[Onthebarricades] Repression in the global South, part 3 of 3

[Andy]

*  RUSSIA:  Military draft used to curb opposition
*  IRAQ:  Occupation ruins farmers
*  BANGLADESH:  Surviving torture
*  PAKISTAN:  US fires missiles into remote areas, kills civilians
*  CHAD:  Capital turned into gated city
*  MALDIVES:  State attacks non-Muslims and radical Muslims
*  TURKEY/KURDISTAN:  Civilians killed in Iraq border zone
*  KUWAIT:  Shiites victims of crackdown
*  INDIA:  Cameras in forests to catch Naxalites
*  PAKISTAN:  Another US air strike
*  THAILAND:  Detained Muslims tortured by army
*  PAKISTAN:  "Missing people" may have been turned over to America
*  EGYPT:  Activists, bloggers rounded up in crackdown on protests
*  YEMEN:  State abuse sparks Sana'a conflict renewal
*  TURKEY:  Hijab ban persists
*  PAKISTAN:  Indian death row prisoner pardoned
*  ISRAEL:  Military service atrocities haunt women ex-soldiers
*  ISRAEL:  State won't give rights to Palestinians trapped west of 
apartheid wall
*  SAUDI ARABIA:  Forced annulment keeps couple apart
*  CANADA:  First Nations people face exposure
*  CHILE:  Mapuche hunger striker force-fed
*  INDIA:  Borderlands human rights defender held on dodgy charges
*  EL SALVADOR:  "Terrorist" and other charges against protesters dropped
*  SAUDI ARABIA:  Blogger in jail
*  BELARUS:  Opposition protesters beaten, detained
*  CHINA:  Tibetan protesters make (iffy) confessions
*  WEST PAPUA:  11 arrested for raising flag; human rights activist 
arrested; police on shooting rampage


Publicly Archived at Global Resistance: 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance


http://tinyurl.com/3578um

Draft used to curb opposition, Russian activists say
By Peter Finn
Washington Post
January 29, 2008

MOSCOW -- For two years, Oleg Kozlovsky has been a fixture at
anti-Kremlin street demonstrations, confronting riot police and just as
often getting arrested. One of the leaders of a youth movement called
Oborona (Defense), Kozlovsky, a 23-year-old graduate student at Moscow's
Higher School of Economics, said his group's goal is nothing less than
the "downfall of the authoritarian regime."

"The police system has not been able to cope with this small yet
cohesive and dedicated group," Kozlovsky wrote last year on a blog.
"Oborona has now been transformed into a serious political force."

But the system, as Kozlovsky calls it, has finally silenced him. Late
last month, Kozlovsky was picked up by police, taken to a military
conscription office, and quickly shipped to a military base to serve a
year in the army. He and friends say his status as a student legally
exempts him from service.

Authorities are increasingly using the threat of the draft to intimidate
the small but hard-nosed community of young activists who oppose
President Vladimir Putin, according to opposition and human rights
activists. Service in the army, which has a well-documented history of
violent and sometimes fatal hazing, is feared by many young Russians,
not just those who oppose the government.

"All young people understand the repressive character of our army, so
it's a real threat," said Pavel Shaikin, a member of Oborona. "And in
Oleg's case, I think they wanted to take him out of circulation before
the presidential elections."

Russia will elect a new president March 2, but opposition groups have
pledged to take to the streets to protest what they see as Putin's
determination to allow no challenge, however marginal, to the election
of his chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev, the country's first deputy
prime minister.

The group Citizen and the Army, which opposes the draft and wants a
volunteer army in Russia, said that in the past year it has documented
dozens of cases of young political activists being taken to conscription
offices. In nearly all cases, the draftees had a history of joining
protests led by Garry Kasparov, the chess grandmaster, and his ally
Eduard Limonov, head of the outlawed National Bolshevik Party.

"Illegally drafting people is not new, and it's happening all over the
place. But the political motivation is a new tactic," said Maxim
Burmitsky, head of legal defense at Citizen and the Army. "Kozlovsky's
case is finally drawing some welcome attention to a serious problem."

Just this month, Burmitsky said, at least four cases came before the
courts involving young activists appealing their conscriptions. In the
city of Pskov, near Russia's border with Estonia, a court is hearing the
appeal of two National Bolsheviks who were drafted despite their
insistence that they are legally exempt. And in Novokuznetsk, in
southwestern Siberia, two young people who call themselves anarchists
are involved in a similar hearing.

Kozlovsky said in an interview with a Russian publication that his
problem began Dec. 20 as he was leaving an apartment in Moscow. He was
approached by a police officer, who told Kozlovsky he had to go to a
military enlistment office to "solve a few problems."

Two plainclothes officers were waiting nearby in a police car, he said.

"None of them would show me their identity documents," Kozlovsky told
Generation P, a Russian newspaper, which reached him by telephone. "I
was later informed that the two in plainclothes were FSB agents." The
FSB is the domestic successor to the KGB security service.

The Generation P interview was posted on the English-language blog La
Russophobe, which, along with Russian human rights groups, has taken up
Kozlovsky's cause.

Kozlovsky said he was subjected to a quick medical examination at the
enlistment office, then taken to a military base just outside Moscow.

When supporters rushed to the base, he was taken to a military facility
in Ryazan, about 150 miles southeast of Moscow.

Military officials declined to discuss the case.

http://dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000746.php#more

Occupation Strangles Farmers Inter Press Service
By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail*

BAQUBA, Feb 29 (IPS) - New plant diseases, attacks by occupation forces and 
escalating fuel prices are strangling farmers in Diyala province.

Prior to the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003, farmers in Baquba, the capital 
city of Diyala province 40 km northeast of Baghdad, struggled with plant 
diseases they believed were caused by bombs dropped during the U.S.-led war 
against Iraq in 1991.

Trees were infested with white fruit fly, aphids and plant louse, and there 
was a shortage of water for irrigation. The directorate-general of 
agriculture used helicopters to spread insecticide.

After the invasion, the situation has worsened. Helicopter spraying seems 
unthinkable.

"With helicopters large distances can be sprayed in one stroke," Aboud 
Ibrahim, a 55-year-old local farmer told IPS. "In the case of white fruit 
fly, when a farmer sprays the insecticide, the disease can move back to his 
farm again from the neighbouring farm within six hours. This is why 
simultaneous treatment of all farms is so efficient."

Helicopters now mean something else. "Helicopters and fighters of the 
coalition forces attack farmers who work at night on their farms," said a 
local farmer who did not want to be named. "Due to the water quotas, farmers 
are forced to water their farms even at night.

Some farmers have been shot in firing by coalition forces. Farmers would 
rather neglect their farms than risk death."

The ministry of agriculture pays no attention to the array of problems.

"The spread of plant diseases has caused a shortage of crops, and this has a 
direct effect not only on the farmers but also on the Iraqi people in 
general," a supervisor at the directorate-general of agriculture in Diyala 
province told IPS on condition of anonymity.
"Iraq now imports almost all its crops from neighbouring counties like 
Syria, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon, after decades of exporting to 
these same countries."

By now, the supervisor said, 90 percent of local farmers in Diyala have left 
their farms and orchards because "the farms have been severely attacked by 
diseases and the shortage of water." Also, he said, the prices of imported 
vegetables and fruit have increased tremendously.

"We produce potato, tomato, cucumber, onion, celery, lettuce, and eggplant, 
in addition to all kinds of fruit, but now our product covers only 30 
percent of the people's needs, so they are forced to buy imported goods 
which are much more expensive," a local agronomist, also speaking on 
condition of anonymity, told IPS. "Farmers were living very comfortably 
before the invasion because they were doing their job freely."

Lack of security stands in the way of agriculture. "The blocking of streets 
and the presence of the militants and sometimes coalition forces prevents 
farmers form marketing their produce," Mahmod Mehdi, a local fruit shop 
vendor told IPS. Mehdi said that curfews, which are imposed on Baquba every 
night, and sometimes during the day, also cause losses to farmers, who are 
then unable to sell their fruits and vegetables.

"If there is a curfew, long lines of pickups loaded with different crops 
wait in the entryway of the highways to the city," Mehdi added. "Sometimes, 
they have gone back dropping the crops on the streets, or they accept any 
trivial price. The number of farmers around is much fewer now."

Many farmers have sought jobs in the police and army, about the only 
employment available now in Iraq. "We want our sons to be recruited in order 
to earn a living for the family," Abdul-Kareem Abas, a local farmer, told 
IPS.

To cap it, many farmers have given up in the face of threats and violence. 
"I left tens of acres and went to another province because of the sectarian 
violence," a local farmer whose son was killed by militiamen, told IPS. "My 
farm, which is worth hundreds of millions of Iraqi dinars, is ruined. We 
were forced to leave everything, otherwise we would all die."

Many farmers have sold land, others have begun to divide their farms into 
pieces and use some of the land to offer housing. This area was once called 
the Fertile Crescent.

(*Ahmed, our correspondent in Iraq's Diyala province, works in close 
collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who 
travels extensively in the region)

Posted by Dahr_Jamail at March 1, 2008 12:00 AM

Surviving torture in B'desh
By Tasneem Khalil
http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=139601

My wife says I talk too much and invite trouble. On May 11, 2007,
her observation was confirmed: I "invited" trouble by talking too
much against the military-backed interim government in Bangladesh.
With a midnight ring of my doorbell, three or four plainclothes men-
who identified themselves as the "joint forces"-entered my Dhaka
apartment, detained me without charge, and seized my passport, cell
phones, computers and documents. I was threatened at gun-point while
my wife, holding my six-month-old son, watched. I was pushed into a
car, blindfolded and handcuffed.

Four months earlier, in January, the Bangladesh military had
installed a puppet technocrat government through a bloodless coup
and declared a "state of emergency." The junta's emergency rules
suspended parts of the Constitution, made any criticism of the
government or the military a punishable offense, put a blanket ban
on political activity, and sharply curtailed press freedom.

The military intervention brought an end to gruesome street-battles
between two feuding political camps led by the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party and the Awami League, and at first many
Bangladeshis welcomed the de facto coup.

But skyrocketing prices, a devastated economy and rampant human
rights abuses have changed their minds. Over the past year, the
military has set up torture and detention facilities across the
country and targeted political parties with an "anti-corruption"
witch hunt that saw the arrests of more than 400,000 people,
including two former prime ministers who lead the two biggest
political parties.

The military intelligence agency, the Directorate General of Forces
Intelligence, or DGFI, which remains the driving force behind the de
facto military rule, led a campaign to establish control over civil
and political affairs, carrying out overt and covert operations
against opposition parties and members of the media.

After my arrest, I was taken to a torture facility set up by the
directorate inside its Dhaka headquarters. Thus began my 22-hour
ride on the torture train, as my captors-high- and mid-level DGFI
officers-tortured me, interrogated me and forced me to sign false
confessions. I was questioned at length about my work as an editor
for the Dhaka-based Daily Star newspaper, as a news representative
for CNN in Bangladesh, and as a consultant researcher for Human
Rights Watch.

In all these jobs, I obviously talked too much. As a journalist, I
reported and commented on extra-judicial executions and torture by
the Rapid Action Battalion, a paramilitary force; persecution of
Ahmadiya Muslims (a heterodox sect of Islam) by extremist-Islamist
groups with the active patronage of intelligence agencies; military
repression in the region known as the Chittagong Hill Tracts in
southeaster Bangladesh; and, perhaps most dangerous, sponsorship and
patronage of Jihadist outfits by the DGFI and the National Security
Intelligence agency. As a consultant for Human Rights Watch, I
documented Bangladesh military involvement in extra-judicial
executions and torture, systematic curtailment of press freedom, and
rampant human rights violations carried out by the security forces
under the "state of emergency."

So I became a target for a junta that considered itself above
criticism, even above the law. The military labeled me an "enemy of
the state." In the torture chamber, five or six DGFI officers took
part in nightmarish torture sessions, using batons, boots and fists
to inflict serious injuries on me. I saw sophisticated torture
equipment. When I was moved out of a soundproof torture chamber, I
could hear other detainees, locked inside cells, screaming and
moaning in pain. I was forced to record false confessional
statements on paper and video, admitting to imaginary terrorist,
treasonous acts, and implicating my friends, associates and
colleagues. Only when I fell sick from the torture were my blindfold
and handcuffs taken off-briefly. I was constantly humiliated,
exposed to obscene verbal abuse and racial slurs. My captors kept
threatening me with extra-judicial execution.

