Nonviolent action around the world – 29 January 2010 (Part 1)

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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Academic Webinar Series
ICNC is pleased to announce the launch of our Academic Webinar Series live lectures and discussions on topics related to nonviolent conflict and civil resistance that are available to you online or over the phone.  Our first webinar will be on Thursday, February 4th, 12pm – 1pm EST.  Jack DuVall, President of ICNC and co-author of the book A Force More Powerful will present, “The Core Dynamics of Civil Resistance.”  
View the flyer…
Register here…

FSI 2010
ICNC is now accepting applications for the 2010 Fletcher Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict at Tufts University. This week-long Institute, now in its fifth year, will run from June 20 – 26 and brings together international professionals and journalists from around the world to learn from top practitioners and scholars about strategic concepts and present applications of civil resistance.
View the flyer…
Download the application form…

 

CENTRAL AMERICA/CARIBBEAN
Honduran coup d’état spawns resilient civil resistance
By: Tom Loudon, Truthout, January 28, 2010
The military takeover of Honduras unleashed a broad based, sustained resistance movement inside the country. A spirit long dormant in Honduras was awakened, transforming the country into a hub of political activity previously unimaginable. The resistance movement has brought together people from many sectors of Honduran society, including large numbers of disaffected Liberal Party members.
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El Salvador: Activists link mining company to murders
By: Edgardo Ayala, IPS, January 27, 2010
Environmental activists in El Salvador allege that managers of a gold mine owned by a Canadian corporation are implicated in the murders of three anti-mining activists.
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Haiti untold: Nonviolence and humanization at the grassroots
By: Randall Amster, Waging Nonviolence, January 27, 2010
Having done relief work following Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina, I have found that people are more likely to work together – even if only out of necessity – when severe hardship strikes. In fact, it is precisely the isolation and individualism of ordinary daily life that tap into our worst instincts, while the removal of these impediments can actually liberate our better qualities.
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SOUTH AMERICA
Protests continue in Venezuela following two deaths
By: CNN, January 27, 2010
Protests over media freedom continued in Venezuela Tuesday, a day after two student protesters were killed in separate clashes. Student leaders opposed to cable operators’ decision to drop five television channels, including an opposition station, for failure to follow broadcast laws pleaded for an end to the violence at a demonstration in front of the state-run broadcaster.
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Venezuelans protest censorship of popular TV channel
By: Mery Mogollon and Chris Kraul, LA Times, January 26, 2010
Protests broke out in Venezuela on Monday after cable companies dropped transmission of a popular channel that the government declared had broken telecommunications laws by not broadcasting President Hugo Chavez’s speeches.
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EUROPE
OSCE against decree on internet censorship in Belarus
By: Charter 97, January 28, 2010
The new law shouldn’t become a restrainer for freedom of expression on the web according to OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Miklos Haraszti. It is good that over the last two or three years Belarusian authorities tried to abstain from any actions aimed against journalists, closure of newspapers, excessive use of powers of the Information Ministry, Haraszti noted in an interview to BelaPAN.
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Belarus: Interior Minister justifies total lawlessness by riot policemen
By: Charter 97, January 28, 2010
At today’s press-conference in Minsk journalists grumbled to the minister of the Interior Affairs Anatoly Kulyashou at brutal actions of policemen during opposition rallies, when photo reporters and cameramen were hindered from performing their professional functions, Radio Svaboda informs.
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Russia: Prosecution against opposition blogger stopped
By: Alexey Sidorenko, Global Voices, January 28, 2010
The first criminal case against a blogger Dmitri Soloviev in Russia has a happy ending. After two years of investigation and three socio-linguistic assessments, experts didn’t find any evidence of “incitement hatred against police and Russian Security Service officers.”
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Russian opposition to fight rally ban in court
By: RFE, January 27, 2010
The opposition Other Russia group is going to court in St. Petersburg to defend its right to hold a rally on January 31 in support of freedom of assembly. The city’s Law and Order Committee earlier refused permission for a rally on Nevsky Prospect, the city’s main street, and proposed Chernyshevsky Park outside the city center as an alternative venue.
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MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA
Egypt: The right to speak up
By: Marwa Rakha, Global Voices, January 28, 2010
Egyptian bloggers and activists held a conference on January 22 in defense of their right to speak up after more than 20 Egyptian bloggers were arrested when their train arrived in the village of Naga Hammady where the Coptic massacre took place.
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Israel signals tougher line on West Bank protests
