**Please Circulate Widely**
Hello everyone,
Sign up the petition for Sri Lankan asylum seekers in Indonesia.
As you notice the Australian government has neglected the recent Sri Lankan boat arrivals and trying to send them back to their Sri Lanka. RISE (riserefugee.org) has written a petition to bring the asylum seekers back to the Australian.
Circle this email around with attached document and get people to sign up
the petition. Ask everyone to join together to bring the war victim to
Australia.
Follow the link and sign up
http://riserefugee.org/the-urgent-situation-of-255-sri-lankan-asylum-seekers-in-indonesia/
Also, please print out the document and get your friends, families and
neighbors and workmates to sign up the petition.
Post the petition to
House Of Representatives
P.O.Box 6021
Parliament House
Canberra
ACT 2600
For more information go to: http://riserefugee.org
Showing newest posts with label Human rights abuses. Show older posts
Showing newest posts with label Human rights abuses. Show older posts
9/19/08
West Papua: Lawyer arrested by Anti-terrorist squad for sending a txt
Links: Indonesian Human Rights Committee Statement | January 2008 Court Hearings | The spectre of terrorism in Aotearoa - drawing the parallels
3/20/08
WEST PAPUA EMERGENCY DEMO CANBERRA MARCH 25 -
MEDIA ALERT and CALL OUT - WEST PAPUA
REFERNDUM NOW! END THE REPRESSION! INDONESIA, STOP THE KILLINGS!
INDONESIAN MILITARY OUT OF WEST PAPUA!
INDONESIAN MILITARY OUT OF WEST PAPUA!
43 West Papuan Political Refugees call for international protection in
West Papua
EMERGENCY ACTION, 12PM MARCH 25, INDONESIAN EMBASSY CANBERRA
Where: Indonesian Embassy, 8 Darwin Avenue, Yarralumla, Canberra
When: Tuesday March 25
Time: 12PM - 2PM.
REFERENDUM NOW! PAPUA MERDEKA!When: Tuesday March 25
Time: 12PM - 2PM.
As the world's attention is on the brutal repression in Tibet, the same story is happening in West Papua right now. For the last few weeks in many centres across West Papua, protests and resistance have been escalating against Indonesian repression of West Papuan people and
culture. Since the beginning of March, peaceful actions and rallies have been held almost daily calling on the Indonesian government to stop killings and military operations against civilians, and calling for Referendum of West Papuan people as the only peaceful solution to ongoing
human rights abuse. In an occupied Land less than 130 kilometres from Australia, West Papuan students have been bravely facing off heavily armed military and ongoing intimidation by police, intelligence and military to protest their treatment, and have raised the banned Morning Star Flag, which has resulted in brutal treatment.
Many people have been arrested for defying Indonesian genocidal rule, and currently at least 16 political leaders are in prison on Suharto era charges of Rebellion and Subversion. We hold grave fears for their safety in prison, as they are at high risk of torture and ill-treatment. Since
the peaceful assemblies on March 3, 6, and 13, thousands of family members of West Papuan political activists have been living under intimidation and terror, given the past record of repression and killings of West Papuan people. Currently, anyone who displays the Morning Star flag is arrested and interrogated, even Grandmothers making traditional carry bags. We
have also received information that two key activists are being hunted by the Indonesian military currently, and are in hiding.
The solution posed by the international community, Special Autonomy, has failed through the direct sabotage and corruption of Indonesian government and military officers. The West Papuan people gave it a chance to be implemented, it failed, the Indonesian government lied, so now West Papuans want a Referendum. The Indonesian security forces are out of control, and will not stop until they have gained total compliance. There is legitimate concern that the Indonesian military will seek to intensify its actions against all West Papuans, and will be arresting all people involved in peaceful assembly.
That is why we need to call on the Australian government, to help facilitate or conduct Round Table Peace Talks between West Papuan People and the Indonesian government in Canberra or a neutral country.
West Papuan People are calling on Australian's of good heart to stand together to help bring international attention to the repression and killings inside, and for Indonesia to allow a Referendum so West Papuans can decide for themselves on their future.
Please join us ....in an emergency solidarity action on 25 March in Canberra outside the Indonesian Embassy, and also delivering a letter to Kevin Rudd's government.
