http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/opinion/25sun1.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
Published: July 24, 2010
A prisoner who begs to stay indefinitely at the Guantánamo Bay detention center rather than be sent back to Algeria probably has a strong reason to fear the welcoming reception at home.
Abdul Aziz Naji, who has been held at Guantánamo since 2002, told the Obama administration that he would be tortured if he was transferred to Algeria, by either the Algerian government or fundamentalist groups there. Though he offered to remain at the prison, the administration shipped him home last weekend and washed its hands of the man. Almost immediately upon arrival, he disappeared, and his family fears the worst.
It is an act of cruelty that seems to defy explanation.
Mr. Naji, 35 and born in Algeria, was picked up by the police in Pakistan in May 2002 and turned over to the Americans on suspicion of being a terrorist. He admitted working for the humanitarian wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani terrorist organization, but the Bush administration never charged him with a crime, explained why he was being held, or demonstrated any connection to terrorist acts.
The Obama administration, which is trying to reduce the population at Guantánamo, battled Mr. Naji’s lawyers all the way to the Supreme Court for the right to send him to Algeria. Mr. Naji argued that once he was in his home country, he would be tortured, either by the government on suspicion of being a terrorist, or by fundamentalist groups pressuring him to join their cause.
The court, which issued a terse order rejecting his plea, apparently accepted the Obama administration’s assurance that the Algerian government promised not to torture Mr. Naji. Under a 2008 Supreme Court decision, the government is given broad discretion to decide when to accept such promises from a foreign government.
Mr. Naji asked for political asylum in Switzerland, but within hours of the court’s order, he was on a plane bound for Algeria. The court refused to accept a similar plea from another Algerian at Guantánamo who does not wish to go home, Farhi Saeed Bin Mohammed, who has not yet been returned but could be at any time. Four other Algerian prisoners have made similar claims.
Algeria may well have promised not to torture the two men, but it is hard to take that promise seriously, or to know whether it has already been broken. Government officials there say they are not detaining Mr. Naji, but have not accounted for his whereabouts, which they need to do promptly.
The State Department’s human rights report on the country, issued in March, said that reports of torture in Algeria have been reduced but are still prevalent. It quotes human rights lawyers there as saying the practice still takes place to extract confessions in security cases. People disappear in the country, the report said, and armed groups — which obviously made no promises to the administration — continue to act with impunity.
We support the administration’s efforts to close Guantánamo, and understand the concern that if there is a more heavily Republican Congress next year, doing so may become harder. That is no reason to deliver prisoners to governments that the United States considers hostile and that have a record of torture and lawlessness.
The government refuses to deport prisoners to Libya, Syria and other countries known for abuse. It could find a new home for the Algerians.
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
26 July 2010
07 September 2009
Sudan Fines Woman Who Wore Pants
September 8, 2009
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and WALEED ARAFAT
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/world/africa/08sudan.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
NAIROBI, Kenya — A Sudanese woman who wore pants in public was fined the equivalent of $200 but spared a whipping Monday when a court found her guilty of violating Sudan’s decency laws.
The woman, Lubna Hussein, an outspoken journalist who had recently worked for the United Nations, faced up to 40 lashes in the case, which has generated a swarm of interest both inside and outside Sudan.
Mrs. Hussein vowed to appeal the sentence and even marched into the court in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, wearing the same pair of loose-fitting green slacks that she was arrested in.
Manal Awad Khogali, one of her lawyers, said the judge hearing the case called only police witnesses to testify and refused to allow Mrs. Hussein — who has pledged to use her trial to bring attention to women’s rights in Sudan — to defend herself.
“He didn’t give us a chance,” Mrs. Manal said.
After the trial was over, Mrs. Hussein, a 34-year-old widow, seemed defiant as ever. “I will not pay a penny,” she told The Associated Press.
The judge had threatened to jail her for one month if she did not pay the fine. But according to The A.P., Mrs. Hussein flatly said: “I would spend a month in jail. It is a chance to explore the conditions in jail.”
On Monday night, after refusing her lawyers’ advice to pay up, Mrs. Hussein was whisked off to jail, though her lawyers said that in the coming days a committee formed for her defense may pay the fine and free her.
Sudan is partly governed by Islamic law, which calls for women to dress modestly. But the law is vague. According to Article 152 of Sudan’s penal code, anyone “who commits an indecent act which violates public morality or wears indecent clothing” can be fined and lashed up to 40 times.
It was the potential lashing, customarily carried out with a plastic whip that can leave permanent scars, that seemed to raise so many eyebrows. On Monday, diplomats from the British, French, Canadian, Swedish and Dutch Embassies showed up at the Khartoum courthouse, along with a throng of women protesters, many wearing pants. Witnesses said several bearded counterprotesters in traditional Islamic dress also arrived and yelled out “God is Great.”
Riot police broke up the demonstration and carted away more than 40 women. Sudanese officials said they were released shortly later. Witnesses said the police beat up at least one woman.
Mrs. Hussein is a career journalist who recently worked as a public information assistant for the United Nations in Sudan. She quit, she said, because she did not want to get the United Nations embroiled in her case.
But just as it did with the closely-watched case of a British schoolteacher, who faced whippings and a prison sentence in 2007 for allowing her 7-year-old students to name a class teddy bear Muhammad, the Sudanese government found a compromise.
Sudan’s leaders are eager to normalize relations with the United States and other Western countries and appeared to come up with a solution in which Mrs. Hussein was punished but not so severely as to draw more international ire.
She was arrested in July, along with 12 other women, who were caught at a cafe wearing trousers.
“I am Muslim. I understand Muslim law,” Mrs. Hussein said in an interview on Friday. “But I ask: What passage in the Koran says women can’t wear pants? This is not nice.”
Jeffrey Gettleman reported from Nairobi, and Waleed Arafat from Khartoum, Sudan.
