Nonviolent action around the world – 22 Septembert 2009 (Part 2)

CENTRAL ASIA
Azerbaijan: Contradictions emerge during blogger trial testimony
By: Eurasia Insight, September 18, 2009
Government witnesses continued to struggle on the witness stand on September 18 during the trial of two Azerbaijani youth activists and bloggers accused of hooliganism. Many of those questioned claimed to have little memory about the alleged brawl, and some were at times openly hostile and/or evasive under defense questioning.
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Turkmenistan: Rights group reminds West of free-speech commitments
By: Eurasia Insight, September 17, 2009
Interest in Turkmenistan’s natural resources should not mute international criticism of Ashgabat’s repressive domestic policies, the media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders said in a recent statement. Despite President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s “all-out charm offensive,” Ashgabat maintains complete control over mass media, the watchdog group said in a statement issued September 16.
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EUROPE
Hungary: Budapest citizens fight for their right to party
By: Marietta Le, Global Voices Online, September 19, 2009
On Sept. 1, a silence decree came into force in Budapest’s District VI, which is well-known for its lively nightlife. The decree requires bars, restaurants and 24-hour-shops to close at 10 PM. The first civil disobedience movement and protest against the decree took place the same day at Liszt Ferenc Square, András Földes of index.hu reported.
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EU condemns crackdown on rally and violence against opposition in Belarus
By: Andrei Kim, Charter 97, September 18, 2009
Sweden which is the country presiding in the European Union has made a statement slamming crackdown on the peaceful rally of solidarity in Minsk dedicated to the 10th anniversary of opposition leaders’ abduction. “The Presidency urges the Belarusian authorities to refrain from the use of force in dealing with peaceful demonstrations and to ensure that representatives of independent media are able to perform their tasks without interference,” Sweden, holder of the rotating presidency, said in a statement on Thursday, as quoted by the website of “European Belarus” movement.
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MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA
Palestine: Bil’in night raid delivers orders to appear for investigation
By: PNN, September 21, 2009
Israeli forces invaded Bil’in once again just before 1am. Six jeeps entered the village, known for its nonviolent resistance, via the gate in the Wall. International and Israeli activists accompanied local Palestinians at all three locations to protest the invasions and to document events. There has been speculation that an Israeli lawyer is attempting to show that this long series of night arrests is illegal because no forewarning was given to any of the Palestinians so far seized and detained.
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Palestine: Fayyad holds Eid prayer at site of nonviolent protests
By: Ma’an News Agency, September 21, 2009
Caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad attended the Eid prayer on Sunday in a mosque in the West Bank village of Bil’in, which is known for its lively nonviolent demonstrations against the Israeli separation wall. In Bil’in, Fayyad and his entourage visited the family of Bassem Abu Rahma, a demonstrator who was shot dead by Israeli forces in Junem and laid a wreath on his grave. They also visited the families of local nonviolent activists who have been jailed by Israel.
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Israel: Boycott derails Jerusalem’s transit system
By: Jonathan Cook, Antiwar.com, September 19, 2009
This week, in an indication of the deepening crisis, Israel’s Dan bus company was forced to step in to buy the five per cent stake of Veolia, a French company that is supposed to operate the line for the next 30 years. Veolia’s unexpected withdrawal from City Pass, a French-Israeli private consortium backed in part by public finances, is being claimed as a victory by Palestinian officials and activists whose boycott and lobbying efforts appear to have forced the company to quit the project.
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Syria: Blogger Kareem Arbaji sentenced to three years in prison
By: Razan, Global Voices Online, September 19, 2009
On September 13, 2009, the Syrian State Security Supreme Court sentenced the young blogger Kareem Arbaji to three-years prison for “publishing mendacious information liable to weaken the nation’s morale,” under article #286 of the Syrian penal code. The thirty- one years old economics graduate, Kareem Arbaji, has been detained for over two years, since June 7th, 2007, by military intelligence officers.
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Palestine: Israeli forces target town known for nonviolent resistance
By: PNN, September 18, 2009
Shortly after 1:30am Wednesday Israeli forces again invaded western Ramallah’s Bil’in, a town known for its nonviolent resistance to occupation. Soldiers raided the house of Abdullah Mahmoud Aburahma in an attempt to arrest him. They stole Palestinian flags, banners and posters used during nonviolent demonstrations.