For background media documents, and reports on the current situation in
West Papua and individual cases please visit
www.manukoreri.net/west_papua_upheaval and www.freewestpapua.com
Ongoing information, please contact:
Herman : 0401 301 520
Spokesperson for 43 Asylum Seekers & Ex Political Prisoner
Dr Jacob Rumbiak
Australia, Mobile +61 (0)4313 88 976 or +61 (0)3 9510 2193
Co-ordinator, Foreign Affairs, West Papua National Authority
For Media Co-ordination (not comment) please contact Nick Chesterfield on
+61 (0) 409 268 978
--------------------
3/4/08
Defending Human Rights in Colombia
Thursday March 6
Melbourne Rally, 1pm
Parliament House Melbourne
Spring Street
Melbourne
For the forcibly disappeared
For the displaced
For the unionists assassinated by paramilitary death squads
In Colombia 3.5-4 million people, have been forcibly displaced, mostly by paramilitary groups.
These groups, backed by the military, have ‘disappeared’ at least 15,000 Colombians and have buried more than 3000 people in mass graves or thrown their bodies into rivers. They have killed more than 1700 indigenous people and 2550 unionists. Nearly 5000 members of the Patriotic Union have been assassinated.
Between 1982 and 2005, State security forces or paramilitaries have perpetrated more than 3,500 massacres and stolen more than six million hectares of land. They have also been responsible for arbitrary detentions, threats, economic blockades, rape and torture, among others. Campesino, afro-Colombian, and Indigenous communities, as well as social leaders, human-rights defenders, women, children, trade unionists, journalists and displaced people are disproportionately targeted.
Despite a "demobilization" process which began in 2003, paramilitary groups continue to commit crimes, killing an estimated 600 people every year. Many have in fact not demobilized, while others have reformed under different names such as the “Black Eagles”. Paramilitary leaders have claimed to control 35% of the parliament, and many of these “Para-politicians” (who have links with these groups) remain in public office.
As recently as January 2008, paramilitary groups carried out two massacres, forcibly disappeared 9 people and assassinated another 8. The Army has committed 16 extrajudicial executions.
In Colombia, paramilitary and state agents continue to violate human rights and international humanitarian law, and almost all these crimes remain in impunity.
Despite all these disturbing facts, the Colombian people in different ways of struggle (from the insurgence to street party festival) are confronting the state terrorism with more organisation and commitment for deep changes in Colombian society.
In Australia we denounce and condemn de Colombian and USA governments, responsible for all these human rights abuses...
We call all the organisations and people to show their solidarity with the Colombian people...
We call the Australian trade unions to raise their voices and support the Colombian workers. In Colombia to be a unionist is reason enough for to be killed...We need to do something...
Join us in our solidarity work and show you support on Thursday March 6, 1PM in the steps of
Melbourne Parliament House, for our memory and those who still struggling for a better and just Colombia.
Call initiated by Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET), the Colombia Solidarity Network and
Colombia Demand Justice Campaign, supporters and sponsors are welcome, write to latin.american.solidarity
In solidarity with Colombia
For those Disappeared, Displaced, Massacred, & Executed.
In solidarity with social movements committed for people’s rights
In Solidarity with all those who struggle for justice and dignity,
For the sovereignty of the people,
For a just, fair and free Colombia,
For protection of labor and social rights,
We say no to US intervention in Colombia!
We say no to State Terrorism in Colombia!
Further information: Call 0400 914 944 or write to lasnet@latinlasnet.org
In Melbourne Australia;
Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET) - www.latinlasnet.org
Colombia Solidarity Network
Colombia Demand Justice Campaign
Endorsed by:
Australian Council of Trade Union - ACTU
Victorian Trades Hall
Chilean Popular and Indigenous Solidarity Network
Australia Venezuela Solidarity Network (AVSN)
More to add...
In Colombia: Social and Human Rights Organisations of Colombia -
Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE)
In USA: Colombia Support Network
In England: Justice for Colombia
2/15/08
Demonstrators call for dissolution of Papuan Council
INDONESIA
Hundreds of Papuans are reported to have held protests in Jayapura,
the capital of the Indonesian province of Papua. The demonstrators
want the Papuan People's Council, the MRP, to be dissolved, saying
it's failed to protect the rights of indigenous Papuans in the
province. The MRP was set up by Jakarta three years ago; the coalition
of tribal chiefs were tasked with arbitration and speaking on behalf
of traditional customs. But many Papuans feel the Council has failed
to push their case for greater autonomy from Jakarta, or to protect
the local community from human rights abuses.
Speaker - Parlian Siagian, chairman of the Resistance Front of the Papuan Community, Jakarta
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/asiapac/programs/s2163268.htm
Hundreds of Papuans are reported to have held protests in Jayapura,
the capital of the Indonesian province of Papua. The demonstrators
want the Papuan People's Council, the MRP, to be dissolved, saying
it's failed to protect the rights of indigenous Papuans in the
province. The MRP was set up by Jakarta three years ago; the coalition
of tribal chiefs were tasked with arbitration and speaking on behalf
of traditional customs. But many Papuans feel the Council has failed
to push their case for greater autonomy from Jakarta, or to protect
the local community from human rights abuses.