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN and WALEED ARAFAT
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/world/africa/08sudan.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
NAIROBI, Kenya — A Sudanese woman who wore pants in public was fined the equivalent of $200 but spared a whipping Monday when a court found her guilty of violating Sudan’s decency laws.
The woman, Lubna Hussein, an outspoken journalist who had recently worked for the United Nations, faced up to 40 lashes in the case, which has generated a swarm of interest both inside and outside Sudan.
Mrs. Hussein vowed to appeal the sentence and even marched into the court in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, wearing the same pair of loose-fitting green slacks that she was arrested in.
Manal Awad Khogali, one of her lawyers, said the judge hearing the case called only police witnesses to testify and refused to allow Mrs. Hussein — who has pledged to use her trial to bring attention to women’s rights in Sudan — to defend herself.
“He didn’t give us a chance,” Mrs. Manal said.
After the trial was over, Mrs. Hussein, a 34-year-old widow, seemed defiant as ever. “I will not pay a penny,” she told The Associated Press.
The judge had threatened to jail her for one month if she did not pay the fine. But according to The A.P., Mrs. Hussein flatly said: “I would spend a month in jail. It is a chance to explore the conditions in jail.”
On Monday night, after refusing her lawyers’ advice to pay up, Mrs. Hussein was whisked off to jail, though her lawyers said that in the coming days a committee formed for her defense may pay the fine and free her.
Sudan is partly governed by Islamic law, which calls for women to dress modestly. But the law is vague. According to Article 152 of Sudan’s penal code, anyone “who commits an indecent act which violates public morality or wears indecent clothing” can be fined and lashed up to 40 times.
It was the potential lashing, customarily carried out with a plastic whip that can leave permanent scars, that seemed to raise so many eyebrows. On Monday, diplomats from the British, French, Canadian, Swedish and Dutch Embassies showed up at the Khartoum courthouse, along with a throng of women protesters, many wearing pants. Witnesses said several bearded counterprotesters in traditional Islamic dress also arrived and yelled out “God is Great.”
Riot police broke up the demonstration and carted away more than 40 women. Sudanese officials said they were released shortly later. Witnesses said the police beat up at least one woman.
Mrs. Hussein is a career journalist who recently worked as a public information assistant for the United Nations in Sudan. She quit, she said, because she did not want to get the United Nations embroiled in her case.
But just as it did with the closely-watched case of a British schoolteacher, who faced whippings and a prison sentence in 2007 for allowing her 7-year-old students to name a class teddy bear Muhammad, the Sudanese government found a compromise.
Sudan’s leaders are eager to normalize relations with the United States and other Western countries and appeared to come up with a solution in which Mrs. Hussein was punished but not so severely as to draw more international ire.
She was arrested in July, along with 12 other women, who were caught at a cafe wearing trousers.
“I am Muslim. I understand Muslim law,” Mrs. Hussein said in an interview on Friday. “But I ask: What passage in the Koran says women can’t wear pants? This is not nice.”
Jeffrey Gettleman reported from Nairobi, and Waleed Arafat from Khartoum, Sudan.
25 April 2009
Join Others & Stand Up Against the Atrocities in the Congo
As the violence in the Eastern DRC continues, your support & your voice are critical. Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been raped, and thousands more are at risk every day.
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT , let the women of the Congo hear you, speak out against this violence, send your message of hope, empowerment, change and victory.
CHANGING THE STORY
Join V-Day’s global campaign STOP RAPING OUR GREATEST RESOURCE: POWER TO THE WOMEN AND GIRLS OF DRC and bring much needed attention to the needs of Congolese women and girls.
The atrocities being perpetrated against women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo are nothing less than a femicide.
SIGN UP TODAY!
Take Action: Donate >
Back to vday.org >
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT , let the women of the Congo hear you, speak out against this violence, send your message of hope, empowerment, change and victory.
CHANGING THE STORY
Join V-Day’s global campaign STOP RAPING OUR GREATEST RESOURCE: POWER TO THE WOMEN AND GIRLS OF DRC and bring much needed attention to the needs of Congolese women and girls.
The atrocities being perpetrated against women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo are nothing less than a femicide.
SIGN UP TODAY!
Take Action: Donate >
Back to vday.org >
23 April 2009
Action Alert: Two Women Jailed in Zimbabwe
Jenni Williams and Magodonga ("Magi") Mahlangu have done nothing illegal. But if convicted, the two women could face up to 5 years in prison.
The women, leaders of the organization Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), were arbitrarily arrested last October during a protest that called on the government to equally distribute scarce food aid among Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwe is a country in turmoil. But a power-sharing agreement struck between two rival political parties could mean a new chance for a country to right itself. Yet, this unity government, as it's called, has failed to prioritize human rights as a necessity in achieving stability.
Jenni and Magi's court date on April 30th is an opportune time for Zimbabwe's leaders to step into a new era and show the world that it respects the rights of all individuals. Tell Zimbabwe's leaders to drop all charges against Jenni and Magi and to protect the country's human rights defenders.
Zimbabwe's Finance Minister is in the U.S. this week to push for restoration of humanitarian aid to help pull his country from the brink of utter collapse. But the U.S. and the rest of the international community are looking for evidence that Zimbabwe is ready to leave its deep path of violence and intolerance behind before they will agree to restore any aid.
Just this week, authorities in Zimbabwe conditionally freed three political prisoners who had been detained since December. This is a welcome development, but the government must go further. It must stop harassing, torturing and jailing activists who only seek a better tomorrow for Zimbabwe – activists like Jenni Williams and Magi Mahlangu.
Email Zimbabwe's officials and urge them to drop all charges against Jenni and Magi.
The power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe is, in itself, a monumental step forward. And it's going to take more monumental steps forward to bring about real change in Zimbabwe.
On April 30th the government of Zimbabwe can prove to the world that it's ready to restore human rights. Let's help them make the right decision.