By: Isabel Kershner, NY Times, January 28, 2010
For more than a year, this village has been a focus of weekly protests against the Israeli security barrier, which cuts through its lands. Now, the village appears to be at the center of an intensifying Israeli arrest campaign. Apparently concerned that the protests could spread, the Israeli Army and security forces have recently begun clamping down, arresting scores of local organizers and activists here and conducting nighttime raids on the homes of others.
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Iran’s opposition extends olive branch, unrequited
By: Michael Slackman, NY Times, January 28, 2010
Furthering a trend that has been visible for several weeks now, a prominent Iranian opposition leader made conciliatory remarks on Thursday that were apparently aimed at defusing tensions and ending the nation’s political crisis. So far, however, the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has not demonstrated a similar willingness to compromise, say Iran experts inside and outside the country.
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Iran ‘executes two over post-election unrest’
By: BBC News, January 28, 2010
Iran has executed two men arrested during the period of widespread unrest that erupted after June’s disputed presidential election, reports say. They had been convicted of being “enemies of God”, members of armed groups and trying to topple the Islamic establishment, Isna news agency said.  
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Iran protesters must keep all eyes on February 11
By: Saeed Ghasemynejad, RFE, January 28, 2010
The recent statement of the sheikh of reforms (as the supporters of Mehdi Karrubi call him) resulted in a situation that has many lessons for all of us. The flap began with an interview Karrubi did with the state-run Fars News Agency on the sidelines of the congress of the Mardomsalari political party.
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Iran: A ‘mourning mother’ recalls Evin prison
By: RFE, January 26, 2010
Blogger Jomhoriyat has published writings by one of Iran’s mourning mothers about her detention in Tehran’s Evin prison. The Mourning Mothers had in recent months been gathering every Saturday in a park in Tehran but they’ve come under pressure from the security forces and several of them have been detained and harassed.
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Wife of Iran’s Mousavi says he does not recognize government
By: Washington TV, January 26, 2010
Iranian pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has still not recognized the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, said. “We neither officially recognize the government of Ahmadinejad nor do we compromise with it; rather, we are following up people’s rights and demands with honesty,” she said in an interview.
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Iran leader predicts “destruction” of Israel
By: Washington TV, January 26, 2010
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that the international community would one day witness the “destruction” of the state of Israel.
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Khamenei says US using internet to “defeat” Iran
By: Washington TV, January 26, 2010
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday accused the United States of trying to use the internet as a tool to defeat the Islamic Republic. Speaking in the northern city of Amol in Mazandaran Province, Khamenei also said that Washington had been planning to orchestrate “riots” in Iran.
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Merkel says February “decisive” month on Iran sanctions
By: Washington TV, January 26, 2010
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that February would be a critical time for the international community to decide on new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. Speaking after talks in Berlin with Israeli President Shimon Peres, she said that the issue of sanctions would be tackled next month, when France holds the rotating chair of the United Nations Security Council.
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Two-thirds of the world can hold Iran accountable
By: Sam Sedaei, Huffington Post, January 26, 2010
Over the past few months, Iran has showed continued defiance in face of demands by the international community to answer questions about its nuclear program. Meanwhile, the country’s internal turmoil following the fraudulent election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as President Obama’s attempts to open dialogue with Iran have impacted the regime’s coherence and strategy in responding to criticisms and demands about its nuclear program.
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CENTRAL ASIA
Uzbekistan: Drop slander charge against photographer
By: Human Rights Watch, January 28, 2010
The Uzbek authorities should immediately drop the baseless slander and insult charges against the prominent photographer and videographer Umida Ahmedova and allow her to carry out her work and exercise her right to freedom of expression without government interference, Human Rights Watch said today.
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Freedom House: Kyrgyzstan rated “not free”
By: Ryskeldi Satkeev, Ohmy News, January 27, 2010
The US based, independent watchdog organization Freedom House has published the 2010 edition of its “Freedom in the World” report, which indicates a regional pattern of declining human rights and democratic reforms in the Central Asian republics. Specifically, the report highlighted a recent set back in Kyrgyzstan, a country which a few years ago was characterized as “Island of Democracy” in Central Asia.
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