Speaker - Parlian Siagian, chairman of the Resistance Front of the Papuan Community, Jakarta
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/asiapac/programs/s2163268.htm
1/23/08
Mapuche Activist Dying in 104 Days of HUNGER Strike in Chile.URGENT
Patricia Troncoso, Mapuche Activist is seriously ill and is feared that she may die any minute now
Click on image for a larger version
Click on image for a larger version
The Mapuche activist Patricia Troncoso , who was sentenced in an unjust and unfair trial and jailed for 20 years charged with terrorism, accused of been involved in the burning of some forestry machinery, had completed her 104 days of Hunger strike .
At present she had been taken in urgency by prision guards and under a strong police contigent to an emergency hospital facility in Chillan, south of Santiago. She is grave danger of dying due to the severity of the strike, which she had used to make awareness to the Mapuche plight and her jail conditions. The Bachelet government had resorted to more repressive measures against the Mapuche mobilisations, and only 10 days ago, carabineros(Chilean Police) used live bullets to dissolved a protest in a farm in Mapuche territories.
A young Mapuche university student was murdered shot 6 times in his back by an UZI machinegun. A police officer is now in custody for this muder. This latest death comes at a time when the Mapuche question is high in the international media, despite the silence chosen by NZ media and NZ government, Please get yourself informed and support Mapuche struggle,
DONT DO BUSINESS WITH CHILE until all troops are out of Mapuche Territories!!
Free Patricia Troncoso!!
NO MORE MAPUCHE POLITICAL PRISIONERS !!
1/20/08
Mumia Abu-Jamal interview on Prison Industrial Complex
Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award winning Journalist on Death-Row. In this selection from the 1996 interview he discusses prisons.
10/26/07
The threat to your civil liberties - and your trousers
posted by maps at 10/25/2007 09:34:00 PMThe actions of the police in recent days are hard to explain - until we realise that they're desperately upping the stakes, after losing the first round of 'Operation Eight'.
In New Zealand, pressure from the Bush administration in the weeks after 9/11 ensured the passage of a law which gave the police shiny new powers to search, arrest, and prosecute anyone who might even think about committing very vaguely defined 'terrorist acts'.
Over the past few years, and the past eighteen months, especially, the police and the spooks of the SIS appear to have used the 'War on Terror' as an excuse to pursue a vendetta against a few of their old enemies. Pesky Maoris, tree-hugging hippies, annoying peaceniks, and Bolshie trade unionists have all been placed under survellience, in an operation that has cost the police alone a cool eight million dollars - so far. (The SIS has repeatedly had its operating budget increased in recent years, and there's no doubt, after John Key's latest gaffe, that some of that dosh has been blown on 'Operation Eight'.)
The cops have made a mess of 'Operation Eight' over the past week and a half. With those eight million dollars at stake, they went all ninja in Tuhoe Country, smashed their way into activist pads in the big cities, and invited the media along to film the party. Carefully leaked articles in the Sunday papers talked of an 'IRA-style war' by a grand coalition of mokoed Maori, vegan peaceniks, and Save the Snails activists.
Within a few days, though, it was clear that eight million dollars hadn't bought a very good case. At best, the police had a handful of unlicensed guns and some recordings of Tame and a few mates sounding off about George Bush.
Quite frankly, I'd have been much more surprised if the cops managed to find a couple of licensed guns in the Ureweras. And if they want to find folks expressing a desire to see the untimely demise of America's beloved Commander in Chief, all the cops need to do is drop into one of dozens of internet discussion forums on a rainy day, or tune in to talkback radio whenever a right-wing host like Leighton Smith or Michael Laws isn't working the edit button.
Many of the allegations leaked by 'anonymous' sources to the papers made less sense than Graham Henry after that game at Cardiff Arms park. We were told that terrorist cells were 'poised to strike' in the main centres - but police raids and inquiries in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch failed to net anything more deadly than laptop computers.
We were told that Tame Iti had decided six months ago to abandon all his other projects and 'dedicate himself totally' to building Te Qaeda cells in the Ureweras - yet Tame made a well-publicised trip to Fiji only three months ago.