The women, leaders of the organization Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), were arbitrarily arrested last October during a protest that called on the government to equally distribute scarce food aid among Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwe is a country in turmoil. But a power-sharing agreement struck between two rival political parties could mean a new chance for a country to right itself. Yet, this unity government, as it's called, has failed to prioritize human rights as a necessity in achieving stability.
Jenni and Magi's court date on April 30th is an opportune time for Zimbabwe's leaders to step into a new era and show the world that it respects the rights of all individuals. Tell Zimbabwe's leaders to drop all charges against Jenni and Magi and to protect the country's human rights defenders.
Zimbabwe's Finance Minister is in the U.S. this week to push for restoration of humanitarian aid to help pull his country from the brink of utter collapse. But the U.S. and the rest of the international community are looking for evidence that Zimbabwe is ready to leave its deep path of violence and intolerance behind before they will agree to restore any aid.
Just this week, authorities in Zimbabwe conditionally freed three political prisoners who had been detained since December. This is a welcome development, but the government must go further. It must stop harassing, torturing and jailing activists who only seek a better tomorrow for Zimbabwe – activists like Jenni Williams and Magi Mahlangu.
Email Zimbabwe's officials and urge them to drop all charges against Jenni and Magi.
The power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe is, in itself, a monumental step forward. And it's going to take more monumental steps forward to bring about real change in Zimbabwe.
On April 30th the government of Zimbabwe can prove to the world that it's ready to restore human rights. Let's help them make the right decision.
15 April 2009
Action Alert: Help Support Fathi el-Jahmi.
Health records show that Fathi el-Jahmi will likely die in prison of heart failure and complications from diabetes if he does not receive critical medical treatment. However, the prognosis leaves out the fact that Libya's poor prison system is to blame for years of neglectful treatment given to a man who was unlawfully detained in the first place.
This is the second time Fathi has been wrongfully imprisoned for publicly calling for greater political freedom in Libya. His health condition is severe and the Libyan government knows it.
We've got two strong allies in Congress willing to speak out against Libya's injustice. Representatives Wolf (R-VA) and Kirk (R-IL) are sponsoring our letter calling on Libya’s authorities to free Fathi el-Jahmi from detention and allow him to seek proper medical care. But they'll need our help to convince other members of Congress to join this effort to keep Fathi alive.
Urge your members of Congress to add their name to a letter of support for Fathi el-Jahmi.
Fathi was briefly released from detention in 2004 because the emotion stirred by former Senator Joe Biden and other members of Congress calling for his release. Biden called Fathi "a courageous Libyan democracy advocate with serious health problems whose only crime was to speak truth to power."
It was the leadership shown then by Congress that helped lead to Fathi's release. Now, we need our representatives to stand in solidarity once again for Fathi, but this time to save his life.
Muammar al-Gaddafi, Libya's head of state, and other Libyan authorities will continue to let Fathi's life hang in the balance unless we expose this foul act for what it really is – a sad attempt to silence political opposition at all costs. We cannot just stand by while a bright flame of the human rights movement is extinguished.
Libya is seeking to improve its ties with the United States. And if we get enough members of Congress to sign the letter on Fathi's behalf, then Libya has a stronger incentive to heed our calls for justice. Email your Representatives and ask for them to stand in support of Fathi el-Jahmi.
Amnesty activists have a history of standing in Fathi's corner. His case garnered an outpouring of support and thousands of letters sent on his behalf during this past year's Global Write-a-thon.
In the following weeks, supporters will gather in front of the US mission to the United Nations and hold peaceful vigils as an act of solidarity for Fathi.
Add your voice to theirs. Tell your Representatives the story of Fathi el-Jahmi. Tell them that if we don't take a stand against Libya's gross misconduct, then we will lose a great human rights defender – and his health won't be to blame.
But for Fathi to have any chance at a future, we have got to make the present count.
This is the second time Fathi has been wrongfully imprisoned for publicly calling for greater political freedom in Libya. His health condition is severe and the Libyan government knows it.
We've got two strong allies in Congress willing to speak out against Libya's injustice. Representatives Wolf (R-VA) and Kirk (R-IL) are sponsoring our letter calling on Libya’s authorities to free Fathi el-Jahmi from detention and allow him to seek proper medical care. But they'll need our help to convince other members of Congress to join this effort to keep Fathi alive.
Urge your members of Congress to add their name to a letter of support for Fathi el-Jahmi.
Fathi was briefly released from detention in 2004 because the emotion stirred by former Senator Joe Biden and other members of Congress calling for his release. Biden called Fathi "a courageous Libyan democracy advocate with serious health problems whose only crime was to speak truth to power."
It was the leadership shown then by Congress that helped lead to Fathi's release. Now, we need our representatives to stand in solidarity once again for Fathi, but this time to save his life.
Muammar al-Gaddafi, Libya's head of state, and other Libyan authorities will continue to let Fathi's life hang in the balance unless we expose this foul act for what it really is – a sad attempt to silence political opposition at all costs. We cannot just stand by while a bright flame of the human rights movement is extinguished.
Libya is seeking to improve its ties with the United States. And if we get enough members of Congress to sign the letter on Fathi's behalf, then Libya has a stronger incentive to heed our calls for justice. Email your Representatives and ask for them to stand in support of Fathi el-Jahmi.
Amnesty activists have a history of standing in Fathi's corner. His case garnered an outpouring of support and thousands of letters sent on his behalf during this past year's Global Write-a-thon.
In the following weeks, supporters will gather in front of the US mission to the United Nations and hold peaceful vigils as an act of solidarity for Fathi.
Add your voice to theirs. Tell your Representatives the story of Fathi el-Jahmi. Tell them that if we don't take a stand against Libya's gross misconduct, then we will lose a great human rights defender – and his health won't be to blame.
But for Fathi to have any chance at a future, we have got to make the present count.
18 February 2009
Action Alert: Tell Secretary Clinton to Stop the War on Women in the DRC
The ten-year tangle of alliances, invasions and proxy warfare centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo has made the region the world's deadliest killing ground since WWII.