News of my arrest sparked an outcry. I was fortunate that CNN, The
Daily Star and Human Rights Watch stood by me and worked to secure
my freedom. A network of bloggers and activists engineered a global
campaign demanding my release. Foreign governments lobbied the
Bangladeshi authorities. Within 24 hours of my detention, in an
unprecedented move, the DGFI set me free. I went into hiding with my
family. Eventually, we were allowed to fly out of the country and
found a refuge in Sweden, where the authorities offered us political
asylum.

I was not the first or last person marched into a torture chamber in
Bangladesh. But I have the opportunity to detail my survival, while
hundreds, if not thousands of stories relating to inhuman torture
and Kafkaesque detentions in Bangladesh remain untold.

I am tempted to remind foreign governments that the abuses happening
in Bangladesh in the name of "reform" and "anti-corruption" are
possible thanks to their complicity and complacence. The support of
donors like the United States and Britain, eager to address
political paralysis and corruption but naïve about our history with
military governments, has been crucial in providing legitimacy to an
illegal, unconstitutional arrangement. Supporting a monster to kill
a demon might work for computer gamers, but in politics and
diplomacy it is usually disastrous.

It is time for Bangladesh's friends in the United States, Britain,
and European Union to support our struggle for democracy and
pressure the military to end its "state of emergency" and declare an
early date for free and fair elections. Military torture centers
should be shut down and extra-judicial executions ended. And every
perpetrator of human rights violations should be prosecuted and
punished. No one else should experience what I went through.

(The author is a Bangladeshi journalist currently in exile in
Sweden. A full account of his detention, "The Torture of Tasneem
Khalil: How the Bangladesh Military Abuses its Power under the State
of Emergency," was published in a report by Human Rights Watch.)

-IHT

Mar 6, 2008
Pakistan's grand bargain falls apart
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JC06Df01.html

The grand bargain is unraveling, though. The recent missile attack
by a US Predator drone on militants in the tribal area helped stir
the militants' skepticism of any deal and different independent
groups continued to attack the security forces.

The first glimpse the iron fist came last week when Kiani ordered
more than 1,000 raids in several cities and hundreds of suspected
militants were arrested. This was the biggest operation in the past
12 months and followed the assassination of the surgeon-general of
the Pakistani army.

Oil Industry at the Heart of the Zaghawa Power Struggle in Chad
By Andrew Mc Gregor
[From: Terrorism Monitor (The Jamestown Foundation, USA)
Volume 6, Issue 5 (March 7, 2008)]
http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2374021

Chadian Reaction

Following the assault, President Déby instituted a State of
Emergency, set to last until March 15. Déby's forces are fortifying
the capital to deter similar attacks. Armed vehicles will no longer
be able to strike across the savanna into N'Djamena with the
construction of a three-meter deep trench around the city that will
force all traffic to go through fortified gateways. The trees that
offer the only refuge from N'Djamena's blistering heat are also
being cut down after rebels used some cut trees to block roads
during the raid (Reuters, March 3; BBC, March 4). The regime is also
seeking to buy half a dozen helicopter gunships from Russia or other
East European sources.

Paper no. 2610
07-Mar.-2008
Islamic Radicalisation of Maldives
R. Upadhyay
http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers27/paper2610.html

It is said that President Gayoom used Islam as a tool to marginalise
his political opponents. In his presidential address to the nation
on the occasion of country's national day, he often blamed
opposition for their alleged motive to bring other religions to the
country. The 1997 Maldives constitution designated Islam as the
official religion and law prohibits the Maldivian citizens to
practise any religion other than Islam.

The first Islamist terror strike was in Sultan Park of Male, the
capital of Maldives on September 29, 2007 targeting the foreign
tourists in which about a dozen of them were injured. Maldives
police believed that the blast was a plot of Islamic militants
against the tourist industry of the country. Even President Gayoom
admitted that Islamist terrorism has begun to affect the peaceful
image of the island. He ordered a ban on entry of Mullhas and
Islamic clerics from outside Maldives without any invitation from
the authorities. His government also cracked down on religious
dissent banning foreign preachers and unlicensed prayer groups
(AtollTime.com).

Asharq Al-Awsat's Secret Trip into PKK Territory
11/03/2008
By Hewa Aziz
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=3&id=12058

Qandil, Asharq Al-Awsat- In the aftermath of the nine days of fierce
battles that took place two weeks ago between the Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) fighters and the Turkish Forces, the situation still
remains very tense. Turkish forces withdrew suddenly and
incomprehensibly from the Kurdistan region, contrary to expectations
that they would remain there for a long time. However, the strict
and comprehensive curfew imposed by the Kurdistan government on the
region, especially in the areas with heavy Kurdish rebel presence
and in remote villages, is still ongoing and had started before the
outbreak of the latest battles.

Any car passing through the town of Sanksar, which is part of the
Qalat Dizah town in the Sulaymaniyah province or through the towns
of Soran and Rowandiz in Arbil is subjected to thorough searches and
lengthy interrogation about the reasons for visiting the Qandil
villages. Journalists and media personnel in particular are barred
entry and cannot access the Qandil Mountains irrespective of their
pretexts or justifications.

For this reason, a reporter from Asharq Al-Awsat had to disguise
himself in traditional villager's clothes and arranged transport
with a taxi car that frequently travelled these roads. The taxi
driver had cleverly planted a camera and recording device that were
secretly concealed in the car; however the latter was emitting loud
static noise that was painful to the ears.

Sitting amidst a group of villagers, we reached the last checkpoint
in Sanksar where the Peshmerga forces were stationed. The fall of
heavy rain proved to be our saving grace as the security men did not
get the chance to thoroughly check our identity documents and search
the car before dropping the passengers off as usual. Thus, we passed
through the checkpoint without any problems and made our way to
Leyoozi, which prior to the battles was the main PKK Kurdish rebels'
stronghold.

This village, comprised of 35 houses, has mostly been razed to the
ground as had five other neighboring villages after a series of
Turkish raids that preceded the ground operations by approximately
three weeks. The raid had also destroyed many residential houses, in
addition to the only hospital (affiliated to the PKK) that used to
provide the villagers with treatment and medicine free of charge.

During the air raid, a rocket fired by a Turkish forces aircraft
landed 50 meters from the hospital building and largely demolished
it, while another rocket remains lodged five-meters deep in the mud
in front of the hospital door. Since it had not detonated, everyone
keeps a safe distance from it thus making efforts to rebuild the
hospital and area impossible for fear of activating it. The
villagers are deeply concerned and believe that it is like a time
bomb that can explode at any moment.

A junior ranking fighter, assigned the duty of accompanying Asharq
Al-Awsat on its mission, spoke into his military radio transmitter
and soon a Kurdish rebel vehicle drove up and took us to a secure
place at the foot of a chain of mountains that was surrounded by
large rocks. There we met with a tall dark-skinned man in his
forties named Ahmed Deniz who a few weeks prior to the outbreak of
battles had been appointed to take charge of the Foreign Relations
Office of the PKK's political wing ERNK (Eniya Rizgariya Netewa
Kurdistan, aka National Liberation Front of Kurdistan) succeeding
Abdul-Rahman al Chadarchi, who according to one of the fighters had
been dispatched on a mission to another area far from where we were.

After greeting us, the chief of the party's foreign relations office
wanted to know what the international press, and especially the Arab
press, thought of the PKK and its cause. Deniz who joined the PKK in
1991, in response to the question about the number of casualties on
both sides said, "The official statistics that we received from the
People's Defence Force leadership, the PKK's armed wing, confirms
that at the end of the clashes, 125 were killed and 150 injured on
the Turkish forces side let alone the hundreds of soldiers and other
senior ranking officials who have fled and deserted the army
service. All this was a direct result of our solid resistance and
defense firstly, but also due to the cold weather. As for the human
losses on our side during the first week of the battle that began 21
February 2008, they amounted to five injuries and then nine, and on
the eighth day four fell during the final battles. This means that
the final census is nine killed and nine injured."

With regards to the likelihood of the Turkish forces carrying out
further operations against the PKK rebels during the coming spring
or summer: "The Turkish forces have been preparing to launch an
attack on us for a long time and there has been intensive training
in the mountainous Simara region. In light of the harsh weather
conditions there, a large number of the Turkish soldiers died as a
result of the severe cold despite being well prepared with all the
necessary equipment to fight in battles in the snow and on the
mountainous terrain," he said

Deniz added, "Turkey has suffered a major military, political,
economic and historical defeat and numerous senior military leaders
have been killed - and the burial ceremonies were aired on Turkish
television. However, what was unexpected in the aftermath of the
battles was the brave resistance that the Kurdish people
demonstrated in all parts of Kurdistan and which embodied the most
elevated meaning of national spirit that we hold in highest regard
and respect. We always anticipate the enemy's attack."

Asked whether the fighters collected the bodies of the Turkish
troops, Deniz replied, "The People's Defence Force is currently
comprehensively sweeping the area in which the battles erupted in
search of mines - many were planted by the Turkish army there, and
they are also searching for the enemy's fallen troops in the
battlefield."

[.]

Crackdown on Shiites stirs sectarian tensions in Kuwait
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Friday, March 14, 2008
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=89882

KUWAIT CITY: A crackdown on leading clerics and politicians from
Kuwait's Shiite minority has stoked sectarian tensions in the oil-
rich Gulf state, raising questions about its aim and timing,
analysts say. Claims that Shiite activists who took part in a
controversial rally in February are seeking to topple the
regime "amount to a sectarian campaign by the security agencies ...
against prominent figures of the Shiite community," a group of
leading Shiite clerics said in a statement on Wednesday.

"If you're a Shiite in Kuwait, you have to swear five times a day
after each prayer that you hate Iran and love Israel" in order to
prove loyalty to the majority Sunni country, Shiite writer
Abdulhameed Dashti lamented in the Arabic newspaper An-Nahar.

Some commentators have blamed the regional standoff between the
United States and Iran for the crisis which began after a rally by
Shiite activists to mourn Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh, who
was killed in a Damascus car bombing last month, triggered the
arrest of eight prominent activists.

They included two former MPs, a cleric and senior members of the
National Islamic Alliance (NIA), a Shiite political grouping which
holds two seats in Parliament.

Mughniyeh is accused in Kuwait of hijacking a passenger plane in
1988 that led to the killing of two Kuwaiti civilians.

Instead of being questioned about the rally, the activists were
accused of being members of "Hizbullah Kuwait," a group not known to
exist, and of working to overthrow the regime, their lawyer said.
The men were also accused of spreading false news about Kuwait to
undermine its position abroad, Abdulkarim bin Haider told AFP.

The charges "were based on information from the 1980s" when Sunni-
Shiite tensions peaked at the height of the Iran-Iraq war, he added.

Seven of the eight men were released on bail after paying hefty
sureties. The eighth, former MP Abdulmohsen Jamal, remained in
police custody until Thursday, when he was also released on bail and
banned from leaving the country.

The public prosecution also asked Parliament to strip two Shiite
MPs, Adnan Abdulsamad and Ahmad Lari, of their parliamentary
immunity so they could be questioned in the same case. Parliament is
expected to debate the request next week.

The crackdown has angered the Shiite community, which makes up at
least a third of Kuwait's native population of one million, sparking
two noisy demonstrations during which anti-US and anti-Israel
slogans were chanted. Shiites have only four MPs in the 50-member
Parliament and two ministers in the 16-member Cabinet.

"I love Kuwait. It is my country, but actions like these make me
feel I am not welcome," said Abbas, a young Kuwaiti Shiite.

Shiites were also angered by calls in some Kuwaiti papers for those
who took part in the Mughniyeh rally to have their citzenship
withdrawn and be deported to Iran.

"The issue has snowballed from an action against the Mughniyeh rally
into a major crackdown on a political grouping known for its bold
national positions," said the chairman of the Kuwait Society for the
Advancement of Democracy, Nasser al-Abdali. "It has raised sectarian
tensions. I really don't see any threat by the group that warrants
making such serious accusations against its members."

The scope of the accusations reminded Shiites of a crackdown
launched two decades ago when Kuwait backed Saddam Hussein's Sunni-
dominated Iraqi regime in its 1980-1988 war with Shiite Iran. Some
liberal Kuwaiti writers have claimed that the crackdown was
instigated by the United States and some neighboring countries to
rein in potential pro-Iran elements.

"I'm afraid that Kuwait has become a target - like Iraq, Lebanon,
Palestine and Pakistan - for the so-called 'creative chaos' plot
launched by the neoconservatives in Washington," Ahmad al-Dayeen
wrote in Aalam Al-Yaum daily.

However, columnist Nabeel al-Fadhl charged that Iran was behind the
current escalation, with the aim of deterring Kuwait from providing
the launch-pad for any future US military action against it.

