By: Michael Slackman, NY Times, August 31, 2009
In what may be the first admission that a prisoner died from abuse by Iranian prison authorities in the wake of post-election unrest, a semiofficial news service reported Monday that the son of an adviser to a prominent conservative politician had died of “physical stress, conditions of imprisonment, repeated blows and harsh physical treatment.”
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Iran: Students urged to counter enemy soft war
By: International Security Research & Intelligence Agency,Islamic Revolution, August 31, 2009
Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei said Wednesday in a meeting with university students and elites that regarding the pos-election events, the Judiciary system should judge based on strong reasons and not rumors. Ayatollah Khamenei said some crimes and violations have been committed following the recent presidential elections in Iran which will certainly be prosecuted.
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Iran uprising blogging: August 28 and 29th
By: Saeed Valadbaygi, Blog Spot, August 30, 2009
The internet website of “Alef” of Ahmad Tavakoli conservative member of the house warned about the poor economic situation and a possibility of workers protests. According to this news, 200 thousand workers of 500 factories have not been paid for at least the past 3 months.
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Hard-line Iranian prosecutor fired
By: Borzou Daragahi, LA Times, August 30, 2009
Iran’s new judiciary chief ousted the hard-line prosecutor behind the ongoing trials against opposition figures in Tehran, replacing him with a relatively moderate newcomer from the provinces, an Iranian news agency reported Saturday. His removal suggests an attempt by the new judiciary chief, Sadegh Larijani, the scion of a powerful conservative family, to curtail the influence of hard-liners and clean up the image of the country’s legal system.
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Panel in Iran will oversee investigations into unrest
By: Michael Slackman, NY Times, August 30, 2009
Conservative rivals of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran have continued to challenge his drive to consolidate power, appointing a committee to supervise investigations into the unrest that swept the nation after he claimed a landslide victory in the disputed presidential election in June, political analysts said. On Saturday, a day before Mr. Ahmadinejad stepped before a hostile Parliament to defend his 21 nominees for the cabinet the chief of the judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, announced the appointment of a panel to oversee investigations by allies of the president into the postelection unrest.
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Iran’s Ahmadinejad urges prosecution of opposition leaders
By: Borzou Daragahi, LA Times, August 29, 2009
Iran’s hard-line president Friday demanded the prosecution of top opposition leaders, raising the political temperature anew just a day and a half after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sought to cool tensions in a conciliatory speech. During a pre-sermon speech at weekly prayers in Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not name his reformist rivals, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi and former parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi, but left little doubt that he was speaking about them in calling for the punishment of the “masterminds” of weeks of public unrest that followed the disputed June 12 election.
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Iranian Nobel laureate Ebadi condemns reformists’ trials as ‘illegal’
By: Radio Free Europe, August 27, 2009
Nobel Peace prize-winner and prominent Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi has condemned the ongoing trials of hundreds of people detained following the unrest that followed the country’s contentious June elections. In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL’s Golnaz Esfandiari, Ebadi described the trials as “wizardry” and a “parody” of Iranian justice.
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Iran: Revolution for the hereafter
By: Aziz Motazedi, Open Democracy, August 25, 2009
The question now is whether the Islamic Republic will survive this great disgrace as it has survived previous ones or whether it will sink in this, its greatest ever crisis of legitimacy. There are many possible ways to answer this question. The analysts in Open Democracy’s post-election series have addressed it through various lenses…
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CRISIS IN HONDURAS
Toppling a coup, part VII: A school of leaders in Honduras
By: Al Giordano, The Field, August 31, 2009 Scratch the surface of the de facto Honduran coup regime and its architects can’t help but demonstrate, again and again, that one of its unspoken reasons to exist is their unbridled racism toward considerable sectors of the national and international community. The July comment by its make-believe “foreign minister” that referred to US President Barack Obama as “that little nigger” was not an isolated gaffe: Coup “president” Roberto Micheletti has additionally installed the country’s most infamously bigoted politician, Rafael Pineda Ponce, as his very own chief of staff. Read full article… Scenes of resistance in Honduras Hondurans to extend their struggle Honduras begins election campaigning amid political crisis
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AFRICA
South Africa: Of duty, discontent and discipline
By: Laura Miti, Daily Dispatch, September 1, 2009 Just how “free” and rights-driven post- apartheid South Africa is, was put on display last week when a section of the country’s labor force that one would not expect to see raising their industrial grievances in public took to the streets, with disturbing results. This was, of course, the members of the South African National Defense Force who undertook an illegal (meant to be peaceful) march to the Union Buildings demanding a salary increase. Read full article… Malawi: Protests at proposed law backing sweet 16 marriages
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AMERICAS
U.S.: Could boycotts help restore some civil discourse on political issues?
