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suppressed news
 concerned with the prevention of genocide
by j. b. gerald

 2020 suppressed news     
suppressed news archives      

2012

December 31, 2012

"White Collar Genocidaires: an overview of genocide prevention for 2013":
      Genocide warnings for 2012 have focused on nation states resistant to Euro-American corporate expansion. Ancient divisions along racial, religious, ethnic lines are aggravated to their tactical use by foreign interests. An entire national group is placed at risk by de-stabilization and civil war to replace a local historically evolved government (ie. Cote d'Ivoire, Libya, Syria) with one representing Euro-American interests. The same policy directed against national groups continues to cause unnecessary deaths in Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan. Each recurrence of what is an abnormal and military pattern of corporate economic expansion makes it less possible to separate the policy's effect from genocidal intention... continued
 

 

December 29, 2012

      Canada: First Nations are protesting the passage of Bill C-45 which makes changes to the Indian Act and Treaty rights without consulting First Peoples. This may place the Bill outside the law. Bill C-45 weakens protections for the environment and simplifies mechanisms of corporate empowerment. It is being challenged by the "Idle No More" movement in grassroots demonstrations and actions across Canada. Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence (See previous) has maintained a hunger strike since December 11th, calling for a meeting between Aboriginal leaders and the Canadian Government; she asks to meet with the Prime Minister who has not honoured her request. Her action is noted by the media and calls attention to the poverty of First Nations communities in a society enriched by the land's resources. Currently ignored by the media, the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State continues to demand accountability for the crimes against Aboriginal peoples at "Residential Schools" (previous). A recent update: "ITCCS Communiqué from Brussels" [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kae1KlXk13Q >] claims the first three conditions of the Convention on Genocide have been violated. The Tribunal lacks interface with a recognized legal system and transfers guilt to contemporary leaders of Church and State; the testimonies it shares remain evidence of atrocities.

 

      Usinsk, Russia: in a "Joint Statement of Indigenous Solidarity for Arctic Protection," 30 Aboriginal representatives have requested a ban on Arctic Shelf offshore oil drilling, a moratorium for onshore Arctic drilling, and People of the land's consent for any drilling and extraction. They request solidarity beyond boundaries, from all Peoples of the north. The Aboriginal statement grew out of an international conference hosted by Greenpeace International, Izvatas, and the Save Pechora Committee, “Arctic Oil: Exploring the Impacts on Indigenous Communities," last August 14th to 16th in Usinsk. The statement [access:< http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/Indigenous_Peoples_statement.pdf >] has also drawn support from the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council and EU-Russia Civil Society Forum.

 

      Syria: the deterioration of Syria into civil war mirrors the destabilization and destruction of Libya and Cote d'Ivoire. Counter government forces rely on foreign aid, foreign personnel, foreign influence, and serve to destroy a stable regime serving its own national interests. Genocide warning for the national group, with foreign influence at fault.

 

 

December 17, 2012

Red Cloth Series / Série toile rouge adds new poetry readings by Albert Dumont and Robert Marois.

 

 

December 14, 2012


julie maas                                                                   
 

 

December 12, 2012

      Greece: a recent poll shows popularity of the extreme-right political party, “Golden Dawn,” has risen from 7% (435,000 votes) at the last election to 13.5%. With the same formula as the "Jobbik" Party in Hungary, or Geert Wilders' "Party for Freedom" in the Netherlands, “Golden Dawn” appeals to the majority's racial, religious, language identity, and rises through making vulnerable groups scapegoats for political gain. Once started, this mechanism extends as additional groups are sacrificed to deflect populist anger. Historically the parties are a danger to refugee, immigrant, Roma, Jewish, Muslim and LGT communities, and find power to effect their policies through parliamentary alliances with establishment conservatives. In Austria the far-right now includes "Team Stronach," recently founded by the Austrian/Canadian auto-parts magnate. As the crushing austerity programs are forced on Greece, a nationalist extreme right gains power to serve the enforcers. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) describes "Golden Dawn" as a “neo-Nazi, racist and xenophobic political party.” (continued ~ "Countering the Far-right in Greece," by J.B.Gerald).

 

 

December 4, 2012

      Goma, Kivu Province: On November 20th Goma, the Congolese city of a million people in Kivu Province, was taken over by M-23 'rebel' forces and cut off from any assistance. The UN mission, MONUSCO with 17000 troops in the country and an undisclosed number in the area, stood by and watched. On Nov. 22nd, the UN Security Council unanimously condemned the takeover. 'Rebel' forces were ordered to leave. With the power to come and go M-23 officially withdrew. Rapes and killings by a rebel group are reported at a nearby refugee camp of thirty thousand. The Congolese Army may enter the city instead...(continued ~ "Of Goma...," by J.B. Gerald). Ongoing genocide warnings.

 

      Cote d'Ivoire: the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Simone Gbagbo, wife of Laurent Gbagbo currently on trial for war crimes. The former President of the Ivory Coast was deposed by an internal faction of Alassane Ouattara in 2011. In a contested presidential election Mr. Ouattara was backed by French and UN armed forces, and the NATO press while the constitutional system of Cote d'Ivoire ruled that Mr. Gbagbo won. War crimes have been traced to Ouattara forces, less clearly to Gbagbo loyalists. At the military victory by Ouattara, a French helicopter missiled President Gbagbo and his family's location, and with French forces in the city the arrest was made by Ouattara's forces. The video footage clearly suggests the abuse and humiliation of the African President's wife at surrender in her family's civilian quarters, referred to as a "bunker" by international press. Evangelical Archbishop William Daniels of Ghana has reported her rape by soldiers in the presence of her husband and son. With Mr. Ouattara acting as President, Gbagbo forces have been called to account. The International Criminal Court wishes to try her for rape and murder in complicity with her husband. Background:   1,   2,   3,   4,   5,   6,   7.

 

 

December 1, 2012

      U.S.: "If I had a Boat"  [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxecx4oRsEI >][access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UrueP3aM40&feature=fvwp&NR=1 >];   "All That You Need"   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XYKKUL2eqA >];   "Simple Song"   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q91W6fHInIU >].

 

 

November 23, 2012

      Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: on November 20th and 21rst the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC) conducted hearings concerning war crimes against the Palestinian people, focusing on Israel's invasion of Gaza in 2008-2009, and genocide. The group is an unofficial body with official affect through its recommendations and respect for the integrity of its Jurists. Musa Ismail, Hans-Christof von Sponeck, Denis J. Halliday, Dr Zulaiha Ismail, Michel Chossudovsky, are the Commissioners. The prosecutors are Prof. Gurdial Singh Nijar, Prof. Francis Boyle, Avtaran Singh and Gan Pei Fernand. The people's court gains weight through default of the International Criminal Court which has refused to respond to the 2008-2009 invasion. As the Commission prepares its report and recommendations, two press releases describe the proceedings:

Day 1. Palestine Witnesses relate Acts of Genocide at KL Commission Hearing .pdf
Day 2. Genocide and Criminal Massacre of Palestinians .pdf
 

 

November 19, 2012

      Gaza: this phase of the attack on Gaza began November 14th, 2012 with a targeted killing of Ahmed Al-Ja’bari, the leader of Hamas. Eight other civilians died with him. The attack on Gaza continues with air strikes on civilian areas reported by the international media. Israel's air targeting has moved from identified rocket launchers to civilian infra structure and individual homes of those suspected as militants. The high rate of civilian casualties exceeds "collateral damage". Democracy Now! (Nov. 19, 2012) reports nearly a hundred Palestinians dead, 700 wounded and among these 200 children. With Israel's reservists called up the military machinery is in motion toward a more complete destruction of a civilian area host to a substantial portion of the Palestinian people. Media and NATO human rights organizations refuse to discuss Israel's policies and actions within a perspective of genocide. See the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, particularly Article II, a, b, c and through the effects on child-bearing women d. Military attacks on civilian targets continue to be war crimes without statute of limitations. Targeting "suspects" for death or assassination is a war crime (in effect, the targeting applies to an entire family or neighbourhood). Within a confined civilian population the targeted strikes on militants have parallels to extra-judicial executions of political prisoners. The International Criminal Court refusal (April 3, 2012) to consider Israel's crimes against Palestinians during Israel's attacks on Gaza Dec. 2008 - Jan. 2009, with 1400 Palestinian deaths (see previous), suggests international law is rendered useless, allowing worse crimes. Because Israel's intention to abide by fundamental human rights law is in doubt, genocide warning. As a program of intentional destruction of the Palestinian people (previous) advances, a threatened invasion of Gaza without legal recourse available for the victims reveals impunity, and Israel which calls itself the Jewish State risks setting itself outside/beyond protections of moral law. The genocide warning in place for the people of Gaza, extends by consequence and effect to the moral teachings of Judaic culture.

 

      Argentina: trials continue for crimes against humanity during the military takeovers of the Seventies. Previous. Three naval officers, Luis Sosa, Emilio del Real, Carlos Marandino, were found guilty of executing political prisoners and sentenced to life imprisonment by Federal Court, October 12, 2012. The court has tried to extradite a fourth officer accused with them, former Lt. Roberto Bravo, who is said to have delivered the death "coup" to prisoners. His extradition was refused by a U.S. judge in Miami.

Historical note on the Trelew Massacre: an escape attempt of over a hundred inmates from the prison at Rawson in Chibut Province, 1972, resulted in freeing six revolutionary leaders to Allende's Chile and the surrender to authorities of 19 of their cadre who missed the plane. These were taken to Amirante Zar naval air base prison near Trelew, where they were held and tortured. The fate of the remaining 89 prisoners is not mentioned in accounts. The 19 at Amirante were proclaimed shot attempting a second escape on August 22nd, 1972, according to a discredited official account supported by the U.S. Embassy. In fact they were shot repeatedly by a military squad in the prison corridor and in their cells. Of the 19, three survived who described an unprovoked slaughter. Maria Antonia Berger, shot in the stomach, wrote on the floor with her blood "Libres o muertos, jamás esclavos," before she was shot again in the head. Of three survivors, she was disappeared in 1979, Alberto Miguel Camps in 1979, and Ricardo René Haidar in 1982. So many connected with the escape were killed the death toll suggests ongoing retaliation by the military to conceal a crime. Of Argentinian Naval Lieutenant Roberto Guillermo Bravo, now a U.S. citizen, he was identified in 1974, then hidden by the Argentinian Navy, reportedly supplied papers by Washington's naval attaché and in 1977 flown to Washington and hidden by the U.S. Navy (unverified) until provided with papers to set up in Florida. An American citizen since 1987, Bravo's Miami based company RGS is a U.S. military supplier, contracting with USAF, DOD, the Bureau of Prisons, and clients in thirty States. RGB showed a 6 million dollar profit from government contracts in 2000 (Página|12). Argentinian courts dealing with "dirty war" cases rarely pursue evidence of U.S. involvement. Former Argentinian officer Adolfo Scilingo (previous) who murdered political prisoners by "death flights" (prisoners were injected with pentothal and dropped out of helicopters over the Atlantic or River Platte) is in a Spanish prison. In 2005 he was sentenced to 640 years which was limited by law to 30. Contested in 2007 the sentence was increased to 1084 years to serve 25.
Partial sources online: "Les Etats-Unis travaillent avec un genocidaire argentin et le protegent," Página|12, March 5, 2008, Front Gauche; The Army & Politics in Argentina, 1962-1973: from Frondizi's Fall to the Peronist Restoration, Robert A. Potash, 1996: Stanford University Press; "Argentina convicts 3 former navy officers of summarily executing leftist inmates in 1972," AP, Oct. 15, 2012, Fox News; "Finally three sailors convicted for the Slaughter of Trelew," Emilio Marin, Oct. 23, 2012, La arena; "Fue detenido ayer en Miami Roberto Bravo uno de los represores argentinos que participo de la masacre de Trelew," Diego Martinez, Oct. 26, 2010, Página|12; "Trelew Massacre," current, Wikipedia;"Trelew Massacre: 35 years on," Kristie Robinson, Sept.28, 2007, The Argentina Independent.

 

 

November 16, 2012

      Spain: American CIA agent Michael Vernon Townley was indicted with six other Chilean DINA agents (among them, Juan Manuel Contreras Sepulveda), by Spanish Judge Pablo Ruz, Nov. 13th, on charges of genocide and murder. Contreras, head of Chile's security service during the Pinochet regime is currently in prison for crimes against humanity. The seven allegedly targeted and murdered Carmelo Soria, a Spanish UN employee because they thought he was helping communists. His death appeared to be an accident caused by drunken driving. Wikipedia notes previous testimony by Townley that Soria was injected with Sarin gas and tortured. Townley served 62 months in the U.S. for his part in the murders of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, and by plea bargain subsequently escaped extradition to trial in Argentina for the murder of Chile's General Carlos Prats. Wikipedia mentions among his assassinations for the CIA, Townley's role in Pinochet's production of Sarin gas as a killing agent with effects similar to a heart attack. Townley is known to have been hidden in the U.S. witness protection program. Five of the indicted are at liberty in Chile and the international media is not revealing their names.     Partial sources online: "Pinochet officials indicted," Oct. 30, 2012, San Francisco Chronicle; "Spanish judge indicts 6 Chileans, 1 American for 1976 slaying of Spanish UN diplomat," Jorge Sainz (AP), Oct. 30, 2012, Edmonton Journal; "Michael Townley," current, Wikipedia; "Michael V. Townley," current, Spartacus Educational.

 

      Canada: a complaint against the Government of Canada was filed with the U.N. Committee Against Torture, Nov. 14, 2012, for failing to enforce its laws against torture during the visit of former U.S. President George W. Bush when he entered Canada to speak at an elite private club in Vancouver. See previous. The complaint was submitted by "Hassan bin Attash, Sami el-Hajj, Muhammed Khan Tumani, Murat Kurnaz," former U.S. detainees at Guantanamo (where bin Attash remains) and in Afghanistan. Their attempt to press charges against Bush in October 2011, was denied by alleged intervention of Canada's Attorney General [Intervention by the B.C. Attorney General pre-empted and assumed Federal authority]. The four are represented by attorneys from the New York Center for Constitutional Rights and Canadian Centre for Institutional Justice. The complaint seeks to recognize damage to the complainants because the BC Attorney General refused their proceedings, to find Canada in violation of its legal obligations to the Convention Against Torture, to ask explanation from involved officials for Canada's default, and to assure accountability and criminal proceedings were Bush to return to Canada.     Partial sources online: "Survivors File U.N. Complaint Against Canada for Failing to Prosecute George W. Bush for Torture," CCIJ & CCJI, Nov. 14, 2012, LAW listserv, see also Global Research; Complaint text, Center for Constitutional Rights [access:< http://www.ccrjustice.org/files/CAT%20Canada%20Petition%20.pdf >].

 

      Palestine: ongoing genocide warning for the people of Gaza.     Partial sources online: "After Egypt's diplomacy falters, Israel must decide whether to launch ground offensive," Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff," Nov. 16, 2012, Haaretz; "UN chief urges Israeli restraint, Hamas to end rocket attacks," Peter James Spielmann (AP), Nov. 16, 2012, The Gazette; "Israel's attack underlines helplessness, hopelessness of Gaza Palestinians," Diana Buttu, Nov. 16, 2012, Globe and Mail; "Gaza Again," Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, Nov. 15, 2012, Salem-News.com; "Resisting War, Terrorism, And Genocide (Second of Three Parts)," Louis Rene Beres, Nov., 14, 2012, Jewish Press.

 

 

November 10, 2012

      Italy: six scientists have received six year sentences on charges of manslaughter; the court found them guilty of downplaying risks posed by early tremors of the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila. Over 300 were killed.     Partial sources online: "Gov’t official and scientists convicted of manslaughter for giving public “incomplete, imprecise and contradictory” information on quake danger" (VIDEO), Oct. 22, 2012, EneNews; "Italian scientists convicted for failing to predict quake," Mary Gearin, Oct. 23, 2012, ABC News (Australia).

 

      Japan: over ten thousand people in Japan are trying to press criminal charges against the Government of Japan and Tokyo Electric Power Company officials. They demand accountability for damages caused by the Fukushima nuclear accident, and hold responsible those who promoted nuclear power. Prosecutors in Fukushima, Tokyo, and Kanazawa have officially accepted the complaints, binding them to investigate the Fukushima nuclear accident as a crime. Previous.     Partial sources online: "Second mass complaint coming over Fukushima disaster," Masakazu Honda, Nov. 2, 2012, The Asahi Shimbun; "NHK: Criminal inquiry into nuclear accident begins — Fukushima disaster 'a criminal act by the gov’t and Tepco'? — Multiple prosecutors coordinating investigation," Aug. 1, 2012, EneNews.

 

      Canada: Health Canada has discontinued its weekly radiation data postings, maintaining there is no cause for concern. See previous 1 and 2. Private readings available on Youtube show dangerous levels of radioactivity in the rainwater. Consistent, understandable, official, verifiable reporting to the public of radiation exposure levels is noticeably lacking on the internet. In Australia, a government white paper, indicates its formal opposition to further development of nuclear power.     Partial sources online: "Australia rules out nuclear power after Fukushima," Erin Tennant, Nov. 7, 2012, 9News National; "After Fukushima, neither side sees a nuclear future," Lenore Taylor, Nov. 7, 2012, The Sidney Morning Herald; "Health Canada's Radiation Monitoring Data," current, Health Canada; "high radiation ottawa canada," Oct. 10, 2012, Youtube; "canada dangerous radiation rain," Sept. 14, 2012, Youtube etc..

 

 

November 7, 2012

      Canada: on October 18th the Conservative government tabled Bill C-428, "The Indian Act Amendment and Replacement Act," to modify some provisions of the [Indian] Act and discuss its replacement. Shawn Atleo Chief of the Assembly of First Nations finds the amendments a "piecemeal" approach to what should be a First Nations initiative honouring First Nations treaties. The government is also encouraging a First Nations Property Ownership Initiative to assure First Peoples individual ownership of their lands on reserves. The Marxist Leninist Daily clarifies its effect: lands could then be sold individually to developers and corporate projects such as pipeline development. TML analyzes the effect as genocidal in its destruction of tribe and culture.     Partial sources online: "Proposed First Nations Property Ownership Act -- Modern Day Genocide All Over Again," Philip Fernandez, Oct. 11, 2012, The Marxist-Leninist Daily; "First Nations Land Plan Stirs Unease," Matthew Little, Oct. 17, 2012, Epoch Times; "Harper government unveils “path” to repeal Indian Act," Oct. 20, 2012, APTN; "Harper government following “ways of the past” by “tinkering” with Indian Act: Atleo," Oct.12, 2012, APTN; "Rob Clarke: It’s time to replace the Indian Act," Rob Clarke, Nov. 7, 2012, National Post.

      Kevin Annett presents a broad indictment of three Canadian churches, the Government of Canada, the Queen, the Vatican, with an "International Common Law Court of Justice: The Case of Genocide in Canada," current, Nov. 5, 2012, Youtube [access:< http://youtu.be/UvhfXAd08TE >]. Charging "intentional" genocide of Canada's Aboriginal peoples and without apparent recourse to Canadian courts, much of the information he begins to present is available in his previous works (ie."Hidden from History" [access:< http://hiddenfromhistory.org/ >]). Previous. Annett reveals intentional policies of Canadian history that present a context to understand current practices and policies. No parallels are made between crimes against Aboriginals and the treatment of other North American poor. Night's Lantern carries numerous genocide warnings for Canada's Aboriginal peoples.

 

 

November 4, 2012

      Canada: in response to the Canadian government's request for suggestions to implement the UN Committee Against Torture's recommendations, (see Nov. 3rd) Lawyers Rights Watch Canada has proposed a Royal Commission to investigate Omar Khadr's detention and torture at Guantanamo Bay: "LRWC views on implementation of the recommendations and observations of the United Nations Committee Against Torture in reference to the Omar Khadr case." The Lawyers Rights Watch and The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group presentation to the Committee Against Torture, provides a summary of treaty violations and crimes against Omar Khadr.

 

      Marseille, France: in an area where vigilantes have previously burned a Roma encampment, L'Eglise de la Belle de Mai has welcomed with Diocesan approval, about eighty Roma men, women and children. Fr. Paul Daniel explains that it's cold out. Some local groups and residents have brought food. Previous, previous.     Partial sources online: "Marseille: l'église de la Belle de Mai ouvre sa porte aux Roms," Guillaume Aubertin, Oct. 31, 2012, LaProvence.com; "Des roms hébergés à l'église de la Belle de Mai (Marseille)" Video, LCM / TV de Sud, Oct. 30, 2012, Youtube.