Rape is systematically used as a weapon of war and children are forced to fight for armed groups. Peace in the DRC means putting an end to the institutionalized violence against women and children. Click here to watch a video of Congolese children speaking about their experiences as child soldiers.
The recent dramatic reversal of alliances between the DRC and its conflict-entangled neighbors, Uganda and Rwanda, combined with the withdrawal of Hutu rebels has opened a small window for peace in the region.
Your action today can help us make real progress on ending violence against women and children across the region.
The U.S. has considerable economic and political influence over both the DRC and Rwanda—no other country combines such influence. Sign our letter to Secretary Clinton asking her to leverage our voice to strenghten support for the UN peacekeeping mission and protect women and children in the DRC.
Rape is used in the conflict as a calculated strategy to destabilize opposition groups as well as promote fear and submission. It is not unusual for mothers and daughters to be raped in front of their families and villages. Human rights activists working to end violence against women often face grave threats of violence themselves.
Justine Masika Bihamba is one such activist. Because of her work to end violence against women, she and her family have been targeted.
Justine described the current situation in Congo as a war against women. "When two sides fight, the one punishes the other by raping women," she said.
Putting an end to the rampant sexual violence and the use of child soldiers is essential to ensuring peace in the region.
Secretary Clinton has said that women's rights are one of her top priorities. Make sure her promises become reality.
Add your name to our letter to Secretary Clinton urging her to take concrete steps to protect women in the DRC.
Rape is systematically used as a weapon of war and children are forced to fight for armed groups. Peace in the DRC means putting an end to the institutionalized violence against women and children. Click here to watch a video of Congolese children speaking about their experiences as child soldiers.
The recent dramatic reversal of alliances between the DRC and its conflict-entangled neighbors, Uganda and Rwanda, combined with the withdrawal of Hutu rebels has opened a small window for peace in the region.
Your action today can help us make real progress on ending violence against women and children across the region.
The U.S. has considerable economic and political influence over both the DRC and Rwanda—no other country combines such influence. Sign our letter to Secretary Clinton asking her to leverage our voice to strenghten support for the UN peacekeeping mission and protect women and children in the DRC.
Rape is used in the conflict as a calculated strategy to destabilize opposition groups as well as promote fear and submission. It is not unusual for mothers and daughters to be raped in front of their families and villages. Human rights activists working to end violence against women often face grave threats of violence themselves.
Justine Masika Bihamba is one such activist. Because of her work to end violence against women, she and her family have been targeted.
Justine described the current situation in Congo as a war against women. "When two sides fight, the one punishes the other by raping women," she said.
Putting an end to the rampant sexual violence and the use of child soldiers is essential to ensuring peace in the region.
Secretary Clinton has said that women's rights are one of her top priorities. Make sure her promises become reality.
Add your name to our letter to Secretary Clinton urging her to take concrete steps to protect women in the DRC.
12 February 2009
To Mugabe, With Love
This Valentine’s Day send love letters for Zimbabwe
Valentine's Day is globally recognized as a day of love, typically marked with flowers, candy, and spending time with those who mean the most to us. For some, however, this Valentine’s Day will bring no respite from the hardship they face.
In Zimbabwe, people are suffering. Their health, safety and dignity are jeopardized by a harsh assault on human rights in which, Zimbabwean citizens are subjected to state-sponsored intimidation, arbitrary and unlawful arrests, torture, and even murder. As people have been dying from starvation or lack of medical care, Zimbabwe’s authorities have focused their efforts on trying to silence human rights defenders who seek to call attention to the country’s deepening human rights crisis. Most recently, over twenty people, including Jestina Mukoko of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, were victims of enforced disappearances carried out by state security forces between October and December 2008. These human rights violations are happening in the context of a collapsed economy, food shortages, and a devastating cholera epidemic exacerbated by a paralyzed health system.
Knowing that they do so in great peril to themselves, human rights defenders continue to bravely fight for the respect and protection of human rights.
The members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) mark Valentine’s Day by taking to the streets, peacefully spreading their message: “love of self, of family, of community and of country." This message is not always welcomed by the authorities, and WOZA members have been jailed on numerous accessions. This Valentine’s Day join with WOZA and all human rights defenders in Zimbabwe to show President Mugabe that love can conquer violence and repression.
Send Valentines to President Mugabe!
It’s fun and easy. You can make your own Valentines or purchase Valentines at the store. Include a short message asking President Mugabe to demonstrate his love and care for the people of Zimbabwe by protecting human rights. There are some suggested phrases below, but feel free to be creative.
Please send your completed Valentines to Amnesty International's Washington, DC office at the address below by February 28. They will then be compiled and mailed to President Robert Mugabe as well as Zimbabwe's Ambassador to the United States.
Please send Valentines to:
Ilona Kelly
Individuals at Risk Program
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Washington DC 20003
Sample Messages:
End the Harassment of Human Rights Defenders
Drop Charges Against WOZA Members, including Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu
Stop the Torture of Detainees
Love is the Greater Power
Protect Human Rights
Respect Human Rights
Free Human Rights Defender Jestina Mukoko
Give All Detainees Access to Lawyers
Valentine's Day is globally recognized as a day of love, typically marked with flowers, candy, and spending time with those who mean the most to us. For some, however, this Valentine’s Day will bring no respite from the hardship they face.
In Zimbabwe, people are suffering. Their health, safety and dignity are jeopardized by a harsh assault on human rights in which, Zimbabwean citizens are subjected to state-sponsored intimidation, arbitrary and unlawful arrests, torture, and even murder. As people have been dying from starvation or lack of medical care, Zimbabwe’s authorities have focused their efforts on trying to silence human rights defenders who seek to call attention to the country’s deepening human rights crisis. Most recently, over twenty people, including Jestina Mukoko of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, were victims of enforced disappearances carried out by state security forces between October and December 2008. These human rights violations are happening in the context of a collapsed economy, food shortages, and a devastating cholera epidemic exacerbated by a paralyzed health system.