We were told that Labour's Cabinet was briefed about the seriousness of the terrorist threat before 'Operation Eight' began - yet the Maori Affairs Minister has bluntly declared that he doesn't think Tame is a terrorist, and Helen Clark is refusing to endorse police actions. Ross Meurant, the senior cop who regularly found red and brown terrorists under his bed in the '80s and 90s, has rubbished 'Operation Eight' and declared that the police are 'brainwashed' by racism. Coming from the man famous for having the reddest neck in Northland, that's quite a criticism.
We were told that Clark was the target of an assassination plot - yet no special security arrangements were made for her either before or after the arrests, and it is well-known in the activist community that one of the arrestees is a member of Helen's old Princes Street branch of the Labour Party. A few days before the 2005 election, I had a long conversation with another arrestee during which he urged me to use my vote to get a Labour-led government elected. Te Qaeda clearly works in mysterious ways.
In the months after the invasion of Iraq, Bush administration muppets repeatedly told critics to wait patiently for evidence of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and links to Al-Qaeda to be made public. Give us time to complete investigtions, they kept saying. All the evidence will eventually be revealed, they told us. Of course, there was no evidence - if there had been, it would have been rushed onto Fox News faster than a Texan can draw a pistol. The requests for time were stalling tactics, designed to take pressure off Bush.
The same is true of the repeated cries of 'we need more time' that we now hear from the Kiwi police. The cops and the spooks have spent eighteen months and millions of dollars trying to nail a terrorist army in the Ureweras, and they've failed - not because they haven't had the time and resources, but because there was and is no terrorist army in the Ureweras. As Maori protest against the antics of police ninjas in Tuhoe Country and activists and high-profile lawyers get behind the arrestees in the big cities, the police are under mounting pressure.
Rather than admit they have blundered, though, the cops are playing double or nothing. By locking the media out of court, opposing bail for trivial firearms charges, leaking vague but lurid inventions to the more excitable papers, and attacking those who criticise them as apologists for terrorists and - bizarrely - P addiction, the cops are trying to buy time and put off the terrible day when they have to return to the real world and admit that Tame Iti is not some Tuhoe Osama.
The police are also lashing out, blindly and in vain, against more and more ordinary New Zalanders, in a desperate attempt to uncover evidence for what does not exist. Last week they followed up their raids on Tuhoe country and activist hangouts in the main centres with a series of house calls on such grave threats to national security as a banking analyst, a group of Maori musicians, an elderly, apolitical man who happened to have a Tuhoe son-in-law, and a middle-aged couple who raise chickens in Taupo. More windows have been broken, more laptops have been confiscated, and more knickers have been sniffed, but those ground to air missile launchers and napalm bombs have remained frustratingly elusive.
The police appear to be responding to these setbacks with a clever little manoeuvre. Since they can't find anything that fits the Oxford English Dictionary understanding of 'weapon', they've created their own definition, and put it to use. That, at least, is the way I interpret the raid the police made on veteran trade unionist and socialist Jimmy O'Dea today. Jimmy O'Dea is well-known for helping to organise trade union support for the epic and ultimately victorious Maori campaign to win back Bastion Point. O'Dea was instrumental in getting Auckland's workers to go on strike in protest at the decision of the Muldoon government to use the army to break up the occupation in 1978. Presumably that's enough to make him an honourary member of Te Qaeda.
O'Dea, who is now seventy years old and in poor health, found himself confronted by eight - that's right, he counted 'em, eight - carloads of police demanding to see his 'hunting knives and trousers'. It's not clear yet whether Jimmy got to keep his pants on, or whether the cops took the weapon away for safe keeping, along with the 'evidence' they pulled out of knickers' draws last week.
I believe that public opinion is turning against the police, and that 'Operation Eight' will eventually be exposed as a very expensive exercise in conspiracy theory politics. The police have gone for double or nothing, and they will end up with nothing. When that happens, I'll have a good laugh at our local Keystone Cops.
I can't laugh yet, though, because sixteen arrestees are still sitting in prison cells. Like many of you, I suspect, I know some of these victims of 'Operation Eight'. I'll be taking part in the Global Day of Action against this coming Saturday. If you're in Auckland, the event gets under away at noon, in Aotea Square. If you can't make it on Saturday, then flick some cash toward the Civil Rights Defence Committee, which is doing a fine job of defending all of us against the police.