"What is happening in Kuwait is a clear threat [to show] what Iran
can do through its parties and followers if Kuwait became a
springboard for the [US] military strike against Iran," Fadhl wrote
in Al-Watan. - AFP

JHARKHAND
Cameras to snoop on naxals in Jharkhand
Devesh K. Pandey
http://www.hindu.com/2008/03/19/stories/2008031960221400.htm

Jawans vulnerable to landmine attack in hilly terrain and thick forest: CRPF
2,000-strong task force a la Andhra Pradesh's Greyhound being raised

RANCHI : Intensifying their anti-naxal campaign, the Jharkhand police will 
install video cameras for surveillance in the Parasnath Hills, where an 
operation, carried out in coordination with the Central Reserve Police 
Force, unearthed a base of the outfit this January.

The cost-effective video cameras, to be put at vantage points in the thick 
forest, will have an in-built mechanism to automatically transmit footage to 
the central monitoring system, giving ample time for the police to chalk out 
an action plan if they spot any naxal activity.

Through heavy deployment and regular combing operations, the police are 
preparing to sanitise the region, a Jain pilgrimage centre.

Also, a special task force, on the lines of Andhra Pradesh's "Greyhound," is 
being raised specifically to fight naxalism, which has gained ground in 18 
of the 24 districts, said Director-General of Police Vishnu Dayal Ram.

The 2,000-strong task force would be fully equipped for conducting 
operations in inhospitable terrain of the State that has in the recent years 
seen a steep rise in naxal violence owing to underdevelopment and apathy on 
the part of the State administration to basic requirements of the people.

Another US Strike Inside Pakistan's Border Region
By Peter Symonds
19 March, 2008
WSWS.org
http://www.countercurrents.org/symonds190308.htm

An air strike on Sunday on a compound in the Pakistani tribal area
of South Waziristan that borders Afghanistan has left up to 20
people dead. While Washington has not acknowledged responsibility,
there is little doubt that the US military or the CIA carried out
the attack as part of a widening covert war against anti-American
militants entrenched in the Pakistani border areas.

Up to seven missiles or bombs flattened the compound just south of
the regional centre of Wana at around 3 p.m. "When I heard the
explosions, I rushed to the place where it happened. I saw dead
bodies scattered everywhere," a villager Aziz Ullah Wazir told the
Washington Post. Local residents and officials claimed that the
house belonged to a Taliban sympathiser, Noorullah Wazir, and was
frequented by "Arabs"-the term used to denote foreign supporters of
the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Veteran journalist Sailab Masood told the Guardian, however, that
local tribesmen were angry that innocent civilians had been killed.

Details of the attack are scanty. According to the New York Times,
villagers said a B-52 bomber carried out the raid. Other reports
cite locals who claim to have heard the sound of a US Predator drone-
an unmanned surveillance vehicle that has been used in previous
attacks inside Pakistan. The Pakistani military acknowledged that
the blasts had occurred, but pointedly refused to identify the
attackers, saying only that the army had no operations in the area.

Both Washington and Islamabad are deliberately playing down the
attack, which will only further fuel anger at Pakistan's support for
the US-led occupation of Afghanistan. President Pervez Musharraf's
involvement in the Bush administration's bogus "war on terrorism"
and tacit approval of US operations inside Pakistan were a major
factor in generating opposition to his regime.

The issue remains highly sensitive as the winners of last month's
elections-the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim
League-Nawaz (PML-N)-prepare to form a government. Whatever their
limited criticisms of US militarism during the campaign, both
parties have a long record of supporting Pakistan's alliance with
Washington and collaborating with the US military. Significantly,
neither party has protested against the latest missile strike, an
indication that the new government, like Musharraf, will acquiesce
to US strikes in the tribal areas.

There are many signs that the Bush administration has expanded
covert operations inside Pakistan since the beginning of the year.
In early January, the New York Times reported that a top-level White
House meeting, involving Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and
other senior officials, discussed in detail "far more aggressive
covert operations" inside Pakistani border areas.

"The new operations for expanded covert operations include loosening
restrictions on the CIA to strike selected targets in Pakistan, in
some cases using intelligence provided by Pakistani sources,
officials said. Most counter terrorism operations in Pakistan have
been conducted by the CIA... [I]f the CIA were given broader
authority, it could call for help from the military or deputise some
forces of the Special Operations Command to act under the authority
of the agency," the article stated.

While the New York Times claimed that no decisions were taken at the
January meeting, another article last month reported that the CIA
had established a base inside Pakistan. "Among other things, the new
arrangements allowed an increase in the number and scope of patrols
and strikes by armed Predator surveillance aircraft launched from a
secret base in Pakistan-a far more aggressive strategy to attack Al
Qaeda and the Taliban than had existed before," the Times explained.

In its report of Sunday's strike, the Times noted that Mike
McConnell, director of national intelligence and General Michael
Hayden, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, reached an
agreement in January with the new Pakistani army chief, General
Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, to allow the US greater freedom to strike
targets in the tribal areas without specific permission from the
Pakistani Army. The article claimed that the US was
receiving "better on-the-ground human intelligence" by
providing "large cash payments to tribesmen".

There has been a marked increase in visits to Pakistan this year by
senior American military officers, including two by the chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. During his latest
visit on March 4, Admiral Mullen discussed US assistance to expand
Pakistan's Frontier Corps to a force of around 85,000 recruited from
tribesmen in the border areas. The Pentagon has already spent around
$25 million to provide the Frontier Corps with equipment, including
vehicles, radios and surveillance devices, and plans to spend
another $75 million over the next year.

At least two other US aerial attacks have taken place inside
Pakistan this year. On January 29, a missile destroyed a compound in
the village of Khushali Torikhel in North Waziristan, killing 13
people. US and Pakistani officials claimed that Abu Laith al-Libi, a
senior Al Qaeda commander, was among the dead. On February 28, a
missile strike destroyed an alleged Taliban safe house in the
village of Kaloosha in South Waziristan, killing at least 10 people.
A local tribal leader told the Washington Post that women and
children were among the dead, and that at least six others were
injured.

It is not possible to confirm the identity of the victims of these
attacks. In neighbouring Afghanistan, US officials routinely brand
the casualties of US operations as "Taliban" and "Al Qaeda" and deny
civilian deaths even in cases where locals have provided clear
evidence to the contrary. On-the-ground intelligence provided by
paid informants is often unreliable and coloured by local rivalries
and animosities. Claims about the outcome of US strikes inside
Pakistan are undoubtedly just as uncertain.

Other attacks on targets within Pakistan are taking place from US
bases inside Afghanistan. Pakistani officials lodged a formal
complaint with the US military after artillery fire from Afghanistan
hit a house in North Waziristan last Wednesday, killing two women
and two children. According to the Pakistani-based News, last Friday
four missiles fell on the village of Botraki, just inside the
Pakistani border.

The extent of Washington's covert war inside Pakistan remains
unclear, but such operations are fuelling widespread anger and
provoking a rising number of suicide bombings and attacks on
Pakistani security forces and other targets. Last Saturday, a bomb
blast at a restaurant in Islamabad popular with foreigners killed a
Turkish woman and wounded at least 10 others, including five
American officials, two Japanese journalists and a British police
officer. Four of the five Americans were FBI agents operating in
Pakistan.

The escalation of US operations can only have a profoundly
destabilising impact, not just in the border regions, but throughout
Pakistan, which is already wracked by deep political crisis. While
the PPP and PML-N won a decisive victory in last month's election,
in part because of their criticism of Musharraf's collaboration with
the US, the mood will quickly turn as the new government seeks to
maintain the US alliance amid ongoing American strikes on Pakistani
soil.

Detained Muslims tortured by Thai army: rights body
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\03\27\story_27-3-2008_pg4_12

BANGKOK: The mysterious death of an imam in Thai army custody last
week has highlighted the plight of Muslim rebel suspects who say
they have been tortured while detained for interrogation, the Human
Rights Watch said on Wednesday. Torture included ear-slapping,
beating with wooden and metal clubs, forced nudity, exposure to
cold, electric shocks, strangulation and suffocation with plastic
bags, the rights body quoted freed detainees as saying in a
statement. "Muslims in southern Thailand live in fear of the army
storming in to take their men away to be tortured," Brad Adams, Asia
director at the New York-based agency, said in the statement. "The
army is fighting an insurgency, but that doesn't mean soldiers can
abuse people. And prosecuting troops for mistreatment could actually
help calm the situation and rebuild trust with the Muslim
community," said Adams. But Army spokesman Colonel Acra Tiproch said
only "a small faction" of Muslim detainees had been abused and then
only because they "provoked" interrogators as a ploy to demonise the
Buddhist state and its troops. "Some of these suspects are well-
educated and they know well how to make junior interrogators lose
their patience and start beating them," he said by telephone from
the Malay-speaking zone, a former sultanate annnexed by Bangkok a
century ago. Reuters

Apr 1, 2008
Pakistan in tug of war over terror
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JD01Df02.html

A central issue in the judicial row last year was "missing people".
These were the hundreds of people picked up by the security agencies
for alleged involvement with the Taliban or al-Qaeda. They were
detained without trail or formal registration of a police case
against them.

The Inter-Service Intelligence released several people under court
pressure, but this pressure eventually came to a dead end. This was
not because the security agencies necessarily wanted to defy the
courts. The problem was that not all of the detainees were in the
custody of the Pakistani security agencies. Dozens of them were
handed over to the Americans, ending up in Bagram air base in
Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or other US facilities.

Cairo puts down textile strike with 'intimidation'
Authorities round up activists, bloggers
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Monday, April 07, 2008
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=90669

CAIRO: Plans for a general strike in Egypt collapsed Sunday after
the government made good on its warning to take firm action against
protesters by arresting 40 people, including bloggers and
politicians, for incitement. "Forty people have been arrested around
the country, including in Cairo and Alexandria, for inciting
unrest," the official said, adding that workers had failed to heed
the call to strike.

Among those detained are opposition leaders including Islamist
journalist Mohammad Abdel-Qudoos and Magdi Hussein who heads the
Labor party, suspended since 2000 after its mouthpiece published
articles critical of the government.

Two members of the opposition Ghad party, one from the Nasserist
party and three members of the opposition movement Kefaya were also
taken into custody.

Plans for a strike at Egypt's largest textile factory also collapsed
on Sunday after pressure from security forces and internal divisions
among the workers, employees said.

"Police in civilian clothes entered the factory in the middle of the
night, and the strike failed due to intimidation," Karim al-Baheiri,
a worker at the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in the Nile Delta
city of Mahalla told AFP.

Another leader, Sayyed Habib, who led factory protests in 2006,
said "demands made have already been fulfilled a week ago,"
highlighting divisions between workers at the factory.

A strike would have been considered illegal without the backing of
unions which are mainly linked to the ruling National Democratic
Party.

In Cairo, police and riot police trucks were deployed in downtown
areas where protests had been planned.

Skyrocketing food prices in Egypt since the start of the year have
been matched recently by a rumbling wave of popular discontent and
unprecedented strikes and demonstrations.

International organizations, including the UN, the French embassy
and the American University in Cairo have warned staff to avoid the
Cairo city center, where a protest was planned for the afternoon.

The Interior Ministry Saturday threatened "immediate and firm
measures against any attempt to demonstrate, disrupt ... traffic or
the running of public establishments and against all attempts to
incite such acts."

The call for a general strike has been circulating for more than a
week on the Internet, via text messages and on the social networking
site FacebookThe-New-Faces-at-Facebook .

It is unclear who initiated the call, which snowballed after some
25,000 employees at the textile plant in Mahalla announced plans to
strike from Sunday over low salaries and price hikes.

The Interior Ministry insisted that all public institutions -
including schools and state-run factories - should be open for
business as usual on Sunday.

And it accused "provocateurs and illegal movements" of
having "spread false rumors and called for protests, demonstrations
and a strike on Sunday."

However, despite official claims that the strike action had failed,
traffic around the country was unusually light for a Sunday, the
first day of the Egyptian work week, AFP reporters said.

A Facebook group called "April 6" calling for the strike has
attracted 64,000 members.

Liberal economic reforms and price hikes have led the social gap to
grow, Cairo University's Mohammad Kamel al-Sayyed said, but said "a
large social explosion" was unlikely.

12 killed, another 2 injured as Sa'ada clashes renew
Mohammed Bin Sallam
http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1144&p=front&a=2

SA'ADA, April 6 - Tension and fierce clashes between government
troops backed by some tribesmen broke out against Houthi supporters
in different districts of the Sa'ada governorate, according to
reliable sources in the governorate. Other confrontations between
Houthis and pro-government Bakhtan tribesmen in Al-Salem district
killed at least 12 people and left two injured on both sides.

