part in the protests, according to the NGO Foro Penal—and the militias disarmed, plus a live, televised meeting between President Maduro and the opposition. Last year’s losing presidential candidate, Henrique Capriles, holds similar convictions; so do many of the more enlightened opposition figures.
Public opinion broadly aligns with these demands. The usually reliable polling agency Hinterlaces has recently found people worried over their economic futures, although 87% have no faith in barricades or violence to extract them from chavista mismanagement. Belief that Maduro should be kicked from office, in the manner of a number of Latin American presidents at the turn of the millennium, has receded quite quickly—with fear of what might take his place looming large.
This hefty bloc for moderation should in principle act as a brake on recourse to violent protest. It is still possible that this majority middle ground, whose shift to Capriles almost handed the opposition an astonishing victory last April, will be assisted by mediation by Latin American states in the UNASUR bloc (whose foreign ministers conducted a successful visit to Caracas last week), and possibly the Catholic Church (which proved vital in the resolution of Argentina’s crisis in 2002). The sudden eruption of peace should never be discounted, as Venezuela and Colombia memorably showed in resolving their border tensions of 2008.
The obstacles, however, will be immense. Talk of clearly definable sides, of the sort which backed Maduro or Capriles last year and which each enjoy huge numerical legitimacy, is no longer so pertinent. The opposition is manifestly divided and its main propulsive energy comes from the leaders who have adopted the salida (exit) strategy—the plan to topple the president through street agitation. Leopoldo López is in jail; María Corina Machado has just been stripped of her parliamentary immunity. Seeking to lock both away appears to have redounded to the president’s benefit but this leaves the radical protest wing in place--just criminalised, localised and leaderless.
Maduro is a weak president, with a 1.5% margin of victory last year and little political capital to expend. There is much speculation in diplomatic circles, and evidently in the US military, over how far the loyalty of the Venezuelan armed forces and the ruling PSUV party will stretch if the violence worsens. Should Maduro be scrutinising his support network for rogues and turncoats, it is unlikely he will feel sufficiently assured to hand any major concessions on policy or political participation to the opposition. It would suit him in the short term instead to engage in direct, winnable battles with the most radical diehards.
The government engages in the usual US-baiting rhetoric, laced with attacks on local fascists and some turgid chunks of Gramsci. The hard left consumes ideas such as those of the German Marxist Heinz Dieterich, who chides the government for its “fear of using state forces firmly and rapidly from the start to dismantle violent groups”. The opposition’s extremes are no better, refusing to recognise any merits in 15 years of chavista government and finding their convictions richly fulfilled by the riot police who greet protesters in Caracas or Táchira. One implacable statement of hostility, the Mérida Manifesto by a group of students, refers to how “the Castro-communist regime with its paramilitary groups and the National Guard have killed, tortured and harassed comrades”.
The informal paramilitarism we are seeing on both sides is the product of a society besieged by criminal violence for two decades. The Guatemalan ethnographer Tani Adams argues that long-term exposure to chronic violence causes each citizen to assimilate a quota of fear into normal life, as “many people face both the challenge of multiple traumatic experiences in the past as well as the likelihood of continued traumatic experiences in the future”. One result is the severing of social bonds beyond immediate family and friends, as well as the corrosion of empathy “when people are constantly spurred by survivalist motives”.
The pathologies of the Venezuelan psyche under the influence of criminal violence help explain the fanatical tensions that have surfaced between neighbouring communities. And no doubt pro-government militias and community self-defence groups recruit locals used to handling firearms for other purposes. Through this admixture of political and criminal violence, the road to civil war in Venezuela lies.
Supporting moderation
Avoiding that outcome is not made any easier by the tendency inside and outside Venezuela to see the crisis through the filters of self-interest and prejudice borrowed from the era of high Chávez. The left-leaning governments of Latin America are intent on preventing any precedent of presidential overthrow—hence the paralysis of the Organization of American States. Cuba and the Caribbean dread a stoppage of cheap oil. Washington would be happy to rid itself of an irritant, while the liberal press and the digital spirits egg on the cause of middle-class revolution.
Arguments can be twisted into unusual shapes by the tangles of received wisdom. Noam Chomsky denounces any use of repressive state power while his followers applaud a crackdown in Caracas. Opponents of Maduro wail over the militarisation of their cities, even though for many this would be their preferred solution to violent crime. And according to reliable sources the Green Party MEP and hero of May 1968, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, has dissented from his own party’s pro-chavista instincts, insisting he would never fail to support a student revolt.
