By: NY Times, July 1, 2009
A group of United States senators urged Vietnam’s president on Wednesday to free a Roman Catholic priest as human rights groups said that his imprisonment justified putting Vietnam on a religious freedom blacklist. The priest, the Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, was sentenced to eight years in prison in March 2007 after being charged with spreading propaganda against Vietnam’s Communist government.
Read full article…
US: Refusing to comply – The tactics of resistance in an all-volunteer military
By: Dahr Jamail, Truthout, June 30, 2009
On May 1st at Fort Hood in central Texas, Specialist Victor Agosto wrote on a counseling statement, which is actually a punitive U.S. Army memo: “There is no way I will deploy to Afghanistan. The occupation is immoral and unjust. It does not make the American people any safer. It has the opposite effect.” Ten days later, he refused to obey a direct order from his company commander to prepare to deploy and was issued a second counseling statement.
Read full article…
US slaps sanctions on Iran firm
By: BBC News, June 30, 2009
The US has imposed sanctions on an Iranian firm accused of helping North Korea with its nuclear programme. The US Treasury says Hong Kong Electronics moved millions of dollars to two North Korean companies linked to Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. The action means that bank accounts or any other financial assets found in the US belonging to the Iran-based company will be frozen.
Read full article…
US: Growing factory occupations threaten to break the banks
By: Mike Elk, Truthout, June 25, 2009
Last December, members of the United Electrical Workers (UE) employed by Republic Windows and Doors were initially denied severance pay when management announced the closing of their Chicago factory. Bank of America and JPMorganChase refused to continue the company’s credit line and to provide severance pay, required under the workers’ union contract. Workers responded by occupying the plant, protesting the refusal of banks to extend credit under the slogan “You got bailed out, We got sold out”.
Read full article…
|
ASIA/SOUTH ASIA
Tibet: Students expelled for protesting
By: Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, July 2, 2009 Chinese authorities on June 19 expelled two Tibetan students of a middle school in Labrang, Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) County, in Gansu Province, for their alleged involvement in a peaceful protest earlier on April 24 this year, sources said. The two Tibetan students, identified as Dolma Tashi aka Dolta, 21, and Dolma Bum aka Dolbum, 22, are both from Sangkhok Township, Sangchu County, Kanlho “Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP) in Gansu Province. Read full article… China: Hong Kong’s pro-democracy march draws thousands China: Shishou official speaks out about riot China: “Green Dam” as a case of online activism China: Hong Kong march calls for more democracy Do not forget Burma Thailand’s “red shirts” rally again in Bangkok Indonesia: Journalists protest alleged assault by ruling party official Video: Subversive tech and Burma’s struggle for democracy Global lawyers’ group brands Vietnam arrest ‘arbitrary’
|
|
CENTRAL ASIA
Kazakhstan: State-ordered blogging
By: Yelena Jetpyspayeva, Global Voices, July 1, 2009 rOOse, a blogger on the YVision.kz blog platform in Kazakhstan, has posted [ru] a letter from the government to the principals of schools and colleges across the country containing recommendations to upload videos to the KazTube.Kz video portal, which was created in February 2009 at the expense of the state budget. In particular, the principals are urged to post videos about “significant events taking place in their institutions on a regular basis.” Read full article…
|
|
EUROPE
UK: A real, live protest song
By: Billy Bragg, The Guardian, July 2, 2009 I had to smile when I read Henry Porter’s liberty central blog about protest music on Wednesday. Disappointed by the absence of any songs questioning the state of the world in the BBC’s Glastonbury coverage, he called upon readers to create a virtual protest concert by providing links to clips of their favourite political songs. The irony is that I was filmed singing a brand new protest song called Constitution Hill at Glastonbury by a Guardian film crew. Read full article… Belarus leader pardons American lawyer at center of dispute
|
|
MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA
Palestine: Amnesty details Gaza ‘war crimes’
By: BBC News, July 2, 2009 Israel committed war crimes and carried out reckless attacks and acts of wanton destruction in its Gaza offensive, an independent human rights report says. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed using high-precision weapons, while others were shot at close range, the group Amnesty International says. Read full article… Egypt: Arab dissent finds voice in cyberspace Egpyt’s Brotherhood will not challenge succession Arab activists watch Iran and wonder: “Why not us?”
|
|
OCEANIA
Fiji bans youth speakers
By: Michael Fields, Stuff, July 30, 2009 Fiji’s military regime has banned a prominent critic from taking part in an international youth congress. The move against the Pacific Youth Festival comes ahead of a planned announcement on Wednesday by dictator Voreqe Bainimarama on the country’s future. Bainimarama has imposed martial law on Fiji and recently banned selected speakers at the Society of Accountant’s annual meeting and ordered the cancellation of the Methodist Church annual conference. Read full article…
|
|
International court under unusual fire
By: Colum Lynch, Washington Post, June 30, 2009 When Luis Moreno-Ocampo charged Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir with war crimes last year, the International Criminal Court prosecutor was hailed by human rights advocates as the man who could help bring justice to Darfur. Today, Moreno-Ocampo appears to be the one on trial, with even some of his early supporters questioning his prosecutorial strategy, his use of facts and his personal conduct. Read full article… Color revolutions and political branding: A guide for the perplexed
|
By: Milagros Salazar, IPS, June 8, 2009
There are conflicting reports on a violent incident in Peru’s Amazon jungle region in which both police officers and indigenous protesters were killed. The authorities, who describe last Friday’s incident as a “clash” between the police and protesters manning a roadblock, say 22 policemen and nine civilians were killed. But leaders of the two-month roadblock say at least 40 indigenous people, including three children, were killed and that the authorities are covering up the massacre by throwing bodies in the river.
Read full article…
China: Lawyers face revocation of their licenses for defending human rights
CHRD learned today that law firms employing some of the most vocal human rights lawyers in China have been pressed by the local authorities to “fail” the lawyers in the annual evaluation of their performances. If this happens, as the lawyers fear it will, at least twenty lawyers will not have their licenses to practice law renewed by the judicial authorities when the evaluation concludes on May 31.
Read full article…