The same sources said that government troops evacuated an area
which, according to the Doha agreement, was to be under Houthi
control. According to them, troops backed by fighter jets and tanks
launched offensives against Houthi supporters and their leadership
on Monday. Citizens reported seeing the fighter jets striking Houthi
strategic positions in Al Salem area.

Army forces, positioned on a hill overlooking the main road fired at
a car below, injuring citizen Ezzi Al-Mishet, who was left bleeding
until he died because soldiers did not allow other passengers to
take him to the hospital, local sources noted.

Umma.net, the mouthpiece of Al-Haq Party, quoted Houthi loyalists as
saying the authority still attacks innocent citizens on a daily
basis in different parts of the governorate.

Speaking to media outlets by phone, Houthi representative Sheikh
Saleh Habra warned the military and security leaders against
breaching the Doha ceasefire agreement. "The authority continues to
kill citizens and destroy their property. Following the arrival of
the Qatari mediation team, the government troops set up more
ambushes and killed more citizens, thus giving a message to us and
the Qatari mediators that the agreement is merely `ink on paper'
through which the governments only wants to get more support from
Qatar," Habra commented.

"We condemn such irresponsible attacks and claim that the authority
should respect the agreement and abide by its terms," said
Habra. "The government must bring perpetrators, who committed
massacres against detainees in the Fakhra Jail, to the competent
courts. We also demand that these courts try the irresponsible
soldiers who killed innocent citizens Qasim Al-Yousifi, Hassan Jaber
Al-Gubeiran and Aziz Al-Mahram. The government should also bring to
court the military soldiers who attacked Dhaiban Mosque while
citizens were performing Friday prayers, thereby injuring four
children near the mosque."

According to the representative, Houthi followers tolerated repeated
aggressive attacks by the army in order not to breach the agreement
because they care about peace and stability in the governorate. "We
are closely observing how the authority instigates some sheikhs and
tribal leaders of Khawlan Bin Amer tribe to kill innocent citizens
and damage their property," added Habra. "We informed the
presidential mediation committee and Qatari mediation team about
such violations committed by the army."

With regard to efforts expended by the mediation committee, Habra
told the Yemen Times that Saleh Qara'a, the mediation committee
head, is too biased on the side of government authorities.

"We are happy about the involvement of Qatari mediators in the
reconciliation efforts expended by the committee," said Habra. "The
Qatari mediators are reliable, honest and trustworthy and we expect
them to play a vital role in convincing both conflicting sides to
abide by the ceasefire agreement and cease bloodshed."

The Houthi representative claimed that the authorities should abide
by the Doha-brokered peace deal, signed by the government and
Houthis on February 1, which stipulates that the authorities must
stop directing false charges to Houthi followers by accusing them of
creating obstacles to the ceasefire agreement. He said that the
government has abided by only 10 percent of the agreement terms,
ignoring or even violating the others.

"We request Yemeni authorities to remain committed to the agreement
terms, as well as stop creating problems and obstacles with the
attention of foiling reconciliation efforts," Habra went on to say.

Regarding terms of the agreement signed by both sides in Doha, Habra
said, "We are ready to abandon our mountaintop positions and hand
them over to the authority in conformity with Term 7 of the
agreement."

"We have already evacuated more than 30 strategic positions, but the
government has not abided by any one of the agreement terms. It did
not release those detained over alleged connections with the Sa'ada
fighting," said Habra. "It did not pull out its troops from
citizens' homes and farmlands, which were badly damaged during the
four years of fighting. Army forces are still deployed in most
Sa'ada districts."

The Houthi representative added that because of the government's
arbitrary conduct and practices, Houthi followers cannot abandon
their strategic positions, notably as their houses and farms are
still occupied by government troops.

Habra pointed out that the clearest evidence of the government's
lack of commitment regarding the terms of the agreement is its
refusal to free the 500 detainees from the various governorates, who
are jailed over alleged connection with the Sa'ada events, their
being Hashimis or affiliated with the Zaidi sect. "Under the
agreement, the authority must release all these detainees within one
month after signing the agreement, but this requires that government
officials be serious about ending the fighting and ceasing
bloodshed," he reiterated.

Asked about the causes of fundamental differences between them and
the Yemeni government, Habra replied, "Prior to the war, our demands
were limited to allowing us to practice our religious rituals freely
like other Yemeni citizens. But now, we also demand that the
government release the detainees and compensate citizens whose
property was damaged in the war."

A recent international report recorded many abuses the authority
committed against civil society organizations in the nation over
alleged connections with the Sa'ada fighting. Released by World
Movement for Democracy and entitled "Defending Civil Community," the
report revealed that the Yemeni government has disbanded tens of
private organizations and societies, including the Sana'a-based Badr
Cultural Center, for political reasons. The report added that the
government took such a procedure based on its belief that these
organizations are loyal to Abdulmalik Al-Houthi.

Lawfare and Wearfare in Turkey
Hilal Elver
April 2008
http://www.merip.org/mero/interventions/elverINT.html

(Hilal Elver is a visiting professor of global and international
studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara and an editor
of Middle East Report.)

With war on its eastern borders, and renewed turmoil inside them,
Turkey is transfixed by something else entirely: the desire of
university-age women to wear the Muslim headscarf on campus, a
seemingly innocent sartorial choice that has been forbidden by the
courts, off and on, since 1980. At public meetings and street
demonstrations, in art exhibits, TV ads, and dance and music
performances, headscarf opponents argue vociferously that removing
the ban will be the first step backward to the musty old days of the
Ottoman Empire. A quieter majority of 70 percent, according to a
recent poll, thinks that pious students should be allowed to cover
their heads, perhaps because approximately 64 percent of Turkish
women do so in daily life. There is almost no middle ground between
the two poles: Even completely apolitical Turks have gravitated one
way or another.

Headscarf opponents see themselves as following in the footsteps of
founding father Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who launched an ambitious
program, beginning in the 1920s, to remake the heartland of the
longest-lasting Islamic empire into a modern, Westernized nation-
state. In the Kemalist camp are the majority of the officers in
Turkey's powerful army, as well as high court judges, opposition
party leaders in Parliament, secular women's organizations, business
associations, many university presidents and professors, and the
bulk of the mainstream media. They will stop at little to prevent
what they perceive as the downfall of secular Turkey.

Proponents of lifting the ban also claim the mantle of history. In
July 2007 elections, the Justice and Development Party (or AKP),
made up of politicians with roots in a series of outlawed Islamist
parties, retained its healthy parliamentary majority in one of the
most decisive victories in the history of the Turkish multi-party
system. The landslide came despite the disappointment felt by the
AKP's core constituency, the devout middle class, in the party's
failure to lift the headscarf ban at universities during its first
term in office. To the surprise and perhaps the dismay of the
secular opposition, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan carefully
avoided the headscarf issue from 2002-2007, so as not to be seen as
defying the will of the outspoken generals. Now that the Turkish
public has endorsed its rule, and implicitly rebuked the army, the
AKP feels justified in pleasing its electoral base.

The proscription of the headscarf is not black-letter law, but
rather the Constitutional Court's interpretation of the provisions
for secularism and equality in the Turkish constitution. To lift the
ban, Turkish politicians have tried multiple times to pass more
specific laws or to amend the constitution, as the AKP succeeded in
doing on February 9. Opponents of the headscarf have long relied on
the courts to block such efforts. This time around, both sides have
waged such "lawfare" with unprecedented vigor, bombarding not just
the Constitutional Court, but also a host of lower courts, with
claims and counter-claims. The chief prosecutor of Turkey, a staunch
Kemalist, drastically upped the ante by asking the Constitutional
Court to consider the extreme measures of closing down the AKP and
banning Prime Minister Erdoðan and his top 69 colleagues, including
President Abdullah Gül, from politics. On March 31, the judges
agreed to hear the case, raising the prospect of a
second "postmodern" coup in Turkey. Unlike the first of these in
1997, this coup would take place without the army's direct
involvement and would depose a party that, not even one year ago,
was reelected by a significant margin.
[.]

Key AKP constituents -- in particular, students who want to wear the
headscarf and their families -- let the party hear their
disgruntlement with the deadlock. The startling result was that the
AKP took up an offer from the far-right Nationalist Action Party
(MHP) to find an ad hoc solution to "the headscarf problem." It was
an unlikely alliance, to say the least. The MHP is implacably
opposed to Turkey's European aspirations and routinely blasted the
AKP's efforts from 2002-2007 to bring the country's legal and
political system into line with the Copenhagen criteria. MHP
activists organized many an angry demonstration against the
government's tentative overtures toward Kurdish rights and softening
of the traditional Turkish hard line on Cyprus, among other issues.
But together, the two parties command a super-majority in
Parliament, and amidst the clamor from the AKP faithful over the
headscarf, the right-wing nationalists' olive branch was too
tempting to spurn. Rumor has it that this offer traded MHP backing
for lifting the headscarf ban for the government's agreement to
postpone or even forego other important human rights reforms. It is
perhaps no accident, for instance, that the AKP's promise to get rid
of the notorious Article 301 of the penal code, which allows
citizens to be prosecuted for "insulting Turkishness," has vanished
from the party's agenda.

On February 9, by an overwhelming margin, the AKP-MHP coalition
passed amendments to two constitutional articles, Article 10
concerning equality and Article 42 concerning the right to
education. The wording in Article 42 is as follows: "Except as
otherwise stated in the laws of the Republic, no one can be
prevented from pursuing the right to university education. The limit
to the ways in which this right is pursued is specified by law." It
was a quick fix that satisfied no one: For headscarf-wearing women,
it was too narrowly worded, while for secularists, it was too broad.
Far from being resolved, the battle was rejoined.

[.]

In the 1990s, more and more young women were showing up for classes
wearing the headscarf. It was an index of the growing clout of
religion-friendly parties, and it made the Kemalist establishment
nervous. In February 1997, the military carried out its "post-
modern" or "e-coup" against the Islamist Welfare Party, warning in a
communiqué that Deputy Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan's statements
were threatening to secularism. The communiqué makes clear the
headscarf connection: "Clothing practices that have emerged against
the law and will direct Turkey to an outdated appearance must be
prevented." Erbakan's cabinet stepped down.

[.]

In 1999, the Turkish judicial system again resorted to highly
dubious reasoning to settle a headscarf confrontation in the Turkish
parliament. Newly elected Merve Kavakçý, of the Virtue Party that
had arisen from the ashes of Welfare, petitioned to assume her seat
with her head covered. Her fellow parliamentarians accused her of a
political attack on secularism and Turkish democracy. The
Constitutional Court dissolved the Virtue Party, on the grounds of
anti-secular activities, among them tolerance of the headscarf, and
Kavakçý lost her Turkish citizenship. Subsequently, public
institutions were much more strictly policed for the headscarf, as
more than 100,000 students, over 1,000 civil servants and more than
300 primary and secondary school teachers were forced to leave their
positions. The minister of education declared: "[Wearing the
headscarf] is a crime, and the punishment is dismissal from the
civil service. Everybody must comply with this rule. If they don't,
they have no place among us."[6] Thousands of university students
again filed suit against the ban. Some of the applications were
settled in favor of the students in lower courts, only to be turned
down on appeal.

[.]

Concurrently, the headscarf dispute was playing out in Europe. In
the 1990s, the European Human Rights Commission (now the European
Court of Human Rights) agreed to be tribunal of last resort for the
member countries' domestic courts. (In 1987, when Turkey formally
applied for EU membership, it accepted the principle that Turkish
citizens could file complaints against the state in Europe; two
years later, Turkey recognized the jurisdiction of the European
Court of Human Rights.) As early as 1993, when a Turkish university
refused to award diplomas to headscarf-wearing female students, the
Commission declined to hear the students' appeal, on the Turkish
Constitutional Court's own grounds that the secular state has the
right to restrict religious practices consistent with citizens'
rights to equal treatment and religious freedom.[7] The Turkish
educational establishment happily cited this decision as European
validation of the ban.

The 1993 decision, questionable as it was in human rights terms, was
consistent with a later ruling on the abolition of the Welfare
Party. Turkey is the world champion of political party banning -- no
fewer than 24, communist, socialist, Kurdish and Islamist, have been
shuttered since 1963. One by one, the parties sued in the European
Court of Human Rights. In every case, except that of Welfare, the
court ruled that Turkey had to pay compensation to the party,
emphasizing the importance of protecting political rights, freedom
of association and freedom of expression. Upon the negative judgment
for Welfare, the Virtue Party withdrew its own case. As a result of
this decision, a swath of Turkish public opinion is convinced that
that the European Court of Human Rights is biased against Islamic
values, and that it has acted politically, not legally.