Knowing that they do so in great peril to themselves, human rights defenders continue to bravely fight for the respect and protection of human rights.
The members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) mark Valentine’s Day by taking to the streets, peacefully spreading their message: “love of self, of family, of community and of country." This message is not always welcomed by the authorities, and WOZA members have been jailed on numerous accessions. This Valentine’s Day join with WOZA and all human rights defenders in Zimbabwe to show President Mugabe that love can conquer violence and repression.
Send Valentines to President Mugabe!
It’s fun and easy. You can make your own Valentines or purchase Valentines at the store. Include a short message asking President Mugabe to demonstrate his love and care for the people of Zimbabwe by protecting human rights. There are some suggested phrases below, but feel free to be creative.
Please send your completed Valentines to Amnesty International's Washington, DC office at the address below by February 28. They will then be compiled and mailed to President Robert Mugabe as well as Zimbabwe's Ambassador to the United States.
Please send Valentines to:
Ilona Kelly
Individuals at Risk Program
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Washington DC 20003
Sample Messages:
End the Harassment of Human Rights Defenders
Drop Charges Against WOZA Members, including Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu
Stop the Torture of Detainees
Love is the Greater Power
Protect Human Rights
Respect Human Rights
Free Human Rights Defender Jestina Mukoko
Give All Detainees Access to Lawyers
27 December 2008
The Transformative 120: Text Messages Prove a South African HIV Lifeline
Nancy Scola
November 25, 2008 12:46 PM
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009090.html
Taken together, a handful of numbers are adding up to a powerful HIV/AIDS lifeline along South Africa's northeastern coast. Of the six million South Africans infected with the disease, just one in ten are currently in treatment. The HIV infection rate in KwaZulu-Natal province (KZN) stands at a breathtakingly 39 percent. Meanwhile, a whopping four-fifths of all South Africans have access to a cell phone.
But a new program called Project Masiluleke -- Zulu for "wise council" -- is using the 120 characters commonly left over in cell phone text messages to connect South Africans who desperately need testing and treatment with the nation's HIV/AIDS resources.
But let's back up a bit. The cost of making a cell phone call in southern Africa can be, as it is in many spots on the globe, prohibitively expensive. But text messages are, by comparison, cheap. Resourceful mobile owners in South Africa have figured out a workaround to the air time problem by texting friends and family the simple message of "Please Call Me" -- a tactic similar to how American teenagers once avoided collect-call charges by using names like "Brian PickMeUpAtSchool."
PCM messages, as they're known, are enormously popular. South Africans send an amazing 30 million of them a day, which is about one daily ping for every one and a half citizens. Phone carriers like Vodacom, finding their networks swamped with PCMs, made a decision. They'd let customers send a handful of them each day, for free. But they'd use the space left over by the short messages to subsidize the service through advertising.
And that clever marketing use of the white space left on the table by PCMs has, in turned, inspired a life-saving application in KwaZulu-Natal. During a trial run of Project Masiluleke this fall, mobile customers found that advertising given over to texts pointing them to the National AIDS Helpline (0800-012-322) and HIV911 (0860-448-911).
The results of the demonstration were promising. During the six week run, some 20 million Please Call Me messages went out with the HIV/AIDS hotline information. (Of course, that 20 million represents just a small slice of the PCMs sent during that period. It would be interesting to know who was selected to get the special messaging -- keeping in mind that targeting recipients for HIV info carries its own baggage.) Calls to the national hotline in Johannesburg jumped a remarkable 350 percent.
HIV and AIDS carry a nearly debilitating social stigma in South Africa, with even government officials at the highest level of government in Pretoria holding on to some warped views of the disease. That social reprobation means that many potential carriers of either HIV or TB (diseases that are closely twined in South Africa) resist getting tested.
Intimate and discrete, text messaging can be a powerful solution: at once both more immediate than an email and less invasive than a phone call. In a place like KwaZulu-Natal, where a Motorola RAZR might be someone's primary way of communicating with the world, texting can be a powerful lifeline that sits comfortably in nearly everyone's pocket.
Project Masiluleke grew out of the Pop!Tech conference held each year in Camden, Maine. In 2006, South African HIV and TB advocate Zinny Thabethe spoke about the disconnect between HIV carriers and treatment. The Pop!Tech Accelerator project teamed with the South African Praekelt Foundation's SocialTxt program, frog design, and others to launch Project Masiluleke.
The Please Call Me announcements are just the first step in Project Masiluleke's mobile response to HIV/AIDS. Once the PCM texts are relaunched as a full-fledged program at the start of 2009, they will be followed by texts geared toward reminding patients of scheduled anti-retroviral therapy and other medical treatments, "virtual call centers" staffed by HIV carriers, and at-home HIV testing augmented will mobile-phone based support.
(Credit for original photo: Pop!Tech)
Nancy Scola is a Brooklyn-based writer, blogger, and editor who focuses on the place where technology meets culture. She's worked in the past on Capitol Hill, in presidential politics, and in progressive radio
November 25, 2008 12:46 PM
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009090.html
Taken together, a handful of numbers are adding up to a powerful HIV/AIDS lifeline along South Africa's northeastern coast. Of the six million South Africans infected with the disease, just one in ten are currently in treatment. The HIV infection rate in KwaZulu-Natal province (KZN) stands at a breathtakingly 39 percent. Meanwhile, a whopping four-fifths of all South Africans have access to a cell phone.
But a new program called Project Masiluleke -- Zulu for "wise council" -- is using the 120 characters commonly left over in cell phone text messages to connect South Africans who desperately need testing and treatment with the nation's HIV/AIDS resources.
But let's back up a bit. The cost of making a cell phone call in southern Africa can be, as it is in many spots on the globe, prohibitively expensive. But text messages are, by comparison, cheap. Resourceful mobile owners in South Africa have figured out a workaround to the air time problem by texting friends and family the simple message of "Please Call Me" -- a tactic similar to how American teenagers once avoided collect-call charges by using names like "Brian PickMeUpAtSchool."