Partial truths and worsening polarisation will do little to pull the country out of its confrontational logic. Nothing is more important than for foreign governments and organisations to provide moderates on both sides with support and reassurance. Just as Capriles has preached against violent protest, parts of Maduro’s government have proved themselves sensitive to criticism: the attorney general, Luisa Ortega, has said 60 investigations of police officers for alleged human-rights violations are under way.
A common ground of dialogue could be found, were Latin American states, the European Union and neutral bodies to support it, on economic stabilisation and security reform. Talk of sanctions against government figures would have to be shelved and political prisoners released, with all parties accepting the schedule of forthcoming elections.
The self-righteous on any side would not be satisfied. But no one seems to have a clue as to the road ahead for Venezuela were its president to totter.
Ivan Briscoe is a fellow of the Conflict Research Unit, which is part of the Clingendael Institute of International Relations in The Hague.
China: China Detains Well-Known Journalist Ahead of Sensitive Anniversary
May 08, 2014 12:54 AM
China has detained a well-known journalist on charges of "leaking
state secrets," the latest in Beijing's crackdown on dissent ahead of
the sensitive anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
The official Xinhua news agency said Thursday that Gao Yu was detained on April 24 on suspicion of illegally obtaining a copy of an unspecified government document and passing it to overseas media.
The 70-year-old was shown on Chinese state television confessing, saying what she had done was "extremely wrong."
"I believe what I have done has violated the law and has harmed the interests of my country. What I have done is extremely wrong. I will earnestly and sincerely take a lesson from this, and I admit my guilt," said Gao.
Gao's political activism and journalism has landed her in jail before. In 1993, she received a jail sentence of six years on similar state secret charges.
She is the former deputy editor of the Economics Weekly and has written on topics such as the Communist Party's campaign against free speech.
Gao was also a supporter of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement, which in 1989 was crushed by Chinese troops. Estimates of those killed range from several hundred to several thousand people.
As they do every year, Chinese authorities have begun rounding up government critics ahead of the June 4 anniversary of the massacre.
Prominent rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang and at least four others (Liu Di, Xu Yonyu, Hao Jian and Hu Shigen) were detained this week after they attended a Beijing seminar to commemorate the crackdown.
The U.S. State Department on Wednesday said it is "deeply concerned" at the reported detentions, and called for the dissidents to be freed immediately.
It has been almost 25 years since Chinese troops, backed by tanks, moved in to crush the student-led demonstration. The crackdown triggered worldwide condemnation.
China still considers the incident a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" and has never admitted any wrongdoing in its handling of the uprising. It has never disclosed an official death toll or other key details on the crackdown, which is not discussed in state media.
Government censors also work hard to erase any reference to the incident in the country's very popular social media outlets.
The official Xinhua news agency said Thursday that Gao Yu was detained on April 24 on suspicion of illegally obtaining a copy of an unspecified government document and passing it to overseas media.
The 70-year-old was shown on Chinese state television confessing, saying what she had done was "extremely wrong."
"I believe what I have done has violated the law and has harmed the interests of my country. What I have done is extremely wrong. I will earnestly and sincerely take a lesson from this, and I admit my guilt," said Gao.
Gao's political activism and journalism has landed her in jail before. In 1993, she received a jail sentence of six years on similar state secret charges.
She is the former deputy editor of the Economics Weekly and has written on topics such as the Communist Party's campaign against free speech.
Gao was also a supporter of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement, which in 1989 was crushed by Chinese troops. Estimates of those killed range from several hundred to several thousand people.
As they do every year, Chinese authorities have begun rounding up government critics ahead of the June 4 anniversary of the massacre.
Prominent rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang and at least four others (Liu Di, Xu Yonyu, Hao Jian and Hu Shigen) were detained this week after they attended a Beijing seminar to commemorate the crackdown.
The U.S. State Department on Wednesday said it is "deeply concerned" at the reported detentions, and called for the dissidents to be freed immediately.
It has been almost 25 years since Chinese troops, backed by tanks, moved in to crush the student-led demonstration. The crackdown triggered worldwide condemnation.
China still considers the incident a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" and has never admitted any wrongdoing in its handling of the uprising. It has never disclosed an official death toll or other key details on the crackdown, which is not discussed in state media.
Government censors also work hard to erase any reference to the incident in the country's very popular social media outlets.
Iran: Fifth installment of Iranˈs frozen assets deposited to CBI account
Tehran, May 8, IRNA – Fifth installment of Iranˈs frozen assets abroad was deposited to the account of the Central Bank of Iran, CBI said in a statement released on Thursday.
The statement said, the fourth and fifth installments of the Iranian frozen assets, dlrs 1 billion, have been remitted to the CBI account in the Central Bank of United Arab Emirates.
Following the implementation of a nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and the six world powers, Tehran has already received five installment of its 4.2 dlrs billion funds previously blocked overseas.