9/30/07
Burma-One Solution Revolution-Aotearoa Tautoko
Thanks to Joe for this, Ka Pai Tamakimakaurau
Aotearoa Tautoko for Burma....Chur
Aotearoa Tautoko for Burma....Chur
The NZ government, along with Australia, is currently negotiating a free trade agreement with ASEAN, which includes Burma. The eleventh round of negotiations are underway in Kuala Lumpur, running over the 24th to 28th of September
Over a thousand people turned out in Central Auckland on Saturday 29th September to support the peaceful revolution in Burma that is inspiring the world. The demostration was called by the Solidarity Union, and supported by the Council of Trade Unions (NZ), Burmese Federation of Trade Unions, the Burma Support Group (AUSA), Amnesty International (NZ), the Service and Food Workers Union, the NDU, the Green Party, Socialist Worker, Greens on Campus, Radical Youth, Pax Christi and Global Peace and Justice Auckland. A National MP even spoke- which was more than could be said of NZ's ruling Labour Party, who were conspicuous by their absence. The Labour government wants to negotiate a free trade deal with Burma, and has refused to impose sanctions on the dictatorship since 2005.
Joe Carolan of Solidarity Union introduced the speakers, and called on NZ student and trade unions to take action to support their words-
"Now that the MyanMar military Junta has smashed the monasteries, beaten, imprisoned and murdered the monks, and opened fire on the people in the streets, there can be no retreat. All work and trade must stop. A General Strike must paralyse the nation.
Workers and student organisations are now on the frontline in Burma. Our NZ student and trade unions have a moral duty to support them in this time of need. The CTU has backed todays protest. But Burma needs more.
The trade unions of New Zealand are the largest democratic organisations we have. Unions who came today should take up workplace collections to support the Burmese Federation of Trade unions, whose representative Naing Ko Ko joins us here. They know best how to deliver the support to the resistance at home.
All NZ companies who profit from slave labour in Burma should be the targets for future protests- NZ does 4.4 million dollars of dairy business with the Myanmar regime, and the Super Fund invests in Total Oil's exploitation of Burma's reserves. Helen Clarke wants to sign a free trade deal with the regime. All should immediately be stopped. There can be no trade with a slave labour regime."
Naing Ko Ko of the Burmese Federation of Trade Unions paid homage to the Buddhist monks, who led the march down Auckland's Queen Street. He said that the struggle that they have started must be continued by the country's workers and students, many of whom are now forced underground. Tinmama Oo of the Burma Support Group in Auckland University Student Association pledged that her generation of Burmese would never give up and never surrender, and that one day the brutal military dictatorship would be overthrown.John Minto from GPJA warned people not to trust groups such as the UN Security Council, ASEAN, the US Military or the politicians in power to solve the crisis. He looked to the huge outpouring of internationalist solidarity from ordinary working people to deliver the support to the Burmese resistance as the only power Burma's people could trust.
The revolution in Burma will inspire the workers of Thailand, who are living under the iron heel of the Thai military with little condemnation from the Western political establishment. The revolution in Burma will inspire the workers of China, who were slaughtered along with the students of Tiananmen Square when they stood up from freedom in 1989, The revolution in Burma has inspired the people of Aotearoa, who will continue to organise practical solidarity for the resistance in the weeks and months to come.
http://unityaotearoa.blogspot.com/2007/09/burma-one-solution-revolution.html
http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/73766/index.php
6/18/07
Documenting the treatment of detainees and prisoners by security forces in the kingdom of Tonga
This report was written in May 2007. It has 80 pages and was written by the Community Para-legal Taskforce on Human Rights.
Foreword
The Community Para-legal Taskforce advocates for the protection of the human rights of ALL Tongan citizens, even those alleged to have committed criminal offences. This is a fundamental of our society under the Constitution, the Laws of Tonga and Tonga’s
international law obligations.
The Community Para-legal Taskforce is currently preparing a number of reports on human rights issues emerging from the civil unrest in Nuku’alofa on Thursday 16th November 2006.
This report is the first in this series.
This report documents allegations of ill-treatment of detainees and prisoners by members of the Tonga Police Force and Tonga Defence Service.
Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is prohibited at all times and in all circumstances under international law. Not only is this a requirement under the international human rights conventions to which Tonga is a party, but as a member of the international community, Tonga is bound by the rule of customary international law, which recognises the prohibition of torture and ill treatment as binding on all states whether or not they are parties to treaties which contain the prohibition.
This prohibition is a fundamental value of a democratic society and is absolute in terms that no derogation is permissible even during war or in the event of a public emergency threatening the life of a nation.
The Government and the people of the Kingdom of Tonga must stand tall to protect the moral values of society and respect for the inherent dignity of the human being despite the feelings of anger, revenge and disappointment that we may hold towards the alleged perpetrators of the destruction of Nuku’alofa on 16th November 2006.