PCM messages, as they're known, are enormously popular. South Africans send an amazing 30 million of them a day, which is about one daily ping for every one and a half citizens. Phone carriers like Vodacom, finding their networks swamped with PCMs, made a decision. They'd let customers send a handful of them each day, for free. But they'd use the space left over by the short messages to subsidize the service through advertising.
And that clever marketing use of the white space left on the table by PCMs has, in turned, inspired a life-saving application in KwaZulu-Natal. During a trial run of Project Masiluleke this fall, mobile customers found that advertising given over to texts pointing them to the National AIDS Helpline (0800-012-322) and HIV911 (0860-448-911).
The results of the demonstration were promising. During the six week run, some 20 million Please Call Me messages went out with the HIV/AIDS hotline information. (Of course, that 20 million represents just a small slice of the PCMs sent during that period. It would be interesting to know who was selected to get the special messaging -- keeping in mind that targeting recipients for HIV info carries its own baggage.) Calls to the national hotline in Johannesburg jumped a remarkable 350 percent.
HIV and AIDS carry a nearly debilitating social stigma in South Africa, with even government officials at the highest level of government in Pretoria holding on to some warped views of the disease. That social reprobation means that many potential carriers of either HIV or TB (diseases that are closely twined in South Africa) resist getting tested.
Intimate and discrete, text messaging can be a powerful solution: at once both more immediate than an email and less invasive than a phone call. In a place like KwaZulu-Natal, where a Motorola RAZR might be someone's primary way of communicating with the world, texting can be a powerful lifeline that sits comfortably in nearly everyone's pocket.
Project Masiluleke grew out of the Pop!Tech conference held each year in Camden, Maine. In 2006, South African HIV and TB advocate Zinny Thabethe spoke about the disconnect between HIV carriers and treatment. The Pop!Tech Accelerator project teamed with the South African Praekelt Foundation's SocialTxt program, frog design, and others to launch Project Masiluleke.
The Please Call Me announcements are just the first step in Project Masiluleke's mobile response to HIV/AIDS. Once the PCM texts are relaunched as a full-fledged program at the start of 2009, they will be followed by texts geared toward reminding patients of scheduled anti-retroviral therapy and other medical treatments, "virtual call centers" staffed by HIV carriers, and at-home HIV testing augmented will mobile-phone based support.
(Credit for original photo: Pop!Tech)
Nancy Scola is a Brooklyn-based writer, blogger, and editor who focuses on the place where technology meets culture. She's worked in the past on Capitol Hill, in presidential politics, and in progressive radio
23 October 2008
Rape Victims’ Words Help Jolt Congo Into Change
October 18, 2008
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/world/africa/18congo.html?hp
BUKAVU, Congo — Honorata Kizende looked out at the audience and began with a simple, declarative sentence.
“There was no dinner,” she said.
“It was me who was dinner. Me, because they kicked me roughly to the ground, and they ripped off all my clothes, and between the two of them, they held my feet. One took my left foot, one took my right, and the same with my arms, and between the two of them they proceeded to rape me. Then all five of them raped me.”
The audience, which had been called together by local and international aid groups and included everyone from high-ranking politicians to street kids with no shoes, stared at her in disbelief.
Congo, it seems, is finally facing its horrific rape problem, which United Nations officials have called the worst sexual violence in the world. Tens of thousands of women, possibly hundreds of thousands, have been raped in the past few years in this hilly, incongruously beautiful land. Many of these rapes have been marked by a level of brutality that is shocking even by the twisted standards of a place riven by civil war and haunted by warlords and drug-crazed child soldiers.
After years of denial and shame, the silence is being broken. Because of stepped-up efforts in the past nine months by international organizations and the Congolese government, rapists are no longer able to count on a culture of impunity. Of course, countless men still get away with assaulting women. But more and more are getting caught, prosecuted and put behind bars.
European aid agencies are spending tens of millions of dollars building new courthouses and prisons across eastern Congo, in part to punish rapists. Mobile courts are holding rape trials in villages deep in the forest that have not seen a black-robed magistrate since the Belgians ruled the country decades ago.
The American Bar Association opened a legal clinic in January specifically to help rape victims bring their cases to court. So far the work has resulted in eight convictions. Here in Bukavu, one of the biggest cities in the country, a special unit of Congolese police officers has filed 103 rape cases since the beginning of this year, more than any year in recent memory.
In Bunia, a town farther north, rape prosecutions are up 600 percent compared with five years ago. Congolese investigators have even been flown to Europe to learn “CSI”-style forensic techniques. The police have arrested some of the most violent offenders, often young militiamen, most likely psychologically traumatized themselves, who have thrust sticks, rocks, knives and assault rifles inside women.
“We’re starting to see results,” said Pernille Ironside, a United Nations official in eastern Congo.
The number of those arrested is still tiny compared with that of the perpetrators on the loose, and often the worst offenders are not caught because they are marauding bandits who attack villages in the night, victimize women and then melt back into the forest.
This is all happening in a society where women tend to be beaten down anyway. Women in Congo do most of the work —at home, in the fields and in the market, where they carry enormous loads of bananas on their bent backs — and yet they are often powerless. Many women who are raped are told to keep quiet. Often, it is a shame for the entire family, and many rape victims have been kicked out of their villages and turned into beggars.
Grass-roots groups are trying to change this culture, and they have started by encouraging women who have been raped to speak out in open forums, like a courtroom full of spectators, just with no accused.
At the event in Bukavu in mid-September, Ms. Kizende’s story of being abducted by an armed group, then putting her life back together after months as a sex slave, drew tears — and cheers. It seems that the taboo against talking about rape is beginning to lift. Many women in the audience wore T-shirts that read in Kiswahili: “I refuse to be raped. What about you?”