Iran and the six major world powers – Russia, China, the US, France, Britain and Germany -- inked a nuclear accord in the Swiss city of Geneva on November 24, 2013. The two sides have agreed to start implementing the agreement as of January 20.
Under the Geneva accord, the six countries agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Iran in exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building measure to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities for a six-month period.
Bolivia: Bolivian journalist missing since January
IFEX
Reporters Without Borders has urged the Bolivian authorities to carry
out a full investigation into the disappearance of the journalist
Christian Osvaldo Mariscal Calvimontes, who works for Canal Plus TV
Tarija and has been missing since 19 January.
Investigators first looked into the possibility that he had been involved in a lovers' quarrel. The family's lawyer said: “It is not possible that the investigation has made no progress in four months. Some development in local or national politics is holding it back.”
Camille Soulier, head of the Reporters Without Borders Americas Desk, said: “This worrying disappearance must be investigated fully and we urge the authorities to make every effort to find Christian Mariscal.
“The possibility that it is connected to his work must not be ruled out. The impunity enjoyed by those who attack journalists in Bolivia is of particular concern.
“The double murder of the brother and sister Veronica and Victor Hugo Peñasco Layme, in which eight of the 10 suspects have been freed and the two alleged murderers have still not been tried, is a painful reminder of this.”
The journalist's girlfriend and her new partner were arrested by the authorities in February and were released on bail. On 28 April the two suspects were ordered to be placed under house arrest by the judge in charge of the case.
Bolivia is ranked 94th of 180 countries in the 2014 edition of the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters without Borders.
Investigators first looked into the possibility that he had been involved in a lovers' quarrel. The family's lawyer said: “It is not possible that the investigation has made no progress in four months. Some development in local or national politics is holding it back.”
Camille Soulier, head of the Reporters Without Borders Americas Desk, said: “This worrying disappearance must be investigated fully and we urge the authorities to make every effort to find Christian Mariscal.
“The possibility that it is connected to his work must not be ruled out. The impunity enjoyed by those who attack journalists in Bolivia is of particular concern.
“The double murder of the brother and sister Veronica and Victor Hugo Peñasco Layme, in which eight of the 10 suspects have been freed and the two alleged murderers have still not been tried, is a painful reminder of this.”
The journalist's girlfriend and her new partner were arrested by the authorities in February and were released on bail. On 28 April the two suspects were ordered to be placed under house arrest by the judge in charge of the case.
Bolivia is ranked 94th of 180 countries in the 2014 edition of the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters without Borders.
Philippines: Typhoon Haiyan - A story of loss and hope
A 16-year-old boy describes the life-changing moments when Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines and killed his brother.
Immigration: US - Man Charged with Immigration Fraud for Failing to Disclose Crimes Committed in Bosnia and Military Service During the Bosnian Conflict
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
WASHINGTON—Zdenko Jakiša, 45, of Forest Lake, Minnesota, was arrested today on immigration fraud charges for failing to disclose multiple crimes committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina and his military service during the armed conflict there in the 1990s.
Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. O’Neil of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger of the District of Minnesota, Special Agent in Charge J. Michael Netherland of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) St. Paul, and Special Agent in Charge J. Chris Warrener of the FBI’s Minneapolis Field Office made the announcement.
Jakiša made an initial appearance today in the District of Minnesota and is scheduled for a detention hearing on May 12, 2014.
According to the indictment unsealed today, Jakiša, a former member of the armed forces of the Croatian Defense Council in Bosnia-Herzegovina, committed immigration fraud by providing false and fraudulent information about his military service during the Bosnian conflict, his criminal record in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and his commission of crimes of moral turpitude.
Records from Bosnia and Bosnian witnesses indicate that Jakiša committed numerous crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which he did not disclose during his refugee or green card applications. Such crimes include the murder of an elderly Bosnian Serb woman and the kidnapping, robbery, and assault of a Bosnian Muslim man in September 1993.
The case is being investigated jointly by HSI St. Paul and the FBI’s Minneapolis Field Office. ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center provided the lead in this investigation. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs and their counterparts at the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina provided valuable assistance.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Matthew C. Singer from the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nate Petterson of the District of Minnesota.
The charges in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Office of Public Affairs
WASHINGTON—Zdenko Jakiša, 45, of Forest Lake, Minnesota, was arrested today on immigration fraud charges for failing to disclose multiple crimes committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina and his military service during the armed conflict there in the 1990s.
Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. O’Neil of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger of the District of Minnesota, Special Agent in Charge J. Michael Netherland of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) St. Paul, and Special Agent in Charge J. Chris Warrener of the FBI’s Minneapolis Field Office made the announcement.