 

      Ethiopia: the government's projected massive resettlement of 1.5 million people is removing Anuak tribes from their ancestral areas of rich farmland. According to Intercontinental Cry the government project, part of a program of "villagization" is heavily funded by the World Bank's International Development Association. The IDA's headquarters is in Washington D.C.. The purpose of current "villagization" is said to be, to increase services available to the population by 'concentrating' population. In Vietnam the purpose of 'hamletization' was to isolate rural Vietnamese from the Vietcong. For the Anuak it results in forced relocation by the Ethiopian Army. After a massacre of over 400 Anuak in December 2013, many have become refugees in Kenya. Those who remain suffer extrajudicial killing, beating and rape. The vacated land is sold to large agro-businesses, local and foreign investors. Genocide warning. The Anuak have written the World Bank on behalf of an estimated 4500 Anuak refugees in Kenya, asking the World Bank to delay the next phase of its "Protection for Basic services Project Phase III" until an investigation by the World Bank Inspection Panel. Night's Lantern has previously placed genocide warnings for the Oromo and Ogadeni peoples in Ethiopia: the ongoing termination of the Ogadeni in particular continues without justice. The crime remains unaddressed by the global community. Fully aware of the Convention against Genocide, the country's power elite, considered at the service of Washington, initially found over 70 associates of the former Marxist leader as well as Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, guilty of genocide in 2006 for political killings without focus on a national, religious, ethnic, or tribal group. Ousted in 1991, Mariam remains convicted, exiled in Zimbabwe.     Partial sources online: "Ethiopia to lease out land to investors despite land grab concerns," Sept. 28, 2012, Food Crisis and the Global land Grab; "Appeal to Stop Funding Villagization Project in Gambella Regional State, Southwest Ethiopia," a letter to the President of the World Bank by Okech Agid Ojwatto, Ojunni Ojulu Ochalla, and Okello Omod Oman, Sept. 16, 2012 Anuak Justice Council; "Notice of Registration: IPN Request RQ 12/05," Alf Morten Jerve, Chairperson, The Inspection Panel, Oct. 9, 2012, International Development Association; "Anuak demand accountability from World Bank for contributing to human rights abuses," Ahni, Oct. 11, 2012, Intercontinental Cry; "Ogaden genocide is accelerating - A CNN iReport / Denan then and now," posted June 25, 2011 [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbgoPSxDR00 >].

 

 

November 3, 2012

      Canada: in June The United Nations Committee Against Torture, 48th session final report faulted Canada for a lack of full compliance with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, requesting explanation from the Government by June 1, 2013. On October 4th the Government asked Lawyers against the War among others for suggestions on how Canada might implement the UN Committee's recommendations. On November 2nd, LAW provided the Human Rights Program, Department of Canadian Heritage "Lawyers against the War views on implementation of the recommendations and observations of the United Nations Committee Against Torture" (Gail Davidson, Nov. 1, 2012). LAW believes the Convention against Torture was violated when Canada allowed George W. Bush entry to Canada and then failed to prosecute him on charges of torture. The Committee Against Torture was in agreement. A full reading of the CAT 48th Session report on Canada [access:< http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/CAT.C.CAN.CO.6.doc >] reveals an international standard of what is not allowable. Previous: a summary of the CAT report; other issues; rendition to torture; "intelligence information obtained by torture."

The Committee recommends that the State party incorporate all the provisions of the Convention into Canadian law in order to allow persons to invoke it directly in courts, give prominence to the Convention and raise awareness of its provisions among members of the judiciary and the public at large. - U.N. Committee Against Torture, 48th session.
 

 

November 2, 2012

      Brazil update: (see previous) on Oct. 30, 2012 judge Cecilia Mello of the Federal Regional Court in Sao Paulo cancelled the eviction order for the Guarani-Kaiowá group of 170 in Pyelito Key until ownership of the land is decided by the demarcation of lands program currently in progress.     Partial sources online:"Judge suspends eviction of Brazil Indians," AP, Oct. 31, 2012, Google News; "Brazil: Guarani Eviction Order Has Been Overturned," Ahni, Oct. 31, 2012, Intercontinental Cry; "La Justice suspend la décision d’expulsion et les Indiens Guarani-Kaiowá de Pyelito Kue remercient les réseaux sociaux," Caro Nashoba, Oct. 31, 2012, Mediapart.

 

      Myanmar: update (see previous) at several levels the United Nations is calling for the Government of Myanmar to end persecution of the Rohingya Muslims; statements of concern include recent warnings by Tomas Ojea Quintana - Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Ms. Rita Izsák - Independent Expert on minority issues for the U.N. (currently on maternity leave as CEO of the Tom Lantos Institute of Hungary), and the UN Refugee Agency. The government has announced it is considering including the Rohingya in citizenship. The BBC reports 120 Rohingya refugees missing when their boat sank in waters off Bangladesh. In Iran the Ayatollah Shirzai criticizes the silence of Muslim organizations, and suggests Arab leaders work for peace and the protection of the Rohingya Muslims rather than of insurgents waging war in Syria. The Government of Myanmar has refused an offer by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to open discussions together with the UN, concerning the violence in Rakhine province. An article by Tony Cartalucci in Alternative Thai News Network, explains the strategic importance of Kyaukpyu where the violence has occurred, as the starting point of an oil pipeline to China; de-stabilization of the local population impedes the progress of China / Myanmar economic cooperation. His article notes longstanding links between the 'Pro-Democracy' Movement supporting Aung San Suu Kyi, and anti-Muslim sentiment in Burma. To further democracy and 'human rights' in Burma the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy in 2011 gave grants of over $275,000 apiece to the following organizations: American Center for International Labor Solidarity, International Republican Institute, and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, a half million to unnamed organizations supporting "ethnic language short wave radio and satellite television broadcasts..." and somewhat smaller grants to about fifty other causes building contemporary Burma.     Partial sources online: "'Pro-Democracy' Groups Behind Myanmar Refugee Attacks," Tony Cartalucci, Oct. 29, 2012, Alternative Thai News Network / Global Research; "Burma / Where We Work," current, 2011, National Endowment for Democracy website; "Iranian cleric urges Arabs to defend Rohingyas, stop fuelling Syria crisis," Nov. 1, 2012, Press TV; "Myanmar 'rejects talks' on ethnic violence," Oct. 31, 2012, Al Jazeera; "Burma considers citizenship for Rohingya Muslims," Dean Nelson, Nov. 1, 2012, Telegraph.co.uk; "UN says Myanmar must protect Rohingya minority Muslims," Reuters, Nov. 1, 2012, Phuket Gazette; "Many Rohingya missing as boat sinks off Bangladesh," Oct. 31, 2012, BBC News.

 

 

      Greece: Costas Vaxevanis, a journalist / publisher who revealed the names of 2000 wealthy Greeks with Swiss bank accounts, was arrested by police at a news conference October 28th, and found innocent of breach of privacy by the Greek court, November 1. The arrest suggests the elite's attempt to control political damage, using Greek police who are currently charged with torturing anti-fascist demonstrators and are considered in sympathy with the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party. From France, Benjamin Abtan of EGAM (Mouvement Antiraciste Européen) writes a letter to Greek politicians calling for them to exclude Elenin Zaroulia, a Parliamentary representative of Golden Dawn and wife of its leader, Nikolaos Michaeloliakos, from Parliament's delegation to the European Council and Commission of Human Rights. Liberation quotes her address to Parliament: "It is unacceptable for the Greeks to be assimilated into this class of subhumans who have invaded our country..." Previous.     Partial sources online: "La députée grecque Eleni Zaroulia et ses 'sous-hommes'," Oct.19, 2012, Liberation; "Greek police torture anti-fascist protesters," Christopher Dreier, Oct. 11, 2012, Global Research; "Greek Police Arrest Journalist over 'Lagarde List' Leak," Yanis Varoufakis, Oct. 31, 2012, GRTV; "Une députée d'Aube dorée représente la Grèce au Conseil de l’Europe : scandaleux !" Benjamin Abtan, Oct. 31, 2012, Le Nouvel Observateur; "Greek journalist acquitted in Swiss accounts scandal," Renee Maltezou, Nov. 1, 2012, Reuters Canada; "Greek anti-fascist protesters 'tortured by police' after Golden Dawn clash," Maria Margaronis, Oct. 9, 2012, theguardian.

 

 

October 29, 2012

      Myanmar: persecution of the Rohingya Muslims (see previous) continues with what the CBC describes as "ethnic clashes" between Rohingya and Buddhist groups. Satellite photographs released by Human Rights Watch confirm the razing of a large area with Muslim homes and houseboats in Kyaukpyu, which initially reported violence against Muslims Oct. 24th. The Observer citing Reuters, reports that 3000 of those fleeing by boat were impeded from reaching the overflowing refugee camps at Sittwe by government troops who were apparently available in the area, and placed them across the river. Border guards in neighbouring Bangladesh have repelled the attempts of Rohingya refugees to enter. The country's President has admitted the ethnic violence against Rohingya. Myanmar's discrimination toward the Rohingya has extended to a general disfavour for Muslims. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the nobelist who has recently toured the U.S. under the wing of Amnesty International USA, remained noticeably silent about the genocide against the Rohingya. She is considered an eventual candidate for presidency of the Buddhist country, delivering The Edwin L. Godkin Lecture at Harvard's J. F. Kennedy School, Oct. 27th, under remarkably heavy security. She responded to a student questioning her silence about the genocide of the Rohingya with a statement against human rights violations on all sides. On Oct. 26th in Myanmar, with other government Ministers she requested increased government forces and legal action against whoever was responsible for the violence. Due to violence against Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine State last June over a 100,000 were displaced, and 22,000 between Oct. 21 and 28 in this renewed program, the source of which remains a mystery. RT notes the UN has called for government controls of ethnic violence between Buddhist and Muslim and recognizes the Rohingya as one of the most persecuted minority groups on earth. Genocide warning initially noted August 27, 2012. In fact the long campaign to rid Burma of the Rohingya has precedence in operations by the Myanmar military in "Operation Naga Min" (1978), and "Operation Clean and Beautiful Nation" (1991). A right-wing European and international model of disenfranchising Muslim communities boosts the ugliest politicians into power by relying on the majority religion's backing. Aung San Suu Kyi's difficulty in affirming the simplest human rights of the victim group has not yet countered this mechanism. A video of her speech on receiving the United States Congressional Gold Medal, September 19th, is available at The Washington Post website [access:< http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/aung-san-suu-kyi-recieves-congressional-gold-medal/2012/09/19/2dbde804-0297-11e2-91e7-2962c74e7738_video.html >]. No media reports cite any instance of Rohingya Muslims armed or attempting to defend themselves with violence.     Partial sources online: "Burma destruction widespread after ethnic clashes," Oct. 27, 2012, CBC News; "Burma's junta admits deadly attacks on Muslims," Peter Beaumont, Oct. 28, 2012, The Observer; "Rohingyas not welcome in Bangladesh," Haroon Habib, Oct. 27, 2012, The Hindu; "Aung San Suu Kyi: Opportunity lost on Rohingyas issue," Hanna Ingber, Oct. 1, 2012, Alaska Dispatch. "Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi Calls for Zero Discrimination of People Living with HIV," Oct. 26, 2012, UN Aids apprec. APNS; "UN: More than 20,000 displaced in new surge of Myanmar sectarian violence (Photos)," Reuters, Oct. 28, 2012, RT; "Aung San Suu Kyi, the Rohingya of Burma and the challenge of faith," Akbar Ahmed, Oct. 24, 2012, The Washington Post; "Bangladesh: The Plight of the Rohingya ," Greg Constantine, Sept. 18, 2012, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting; "'West turns blind eye to Myanmar killings': Interview with Adnan Rashid," Oct. 27, 2012, Press TV.

 

 

October 26, 2012

      Brazil: the ongoing threat of genocide against Indigenous peoples continues (Previous).The slow pace of the government's program demarcating Guarani lands has placed many in temporary camps and caused others to resist and occupy their ancestral lands. A group of 170 occupying ancestral lands in Mato Grosso do Sul were ordered evicted by court order from land where their ancestors are buried. The group is surrounded by gunmen from a local farm. According to separate stories in Survival, Free Speech Radio News, and Press TV, the band has stated its intention of dying on their ancestral lands rather than leave. Under psychological conditions devastating to their culture the Guarani are known to have the highest suicide rate in the world. According to Debora Pill /FSNR, Brazil's Catholic Church interprets the Guarani-Kaiowá statement as a threat of "collective death" rather than "collective suicide." The intrinsic sophisticated mechanisms of genocide in Brazil's treatment of Brazilian Indigenous peoples is apparent in the court's attempt to undercut Indian solidarity by forcing the National Foundation of Indians to pay a fine for every day the group remains. Genocide warning. While a portion of northern Brazil has been set aside by the government for the Yanomami people after damages to Yanomami caused by the transcontinental highway, epidemics, and gold mining, across the northern border in Venezuela an entire settlement (Irotatheri) of 80 Yanomami was reported massacred last July; the area hosts continual encroachment by illegal Brazilian miners; news of the massacre was not confirmed by media or Venezuelan government reports. On Sept. 25, 2012, the Horonami Yanomami Organization (Venezuela) issued a statement requesting a more thorough investigation, and increased military, medical and environmental protection, from the Venezuelan government. The declaration notes witnessed presence in the area of illegal miners, a small plane, a clandestine air strip. The alleged massacre occurred as Venezuela's President was heavily challenged in elections by corporate and foreign interests.     Partial sources online: "‘Kill us all, then bury us here’: desperate appeal of Indians facing eviction," Oct. 25, 2012, Survival for Tribal Peoples; "Brazilian tribe’s ‘unequalled’ suicide rate highlighted on World Mental Health Day," Oct. 7, 2011, Survival for Tribal Peoples;"Brazil's Indians appeal for help to stop eviction," AFP, Oct. 25, 2012, Google News; "Brazilian indigenous group responds to eviction with controversial letter," Oct. 25, 2012, Free Speech Radio News; "We will commit mass suicide if evicted from our homeland, Guarani-Kaiowa say," Oct. 24, 2012, Press TV; "80 Yanomami People Massacred As Shell Gets Arctic Drilling Permit," Subhankar Banerjee, Aug. 31, 2012, Climatestorytellers.org; "A Massacre or Misinformation? Illegal Gold Miners Allegedly Murder Indigenous Peoples in Venezuela; Government Denies Attacks," Barbara Fraser, Sept.13, 2012, Indian Country; "Declaration of Horonami Yanomami Organization about Illegal Mining in the Upper Ocamo Region," Sept. 25, 2012, Survival International.

 

 

October 20, 2012

     U.S.: "Scale Down"   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmr5rdaemYk >].

 

October 16, 2012

      Oakland California update: prisoners' call to end racial confrontations October 10, 2012 (see previous). "California rises to prisoners’ challenge to end racial hostilities," by Mary Ratcliff, editor of San Francisco Bay View: "In the U.S., we not only encage 25 percent of the world’s prisoners – more than any nation in the history of the world and more Black people than were enslaved in 1850 – but we isolate at least 80,000 of them in solitary confinement. I contend that the purpose is to drive them mad; and after years of reading their letters, I believe they are targeted for this intense form of torture not because they are the worst of the worst but because they are the best and brightest..."(continue).

 

 

October 14, 2012

France: in Paris October 7th, several hundred gathered in the place du Panthéon for a Roma Pride rally, an affirmation of Roma identity at a time when the Roma face persecution in France and throughout the European Union. Small gatherings for Roma Pride in fourteen EU countries were reported. While the European Union backs policies of integrating the Roma into society, in fact criminal acts and agendas of violence particularly in Hungary and the Czech Republic are mirrored by programs of "camp clearing" and expulsions in nations with more advanced bureaucracies.... (continue - from "First They Came for the 'Gypsies'..."). Previous.
 

 

September 28, 2012

 

September 27, 2012

      U.S.: the courageous attorney Lynne Stewart, currently serving an arbitrary ten year sentence for feistiness (previous), was denied her appeal of sentence (United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Docket Number: 10-3185, Sept. 24, 2012). Efforts to take the appeal to the Supreme Court are underway. Gerald and Maas encourages support for her Defense Committee [access:< http://lynnestewart.org/ >]. Attorney Stewart is 72 years old fighting serious illness. The length of sentence has some parallel to a death sentence, knowingly imposed by the judges. See also Honduras, below.

 

      Honduras: "Lo mataron por defender los derechos de los más desposeídos" - (Trucchi, FNRP). State sanctioned operation of the far right continues with the murder of Antonio Trejo, attorney for campesinos in their struggle to retain their lands in the Aguan Valley, despite the opposition of powerful landholders. The campesinos won a substantial court victory on June 29th in a region where Trejo is the most recent of 80 murdered. With a history of threats from the powerful he was killed by assassins on leaving a church September 22nd. His recent efforts include a constitutional challenge to the Charter Cities project which opens municipalities to international investment and control. Attorney Trejo's assassination follows the murder near Tegucigalpa in May of journalist and LGBT (a targeted community) activist, Erick Martinez, the assassination of Mahadeo Roopchand Sadloo in September 2011 (previous), and many others.     Partial sources online: "Honduras planeja ceder novas cidades a estrangeiros ," Vitor Paolozzi, Sept. 22, 2012, Fente Nacional de Resistencia Popular; "About the assassination of the compañero Antonio Trejo," Gerardo Torres Zelaya, Sept. 25, 2012, FNRP; "Asesinan a abogado de campesinos del Aguán," Giorgio Trucchi, Sept. 24, 2012 FNRP; "Killers of Antonio Trejo Should Be Brought to Justice," Sept. 24, 2012, Human Rights Watch; "Missing Honduran journalist Erick Martinez found dead," May 8, 2012, BBC News.

 

      France: A warning of cultural extremism evident in France's banning of the full face veil, progresses with the National Party's Marine Le Pen calling for a ban of Muslim face veils and Jewish kipahs in public. In a France loved by history all the people would start wearing face veils and yarmulkes.     Partial sources online: "Analysis: Jews are collateral damage in the European far-right's campaign against Islam," Anshel Pleffer, Sept. 23, 2012, Haaretz; "Le Pen qualifies support of ban on wearing kipahs in public," Sept. 23, 2012, JTA; "Marine Le Pen : 'Je mets à la porte tous les intégristes étrangers'," Luc Bronner, Abel Mestre et Caroline Monnot, Sept. 21, 2012, Le Monde; "French Far-Right Leader Calls to Ban Kippah," AFP, Sept. 22, 2012, ICARE.

 

 

September 23, 2012

      Canada: a video of U.S. origin, "Innocence of Muslims," the trailer to a film defaming and sexually deriding the Prophet Mohammed, has of course resulted in protest by Muslims worldwide. Why isn't everyone protesting ? The trailer is intensively offensive to human values, lacks redeeming artistic merit, and is recognizably propaganda. In California a judge refused to ban "Innocence of Muslims" from youtube, on the grounds that suppression would violate U.S. guarantees of free speech....(from "On Psywar against the Innocents").

 

 

September 21, 2012

      Canada: The Conservative government has deported Kimberly Rivera to the United States to face court martial and possible imprisonment for refusing to fight in Iraq. The U.S. war resister found refuge in Toronto in 2007 where she lived with her four children and husband. Complying with the refusal to grant her refuge, she was arrested by U.S. authorities at the border of Ontario and New York State and placed in U.S. military detention. Previous.     Partial sources online: "Female U.S. war resister deported," Sept. 20, 2012, CBC News; "Iraq war resister Kimberly Rivera ordered deported to U.S.," Patty Winsa , Aug.30, 2012, thestar.com.

 

      India: through its Permanent Representative at the U.N., Hardeep Singh Puri, India maintains that Western nation air strikes on Libya in 2011 were in violation of Security Council Resolution 1973. This Resolution was used to justify NATO's bombing. As a member of the Security Council in 2011, India refused to vote for the Resolution and believes that the subsequent history of U.S. and NATO actions shows the mandate to protect civilians was instead used to change a government: the "responsibility to protect" (R2P), as understood by Western nations, is recognized as a pretext for intervention. What India suggests is that any response to protect people should be confined to countering "genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity." Military intervention is a measure of last resort. The position is reasonable and suppressed in U.S./ NATO government media as Western nations pursue an agenda which has resulted in the partial destruction of one Muslim national group after another. Crimes of aggression and genocide have no statute of limitation. Recommended: Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. For a sequence of entries concerned with war crimes in Libya: 1,   2,   3,   4,   5,   6,   7,   8,   9,   10,   11,   12,   13,   14,   15,   16.     Partial sources online: "Western air strikes on Libya violate UNSC resolution, says India," Sandeep Dikshit, Sept. 7, 2012, The Hindu; "UN security council resolution 1973 (2011) on Libya – full text," March 17, 2011, theguardian; "Armed intervention should be last resort: India," PTI, Sept. 6, 2012, hindustantimes September 18, 2012

      Oakland California: the PBSP-SHU Short Corridor Collective at Pelican Bay Prison has issued a statement calling for the end to all racial hostilities among prisoners in the California State's prison system, starting October 10th. Pelican Bay State Prison’s Security Housing Unit was at the center of the interprison hunger strikes last year (previous). The institutional mechanism of U.S. prisoner controls by racial and group antagonism was overcome by the solidarity of a "convict race" at Lucasville in 1993, and challenged by the massive nonviolent prisoner action of the 2010 Georgia prison strike and the solidarity of California's prison hunger strike. From the Collective's "Agreement to end hostilities," Aug. 12, 2012: "... the reality is that collectively, we are an empowered, mighty force that can positively change this entire corrupt system into a system that actually benefits prisoners and thereby the public as a whole." The California hunger strike was settled a year ago with assurances of "eventual" accession to the inmates' five core demands for improved conditions. Implementation is lacking. The prison system continues to justify use of solitary confinement as a way to control violence of prison gangs and is building expensive new solitary confinement facilities. Both the Georgia prison strike and California hunger strike were nonviolent. Afterward, the prison system responded with selective violent retribution.     Partial sources online: "California prisoners make historic call for peace between racial groups in California prisons and jails," Isaac Ontiveros, Prison Hunger Strike Solidarity, Sept. 12, 2012, SFBayView; "PBSP update: Assessment of meetings with assistant warden," Mutope Duguma, Sept.17, 2012,SFBayView; "Advocacy groups wary of new plan for prison isolation units," Michael Montgomery, Sept.13, 2012, California Watch; "Companionship or Death: The Torture of Solitary Confinement," Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, Sept. 6, 2012, The Huffington Post.