Activists are fanning out to villages on foot and by bicycle to deliver a simple but often novel message: rape is wrong. Men’s groups are even being formed.
But these improvements are simply the first, tentative steps of progress in a very troubled country.
United Nations officials said the number of rapes had appeared to be decreasing over the past year. But the recent surge of fighting between the Congolese government and rebel groups, and all the violence and predation that goes with it, is jeopardizing those gains.
“It’s safer today than it was,” said Euphrasie Mirindi, a woman who was raped in 2006. “But it’s still not safe.”
Poverty, chaos, disease and war. These are the constants of eastern Congo. Many people believe that the rape problem will not be solved until the area tastes peace. But that might not be anytime soon.
Laurent Nkunda, a well-armed Tutsi warlord, or a savior of his people, depending on whom you ask, recently threatened to wage war across the country. Clashes between his troops, many of them child soldiers, and government forces have driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in the past few months. His forces, along with those from the dozens of other rebel groups hiding out in the hills, are thought to be mainly responsible for the epidemic of brutal rapes.
United Nations officials say the most sadistic rapes are committed by depraved killers who participated in Rwanda’s genocide in 1994 and then escaped into Congo. These attacks have left thousands of women with their insides destroyed. But the Congolese National Army, a ragtag undisciplined force of teenage troops who sport wrap-around shades and rusty rifles, has also been blamed. The government has been slow to punish its own, but Congolese generals recently announced they would set up new military tribunals to prosecute soldiers accused of rape.
No one — doctors, aid workers, Congolese and Western researchers — can explain exactly why Congo’s rape problem is the worst in the world. The attacks continue despite the presence of the largest United Nations peacekeeping force, with more than 17,000 troops. Impunity is thought to be a big factor, which is why there is now so much effort on bolstering Congo’s creaky and often corrupt justice system. The sheer number of armed groups spread over thousands of miles of thickly forested territory, fighting over Congo’s rich mineral spoils, also makes it incredibly difficult to protect civilians. The ceaseless instability has held the whole eastern swath of the country hostage.
In Bukavu, everywhere you look, something is broken: a railing, a window, a pickup cruising around with no fenders, a woman trudging along the road with no eyes.
The Congolese government admits it is at a loss, especially in keeping women safe.
“Every day, women are raped,” said Louis Leonce Muderhwa, the governor of South Kivu Province. “This isn’t peace.”
Activists from overseas have been pouring in. Few are more passionate than Eve Ensler, the American playwright who wrote “The Vagina Monologues,” which has been performed in more than 100 countries. She came to Congo last month to work with rape victims.
“I have spent the past 10 years of my life in the rape mines of the world,” she said. “But I have never seen anything like this.”
She calls it “femicide,” a systematic campaign to destroy women.
Ms. Ensler is helping open a center in Bukavu called the City of Joy, which will provide counseling to rape victims and teach leadership skills and self-defense. Her hope is to build an army of rape survivors who will push with an urgency — that has so far been absent — for a solution to end Congo’s ceaseless wars.
The City of Joy is rising behind Panzi Hospital, where the worst of the worst rape cases are treated. But even this refuge has come under attack. Last month, an irate mob stormed the hospital. The mob demanded that the doctors give them the body of a thief, so it could be burned. When the doctors refused, several angry young men beat up nurses and smashed windows. But it was not clear if the body was the only thing that had set them off.
“They don’t like our work,” said Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist. “Maybe what we’re doing is disturbing people.”
The stories of these rapes are clearly disturbing. But that is the point, to shake people up and grab their attention.
“The details are the scariest part,” Ms. Ensler said.
At the event last month, many people in the audience covered their mouths as they listened. Some could not bear it and burst out of the room crying.
One speaker, Claudine Mwabachizi, told how she was kidnapped by bandits in the forest, strapped to a tree and repeatedly gang-raped. The bandits did unspeakable things, she said, like disemboweling a pregnant woman right in front of her. “A lot of us keep these secrets to ourselves,” she said.
She was going public, she said, “to free my sisters.”
But Congo, if anything, is a land of contrasts. The soil here is rich, but the people are starving. The minerals are limitless, but the government is broke.
After the speaking-out event was over, Ms. Mwabachizi said she felt exhausted.
But, she added, “I feel strong.”
She was given a pink shawl with a message printed on it.
“I have survived,” it read. “I can do anything.”
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/world/africa/18congo.html?hp
BUKAVU, Congo — Honorata Kizende looked out at the audience and began with a simple, declarative sentence.
“There was no dinner,” she said.
“It was me who was dinner. Me, because they kicked me roughly to the ground, and they ripped off all my clothes, and between the two of them, they held my feet. One took my left foot, one took my right, and the same with my arms, and between the two of them they proceeded to rape me. Then all five of them raped me.”
The audience, which had been called together by local and international aid groups and included everyone from high-ranking politicians to street kids with no shoes, stared at her in disbelief.
Congo, it seems, is finally facing its horrific rape problem, which United Nations officials have called the worst sexual violence in the world. Tens of thousands of women, possibly hundreds of thousands, have been raped in the past few years in this hilly, incongruously beautiful land. Many of these rapes have been marked by a level of brutality that is shocking even by the twisted standards of a place riven by civil war and haunted by warlords and drug-crazed child soldiers.
After years of denial and shame, the silence is being broken. Because of stepped-up efforts in the past nine months by international organizations and the Congolese government, rapists are no longer able to count on a culture of impunity. Of course, countless men still get away with assaulting women. But more and more are getting caught, prosecuted and put behind bars.
European aid agencies are spending tens of millions of dollars building new courthouses and prisons across eastern Congo, in part to punish rapists. Mobile courts are holding rape trials in villages deep in the forest that have not seen a black-robed magistrate since the Belgians ruled the country decades ago.
