Stories about Human Rights from May, 2007
Ukraine: Deportation of Crimean Tatars Anniversary
Belatedly, a link to J. Otto Pohl's post on the deportation of the Crimean Tatars on May 18, 1944: “The NKVD and NKGB took the unsuspecting Crimean Tatars to rail stations and stuffed them into train wagons designed for the transport of freight and live stock. The Soviet security organs...
Russia: Chechnya Documentary
A Step At A Time links to a Zarema Mukusheva’s Crying Sun: The Impact of War in the Mountains of Chechnya documentary on Google Video.
India: Flying Coffins
Retire The Coffin hopes to mobilize opinion about the Mig 21, also known as the flying coffin. “This blog is dedicated to the memory of Squadron Leader Swapnil Sakar Pandey, who sacrificed his life on March 1st 2007, while trying to steer his burning aircraft away from populated areas. The...
Sudan: dealing with Darfur
Jeff Msangi writes about Darfur: “The way the international community have and still handles the Darfur issue is a good proof of how priorities have changed lately.What we don't understand is that by neglecting cases like Darfur we are not only doing a massive injustice to humanity but also continue...
Sudan: divestment update
“As many readers of this blog know, PetroChina, a Chinese oil company, is one of the highest offenders in funding the genocide in Darfur. As of the end of 2006, Fidelity, a US based investment firm, was the largest PetroChina shareholder on the New York Stock Exchange,” writes Zahara Heckscher...
Hong Kong: B.T. piracy case appeal rejected
The Court of Final Appeal dismissed the appeal of Chan Nai-ming, who had been convicted and sentenced to three months’ jail for uploading infringing movies to the Internet by using the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing program. Charles Mok comments that even some individuals have abused the technology, the direction of prosecution...
More than 140 dead in “peaceful Philippine elections”
Last week, millions of Filipinos voted to elect new members of Parliament and local government officials. The police and election officials claim the recent elections were peaceful despite more than 140 election-related killings were tallied.
Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome
This week blogs have covered a steadily deteriorating situation in Iraq. Things are not so much going from bad to worse, but from worse to appalingly worse. Also read about a visit to the Iraqi ID office and one blogger gets to answer readers' questions in this extensive Iraqi blog review by Salam Adil.
Zimbabwe: Remember Murambatsvina!
This is Zimbabwe remembers Murambatsvina: “In the dead of winter, just like Stalin, one his heroes, Bob set the armed forces on defenceless families and brought in the bulldozers to throw them into the street. Within a matter of weeks, 700 000 people were living in the open, exposed to...
Central African Republic: Bangui International Human Rights Festival
The first Bangui International Human Rights Film Festival (Fr) starts on May 22 with the support of the French organization Alliance and the EU, writes the blog of the Alliance for Democracy and Progress.
Korea: 518, Gwangju Massacre
It was 518. A number Koreans don’t forget. Blogs were filled with ‘518’ for several days in order to commemorate the Gwangju Massacre (Gwangju Democratizaion Movement) on the 18th of May, 1980. A blogger, thirdtype, posted a five minute video clip and the stories of the deceased. Bloggers, like qts,...
Russia: Dissenters’ March in Samara
On Friday, police at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport prevented Russian opposition leaders Garry Kasparov and Eduard Limonov from boarding a flight to Samara, where they planned to take part in the Dissenters' March, scheduled to coincide with the Russia-EU Summit. The march did take place, but it was something of a failure - according to one blogger who was there, at least.
Iran:Babak Zamanian, a Student Activist in Danger
According to Inja va Aknoun[Fa],Babak Zamanian,a student activist from Amir Kabir University in Tehran,is in danger in prison. He was arrested about three weeks ago and he has heart problems.
Iran:No Lawyer for Haleh Esfandyari
In Free Haleh blog we read that two days ago Nobel Laureate lawyer Shirin Ebadi had agreed to defend Haleh but the latest news is that Iranian authorities are denying Ebadi’s request to represent Haleh – and denying access to Haleh in prison. Dr. Haleh Esfandiari is the Director of...
Bahrain: When Only Illegal Prawns Will Do
From turning a blind eye to racial hatred being spewed on the internet to hoarding prawns caught in the closed season for a religious festival four months away, Bahraini bloggers were busy typing away this week, reports Ayesha Saldanha.
Belarus: Blog Roundup
TOL's Belarus posts an overview of Belarusian blogs: “The burning news of the BB (belarusian blogosphere) recently has become a new witty initiative of the government to remove all satellite antennas and climate control devices located on outer walls of Minsk buildings.”
Russia: Dissent and Samara Summit
Samara-based blogger Dmitri Minaev and Sean Guillory write about the EU-Russia Summit in Samara and the regime's ways of dealing with dissent.
Morocco: Fighting ignorance, injustice, and irrationality
Giving one's child a special first name should be an inalienable right, not a lengthy bureaucratic process. Hamza Daoui covers a debate stirring up over this very issue, as well as the upcoming Moroccan elections and the timeless subject of ignorance.
Nepal, Bhutan: Bhutanese Refugees
Nepal Monitor summarizes the findings of a report on the plight of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal. “Bhutanese refugees languishing in the camps in Nepal and India should be free to choose between returning home or resettling in the US, says Human Rights Watch. In a 86-page report entitled, Last Hope:...
Sudan: satellite mapping of a conflict zone
Bloggers for Darfur briefly comment on Google Earth satellite mapping of Darfur crisis: “This story has been all over the news this week–with Google Earth satellite mapping service, we can now zoom in on the 1,600 Sudanese villages destroyed as part of the genocide that's been occurring in Darfur since...
Sri Lanka: Forcing families to give up children
Lankawatchh alleges that LTTE forces families to send their children to join their forces. “Reports from LTTE controlled areas reveal that the LTTE is on a fervent campaign to forcibly draft Tamil youth to fight the Sri Lankan government forces. The campaign called on every family in the LTTE controlled...
