Go Away

by Jan Fri May 31, 2002 01:45

You are right,of course.There are much more important issues in the world right now,but it seems that Indymedia focuses solely on Israel.
Why don't you guys say something about the Burmese refugees,for example, and start demonstrating in front of the Thai embassy in Ireland?"You can't send people back without proper screening," said Joe Saunders, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "This is a basic principle of international refugee protection. The people who have been forced back should be allowed to return and should be given a proper hearing."

Earlier this year, the Kanchanaburi provincial admission board, one of several such bodies established throughout the border region by the Thai government to process refugee claims, rejected the applications of 116 refugees seeking to remain in the camp. Many of the refugees had fled fighting between the Karen National Union and the Burmese army in 1997, but had reported to the camp only after border-wide registrations in 1998. Thai authorities used the refugees' delay in reporting to the camps as a basis for denying them the right to remain there, a rationale criticized by Human Rights Watch. The provincial admission board subsequently set a deadline of June 12, 2000, for the group to be returned to Burma.

Fearing possible forced return to Burma, many of the refugees moved out of the camp. When a group of Thai army, immigration, border police, and district officers arrived at the camp to deport the refugees, they found only some forty to sixty of the original rejected population. According to reports, officials made up the difference by including other asylum seekers present in the camp who had not passed through the admission process and were not registered. A total of 116 refugees were then forcibly deported to Burma's Mon State where many are presumed to have moved into camps sheltering internally displaced persons. The area is currently subject to a cease-fire between the New Mon State Party and the Burmese government.

"These forced returns set a dangerous precedent for thousands of other asylum seekers whose cases are under review by the provincial admission boards," Saunders said. "To the extent that lack of resources is the problem, the Thai government should discuss burden-sharing with its neighbors and other members of the international community. Protection of Burmese refugees should be on the agenda of the upcoming July ASEAN ministerial meetings in Bangkok."

Background
The Burmese refugee population registered in camps in Thailand numbers over 120,000. Thailand is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. Convention relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol, nor does it have its own domestic refugee law to offer legal guidance. The Thai government, however, has established provincial admission boards to review the cases of new arrivals on a group basis. The boards are currently reviewing the cases of some four to five thousand Burmese.

Thai authorities only allow entry to the camps to those deemed to be "persons fleeing conflict." Only those persons fleeing direct fighting are accepted by the boards. These narrow criteria fail to take into account all of the other grave human rights abuses that cause refugees to flee Burma, including forced relocation, arbitrary execution, forced labor, and torture. Human Rights Watch previously has criticized the provincial admission boards for failing to provide effective protection to those in need. It has also called on the Thai government to suspend any further deportations from the camps until an unambiguous set of criteria consistent with international standards is drawn up for use in status determinations.
Or maybe something about the opression of Oromian students in Ethiopia?Ethiopia: Halt Crackdown on Oromo Students

(New York, May 22, 2002) -- The Ethiopian government must halt the violent crackdown on students from Oromiya regional state, Human Rights Watch urged today.

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Related Material

Ethiopia: Government Attacks Universities, Civil Society
HRW Press Release, May 10, 2001

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“Shooting at unarmed students is a shameful misuse of government power. The Ethiopian government has to investigate and prosecute the authorities responsible for firing on the students.”
Saman Zia-Zarifi
Academic Freedom Director for Human Rights Watch

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During the last two months, five students have been killed and dozens arrested as Oromiya state police have violently dispersed peaceful marches by high school students protesting regional governmental policies. Human Rights Watch also called on the Ethiopian government to immediately free all students detained last week in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa during a peaceful rally by Oromo students.
“Shooting at unarmed students is a shameful misuse of government power,” said Saman Zia-Zarifi, Academic Freedom director for Human Rights Watch. “The Ethiopian government has to investigate and prosecute the authorities responsible for firing on the students.”

Last week, police in Addis Ababa arrested nearly 200 students from the different campuses of the national university. Some were released within two days, but others remain incarcerated. According to reports in the local press, the students had staged a peaceful march after the regional government, which is also headquartered in Addis Ababa, denied their requests for a meeting to discuss their concerns about their fellow students in Oromiya.