When the Commission became the Court, headscarf ban victims again
sought relief (including the wife of current President Abdullah Gül,
though she withdrew her petition when her husband became foreign
minister in 2002). In its first, and most recent, decision, the
Court ruled in 2005 that medical school student Leyla Þahin's
education could indeed be obstructed in Turkish universities because
she wears the headscarf. The decision came as a surprise to many
liberal legal scholars and human rights organizations in Turkey,
Europe and the United States. The Court's basic argument was that
the headscarf ban is not necessarily against freedom of religion and
could be justified on grounds of "protecting the rights and freedoms
of others and maintaining public order." Legally speaking, the
decision conflicts with the Court's mandate to redress individual
injustices as laid out in the European Convention on Human Rights.
The decision suggests a double standard, particularly since the
Court raised the specter of Islamic extremism, when there was
absolutely no evidence that Leyla Þahin was part of any political
movement, and since the Court accepted the claim that she wears the
headscarf because of religious belief. The Court even disclosed a
value judgment about Turkish democracy, that it is "fragile."
[.]
The AKP's second electoral sweep in 2007 raised the stakes of the
debate considerably. Under Turkish law, the majority party in
Parliament has the right to nominate the president of the republic,
and the AKP put forward the name of former Foreign Minister Gül.
Secular Turks bluntly proclaimed that while they can accept the
headscarves of their pious grandmothers, or those of maids from
rural Anatolia, the prospect of a first lady wearing a headscarf was
too much to bear. Here, urban secular elites, or "white Turks" as
they are sometimes known, hinted that they fear losing power to the
emerging Anatolian elite and middle class as much as they fear
Islamization. For the first time in modern Turkish history, devout,
socially conservative Turks are staking a claim to be equal
participants in politics, the economy and society.
[.]
Most of all, the political struggle over the headscarf has
overshadowed the fact that two generations of Turkish women have
been stymied in their educational and professional pursuits -- 
simply because they choose to cover their heads. From university
administrations and government offices, these young women have heard
the same message about their life prospects: Go back home and bear
children. The first women to be expelled from universities are now
grandmothers. Headscarved women are barred from holding public
office. Headscarved lawyers are not allowed to represent their
clients in court, and have difficulty entering court buildings.
Defendants have been asked to remove their headscarves before they
testify.[9] Women wearing the headscarf were even prosecuted for
participating in a workshop on strengthening the penal code's
provisions against discrimination, because it was held in
ministerial offices.[10]
[.]
Most of all, the political struggle over the headscarf has
overshadowed the fact that two generations of Turkish women have
been stymied in their educational and professional pursuits -- 
simply because they choose to cover their heads. From university
administrations and government offices, these young women have heard
the same message about their life prospects: Go back home and bear
children. The first women to be expelled from universities are now
grandmothers. Headscarved women are barred from holding public
office. Headscarved lawyers are not allowed to represent their
clients in court, and have difficulty entering court buildings.
Defendants have been asked to remove their headscarves before they
testify.[9] Women wearing the headscarf were even prosecuted for
participating in a workshop on strengthening the penal code's
provisions against discrimination, because it was held in
ministerial offices.[10]

The headscarf ban, lacking a legal rationale, is based in Kemalist
conceptions of "public space," but of course it bleeds into the
private sector as well. Women wearing the headscarf face
discrimination on the job market, both in finding employment and in
wages. A few brave "independent intellectuals" with means, after
encountering the hostility of secular feminists, have established
their own organizations to study and publicize the problems of
headscarved women and advocate for their constitutional rights. But
this civil society movement willing remains weak in the face of a
judicial establishment long known as dogmatically secular. On a few
occasions, judges have been fired, demoted or exiled to far-off
districts for deciding in favor of headscarf rights, or even
prosecuted themselves because their wives were wearing the headscarf.
[11] These incidents raise serious questions about the independence
of the Turkish justice system.


Because the headscarf ban is applied inconsistently, it is hard to
document, or even estimate, the numbers of women who have been
discriminated against. There are no reliable statistics on how many
girls have been expelled from universities, because university
administrations do not necessarily record the real rationale for
expulsion. Indeed, 90 percent of female students who were not
permitted to attend classes after the ban were kicked out under the
guise of absenteeism.[12] But one scholar believes that 270,000 of
the 677,000 students ejected from higher education institutions
since June 2000 are victims of the ban.[13] There are reports that
the number of fired female teachers is approximately 5,000.[14]
Bearing in mind that the informal ban goes back to the 1980s, it
seems reasonable to conclude that the number of women who have been
deprived of their rights to work and get an education reaches into
the hundreds of thousands. The extent of the economic, social and,
more importantly, emotional impact of the ban on women and their
families, generation after generation, will likely remain unknown.

As the political crisis over the headscarf continues to unfold, it
is disturbing that the AKP seems to be searching quietly for ways to
neuter their Kemalist opponents, as their precursor parties did
before being closed down one after another. The right-wing
nationalist MHP seems to play a key role in such parliamentary
mathematics, and the AKP may conclude it has no choice but to accept
what the MHP offers to survive. A reprise of the "Turco-Islamic
synthesis," the right-wing and particularistic ideology behind the
1980 coup, is one nightmarish scenario. There is a much better way:
for liberals to overcome their prejudices, resist the pull of
Kemalist fearmongering and stand up for the rights of everyone, even
those not like them, in a genuinely free and liberal Turkey. For the
obduracy of the Kemalist establishment over the headscarf has not
only undermined the prospects for a "civilian constitution," but has
also come to threaten the future of the democratically elected AKP
government, and indeed, the future of Turkish democracy.

-------------------------------------------------------

Musharraf pardons Indian death row prisoner
Press Trust Of India
Islamabad, February 28, 2008
www.hindustantimes.com

Indian prisoner Kashmir Singh, who spent 35 years
on a death row in Lahore jail, will be released
immediately as President Pervez Musharraf has approved
his mercy petition, Pakistan government said on
Thursday.

Caretaker Human Rights Minister Ansar Burney, who
found Singh during a visit to Lahore's Central Jail,
told reporters that Musharraf had accepted the
Indian's mercy petition on humanitarian grounds and
ordered his immediate release.

Singh, who was arrested in Rawalpindi on espionage
charges in 1973, was sentenced to death by an army
court. He has become a mental wreck after long years
of solitary confinement. After Burney's intervention,
Singh was taken to hospital for treatment.

The approval of the mercy petition filed on Singh's
behalf by Pakistan's human rights ministry came a day
after Burney, one of the country's leading rights
activists, announced that the prisoner's family had
been traced in Hoshiarpur in the Indian Punjab.

Syed Fahad Burney, a kin of the minister and acting
chairman of the Ansar Burney Trust, told Dawn News
that Singh's family is not expected to visit him in
Pakistan since it is hoped that he "might return home
soon".

Burney, who played a pivotal role in Singh's release,
said he would try to secure the release of any other
Indian prisoner that he might come across in Pakistani
jails.

"If we find any other Indian or foreign prisoners in
Pakistani jails, I will get them out," he said.

Military service haunts Israeli women
Reuters
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4285752a12.html

NOT FOR EVERYONE: Many Israeli women are forced to bury uncomfortable
memories of their compulsory military service.

One posed for a photo as she scrubbed a Palestinian corpse. Another
stripped a man to his underwear and then beat him. A third helped
cover up the abuse of a young boy.

The six Israeli women who feature in the documentary, To See If I'm
Smiling, each wrestle with memories of their compulsory military
service that they would rather erase.

But after years of trying to bury the past, they have spoken out in a
film that explores the darker side of Israel's 40-year-old occupation
of the Palestinian territories and examines its impact on a generation
of young men and women.

"It's easy to finish your military service and push it to the back of
your mind," said director Tamar Yarom. "But these girls are telling
their personal stories - which are not always very nice - to show
people what is going on."

All but one of the women spent time as conscript soldiers in the
Palestinian territories during the uprising that erupted in 2000. In
the film, they recount their memories from that period, describing how
they coped with military machismo and with the residual guilt about
what they witnessed.

One girl who had wanted to save lives as a paramedic said she ended up
scrubbing corpses to hide signs of abuse by Israeli soldiers. Visibly
distressed, she looks for the first time in years at a photo of her
and a dead Palestinian man.

"How in hell did I think I'd ever be able to forget?" she says,
brushing away tears.

Although female soldiers are kept out of the front line, Israel is one
of the only countries to enforce military service for women. Yarom
aims to highlight the fragility of some girl soldiers - many still in
their teens when they start their two year army stint - and the
violence into which they are thrust.

"You expect women to be more sensitive to suffering and more
empathetic to the other side. But the strength of the film is how it
shows what happens to human beings in such a warped situation, and how
women are not immune," Yarom said.

Yarom hopes the documentary will prompt soul-searching in the Jewish
state, where military service is a core part of national identity, and
encourage other traumatised ex-soldiers to talk about violence they
may have inflicted or witnessed.

"This country is in a coma. With all the bombs and attacks, we are
numb," she said.

"People feel we are in a war of survival and it's better not to
criticise soldiers, because they are the ones protecting us."

Israel's army said in a statement that soldiers adhere to a strict
ethical code and that in exceptional cases, where the code is
violated, an investigation is launched. It said the number of ethical
violations involving Palestinians had "consistently dropped" since the
events described in the film.

Yarom expects the film will provoke criticism both from the Israeli
left - because of her sympathetic portrayal of the soldiers - and from
the right - which often balks at criticising the army.

Yarom said personal experience prompted her to make the film. As a
support soldier during the earlier intifada of the 1980s, she was
shown a Palestinian torture victim but failed to speak out.

Almost two decades later, she still cannot shake the image of the man,
slumped over a generator, his neck bent to the side and his face
covered in blood.

"It's the kind of picture that stays with you forever," she said.
"During my service I detached myself. When you try to re-attach
yourself afterwards it's painful."

Report: Gov't won't grant rights to Palestinians west of fence
By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/935078.html

The State of Israel will not grant permanent or temporary residency to
West Bank Palestinians whose homes were annexed to the Jerusalem
municipal area by the separation fence, the Palestinian newspaper Al
Quds reported on Sunday.

The measure, which was reportedly approved by the cabinet in October,
stipulates that the Palestinians in question could at most apply for
residency permits from the military authorities - which confer no
right to work in Israel, to obtain Israeli health insurance or to
enjoy any of the other benefits of legal residency.

At the fringes of Jerusalem's municipal area are a few neighborhoods
that are officially part of the West Bank. Their residents are
Palestinian Authority citizens, and are legally banned from entering
Israel. The newly-built separation fence between Israel and the West
Bank disconnected them from the rest of the West Bank.
Advertisement

The decision effectively means that the communities that were forcibly
annexed to Israel will not be permitted to work and study in Israel
and receive welfare benefits. In order to work they would have to
travel to the West Bank, but travel expenses are in most cases higher
than a day's salary.

The Association for Civil Rights said that "the government strives to
make the lives of the Palestinians who were annexed to Jerusalem
intolerable to a degree that they would leave their homes and move to
the West Bank."

Forced Annulment Keeps Couple Apart
By DONNA ABU-NASR
Associated Press Writer
Sun Jan 20, 2008
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SAUDI_FORCED_DIVORCE?SITE=ORLAG&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

AP Photo/HASAN JAMALI

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- Two years ago, a knock on Fatima and
Mansour al-Timani's door shattered the life they had built together.

It was the police, delivering news that a judge had annulled their
marriage in absentia after some of Fatima's relatives sought the
divorce on grounds she had married beneath her.

That was just the beginning of an ordeal for a couple who - under
Saudi Arabia's strict segregation rules - can no longer live together.
They sued to reverse the ruling, publicized their story and sought
help from a Saudi human rights group.

But the two remain apart and Fatima said she is considering suicide if
her recent appeal to King Abdullah does not reunite her with her husband.

"Only the king can resolve my case," Fatima told The Associated Press
by telephone in a rare interview. "I want to return to my husband, but
if that is not possible, I need to know so I can put an end to my life."

Fatima's case underscores shortcomings in the kingdom's Islamic legal
system in which rules of evidence are shaky, lawyers are not always
present and sentences often depend on the whim of judges.

The most frequent victims are women, who already suffer severe
restrictions on daily life in Saudi Arabia: They cannot drive, appear
before a judge without a male representative, or travel abroad without
a male guardian's permission.

Recently, the king did intervene and pardon another high-profile
defendant - a rape victim who was sentenced to lashes and jail time
for being in a car with a man who was not her relative.

The two cases have brought Saudi human rights once again into the
international spotlight, revealing not only the weakness of the
kingdom's justice system, but the scant rights of Saudi women.