The Community Para-legal Taskforce strongly supports the Government of Tonga in its efforts to rebuild Nuku’alofa in accordance with the rule of law and is committed to working with the Government and communities in this respect. The Community Para-Legal Taskforce hopes that the findings of this report will serve as a starting point to commence and further a range of strategies and programs to improve the rights and welfare of persons arrested and detained by Security Forces.
http://indymedia.org.nz/usermedia/application/4/documenting_the_treatment_of_detainees_and_prisoners_by_security_forces_in_tonga_1_.pdf
Foreword
The Community Para-legal Taskforce advocates for the protection of the human rights of ALL Tongan citizens, even those alleged to have committed criminal offences. This is a fundamental of our society under the Constitution, the Laws of Tonga and Tonga’s
international law obligations.
The Community Para-legal Taskforce is currently preparing a number of reports on human rights issues emerging from the civil unrest in Nuku’alofa on Thursday 16th November 2006.
This report is the first in this series.
This report documents allegations of ill-treatment of detainees and prisoners by members of the Tonga Police Force and Tonga Defence Service.
Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is prohibited at all times and in all circumstances under international law. Not only is this a requirement under the international human rights conventions to which Tonga is a party, but as a member of the international community, Tonga is bound by the rule of customary international law, which recognises the prohibition of torture and ill treatment as binding on all states whether or not they are parties to treaties which contain the prohibition.
This prohibition is a fundamental value of a democratic society and is absolute in terms that no derogation is permissible even during war or in the event of a public emergency threatening the life of a nation.
The Government and the people of the Kingdom of Tonga must stand tall to protect the moral values of society and respect for the inherent dignity of the human being despite the feelings of anger, revenge and disappointment that we may hold towards the alleged perpetrators of the destruction of Nuku’alofa on 16th November 2006.
The Community Para-legal Taskforce strongly supports the Government of Tonga in its efforts to rebuild Nuku’alofa in accordance with the rule of law and is committed to working with the Government and communities in this respect. The Community Para-Legal Taskforce hopes that the findings of this report will serve as a starting point to commence and further a range of strategies and programs to improve the rights and welfare of persons arrested and detained by Security Forces.
http://indymedia.org.nz/usermedia/application/4/documenting_the_treatment_of_detainees_and_prisoners_by_security_forces_in_tonga_1_.pdf
5/28/07
KELEA EDITOR NAILS MEDIA FREEDOM AWARD
John Laman & Tavake Fusimalohi
Date: 28 May 2007
Auckland 6pm: One of Tonga's most experienced....and hard-hitting journalists.....has been awarded the 2007 Pacific Media Freedom Award.
Tavake Fusimalohi is the editor of the Kelea newspaper, the paper which has been leading the charge against Government and the establishment.....
Fusimalohi and his team were the first to expose the human rights abuse by police and military after the Black Thursday Riots...
But the editor has been exposing irregularities in the Kingdom for years now...
Tavake Fusimalohi, whose been charged for sedition in the latest run of charges the government's handing out after the Nukualofa riots, was invited to the PINA fono in Honiara but was not allowed to leave Tonga
Soldiers close Kele'a newspaper
Title -- 5125 TONGA: Soldiers close Kele'a newspaper
Date -- 13 February 2007
Byline -- None
Origin -- Pacific Media Watch
Source -- Pacnews/IFEX 12/2/07
Copyright - P/I
Status -- Unabridged
TONGAN SOLDIERS CLOSE DOWN KELE'A NEWSPAPER
pacnews@connect.com.fj
NUKU'ALOFA (Pacnews/IFEX/Pacific Media Watch) - Tongan soldiers forced the closure of the pro-democracy newspaper, Kele'a, last night, without any explanation, according to newspaper editor Tavake Fusimalohi.
In an email to PACNEWS this morning, Fusimalohi said the soldiers only told his employees that the decision came from the military commander, Brigadier General 'Uta'atu. He said the decision was arbitrary and amounted to censorship of the Kelea newspaper.
"This is a blatant breach of natural justice because there was no prior notice to close down the newspaper on Sunday. As such, Kangaroo Justice has arrived in Tonga," Fusimalohi said.
A check at the newspaper confirmed that the employees closed the office yesterday evening but completed production of the newspaper after midnight, PACNEWS was told.
For the past two years, Fusimalohi said the newspaper has been working every Sunday to meet its Monday morning deadline for printing in Auckland.
"The action by the military will go on for sometime as long as the Kele'a newspaper is critical of the government and exposes corrupt practices in the public sectors.