Jakiša made an initial appearance today in the District of Minnesota and is scheduled for a detention hearing on May 12, 2014.
According to the indictment unsealed today, Jakiša, a former member of the armed forces of the Croatian Defense Council in Bosnia-Herzegovina, committed immigration fraud by providing false and fraudulent information about his military service during the Bosnian conflict, his criminal record in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and his commission of crimes of moral turpitude.
Records from Bosnia and Bosnian witnesses indicate that Jakiša committed numerous crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which he did not disclose during his refugee or green card applications. Such crimes include the murder of an elderly Bosnian Serb woman and the kidnapping, robbery, and assault of a Bosnian Muslim man in September 1993.
The case is being investigated jointly by HSI St. Paul and the FBI’s Minneapolis Field Office. ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center provided the lead in this investigation. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs and their counterparts at the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina provided valuable assistance.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney Matthew C. Singer from the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nate Petterson of the District of Minnesota.
The charges in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Kenya: Solutions for Kenya’s displaced must be determined by reality, not politics
UN - 7 May 2014 – The United Nations independent expert tasked by the Human Rights Council to look into conditions of internally displaced persons (IDPs) today ended his visit to Kenya with a call for a more rigorous and equitable approach to solving the IDP situation in that East African country.
“Causes of internal displacement are many and recurrent, and solutions must be pursued more rigorously for all IDPs in an equal manner,” said Chaloka Beyani, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of IDPs since November 2010, pointing at post-election violence, inter-communal clashes, evictions or natural disasters as major causes of displacement in Kenya.
Kenya faces a range of humanitarian challenges. In addition to hosting the world largest refugee population of more than 550,000, there are also an estimated 300,000 IDPs, according to statistics compiled by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
During his nine-day official visit to Kenya from 29 April to 7 May, Mr. Beyani met with representatives of the national and county governments, and other stakeholders, including IDPs, in Nairobi, Nakuru and Moyale.
Following his visit to Moyale, where he saw burnt houses and destroyed schools leaving the displaced without a place to return to, Mr. Beyani stressed that “displaced pastoralists require special attention.”
“The end of displacement cannot be determined by a political decision, but by reality,” Mr. Beyani said today at the end of his visit, “and durable solutions are only achieved once IDPs can enjoy their human rights without discrimination.”
He welcomed the commitment and efforts by the Government of Kenya to resettle the displaced, but noted that lack of secure land tenure, children out of school, no access to health services, lack of livelihood opportunities and discrimination remain obstacles to lasting solutions.
With this visit, Mr. Beyani followed up on the progress made since his last official mission carried out from 16 to 27 September 2011.
Kenya’s Act on internal displacement recognizes these causes and requires immediate implementation,” the Special Rapporteur underscored. “This is not only a priority requirement to achieve durable solutions, but also for better preparedness.”
Independent experts or special rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
South Sudan: Nowhere Safe - Civilians Under Attack in South Sudan
Source: Amnesty
Amnesty International has several key recommendations:
· The UN should amend UNMISS’s mandate to focus on the protection of civilians, human rights investigations, and the facilitation of humanitarian access.
· The parties to the conflict must immediately cease all violations of international human rights and humanitarian law and allow unfettered access for humanitarian assistance to those in need.
· Both sides must cooperate fully with independent and impartial investigations into violations, including the AU Commission of Inquiry, and take steps to bring those responsible for human rights abuses and humanitarian law violations to justice.
Notes: This report is based on information gathered by Amnesty International from primary and secondary sources. Amnesty International delegates conducted a research mission to South Sudan in March 2014. They visited Juba, the capital of South Sudan; Bor town in Jonglei State; Bentiu town in Unity State; and Malakal town in Upper Nile State. Delegates interviewed over 100 witnesses; and spoke with local, national and state government officials; members of the SPLA and South Sudan Police Service; and representatives of opposition forces.
Testimonies in the report: · A woman described how on 16 December 2013 in the Eden district of Juba, her 20-year-old son and two other men were taken from her home in Juba by soldiers in the middle of the night. “They took them outside and tied their hands behind their backs and then tied their feet with the same rope, so that their hands and feet were pulled together like sheep and they could not move. Then they shot them repeatedly.” She fled to a neighbour’s house where she and nine other women were gang raped by soldiers.
· In Bor, Jonglei state, the bodies of 18 women were found in and around the compound of St Andrew’s Cathedral in January 2014. They are believed to have been victims of an attack by opposition forces. Six of the women were members of the clergy and all were Dinka.
· In Malakal, Upper Nile state, Amnesty International visited a World Food Programme warehouse which had been looted and destroyed in January 2014 when opposition forces gained control of the town. Food supplies sufficient to feed 400,000 people for three months were reportedly looted in less than three days.