"When I heard that the (rape victim) was pardoned, I couldn't believe
it. My case is so much simpler than hers, since my divorce is
invalid," Fatima said.

Fatima said her husband, a hospital administrator, followed Saudi
tradition in asking her father for permission to marry her in 2003.

"My brother reported good things about him, so my dad accepted his
proposal," said Fatima, a computer specialist who was 29 when she married.

She said her father knew that Mansour came from a less prominent tribe
than hers, but that he did not mind because he "cared about the man
himself."

A few months after the wedding, several of Fatima's relatives,
including a half brother, persuaded her father to give them power of
attorney to file a lawsuit demanding an annulment, she said.

Then her father died, and Fatima said she had hoped the case would be
dropped.

But on Feb. 25, 2006, police knocked on the couple's door to serve
Mansour with divorce papers - which said his marriage had been
annulled nine months earlier.

"We were shattered. How did this happen? Why?" Fatima asked.

Under Saudi law, a woman needs the permission of her family to marry.

Saudi lawyer Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem, who used to represent the couple,
said local interpretations of Islamic law hold that relatives of a
married couple have the right to seek an annulment if they feel the
marriage lowers the extended family's status.

He said authorities are reluctant to overrule such annulment orders,
believing they are private matters within extended families.

Fatima took the couple's 2-year-old daughter and 4-month-old son to
live with her mother, who had persuaded her to let Mansour deal with
the legal issues on his own.

But after three months without her husband, Fatima and the children
sneaked out of her mother's house and flew with Mansour to the western
seaside city of Jiddah, where they sought to live in anonymity.

Saudi police soon discovered them and imprisoned the family for living
together illegally.

"The police told me I either return to my (mother's) family or go to
jail," Fatima said. "I chose jail."

"My children and I were thrown in a cell with women sentenced for
pushing drugs, practicing witchcraft and behaving immorally," Fatima
said. Authorities allowed her to send her daughter back to live with
her father, but the infant stayed with Fatima in jail.

"He learned to speak in jail, he learned to walk in jail and his teeth
came out in jail," she said.

Meanwhile, Mansour went to court to appeal the divorce ruling, but a
Riyadh appeals court upheld the decision in 2007.

Last September, the head of a prominent Saudi human rights group
reportedly asked the kingdom's highest court to review the case.

Bandar al-Hajjar, head of the National Society of Human Rights,
submitted two Islamic studies concluding that the divorce was invalid,
according to the Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily.

The studies, conducted by Islamic researcher Adnan Al-Zahrani and
Bassam Al-Bassam, a counselor at the Court of Cassation in Mecca, said
that if a woman's legal guardian represented her at the original
wedding, then other relatives have no right to object to the marriage
based on compatibility.

Both studies concluded that Fatima married Mansour with her father's
permission, and that only the wife can decide whether she wants her
marriage annulled, the paper reported.

Despite their legal fight, Fatima and Mansour remain apart.

After nine months in jail, Fatima moved to an orphanage where she and
her son share an apartment with several other women.

Fatima said she is holding out hope the king might pardon her, and
recognize her as "married to Mansour, before God."

"I love him more than ever. He's the only one who has stood by me,"
she said.

Street life for aboriginal poor in Montreal proving more and more deadly

A life of daily danger
by Stefan Christoff
http://hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=13178

As night falls over Montreal, the disturbing reality facing many First
Nations people in this city becomes apparent as the park benches,
alleyways and stairwells surrounding Cabot Square, at Atwater metro,
transform into sleeping dens for dozens of urban indigenous people,
most originating from Northern Quebec.

As the winter months rest around the corner, fear of freezing deaths
within Montreal's urban indigenous communities is on the rise.

"[E]xposure to the elements is a major concern throughout the year,
especially in the freezing months," explains Brett Pineau,
co-ordinator of the street patrol team for Montreal's Native
Friendship Centre, a non-profit community organization on the corner
of St-Laurent and Ontario that serves an estimated 1,750 indigenous
people in the greater Montreal area. "In January, February, as
temperatures drop to minus 25 [Celsius] or lower, a number of
Montreal's urban aboriginals fall asleep at night and never wake up
the next morning."

"Each year the Native Friendship Centre loses community members to the
streets," continues Annie Pisuktie, an Inuktitut-speaking outreach
worker for the centre.

Around five indigenous people die on the streets of Montreal each year
due to multiple factors including freezing, drug overdose and physical
abuse or street violence, according to the centre. The majority of
indigenous people who die on Montreal streets are from Northern
Quebec's Inuit communities or from Nunavut.

"Three years ago my niece died on the streets of Montreal," explains
Pisuktie. "After the death, as we were in mourning, her body stayed in
the morgue for two full weeks as I frantically raised the thousands
[of dollars] involved in sending the body back to the north, without
any assistance from the government."

Street suicide is another growing reality for urban First Nations in
Montreal, according to the Native Friendship Centre.

"One man who was in contact with us at the centre recently committed
suicide on the street," continues Pisuktie. "This man who took his own
life had been beaten by the Montreal police numerous times in the
past, and when a friend called the police in the middle of a dispute,
[he] committed suicide that same evening."

Walking around in the early morning hours, accompanied by an outreach
team from Montreal's only grassroots centre servicing urban indigenous
people, quickly illustrates the striking extent of the crisis facing
Montreal's homeless First Nations people. Alleged abuses and violence
at the hands of police are widely discussed in conversations that
crisscross between English, French and Inuktitut in city alleyways.

"Many people from our communities end up in Montreal for medical
reasons, specialized medical treatment, which you can't access on the
reservations," says Pineau. "Given that life on the reservation in
Northern Quebec is basically Third World conditions, often people are
forced to relocate to the city as basic needs on the reservations
aren't being met in terms of health care, education [and] clean
drinking water."

Relocating to Montreal from Northern Quebec translates into major
readjustments in terms of language, culture and lifestyle.

"Most people in Canada don't understand the ongoing trauma facing our
people due to colonization. Rage is still inside of our people, as
many of our families were ripped apart by the Canadian government,"
continues Joey Saganash, a youth outreach worker at the centre,
"especially in past generations when many children went to government
residential schools and never returned."

Life for indigenous people on the streets of Montreal is like war.
"Our people are on the streets, facing a hard life of drugs, alcohol,
cold weather," explains Saganash. "You can look really good coming
into the street, and five years later you can look like you went
through a war. Every day there is danger coming at you."

Information on the Native Friendship Centre is at www.nfcm.org.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Mapuche Hunger Striker Force-Fed by Chilean Authorities

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Mapuche International Link has received information from various sources
regarding the case of the hunger striker Patricia Troncoso Robles and recent
protests in support of the Mapuche cause.

HYPERLINK
"http://www.mapuche-nation.org/library/fotos/grande/patricia-troncoso-04.jpg
"Photo: Patricia Troncoso Robles Since January 21, Patricia has been
force-fed against her will by a team of doctors set up by the Ministry of
Home Affairs. According to a witness from the Catholic Church, she has been
tied up and sedated in order to quell her resistance. The witness, Father
Jose Luis Ysern, is the only person who has been allowed to see Patricia
recently and told a reporter that she had asked him to give her the last
rites. Her own family has been denied visiting rights and this has led to
much concern about her real state of health.

Patricia has been on hunger strike since 10 October 2007, in protest against
the violation of her due process. She had been accused of an arson attack
against a pine plantation owned by the Mininco Forestry Company, situated in
ancestral Mapuche land. The case against Patricia was widely known
throughout Chile to have been manufactured, and she was unjustly sentenced
to ten years' imprisonment after an unfair trial. Her aims are to establish
a re-trial, to secure the release of other Mapuche political prisoners and
end the ongoing persecution against Mapuche activists.

According to information provided by Radio Bio-Bio, Patricia has now been
moved from Chillan Prison to the special unit of the Martin Herminda
hospital in Chillan to receive intravenous feeding.

Her personal doctor, Berne Castro, said she fears that Patricia's life is in
imminent danger and stated: "After 106 days of this hunger strike, with a
serious immunity deficiency, with renal failure and cardiovascular damage,
it is important that the procedure of intravenous feeding is performed in
careful conditions. If it is not, they put Patricia at risk of death or
irreparable neurological damage."

Dr Castro further alleged that: "the procedure is being carried out in a
unit without cardiovascular or respiratory monitoring, without sufficient
equipment if Patricia enters into a cardiac arrest, and without the
necessary monitoring equipment to observe her dangerous condition, which
could lead to her suffering comprehensive neurological damage."

Dr Castro also states that Patricia's doctors are professional prison
doctors. "No prison doctors have clinical experience in this field. One of
them has had no clinical practice for a long time and another, who is
directly involved, is a general practitioner without much experience in
procedures like this."

The Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strike adopted by the World Medical
Association (AMM), in November 1991, and revised by the General Assembly of
the AMM, Pilanesberg, South Africa, in October 2006, states that:

"the doctor must respect the autonomy of the individual and should not force
people on hunger strike to be treated if they reject. Force-feeding against
an informed and voluntary rejection is unjustifiable..
Force-feeding is never ethically acceptable, even with the intention of
benefiting. Food threats, pressure, use of force or physical restraint are
forms of inhuman and degrading treatment."

Mapuches and other supporters throughout Chile have reacted with anger to
the news that Patricia is now being force-fed, as they consider this a
further violation of her human rights. In Chillan groups of supporters have
been holding night-long vigils in tents outside the hospital where she is
being held. The police have intervened, destroying tents and dispersing a
crowd that included women and children, who were holding a religious
ceremony at the time.

There have also been demonstrations every day in Santiago since the killing
of a young Mapuche man, Matias Catrileo, who was shot in the back by Chilean
police on 3 January this year on the outskirts of Vilcun, IX Region of
Araucanía. On 22 January five protestors were detained by police in La
Moneda Palace in Santiago.

Mapuche International Link

----------------------------------------------------

To                                                        26 February 2008
The Hon'ble Governor
Government of West Bengal
Raj Bhaban
Kolkata - 1

Sir,

For your kind information Mr. Julfikar Ali s/o Abdur Rahim Mia of Village : 
Lalkup, P.O.: Shibnagar, P.S. Ranninagar, District: Murshidabad has been 
working as District Human Rights Monitor (DHRM) in Murshidabad under the 
programme namely 'National Project for Preventing Torture in India' (NPPTI) 
supported by European Union and FNSt.

His primary task is to report the incidents of human rights violation in the 
district and to interact with different cross-section of the society in 
minimizing torture, i.e. the heads of the local administration, the 
teachers, political leaders, police authorities, Officers of BSF, etc. He is 
a human rights defender as he is working to uphold the fundamental rights 
guaranteed by our Constitution and also the United Nations Universal 
Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR).

During his course of action, he has been reporting series of incidents of 
torture and firing by Border Security Forces (B.S.F.) killing people of the 
bordering areas along with other torturous act committed by the state 
agencies. By course of his dedicated effort, he has won the wrath of B.S.F., 
as he has been reporting torture committed by B.S.F. on the people of the 
said locality. Our organization has been continuously intervening and 
complaining against the torturous and illegal acts of B.S.F to the state 
government, union government, various human rights institutions and also to 
international communities.

Under such backdrop, the B.S.F. has lodged a complaint at Ranninagar Police 
Station vide said Police Station case no. 8 of 2008 under sections 
147/148/149/186/353/307/326 of Indian Penal Code describing one incident 
which purportedly took place in the night of 11/12th January 2008 at about 
1-25 a.m. at Kaharpara border out post, point number 8, under police station 
Ranninagar. In the complaint along with three other persons, the name of 
Julfikar Ali, the DHRM has been named as an accused person though he has 
been misdescribed as Julfikar Shiekh and also his address was not fully 
correct. The police party has been haunting for him and raided his house in 
his absence.


We conducted fact finding over the matter and found that at that point of 
time as mentioned in the F.I.R. Julfikar Ali was not at all present at the 
time place of occurrence which is almost twenty five kilometers from the 
place of residence of Julfikar. He has been falsely implicated in the said 
police case by B.S.F. lodged by one Inspector, Vikash Chandra, B Company, 90 
BN B.S.F.

The allegation against Julfikar is false, fabricated and act of malice on 
the part of B.S.F. He was not connected with the incident anyway nor did he 
have any inkling with other accused persons in the said case. B.S.F. has 
deliberately instituted this complaint in order to put pressure on him so 
that he is constrained to refrain himself in reporting the incidents of 
violation of human rights. The act of lodging false complaint against the 
innocent person in order to gag voice of a human rights defender is per se 
illegal and criminal act done in a conspiratorial manner misusing and 
abusing the procedure of law in a democratic set up of this country.