 

 

September 6, 2012

      Québec: the Parti Québecoise has moved into power replacing Premier Jean Charest's Liberal government with a minority government relying on the support of Coalition Avenir Québec Party and Québec Solidaire. The newly elected Prime Minister Pauline Marois has announced the tuition hike will be cancelled by her cabinet; Law 12 (previously known as Bill 78) will be repealed by legislative coalition, and subsidized daycare and language laws will be expanded, affirming the right to education for poor as well as rich, affirming the freedom of peaceful protest, and affirming a culture which put hundreds of thousands of students, workers, families, on the streets of Québec in defense of their future. The power of the Liberal Party in Québec is further diminished by construction industry scandals. The Prime Minister's honouring of her campaign pledges was not deterred by an assailant who attacked those attending her victory speech on election night, killing one worker and wounding another.     Partial sources online: "Charest's defeat is a victory for students," Ethan Cox, Sept. 5, 2012, rabble.ca; "Marois declares PQ priorities as Charest resigns," Sept. 5, 2012, CBC News; "Marois moving quickly to toughen language laws, abolish tuition hikes," Rhéal Séguin and Daniel LeBlanc, Sept. 5, 2012, Globe and Mail; "Suspect in PQ victory celebration shooting identified as fishing lodge owner," staff, CTVNews.ca.

 

 

September 4, 2012

      International: Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu has followed his refusal to appear at a South African symposium with Tony Blair (previous) by writing an essay in The Observer (U.K.) encouraging prosecution of U.S. former President George W. Bush and the former British Prime Minister, at the International Criminal Court. Tutu traces current agendas to destroy Syria and Iran to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He faults the immorality of both leaders but with ecclesiastic tact avoids a direct call for criminal charges. An article by The Observer's political editor clarifies Desmond Tutu's honesty by claiming its logical conclusion. Tutu's open confrontation of the powerful reiterates truths . Among provable crimes of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, is the crime of aggression, which may prove more comfortable for Euro-North American societies to pursue than the agenda of genocide for profit which commenced with the initial destruction of Iraq by the U.S. invasion and bombing in 1990-91. The BRussell's Tribunal brought a case against Bush and Blair for war crimes including genocide, before a Spanish Court on October 6, 2010; ([access:< http://www.brussellstribunal.org/LegalCaseSpain070210.htm >]). The case was closed and a new venue not found (previous). Both Bush and Blair were found guilty of crimes against peace, war crimes and genocide at The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission hearings in 2011 (previous). Francis Boyle's essays (1 and 2) present an introduction to grounds for legal charges against the U.S. chain of command under U.S. law. The American legal system shows no ability to prosecute itself for extreme violations of International law. The ongoing need for the world's moral and religious leaders of all denominations to join in making political powers accountable, remains. See also 123.     Partial sources online: "Why I had no choice but to spurn Tony Blair," Desmond Tutu, Sept. 2, 2012, theguardian / The Observer;"Tony Blair should face trial over Iraq war, says Desmond Tutu," Toby Helms, Sept. 2, 2012, theguardian / The Observer;"We're one crucial step closer to seeing Tony Blair at the Hague," George Monbiot, Sept. 3, 2012, The Guardian;"Tutu calls for Blair, Bush to face criminal court," AP, Sept. 2, 2012, CBC News.

 

 

September 3, 2012

      France: the Hollande government has changed the laws governing Roma rights to work and the special taxes, in order to better integrate Roma in the workforce. However police continue to clear Roma camps. In Evry, Aug. 27th, 70 people were removed including children enrolled in school who now have no place to live. Following the removal of 500 Roma and the bulldozing of their camp in Stains, Aug. 27th, the UN Special Rapporteur on racism finds the evictions contribute to a growing hostility toward Roma in France. The UN Special Rapporteur on housing finds the evictions inappropriate. The UN Special Rapporteur on migrant rights has made clear that group expulsions are against international law. Populist left and right wing anti-Roma pressures accompany France's increasing financial difficulties. Media coverage often witholds the number of those expelled, or date and time, which would give the appearance of evidence. On Aug. 29th The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights addressed the expulsions, urging France to change its anti-Roma policies and "comply with international non-discrimination standards." The Nigerian Tribune quotes French Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, in an interview with Europe1 Radio, assuring that the camps' inhabitants would be resettled, but "It is necessary to fight against these mafias, these networks who maintain delinquency, who maintain also a criminality notably through the exploitation of minors." The newly formed Left Front is not yet able to hold against those ignoring principles of human solidarity. French President Hollande's popularity has fallen toward 44 percent as he prepares an austerity budget with a 30 billion Euro cut in spending. Previous.     Partial sources online: "France carries out third Roma camp clearance this week," RFI, Aug. 29, 2012, RFI; "French police clear Roma camp in Evry near Paris," RFI, Aug. 27, 2012, RFI; "French Govt cancels tax which limited job access for Romanian, Bulgarian workers," ed., Aug. 30, 2012, Romania-Insider.com; "UN condemns France for Roma expulsions," Aug. 30, 2012, The Standard; "French government to loosen limits on Roma employment ," RFI, Aug. 23, 2012, RFI; "EC formally requests that France comply on Roma rights following deportations to Romania," Aug. 13, 2012, Romania-Insider.com; "Hopes Raised, Roma in France Still Face a Date With the Bulldozer," Scott Sayare, Aug. 30, 2012, The New York Times; "New expulsions, persecution of Roma have some warning 'Hitler was not alone'," Rhonda Parker, Aug. 31, 2012, examiner.com; "Roma evictions / expulsions: 'France must comply with international non-discrimination standards'," Press release, Aug. 29, 2012, OHCHR; "Hollande popularity slides as French economy wanes," Catherine Bremer, Aug., 28, 2012, Thomson Reuters; "France orders dismantling of Roma camp south of Paris ," Aug. 30, 2012, Nigerian Tribune;"Ireland ends all restrictions on Romanian and Bulgarian workers," Liam Lever, July 23, 2012, Romania-Insider.com.

 

      Johannesburg, South Africa: former Archbishop Desmond Tutu has refused to appear with Great Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair at the Discovery Invest Leadership Conference. Blair is considered a war criminal for his participation in the second invasion of Iraq. The Archbishop's office released a statement declaring Blair's support of the U.S. invasion "morally indefensible." Archbishop Tutu also refused a joint BBC interview with Blair. Mr. Blair expressed his disappointment. The unequivocal moral stand presents an alternative to customary policies of appeasement. South Africa's Muslim Judicial Council saluted the former Anglican Archbishop as a true leader.     Partial sources online: "Archbishop Desmond Tutu pulls out of event with Tony Blair because of Iraq War," Christopher Hope, Aug. 28, 2012, Telegraph.co.uk; "MJC ‘proud of’ Tutu’s summit snub," Aziz Hartley, Aug. 30, 2012, The Cape Times; "Blair hits back at Tutu Iraq War criticism," Rob Hastings, Aug.31, 2012, The Independent.

 

      Canada: American war resister Kimberly Rivera's request for refugee status was initially denied, then the deportation order was overturned in court, and now again Canada's Border Services Agency has ordered her to leave the country, before Sept. 20th. An appeal on humanitarian grounds against her deportation is still under consideration. The court decision on a similar plea by war resister Jeremy Hinzman allowed him to stay. Rivera, a 30 year old soldier, wife and mother of four moved with her family from Texas to Toronto in 2007. Canada's Parliament has requested Iraq war resisters be granted asylum, but the U.S. is considered a "safe country" by the Canadian government, which makes it difficult for U.S. refugee claimants. The "safe country" concept is unrealistic and outdated. Roma refugees from European governments that Canada declares "safe" are being excluded or returned to endemic persecution (see previous).     Partial sources online: "Canada denies deserter refugee status," Reuters, August 30, 2012, The Vancouver Sun (Postmedia news);War Resisters support Campaign [access:< http://www.resisters.ca/resisters_stories.html >]; "Iraq war resister Kimberly Rivera ordered to leave Canada by Sept. 20," The Canadian Press, Aug. 30, 2012, The Globe and Mail.

 

      U.S.: honour and respect, Sr. Anne Montgomery and Shulamith Firestone.

 

 

 

August 27, 2012

      Canada: the Conservative government has extended its approval of information derived by torture as supplied by foreign intelligence / law enforcement. Initially for the use of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in "exceptional circumstances", the information illegally derived by torturing people may now be considered by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canada's Border Services Agency. The directives were issued by Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews, whose offices cannot legally condone torture, because it's a crime against humanity, both in Canada and at international courts. Previous.     Partial sources online: "Ottawa OKs use of torture information," Jim Bronskill (The Canadian Press), Aug. 25, 2012,The Chronicle Herald;"Exceptional circumstances," Aaron Wherry, Feb. 7, 2012, macleans.ca; "The RCMP and torture," Aaron Wherry, Aug. 25, 2012, macleans.ca; "CSIS and torture," Aaron Wherry, Sept. 28, 2011, macleans.ca.

 

      Greece: in classic population control, the austerity measures forced on Greece, are accompanied by a right-wing, anti-immigrant, racist agenda, currently focusing on "illegal immigrants" with claims that arrest and deportations are often based on skin colour. Human Rights Watch notes abuse of foreigners, with 6000 questioned at police stations in a recent search for undocumented migrants, and 1500 deported. All immigrants in Greece appear to be under duress from both the left and right wing. Golden Dawn (see previous), with legitimate political representation, is widening its popular base among police. An operational pattern with similarities to the Jobbik Party's rise in Hungary and right-wing agendas in France, England and Canada, attempts to channel the anger at forced austerity measures toward the most vulnerable minorities.     Partial sources online:"Immigration Reform: The Xenophobic Crisis in Greece (opinion)," Alina Tsui, Aug. 24, 2012, ICARE. "Greece: Halt Mass Migrant Round-Ups," Aug. 8, 2012, HRW; "Hate on the Streets: Xenophobic Violence in Greece," July 10, 2012, Human rights Watch; "In crisis, Greece rounds up immigrants," Costas Kantouris (AP), Aug. 26, 2012, The Washington Times.

 

      Myanmar (Burma): Buddhist persecution of Muslim groups which have lived in Burma for generations broke into rioting and killing in June; reports continue of ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslim peoples; 20 mosques are burnt; tens of thousands have fled; Bangladesh has at points closed its borders to more Muslim refugees. In response to protest by Saudi Arabia, the U.S. State Department denies that Myanmar's armed forces, primarily Buddhist, are trying to ethnically cleanse Muslims. The Rohingya minority is at risk. Myanmar does not permit the Rohingya, citizenship. Rohingya women require government permits to wed (a marriage license is also required in North America but without a bribe). Genocide warning. This year's flooding in the South, extreme with a hundred thousand recent refugees, may increase the demand for food and shelter nationally. Military commands and private companies have confiscated tens of thousands of acres of farmland belonging to traditional farmers. Natural disasters of global warming may be a factor of ethnic cleansing and genocides. Historically the correlation between failure of a country's agricultural base and subsequent genocide was evidenced in the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot (see previous and previous).     Partial sources online: "US Denies Ethnic Cleansing Campaign against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar," Gianluca Mezzofiore, Aug. 9, 2012, International Business Times; "Saudi Arabia Accuses Myanmar of 'Ethnic Cleansing' of Muslim Rohingya," Gianluca Mezzofiore, Aug. 7, 2012, International business Times; "US rewarding Myanmar for massacring Muslims," Kevin Barrett, Aug. 26, 2012, Press TV; "The Global War on Islam," Aug.25, 2012, strategyworld.com; "Letter from America: Myanmar Government is lying," Dr. Habib Siddiqui, Aug. 28, 2012, Asian Times; "Burma: President must forbid unfair seizing of farmland," Zin Linn, Aug. 26, 2012, Asian Tribune.

 

 

August 21, 2012

      Canada: in 2009 Canada placed a visa restriction on Czech refugees, considered mostly Roma. Nightslantern notes six genocide warnings for Roma in the Czech Republic, or see 1,   2,   3,   4,   5,   6. Statistics on how thoroughly this stopped Czech Roma from coming to Canada are difficult to verify. From Hungary where Roma face increasing persecution, applications suddenly rose 92% from 2010 to 2011. Of 4423 initial applications only 8% were honoured (Toronto Star). The acceptance rate of other nations averages 44.6%. Nightslantern made five genocide warnings for the Roma in Hungary. Some background: in 2009, 84% of Hungarians "expressed negative feelings" about Roma (Budapest Times). This found politically useful expression when the Jobbik Party began to field candidates for election in 2009 (ie. 1,   2,   3). Jobbik's accurately planned rise to political representation with the power to force a centrist Fidesz Party to accommodation, draws on a populist nationalism which is also anti-Semitic, anti people of colour, anti-immigrant (previous).The rise of Jobbik coincided with the evictions of Roma under Berlusconi in Italy and under Sarkozy in France. The U.S. is making diplomatic efforts to assure Hungary's Roma their rights, with the U.S. Ambassador present at the recent Roma Holocaust Day of Remembrance, and in a letter to The Budapest Times Senator Benjamin Cardin of Maryland protests persecution of those with Roma or Jewish ancestry, noting: "Today’s Hungary demonstrates that the battle against the worst human instincts is never fully won but must be fought in every generation." Undeterred by history the Harper government has coined the phrase "bogus refugees" in response to the flood of applications for asylum. New Conservative legislation allows the Public Safety Minister to place refugees from countries the Conservative Minister of Immigration considers "safe", in detention; the CBC notes "Federal government mulls detaining Roma refugee claimants." Canadian media do not cover prison conditions or refugee detention centres. When refugees are returned to the officialdom of their persecutors Canada becomes complicit. See also Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees.     Partial sources online: "Official Terror for Hungary's Roma," Charles McPhedran, Feb. 7, 2012, The Global Mail; "Hungary's negative trajectory," Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (MD), July 20, 2012, The Budapest Times; "Federal government mulls detaining Roma refugee claimants," AP, Aug. 18, 2012, CBC; "Majority in Hungary have negative feelings about the Roma," May 3, 2009, The Budapest Times; "Roma Remember the Holocaust," Susanne Willgren, Aug. 6, 2012, The Epoch Times; "Federal government could detain Roma refugee claimants as part of crackdown on bogus claims, report suggests," Will Campbell, Aug. 18, 2012, thestar.com; "Hungary must protect Roma communities from attack," Aug. 15, 2012, Amnesty International; "Roma Refused," Krystyna Balaban, April 20, 2012, The Dominion; "Refugee claims from Hungary soar, UN reports," Laura Stone & Josh Tapper, March 28, 2012, thestar.com.

 

 

August 20, 2012

      France: persecution of the Roma becomes institutionalized despite efforts by the European Commission on Human Rights. Under the Hollande government a policy from the previous government of closing Roma camps and deporting individuals or entire families continues, as do laws prohibiting Roma normal access to employment. Interior Minister Manuel Valls says "Respect for human dignity is a constant imperative of all public action" (Hinnant); camps of the impoverished are found "unsanitary." While the French take August vacation the cleansing progresses with Roma camps destroyed leaving occupants homeless at Villeneuve d'Ascq (200 people), in Gennevilliers, Lille (on Aug. 9th, 200 people from one camp, 15 caravans from another while some hide in the woods to escape expulsion), and Lyons (350 people this summer). State expulsions to Romania continue. Note: in Romania during WWII, 11 million Roma were transferred to the Nazi death camps until a Communist/Royalty coalition regained control (previous); in France the Roma were interned but while the Nazis required Jews be transferred to death camps, many Roma remained in France where the last formal detention camp for Roma closed in May of 1946 (EGAM). Because the current ethnic cleansing is purveyed as proceeding 'legally', because the disparity between rich and poor increases, because Roma are engineered into greater poverty, because State culture has so far failed to value an older culture which is not reliant on technology, prisons, foreign wars, because 'legal' and illegal persecution of Romani people reveals a fascist and non-French trans-NATO agenda, an early genocide warning for the Roma remains, for France and throughout the European Union. Note: the reassertion of European anti-ziganism may be traced to NATO policy in the treatment of Roma by the United Nations following NATO military actions in Kosovo, 1999. See April 5, 2009 for an extensive note.     Partial sources online: "French authorities intervene against more Romani people," ROMEA, Aug. 15, 2012, romea.cz; "France Raids Roma, Raising Fears," Aug. 10, 2012, Journal of Turkish Weekly; "France clears Roma camp in fresh wave of expulsions," Fanny Bertrand & Nicholas Vinocur, Aug. 9, 2012, Reuters; "Roma trapped in misery as France demolishes camps," Lori Hinnant, Aug. 15, 2012, 4 news, WHBF-TV; "EU says monitoring France over wave of Roma expulsions," Aug. 10, 2012, euronews; "Roms: la France doit rompre clairement avec les positions de l'été 2010," Benjamin Abtan (EGAM), Aug. 7, 2012, Le Monde.

 

      Brazil: affirming a previous decision judges of the Regional Federal Tribunal have issued an injunction against proceeding with construction of the Belo Monte Dam on the Amazon Xingu River (see previous). The dam's builder, Norte Energia may appeal. In another recent decision the Tribunal suspended construction of one of the dams underway on the Teles Pires River proceeding without consultation of the indigenous peoples.     Partial sources online: "Brazilian Appeals Court suspends the Belo Monte Dam," Ahni, Aug. 15, 2012, Intercontinental Cry; "Belo Monte dam construction halted by Brazilian court," Jonathan Watts, Aug. 17, 2012, The Guardian.

 

 

August 17, 2012

      Canada: the Canadian Human Rights Commission's "Report on Equality of Rights of People with Disabilities," indicates that statistically, Canadians with disabilities are nearly half as likely to obtain a university degree. Their household income is between $8000 and $10,000 less than Canada's median of people without disabilities. 32% of women with disabilities report discrimination in employment. A higher percentage of people with disabilities considers the availability of Canada's health care, "poor". Proportionately, people with disabilities undergo nearly 10% more (reported) instances of "emotional or financial abuse". But while the government permits the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan to pay sub-minimum wage to people with disabilities, the Minister of Human Resources of an austerity-program government, is responding with a task force of corporate managers. 4.4 million Canadians admit to a disability of some kind. In Toronto, the City cut a $900,000 grant to help the elderly and disabled with expenses related to illness. Within Great Britain itself, last March the British government cut its 68 million pound yearly subsidy to Remploy, a government company set up after WWII to employ disabled people. England has a record number of reported hate crimes against people with disabilities (up 60% between 2009 and 2011). The approximately 2000 reported cases in 2011 resulted in 523 convictions. The Home Office has estimated 65,000 hate crimes a year against people with disabilities while estimates by concerned organizations reach 100,000. Citizens of NATO countries are often reluctant to admit disability, for historical reasons. The Third Reich called them "useless eaters."

On August 18, 1939, the Reich Ministry of the Interior circulated a decree compelling all physicians, nurses, and midwives to report newborn infants and children under the age of three who showed signs of severe mental or physical disability. At first only infants and toddlers were incorporated in the effort, but eventually juveniles up to 17 years of age were also killed. Conservative estimates suggest that at least 5,000 physically and mentally disabled children were murdered through starvation or lethal overdose of medication. - from "Nazi Persecution of the Disabled: Murder of 'The Unfit'," Holocaust History, current, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. See also previous.
Partial sources online: "CHRC report shows significant gaps in equality of opportunity for people with disabilities in Canada," July 18, 2012, National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE); "Report on Equality of rights of People with Disabilities," Canadian Human Rights Commission, 2012, Minister of Public Works and Government Services; "Ottawa establishes task force on employing people with disabilities," The Canadian Press, July 29, 2012, CTV News; "Toronto city staff kill Hardship Fund that covers medical expenses for the needy," Laurie Monsebraaten, July 25, 2012, thestar.com; "Disability hate crime is at its highestlevel since records began," Datablog, Aug. 14, 2012, theguardian; "Essex: Rise in hate crime linked to welfare reform and deeper-rooted prejudices," Chris Harris, Aug. 17, 2012, East Anglian Daily Times; "Disability hate crime: is 'benefit scrounger' abuse to blame?" Ben Riley-Smith, Aug. 14, 2012, guardian.co.uk; "Now government cuts target disabled workers," Oliver Wright, March 8, 2012, The Independent.

 

 

August 6, 2012

      Japan: Hiroshima Day. At 8:15 AM on August 6, 1945 the Enola Gay, a U.S. B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima killing 140,000 Japanese civilians. Death rates from effects of the recent Fukushima tragedy have not been established.

      Knoxville Tennessee: on July 28th three members of Transform Now Plowshares, were arrested at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Complex after walking two hours through a 'lethal force zone' (where trespassers can be killed) to unfold banners on the Highly-Enriched Uranium Manufacturing Facility bunker, pour blood, and declare the area a crime scene. They carried with them a bible, white roses, hammers, candles, and their written statement with the line -"Our faith in love and nonviolence encourages us to believe that our activity here is necessary." After the action the plant placed its nuclear operations on hold. Sr. Megan Rice (82yrs), Michael Walli (63yrs) and Greg Boertje-Obed (57yrs), were held without bail for trespassing and on August 3rd charged with destruction of U.S. government property. Within a context of the Convention on Genocide production of nuclear weapons is a war crime. See also WMD Here Plowshares, 2006. Background on the Plowshares movement is available through our links page.    Partial sources online: "The story of the action," TNPlowshares, July 28, 2012, and "Arraignment of Transform Now Plowshares," and "Arraignment proceedings: a second account," TNPlowshares, July 30,2012, Transform Now Plowshares; "Atomic City Underground," Frank Munger, Aug. 2, 2012, knoxnews.com blogs; "Peace activists close nuclear facility, cause historic security breach," Nathan Schneider, Aug. 3, 2012, Waging Nonviolence; "Special agent says Y-12 intruders entered from north, cut fences, activated alarms," John Huotari, Aug. 6, 2012, Oak Ridge Today.

