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.
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Download the application form…
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AFRICA
Côte d’Ivoire: Deaths in demonstration
By: Al Jazeera, February 19, 2010 Police in Côte d’Ivoire have fired on hundreds of demonstrators at an anti-government rally, killing three people and wounding a dozen others in the latest protest since the president dissolved the government last week.The dissolution of the government has thrown into doubt the political reconciliation process in Côte d’Ivoire, which was about to hold elections. Read full article… South Africa: President leaves 15,000 letters blowing in the wind Kenya: Thousands protest as political crisis deepens Zimbabwe: WOZA activists still in custody in Mutare Bostwana: Bushmen denied right to vote Zimbabwe: National healing elusive, as torture bases re-emerge |
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NORTH AMERICA
US: Dalai Lama ‘very happy’ with Obama talks
By: AP, February 18, 2010 President Barack Obama welcomed the Dalai Lama for closely-watched White House talks Thursday, risking fallout in China over the get-together and Obama’s statement supporting preservation of Tibet’s identity and human rights. “The president commended the Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle Way’ approach, his commitment to nonviolence and his pursuit of dialogue with the Chinese government.” Read full article… Mexico: Esther Chavez Cano added up the devastation of gender violence Mexican reporters, activists demand state protection |
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CENTRAL AMERICA/CARIBBEAN
Honduras: Four campesinos wounded in land dispute
By: World War 4 Report, February 16, 2010 Four campesinos were wounded, two with bullets, on Jan. 27 when police and private security guards attacked members of the Unified Campesino Movement of the Aguán (MUCA) at the Río Aguán in Trujillo municipality. The MUCA members were trying to reoccupy land which they had been forced to leave in January. Read full article… Honduras: New president keeps military chief behind coup that ousted Zelaya Cuban hunger striker’s condition reportedly worse |
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SOUTH AMERICA
Venezuela is a democracy, Lula says
By: El Universal, February 19, 2010 Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended on Friday his government’s decision to support the Venezuelan Administration headed by President Hugo Chávez and his moderate tone towards suspicions about the true goals of the Iranian nuclear program. Lula dismissed accusations against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who has been described as the head of an authoritarian regime. Read full article… Venezuela: Detained pro-government tycoons an embarrassment to Chavez Colombia: Canada should put democracy before free trade Venezuela: Shake-up at TV station worries Chavez foes |
By: Allegra Stratton, Guardian, February 19, 2010
James Purnell, who announced he is standing down as an MP this morning, is to retrain as a community organiser. Echoing the sentiments of Tony Benn when he quit parliament, Purnell and a member of his constituency party will spend next week relearning the tools of their trade at a five day community organising course.
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Russian town removes ‘Welcome Merry Gnome’ poster for Dmitry Medvedev
By: Andrew Osborn, Telegraphy, February 19, 2010
Town officials in Siberia ordered theatre bosses to remove a poster which said “We await you, merry gnome” because they feared it would offend the vertically-challenged Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during a visit. Local media said the poster was hastily removed ahead of an official visit Mr Medvedev made to the town earlier this month.
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Russia: Bloggers remember rock legend
By: Alexey Sidorenko, Global Voices, February 18, 2010
On February 4, 2010, Russian bloggers celebrated the sad date. Ilya Kormiltsev, one of Russia’s most talented and controversial poets and songwriters, died of spine cancer three years ago. Back in 2007, Kormiltsev’s death became the first and the most publicized death on RuNet (Russian Internet).
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Belarus: Democracy or desolation, warns Polish foreign ministry
By: The News, February 18, 2010
In the aftermath of the Belarusian court decision to evict Poles from a centre in Ivyanets, Polish foreign ministry officials have stepped up to Lukashenko’s government. “The Belarusian government has a choice: either it accepts the democratic standards set by the European Council and the European Union, or it will see itself cut off.”