In all cases as mentioned above, we informed and sought redress for the 
victims of BSF torture / killings to state government authorities, higher 
BSF officials, human rights institutions- both state & national level, 
international communities and others. In many cases the appropriate 
authorities have been enquiring / seeking reports from the concerned 
department. It is important to note that BSF personnel physically tortured 
one aged widow name Ms. Chanu Bala Mondal and after our complaints to 
different authorities over such brutal incident, departmental enquiry was 
initiated against some BSF personnel. Under this situation, Ms. Chanu Bala 
has been put under continuous threat and also inducement from a section of 
BSF with the help local smugglers. Mr. Julfikar always stood beside her at 
the time of distress while she refused to succumb to the wish of those BSF 
personnel. Mr. Gurpal Singh, Commanding Officer (CO) of 90 Battalion 
arranged meeting over this issue at Bamnabad School, under Raninagar police 
station on 17.12.2007 for amicable settlement with Chanu Bala and we were 
also present there at the relevant time. But Mr. Singh retracted from the 
announced programme finding media people present there. Conspicuously in 
this meeting he arranged huge force with number of accessories with sitting 
arrangements to give the meeting a grand colour. The rancor in the mind of 
BSF became multiplied after the failure of compromise meeting and they 
became very vindictive and the present case is the outcome of such attitude 
of BSF of that battalion.

The matter is very serious and grave. If a human rights defender is falsely 
implicated in grave police cases for his apparent act of reporting human 
rights violation incidents by B.S.F. is detrimental to the free society.

We draw your attention on this issue which demands immediate intervention on 
your part. An innocent person who is a human rights defender can not be 
harassed in false and fabricated police case. The Indian State is bound to 
recognize, respect and obey United Nations Declaration on Human Rights 
Defenders.

We urge you to immediately take step for exonerating of Julfikar Ali or drop 
charges from the above criminal case and also start proper proceeding 
against the BSF personnel / officer responsible for falsely implicating Mr. 
Julfikar in a serious police case.

original available on request or at < http://tinyurl.com/323aqf/
> <http://cispes.org/ > From: "CISPES National Office" <cispes {AT} 
> cispes.org> To: <cispes-ern {AT} lists.people-link.net> Date: Thu, 21 Feb 
> 2008 10:48:02 -0500
Subject: [Cispes-update] All charges dropped in case against "Suchitoto 13"

All charges dropped in case against "Suchitoto 13"
CISPES News Update
*vaya aqui para CISPES informes en español*
February 21, 2008

Also in this update:
-          ARENA's smear campaign against FMLN bolstered by U.S. 
intelligence report; FMLN proposes campaign finance reform
-          Assassinations of mayor and municipal employee in Alegría remain 
unsolved

On Tuesday, February 19, 13 political activists arrested last July in the 
town of Suchitoto were set free, and all charges against them were 
dismissed. This victory for the "Suchitoto 13" comes on the heels of the 
initial charges of "acts of terrorism" being dropped on February 8, 
following a drawn out, 7-month investigation. The terrorism charges, enabled 
by El Salvador's 2006 Special Law Against Acts of Terrorism, were 
universally denounced by human rights organizations in El Salvador and 
around the world, and carried a potential sentence of up to 60 years in 
prison.

After the government's February 8 admission that it did not have evidence to 
substantiate the original terrorism accusations, the charges were reduced to 
"public disorder" and "aggravated damages," crimes carrying sentences of up 
to 4 years. Accordingly, the case was moved from the jurisdiction of a 
special anti-terrorism tribunal in San Salvador - also established by the 
2006 law - to the regular court system in Suchitoto.

On Tuesday, the judge in Suchitoto dismissed the new, lesser charges, 
granting the defendants "definitive liberty" after the prosecution failed to 
appear at a preliminary hearing to present evidence. The government's 
attorneys later said their car broke down en route to the court. It is 
unclear whether the government will seek to appeal the decision.

The "Suchitoto 13" were violently arrested at a July 2, 2007, demonstration 
against Salvadoran president Antonion Saca's plan to "decentralize" 
Suchitoto's public water system, a move that was widely viewed as a first 
step toward the eventual privatization of that system. Following their 
arrests, several of the defendants were psychologically tortured by members 
of El Salvador's National Civilian Police (PNC), a police force that the 
U.S. State Department has praised as one of the best in Latin America, and 
which it trains at the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in San 
Salvador.

Starting on Monday, February 11, various social organizations participated 
in a three-day march from Suchitoto to San Salvador to ensure that public 
attention remained focused on the case, even after the charges had been 
reduced. The march had two clear messages: opposition to El Salvador's 
anti-terrorism law and the call for all charges to be dropped in the 
Suchitoto case. The latter demand was met with Tuesday's court ruling. In 
support of the march, the mayor of Soyapango, Carlos Ruiz of the FMLN party, 
declared, "this is a protest to say 'No more state terrorism!' It is a just, 
rebellious response to oppression."

In a further development, the Supreme Court of Justice petitioned the 
Legislative Assembly to rule on the constitutionality of the Special Law 
Against Acts of Terrorism, approved by a right-wing block in September 2006.

ARENA's smear campaign against FMLN bolstered by U.S. intelligence report; 
FMLN proposes campaign finance reform

In a recent visit to the United States, Salvadoran president Antonio Saca 
expressed concern about the findings of a recent U.S. intelligence report, 
which predicts that Venezuela will intervene in El Salvador's 2009 
elections. In his Annual Threat Assessment, U.S. Director of National 
Intelligence Mike McConnell states that "we expect [Venezuelan president 
Hugo] Chávez to provide generous campaign funding to the Farabundo Martí 
National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador in its bid to secure the 
presidency in the 2009 election."

Similar U.S. national security reports, later exposed as false and comprised 
of politically-manipulated intelligence, were used by the Bush 
administration to justify its preemptive war against Iraq in 2003. 
Nevertheless, Saca ordered an investigation into the U.S.'s claims and 
recalled a diplomat from Venezuela for consultations, declaring, "we are 
instructing the diplomat to return to El Salvador to provide first hand 
information on this topic."

Additionally, Saca warned that "any interference of a government such as 
Venezuela's in El Salvador's domestic affairs is unacceptable." Conversely, 
Saca seems to view electoral intervention by the United States government as 
not only acceptable, but welcomed. In a November 2007 press conference with 
President Bush, Saca stated that the U.S. "can help out a lot in preventing 
citizen support for certain proposals in the upcoming elections."

FMLN presidential candidate Mauricio Funes denied the U.S.'s accusations and 
pledged that his party would not receive financing from Venezuela. Funes 
promptly proceeded to propose a campaign finance reform package to the 
Legislative Assembly that would cap campaign spending, mandate transparency 
in campaign financing and expenditures, and ban donations from foreign 
sources.

For his part, Venezuelan president Chávez also dismissed the intelligence 
report, stating that the FMLN did not need his support because it is a 
"solid" and "well-organized" party with popular support. "It's a lie. We 
don't need to do that, and they don't need it," Chávez said.

In further response to the U.S.'s claims, Saca's right-wing ARENA party 
accused the FMLN not only of accepting electoral financing from Venezuela, 
but also of allowing economic intervention by means of a petroleum 
importation agreement between FMLN municipalities and the Venezuelan state 
oil company. ENEPASA, the enterprise that imports and distributes subsidized 
oil from Venezuela, publicly expressed its willingness to submit to any type 
of investigation and insisted that it has complied with all legal 
requirements and paid all necessary taxes for the project.

Assassinations of mayor and municipal employee in Alegría remain unsolved

Hundreds of family members and social organization representatives took part 
in a public demonstration in the central park of the municipality of 
Alergría on Sunday, February 17, to call for justice to be served in the 
double assassination that occurred in the town last month. On January 9, the 
young mayor of Alegría, Wilber Funes, was shot dead along with municipal 
employee Zulma Rivera as the two drove to an outlying area of the 
municipality to assess progress on a public works project. Sunday's activity 
was supported by Funes' FMLN party, which gathered signatures on a petition 
to Attorney General Félix Safie demanding that this case not result in 
impunity.

More than a month after the killings, there has been little sign of an 
investigation moving forward. Although the Attorney General's office says it 
has identified suspects, no arrests have been made. During Sunday's event, 
the father of Zulma Rivera offered his analysis of the situation, stating, 
"if justice is not carried out, it is because they don't want it. The 
killers are from here, from Alegría." He added that he believes there are 
people in the municipality who are concealing the identities of the 
assassins.

http://blogger-for-freedom.org/en/?p=17

Blog silence to support imprisoned Fouad Al-Farhan
January 5th, 2008 simon columbus Posted in Saudi Arabia |
Fouad Al-Farhan is being held in prison since weeks, without any reason 
being given to the public. But the causes seem to be clear: Critical 
articles on politics and society threatened conservative circles - and may 
have made him enemies. An international coalition works on his release - and 
calls for blog silence on January 6.
Fouad Al-Farhan had been warned: Not just, that Saudi government silenced 
his blog from February to July 20071 - a few days before his detention he 
announced it in a letter to his friends2:
"I was told that there is an official order from a high-ranking official in 
the Ministry of the Interior to investigate me. They will pick me up anytime 
in the next 2 weeks."
Before, he had been "asked" to sign an apology - without being told for 
what. Soon after this, the "Godfather" of the Saudi blogosphere has been 
arrested at his office and was brought to an unidentified location by 
security forces. It is the first time a Saudi blogger is taken into custody 
for his writing.
On January 1, three weeks after the detention on December 10, a statement 
was given by the ministry of the interior. It says, Al-Farhan was being held 
for "interrogation for violating non-security regulations".3.
The detailed backgrounds of the detention are still in the dark. Fouad 
Al-Farhan himself suggested in his letter - before being arrested - his 
postings on a group of political prisoners had led to accusation2:
"The issue that caused all of this is because I wrote about the political 
prisoners here in Saudi Arabia and they think I'm running a online campaign 
promoting their issue. All what I did is wrote some pieces and put side 
banners and asked other bloggers to do the same."
These political prisoners are a group of businessmen from Jeddah, who are 
accused to have supported terrorism, even though their lawyer claims, their 
plan to found a human rights group had really caused their detention4.
Another prominent Saudi blogger, Ahmad Al-Omran, suggests on his blog Saudi 
Jeans, that the real backgrounds for Al-Farhan being arrested can be found 
in the conflict between King Abdullah and parts of the government5:
"I have no doubt that King Abdullah is pushing for a reformist agenda. 
However, it is very unfortunate that some elements in the government are not 
happy with this agenda because it could curb their powers and change their 
status. That's why these elements are so threatened by freedom of expression 
and therefore try to stifle this freedom even if that means violating basic 
human rights, national law and international accords."
Al-Omran refers to the lately case of the "Qatif Girl", a young woman, who 
first got sentenced to prison by fundamentalist judges, but then was 
pardoned by King Abdullah. The case can be seen as a sign of the power 
struggle in Saudi Arabia6.
As seen in the "Qatif Girl" case, there is a high international media 
interest on the detention of Fouad Al-Farhan - detailed coverage can be 
found from the BBC, CNN, New York Times or Washington Post7, but the Saudi 
media is silent8.
No one can seriously suppose the government will yield due to the media 
coverage. In fact, a general may have stated Al-Farhan will not be held in 
prison for a long time, but if the backgrounds suggested by Al-Omran prove 
to be true, this seems more than unlikely.
To fulfill Fouad Al-Farhans wish not to be forgotten in jail, his friends 
have started the blog "Free Fouad"9. In English and Arabic, it covers the 
development of the case. Together with other platforms, they have started a 
petition to support the release of Al-Farhan10.
Also, they call for a blog silence on January 6. All blogs may be silent for 
one day, only showing a banner to support Fouad's case11. Not, that the 
government will react on this action directly, but an intervention by a 
higher official could cause Fouad's release.
What can I do?
To support Fouad Al-Farhan, you may sign the petition.
Also, you are called to silence your blog on January 6 and only post of 
these banners, together with a link to Free Fouad.
Fouad's supporters have created all kinds of banners, which you can use on 
your blog. The linked one shows an automatically rotated quote from one of 
Fouad's blog posts, "Why do we blog?"