      Ontario: Simcoe Day in Ontario (a civic holiday) honours John Graves Simcoe. In the 1793 Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada he was able to pass the first anti-slavery bill in the British colonies: An Act to Prevent the further Introduction of Slaves and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude within this Province. The act was superseded by the British Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 which ended formal slavery throughout the British Empire on August 1, 1834.

      Canada: in response to right-wing government and corporate antagonism to labour rights, Canada's two largest trade unions, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), are considering a merger of their combined 325,000 membership to protect the rights of working people. The Canadian Freelance Union (CFU), CEP local 2040, is open to independent communications professionals (writers, designers, photographers, editors, journalists etc.) to join in solidarity: http://canadianfreelanceunion.ca/.     Partial sources online: "CAW, CEP draft merger," Grace Macaluso (The Windsor Star), July 4, 2012, The Gazette; "CAW, CEP present merger plan but leave divisive issues open," Allison Martell (Reuters), Aug. 1, 2012, The Vancouver Sun.

      James Bay: in November 2011 the Attawapiskat First Nations band next door to a de Beers mining operation, declared a housing emergency. The Harper government provided some modular housing units and took over the band's economic management, at a cost to the band council of 1300 dollars a day (See 1,   2   3). The band took the government to court. Federal Court has ruled in the band's favour, finding the attempt to appoint a highly paid manager "unreasonable." The endemic housing problem among Canada's first peoples remains. See also, hunger.     Partial sources online: "Attawapiskat handed victory by Federal Court," Meagan fitzpatrick, Aug. 1, 2012, CBC News; "Ottawa’s intervention in troubled Ontario reserve was ‘unreasonable,’ court rules," Bruce Campion Smith, Aug. 1, 2012, thestar.com.

 

 

 

 

 

July 31, 2012

      U.S.: on July 17 the UN Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary Executions asked the U.S., Georgia, and Texas to forego the execution of two mentally disabled prisoners: Warren Hill in Georgia and Yokamon Laneal Hearn in Texas. Hearn was executed on July 19th. Texas used pentobarbital, better known as a drug used for the euthanasia of animals. Hill's execution was delayed by Georgia's procedural difficulties with pentobarbital. Hill has an IQ of 70. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it cruel and unusual punishment to execute the mentally retarded (Atkins vs Virginia, 2002). 75 nations are currently party to the The Convention on the Abolition of the Death Penalty.     Partial sources online: "Texas executes mentally disabled prisoner using one-drug lethal injection," Kate Randall, July 19, 2012, wsws.org; "UN rights expert urges halt to US executions of mentally disabled individuals," Jaclyn Belczyk, July 18, 2012, Jurist; "Death row: UN expert urges US authorities to stop execution of two persons with psychosocial disabilities," Press release, July 17, 2012, United Nations Human Rights; "Warren Hill execution stayed at 11th hour by Georgia supreme court," Ed Pilkington, July 23, 2012, theguardian.

 

 

 

 

July 19, 2012

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments, love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
Oh no, it is an ever fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks
But bears it out even to the edge of doom:
      If this be error and upon me proved
      I never writ nor no man ever loved.

                              - a sonnet by Shakespeare

 

 

July 7, 2012

      Israel: in the United States the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church has voted to boycott goods made by Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian areas, including Ahava Dead Sea cosmetics. A motion for Church divestment of holdings in three Israeli companies contributing to the armed occupation of Palestine, was defeated. In Israel a hunger strike of over 1500 Palestinian prisoners (previous) seeking tolerable prison conditions was "settled" in the middle of May (some prisoners in solitary were released; prison conditions haven't changed). Three Palestinian prisoners remain on strike: Hassan Safadi (who believes Israeli authorities have broken their agreements), Samer Al-Burq (previously detained by the U.S. at Bagram, released, later rendered to Israel by Jordan), and Akram Rikhawi, who nearing three months of hunger strike, suffering as well from asthma, diabetes and glaucoma, is about to die, according to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. Israel's intelligence considers the patient a convicted transporter of suicide bombers, etc.. He's married with eight children.     Partial sources online: "Palestinian hunger striker in critical condition," Blake Sobczak, July 6, 2012, The Daily Star (Lebanon); "Palestinian hunger striker in critical condition, seeks release after 3 months without food," AP, July 5, 2012, The Washington Post; "Weeks after prisoner strike ends, Israel not holding up its end of deal," Haggai Matar, July 5, 2012, +972; "Campaign and New Law Challenge Chic Israeli Company Ahava Cosmetics, Whose 'Dead Sea Mud' Illegally Exploits Palestinians," June 16, 2012, AlterNet; "US Presbyterians uphold Christian values of equality, truth, justice and love," Press release, July 6, 2012, Israel/Palestine Mission Network (Presbyterian), apprec.; "Church of the Nativity sanctuary seekers still in exile after 10 years. Why?" Stuart Littlewood, June 29, 2012, Redress Information & Analysis.

 

      Argentina: (see previous) according to The New York Times "The U.S. ambassador, Robert C. Hill, had greeted the military takeover in March, 1976 as 'The best executed and most civilized coup in Argentine History.'" On July 5, 2012, Jorge Rafael Videla, who acted as President of Argentina from 1976 to 1981, was found guilty of stealing the children of the dissidents he had murdered and was sentenced to fifty years in prison. Argentina's "dirty war" attempted to destroy dissidence and "communism" by kidnapping, torture, murder of between 13,000 and 30,000 victims. Videla is already serving a life sentence for his war crimes. Former President (1982-1983) Reynaldo Bignone was sentenced to fifteen years for stealing babies in addition to a 25 year and a life sentence for other crimes against humanity (ie. his extermination camp for guerilla fighters, etc.); others convicted and sentenced: Santiago Omar Riveros, Jorge Acosta, Dr. Jorge Magnacco, Susana Colombo, Antonio Vanek, Juan Antonio Azic, Victor Gallo. Testifying from Washington D.C. Elliot Abrams said he tried to encourage Bignone to reveal the names of the children, when the regime was bent on destroying all traces of evidence. For background see links: "The Vanished Gallery ~ Desaparecidos" [access:< http://www.yendor.com/vanished/ >].     Partial sources online: "Ex-Argentine dictators Videla, Bignone convicted of having babies stolen from slain dissidents," AP, July 5, 2012, The Washington Post; "Jorge Rafael Videla," current, Wikipedia; "Reynaldo Bignone," current, Wikipedia; "Former Argentine dictators Jorge Rafael Videla and Reynaldo Bignone quilty of baby theft," anon., July 6, 2012, National Turk; "Justice at Last for Argentina’s Stolen Children," Harvey Morris, July 6, 2012, The New York Times; "'Dirty war' dictators guilty of stealing babies, kidnap and torture," Debora Rey (AP) July 6, 2012, Herald Sun.

 

 

July 3, 2012

      Georgia: the Georgia Prison Strike resumes as a hunger strike, initially by eleven inmates now refusing food until access to basic medical needs and health conditions are improved. The demands are minimal. After the massive nonviolent Georgia Prison Strike of December 2010, exceptional in its inter-group solidarity and strength (see previous), inmates considered responsible were removed from the general prison population; a number are thought to be part of this current hunger strike including Miguel Jackson: according to BET the previous Georgia strike in 2010 ended after the beating of Miguel Jackson by prison guards with hammers. The hunger strike by inmates on death row in Ohio's Lucasville prison (see previous 1,   2, and 3 (convict unity! convict race!) obtained concessions. The 2011 Pelican Bay and then massive interprison hunger strike in California prisons brought conditons of solitary confinement to worldwide attention (ie. previous); in Georgia and California those considered leaders of the nonviolent strikes suffered illegal violent retribution (previous). This phase of Georgia prison resistance began June 10th at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (GDCP) - where Troy Davis was granted neither justice nor mercy (previous). The Gerald and Maas Georgia Prison Strike .jpg patch and poster 12" x 19" .pdf are free to use for those supporting prisoners rights. The conditions of American prisons are humanly untenable and "prisoners" as a portion of the national group are added to our "genocide warnings" page: genocide warning.     Partial sources online: "'They Are Starving for Change' - The Struggle for Justice at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (GDCP)," Eljeer Hawkins and Delma Jackson, June 22, 2012, Socialist Alternative; "Georgia Prisoners Stage Hunger Strike for Change," Naeesa Aziz, June 28, 2012, Black Entertainment Television; "Hunger strike planned to slam 'torture in Georgia jails'," Jun 27, 2012, Press TV; "Starving for change: Hunger strike underway since June 10 in Georgia’s Jackson State Prison," Bruce A Dixon (Black Agenda Report), July 2, 2012, Bay View.

 

      Canada: after a long delay the Military-Police Complaints Commission issued its report which clears eight Canadian military police of knowingly rendering Afghan suspects to torture when transferring them to Afghanistan authorities. The report does not clear the Canadian government and notes its attempts to obstruct the inquiry, despite the intentions of Parliament. See previous.     Partial sources online: "Military Police cleared in Afghan prisoner inquiry; commission slams government," Chris Cobb (Postmedia News), June 27, 2012, Ottawa Citizen / canada.com..

 

 

June 30, 2012

New York City: the U.S. Federal prosecutor's office continues to turn its "war on terror" into a war on innocence, using the City to further a military policy against the rights of civilians; with exception (previous), the judiciary is at their service. The New York 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to overturn the 10 year sentence of Lynne Stewart, a lifelong outspoken attorney for America's designated victims, who is currently serving time at the Fort Worth Prison Hospital in Texas (background 1, 2, 3). In a disgusting opinion of June 28, 2012, the three Appeals Judges - John M.Walker Jr., Guido Calabresi, Robert D. Sack (who wrote the opinion) - affirmed Judge John Koeltl's shameful decision honouring the government's wish to quadruple Ms. Stewart's sentence because her response to her initial sentence was too feisty ("I can do 28 months standing on my head"). Sentencing of a now 72 year old ill woman to possible death in jail for her "attitude" ridicules American law. The Federal prosecutor's office previously distinguished itself in the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, currently serving 86 years in jail for being a Muslim mother, shot in the stomach by her guards, then accused of assault (previous). Ms. Stewart's case finds its way to these pages because in the Bush / Obama war on Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, in Guantanamo Bay, in global secret prisons and torture cells, in its domestic "war on terror," there are trip wires for application of the law against genocide. Despite U.S. codification the law is ignored (previous). In a prototype for the U.S. "war on terror," convicted war criminal former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, waged Peru's "war on terror" in the early 1990's, notable for its army's mass killing of suspects and the imprisonment and murder in prison of their attorneys. Within a perspective concerned with the prevention of genocide: few U.S. attorneys remain capable of refusing the extremes of a fascist state. This removes a country's legal defenses against policies of genocide. With the brave attorneys removed, there will be no appropriate application of the Convention on Genocide in the United States. The case against Ms. Stewart clearly suggests an attempt to terrorize attorneys. While her case may be taken to the full appeals court, and even the Supreme Court, within an international norm it would be presented to the Organization of American States or International Criminal Court, if only to identify under international law those who in taking Lynne Stewart's freedom risk complicity in a greater crime.     Partial sources online: "Prison term of lawyer in terrorism case upheld," Basil Katz, June 28, 2012, Reuters; "NY Lawyer With Terror Clients Indicted in Tax Case," AP June 20, 2012, ABC News; "'Disable the purveyors': Is the US secretly liquidating dissidents?" Kevin Barrrett (w. Jim Fetzer), June 28th, 2012, Veterans Today; "10-Year Sentence for Lawyer in Terrorism Case Is Upheld," Benjamin Weiser, June 28, 2012, The New York Times; "Court Confirms Ten-Year Sentence for Lynne Stewart," Jeff Mackler, June 29, 2012, email list.

 

 

June 29, 2012

      Brazil: as noted (previous 1,   2,   3) tribes of the Amazon rain forest where the Belo Monte dam proceeds are under direct threat of extinction. Genocide warning. A film funded by the public reveals the mechanism by which genocide is committed by national governments at the service of corporate resource 'development.' The pattern is international and intentional. For the entire film with English subtitles, see: "Belo Monte Announcement of War" [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoRhavupkfw >] or at Intercontinental Cry [access:< http://intercontinentalcry.org/belo-monte-an-announcement-of-war/ >].

 

      India: a standard template for resource development was successfully resisted for a while by the work of Sr. Valsha John in the Pakur district of Jharkhand. Learning of the displacement of the region's tribal peoples so the land could be used by mining companies in league with government, she helped form a resistance which 1. wrote protest letters to officials; 2. blockaded access to the area for six years; 3. formed a unified self governing resistance front; 4. placed every part of the region into productive agricultural use. While decisons in court favoured the corporations / government, the mining companies were forced to an agreement which could extract minerals but 1. had to replace the earth and restore the land to its uses; 2. had to pay the people for the time the land was unavailable, as well as costs for survival, displacement, and return; 3. had to pay for the education of the people. Failures of the resistance were caused by separately buying off portions of the people, infiltrating their movement organization, setting groups against eachother for greater share of the payoffs. After mining companies took over the movement organization, Sr. Valsha under death threat from the mining companies, was hacked to death by a mob. A Sister of Charity of Jesus and Mary, she spent her life working among the poor. Accounts of her death make no mention of religious persecution. Christians in India remain under ongoing threat of persecution. Ie. on June 15th in the Balasur district of Orissa, a group of fifty described as Hindu nationalists attacked and wounded an evangelical pastor, then 12 families of his pentacostal community (previous).     Partial sources online: "Sister Valsa murder: Did the tribals kill her or was it the Maoists?," unsigned, Nov.19, 2011, India Today; "The Story of Sister Valsa John (1958-2011)," Mainstream Weekly, Dec. 9, 2011, South Asia Citizens Wire; "Activist nun who fought mining companies brutally murdered," Stephanie Nolen, Nov. 18, 2012, The Globe and Mail; "Pastoral care workers killed in 2011," Dec. 30, 2011, agenzia fides; "Orissa: 50 Hindu nationalists attack Christians. Fear of new pogroms," Nirmala Carvalho, June 18, 2012, AsiaNews CF..

 

 

June 28, 2012

      Canada: essential reading: Kevin D. Annett's "Torture by any other Name: How the Abomination Continues."

 

 

June 19, 2012

      Canada: the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights has found Québec's new Law 78, alarming. A current CBC Radio poll shows a majority of Canadians agree. The law limits the number of people allowed to assemble, requires precise advance route permits for demos, and allows crushing fines on those police deem to be uncooperative leaders. The requirements diminish reasonable freedom of expression. Bill 78 was Québec Liberal Premier Jean Charest's response to an ongoing popular student strike and demonstrations in Québec, focused on refusing tuition increases. While Québec tuitions are modest, students are concerned that proposed increases benefit corporate / management programs rather than Faculty or curriculum. High tuition at universities forces students into unethical corporate employment to pay off student loans. An advantage of maintaining low tuition rates is that children of generally persecuted minorities can go to university. The enduring strike has gathered the support of parents, teachers, unions. The imposition of Bill 78 has widened the protest base and increased the separation of Conservative or Liberal elites from the needs of the people. Aside from its current application in Montreal, Law 78 affects all of Québec's protests and provides a way to impoverish leaders of protesting Indigenous groups. While the Federal government supports Law 78, the attempt to diminish human rights in Québec (the law is being challenged in court) could spread to the rest of Canada. The UN Human Rights Council has a depth of understanding unavailable to governments under corporate controls: the Harper government was critically slow in acceding to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, was offended by the UN Special Rapporteur's concern for Canadians who don't have enough to eat (previous), and equally offended by the UN Committee on Torture's application of its mandate to Canadian policies (previous).     Partial sources online: "UN calls Quebec's Bill 78 alarming," June 18, 2012, CBC News; "Ottawa rebuts UN rights commissioner, who is disappointed by Quebec Bill 78," Mike Blanchfield (The Canadian Press), June 18, 2012, Winnipeg Free Press; "Is the UN right to express alarm over Quebec's anti-protest law, Bill 78?" Morgan Dunlop, June 18, 2012, cbcradio.

 

      Turkey: a longstanding genocide warning for the Kurds. Estimates vary widely but as many as 8000 people suspected of affiliation with the PKK (Kurdish) through alleged intermediary organizations, may have been arrested and imprisoned since 2009. Turkey, the European Union and the U.S. have declared the PKK a "terrorist" organization. The Kurdish intellectual community, peace activists and defenders of human rights, remain under attack. Among Kurdish writers, editors, publishers, scholars, translators imprisoned for their freedom of expression: Deniz Zarakolu, Aziz Tunc, A. Dursun Yildiz, Suzan Zengin, Zeynep Kuray; Professor (Ms). Büsra Ersanli and publisher Ragip Zarakolu are charged with crimes carrying sentences of up to 22.5 years and 15 years respectively. Ayse Berktay, writer, translator, feminist and peace activist (a founding members of the World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) which declared the war against Iraq "illegal"), awaits trial July 2, 2012. "We need to speak up and make it clear that what we currently face is a situation very similar to that of the Hitler regime that preceded World War II […]," she's quoted, writing from prison. She's also known for her translation into Turkish of the Quaker Anna Sewall's book, Black Beauty, the autobiography [sic] of a horse, for children. Turkey has previous experience with genocide of Armenian and Assyrian minorities.

          They want to slaughter my songs
          And quench the blazing flame of my wrath
- Nazim Hikmet (apprec. Pilikian)
Partial sources online: "Turkey versus Democracy," Prof. Khatchatur I. Pilikian, Feb. 3, 2012, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation; "Canadian Action on the Kurdish conflict in Turkey," Ecumenical Patriarchate and Religious Minorities in Turkey, 2010, GT20 Human Rights Action; "Letter from Istanbul Bakirkoy Women's Prison," Ayse Berktay, Dec. 27, 2011, Jadaliyya; "Brief history of Turkish oppression against the Kurds ," Letif Serhildan, Aug. 10, 2010, rojhelat.eu; "Petition für die Freilassung von Ragip und Deniz Zarakolu und Büsra Ersanli," Ragip Zarakolu , Oct. 12, 2011, Belge International Publishing House; "Arbitrary detention of Mr. Ragip Zarakolu and Ms. Büsra Ersanli ," Nov. 3, 2011, FIDH - World Wide Human Rights Movement; "Prosecutor seeks jail time for intellectuals in Turkey," Dogan News Agency, March 20, 2012, Hürriyet Daily News; " Urgent appeal," June 14, 2012, Newsletter of the BRussells Tribunal.

 

 

June 17, 2012

"Bach et l'Afrique"   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c89JHg5rd90 >]
"La Prison des Orphelins"   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBlLQaSbZ_8 >]
"Nirvana"   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVzELjqbIHo >]
"How Far Is It From Here to Nuremberg"   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emcWARapZVs >]

 

 

June 15, 2012

      Gaza / Palestine: Save the Children and Medical Aid for Palestinians report the last safe drinking water source in Gaza is no longer safe; Israel's five year blockade of Gaza is blamed for lack of necessary water purification equipment in an area where the sewage infrastructure has been rendered nonfuctional by air strikes and lack of replacement. The news coincides with reports from Gaza farmers who have no fuel to pump individual wells necessary for their crops, or refrigerate veterinary medicines for poultry etc.. Gulf News reports thousands of tons of potatoes dumped, and thousands of poulty dead. In the 4th month of an electricity crisis, one potato farmer reports loss of a 570 ton crop. 85% of Gaza's water wells are out of operation. The Save the Children / MAP report notes that Israel eased its blockade in 2010; nevertheless, nearly sixty percent of Gaza's school children now suffer from anemia; over a third of Gaza's children live in poverty; 428,500 children are considered "food-insecure"; the medical system is in crisis. Occupation, Israel's blockade, and Palestinian divisions between Hamas and Fatah contribute to the crisis (see also previous). Among other NATO country organizations concerned with genocide, Genocide Watch (US) which coordinates the "International Alliance to End Genocide" (including the Canadian Montreal Institute for Genocide Studies), presents no genocide warning for Palestinians or the people of Gaza. Ongoing genocide warning.     Partial sources online: "Power cuts leave Gaza Strip farmers in crisis," Ahmad Najjar, June 15, 2012, gulfnews.com; "Gaza water too contaminated to drink, say charities," June 13, 2012, BBC News; "Israel's Blockade Of Gaza Puts Palestinian Children's Health At Risk: Report," Ryan Villarreal, June 14, 2012, International Business Times; "Gaza's Children: Falling behind, the effect of the blockade on child health in Gaza," Save the Children and Medical Aid for Palestinians, June 11, 2012, MAP [access:< http://www.map-uk.org/files/1052_gaza_health_report_web_version.pdf >].