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The Lebanese Manifesto – A Cedar for all seasons
By: Talal Nizaneddin, The Daily Star, September 18, 2009
The perennial breakdown of the Lebanese political order has become more than a tedious joke. There has to be change and this change can only come from within Lebanon itself. This lays the groundwork for an intellectual revolution for political changes to rescue Lebanon from its demise. I propose three key tenets driving the Cedar Revolution and Lebanese thinking toward withstanding all the tests and trials of nations and international politics.
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Palestinian-led movement to boycott Israel is gaining support
By: International Solidarity Movement, September 16, 2009
Uzbekistan-born diamond mogul Lev Leviev announced late in August that his company, Africa-Israel, was drowning in debt of more than $5.5 billion that it could not repay. His holding and investment company had lost $1.4 billion since 2008, mostly due to failed real estate investments in the United States. Watching Leviev’s precipitous downfall from the sidelines were pro-Palestinian activists. And they were cheering.
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OCEANIA
Caught in the crossfire: Fiji media and the coups
By: Sharishma Kumari and Richard Nath, Pacific Scoop, September 21, 2009
When Fiji’s fourth coup in in two decades took place in December 2006, the country’s media again found itself in the frontline as witnesses and reporters of the event, and what followed later. The coup leader, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, dubbed his takeover a “clean-up campaign”. He claimed he ousted the elected Laisenia Qarase government because it was corrupt and racist.
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Keep pressure on Fiji, says International Bar Association
By: Chris Merritt, The Australian, September 18, 2009
The International Bar Association has urged the international community to maintain pressure on Fiji’s military rulers to return that country to democratic rule. IBA president Fernando Pelaez-Pier said it was desirable to maintain pressure on Fiji’s rulers because experience had shown that this had improved the quality of governance in countries such as Zimbabwe.
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ARTICLES OF INTEREST
Robert Thurman’s “pragmatic” nonviolence
By: Nathan Schneider, Waging Nonviolence, September 21, 2009
Guernica magazine has a new interview with Robert Thurman, once a Tibetan Buddhist monk and now professor of Buddhism at Columbia. He’s also co-founder of Tibet House and the father of actress Uma Thurman. Here, he discusses the prospects of a new world order based on nonviolence and the realistic-and perhaps even violent-steps it may take to get there.
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Defining digital activism: Part 2 – What are we (thinking)?
By: Mary Joyce, Digi Active, September 19, 2009
When I started writing about digital activism in that first post, I ignored the elephant in the  room: not everyone agrees that the use of digital tools for social and political change should be called “digital activism.”  In fact, there is quite a difference of opinion. Wiebe Bijker, chair of the Department of Social Science & Technology at the University of Maastricht, has an elegant little term for the state of affairs we find ourselves in at the present moment: “interpretive flexibility.”
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NEWS IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Iran: L’Erythrée est la plus grande prison du monde pour les journalistes, huit ans après les rafles de septembre 2001
By: Tedros Abraham, Reporters Sans Frontieres, September 17, 2009
L’Erythrée compte aujourd’hui au moins trente journalistes et deux collaborateurs des médias emprisonnés. Huit ans exactement après les rafles du 18 septembre 2001, qui ont sonné le glas de la liberté d’expression dans le pays, les autorités d’Asmara sont à égalité avec celles de Pékin et de Téhéran pour le nombre de professionnels des médias jetés derrière les barreaux.
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NOTICES
Peace is breaking out – the competition launches on International Peace Day
By: Creig Zelizer, Peace and Collaborative Development Network, September 21, 2009
What images come to your mind when you think of peace? The peace logo needs to be re-invented to reflect today. We need a peace logo that is fresh, relevant, and global – and we want YOU to design it.
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IN PAST NEWS
Art as resistance
By: Dahr Jamail, Truthout, September 6, 2009
Given the lack of an outlet for anti-war voices in the corporate media, many contemporary veterans and active-duty soldiers have embraced the arts as a tool for resistance, communication and healing. They have made use of a wide range of visual and performing arts – through theater, poetry, painting, writing, and other creative expression – to affirm their own opposition to the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Indian students protest in Australia against attacks
By: Bester News, June 7, 2009
Hundreds of Indian students marched in Sydney on Sunday to protest against a spate of violent attacks that victims have called racist, witnesses said. The attacks caused some diplomatic discomfort between the two countries and sparked angry protests in India. Australia’s government condemned the attacks and has launched an inquiry into them.
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