Civilians killed and raped as ethnically-motivated violence spirals and famine looms
A new investigation into the conflict in South Sudan has revealed horrific atrocities committed by both parties to the conflict, with ethnically motivated attacks on civilians constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity, Amnesty International said in a report released today.
Nowhere Safe: Civilians Under Attack in South Sudan documents first-hand accounts from survivors of massacres, victims of sexual abuse, and witnesses to a conflict that has forced over one million people to flee their homes and driven the world’s youngest country to the brink of a humanitarian disaster.
The report catalogues human rights abuses committed by the rival forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and former Vice-President Riek Machar and their respective allied militias, since the conflict erupted in mid-December 2013. Civilians have been systematically targeted in towns and villages, in their homes, as well as in churches, mosques, hospitals and even UN compounds where they had sought refuge. In some of these places Amnesty International researchers found skeletons, and decomposing bodies being eaten by dogs. Elsewhere they discovered dozens of mass graves, including five in Bor containing 530 bodies. Everywhere they saw looted and burned down homes, destroyed medical facilities, and ransacked food humanitarian aid stores.
“This research reveals the unimaginable suffering of so many defenceless civilians unable to escape the growing spiral of violence in South Sudan. Civilians have been massacred in the very places where they sought refuge. Children and pregnant women have been raped, and old and infirm people shot dead in their hospital beds,” said Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Africa.
“Forces on both sides have shown total disregard for the most fundamental principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. Those up and down the chain of command on both sides of the conflict who are responsible for perpetrating, ordering or acquiescing to such grave abuses, some which constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, must be held accountable.”
Though triggered by a political dispute, the conflict has taken on a markedly ethnic dimension, with mainly Dinka members of government forces loyal to President Kiir, and mainly Nuer army defectors and their allied militias loyal to ex-Vice-President Machar. Both sides systematically target members of the other’s community. Amnesty International’s report, based on field research undertaken in March 2014, documents cases in which Dinka, Nuer and Shilluk civilians have been targeted on the basis of their ethnicity.
One survivor of a massacre described how he was rounded up by soldiers in Juba and held with at least 300 other men in overcrowded rooms in an army barracks. “It was so hot and we had no water. At about 7-8pm we opened the windows to get some air. When we did so, soldiers fired into our room from the windows. Many people were killed in my room. Survivors lay among the dead, pretending to be also dead. The soldiers fired from the windows at anything that moved. We were 12 survivors.”
One woman described to Amnesty International researchers how her ten-year-old sister-in-law was raped by ten men in Gandor, Leer county, and another recounted how she was among 18 women raped by government soldiers in Palop. “I was three months pregnant, but because I was raped by so many men, the baby came out. If I had refused those people, they would have killed me. Nine men raped me.” She said soldiers forced large wooden sticks inside the vaginas of seven women who refused to be raped. All seven died.
Because of the conflict, the humanitarian situation in South Sudan is becoming increasingly precarious. The ongoing violence has prevented displaced people from returning to their lands at this crucial time – the planting season. Unless crops are planted by June 2014 famine will be nearly inevitable. With the onset of the rainy season roads will soon become unpassable, making delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid impossible in many conflict-affected areas. Humanitarian assistance, including medical and food supplies, is being deliberately prevented from reaching those displaced by the conflict and humanitarian agencies have been obstructed and attacked in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity states, with at least three humanitarian workers killed.
In response to the outbreak of violence in South Sudan, the UN Security Council unanimously agreed last December to a temporary increase in peacekeeping force levels, but deployment has been slow and the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has struggled to carry out its mandate to protect the civilian population. A Commission of Inquiry has been set up by the African Union Peace and Security Council to investigate human rights violations, but its members are only now commencing field investigations, and promises by the South Sudanese government to investigate abuses by its forces remain unfulfilled. Concrete action is urgently needed at the local, regional and international levels to put an end to the violence, stop reprisals against civilians, and hold those responsible accountable.
A new investigation into the conflict in South Sudan has revealed horrific atrocities committed by both parties to the conflict, with ethnically motivated attacks on civilians constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity, Amnesty International said in a report released today.
Nowhere Safe: Civilians Under Attack in South Sudan documents first-hand accounts from survivors of massacres, victims of sexual abuse, and witnesses to a conflict that has forced over one million people to flee their homes and driven the world’s youngest country to the brink of a humanitarian disaster.