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a8wloTgsqtbI&refer=europe

Belarus Riot Police Beat, Detain Dozens of Opposition Activists
By Michael Heath
March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Belarus riot police beat and detained dozens of 
opposition activists in the capital, Minsk, when they broke up an 
unsanctioned rally yesterday marking the 90th anniversary of an independence 
declaration from Russia.
Pro-democracy groups celebrate March 25 as Freedom Day when an independent 
Belarus was declared in 1918. Independence lasted until Soviet Russia retook 
control after World War I ended.
Hundreds of protesters, many waving the red and white banner of the briefly 
independent state and the European Union flag, gathered in the city center 
before clashes broke out yesterday, according to images broadcast on Russian 
state channel Vest-24.
President Alexander Lukashenko, who won office in 1994 on pledges to control 
prices and boost ties with Russia, has criticized the anniversary as 
anti-Soviet. It has become a rallying point for the opposition.
About 80 opposition members were detained yesterday, Russia's Interfax news 
agency cited the Belarus Interior Ministry as saying.
An independent Belarus was declared after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, when 
the Soviet government ceded much of the west of the country to Germany in 
order to exit World War I. Soviet rule was restored after Germany's defeat 
in November 1918.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called Lukashenko ``Europe's 
last dictator'' for his crackdown on opposition groups in the country 
located between Poland and Russia. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on 
Lukashenko's regime.
Sanctions Strengthened
Belarus withdrew its ambassador to Washington and told the U.S. to withdraw 
its envoy on March 7, a day after sanctions on oil and petrochemical company 
Belneftekhim were strengthened. Belneftekhim's assets were frozen in 
November because of Lukashenko's control of the company.
Ties with the U.S. will improve once the sanctions are lifted, Belarus 
Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Popov said.
``The American administration is striving to inflict maximum damage on the 
Belarus people and state to make the country submit to American interests,'' 
Popov said yesterday in a statement on the Foreign Ministry's Web site.
A report on Belarus state television this week accused the U.S. embassy of 
running a spy ring in the former Soviet republic.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack expressed ``regret'' that the U.S. 
was forced to cut its number of personnel at the embassy in Minsk at the 
insistence of Belarus.
``We would like a different relationship with Belarus, but that can only 
happen when the government of Belarus shows commitment to respect for human 
rights and fundamental freedoms,'' McCormack said in a statement two days 
ago.
The U.S. and EU accuse Lukashenko of shutting down independent media, 
jailing opponents and rigging elections.
He was re-elected in 2006 with 83 percent of the vote against 6.1 percent 
for second-placed Alexander Milinkevich, according to official results. The 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the vote didn't 
meet international standards. About 1,300 activists were arrested and held 
in the four months after the ballot, according to the opposition.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at 
mheath1 at bloomberg.net.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-03/24/content_6561688.htm

Five confess arson attacks during Lhasa riots
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-24 20:43

BEIJING  -- Five criminal suspects have been detained over two arson attacks 
in which 10 people died during the Lhasa riots and have confessed their 
guilt, said an official with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security here 
Monday.

A mourner mourns the five girl employees who were burned to death in a 
clothing shop after rioters set fire to the shop during the March 14 Lhasa 
riot March 23, 2008. The civilian death toll has reached 18 after the riots. 
[Xinhua]

The ministry's spokesperson Shan Huimin briefed the public on the two arson 
cases at a press conference.
Three suspects have been detained for an arson attack at a shop named 
Yishion at 2:30 p.m. March 14 in which five female sales assistants were 
burnt to death.
In another case, two people were detained over an arson attack in a 
motorbike shop at around 10 p.m. March 15, which caused the deaths of five 
victims including an eight-month old boy and his parents.
Riots erupted in Lhasa on March 14 when rioters set fire to and looted 
public facilities, buildings and shops. The violence has 242 police officers 
injured, according to Shan.
Shan said facts had proved that the March 14 riot was by no means a 
"peaceful demonstration" and "peaceful protest", but a severe violent 
criminal incident.
The criminal sabotages were well-organized, premeditated and an outcome of 
overseas forces instigating domestic separatists to resort to violence.
Their ulterior motive was to disturb the Beijing Olympic Games, destroy the 
peace and stability and split the country.
The whole nation were indignant and fiercely denounced all the cruel acts of 
the mob.
The spokesperson said currently the riot has been calmed down and social 
order in Lhasa had been restored.
The spokesperson said in the process of dealing with the March 14 riot in 
Lhasa, police always maintained great restraint and never used any lethal 
weapons.
YISHION OUTLET ARSON CASE
The suspects, themselves also young women, came to the shop on March 14after 
other mobs broke into the shop and looted it, and set fire to the remaining 
clothes, according to Shan.
One suspect named Ben'gyi, 21, used a lighter to ignite jeans, another 
suspect, whose name is also Ben'gyi but 23 years old, set fire to other 
clothes and inflammable subjects. A 20-year-old Qime Lhazom threw clothes to 
the fire, said Shan.
They left the shop after the fire burnt fiercely, which caused the deaths of 
the five victims who were hiding in the shop, said Shan. The five victims 
were all young girls in their 20s.
MOTORCYCLE SHOP ARSON CASE
Shan said the two male suspects involved in the motorcycle shop arson case 
were named Loyar, 25 and Kangzug, 22. Loyar participated in the riot at 
10:00 p.m. on March 15, by throwing stones at shops, attacking police and 
setting fire to a grain shop named "Minhe". He later joined Kangzug to break 
into and set fire to a motorbike shop.
After the motorbike shop was burnt, Loyar went to a food shop next door and 
threw two liquid gas jars from the shop into the motorcycle shop, which 
caused the death of five victims hiding in a room on the second floor, said 
Shan.
She added that all the five criminal suspects have confessed their guilt 
after initial investigation.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/13/2189039.htm?section=justin

11 arrested for raising banned Papuan flag
Posted Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:27pm AEDT
Indonesian police have arrested 11 people in Papua for raising the Morning 
Star flag.
Police broke up a rally in the west of the province when demonstrators held 
the banned flag aloft and called for a referendum on Papua's future.
The demonstrators could be charged with promoting separatism.
Police have rejected claims that they beat several of the demonstrators.
The Morning Star flag is a symbol of the Papuan independence movement and 
was the official flag of West Papua when it was under UN control in the 
1960's.

http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=38768

Indonesian police detains Chief of Council for West Papua National Authority
Posted at 23:20 on 25 March, 2008 UTC
Indonesian Police have detained the Chief of Council for the West Papua 
National Authority, Eli Kaiway, in connection with demonstrations in Papua 
earlier this month.
Mr Kaiway presented himself under summons for interrogation, and Police 
arrested him over his alleged role among demonstrators who police say broke 
rules by raising the Papuan Morning Star flag.
He is being held at the POLRES Manokwari headquarters.
Police say Eli Kaiway will be charged with Rebellion and spreading hatred 
against the state, claiming he gave the order for the flag raising.
There are now 11 political detainees linked with the Authority in Manokwari 
at the peaceful rallies nearly three weeks ago.
A West Papua National Authority media release says the student political 
organisation has grave concerns for some of the detainees who have been 
tortured in police interrogation.
The Authority notes however that an underage political prisoner, Silas 
Carlos Tevez May, has been released now on bail.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0803/S00224.htm

Indonesian Shooting Rampage In West Papua
Thursday, 27 March 2008, 10:56 am
Press Release: Institute for Papuan Advocacy And Human Rights

Indonesian Defence Minister visits Australia after Indonesian security 
forces go on shooting rampage in West Papua
One teenage student is in hospital in a serious condition after being shot 
in the stomach when Indonesian security forces went on a shooting rampage 
against local people in the Paniai Lakes region of West Papua two weeks ago. 
The human rights violation coincides with the visit of Indonesian Defence 
Minister Sudarsono who is in Australia to attend the East Asia Dialogue 
Forum. The report from the remote region of Paniai demonstrates the 
disastrous role that Indonesian combat troops and paramilitary police are 
having throughout West Papua.

The shooting rampage by the Indonesian security forces was sparked when 
local people demonstrated outside a local Police station on the 10th of 
March 2008. Indigenous residents of the remote highland town of Enarotali 
[1], about 120 km inland of the coastal city of Nabire, gathered at the 
police station after Police beat a local civil servant, Yavet Pigai.
Local human rights workers at the scene report that the police were 
supported by Indonesian military forces from the Koramil (district 
headquarters) and Tim Khusus (Army Special Services). These military forces 
were described as combat troops from outside the province.
Police and Military personnel are reported to have opened fire on the group. 
Local sources said the military and Brimob (Police Mobile Brigade) continued 
shooting for two hours. One report said hundreds of troops were involved and 
that local people, some of who had been wounded had fled into the forests.
"Our sources described the incident as a terrifying experience for local 
people. It was clearly an action to intimidate local people and show that 
the Indonesian police and military were the authority in the region" said 
Matthew Jamieson on behalf of the Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human 
Rights (IPAHR).
A total of 9 local people were reportedly wounded. The names of two young 
men were given to IPAHR by these local sources, both of whom were described 
as students. Mangki Pigai (aged 18 years) was taken to hospital in a serious 
condition after a bullet lodged in his stomach. Another student, John Pigome 
(aged 20 years) was beaten by Police and sustained serious head injuries 
consistent with being beaten with a gun.
The incident was sparked after Mr. Yavet Pigai, the civil servant, was 
knocked off his motorbike by an excavator working on road works near a 
village called Mogokobitadimi.[2] At the time of the incident Mr Pagai, who 
works for the District Government of Paniai was travelling to a meeting at 
the local government office in the town of Madi.
Mr. Yavet Pigai was then beaten by police on the road and taken to the 
police station at Enarotali where he was beaten again. Mr. Pigai sustained 
injuries to his face and back.
Police and Army personnel had been supervising the work of a road building 
contractor. The incident is believed to be related to local opposition to 
road building business in the Paniai region, which are supported by the 
security forces.
It was reported by Human Rights sources that Paniai's head of the regional 
administration Mr. Naftali Yogi told a press conference that the police and 
army "must apology to the local people and reflect on what they have done". 
Mr. Yogi said that, "the police and army should take full of the 
responsibility on the incident because the case was a simple one but the 
security forces took a very serious action on trying to kill innocent people 
there".
In a report tabled at the most recent session of the United Nations Human 
Rights Council (2008), the Catholic Office of Justice and Peace in Jayapura 
(SKP) reported 242 documented individual cases of torture and ill treatment 
by the security forces in West Papua since 1998.
In the course of their human rights investigations SKP found that most of 
the human rights violations were committed by the police or military were 
outside of police or military custody.
SKP said that most documented cases were not prosecuted. The only case of 
torture that was brought to trial was after the Abepura case in 2000 in 
which the two (Brimob) police officers who charged were acquitted.
Finally, SKP found that the use of torture and cruel and degrading treatment 
by the security forces towards the Indigenous population was both widespread 
and formed a culture of violence and racism embedded within the security 
forces.
Matthew Jamieson, spokesperson for Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human 
Rights stated today that, "the shooting in Paniai follows the common pattern 
of indiscriminate violence against indigenous West Papuans. There is virtual 
legal impunity from prosecution for police and military forces involved in 
Human Rights abuses. Indonesian forces are stationed throughout West Papua, 
right down to the village level. The policy of stationing large numbers of 
combat troops and paramilitary police in every region is proving calamitous 
for indigenous West Papuans."
"There are reports of both police and military at all levels of the command 
chain being involved legal and illegal business activities. In the Paniai 
Lakes region this includes road building and construction industries, 
logging, illegal wildlife rackets and goldmining. These business operations 
give the security forces a vested interest in generating conflict in order 
to justify their continued presence in the troubled territory."
"The presence of senior commanding officers in West Papua, such as 
Burhanuddin Siagian, who have been indicted for 'Crimes Against Humanity' in 
East Timor, reinforces the culture of violence and impunity within the 
Indonesian security forces. "
Reports of police and military violence in Enarotali come in the wake of 
widespread nonviolent demonstrations in Jayapura, Manokwari, Serui and 
Sorong protesting the Indonesian government's decision to ban the Morning 
Star flag. Several West Papuan leaders arrested in these demonstrations are 
in custody facing charges of rebellion and subversion.
Notes:
[1] The Indigenous Mee people of the Paniai Lakes region sustain a large 
population through intensive agriculture based around pigs and sweet potato. 
The group has suffered greatly during Indonesian rule in West Papua with 
many thousands of people killed by Indonesian security forces, especially 
during the 1960s and 1970s. In recent years the main Indonesian government 
development has been road building to link Enarotali and the interior with 
the coastal port city of Nabire. The Paniai region is highly prospective for 
minerals and is adjacent to the Freeport McMoRan/Rio Tinto gold and copper 
mine, which has been conducting exploration in the region.
[2] There has been a recent history of human rights violations and community 
decent associated with road building. In January 2006 a young boy, Moses 
Douw, was shot dead in the community market on his way to school in the 
village of Wahgette. On three young local people were shot by the military 
after local people had protested about issues related to road building.
ENDS