In March, high school students in several Oromiya towns staged protest marches against the regional government’s educational and land policies. The state authorities declared the protests to be illegal. In the town of Shambu, the police opened fire using live ammunition when students failed to disperse.

The regional government admitted that two students were killed by police gunfire, but the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, the leading monitoring group in the country, said in its report on the clashes that five students were killed and about a dozen were wounded. The regional authorities also detained a number of students and teachers. There were also reports of shootings and injuries in two other towns, Ambo and Nekemte.

Oromiya is the largest and most populous Ethiopian state. Most of its residents are Oromos, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group. Federal and regional government authorities tend to view all forms of protest of their policies as instigated by the rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which is leading a decade-long armed struggle for the autonomy of Oromiya.

Both the state government and federal police and the military have a history of repression and abuse, targeted mainly at Oromo intellectuals and community leaders who are viewed as sympathetic to the OLF. Refugees who have fled to neighboring countries in the past decade have told of widespread use of torture and extra-judicial killings in the region.
Or maybe we'll see some angry comments against the crimes of the Sudanese goverment?
Sudan: Investigate Helicopter Killings

(New York, March 1, 2002) Human Rights Watch today called for an independent investigation into recent helicopter killings of civilians in southern Sudan.

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Sudan Justice: Stonings, Amputations
HRW Press Release, February 1, 2002

U.S. Urged to Help Avert Famine in Sudan
HRW Press Release, May 3, 2001

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“This is the latest and most deadly helicopter attack on civilians in Sudan’s eighteen-year civil war. It appears to have deliberately targeted civilians and humanitarian workers.”
Jemera Rone,
Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch

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On February 20, 2002, a Sudanese government helicopter attack killed seventeen civilians and injured many more at a U.N. relief food distribution location in the oilfield area of Bieh, Western Upper Nile, southern Sudan. The area had been approved by Sudan's government for relief distribution. U.N. food monitors and civilians witnessed the attack and other U.N. officials counted the dead.
“This is the latest and most deadly helicopter attack on civilians in Sudan’s eighteen-year civil war,” said Jemera Rone, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It appears to have deliberately targeted civilians and humanitarian workers.”

The attack by two helicopters was not a mistake. According to the U.N., the helicopters hovered above the U.N. compound and fired at least five rockets at the civilians waiting for a food distribution, beside tons of food in fifty-kilo bags of grain clearly visible in the middle of the afternoon. No rebel forces were in the area at the time.

Because of this major human rights violation, on February 21, the U.S. government suspended its participation in peace efforts until the Sudanese government accounts for the incident.

“The Sudan government must have a firm response to its forces’ killing of seventeen and wounding of scores more,” said Rone. “The government’s offer, to appoint its own military to investigate, is simply not adequate.”

Human Rights Watch called on the Sudanese government to endorse the U.S. proposal for an international team to monitor allegations of violations of the Geneva Conventions. It urged the Sudan government to invite such a team to investigate the Bieh bombing.

Once the facts have been established by independent international monitors, the government should take strong steps to bring to justice those responsible, all the way up the chain of command, to prevent such abuses being repeated, Rone said.

The Sudan government had been negotiating with the U.S. with high hopes of regularizing relations. As part of these negotiations, Sen. John Danforth, the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan for Peace, proposed that both government and rebel forces meet four tests before the U.S. would proceed any further as mediator in the conflict. The international Geneva Conventions monitoring team was to be part of the government and rebel commitment to stop attacks on civilians, the fourth and most difficult of the tests Danforth proposed.

State department officials say that Danforth emphasized to the Sudan government that it must meet all four tests. The recent attack in Western Upper Nile, however, led the U.S. government to suspend work on the Danforth initiative.
And the Ugandanese people are really horrible,don't you think?