 

      Hungary: persecution of the Roma peoples suggests a country's chosen mode to deal with its poor and its vulnerable minorities. The rise of Hungary's Jobbik party strengthens the international far right, anti-Islamic, anti-Roma, anti-immigrant and anti-LGT agenda. Anti-semitism is increasing, with reported verbal attacks on a Jewish rabbi and journalists. A Jobbik MP was recently genetically tested to prove he had no Roma or Jewish ancestry. The government school reading lists have recently been expanded to include a WWII Nazi collaborator, etc. (previous). A report in International Business Times finds a shocking disparity in economic level between the Roma and other peoples of France, Italy and Hungary. In Canada the right wing government has enacted Bill C-31, with legislation likely to limit Roma refugees by declaring Hungary (and Mexico among others) a designated "safe" country (DCO). A genocide warning for the Roma in Hungary remains.     Partial sources online: "Refugee bill set to clear Commons," Tobi Cohen Postemedia news, June 10, 2012, The Vancouver Sun; "Genetic testing of far-right Hungarian politician provokes an uproar," Allison Good, June 15, 2012, Foreign Policy Magazine; "Hungary Lauds Hitler Ally Horthy as Orban Fails to Stop Hatred," Zoltan Simon, June 13, 2012, Bloomberg News; "Jobbik submits amendment aimed at banning 'gay propaganda', " MTI, April 12, 2012, Politics.Hu; "The Veiled Plight Of The European Roma: New Report Calls For End To Discrimination," Jacey Fortin, May 23, 2012, International Business Times; "Hungarian Jews Protest Verbal Attack Against Rabbi," Rachel Hirshfeld, June 8, 1012, Arutz Sheva 7; "Media and Politicians Fail to Investigate Facts about So-called ’Safe Countries’," Karl Nerenberg, May 28, 2012, rabble.ca.

 

 

June 10, 2012

      Europe: "We are all Greek Jews," a petition protesting the rise of Europe's neo-Nazism and in particular the advance of the 'Golden Dawn' Party in Greece (previous), notes roots of an ideology the right-wing Dutch MP Geert Wilders brought to Canada to encourage Islamophobia (previous 1,   2,   3). The petition is available to sign at weareallgreekjews.eu [access:< http://weareallgreekjews.eu >].

"Terror (September 11th)" ~ Jimmy Cliff [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZnB-xfkj9o >]

 

 

June 9, 2012

      Israel: the influx of African refugees to Israel reveals a social engineering which in Tel Aviv places the refugees in an economically disadvanted area; denied individual refugee status or asylum, they are charged double rents and in economic competition with the residents; without adequate rights to demand fair wages the refugees' situation approaches slavery (consider the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and 1967 Optional Protocol). A GRTV report indicates refugees are not safe, as elements of the government support resident protest to refugee presence. Individual Africans and their dwellings have been attacked and remain at risk. An Israeli MP has publicly stated, "the Sudanese are a cancer in our body" (Haaretz). Some refugee children are escorted from school by volunteers. Another MP is quoted as saying, "lock up all the human rights people and transfer them to the camps that we are building" (Haaretz). Israel's Supreme Court has ordered the deportation of 1500 illegal South Sudanese refugees and several thousand other Africans; Agence France Press reports the Minister of the Interior plans to move "tens of thousands" of Africans to detention camps, and is forming plans for 40,000 more.     Partial sources online: "A rhetorical pogrom," Don Futterman, June 8, 2012, Haaretz; "Incitement Against Refugees Leads to Racist Attacks in Israel," June 7, 2012, GRTV; "Jerusalem House Firebombed As Israeli Government Stokes Anti-Immigration Fervour," Ruth Michaelson, June 6, 2012, allAfrica.com; "Under Expulsion - South Sudanese Community in Israel," Joseph Monyde Malien, June 7, 2012, allAfrica.com; "Israel to put thousands of Africans in detention camp," AFP, June 8, 2012, Google News; "Israel offers cash to African migrants to leave," Ian Deitch (AP), June 8, 2012, Google News; "Four hurt as Africans' home torched in Jerusalem," AFP, June 4, 2012, Yahoo news.

 

      Greece: a neo-[fascist] MP, representing the 'Golden Dawn' Party which recently gained 7% of the national vote,publicly attacked two women MP's of leftist Parties during a television program, throwing water in the face of one, hitting another in the face three times. The offending MP, Ilias Kasidiaris, left the building; a warrant is issued for his arrest; Greek police haven't found him. 50% of the police force is said to have voted for the 'Golden Dawn' Party, whose leader publicly calls immigrants "scum" (Guardian). Greece moves into another nationwide election June 17th.     Partial sources online: "Golden Dawn MP's live TV assault shocks Greece," Helena Smith, June 7,m 2012, The Guardian; "Greeks protest against violent neo-Nazi MP on the run," Helena Smith, June 8, 2012, The Guardian; "Video: Greek crisis gets dirty as Golden Dawn’s Kasidiaris punches opposition politician," Reuters, June 7, 2012, Independent.ie; "Greek far-right Golden Dawn MP wanted for assault," June 7, 2012, BBC news.

 

 

June 5, 2012

      Canada: on June 4th this page and portions of nightslantern were blacked out to join 500 other Canadian organizations "defending nature, human rights and democracy." See blackoutspeakout.ca.

 

 

June 2, 2012

      Canada: The United Nations Committee against Torture, 48th session, report on Canada.

      In a report released June 1, the Committee against Torture praises Canada's cooperativeness, the apology and compensation to Maher Arar, the inquiry into the case of Robert Dziekanski and the RCMP apology to his mother, the "Internal Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials" concerning Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati, Muayyed Nureddin, among other instances of progress, but faults a failure to honour obligations under the Convention against Torture (advanced unedited version, [access:< http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/CAT.C.CAN.CO.6.doc >]). The Committee against Torture recommends the people be able to appy the law against torture directly in court (see previous, re. parallels to application of laws against genocide). The Committee recommends the government review faults in its current use of Canadian Security Certificates. It recommends Canada modify its current laws on administrative detention of immigrants and refugees. It recommends Canada assert universal jurisdiction over crimes of torture. It recommends redress for Almalki, Elmaati and Nureddin. It recommends prompt repatriation of Omar Khadr (previous), and redress. It recommends training for Canadian intelligence agents in "the absolute prohibition of torture." It recommends some mechanism to oversee intelligence operations at a time when the Conservative government has recently defunded the overseer of CSIS (see previous). The Committee against Torture also notes a need to improve Canadian prison conditions, increase mental health care in prisons, and control the use of solitary confinement. The Committee notes and doesn't accept the government of Canada's report when it tries to evade responsibility for violence against in particular, Aboriginal women and girls. The Committee shows concern about the use of tasers and "excessive use of force by law enforcement", ie. Ipperwash, Tyendinaga, G8, G-20. It recommends an inquiry into Ontario Provincial Police concerning the latter three. It presents a specific caveat to assure that the Convention against Torture is observed by law enforcement, military and prison personnel. The Committee recommends Canada ratify the "Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment," and the "International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance," and the "International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families," and the "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities." It hasn't. The government is asked to explain itself to the Committee by June 1 of next year, particularly in reference to assuring rights of detainees, prompt impartial investigations, and the prosecution of alleged torturers. "Canada must prosecute any foreign national suspected of torture (committed anywhere and against anyone) when the suspect enters Canada even temporarily, says Committee against Torture" (Press release, June 1, 2012, Lawyers against the War).     Partial sources online: "Canada- UN Committe against Torture adopts recommendations of LAW and LRWC," June 2, 2012, Lawyers against the war email; "UN condemns Canadian security practices over risk of torture, rights violations," The Canadian Press, June 2, 2012, thestar.com; "How Canadian Prisons Torture the Mentally Ill," Renu Manhane, June 1, 2012, Huffington Post; "UN Report Faults Canada on Torture Renditions," Jason Ditz, June 1, 2012, antiwar.com; "Canada Accused Of 'Complicity' In Torture In UN Report," Terry Milewski, June 1, 2012, CBC News; "Concluding observations of the Committee against Torture," advanced unedited version, June 1, 2012, Committee against Torture, 48th session.
 

 

May 26, 2012

      Montreal:        http://vimeo.com/42848523

 

 

May 23, 2012

      North America: Both the U.S. and Canada have strong laws against the crime of genocide, as required by the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, of 1948. Despite ongoing threats to surviving Indigenous peoples and a genocide against the peoples of Iraq, the Convention is not invoked, and in North America laws against genocide aren't applied to our own societies....(continue "North American game plans and the Convention on Genocide") [update May 28 - draft in French].

 

 

May 20, 2012

May 19, 2012

      Colombia: in 2011 the [Office of the] UN High Commissioner on Human Rights found 57000 recorded disappearances in Colombia during the past thirty years (previous). According to Amnesty International, a long term pattern of military campaigns against "guerilla" movements has resulted in the displacement of rural peoples and places 34 Indigenous nations at risk of extinction. Canada's "free trade agreement" which encourages extraction projects risks endangering the people: the government has not addressed a required impact assessment of its policies on human rights (Amnesty Canada). Also noted: coal mining projects have damaged the Wayúu Indigenous Nation of the La Guajira region. The region's coal mining is dominated by Cerrejon which according to its website is owned by BHP Billiton (Australian-English), Anglo American (South African-English) and Xstrata (Swiss). The 2001 Canadian tour of an Embera Katío Indigenous leader concerned with Canadian investment in a Hydro-electric project was followed by his murder. Last year the acquisition of a Colombia owned mining company by Canadian based companies coincided with threats to the workers and murder of the union leader (previous). In 2010 the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous People requested the presence in Colombia of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Prevention of Genocide. For the 34 Indigenous Nations: a genocide warning, which should extend to the rural poor and communities providing labour. The directors of a large corporation working Colombia's coal industry, U.S. (Alabama) based Drummond, are currently in court for allegedly paying paramilitary death squads to murder union leaders and organizers (see previous 1 and 2). The practice is previously recognized in operations of the Colombian military, extending to land-clearing operations (background: 1,   2,   3,   4,   5,   6,   7,   8,   9 ). After the School-of-the-Americas (among others) trained military was brought under control, military and paramilitary soldiers contracted out to corporations. The pattern of corporate resource extraction, and resulting destruction of the land's people, if not directly countered becomes part of an equation of genocide (nb.).     Partial sources online: "State and paramilitaries responsible for 16,000 forced disappearances: UN," Tom Heyden, May 23, 2011, Colombia Reports; "Survival of Indigenous Peoples at Risk in Colombia," Alex Neve, May 17, 2012, Amnesty Canada bulk email; "The Struggle for Survival and Dignity: Human Rights Abuses against Indigenous Peoples in Colombia," AMR 23/001/2010, Amnesty International, London; "It’s Canada’s duty to help save Colombia’s indigenous peoples," Alex Neve, May 15, 2012, The Ottawa Citizen; "Our Company: Shareholders," current, Cerrejon; "Drummond paid to kill unionists: Ex-paramilitary," Mary Cecelia Bittner, March 14, 2012, Colombia Reports; "Canada-Colombia trade deal: Empty human rights impact report yet another failure by government," News release, May 16, 2012, Amnesty International Canada; "Colombian first-quarter coal output rises 14.6 pct," May 14, 2012, Reuters.

 

      Toronto: after the (Provincial) Office of the Independent Police Review Director's report found actions of the Toronto police during the June 2010 G-20 Toronto protests (previous) illegal, Toronto's police chief brought disciplinary charges against 28 officers (the number may grow to 45). A confusion of responsibility born by the Toronto Police, Ontario Provincial Police and RCMP avoids the dimension of covert control expectable at a gathering of international leaders. The 'legality' of prefatory police operations detaining suspected organizers of legal protest isn't addressed. The security program which allowed mass arrest and police state tactics against legal protest has not been addressed as criminal.     Partial sources online: "G20 'kettling' commander among 45 officers to be charged," may 18, 2012, CBC News."Toronto police, OPP called the shots on G20 response, report says," Adrian Morrow and Daniel LeBlanc,May 14, 2012, The Globe and Mail; "G20 commanders committed misconduct provincial police watchdog concludes," Jayme Poisson, Jennifer Yang & Emily Jackson, May 17, 2012, thestar.com; "Five key findings of the G20 watchdog report on G20 summit in Toronto," Megan O'Toole May 16, 2012, National Post; "G20 charges coming against Toronto police commanders," Dave Seglina, May 17, 2012, CBC News.

 

 

May 18, 2012

      New York City: on May 16th a U.S. District judge in Manhattan blocked on Constitutional grounds, a section of the National Defense Authorization Act (previous) which would allow the military to indefinitely detain anyone suspected of supporting "terrorist" forces. In a suit to protect freedom of expression journalist Chris Hedges was joined by Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Birgitta Jonsdottir (Iceland MP), Kai Wargalla, Alexa O'Brien and Jennifer Bolen. Given the unconstitutionality of the entire Act, Judge Katherine Forrest's brave ruling limits the military's claim to absolute authority at its own discretion, and may allow those with media access to assert their basic rights. The decision reveals a concern for people's rights in a city where federal courts without an international standard for human rights recently imprisoned attorney Lynne Stewart (for 10 years) and Dr. Aafia al-Siddiqui (for 86 years).     Partial sources online: "Judge Blocks Controversial NDAA," Adam Klasfeld, May 16, 2012, courthouseNews Service; "Court rejects Obama Arguments, Enjoins NDAA Detentions," Jason Ditz, May 16, 2012, Antiwar.com; "NDAA's 'Indefinite Detention' Provisions Unconstitutional, says Judge," Staff, May 17, 2012, Common Dreams.


      Canada: the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter (previous) has noted faults in the social assistance program which deprive the poor of adequate nutrition. "People are simply too poor to eat decently," he said (Brandon Sun). He noted 800,000 households unsure of adequate food. His "End-of-mission statement" notes particular food insecurity among Aboriginal peoples and a noticeable lack of current statistics (see NAHO). He suggested the Federal government's standard for fat, sugar and salt in food isn't healthy. He called for Canada to adopt a coordinated national food strategy.The Conservative government's response to the UN envoy was unpleasant.The Immigration Minister called the visit "a discredit to the United Nations" (cnews). The Health Minister called the envoy "another academic," and "patronizing". Prof. De Schutter reports to the UN Human Rights Council. His preliminary report is available at [access:< http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12159&LangID=E >].

British Colombia: the Cowichan Tribes First Nation (Vancouver Island) has declared an emergency due to its extremely high rate of suicide. Canada's Health Minister and Minister of Aboriginal Affairs have promised support. In other news affected by international law, in Vancouver the B.C. "Missing Women Commission of Inquiry" into the murders of women and girls and sex workers, has met with a lack of credibility in the Aboriginal community (Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs). Between 600 and 700 native women and girls have disappeared or been murdered across Canada. Last December the UN Committee to Eliminate Discrimination against Women announced the intention to investigate. An OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights investigation is underway.

Partial sources online: "Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on the right to food: Visit to Canada from 6 to 16 May 2012 - End-of-mission statement," May 16, 2012, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; "UN food envoy blasts inequality, poverty in Canada," Les Whittington, May 16, 2012, thestar.com; "UN food envoy provokes Ottawa with findings on hunger and poor diet in Canada," Heather Scoffield (The Canadian Press), May 16, 2012, Brandon Sun; "Conservatives slam UN investigation into hunger as a waste of time," Rebecca Lindell, May 16, 2012, Global News; "Tory ministers slam UN food envoy," Jessica Murphy, May 16, 2012, cnews; "Ottawa offers B.C. First Nation help with escalating suicides," Dirk Meissner (The Canadian Press), May 16, 2012, The Chronicle Herald; "First Nations chiefs skeptical after summit with Stephen Harper," Tanya Talaga & Bruce Campion-Smith, Jan. 24, 2012, thestar.com; "Open Letter: Groups affirm boycott of discriminatory Missing Women Commission of Inquiry," April 10, 2012, Union of BC Indian Chiefs; "Canada’s Missing Women Inquiry Faces Renewed Community Boycott," David P. Ball, April 13, 2012, Indian Country; "Organization of American States Joins International Scrutiny of Canada’s Missing Aboriginal Women," David P. Ball, May 11, 2012, Indian Country

 

 

 

May 13, 2012

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: noting that the United States is subject to customary law as established by Nuremburg Principles, The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal has found George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes II, Jay Bybee, and John Choon Yoo, guilty of Torture. Previous. As a tribunal of conscience the Tribunal doesn't enforce its findings. According to its press release it has asked The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission to forward its findings to the International Criminal Court, the United Nations and UN Security Council, and to register the names of those found guilty in The Commission’s Register of War Criminals. Last November the same Tribunal found George W. Bush and Tony Blair guilty of Crimes against Peace and recommended application of the Nuremburg laws (previous). Within the U.S. a torture suit recently brought against John Yoo resulted in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granting him immunity (previous).     Partial sources online: "Bush and Associates Found Guilty of Torture," Press release, , May 11, 2012, Criminalise War, "News of the BRussells Tribunal - May 12, 2012, The BRussells Tribunal Newsletter.

 

 

May 11, 2012

      Iraq: a report on "The Situation of Iraqi Children" submitted February to the United Nations Human Rights Council, by the BRussells Tribunal and over two hundred organizations concerned with human rights finds that "Since the invasion in 2003, the US-UK occupation forces and the Iraqi authorities grossly failed to fulfill their most basic duties towards the children of Iraq." This report states school attendance has dropped from 100% to 30%. By 2008 over 3230 teachers fled the country. 467 university academics were killed (another report filed, "The Plight of Academics," indicates the killings were usually by "well-organised teams of assassins"). More than 2000 doctors were murdered, and since the invasion only 25% of Iraq's medical community remains at work, while 376 journalists/media workers were murderedas part of this decimation of the professional class. Still another report filed with the UN's Human Rights Council, "Children of Iraq and armed conflicts,"indicates that 39% of the victims of US and Coalition air raids were children.... 39% of the victims of US and Coalition air raids were children. Of mortar raids (ground actions), 42% of the fatalities were children. With varying sources of casualty statistics the report notes one source finding 1.455.590 war-related Iraqi deaths by January 2012. There are 5 million Iraqi orphans with ten percent living in the streets. Girls of 11 and 12 are sold into trafficking for US$ 30,000. Indirect killings through the effects of destroyed infra-structure multiply the numbers of deaths. Casualties from remnants of cluster bombs and landmines between 1991 and 2007 rose to 80,000 people with 23.9% under age 14. Central nervous system birth defect rate for babies born in Fallujah is 33 times Europe's. Amid other evidence of abnormal rates of illness among children, the report notes "… these findings suggest the enriched Uranium exposure is either a primary cause or related to the cause of the congenital anomaly and cancer increases" (ie. depleted uranium). In visits to NATO targeted areas in the Balkans (Sarajevo) Robert Fisk has found similar patterns of cancer and leukaemia, and a refusal of authorities to research health within a context of depleted uranium and the use of phosphorous. NATO-country lawyers, judiciaries, politicians, have failedto address a genocide of the Iraqi people (for additional information). Suggested: The BRussells Tribunal [access:< http://www.brussellstribunal.org/ >]. While these reports deal primarily with the US/Coalition invasion of 2003, genocide against the people of Iraq began in 1990 with the targeting of civilian infra-structure in the bombing and missiling of Baghdad. Dr. Gideon Polya estimated the avoidable death toll of Iraqi children from the first war against Iraq, 1990-2003, as 1.2 million under five years old (see previous). The Gerald and Maas Canadian edition of The Crime of Genocide & Bill of Human Rights UN Texts, (Maine, 1989) which appeared as Common Rights & Expectations UN Texts (Ottawa, 1996) is dedicated to the children of Iraq.     Partial sources online: "The Children of Fallujah - families fight back,"Robert Fisk, April 27, 2012, Belfast Telegraph; "The Children of Iraq: "Was the Price Worth It?" Bie Kentane, May 10, 2012, Global Research; from reports submitted the UN Human Rights Council 19th Session, Feb. 27 - March 23, 2012: "The Situation of Iraqi Children," A/HRC/19/NGO/142, The Brussells Tribunal et al, Feb. 22, 2012, HRC United Nations General Assembly; "The Plight of Iraqi Academics," A/HRC/19/NGO/137, The Brussells Tribunal et al, Feb. 28, 2012, HRC United Nations General Assembly; "Children of Iraq and armed conflicts," A/HRC/19/NGO/143, The Brussells Tribunal et al, Feb. 28, 2012, HRC United Nations General Assembly.

 

 

May 10, 2012


Kashtin - "E Uassiuian"   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK3hOAyIn8c >]

      Canada: Canada is the first NATO country ever to be visited by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Prof. Olivier De Schutter is currently touring in an investigation of food resources available to Aboriginal communities, with a schedule including the cities of Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton... CBC News points out he's avoiding the north. Winnipeg Free Press announces he'll stop at God's River First Nation and the Garden Hill reserve May 10th to 12th: a loaf of brown bread reportedly costs $4.79 in God's Lake, and $1.99 in the City of Winnipeg. In the remote north (Grise Ford) milk is reported at about $7.00 dollars a litre.There's an obvious direct link between development of the north and interruption of the land's sustenance and native food chain. The Federal government has announced defunding / closing of the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) which collects data on Aboriginal demographics, illness, etc.. On May 9th Makita (Nunavummiut Makitagunarningit), dedicated to discussing the plans for mining uranium in Nunavit, opened its website [access:< http://makitanunavut.wordpress.com/ >]. The Province of Ontario has announced a 3.3 billion dollar investment by Cliff's Natural Resources Inc to develop a chromite mine and smelter in the north. The move spearheads infrastructure development for resource extraction in areas accessible by air. The Chamber of Commerce speaks of a hundred year plan for a region where Aboriginal rights, land rights, resource extraction protests, development protests, and the increasing strength of Aboriginal rights under international law, could challenge development programs. This places additional pressures on the existence of remaining native peoples. Genocide warning.     Partial sources online: "UN to get up-close look at struggling reserves," Winnpeg Free Press, May 7, 2012, eaglewatch; "Media release: Makita launches website," press release, May 8, 2012, eaglewatch; "UN food rapporteur visits Canada – but skips North," May 8, 2012, CBC News; "Canada first wealthy nation to be probed by UN food monitor," Sarah Schnmidt (Postmedia News), May 2, 2012, canada.com; "Ontario moves to open up Far North with $5.1-billion chromite deal.," Tim Shufelt, May 9, 2012, Financial Post; "Right to Food," current, Olivier De Schutter | United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food [access:< http://www.srfood.org/index.php/en/right-to-food >].
The right to food is a human right recognized under international law which protects the right of all human beings to feed themselves in dignity, either by producing their food or by purchasing it. (De Schutter).
 