The report catalogues human rights abuses committed by the rival forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and former Vice-President Riek Machar and their respective allied militias, since the conflict erupted in mid-December 2013. Civilians have been systematically targeted in towns and villages, in their homes, as well as in churches, mosques, hospitals and even UN compounds where they had sought refuge. In some of these places Amnesty International researchers found skeletons, and decomposing bodies being eaten by dogs. Elsewhere they discovered dozens of mass graves, including five in Bor containing 530 bodies. Everywhere they saw looted and burned down homes, destroyed medical facilities, and ransacked food humanitarian aid stores.
“This research reveals the unimaginable suffering of so many defenceless civilians unable to escape the growing spiral of violence in South Sudan. Civilians have been massacred in the very places where they sought refuge. Children and pregnant women have been raped, and old and infirm people shot dead in their hospital beds,” said Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Africa.
“Forces on both sides have shown total disregard for the most fundamental principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. Those up and down the chain of command on both sides of the conflict who are responsible for perpetrating, ordering or acquiescing to such grave abuses, some which constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, must be held accountable.”
Though triggered by a political dispute, the conflict has taken on a markedly ethnic dimension, with mainly Dinka members of government forces loyal to President Kiir, and mainly Nuer army defectors and their allied militias loyal to ex-Vice-President Machar. Both sides systematically target members of the other’s community. Amnesty International’s report, based on field research undertaken in March 2014, documents cases in which Dinka, Nuer and Shilluk civilians have been targeted on the basis of their ethnicity.
One survivor of a massacre described how he was rounded up by soldiers in Juba and held with at least 300 other men in overcrowded rooms in an army barracks. “It was so hot and we had no water. At about 7-8pm we opened the windows to get some air. When we did so, soldiers fired into our room from the windows. Many people were killed in my room. Survivors lay among the dead, pretending to be also dead. The soldiers fired from the windows at anything that moved. We were 12 survivors.”
One woman described to Amnesty International researchers how her ten-year-old sister-in-law was raped by ten men in Gandor, Leer county, and another recounted how she was among 18 women raped by government soldiers in Palop. “I was three months pregnant, but because I was raped by so many men, the baby came out. If I had refused those people, they would have killed me. Nine men raped me.” She said soldiers forced large wooden sticks inside the vaginas of seven women who refused to be raped. All seven died.
Because of the conflict, the humanitarian situation in South Sudan is becoming increasingly precarious. The ongoing violence has prevented displaced people from returning to their lands at this crucial time – the planting season. Unless crops are planted by June 2014 famine will be nearly inevitable. With the onset of the rainy season roads will soon become unpassable, making delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid impossible in many conflict-affected areas. Humanitarian assistance, including medical and food supplies, is being deliberately prevented from reaching those displaced by the conflict and humanitarian agencies have been obstructed and attacked in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity states, with at least three humanitarian workers killed.
In response to the outbreak of violence in South Sudan, the UN Security Council unanimously agreed last December to a temporary increase in peacekeeping force levels, but deployment has been slow and the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has struggled to carry out its mandate to protect the civilian population. A Commission of Inquiry has been set up by the African Union Peace and Security Council to investigate human rights violations, but its members are only now commencing field investigations, and promises by the South Sudanese government to investigate abuses by its forces remain unfulfilled. Concrete action is urgently needed at the local, regional and international levels to put an end to the violence, stop reprisals against civilians, and hold those responsible accountable.
Amnesty International has several key recommendations:
· The UN should amend UNMISS’s mandate to focus on the protection of civilians, human rights investigations, and the facilitation of humanitarian access.
· The parties to the conflict must immediately cease all violations of international human rights and humanitarian law and allow unfettered access for humanitarian assistance to those in need.
· Both sides must cooperate fully with independent and impartial investigations into violations, including the AU Commission of Inquiry, and take steps to bring those responsible for human rights abuses and humanitarian law violations to justice.
Notes: This report is based on information gathered by Amnesty International from primary and secondary sources. Amnesty International delegates conducted a research mission to South Sudan in March 2014. They visited Juba, the capital of South Sudan; Bor town in Jonglei State; Bentiu town in Unity State; and Malakal town in Upper Nile State. Delegates interviewed over 100 witnesses; and spoke with local, national and state government officials; members of the SPLA and South Sudan Police Service; and representatives of opposition forces.
Testimonies in the report: · A woman described how on 16 December 2013 in the Eden district of Juba, her 20-year-old son and two other men were taken from her home in Juba by soldiers in the middle of the night. “They took them outside and tied their hands behind their backs and then tied their feet with the same rope, so that their hands and feet were pulled together like sheep and they could not move. Then they shot them repeatedly.” She fled to a neighbour’s house where she and nine other women were gang raped by soldiers.
· In Bor, Jonglei state, the bodies of 18 women were found in and around the compound of St Andrew’s Cathedral in January 2014. They are believed to have been victims of an attack by opposition forces. Six of the women were members of the clergy and all were Dinka.
