By: Jawar Mohammad, Ethiopian Current Affairs Forum, December 7, 2009
In the summer of 2008, I picked up a couple of newspapers the morning I returned to Finfinne. Among them was the Addis Neger. The quality of the paper; its fairness, the depth of research and the balance of views I was shocked as I flipped through the pages. From Dilla to Moyale, Ciro to Awaday, people took turns to read a week old copy of Addis Neger left in our car. This week what I feared happened. After months of incessant harassment and intimidation, the young groups of journalists were forced to close down the paper and flee the country.
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Ethiopian editors close paper and flee
By: The Guardian, December 7, 2009
One of Ethiopia’s best-read non-government weekly newspapers has shut down and three of its senior staff have fled the country. The editors of Addis Neger say they have faced a government campaign of intimidation and black propaganda. The closure of the Amharic-language newspaper, known for its lively discussion of political issues, comes as campaigning heats up in advance of next May’s parliamentary election.
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Uganda oil region threatens to boycott presidential elections
By: Nicholas Bariyo, Nasdaq, December 7, 2009
The Banyoro tribe, who occupy Uganda’s oil- rich region around Lake Albert, have threatened to boycott the country’s 2011 presidential and parliamentary elections, accusing the government of not resolving land ownership issues in the region, local leaders said over the weekend. In a statement, Kyabangi Musoke, who heads the Mubende Banyoro committee, a pressure group from the region, said that the Banyoro had given the government one month to table an amendment bill in parliament to protect the land ownership and political rights of the indigenous Banyoro against the influx of immigrants from the rest of the country.
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Somalis stage rare protest condemning deadly attack
By: Mail & Guardian Online, December 5, 2009
Hundreds of Somalis held a rare street protest after Friday prayers to condemn a suicide bombing at a graduation ceremony in Mogadishu in which at least 23 people were killed. The demonstration took place in the central town of Dhusamareb, close to the Ethiopian border, and was organised by Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa, a moderate Sufi organisation opposed to hardline Islamists. “Today we are here to show solidarity with the innocent civilians killed in Mogadishu yesterday,” a spokesperson for the group, Sheikh Abdullahi Abdurahman Abu Yusuf, told the demonstrators.
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Uganda: Ensure accountability for election violence
By: Human Rights Watch, December 4, 2009
Uganda’s government should reform the country’s election laws to improve accountability for election-related crimes and reduce the risk of violence in the upcoming 2011 elections, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Politically motivated violence, intimidation, and bribery of voters have marred previous national elections in Uganda, but accountability for such crimes has been very weak.
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View the report…
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CENTRAL AMERICA/CARIBBEAN
Behind bars in Honduras: An interview with a women’s rights leader before the ‘free’ election
By: Tamar Sharabi, Upsidedown World, December 3, 2009 Merlin Eguigure helped organize an event on Nov. 25 for the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The next day while leaving a restaurant in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, members of COBRA, the special police force, ambushed her. The District Attorney’s office charged her with ‘property damage’, but her case is still under investigation, and other charges can still be added. Her real crime is being a part of the “Movement of Women for Peace Visitacion Padilla” and a ‘Feminist in Resistance,’ and for speaking out against the coup regime that took power on June 28. Read full article… Cuban dissident groups unite, decry repression Cuba: Dissident, 80, hurt in police crackdown
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NORTH AMERICA
US: Celebrating Mario Savio
By: Eric Stoner, Waging Nonviolence, December 4, 2009 Forty-five years ago this week, Mario Savio – a 21-year-old student at Berkeley and leader of the Free Speech Movement – gave a speech before a massive sit-in on the steps of Sproul Hall that would go down in history. As an intriguing article in In These Times explains: “The movement was a protest against the university’s clampdown on political speechmaking and recruiting for civil rights activism on campus. President Clark Kerr and various bureaucratic intermediaries disdained the movement as a disruption of the modern “multiversity” (Kerr’s own term) as a smooth-running, quasi-corporate knowledge factory.” Watch the video… US: Decline in elite support for democracy assistance US: Undocumented immigrant stages hunger strike at White House |
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SOUTH AMERICA
Bolivia’s Evo Morales easily tops challenger
By: Frank Bajak, Miami Herald, December 7, 2009 President Evo Morales appeared headed to easy re-election Sunday, with a strong mandate for further revolutionary change on behalf of Bolivia’s long-suppressed indigenous majority. Opponents say they fear Morales will use a consolidation of power not just to eradicate racially based economic inequalities but also to trample human rights and deepen state control of the economy. Read full article… Chile: The people and the land
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EUROPE
Turkey: Jailing Kurdish children to curb dissent
By: Daan Bauwens, Human Rights Tribune, December 7, 2009 Turkey is signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, but that does not stop minors in the country’s Kurdish dominated eastern and southeastern regions from ending up with stiff jail sentences. In fact, after amendments were recently made to the country’s anti-terror law, it is possible to charges children as terrorists and put them away for up to 50 years in jail. According to official figures, there are currently 2,622 minors serving time in Turkish prisons. Read full article… Russia: Interview with activist Anatoly Karlin – Sublime Oblivion Romania opposition alleges fraud in presidential poll Georgia: Differing media challenges to President Mikheil Saakashvili Belarusian youth activists speak out 1989: Reagan didn’t end the Cold War – leftist intellectuals did |
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MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA
Hunger striking Western Saharan activist in dire condition
By: Democracy Now, December 7, 2009 The Western Saharan human rights activist Aminatou Haidar is risking death as she continues a hunger strike over Morocco’s refusal to allow her to return to her desert homeland. On Friday, Spain and Morocco reached a deal for Haidar’s return, but Moroccan officials reneged shortly before her plane was due to leave. The Spanish government has reportedly backed off its pressure on the Moroccan government and is now preparing to force-feed Haidar. Read full article… View Democracy Now’s coverage of Aminatou Haidar’s case… Latest Iran protests show a resilient opposition Iran: Video footage of Tehran protests surfaces Iran opposition renews protests, clashes with police Iran police crack down on student protesters Iranian student protesters clash with police How Iran’s opposition inverts old slogans Mothers arrested before opposition rally in Iran Iran bans foreign media cover as student rally nears Iran’s voice will be heard Iranian leader blames West for student demonstrations Egypt: Mubarak’s virtual enemies Egypt detains ten senior Brotherhood members Western Sahara and the case of Aminatou Haidar: The other occupation A hunger for justice: The perilous journey of a modern day Gandhi |
By: RFE, December 4, 2009
Tajik human rights activist Nigina Bakhrieva says the decision by Kyrgyz officials to ban her from entering Kyrgyzstan was a great surprise, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports. Bakhrieva told RFE/RL that border guards at Bishkek’s Manas Airport did not allow her to enter the country on December 2 when she arrived and told her she cannot enter Kyrgyzstan until 2019. No explanations for the refusal were given. Bakhrieva says she was invited by the Kyrgyz nongovernmental organization Voice of Liberty to take part in training for employees in the Kyrgyz ombudsman’s office.
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