 

May 8, 2012

      Canada: a notably large number of reports concerning Canada are to be filed at the upcoming session of the UN.'s Committee against Torture. Within Canada the issue is suppressed by the media and avoided by most politicians. Canadian legal mechanisms for dealing with torture parallel those for genocide. "Suppressed news" carries drafts of three of the final reports: "Briefing to the UN Committee against Torture, 48th Session, May, 2012, on Canada’s Transfer of Afghan Detainees into the Danger of Torture by Other Authorities from John McNamer," (partial), "Briefing to the Committee against Torture, 48th Session, May 2012, on the Omar Khadr case from Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada & The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group" (previous), "Briefing to the Committee against Torture, 48th Session, May 2012, on Canada's failure to bar or prosecute George W. Bush for torture, from Lawyers against the War" (previous). The final drafts are scheduled for presentation to the 48th Session of the United Nations Committee against Torture, " on May 21 and 22, 2012 and are currently available at the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Committee against Torture [access:< http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/cats48.htm >], with nine other reports on torture related difficulties in Canada.     Partial sources online: See above; "Cdn detainee transfers scrutinized by UN torture committee," Press release, May 7, 2012, Lawyers Against the War; "Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act (S.C. 2000, c. 24)," current, Department of Justice Canada.

      On April 25th a three judge panel at the Federal Court of Appeals ruled that the rights of Security Certificate detainee, Mohamed Harkat (see previous), have been violated and returned the case to Federal Court: electronic evidence used against Harkat was destroyed by CSIS (the Canadian spy agency). The court also ruled that the Security Certificate process was Constitutional (the ruling may be appealed). Overturning a previous judge's decision, the Court found that informants for CSIS do not have the special privilege of anonymity. On April 30th Stephen Harper's Conservative government closed the Inspector General's office which oversees CSIS. The defunding of the Inspector General deprives the public and law enforcement any monitoring and accountability of the nation's primary spy agency. According to The Toronto Star, a process of complaints and "reviews"-without-enforcement will likely be transferred to the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) which currently lacks a chairperson.     Partial sources online: "Mohamed Harkat deserves new hearing, appeal court rules," Andrew Duffy (Postmedia News), April 25, 2012, canada.com; "Harkat wins partial victory in terrorism case ," April 25, 2012, CBC News; "Harkat wins new hearing while Appeal Court upholds secret trials law," Matthew Behrens, April 26, 2012, Rabble.ca; "CSIS freed from final shreds of oversight," Andrew Mitrovica, May 5, 2012, The Toronto Star.

 

 

May 6, 2012

      Israel: in news generally suppressed within Israel, on May 4th, Haaretz reported 2000 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike for over two weeks asking for better treatment and for Israel to stop its policy of detention without trial. An AP report notes some prisoners on hunger strike for as long as 70 days. Bilal Diab (68 days as of May 5th) has joined ten other detainees in the hospital.     Partial sources online: "Hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners hospitalized," Diaa Hadid (AP), May 5, 2012, boston.com."For Israel, punishing Palestinians is not enough," Amira Haas, May 4, 2012, Haaretz; "Hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners hospitalized," Diaa Hadid (AP), May 5, 2012, boston.com.

 

      California: currently a professor at Berkeley Law School, University of California, John Yoo counselled President Bush in the use of torture. His Justice Department memo interpreted "torture" as associated with organ failure or death, and his advice as applied to U.S. detainee Joseph Padilla, was a crime against humanity. At a peoples' court in Kuala Lumpur Yoo is under indictment for torture. Spanish Judge Balthasar Garzon attempted torture investigations of Yoo among other Bush administration officials ( 2009, 2010) but was removed from the Spanish judiciary by Spain's right wing. In Padilla's case against Yoo, on May 2, 2012 the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found the practices applied against Padilla might be torture but Yoo benefits from immunity as established by a Supreme Court decison of 1982. Granting Yoo immunity risks covering impunity in the commission of crimes against humanity. California's stance on human rights is an ongoing issue (ref. the Pelican Bay SHU hunger strike; California prisoners have requested the U.N. investigate the use and conditions of solitary confinement). In San Diego a University of California student was detained April 21 by the U.S. Drug Enforcement agents without criminal charges and held 5 days in a cell (the DEA claims 4 days) without food or water. Daniel Chong says he drank his urine for water, then broke his glasses and swallowed shards. On April 25 he was taken to hospital and survived after 3 days in intensive care. The DEA has offered its apologies.     Partial sources online: "Ghraib mistake? US student drinks urine to survive prison abandonment," May 2, 2012, RT; "Student who was forced to drink his own urine after being forgotten in police cell for five days sues for $20m," reporter, May 4, 2012, Daily Mail; "Student Abandoned in DEA Cell for 5 Days to Sue for $20 Million," Russell Goldman, May 3, 2012, ABC World News; "Joe Padilla and Estela Lebron v. John Yoo," No. 09-16478 D.C. No 3:08-cv-00035-JSW, OPINION, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; "UC Berkeley's John Yoo torture suit tossed out," Bob Egelko, May 3, 2012, San Francisco Chronicle;"John Yoo, Bush's Torture Lawyer, Given Immunity," staff, May 3, 2012, Common Dreams; "California prisoners ask U.N. to probe solitary confinement," Anna Gorman, March 20, 2012, Los Angeles Times.

 

      Boston: the Justice Department maintains a focus on community-oriented crimes rather than addressing crimes of power. The Criminal Division continues its war on those accused of being New England's "Cosa Nostra" with the arrest in Boston of Anthony L. DiNunzio. The press describes DiNunzio (age 53) as "the brutal acting leader of the New England branch of La Cosa Nostra" (AP). Last Year the Justice Department arrested 127 alleged "Cosa Nostra" affiliates including Luigi Manocchio at age 84, a former "boss" who recently admitted participating in racketeering and extortion. A media bias risks portraying Italian-American suspects (use of extravagant epithets, guilt by association with 'mafia') without respect for their heritage; Boston Irish suspects are identified with 'the mob'. In his new (May 8th) book, Most Wanted: Pursuing Whitey Bulger, the Murderous Mob Chief the FBI Secretly Protected, retired (2004) Superintendent of State Police, Thomas J. Foley, notes the F.B.I. obstructing state police to protect the F.B.I. informant who was the leader of Boston's underworld (see previous; the Federal Government's controls on the Boston region are noted). For FBI treatment of a Boston Black community leader, note the case of City Councillor, Charles Turner.     Partial sources online: "Ex-Mass. state police chief rips FBI over Bulger," Scott Croteau, May 5, 2012, AP / boston.com; "Reputed mob boss ordered held sans bail in RI," Laura Crimaldi (AP), May 3, 2012, boston com; "Reputed mob boss charged in RI strip club case," Laura Crimaldi (AP), April 25, 2012, boston.com; "Bail is denied to alleged mob boss," Milton J. Valencia, May 4, 2012, The Boston Globe.

 

      Boston / Brazil: as Brazil's dam building threatens Indigenous people with genocide, on April 10th President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil visited Boston to meet with the President of M.I.T. Susan Hockfield; they signed agreements of collaboration between M.I.T's School of Engineering and Brazil's Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica (ITA). She also met with Harvard's Drew Gilpin Faust. The continuing corporate destruction of Brazil's Amazon region and its inhabitants isn't mentioned in the press reports. Brazil's president is furthering a massive buildup of 20 hydroelectric dams in the Amazon rainforest, notably the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River (previous) where Indigenous peoples are fighting the eviction of 5000 families and their leaders need protection against paid assassins. Belo Monte dam workers returned to work May 4th after their two week strike was declared illegal. 17,000 workers at the Jirau dam construction on the Madeira River also ended a 2 week wage and conditions strike when Brazil's elite security forces were called in. A Belo Monte poster.     Partial sources online: "Brazil's All-In Bet on Amazon Dams Jeopardizes Economic Growth," Michael Smith, April 11, 2012, Bloomberg; "Amid Brazil’s Rush to Develop, Workers Resist," Simon Romero, May 5, 2012, The New York Times; "Brazil Workers Return To Belo Monte Dam After 2-Week Strike," Paulo Winterstein, May 4, 2012, The Wall Street Journal; "Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Signs Agreements with Harvard, MIT," Renata Brito, April 11, 2012, Boston Daily; "Brazil's Rousseff deepens ties with MIT in US," AFP, April 10, 2012, Google News.

 

      Texas: "I will forever continue the struggle for my freedom until I die." Ramiro "Ramsey" Muñiz, former gubernatorial candidate for La Raza Unida Party in 1972 and 1974, organizer for La Raza and strong force in the Mexican-American community; in 1994 he was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a drug-related conviction after possibly targeted arrests and application of the third-strike law; his supporters say the charges were false; Muñiz continues to maintain his innocence. There is a national pattern of removing community leaders, activists, organizers, from their communities by putting them in prison on false charges or through misapplication of the law. See freeramsey.com. See also, "It's time to free Ramsey Muniz," Steve Fischer, Feb. 26, 2012, caller.com [access:< http://www.caller.com/news/2012/feb/26/its-time-to-free-ramsey-muniz/ >].

 

 

April 25, 2012

      Québec: education is a human right.

 

 

April 21, 2012

      Canada:"Canada Briefing to the [United Nations] Committee against Torture, 48th Session May 2012 on Canada’s failure to bar or prosecute George W. Bush for torture, from Lawyers against the War" (Gail Davidson / LAW, April 19, 2012, Lawyers Against the War ), presents a thorough summary of Canada's reluctance to honour its laws and treaty obligations in failing to initiate criminal charges against George W. Bush on his visits to Canada. Ignoring its duties under the Convention against Torture and despite the evidence, proceedings against Bush were repeatedly sidelined by Canada's Attorney General whose approval is required. The report lists allegations of torture, the laws and treaties broken by Canada's not instigating proceedings, and Canada's violations of the Convention against Torture. The briefing offers among its recommendations: investigation and prosecution of those responsible as well as additions to Canadian law in order to hold the Attorney General responsible to the law. Background: previous; previous; previous; previous; previous; previous; previous; previous; previous. The omission of proceedings against Bush is also noted in the CCR/CCIJ report to the Committee against Torture ("Submission of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Canadian Centre for International Justice to the Committee against Torture on the Examination of the Sixth Periodic Report of Canada"). The Amnesty International (London office) "Canada briefing to the Committee on Torture" is also concerned by Canada's refusal to initiate proceedings against Bush. It is also concerned by Omar Khadr's case (see below) among others, and carries the recommendation that "Canada should amend the State Immunity Act to allow lawsuits against foreign governments based on crimes under international law, such as torture." Amnesty's devastating report [access:< http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR20/004/2012/en/b46d9371-1b2c-414b-90e9-b97c3953cb48/amr200042012en.pdf >] covers many areas noted on these pages and is necessary reading for Canadians concerned with a gradual slide into fascism under Conservative government.     Partial sources: "Canada violates Convention against Torture by not prosecuting G.W. Bush for torture," Press release, April 19, 2012, Lawyers Against the War; "Canada Briefing to the UN Committee Against Torture," 48th Session May 2012, Index: AMR 20/004/2012, Amnesty International; "The Case of George W.Bush and Canada's Violation of its Obligations under the Convention against Torture," Center for Constitutional Rights & Canadian Centre for International Justice, April 20, 2012, email; previous.

 

 

April 20, 2012

      Canada: Omar Khadr is to be returned to Canada. Lawyers Rights Watch Canada and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group are recommending that the United Nations Committee against Torture "Ensure prosecutions of the suspects identified by the investigation" ("Recommendations" #5) of Canadian officials complicit in the torture of and human rights violations against Omar Khadr. The report, "Canada Briefing to the Committee against Torture, 48th Session, May 2012 on the Omar Khadr case," (available here in full - .pdf) lists specific violations of the U.N. Convention against Torture [access:< http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cat.htm >], articles 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, some requiring application of the Criminal Code of Canada, as well as violations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Canada's Charter of Rights and basic tenets of international human rights law. See "Background" (Gail Davidson / LAW); efforts and appeals by Lawyers Against the War are available at nightslantern's archive for Lawyers Against the War. Nightslantern political prisoners notes Omar Khadr among several children and hundreds of prisoners tortured at Guantanamo "2004 ~ 2005 ~ 2006 ~ 2007" & "2008". For recent background (since 2009) :1   2   3   4   5    6   7    8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23.     Partial sources online: "Omar Khadr: Briefing to the Committee against Torture on Canada's violations of UNCAT," April 18, 2012, Lawyers against the War. "Welcome Back Omar Khadr," Mark Dunn, April 19, 2012, sunmedia.ca.

 

     Kuala Lumpur / U.S.: The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal continues May 7 -12 with a 2nd hearing (see previous). According to its press release, George W. Bush,Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes II, Jay Bybee, John Choon Yoo, all officials of the former Bush administration, will be charged as follows: The Accused persons had committed the Crime of Torture and War Crimes, in that: The Accused persons had wilfully participated in the formulation of executive orders and directives to exclude the applicability of all international conventions and laws, namely the Convention against Torture 1984, Geneva Convention III 1949, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Charter in relation to the war launched by the U.S. and others in Afghanistan (in 2001) and in Iraq (in March 2003); Additionally, and/or on the basis and in furtherance thereof, the Accused persons authorised, or connived in, the commission of acts of torture and cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment against victims in violation of international law, treaties and conventions including the Convention against Torture 1984 and the Geneva Conventions, including Geneva Convention III 1949. The lead prosecutors are Prof. Gurdial Singh Nijar and Prof. Francis Boyle. The hearing is open to the public, at the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War (KLFCW), 88, Jalan Perdana, Kuala Lumpur.     Partial sources online: "Tribunal to Hear Second War Crime Charge Against Bush and Associates," Press release, April 12, 2012, Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC) / LAW; "Bush and Blair guilty of war crimes - Commission," Nov. 29, 2011, Africa Legal Brief; Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War, current [access< http://www.criminalisewar.org/ >]; "Tribunal to Hear Second War Crime Charge Against Bush & Associates," April 16, 2012, Mathaba.

 

 

April 19, 2012

                              

Previous Historical note continued:
"Oh the Roads..." (update) Russian   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ_VR0c8E-U >]
"Kevin Barry" Irish   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFdrt3RlZYg >]
"Rebel Soldier" the American South   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8zGDChgXxk >]
"Pirate Jenny" Germany   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFP3x4bKpZE >]
"Fallujah Song" Iraq  [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM12793_0Yw >]

              
April 16, 2012

      U.S.: nuclear waste storage for spent reactor fuel rods is four times over-capacity, and presents the largest concentration of radioactivity on earth. According to The Boston Globe "the United States has 71,862 tons" of vulnerable unstored nuclear waste. Despite the ongoing nuclear catastrophe at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, domestic development of U.S. nuclear plants proceeds (previous).The situation at Fukushima's No. 4 reactor remains unstable: another substantial earthquake which is predicted by some scientists, would threaten human survival.     Partial sources online: "The Fuel Pools of Fukushima: The Greatest Short-term Threat to Humanity," Washington Blog, April 9, 2012, Global Research; "US stores spent nuclear fuel rods at 4 times pool capacity," Rady Ananda, March 26, 2012, Coto Report; "Fukushima Reactor 4: Life On Planet Earth in the Balance," Kurt Nimo, April 8, 2012, Prison Planet / Infowars.com;."Still critical: radiation levels at Fukushimaq can kill in minutes," David McNeill, March 29, 2012, The Independent; "Some US spent-fuel storage sites are overloaded," Jonathan Fahey Associated Press, March 24, 2011, The Boston Globe.

Military: the suicide rate for Air Force military and civilians is up 40% from the same quarter last year. In 2009 more U.S. military personnel commited suicide than were killed on the battlefield, and nationally 20% of the suicides are combat veterans of one war or another. An estimated 1.8 million women who are U.S. military veterans are homeless.- their number has doubled since 1990.     Partial sources online: "Chief Roy: Suicide rate in 2012 is worrisome," Markeshia Ricks, April 5, 2012, Air Force Times; "The battle against suicide in America's military,"April 5, 2012, ITV News; "Number Of Homeless Women Veterans Is On The Rise," Mar. 26, 2012, WDSU-TV (New Orleans)

     Member of "Occupy Washington" and the President of Veterans for Peace, Leah Bolger, a retired Naval Commander, was sentenced to 60 days in jail for disrupting a Congressional Committee by speaking out. What Ms. Bolger said was “The vast majority of the public want you to tax the rich, end the wars.” The judge suspended the sentence, and a fifty dollar fine but Bolger will have to perform 20 hours of community service, working for Veterans for Peace. Nearly 7000 "Occupy" movement protestors have been arrested across the U.S. since Sept. 17, 2011 [access:"http://occupyarrests.com"> ].     Partial sources online: "Retired US Navy Commander Faces Jail Over Interruption of Super Committee Hearing," Alex Kane, April 6, 2012, Alternet / VFP; "Judge Expresses Sympathy With Criticism of Government, Imposes Minimum Sentence," Press Release, April 13, 2012, Veterans for Peace.

Prison:
      "...more Black people are enslaved behind bars today than were enslaved on the plantations in 1850." - Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow.
      The State of Connecticut will be the 17th State to refuse the death penalty (see U.N. Covenant to Abolish the Death Penalty). The Governor is to sign the bill which replaces capital punishment with lifetime solitary confinement.
     Amnesty International has issued a report finding the conditions of solitary confinement in Arizona break international law. On March 20th 400 prisoner survivors of long term solitary confinement in California's prisons petitioned the United Nations, requesting intervention for the 4000 long term solitary confinement prisoners currently held. See previous. In Pennsylvania Prison Radio Newsletter (www.prisonradio.org) reports prisoners are currently resisting abuse by guards at Frackville State Correctional Institution solitary confinement units. The Human Rights Coalition (www.hrcoalition.org/) is launching a campaign to free Russell Maroon Shoats from 21 years in solitary for holding community oriented political views.     Partial sources online: "Prisoners in solitary petition United Nations: ‘CDCR destroys our minds, souls and spirits’," Mary Ratcliff, Mar.21, 2012, BayView; "The mass incarceration of the Black community: an interview with Michelle Alexander, author of ‘The New Jim Crow’." J.R. Valrey, April 4, 2012, BayView (see links); "Connecticut Votes to Replace the Death Penalty with Life in Solitary Confinement," James Ridgeway and Jean Casella, April 12, 2012, Solitary Watch.

      Tarek Mehanna, a U.S. citizen of Sudbury Massachusetts, was convicted of "conspiring to support" terrorism for writing online that he supports Muslims resisting occupations of their countries. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Mehanna ran into trouble with the FBI when he refused to become their informant. In his statement to the judge he said: "So this trial was not about my position on Muslims killing American civilians. It was about my position on Americans killing Muslim civilians, which is that Muslims should defend their lands from foreign invaders — Soviets, Americans, or Martians." Before an impartial court Mehanna's case could be defended as legitimate protest against wars of aggression and in the case of Iraq a genocide. Partial sources online: "Prisoner Sentenced to 17 Years Despite Free Speech Claims," Amy Goodman, April 13, 2012, Democracy Now!; "Tarek Mehanna’s Powerful Statement As He Received 17-Year Sentence Despite Having Harmed No One," Andy Worthington, April 14, 2012, & "Tarek Mehanna’s statement, read to Judge O’Toole during his sentencing, April 12, 2012," Eurasia Review

Historical note: it's a people's human right to resist aggression and a duty to resist occupation.
"Oh the roads..," Russia   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMRGWNY3Dvo >].
"Gal Pavargai?" Lithuania   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXdv9QXX5xs >].
"Bella Ciao" Italy  [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUFL-fvxnTA&feature=related >].
"Stil di Nakht.The Night is still," Poland  [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_915bYVoLw >].
"x and y an n j" Chechnya  [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSdOLf_iES4 >]
 

 

April 10, 2012

      Germany: Gunter Grass, the German writer with a conscience born of youth in an overtly fascist State (at 17 he was in the Waffen SS), has been barred from Israel for his poem critical of Israeli government policies, "What Must Be Said" ("Was gesagt werden muss"). He writes "And granted I've broken my silence / because I'm sick of the West's hypocrisy," and calls for a "free and open inspection" of the nuclear activities of both Iran and Israel. Initially published in Süddeutsche Zeitung, the mild poem has provoked outrage. The Prime Minister of Israel called the work "shameful". The German media has accused Grass of anti-semitism. Within a Euro-American literary community championing democracy's "freedom of expression" Grass is the only major literary voice who has dared find Israel's government a threat to world peace.     Partial sources online: "German poet Günter Grass says what cowardly politicians and academics dare not," Gilad Atzmon, April 6, 2012, Redress; "Gunter Grass:'What Must Be Said'," Gunter Grass trans. Breon Mitchell, April 5, 2012, guardian.co.uk [access:< http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/05/gunter-grass-what-must-be-said >]; "Gunter Grass lashes out at 'campaign' over Israel-Iran poem," AFP, April 5, 2012, Ynetnews.com; "Günter Grass barred from Israel over poem," Harriet Sherwood, April 8, 2012, The Guardian.

