Newsroom

Update

Recent satellite images from the UN agency UNOSAT offer a glimpse of the drama currently unfolding in Sri Lanka. As the images show, IDPs that arrived in late February and early March were forced to set up their tents in areas previously avoided by fleeing civilians. They sought shelter on wetlands prone to flooding and along the beach within 200 meters of the coastline. Now they are caught up in the fighting.  Alertnet just put out a useful Q & A on the current sitation of civilians suffering in Sri Lanka's civil war. I can only repeat what our Sri Lanka…

April 22, 2009

Update

Human Rights Watch (HRW) this week released a report detailing the unlawful killings and torture of Palestinians by Hamas during the recent Gaza conflict. This report confirms Amnesty’s own findings, published in February, of instances where Hamas murdered and tortured Palestinians. They accused the victims of "collaborating" with Israel, or the victims were members of opposing Palestinian parties, including Fatah. The HRW report provides a more in depth analysis of the situation. The report claims that Hamas forces and masked gunmen alleged to be members of Hamas extra-judicially executed more than 30 people since December and injured dozens more by…

April 22, 2009

Update

Today I was out around different areas of the Reservation visiting various Aunties and other women elders who participated in the Maze of Injustice report research almost three years ago now. I'm disappointed because we are not able to visit everyone. There is so much flooding and flooding warnings as a result of 12 foot high snow drifts that some areas of the Reservation are inaccessible. The whole Tribal Nation of Standing Rock has been identified as a disaster zone. Many officers from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have been visiting throughout the week and going on tours of flood damage with various members of Tribal Council--it has…

April 22, 2009

Update

Earlier this month, prisoner of conscience Fathi el-Jahmi turned another year older inside prison walls in Libya. He was arrested in 2002 after calling for political reform and free speech at a conference in Tripoli, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment. Due to international support, he was released early in March 2004. Unfortunately, only weeks later, after repeating his call for democracy and political reform, he was detained yet again and has been in prison ever since. He suffers from heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes, and his health continues to deteriorate. There's a letter circulating in Congress right…

April 22, 2009

Update

In a few hours (2:30 A.M. New York time), the 24-hour ultimatum issued by the Sri Lankan military on Monday to the opposition Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (also known as the LTTE or Tamil Tigers) expires.  The Tigers have been told to surrender or, according to a military spokesman, "Thereafter will be a military course of action.  That is the best option."  I'm deeply worried, not for the Tigers but for the civilians trapped with them. The Tigers are confined by the military in a small pocket of land in northeastern Sri Lanka.  It's about twice the size of…

April 21, 2009

Update

In a press statement released today, Amnesty International condemned the eight-year eight-year prison sentence imposed by an Iranian Revolutionary Court on Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi who was convicted of "espionage" following a brief closed door trial in Tehran. Saberi had been arrested on January 31 and held in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison since then. Legal proceedings in Iran's Revolutionary Courts are severely flawed and fail to meet international standards for fair trials. The evidence against Saberi has not been made public. The American born, 31-year-old Saberi is the daughter of an Iranian father and Japanese mother and worked for NPR…

April 20, 2009

Update

Image source (edited) After three years of prison, famous Azerbaijani satirist and poet Sakit Zahidov (aka Mirza Sakit) is free. In the words of an Amnesty International USA press release: …Sakit Zahidov was pardoned under an amnesty act passed in March by the country’s parliament, the Milli Mejlis. Serious doubt had been cast on Sakit Zahidov’s conviction and imprisonment after the authorities’ failed to clarify ambiguities in the evidence and irregularities in trial procedures. Amnesty International considered him to be a prisoner of conscience. […] Reporters Without Borders has hailed the release: “This is great news. It is a significant…

April 18, 2009

Update

It's clear to us that the torture memos released yesterday, as gruesome and repugnant the details are within, are only the tip of the iceberg. As far as we currently know, the interrogation regime spelled out in the Bybee memo is the best case scenario for how detainees were treated. Amnesty International has been interviewing the victims of torture for almost fifty years and our experience teaches us that abuse nearly always escalates over time. It starts with roughing people up at 3am and ends with naked people piled up in pyramids. All that we know is based on leaked…

April 17, 2009

Update

It's been a long time since I've had access to the internet.  As it turns out, internet, let alone wireless internet, and even regular cell services are minimal when you're working in a rural area like Standing Rock Sioux Nation.  Signals come in as you reach the tips of the buttes, but fade away as you continue driving. The other day we were traveling along a stretch of highway in route to Fort Yates, North Dakota, where the tribal offices are located.  This building stands majestically atop a hill and looks out over a large body of water.  We came…

April 17, 2009

Update

The two-day truce called by the Sri Lankan government ended on Wednesday, with a Sri Lankan military spokesman saying military operations against the opposition Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (known as the LTTE or Tamil Tigers) had resumed.  But how do you carry out an offensive against an area of about 5 square miles (about twice the size of Central Park in New York) and containing at least 100,000 civilians, without causing massive civilian casualties?  John Holmes, the U.N. Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said in a press conference on Wednesday that the danger of a bloodbath was of great concern. …

April 16, 2009

Update

The last ten days have seen massive protests in several countries, including Moldova, where the government is now accusing the organizers of peaceful demonstration on April 6 of inciting the use of extreme violence the following day. On April 6, protestors participated in a “peaceful day of mourning” in Chisinau, in order to demonstrate against the outcome of the recent parliamentary elections. The next day, in a separate event, the protests turned into violent riots as the crowds attempted to overtake government buildings. It is unclear who started the violence, with witness accounts stating that objects were being thrown at…

April 16, 2009

Update

Today, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Troy Davis' petition to file a second habeas petition in Federal district court.  The decision is here.  The vote of the three-judge panel was 2-1.  The Court did extend Davis' stay of execution for 30 days to give him a chance to file a habeas corpus petition with the US Supreme Court. As always, take action at: www.amnestyusa.org/troydavis ... More later ...

April 16, 2009