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Belarus crackdown strains EU relations
By: Tony Barber, Financial Times, February 18, 2010
A crackdown on ethnic Poles in Belarus is testing the credibility of the European Union’s strategy for closer relations with its eastern neighbours. Up to 40 members of the Union of Poles in Belarus, a non-governmental group which represents the country’s Polish minority, have been arrested in recent days after they protested against the confiscation of the UPB’s offices in the town of Ivyanets.
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Belarus: Political prisoner Artsyom Dubski placed in punishment cell
By: Charter 97, February 18, 2010
The political prisoner has been placed to a punishment isolation cell for demanding improvement of incarceration conditions in the colony. Alena Dubskaya, the mother of the political prisoner, has found out that her son had been placed to punishment isolation cell when she arrived to the colony to meet with her son, Radio Svaboda informs.
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Rights activists dispute Russian account of Chechen killings
By: RFE, February 16, 2010
Accounts by Russian officials of a counterterrorism operation in Ingushetia’s Sunzha district last week differ from local reports of what happened, RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service reports. Local police and security officials initially said that between 14 and 18 Islamic militants were killed in fighting on February 11-12. The death toll was subsequently raised to 22.
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By: Mail Online, February 19, 2010
Turkmenistan is set to allow the creation of a second political party this year, it was reported today. The move will break up the one-party system that has been in place since the Central Asian nation gained independence.
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Azerbaijani blogger’s lawyer questions judges’ objectivity
By: RFE, February 18, 2010
The attorney for arrested Azerbaijani blogger Adnan Hajizade has requested that new judges be named to preside over his client’s appeal in a Baku court. Lawyer Isakhan Ashurov said in court on February 17 that he is “suspicious about the fairness of the judges,” because the same judges “rejected our appeal about violence against the bloggers at the police station on the day of their arrest.”
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SOUTH ASIA
Bangladesh launches ‘violent crackdown’ on Rohingyas
By: AFP, February 18, 2010 Bangladesh has unleashed a crackdown of unprecedented violence against Muslim refugees from neighbouring Burma, a report by humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres said. Described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities on earth, thousands of Rohingyas from Burma’s northern Rakhaine state stream across the border into Bangladesh every year. Read full article…
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SOUTHEAST ASIA
Indonesia looks to block offensive internet pages
By: The Manila Times, February 19, 2010 Indonesia is considering proposals to block Internet sites that are deemed to violate “public decency” and privacy, provoking a barrage of criticism from bloggers and web users. Fresh from a round of film and book bans, the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is now turning its sights on the Internet in what critics say is a throwback to general Suharto’s “New Order” dictatorship. Read full article… UN envoy slams Myanmar Junta Myanmar: Opposition says Suu Kyi release vital for elections Myanmar: Crackdown on democracy activists exposes illusions about junta Democracy leaflets ‘distributed in Vietnam’ Vietnam: Hardline influence rising |
By: Tania Branigan, Guardian, February 19, 2010
Beijing today summoned the US ambassador to complain about Barack Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, state media reported. The foreign ministry also demanded that Washington act to improve ties, warning in a statement that the US president’s meeting had “grossly violated norms governing international relations.”
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North Korea defector fights her way to the top
By: Nam You-Sun, Yahoo! News, February 18, 2010
Teenager Choi Hyun-Mi, struggling to make a new life in South Korea after fleeing North Korea with her parents, literally fought her way to the top. Choi, who switched from amateur to professional boxing to support her family, is now the World Boxing Association (WBA) women’s featherweight champion — still deeply in love with the sport she took up in Pyongyang at age 13.
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China: Warning as unrest grows
By: RFA, February 17, 2010
A top law enforcement official has called on Chinese local authorities to “keep trouble in the townships,” referring to the tens of thousands of clashes that happen annually between protesters and the authorities around the country. This was a clear endorsement of recent crackdowns on petitioners seeking redress for grievances against the government at a higher level of authority.
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