 

      Canada: the Conservative agenda is becoming more right wing and less tolerant of human rights. The Harper government has acceded to France's request for extradition of Hassan Diab (see previous), despite suspect evidence including the possible use of information obtained through torture. Mohamed Harkat, a Canadian Security Certificate detainee, imprisoned in 2002 is currently under a form of house arrest with threat of deportation to torture (previous). Glenn Carle, a retired senior U.S. CIA agent, admits giving false evidence used against Harkat (MacLeod, The Gazette). Another information source linking Harkat to "terrorists", Abu Zubaydah, a former 'ghost detainee' now at Guantanamo, was repeatedly tortured into accusations and is now considered insane. Evidence from him was expunged by Canadian court. My understanding is that for ten years Canadian intelligence services haven't produced any substantiated evidence to justify Mohamed Harkat's arrest, detention or the destruction of his family's normal life. Reflecting evidence of systemic persecution both Muslim and aboriginal peoples are at risk of severe injustices from economic, legal, and administrative policies originating with government (see genocide warnings). Among Conservative government funding cutbacks, the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) will be entirely closed down as of June 30th, saving $4,955,865 /year. Unbudgeted, NAHO's research databases, 60 million dollars worth of research on Indigenous health issues, risk being lost. The Globe and Mail has pointed out that NAHO supplies information about Indigenous health such as: a times six suicide rate, a times 3 infant mortality rate, ten years less life expectancy, contaminant levels in communities, a third of the peoples in extreme sub-standard housing, and other informations which, within perspective of the Convention on Genocide, could be considered evidence. Despite frequent collaboration with a right wing agenda, the CBC's budget will be cut back 115 million over three years. Generally the 2012 budget follows right wing austerity measures of Europe and the U.S., cutting 19,200 government jobs through 2015, raising public employees' pension costs, etc..     Partial sources online: "Aboriginal health org snuffed out amidst Health Canada cutbacks," April 9, 2012, Nunatsiaq News; "National Aboriginal Health Organization’s funding cut." April 9, 2012, CBC News; "Budget cuts 19,000 public service jobs," Mar. 29, 2012, CBC News' "Harper’s disregard for aboriginal health," André Picard, Globe and Mail; "Ottawa professor to be extradited to France on terrorism charges," Chris Cobb, April 5, 2012, The Ottawa Citizen; "Ex-CIA agent refutes Harkat terror links," Ian MacLeod (Postmedia News), April 9, 2012, The Gazette; "Abu Zubaydah," current, Wikipedia.

 

 

March 24, 2012

      Sudan: The New York Times, George Clooney, U.S. Baptist ministers, Martin Luther King III, Genocide Watch, Amnesty International, among others concerned with human rights are currently protesting the Government of Sudan's military tactics on its new border with South Sudan, and particularly the bombing of Nuba civilians in the Nuba Mountains.(1) Reports of bombings which are often oil drums packed with explosives pushed out of planes, may seem unimpressive to a North American public which has accepted the NATO bombings of Kosovo, Yugoslavia and more recently Libya (Five Hiroshimas worth of bombs were expended on Iraqi civilians under "Operation Desert Storm"). U.S. based Genocide Watch has placed an "Emergency Genocide Warning" for the Nuba, finding the people targets for execution and extinction, but places no warning for the people of Sudan as a national group...(to continue reading "Is the crime against the Nuba peoples, Sudan's?").

 

 

March 19, 2012

      Québec.   Historical note: "Speak White," Michèle Lalonde (1970)   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCBCy8OXp7I >]

 

      Sri Lanka: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is currently listed (renewed Dec. 22, 2010) as a terrorist organization with Public Safety Canada. Wikipedia notes the LTTE on a "List of designated terrorist organizations" for Australia, Canada, EU, U.K., U.S., India. However, in heavily suppressed news, there is strong evidence that 1. Tamil are the target of genocide; 2. the war crimes against them remain avoided by global media; 3. the U.S., U.N., U.K. and France, knew of and made efforts to stop the war crimes as the Sri Lankan government proceeded with the massacre of Tamils; 4. the Government of Sri Lanka brought Tamil civilians into a "no-fire zone" and shelled them, publicly underestimated their numbers which resulted in starvation and lack of medical care for large numbers, and concealed the magnitude of massacres (Channel 4); 5. a Sri Lankan government "big lie" propaganda campaign is attempting to conceal the truth; 6. the propaganda campaign is managed by NATO country public relations firms who are now complicit in what may be a genocide; 7. despite evidence of genocide, Canada's Conservative government has not updated its commitment to the Government of Sri Lanka, or altered its immigration policy for reception of Tamil refugees; 8. signatories of the Convention on Genocide have abrogated their responsibility for protection of the Tamil peoples. Evidence for many of these points is presented by: "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" [access:< http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields/4od#3303398 > (cut and paste to view entire film)]. For background on the destruction of the Tamil people during the Sri Lankan government's "war on terrorism" and military defeat of the LTTE, see previous: 1,   2,   3,   4,   5,   6,   7,   8,   9,   10,   11,   12.   Because of the powerful campaign to suppress the truth of genocide-related allegations against the Government of Sri Lanka, because of the inability of NATO governments to bend the Sri Lankan government from impunity during its massacres of Tamil civilians, because of the slowness of United Nations to protect Tamil groups, survivors, journalists, there is a continuing genocide warning for the Tamil people.     Partial sources online: "Sr Lanka's Killing Fields," current, Channel 4 ( http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields/episode-guide/series-2/episode-1); "Tamil civil society warned US officials on LLRC danger prior to Geneva," Mar. 18, 2012, TamilNet; "Currently listed entities," current, Public Safety Canada; "List of designated terrorist organizations," current, Wikipedia; "Sri Lankan and Pakistani Intelligence Scheme Against Eelam Tamils," March 17, 2012, Salem-News.com; "Sri Lanka postwar policies threaten peace," Krishan Francis (AP), Mar. 16, 2012, Google News; "Sri Lanka: UK, France Tried to Interfere," Mar. 18, 2012, Xinhua; "'Western agenda used' for Sri Lanka war crimes," BBC Sinhala, Mar. 12, 2012, Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS)

 

 

March 12, 2012

      South Africa: on March 8, the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU) requested economic sanctions against the President and Parliament of South Africa until they provide white farmers with adequate protection. TAU believes 99.9 % of farm murders are of whites, and is requesting a European Union resolution on their behalf. (1) From 2001 to 2010, 129 South Africans were granted asylum in the U.S.. Refugee claimants are reported to have difficulty finding support from U.S. academics who assess South Africa as a post-apartheid society. Suggested sites for immigration are currently the U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany and Ireland. (2) A website of the Dutch based Afrikaner Rescue Action Fund, concerned with Afrikaner refugees suggests a psychology of long term exclusion, and close to a million Afrikaners in poverty and squatter camps. It claims white Africans aren't being integrated into the economy, but shows no concern for the poverty of other South Africans. In November 2011 an Afrikaner website, "Long walk since freedom," was barred by the South African government from carrying current news items... (continue reading, "Blood earth and South Africa's white farmers").

 

 

March 7, 2012

      Libya: in a U.N. sanctioned NATO war investigated by a U.N. Commission, the U.N. Human Rights Council has issued a report which finds both sides of the overthrow of Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi (Gaddafi) engaged in war crimes. The report was unable to investigate the death of Gaddafi (the National Transitional Council withheld the autopsy) (see previous) or Mutassim Gaddafi, Libya's National Security Advisor (there were no witnesses available) although both were captured alive. The report fails to ask whether the BLU-109 bombs NATO forces expended on Libya contained depleted uranium: the words "depleted uranium" and "radiation" do not appear in the 220 page document. While NATO insists its only targets were military, reports of the bombings of hospitals, water supply (previous), areas with no military relevance, remain unexplained. Total casualty statistics are uncertain but according to Wikipedia, between 2000 to 30,000 died. Refugees International says 900,000 fled the country and "hundreds of thousands" were displaced. National Transitional Council / NATO rule is accompanied by continuing attacks on former residents of the razed city of Tawergha (previous   1,   2,   3 ). On February 6th a refugee camp of Tawerghas at Janzour near Tripoli was again attacked. The people are mostly black. The NTC ongoing refusal to adequately protect the camp suggests a policy which invites more attacks. Two British journalists for Press TV reporting atrocities against black Libyans, were arrested on February 22nd as "spies" and are yet to be released: Nick (Davies) Jones and Gareth Montgomery-Johnson. RT has featured a video showing treatment of black prisoners in a cage eating the green flag. The reports of torture, deaths due to torture, abuse of detainees continue (previous). Due partly to an affinity between use of torture and governments noted for genocide, nightslantern's genocide warning for Blacks in Libya remains. The abuse of Africans does not take high priority in a NATO media supporting a NATO installed government headed by a former professor at the University of Alabama. Sub-Saharan refugees continue to return to their birth countries. Others still hope to find their way to Italy and Europe where The European Court of Human Rights recently decided Italy was wrong in 2009 to return to death or torture in Tripoli, boats of several hundred Africans seeking asylum. IPS notes the celebration in Tripoli of a Nigerian wedding where a good time was had by all, but as well that Black migrants are being sold in a form of indenture/slavery. Canadian media feature the desecration of a Canadian war hero's (WWII) grave by militia forces, with minimal reporting of the enslavement, torture and murder of Black people resulting from neo-Conservative Canada's participatory effort. The U.S./NATO bombings of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq have led to massive destruction of societies, economies, people, families, the fragmentation of former sovereign nations and destruction of "national groups" (See the Convention against Genocide).     Partial sources online: "Libya: Field Reports," current, Refugees International; "Hard to Stay in Libya, Difficult to Return," Rebecca Murray, March 1, 2012, IPS; "Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Libya," Advance Unedited Version, Human Rights Council, Nineteenth session, March 2, 2012, A/HRC/19/68 United Nations; "U.N. Faults NATO and Libyan Authorities in Report," Neil MacFarquhar, March 2, 2012, The New York Times; "European Rights Court Rules in Favor of African Migrants," Joe DeCapua, Feb. 23, 2012, VOA; "Libyan Militias Accused of Targeting African Migrants," Joe DeCapua, Feb. 16, 2012, VOA; "Canadian WWII soldier's headstone smashed in Libya," March 5, 2012, CBC News; "Tragic Massacre Of Tawerghan Refugees In The Janzour Refugee Camp Today. Take Action!" Alexandra Valiente, Feb. 6, 2012, Viva Libya; "NATO War Crimes: Depleted Uranium Found in Libya by Scientists," Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, July 5, 2011, Global Research; "Libyan rebels cage black Africans in zoo, force feed them flags," video, March 2, 2012, RT (apprec. Novajoservo); "Libyan mob desecrates grave of Canadian war hero," Reuters, March 5, 2012, Toronto Star; "'Spy' journalists reported killing of black Libyans," March 6, 2012, Channel 4 News; "Gunmen kill seven at Libyan refugee camp," Feb. 7, 2012, al-Jazeera.

 

      Guatemala: Guatemala prepares to be the first country of the Americas to prosecute its former leader on charges of genocide. See previous. Efraín Ríos Montt is alleged to be responsible for 1771 particular deaths, 1400 human rights crimes, 29,000 displaced Indigenous people. At the request of a lawyer for General Hector Mario Lopez Fuentes (previous), a co-defendant, Judge Carol Patricia Flores has withdrawn from the trial, replaced by Judge Miguel Angel Galvez. In 1977 the Carter administration refused military aid to Guatemala due to its human rights abuses (The Tablet). Thorough military aid was then assumed by the government of Israel which trained the Guatemalan military. Ríos Montt assuming power after a military coup, ruled from 1982-83. Charged with genocide in a Spanish court (1999) Montt's extradition was refused by Guatemala on the grounds that he was serving in the country's Congress. The Tablet points out that the country's current President, Otto Perez Molina, was a military commander under the Ríos Montt Presidency, while at the U.N. Guatemala votes against recognition of Palestine.     Partial sources online: "Judge steps down in Guatemala genocide trial," Mike Allison, Feb. 23, 2012, Christian Science Monitor; "Guatemala judge steps down in ex-dictator's genocide case, citing removal request by defense," AP, Feb. 21, 2012, newser; "Reckoning With a Genocide in Guatemala," Lauren Wolfe, Feb. 10, 2012, the Atlantic; "Linked Arms," Irin Carmon, Feb. 21, 2012, Tablet.

 

 

March 4, 2012

      Serbia: "To Entertain You" - Boris Kovac with La Campanella Orchestra  [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfWjLjbOogU >]. For background on Yugoslavia see previous.

 

 

February 27, 2012

     Canada: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has released its interim report. Among its conclusions are unequivocal statements that Residential Schools were "an assault on Aboriginal children," "an assault on Aboriginal families," "an assault on Aboriginal culture," "an assault on self-governing and self-sustaining Aboriginal nations," and that these assaults have been ongoing since the schools' inception and that other Canadians haven't been educated adequately to interface with Aboriginal cultures. The conclusions sustain Commission Chairman Justice Murray Sinclair's public statement on the act of placing 150,000 Aboriginal children in Residential Schools: But the reality is that to take children away and to place them with another group in society for the purpose of racial indoctrination was – and is – an act of genocide and it occurs all around the world (The Globe and Mail). Among 20 specific recommendations the Interim Report urges reconciliation moving forward through the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and notes the Government of Canada and Church withholding of records and documentation (point #17). So far the Commission has received about 25,000 statements from Residential School survivors. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Interim Report is not suppressed and is available at the Commission's website [access< http://www.trc.ca/ >]. It doesn't yet discuss in detail evidence of the alleged murder and disappearance of over 50,000 Aboriginal children, a focus of Kevin Annett's work for many years generally suppressed by Canada's media. See Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust [access:< http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/ >], International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State [access:< http://itccs.org/ >]. See on these pages: 1 and previous,   2,   3,   4.  Annett's evidence of crimes against Aboriginal children has led him into confrontation with the church that ordained and later 'discontinued' him, the United Church of Canada, and the broader issue of child abuse as suppressed by Catholic Church hierarchy. Severely marginalised and under threat, Annett (aka Eagle Strong Voice) continues his work without adequate Canadian protection: a number of his witnesses and supporters are now dead. Nightslantern carries an ongoing genocide warning for First Nations peoples in Canada.     Partial sources online: "Residential schools called a form of genocide," Chinta Puxley, Feb. 17, 2012, The Globe and Mail; Ottawa, churches withholding documents, residential schools commission says,"Tamara Baluja, Feb. 24, 2012, TRhe Globe and Mail; "Tough lessons from residential schools," Terri Theodore (The Canadian Press), Feb. 25, 2012, The Chronicle Herald; "Sinclair is correct -- it was genocide," Christopher Powell, Feb. 24, 2012, Winnipeg Free Press; "Truth and Reconciliation Commission says healing requires education," Feb. 24, 2012, CBC News.

 

 

February 21, 2012

     Maine / Québec: Franco-American families of Canadian ancestry in the Lewiston-Auburn area are being encouraged to test for familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), which the AP report refers to as a "genetic disorder." Dr. Robert Weiss, a cardiologist has found a disproportionate number of cases in the Franco-American community of the region. Some symptoms of the disease are: very high cholesterol levels, hardening of the arteries, heart attacks, at an early age. According to Canadian Press, a Québec City physician indicates an FH disease rate there, six times the world average. Anglophone CBC headlines FH as a "French Canadian disease." While Franco-Americans are historically oppressed in New England there is no concern expressed for the effects of a working class diet on the entire northeast community. In the U.S. where medical care is a purchased privilege rather than the patient's human right, testing of genetically defined population groups may raise the problem of eugenics. Reliance on pharmaceuticals, surgery and testing for those who can afford medical care ignores those who can't. Note: the AP report twice refers to a Franco-American community in the Lewiston-Auburn area as "French Canadian" which would displace the community to its source 150 years ago. Note: U.S. reporting places Native Americans at equal risk of the disease, while the risk to Aboriginal peoples is entirely ignored in the Canadian reports.     Partial sources online: "Dangerous disease linked to French-Canadian ancestry," The Canadian Press, Feb. 20, 2012, CTV.ca; "The Franco Factor: A French Canadian genetic disorder can cause killer cholesterol levels in even the healthiest person," Lindsay Tice, Feb. 5, 2012, Sun Journal; "French-Canadian disease prompts U.S. warning," The Canadian Press, Feb. 21, 2012, CBC News; "Heart disorder high among Maine Franco-Americans," AP, Feb. 5, 2012, msnbc.com.

 

 

February 18, 2012

     Democratic Republic of the Congo: a genocide of the Congolese continues to the profit of those stripping the DRC's resources. Within a political structure at the service of genocide by foreign interests, democratic elections were held November 28th, praised by some for their Congolese autonomy and broad participation, and found corrupt by others. Over 500 cases of disputed legislative elections are scheduled for hearings. The party of the re-elected presiding President Joseph Kabila gained a clear majority in the legislature. In a country which is 50% Catholic, 35 % Protestant, CENCO - the Catholic Conference of authorities, found the tallying of votes unacceptable. Three nuns and two priests were jailed as a result of protest marches December 16th - government soldiers were reported firing teargas into religious centres to prevent march attendance. The Carter Center (U.S.) has protested both the election results and the violence to Christians. In Toronto and Ottawa expatriate Congolese have protested rigged elections and the blocked media coverage. Official news of conflict areas in the DRC is lacking since the November elections, despite unofficial reports of increasing violence in Kinshasa and North Kivu. On February 12th Kabila's primary advisor Augustin Katumba Mwanke, died in a plane crash which critically injured the Finance Minister as well. Opposition leader, Etienne Tshisekedi representing the country's poor, has ordered his party's legislators not to participate in the Legislature. Neither the United Nations, nor the African Union has mounted effective resistance to genocide in the DRC, as the U.S. continues to pour military assistance into neighbouring countries that destabilize: Uganda, and particularly Rwanda where genocide of the Tutsi (by official account) and allegedly of Hutu (recognition of this is forbidden under Rwandan law) has furthered U.S. / NATO interests. To better understand the Congolese genocide: previous background, and a video. With international law currently unable to effect a mandate beyond corporate self-interest, the Convention on Genocide's power of prevention relies increasingly on the Congolese people as a community historically brutalized and since the death of Lumumba by familiar mechanisms of oppression. In Montreal, the Dawson College Student Union hosts Kambale Musavuli of Friends of the Congo to speak February 29th at 5:00 pm.     Partial sources online: "Canadian Screenings of Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering The Truth, Toronto and Montreal" Friends of the Congo. "Protesters clear after tense moments with police," Feb. 16, 2012, CP24 (Toronto); "Kabila aide dies, minister hurt in DRC plane crash," Jonny Hogg, Feb. 12, 2012, Reuters; "Activists say nuns and priests arrested to stop religious protest of Congo elections," AP, Feb. 17, 2012, the Washington Post; Message of the CENCO to the Catholics and to the Congolese People. 'Courage and Truth'.", Jan. 16, 2012, FOTC; "Main Congo opposition calls boycott over violence," Feb. 18, 2012, Thomson Reuters; "Friends of the Congo" at our links page.

From 1965: "Sanctus"   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIxEPYkXkU8 >]

 

February 16, 2012

      Canada: a Lawyers Against the War press release notes enough evidence submitted to the International Criminal Court to require investigation of Canada's rendering Afghan prisoners to torture. Canadian Vietnam veteran John McNamer has supplied the ICC with more than 120 files affecting the Harper government's complicity in torture. McNamer's "Letter of February 14th to Canadian officials" summarizes evidence that Canadian Forces turned over prisoners to Afghan and U.S. authorities known to practice torture. His request for investigation by higher authority follows Conservative government 'reluctance' to investigate itself. In 2009 the government actively hindered investigations in Canada. Witnesses were discouraged; there were repeated attempts to shut down the Military Police Complaints Commission (MPCC); its chairman Peter Tinsley lost his job. Despite intimidation, public abuse, and attempts to expunge his testimony, Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin testified before the MPCC that Afghan prisoners were knowingly rendered to torture. In December 2009 a Parliamentary Committee Concerned with Torture in Afghanistan also focused national attention on the crime: the Prime Minister closed Parliament (previous 1 and 2). To find the issue "suppressed" is understatement. A responsibility for war crimes by policy makers is currently evaded by Conservative efforts to assert the usefulness of torture: it was recently revealed that the Minister of Public Safety has approved, in "exceptional circumstances", Canadian intelligence agency use of information obtained by torture. The policy attempts to legitimize a war crime. McNamer's letters and evidence submitted to the ICC, Canada's Attorney General and Governor General among other Canadian officials in the past, were not answered despite evidence of torture-until-death by U.S. forces, and evidence of children tortured and sexually abused by the Afghan National Security Directorate (NDS). The criminal policy was not questioned in Canadian courts (Recommended: "Letter of March 8, 2007" & "Letter of Dec.; 21, 2009," Davidson / LAW, Lawyers Against the War Archive). The Government's duty to enforce laws against torture was similarly overlooked at the Sept. 26, 2011 visit to Canada by Richard Cheney and the Oct. 20, 2011 visit by George W. Bush. Torture is a despicable crime, focusing on one victim at a time the overwhelming injustice that accompanies murder of a people and genocide. The neo-conservative agenda ignores its war crimes to further its hold on power.     Partial sources online: "International Criminal Court told Canada complicit in torture of Afghan Detainees," Press release, Feb. 15, 2012, Lawyers Against the War; "CSIS may use intelligence derived from torture, Toews says," The Canadian Press, Feb. 7, 2012, CBC News; "Richard Colvin," current, "Peter Tinsley," current, Voices.