The American Bar Association opened a legal clinic in January specifically to help rape victims bring their cases to court. So far the work has resulted in eight convictions. Here in Bukavu, one of the biggest cities in the country, a special unit of Congolese police officers has filed 103 rape cases since the beginning of this year, more than any year in recent memory.
In Bunia, a town farther north, rape prosecutions are up 600 percent compared with five years ago. Congolese investigators have even been flown to Europe to learn “CSI”-style forensic techniques. The police have arrested some of the most violent offenders, often young militiamen, most likely psychologically traumatized themselves, who have thrust sticks, rocks, knives and assault rifles inside women.
“We’re starting to see results,” said Pernille Ironside, a United Nations official in eastern Congo.
The number of those arrested is still tiny compared with that of the perpetrators on the loose, and often the worst offenders are not caught because they are marauding bandits who attack villages in the night, victimize women and then melt back into the forest.
This is all happening in a society where women tend to be beaten down anyway. Women in Congo do most of the work —at home, in the fields and in the market, where they carry enormous loads of bananas on their bent backs — and yet they are often powerless. Many women who are raped are told to keep quiet. Often, it is a shame for the entire family, and many rape victims have been kicked out of their villages and turned into beggars.
Grass-roots groups are trying to change this culture, and they have started by encouraging women who have been raped to speak out in open forums, like a courtroom full of spectators, just with no accused.
At the event in Bukavu in mid-September, Ms. Kizende’s story of being abducted by an armed group, then putting her life back together after months as a sex slave, drew tears — and cheers. It seems that the taboo against talking about rape is beginning to lift. Many women in the audience wore T-shirts that read in Kiswahili: “I refuse to be raped. What about you?”
Activists are fanning out to villages on foot and by bicycle to deliver a simple but often novel message: rape is wrong. Men’s groups are even being formed.
But these improvements are simply the first, tentative steps of progress in a very troubled country.
United Nations officials said the number of rapes had appeared to be decreasing over the past year. But the recent surge of fighting between the Congolese government and rebel groups, and all the violence and predation that goes with it, is jeopardizing those gains.
“It’s safer today than it was,” said Euphrasie Mirindi, a woman who was raped in 2006. “But it’s still not safe.”
Poverty, chaos, disease and war. These are the constants of eastern Congo. Many people believe that the rape problem will not be solved until the area tastes peace. But that might not be anytime soon.
Laurent Nkunda, a well-armed Tutsi warlord, or a savior of his people, depending on whom you ask, recently threatened to wage war across the country. Clashes between his troops, many of them child soldiers, and government forces have driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in the past few months. His forces, along with those from the dozens of other rebel groups hiding out in the hills, are thought to be mainly responsible for the epidemic of brutal rapes.
United Nations officials say the most sadistic rapes are committed by depraved killers who participated in Rwanda’s genocide in 1994 and then escaped into Congo. These attacks have left thousands of women with their insides destroyed. But the Congolese National Army, a ragtag undisciplined force of teenage troops who sport wrap-around shades and rusty rifles, has also been blamed. The government has been slow to punish its own, but Congolese generals recently announced they would set up new military tribunals to prosecute soldiers accused of rape.
No one — doctors, aid workers, Congolese and Western researchers — can explain exactly why Congo’s rape problem is the worst in the world. The attacks continue despite the presence of the largest United Nations peacekeeping force, with more than 17,000 troops. Impunity is thought to be a big factor, which is why there is now so much effort on bolstering Congo’s creaky and often corrupt justice system. The sheer number of armed groups spread over thousands of miles of thickly forested territory, fighting over Congo’s rich mineral spoils, also makes it incredibly difficult to protect civilians. The ceaseless instability has held the whole eastern swath of the country hostage.
In Bukavu, everywhere you look, something is broken: a railing, a window, a pickup cruising around with no fenders, a woman trudging along the road with no eyes.
The Congolese government admits it is at a loss, especially in keeping women safe.
“Every day, women are raped,” said Louis Leonce Muderhwa, the governor of South Kivu Province. “This isn’t peace.”
Activists from overseas have been pouring in. Few are more passionate than Eve Ensler, the American playwright who wrote “The Vagina Monologues,” which has been performed in more than 100 countries. She came to Congo last month to work with rape victims.
“I have spent the past 10 years of my life in the rape mines of the world,” she said. “But I have never seen anything like this.”
She calls it “femicide,” a systematic campaign to destroy women.
Ms. Ensler is helping open a center in Bukavu called the City of Joy, which will provide counseling to rape victims and teach leadership skills and self-defense. Her hope is to build an army of rape survivors who will push with an urgency — that has so far been absent — for a solution to end Congo’s ceaseless wars.
The City of Joy is rising behind Panzi Hospital, where the worst of the worst rape cases are treated. But even this refuge has come under attack. Last month, an irate mob stormed the hospital. The mob demanded that the doctors give them the body of a thief, so it could be burned. When the doctors refused, several angry young men beat up nurses and smashed windows. But it was not clear if the body was the only thing that had set them off.
“They don’t like our work,” said Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist. “Maybe what we’re doing is disturbing people.”
The stories of these rapes are clearly disturbing. But that is the point, to shake people up and grab their attention.
“The details are the scariest part,” Ms. Ensler said.
At the event last month, many people in the audience covered their mouths as they listened. Some could not bear it and burst out of the room crying.
One speaker, Claudine Mwabachizi, told how she was kidnapped by bandits in the forest, strapped to a tree and repeatedly gang-raped. The bandits did unspeakable things, she said, like disemboweling a pregnant woman right in front of her. “A lot of us keep these secrets to ourselves,” she said.
She was going public, she said, “to free my sisters.”
But Congo, if anything, is a land of contrasts. The soil here is rich, but the people are starving. The minerals are limitless, but the government is broke.
After the speaking-out event was over, Ms. Mwabachizi said she felt exhausted.
But, she added, “I feel strong.”
She was given a pink shawl with a message printed on it.
“I have survived,” it read. “I can do anything.”
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