· In Malakal, Upper Nile state, Amnesty International visited a World Food Programme warehouse which had been looted and destroyed in January 2014 when opposition forces gained control of the town. Food supplies sufficient to feed 400,000 people for three months were reportedly looted in less than three days.
Somalia At “risk of relapse”
Source: IRIN
NAIROBI, 7 May 2014 (IRIN) - Three years after a famine claimed 260,000 lives in Somalia, 2.9 million people there are still affected by a multifaceted but desperately underfunded humanitarian crisis, and communities are just “one shock away from disaster”, a host of aid agencies have warned in a joint campaign entitled “Risk of relapse.”
“With a third of the population in need of aid, Somalia is clearly in severe crisis,” according to a statement signed by 22 NGOs*.
Just 12 percent of Somalia’s humanitarian funding requirements for the year have been met, and there is a shortfall of US$822 million.
The organizations also launched a social media campaign, saying “we can’t fail them again.”
World Vision noted that rains have failed across most of Somalia, and the recent upsurge in the military offensive by AMISOM has led to greater displacement in the south.
“What we have is an early warning that has ingredients of a perfect storm. We urge donors and stakeholders to take immediate action to avert disaster,” said Andrew Lanyon, Chief of Party for the Somalia Resilience Programme (SomReP), an organization that World Vision is a member of, during a media briefing in Nairobi.
194 cases of polio have also been documented in 2013, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.
While the situation is dire, the campaign notes that “the sad truth is that these statistics from Somalia are better than previous years, so this is celebrated as a success.” But, the organizations argued, “we should measure progress against minimum standards, not gains made against an already terrible situation.”
Insecurity in most parts of the country
High levels of insecurity have made it very difficult for everyday Somalis and humanitarian organizations to operate. In Mogadishu, fear of attack and crime prevents many from leading normal lives.
“The latest face-to-face clashes between Somali government troops and Al-Shabab have badly affected our way of life and many people lost their lives. In this place nobody rules, so residents live under constant fear,” one resident of Heliwaa who preferred anonymity told IRIN.
International humanitarian organizations also have limited access to those in need, because of the security situation, generally requiring armed protection when travelling around Mogadishu and the rest of the country. Terror attacks by Islamist group Al-Shabab are frequent.
“Sometimes we use armed escorts,” said Ahmad Mohamed Hassan, president of the Somali Red Crescent, at a recent event in Nairobi. “It’s not our intention to defend ourselves from them, but it’s an issue of crime… Law and order has totally collapsed.”
The recent AMISOM military offensive against Al-Shabab “has created a new wave of IDPs [internally displaced persons] in addition to previously displaced people,” World Vision noted in a press statement. Currently, Somalia has an estimated 1.1 million IDPs across the country.
Women, children have it worst
Somalia is the world’s worst place to be a woman, according to a report by Save the Children released on 5 May 2014.
One in 16 women in Somalia is likely to die of maternal causes in the course of their lifetime, according to Save the Children. Almost 90 percent of the population is affected by violence and insecurity, according to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). Fifteen percent of children born in Somalia die before their first birthday, and on average children receive less than 2.5 years of formal schooling.
“Neglected human needs have been both a cause and a consequence of conflict in countries like Central African Republic, Somalia and Sudan,” said the report. “National-level data show Somalia has made no progress in saving mothers’ lives since 2000.”
Sexual violence against women is also a major problem, particularly for those in IDP camps. According to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there were 800 cases of sexual and gender-based violence in Mogadishu during the first six months of 2013.
“Rape is an everyday fact of life for many women and girls in Mogadishu,” said Samer Muscati, women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.
While Save the Children noted that not everywhere in Somalia is as dangerous for women, and regions such as Somaliland have made significant progress in reducing maternal mortality rates and increasing security, overall much more is needed to help the most vulnerable in the country.
“While gains have been made, communities remain only one shock away from disaster,” the campaign said. “As we learned in 2011, not heeding the warning signs of crisis in already fragile communities can lead to tragedy.”
*Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), Africa Action Help (AAH), African Development Solutions (ADESO), CARE, CESVI, Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI), Danish Refugee Council (DRC), FINN Church Aid, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Humanitarian Initiative Just Relief Aid (HIJRA), International Aid Services (IAS), KAALO Aid and Development Organization, Norwegian Church Aid, Nagaad Network, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Oxfam, Laakarin Sociaalinen Vastuu (LSV), Save the Children, Solidarites International, Wasda, World Concern, World Vision
Ukraine: A Damning Silence From Kiev
Source: Human Rights Watch
Dispatches: A Damning Silence From Kiev
Anna Neistat
Did I miss something? Authorities in Ukraine, a country seeking closer association with the European Union and swearing allegiance to human rights and democratic values, arrested a man. The next day, lurid photos of the man – naked, bearing scratches, and hands tied – appeared on the Facebook and Twitter pages of the leader of a Ukraine radical party, who says he plans to exchange him for the ousted president Yanukovich.