Kele'a has always been critical of the government for the last two decades. It was founded by leading reformist in Tonga, 'Akilisi Pohiva, in July 1986.
PACNEWS understands that the newspaper's latest edition was going to expose confidential documents that exposes a request for an urgent referendum by a Tongan cabinet minister to Prime Minister Dr Feleti Sevele.
4/23/07
A coverup of torture, racism and complicity in war crimes
The evidence of British abuse and killing of Iraqi civilians is part of an iceberg of disgrace which demands a public inquiry
Phil Shiner
Monday April 23, 2007
The Guardian
Images of the battered, bloodied, bruised face of Baha Mousa, tortured to death while in detention with British troops under the Iraq occupation, should have shocked the nation when they appeared last week. Instead, most media outlets chose to ignore them. By comparison, when Canadian troops meted out similar treatment to a prisoner in Somalia in the 1990s, the result was a five-year public inquiry and spring-clean of the military justice system. What is going on?
To answer that question is to dig into what was described as a cover-up by the judge advocate at the conclusion of the court martial into the incident. What follows arises from publicly available material, most of it in the House of Lords case, which finishes tomorrow, into whether the Human Rights Act applied to protect Mousa and others. There are four clusters of issues we have to face.
First, the incident led to more than just a single death. Photographs and medical evidence show our troops nearly killed another civilian, and badly injured five others. The judge found that a group of soldiers had engaged in systematic torture and humiliation, but none had been charged because of an "obvious closing of ranks". Who were the torturers?
Second, the torture included the use of four techniques banned by the government in 1972: hooding, stressing and sleep and food deprivation. And it was not just one rogue battalion, 1st Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR), but others. Further, we are asked to believe that only a single battalion relied on senior brigade legal advice, which said it would not be breaching international humanitarian law to hood and stress civilian detainees. Is this credible?
Third, the facility where Mousa and others were tortured was small. The soldiers' shouting and detainees' screaming were audible to anyone on the site. So, who are those in command who knew, or ought to have known, what was going on in the critical 36 hours before Mousa's death? Even more potentially damning to the chain of command responsibility, who knew, or ought to have known, of the complete breakdown in the system of training troops? There was a failure to train troops to observe the law and also, it seems, to teach them the basic principles to enable them to fulfil their role.
The evidence on the training of tactical questioners is striking. They have an important balance to strike. They need to obtain evidence from detainees that may, for example, save the lives of our troops. And they must do so without using torture or ill-treatment. This is about prisoner handling. The evidence shows the tactical questioners in the Mousa incident had precisely 1.25 hours training on this. Further, those responsible did not ensure that rules of engagement appropriate to an occupation, not a war, were promulgated to reflect the change for 10 weeks. There is a risk that during this period our troops were following the wrong rules.
The final cluster of issues is where it starts to get really ugly. What are we supposed to make of material that shows it was standard to refer to Iraqis as "Ali Babas"? Or of military operations that had similar racist connotations from an earlier era? Or material that indicates a remorseless disregard of Iraqis' human rights, which dehumanised them in the eyes of the troops who were supposed to protect them? When our troops were supposed to be exercising policing functions, we appear to have shot first and asked questions later.
Uncomfortable questions about our complicity in war crimes with the US also lurk beneath the surface. The evidence from prosecution witnesses in the court martial shows that the US was putting pressure on us to adopt its interrogation techniques.
Consider that the facility involved in the Mousa incident was in the middle of an urban area and the abuse occurred in broad daylight. By comparison, our theatre internment facility, Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, was in the middle of nowhere. But the government claims the US ran Camp Bucca. The evidence in the court martial is clear. We had two compounds for UK detainees, they had six. We had jurisdiction over UK detainees who were subject to questioning by our tactical questioners. So why the blatant denial of responsibility where it is obvious the UK did have jurisdiction? The MoD admitted in 2004 that six other Iraqis had died while in detention with British troops, and we know all British detainees were taken to Camp Bucca until Christmas 2003. We also know that US forces killed Iraqis during "riots" at the facility and that three US soldiers were discharged in 2004 after being found guilty of abusing prisoners. If Mousa died in our custody where he did, what was happening in the British section of Camp Bucca?
Most of this iceberg of disgrace will remain hidden unless there is an independent and public inquiry. What is our government's response to Mousa's death and its implications? Sadly, it knows no shame. Despite the shocking facts and images, it argues in the Lords that the Human Rights Act does not apply outside the territory of the UK. If it succeeds in this argument, we can all give up hope of there being any proper domestic accountability for any human rights abuses by UK personnel outside the country. I can almost hear the howl of anguish from Baha Mousa's grave.