 

February 11, 2012

      Georgia: the Shenandoah River watershed may be lost to the future by the Nuclear Regulatory's approval of two new nuclear plants at the Vogtle facility near Waynesboro (there are already two plants at the site). The new reactors will be the Westinghouse-Toshiba's AP1000 with amended design; The Hindu of India refers to the model as "an electric pressurized-water reactor". The company in charge is Southern Nuclear. The Savannah River empties into the Atlantic at Savannah Georgia. The bill for it all is passed along to customers. The U.S. NRC hasn't approved a new nuclear construction in the U.S. since 1978 due to the near meltdown at Three Mile Island. Strangely unmoved by Fukushima's multiple meltdowns which continue to contaminate Japan, the ocean and atmosphere, only one member of the five person Commission dissented from the vote for approval, Chairman Gregory B. Jaczco who said "“I cannot support issuing this license as if Fukushima had never happened,” (enenews). Commissioners Kristine L. Svinicki, George Apostolakis, William D. Magwood, William C. Ostendorff, approved the project. According to the NRC website [access:< http://www.nrc.gov/ >], "Nothing but the highest possible standards of ethical performance and professionalism should influence regulation." Wikipedia notes that despite the Vermont State Legislature's vote to close the Vermont plant, the NRC granted a twenty year extension to "Vermont Yankee," an overage reactor currently leaking radiation into the Connecticut River. The Fukushima disaster has required increased 'safety standards' for U.S. reactors but as well, higher limits of permissable radiation exposure in water and food. For background on the Savannah River watershed and its historical overexposure to nuclear radiation (nuclear warhead construction) see: "The Savannah River Watershed," of March 4, 2010. Germany is closing down its nuclear plants partly as a result of the Fukushima catastrophe. Since the multiple meltdowns in Japan, U.S. mortality rates have increased, 3.5% on the Western seaboard, 9.1% in the Rocky Mountains region, 3% in New England, etc. (CDC, fukushimafacts.com). See previous. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) is currently in court to encourage the transparency of federal loan-guarantee funding to Southern Nuclear Company: the Department of Energy is withholding information from the public. Friends of the Earth, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Center for a Sustainable Coast, Citizens Allied for Safe Energy, Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions, North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Nuclear Watch South, plan to challenge the Commission's decision at the U.S.Court of Appeals in Washington D.C.     Partial sources online: "NRC License for New Vogtle Reactors to be Opposed," Press Update, Feb. 8, 2012, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy [access:< http://www.cleanenergy.org >]; "Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion approved 4-1," Kristi E. Swartz, Feb. 9, 2012, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution / enenews; "Sick children swamp Ottawa children's hospital," Feb. 10, 2012, CBC News; "Nuclear Regulatory Commission," current, Wikipedia; "NRC approves Vogtle reactors," Walter Jones & Rob Pavey, Feb. 9, 2012, The Augusta Chronicle; "Vogtle Loan Guarantee Update: Nuclear Power Secrecy Continues," Sara Barczak, Feb. 2, 2012, cleanenergy.org; "First new U.S. nuclear reactors in decades approved," Ralph Vartabedian & Ian Duncan, Feb. 9, 2012, Los AngelesTimes; "U.S. approves first nuclear plant in decades," PTI, Feb. 10, 2012, The Hindu.

 
"Tango Apocalypso," Boris Kovac   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g06BtjGvvw >]
 

     Spain: Judge Garzon (see previous) was convicted by unanimous decision of Spain's Supreme Court on the first of several charges brought against him. In an attempt to strip him of support from an international community of jurists the first charge involved authorizing the illegal wiretapping of lawyers. Barring Garzon from practice the conviction ends his judicial investigations of crimes against humanity - in particular his attempt to unearth many thousand victims of Franco's slaughters and seems to place both prosecution and Court in complicity.     Partial sources online: "Spain Judge Baltasar Garzon vows to fights conviction," Feb. 9, 2012, BBC News.

 

 

February 7, 2012

      "A North American Political Prisoners Update." The legal systems of Canada and the U.S. make no separate recognition of "political prisoners." This encourages police malfeasance and a bending of the legal system to cope with political protest in the same manner as crimes of self-interest.... (continue)

 

 

February 2, 2012

     Brazil: the Indigenous peoples are increasingly dispossessed by corporate and private interests. In the Mato Grosso do Sul region Survival: the movement for tribal peoples reports attacks on Guarani Indians. Paralyzed in 2009 during an armed attack on his community, Rosalino Lopes died in December 2011, saying "I am dying for the ancestral land where I was born" (Survival). The government reportedly plans to return land to the Guarani who are living in poverty and intermittently attacked by gunmen working for landholders: the land was cleared by cattle ranchers and plantations of soya and sugar cane as well. A recent report speaks of hit lists targeting Guarani leaders. Marcos Verón, leader of the Guarani-Kaiowá, ejected from his land in 2001 by police and military, was killed in 2003 attempting to return. His son has fled. A chief, Nisio Gomes, was killed in November 2011 by armed men with masks. The Guarani remain without protection. Across the border in Paraguay 95% of the people are considered of Guarani ancestry. A minimal Agence France Press filing notes that Brazilian lawmakers have issued a report claiming "ethnocide" on finding that Indians of Mato Grosso do Sul are being destroyed. In the region of Maranhão, an eight year old Guajajara Indian girl was allegedly burnt alive by loggers with no legal action resulting. The Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) states Indians have no protection against loggers and the basic tension is ongoing (There is an ongoing Genocide warning for Brazil's Indian peoples). Environmentalists protesting destruction of the rainforests recognizing the essential genocide in progress, have been murdered, as have poor farmers protesting illegal logging. These are all without adequate protection by government (Previous & previous). The issue is heavily suppressed by all corporate media as Brazil continues the Belo Monte dam project, expected to displace 16 to 40 thousand people, flooding 40 thousand hectares of rainforest, and holding back 80% of the Xingu (Amazon tributary) river. Brazilian court has discarded native peoples' rights in a ruling that denies a right to prior and informed consultation before the dam is built.     Partial sources online: "Masked gunmen attack Brazilian Indian leader in shock execution," Nov. 18, 2011, Survival: the movement for tribal peoples;"Brazilian gunmen brandish tribal hit list in wake of leader’s murder," Dec.1, 2011, Survival; "Guarani man dies of gunshot wound following attack," Dec. 15, 2012, Survival; "Further threats as Guarani Indians remember murdered leader," Jan. 24, 2012, Survival; "Murder of Indigenous child provokes reaction," Raphael Tsavvko Garcia, Global Voices, Jan 10, 2012, The Castlgar Source; "Brazil lawmakers say idigenous group 'massacred'," AFP, Dec. 22, 2011, The Straits Times (Singapore); "Amnesty urges Brazil to probe killing, "Nov. 26, 2011, Sky News (Australia); "Indigenous do not have right to free, prior and informed consultation on Amazon dam, rules Brazilian court," Nov. 9, 2011, mongabay.com.

 

     India: the government has not effectively countered persecution of Christians by Hindu extremists in Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, where recent incidents include threats, attacks on a pastor's home and family, beatings, accusations of forced conversion, parading a pastor naked through the streets, generally crowd actions against isolated Christians where complaints by victims are answered by the victim's arrest. This problem is ongoing. Previous and previous. A war of attrition against Christians in the region coincides with the government's war on tribalists and a Maoist insurgency. A genocide warning remains in effect with a correlation to corporate expansion. 10 projects funded by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, are being implemented in the resource rich state of Orissa. Vedanta Resources of the U.K. has relied on police to evict tribal villagers from their land to be used as a toxic waste dump.     Partial sources online: "India Briefs: Recent Incidents of Persecution," current, Compass Direct News,; "Orissa executing 10 EAPs worth Rs 5,900 cr," Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar, Feb 02, 2012, Business Standard; "India land grab: Forced evictions in Orissa," Jason Overdorf, Jan 31, 2012, Globalpost - video.

 

     Sri Lanka: See previous. The government appears to be forcing Tamil people out of the country. In the northeast, Sinhalese peoples (Buddhist) are replacing Tamil (Hindu) in the Tamil homeland as the expense of Sri Lankan Army occupation of the northeast increases poverty in the Sinhalese south. Green Left recognizes a pattern of settlements as ethnocide similar to Israel's settlement of Arab lands. An article attributed to Truthout alleges an unidentified Sri Lankan general corroborates evidence of war crimes revealed in the UN's Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka of March 31, 2011 (previous), specifically that special force death squads in white vans on government orders picked up, tortured, murdered civilians during the Sri Lankan war. "White van" allegations appear throughout human rights reports. The general also alleges extra judicial killing of surrendering LTTE forces and those taken prisoner. The general's affidavit is reported to trace blame for war crimes directly to current members of the Sri Lankan government. Other generals and witnesses alleging that killing of surrendering LTTE forces was ordered, have fared poorly. With ongoing suppression of war crimes against the LTTE and Tamil population, a genocide warning remains.     Partial sources online: “The Conflict Is Still Alive,” Maryam Azwer, current, The Sunday Leader (Sri Lanka - Eng.); "Tamils seek end to occupation," Chris Slee, Jan. 28, 2012, Green Left (Australia); "Sri Lankan General Admits War Crimes; US May Hold Crucial Supporting Evidence," Emanuel Stoakes, Jan.29, 2012, Truthout.

 

 

January 31, 2012

     U.S.: currently there are no U.S. political prisoners charged with genocide. On the contrary the political prisoners represent communities opposed to genocide or policies which lead to genocide warnings (see political prisoners archive). Current news of U.S. political prisoners: Mumia Abu-Jamal formerly of death row, David Gilbert who has a book out with launchings throughout Canada, Lynne Stewart the attorney imprisoned for representing her client, who is appealing the government's extension of her sentence...(continue)

 

 

January 29, 2012

     Spain: the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) of Berlin and New York's Center for Constitutional Rights have filed a complaint with the United Nationsprotesting U.S. interference with the Spanish judicial process. Among three instances, there is evidence the U.S. interfered in the action of Judge Balthazar Garzon who was investigating torture in Guantanamo Bay among other U.S. detainment centres when he was removed from the bench (see previous).     Partial sources online: "Complaint Filed with U.N. Special Rapporteur Alleges Interference with Spanish Judicial Process," Press release, Jan. 19, 2012, Center for Constitutional Rights

 

     Libya: evidence of severe torture practised by the National Transitional Council against those sympathetic to the former ruler Gaddafi, increases. Medecins sans Frontieres states it is pulling out of Libya to avoid becoming a way station for repairing torture victims for another round of torture. Bani Walid has been re-taken by pro-Gaddafi forces, and throughout Libya the green resistance maintains its presence (previous).     Partial sources online: "NATO’s Grisly Crimes in Libya," Farirai Chubvu, Jan. 27, 2012, The Herald (Zim); "Libya militias torturing detainees: Report," AFP, Jan. 26, 2012, The Times of India; "Libyan detainees die after torture, says Amnesty International," Jan. 26, 2012, BBC News; "Violence Rages in Libya," Stephern Lendeman, Jan. 24, 2012, Mathaba; "Gaddafi loyalists take back Bani Walid," Chris Stephen & Luke Harding, Jan. 23, 2012, the guardian.

 

 

January 24, 2012

     Canada: amid wide suppression of the global effects of the Fukushima nuclear tragedy (see previous), The Gazette in Montreal suggests Canada hasn't been announcing excessive levels of radiation when these occur: in Calgary last March monitoring of rainwater read 8.18 bequerels per litre. Canada's 'safety' level for drinking water is 6 bequerels per litre. In comparison, the U.S. State of Virginia publicly reported a rainwater advisory when the radiation level reached 3.4 bequerels. In other reports, in San Francisco cesium in milk is currently reported to exceed Food and Drug Administration levels and rising; USA Today reports an increase in thyroid cancer since Fukushima. Despite the shutdown and reported stabilization of the Fukushima nuclear plants, Tokyo Electric Power Company has announced an increase in local becquerel (radiation) readings by 20% since December. An earthquake (magnitude 6.8) struck the Fukushima and northeast region of Japan on January 1, and another (magnitude 5.3) struck northeast of Tokyo January 23rd causing spikes in radiation readings. North American radiation measurements for food imports are difficult to find and verify. In 2010 Canada imported from Japan 76 million dollars of food. The Gazette`s "After Fukushima, Fish Tales," finds the Canadian radiation limit per kilogram of fish a hundred times more permissive than Japan's. Much of the available information on radiation levels in North America ceases in March and April of 2011. From a grassroots perspective various graphs of radiation monitoring are available at fukushimafacts.com. Increased exposure from precipitation may be of concern in all northern regions where snow accumulates. During 2012 China will place a radiation check on drinking water within 30 kilometers of its own nuclear facilities but publicly disclosed data from Chinese radiation monitoring is generally lacking.     Partial sources online: "Radioactive iodine in rainwater: Public was in the dark," Alex Roslin, Jan.14, 2012, The Gazette; "Fukushima fallout hit home," Michael Platt, Jan. 22, 2012, Calgary Sun; "Doctors unsure why thyroid cancer cases on the rise," Shari Rudavsky / The Indianapolis Star, Jan. 15, 2012, USA Today; "California, Finland, Canada, Australia Hit By Radiation," Washington's Blog, Jan. 17, 2012, Global Research; "After Fukushima, Fish Tales," Alex Roslin, Jan. 14, 2012, ; "Nuclear Radiation Levels from Fukushima Are RISING," Washington's Blog, Jan.24, 2012, Global Research; "China to Monitor Radiation in Drinking Water around Nuclear Plants," Xinhua, Jan. 18, 2012, crienglish.com; "Japan hit by force 7 earthquake just hours after celebrating the New Year," Craig Mackenzie, Jan 1, 2012, Mail Online (dailymail.co.uk); "Radiation dose spikes thoughout Tokyo area after yesterday’s quake (CHARTS)," Enenews admin., Jan.24, 2012, Enenews.

 

 

January 21, 2012

     Ottawa: French justice is questioned by those concerned with human rights for its ongoing demand to extradite Hassan Diab to face trial on terrorism charges in France. The charges against him rely on accusations believed to have been obtained through torture (previous and previous). The former professor of sociology at the University of Ottawa claims his innocence. The evidence against him made public is so flimsy the case is frightening.     Partial sources online: "Diab calls French terror extradition bid a `Kafkaesque nightmare'," Chris Cobb Postmedia News, Jan. 20, 2012, canada.com, Jan. 21,The Ottawa citizen; "Activists denounce move to extradite Canadian citizen to France," Jan. 21, 2012, presstv.ir.

 

     France: with a curious under-estimation of African intelligence and the general public, a report by French judges found Rwanda's current president, Paul Kagame, couldn't have shot down the plane carrying then President Habyarimana and Burundi's president since the missile came from inside territory controlled by Habyarimana's own presidential guard (within an American context this decision would find the J.F.K. assassination accomplished by the U.S. Secret Service). In 2006, a French court attempted to indict Kagame for the crime. The inquiry report by this team of judges coincides with the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda turning over its cases to Rwandan courts for domestic trials, and with Canada's attempt to deport Léon Mugesera to face trial in Rwanda on charges of genocide, despite the UN Committee on Torture's objections and an appeal to Prime Minister Harper by Paul Rusesabagina (known for saving Tutsi and moderate Hutu during the Rwandan genocide - ref. Hotel Rwanda). Rusesabagina, now declared a "terrorist" by Kagame's government, believes Mugesera has a chance for impartial justice before a Canadian court but not in Rwanda. A decision on Mugesera's deportation is being delayed until Jan. 23rd by a judge in Québec. In Oklahoma, by granting Kagame immunity as a chief of state, the U.S. Federal Court threw out a lawsuit brought against Kagame by the widows of the two assassinated presidents (previous); substantial unrefuted evidence against Kagame remains, as presented by their lawyer at considerable personal risk, American professor of international law Peter Erlinder (see previous). Erlinder attempted to counsel former Rwandan presidential contender in the recent elections, Victoire Ingabire, but was imprisoned in Rwanda; he was alleged to have attempted "suicide" in custody before being returned to the U.S. on "compassionate" grounds. Ms. Ingabire, is charged with "genocide denial" and additional charges of terrorism in a trial entirely suppressed by international media.     Partial sources online: "Mugasera Deportation," As it happens, Jan. 17, 2012, CBC radio; "The Rwanda Documents Project," Peter Erlinder, current [access:< http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library >]; "Rwanda genocide: Kagame 'cleared of Habyarimana crash'," Jan. 10, 2012, BBC News; "Canada to deport alleged Rwandan war criminal despite UN," Jan. 11, 2012, CBC News.

 

     Spain: former Spanish judge Balthazar Garzon who was able to translate international outrage at the crimes of Augusto Pinochet into legal objection, is currently on trial for attempting to dig up and identify the thousands massacred by General Franco (see previous  1,  2,  3, and throughout 2010). N.B.: LAW archive": "Formal Communication for Consideration and Action Re: Judge Baltasar Garzón," from LRWC, ECCHR, ALRC, LWBC, CCR, FIDH, NLG, IADL & OMCT, May 20, 2010, Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada).Update

 

     El Salvador: as the U.S. attempts to expand its use of El Salvador for the "war on drugs" President Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena (FMLN party) has apologized deeply for the 1981 massacre of over a thousand civilians at El Mozote by the El Salvadoran military (a 1981 poster). Under the Peace Accords of 1992, perpetrators of the crime were granted amnesty. U.S. training of the Atlacatle battalion responsible is discussed in detail by Mark Danner's The New Yorker article of 1993, "The Truth of El Mozote" [access:< http://www.markdanner.com/articles/show/the_truth_of_el_mozote >]. Danner noted that El Salvadoran forces excused a "no prisoners" policy by finding the peoples of contested zones "terrorists". El Salvadoran National Guard roundups for the massacres were accomplished through the use of killing lists supplied the military in the field, a tactic familiar in the shooting lists supplied by the U.S. CIA for the massacres in 1965-66 of a half million 'communists' in Indonesia (ref. "Reigns of Terror," in "Essay on State Terrorism"), and familiar in the Rwandan genocides to those applying killing lists where tribal identification was noted.

 

A reflection in winter

 

 

January 9, 2012

A summary of current genocide warnings: the warnings remain generally as noted on these pages January 23, 2004. Over eight years there's an increase in corporate and government funded organizations concerned with prevention of genocide but with selective focus that affirms US / NATO foreign policies. There have been numerous cases of alleged genocide at the International Criminal Court amid evidence that ICC application of the Convention is selective, functioning as a victor's court for the "first" world. With the Convention on Genocide coined to corporate interests Indigenous peoples globally lack protection the United Nations Convention assures them. While Canadian law has effective means to counter genocide (the Convention isn't currently appliable within the U.S.), application shows little independence from media / Conservative government foreign policy. Apolitical approaches to preventing genocide remain heavily suppressed. Some warnings for various nations are listed at Genocide Warnings.

 

 

January 7, 2012

"Innu" - Petapan   [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llNY6o8mBnk >]

     U.S.: on December 31, 2011, the U.S. President signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act 2012. Amid military authorizations, directives and funding, Section 1021 allows the indefinite detention of anyone in the U.S. or anywhere, who is suspected of complicity in 9/11 or of alliance with "Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces." Currently focused on Muslim groups the provision removes a legal safeguard for the prevention of genocide. Just who is accused, by whom, how and why, isn't revealed. The right of habeas corpus is not assured. The provision's application to U.S. citizens claims not to supersede laws already existing for detention of citizens. Section 1022 suggests that while military custody of citizens and "lawful resident aliens" isn't necessarily required, it is for other suspects. So the U.S. Congress has proposed and passed a law that strips anyone of protection against indefinite detention or disappearance, and allows the U.S. military to bear arms against its own people, if accused. The media is proceeding with business as usual. Acceptance of the unacceptable as "normal" was prepared by the administration's claiming the right to kill citizen suspects anywhere in the world (recently, Imam Anwar Aulaqi and his son among other civilians), the creation of Guantanamo Bay, secret prisons worldwide, disappearance of detainees, use of torture overtly condoned by the Bush administration, and wars of aggression. Clear violations of international law are increasingly extended in domestic applications presenting a progression of elitist controls, imposing the threat of totalitarianism to assure its continuation.
Historical note

"The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." Article I, Section 9, Constitution.

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger..." - from Article V, Bill of Rights.

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." Article VIII, Bill of Rights

"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." -from Article XIV, Section 1, Bill of Rights.

 

 

 

 

A branch that comes from violence will not take root;
for a blighted root is on sheer rock, like reeds by the
banks of a river, which are dried up before any grass; but
kindness, like eternity, will never be cut off, and faithfulness
will be established forever
- from Ben Sira
(Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, Abegg et al)

 

This account is against forgetfulness. 

 

 

 

 


by john bart gerald
updated 31 december 2012
graphics: julie maas
guest contributions as noted
gerald and maas
links updated may 2013
format update 31 December 2020