DR Congo: Scores Killed in New Ethnic Fighting En français
Prompt UN Action Urged in Ugandan-Occupied Areas
(New York, February 13, 2002) -- Uganda should be held responsible for grave human rights violations taking place in territories it occupies in northeastern Congo, Human Rights Watch said today. A resurgence of ethnic fighting there has claimed scores of lives over the last few weeks and displaced at least fifteen thousand people. The dispute, rooted in conflict over land, flared in an area that is contested by three Congolese rebel factions and effectively governed by none of them.

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Related Material

Attacks on Civilians in Ugandan Occupied Areas in Northeastern Congo
HRW Background Paper

Rampant Human Rights Abuses and Occupation of the DRC by Foreign Armies
Suliman Ali Baldo Testimony at the House Committee on International Relations, May 17, 2001

Congo: Rebel Fighting Imperils Beni Residents
HRW Press Release, June 12, 2001

Uganda In Eastern DRC: Fueling Political and Ethnic Strife
HRW Report, March 2001

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“Uganda wants to keep enough control to continue getting rich from the Congo, but doesn’t want to take responsibility for protecting civilians.”
Alison Des Forges, senior advisor for the Great Lakes region at Human Rights Watch

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The United Nations Security Council will be discussing the Secretary General’s report on the deteriorating security environment in the D.R. Congo in the coming week. Human Rights Watch urges the Security Council to address the government of Uganda as an important agent of unrest in the eastern part in the country, and to hold it liable for the grave rights violations and massive human suffering taking place in territories under its occupation.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Congo (MONUC) should also exert maximum pressure on local contenders to cease fighting and should send additional military, humanitarian, and human rights monitors to the area.

Uganda has occupied the area militarily since 1998 and has supported all three rival groups with arms, training, and political backing. Under the terms of the 1999 Lusaka Peace Accords, Uganda has withdrawn some troops from the Congo but maintained or redeployed others in the area.

“Uganda wants to keep enough control to continue getting rich from the Congo, but doesn’t want to take responsibility for protecting civilians,” said Alison Des Forges, senior advisor for the Great Lakes region at Human Rights Watch. Ituri district is rich in timber, gold and diamonds, among other resources.

On February 4, four suspected supporters of the Lendu were killed in Bunia, capital of Ituri district, in the latest of a series of ethnic clashes that cost more than a hundred lives and displaced at least fifteen thousand persons in recent weeks.

With ethnic clashes increasing, Uganda pulled troops back to Bunia from elsewhere in Ituri instead of using them to contain the violence. Ugandan authorities were prepared to defend the town and to prevent the conflict from spilling over into Uganda itself. According to local sources, the Ugandan army in mid January deployed hundreds of soldiers in the border towns of Aru, Mahagi, and at Ariwara.

On February 1, Ugandan Defense Minister Amama Mbabazi remarked that the situation in Bunia was explosive and called on the UN to send troops to take control of the area.

“Uganda can’t foist responsibility on the UN for restoring order from the chaos it has fostered,” said Des Forges. “As the occupying power, under international law it must protect civilians and stop these killings.”

The world is full of shit,but all I can see in this site is the flag of Palestine and Irish people in Solidarity with Palestine.

by Anti-Fascist Fri May 31, 2002 04:42

Another rogue state with a dubious human rights record, especially since 9/11: the USA.

In addition to funneling billions of $ to Israel so it can continue its genocide against an impoverished
country(Palestine), the U.S. itself is violating human rights at an unprecedented pace. See Amnesty International's
annual report below that documents the rapidly deteriorating situation across the Atlantic:

by King Mob Fri May 31, 2002 15:11

And isn't it Ironic Jan

A little too Ironic

This is if you're the same Jan who filled the newswire with those articles.

Talking about focus and other worthy causes, when you've been chocking Indymedia with biased articles all day?

If you wanted to discuss Media bais I'd urge you to read
http://indymedia.org.il/imc/israel/webcast/index.php3

Indymedia Israel has got an excellent piece of the bias of Israeli newspapers.

If you moan about Indymedias focus on one situation why don't you Publish articles on these other crisis, or heaven forbid, get involved.