Nonviolent Action around the World – 26 August 2009 (Part 1)

OAS team in Honduras to push for ousted leader’s return
By: CNN, August 24, 2009
A delegation of foreign ministers led by the Organization of American States’ secretary-general arrived Monday in Honduras in an effort to restore ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya to office. The delegation represents seven countries, including Canada, Mexico and Argentina.
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Coup protestor gang-raped by Honduran police
By: Robert Naiman, Huffington Post, August 24, 2009
On Friday, Latin America scholars sent an urgent letter to Human Rights Watch, urging HRW to speak out on violations of human rights under the coup regime in Honduras and to conduct its own investigation. HRW hasn’t made any statement about Honduras since July 8. One of the things Human Rights Watch should be investigating is allegations by Honduran feminists and human rights groups that Honduran police are using rape and other sexual violence as weapons of intimidation against Hondurans nonviolently protesting the coup regime.  
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The learning curve of the teachers vs. the Honduras coup
By: Al Giordano, The Field, August 23, 2009
The classrooms were empty but the assembly hall was full. Last Thursday afternoon, more than two hundred striking schoolteachers and other members of the civil resistance from the northeastern state of Colón gathered at the city high school to chart their next steps.
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Honduras court shuns Zelaya deal
By: BBC, August 23, 2009
Honduras’s supreme court has rejected a Costa Rica-brokered deal to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya to power and ordered his arrest if he returns. The ruling also affirmed the legitimacy of the government of interim leader Roberto Micheletti.
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Open letter: Why has Human Rights Watch fallen silent on Honduras?
By: Counter Punch, August 21, 2009
“We are deeply concerned by the absence of statements and reports from your organization over the serious and systematic human rights abuses that have been committed under the Honduran coup regime over the past six weeks. It is disappointing to see that in the weeks since July 8, when Human Rights Watch issued its most recent press release on Honduras, that it has not raised the alarm over the extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions, physical assaults, and attacks on the press – many of which have been thoroughly documented – that have occurred in Honduras, in most cases by the coup regime against the supporters of the democratic and constitutional government of Manuel Zelaya.”
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DRC: How mobile phones cost millions of lives
By: OBV, August 24, 2009
Fighting continues in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with much of the conflict centered around Coltan mines, essential for making mobiles and laptops work. We, the consumer, can play a very important role because goods we buy –  Playstations, laptops and mobile phones – rely for their batteries on minerals mined in the Congo.
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Guinea leader ‘may contest poll’
By: BBC, August 24, 2009
The army officer who seized power in a coup in Guinea has refused to rule out standing for president – despite an earlier promise he would not. Capt Moussa Dadis Camara told the AFP news agency that nobody could stop him from standing if he wanted to. It came after the opposition had urged people to resist any attempts by the coup leader to stay in power. He took power last December after the country’s president died and vowed to stand down after a transitional phase.
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Somaliland: ‘Deep concern’ at prospect of one-party race
By: Christian Day, August 24, 2009
Two of the three political parties in Somaliland have announced their intention to boycott the vote in recent weeks. Catholic aid agency Progressio, the Development Planning Unit at University College London and Somaliland Focus UK said in a joint statement: “While we remain committed to the need for an election as soon as possible, under the current circumstances the only possible outcome of a one-party race would be seen by a significant proportion of Somalilanders as lacking legitimacy.”
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DRC: Mob justice becomes law of the land
By: Human Rights Tribune, August 24, 2009
Patrick Yav, a lawyer from the Centre for Human Rights, a DRC-based non-governmental organisation, reports a growing number of incidents throughout the country where members of the public mete out summary justice on criminals caught red-handed, rather than relying on the courts. Such vigilante justice is a reflection of the desperate state of the country’s increasingly cash-strapped judicial system.
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Mali protest against women’s law
By: BBC, August 23, 2009
Tens of thousands of people in Mali’s capital, Bamako, have been protesting against a new law which gives women equal rights in marriage. The law, passed earlier this month, also strengthens inheritance rights for women and children born out of wedlock.
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Nigeria: ‘How we convinced Bayelsa militants to accept amnesty’
By: Samuel Oyadongha, All Africa, August 23, 2009
The Chairman of Bayelsa State chapter of the Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee, Chief James Japthah, weekend shed light on how Bayelsa militants were wooed to embrace the Federal Government’s amnesty package. He dismissed as fabrication claims by the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) that the state governor, Chief Timipre Sylva, paid militant leaders N250 million before the August 7 meeting with the president at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja, describing those involved in the claims as mischief makers and enemy of the region.
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Somali opposition rally and opposition parties’ letter
By: Somaliland Times, August 22, 2009
Somaliland’s opposition parties, KULMIYE and UCID held huge rallies in several Somaliland cities. The organizers of the rallies insisted that these were not demonstrations but gatherings to explain to the people their opposition to the suspension of the voter-registration list and their rejection of an election without registered voters.
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Kenya: Scorecard shows 20 African states are above threshold of democracy
By: John Harbeson, All Africa, August 22, 2009
One of the most but least explored questions about democracy is what do citizens think about their democracies. Over the last 10 years, the AfroBarometer sample surveys have made an important contribution by asking that question in considerable depth and breadth in 20 African countries.
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Museveni critic returns to Uganda to push for democratic change
By: Daily Nation, August 21, 2009
The country’s ‘prodigal son’ Dr Olara Otunnu, in an interview with NTV on Thursday night, talks about his vision after 23 years in exile. “What kind of Uganda are you expecting as you return?” “I don’t actually know. From what I hear is that the hills of Kampala are punctuated with glittering mansions, very impressive houses, the streets are packed and jammed with traffic. I don’t know whether that is good or bad and for people in the countryside. I am told they are suffering from what needs ethical reforms. What one sees in the hills of Kampala has not reached them.”
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Zimbabwe: Mugabe using police to crush opposition
By: Scott Baldauf, Yahoo News, August 20, 2009
The party of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is working with the country’s law enforcement agencies in a covert operation designed to harass, intimidate, and decimate its chief partner in Zimbabwe’s fragile, seven-month-old coalition government, the Movement for Democratic Change, MDC officials have told the Monitor. The covert operation targets MDC supporters in rural areas – despite an agreement between the two parties to work together to rebuild the country and its shattered economy – the MDC says.
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