By: Michael Hiltzik, LA Times, August 31, 2009 There aren’t many individuals in history whose names are taken in vain more than Capt. C.C. Boycott, the notorious Irish landlord who cut the wages of his tenant farmers and got himself ostracized — and the English language enriched — in return. The captain’s name has seldom been out of public circulation since then. Yet every new boycott inspires vigorous discussion over whether this sort of pressure on the powerful is effective or fair. Currently on the table are two such actions: an advertisers’ boycott of Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, and a shoppers’ boycott of the Austin, Texas, grocery chain Whole Foods Market. Read full article… Mapuche: Hundreds mobilize for a ‘Chile without dams’ U.S.: Hunger strike a daily reminder of U.S.’s forsaken promise U.S.: Washington DC protest for detained Azerbaijani activist bloggers Venezuela accuses protesters of attempting ‘rebellion’ Venezuelan authorities arrest opposition leader Venezuela: IAPA calls for a meeting in Caracas to discuss press freedom U.S.: Activism to stop human trafficking Cuba: Activists pay in pesos in hard currency restaurant |
By: John Ruwitch, Reuters, August 31, 2009
Vietnam announced on Monday it would free 5,459 prisoners in an amnesty that includes 13 people jailed on national security grounds but none of the country’s highest profile political prisoners. The mass prisoner release, part of celebrations for Vietnam’s Sept. 2 National Day, comes amid what some diplomats and activists say is an intensified crackdown on dissent in which several critics of the ruling Communist Party have been arrested or detained in recent months.
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Vietnam: Police detain dissident blogger
By: Ben Stocking, AP, August 31, 2009
A Vietnamese blogger who criticized the Communist Party’s policies has been detained by police, his close friend said Monday, days after another popular blogger was fired from his job at a state-controlled newspaper. Bui Thanh Hieu, who writes his blog under the pen name “Nguoi Buon Gio” or “Wind Trader,” was taken into police custody in Hanoi on Thursday, said a close friend, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
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India: Demonstration in Srinagar to mark International Day of Disappeared Persons
By: Sify News, August 31, 2009
Kin of missing people staged a demonstration in Srinagar to mark International Day of Disappeared Persons. Protestors, gathering under the banner of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), sat all day long with banners, placards and photographs, demanding whereabouts of their untraced relatives. It is the duty of the government and if they found them innocent, they should be sent back to their families,” said Vrinda Grover, Delhi-based Human Rights lawyer and an APDP activist.
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Sri Lankan journalist given 20 years in prison
By: Bharatha Mallawarachi, Buffalo News, August 31, 2009
A Sri Lankan reporter singled out by President Barack Obama as an example of persecuted journalists around the globe was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison on charges of violating the country’s strict anti-terror law. J.S. Tissainayagam’s articles in the now-defunct Northeastern Monthly magazine in 2006 and 2007 criticized the conduct of the war against the Tamil Tiger rebels and accused authorities of withholding food and other essential items from Tamil-majority areas as a tool of war.
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Nepal: Strike cripples life in Terai
By: Nepal News, August 30, 2009
A protest call from three Madhesi parties against the Supreme Court verdict asking Vice President Paramananda Jha to take fresh oath in Nepali has badly hit normal life in several Terai districts Sunday. Transportation services, educational institutions, industries and bazaars remain largely closed in major towns across Terai.
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Video appeal from a Tibetan monk to the international community
By: Yeshe Choesang, Indybay, August 29, 2009
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is organizing a press conference at Lhakpa Tsering Hall, Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR) on the fresh videotaped information received from Tibet that appeal to the International communities to act swiftly on behalf of the Tibetan people who are victims of human rights violations in Tibet. Kalsang Tsultrim took a great personal risk of recording and distributing video testimony giving detail account of Tibetan history since the flight of Dalai Lama into exile, lack of human rights in Tibet, suffering of Tibetan people, struggle, hopes, aspirations of Tibetan people inside Tibet and his appeal to the outside world.
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China: Are Tibetan bloggers being silenced?
By: Dechen Pemba, Global Voices Online, August 28, 2009
Quite alarming to report that all of the most popular Tibetan language blog hosting sites (except one) have been inaccessible for almost three weeks now. It is fairly common practice for Tibetan language blog hosting sites to be taken down (sometimes for “maintenance”) and at times deemed sensitive by the authorities (see ‘All Quiet on the Tibetan Blog Front’).
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Burma: Lawyers to appeal Suu Kyi sentence
By: Htet Aung Kyaw, Democratic Voice of Burma, August 28, 2009
Lawyers for Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi are set to appeal her sentencing next week, following complaints that new conditions of her house arrest are stricter than before. Suu Kyi met with her lawyers yesterday at her Rangoon compound where she has been sentenced to 18 months under house arrest. A finalised version of the appeal will be submitted next week.
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