· Phil Shiner is a solicitor and acts for the family of Baha Mousa and in 40 other cases of torture, beatings and killings by UK forces in Iraq
phil_shiner@publicinterestlawyers.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2063360,00.html
Phil Shiner
Monday April 23, 2007
The Guardian
Images of the battered, bloodied, bruised face of Baha Mousa, tortured to death while in detention with British troops under the Iraq occupation, should have shocked the nation when they appeared last week. Instead, most media outlets chose to ignore them. By comparison, when Canadian troops meted out similar treatment to a prisoner in Somalia in the 1990s, the result was a five-year public inquiry and spring-clean of the military justice system. What is going on?
To answer that question is to dig into what was described as a cover-up by the judge advocate at the conclusion of the court martial into the incident. What follows arises from publicly available material, most of it in the House of Lords case, which finishes tomorrow, into whether the Human Rights Act applied to protect Mousa and others. There are four clusters of issues we have to face.
First, the incident led to more than just a single death. Photographs and medical evidence show our troops nearly killed another civilian, and badly injured five others. The judge found that a group of soldiers had engaged in systematic torture and humiliation, but none had been charged because of an "obvious closing of ranks". Who were the torturers?
Second, the torture included the use of four techniques banned by the government in 1972: hooding, stressing and sleep and food deprivation. And it was not just one rogue battalion, 1st Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR), but others. Further, we are asked to believe that only a single battalion relied on senior brigade legal advice, which said it would not be breaching international humanitarian law to hood and stress civilian detainees. Is this credible?
Third, the facility where Mousa and others were tortured was small. The soldiers' shouting and detainees' screaming were audible to anyone on the site. So, who are those in command who knew, or ought to have known, what was going on in the critical 36 hours before Mousa's death? Even more potentially damning to the chain of command responsibility, who knew, or ought to have known, of the complete breakdown in the system of training troops? There was a failure to train troops to observe the law and also, it seems, to teach them the basic principles to enable them to fulfil their role.
The evidence on the training of tactical questioners is striking. They have an important balance to strike. They need to obtain evidence from detainees that may, for example, save the lives of our troops. And they must do so without using torture or ill-treatment. This is about prisoner handling. The evidence shows the tactical questioners in the Mousa incident had precisely 1.25 hours training on this. Further, those responsible did not ensure that rules of engagement appropriate to an occupation, not a war, were promulgated to reflect the change for 10 weeks. There is a risk that during this period our troops were following the wrong rules.
The final cluster of issues is where it starts to get really ugly. What are we supposed to make of material that shows it was standard to refer to Iraqis as "Ali Babas"? Or of military operations that had similar racist connotations from an earlier era? Or material that indicates a remorseless disregard of Iraqis' human rights, which dehumanised them in the eyes of the troops who were supposed to protect them? When our troops were supposed to be exercising policing functions, we appear to have shot first and asked questions later.
Uncomfortable questions about our complicity in war crimes with the US also lurk beneath the surface. The evidence from prosecution witnesses in the court martial shows that the US was putting pressure on us to adopt its interrogation techniques.
Consider that the facility involved in the Mousa incident was in the middle of an urban area and the abuse occurred in broad daylight. By comparison, our theatre internment facility, Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, was in the middle of nowhere. But the government claims the US ran Camp Bucca. The evidence in the court martial is clear. We had two compounds for UK detainees, they had six. We had jurisdiction over UK detainees who were subject to questioning by our tactical questioners. So why the blatant denial of responsibility where it is obvious the UK did have jurisdiction? The MoD admitted in 2004 that six other Iraqis had died while in detention with British troops, and we know all British detainees were taken to Camp Bucca until Christmas 2003. We also know that US forces killed Iraqis during "riots" at the facility and that three US soldiers were discharged in 2004 after being found guilty of abusing prisoners. If Mousa died in our custody where he did, what was happening in the British section of Camp Bucca?
Most of this iceberg of disgrace will remain hidden unless there is an independent and public inquiry. What is our government's response to Mousa's death and its implications? Sadly, it knows no shame. Despite the shocking facts and images, it argues in the Lords that the Human Rights Act does not apply outside the territory of the UK. If it succeeds in this argument, we can all give up hope of there being any proper domestic accountability for any human rights abuses by UK personnel outside the country. I can almost hear the howl of anguish from Baha Mousa's grave.
· Phil Shiner is a solicitor and acts for the family of Baha Mousa and in 40 other cases of torture, beatings and killings by UK forces in Iraq
phil_shiner@publicinterestlawyers.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2063360,00.html
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