And through all of this, a deafening silence out of Kiev.
The man in the photos is Igor Kakidzyanov, a “defence minister” of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk Republic” that has rejected Kiev’s authority and occupied public buildings in eastern Ukraine for the past month.
On May 6, 2014, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry reported that a group of “separatists” attacked a vehicle of a special police unit traveling from the town of Mariupol. The police, according to the Ministry, killed one of the attackers and arrested two others, including Kakidzyanov.
On the morning of May 7, 2014, a spokesperson for the Social-National Assembly, a coalition of radical Ukrainian parties, told journalists that he was “personally interrogating” Kakidzyanov. A few hours later, Oleg Liashko, leader of the radical party and a presidential candidate, announced on his website and social media accounts that his team managed to capture a group of separatists, including Kakidzyanov. He posted the gruesome photos of Kakidzyanov – including one showing him hooded. “Would like to exchange Kakidzyanov to Yanukovich,” he said on Twitter.
How did this man, arrested by the police, end up in the hands of a radical party leader? Why have the Ukrainian authorities been silent and done nothing following Liashko’s posts?
If Kakidzyanov was involved in criminal acts, he should be detained, and, following a proper investigation, prosecuted in accordance with Ukrainian and international law. If he is indeed in the hands of Liashko, he is also a victim of kidnapping and mistreatment, and Liashko should face criminal responsibility for his actions
I spent a few hours trying to reach someone in the Ministry of Interior, prosecutor’s office, National Security Council, Ministry of Justice, and other governmental institutions. I called a few dozen numbers, but nobody picked up. I desperately searched for any sign of official reaction to this blatant violation of local and international law – but found none.
I hope Ukraine’s international counterparts, including the EU and US governments, have better luck reaching out to the Ukrainian authorities. I also hope they explain to them in no uncertain terms that such treatment of detainees is unacceptable, and that they need to immediately return Kakidzyanov to official custody, ensure his due process rights, and bring those responsible for this outrageous situation to account.
Dispatches: A Damning Silence From Kiev
Anna Neistat
Did I miss something? Authorities in Ukraine, a country seeking closer association with the European Union and swearing allegiance to human rights and democratic values, arrested a man. The next day, lurid photos of the man – naked, bearing scratches, and hands tied – appeared on the Facebook and Twitter pages of the leader of a Ukraine radical party, who says he plans to exchange him for the ousted president Yanukovich.
And through all of this, a deafening silence out of Kiev.
The man in the photos is Igor Kakidzyanov, a “defence minister” of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk Republic” that has rejected Kiev’s authority and occupied public buildings in eastern Ukraine for the past month.
On May 6, 2014, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry reported that a group of “separatists” attacked a vehicle of a special police unit traveling from the town of Mariupol. The police, according to the Ministry, killed one of the attackers and arrested two others, including Kakidzyanov.
On the morning of May 7, 2014, a spokesperson for the Social-National Assembly, a coalition of radical Ukrainian parties, told journalists that he was “personally interrogating” Kakidzyanov. A few hours later, Oleg Liashko, leader of the radical party and a presidential candidate, announced on his website and social media accounts that his team managed to capture a group of separatists, including Kakidzyanov. He posted the gruesome photos of Kakidzyanov – including one showing him hooded. “Would like to exchange Kakidzyanov to Yanukovich,” he said on Twitter.
How did this man, arrested by the police, end up in the hands of a radical party leader? Why have the Ukrainian authorities been silent and done nothing following Liashko’s posts?
If Kakidzyanov was involved in criminal acts, he should be detained, and, following a proper investigation, prosecuted in accordance with Ukrainian and international law. If he is indeed in the hands of Liashko, he is also a victim of kidnapping and mistreatment, and Liashko should face criminal responsibility for his actions
I spent a few hours trying to reach someone in the Ministry of Interior, prosecutor’s office, National Security Council, Ministry of Justice, and other governmental institutions. I called a few dozen numbers, but nobody picked up. I desperately searched for any sign of official reaction to this blatant violation of local and international law – but found none.
I hope Ukraine’s international counterparts, including the EU and US governments, have better luck reaching out to the Ukrainian authorities. I also hope they explain to them in no uncertain terms that such treatment of detainees is unacceptable, and that they need to immediately return Kakidzyanov to official custody, ensure his due process rights, and bring those responsible for this outrageous situation to account.
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