Salem-News.com Human Rights articles Page 47

Fear of Arrest and Harassment for Human Rights Lawyer Sardar Mushtaq Gill and His Family

Advocates say he is being targeted due to giving legal assistance in blasphemy cases. (Includes supporting documents)

(LAHORE) - LEAD (Legal Evangelical Association Development) is deeply concerned that human rights defender Advocate Sardar Mushtaq Gill has gone into hiding due to a fear of an illegal raid for arrest; he has been harassed by Police Officials who were operating illegally without police uniforms.

On 18 November, 2013, at approximately 9:30 PM in the late night, when people mostly are in bed, in Phool Nagar (Bhai Pheru) some unidentified persons came to his home and knocked at the door.

Myanmar Authorities Should Stop Sending Boatloads of Rohingyas to Sea

Women and children are sent to sea from Kunia Village in Maungdaw - too many are dying...

(DHAKA, Bangladesh) - This is a request to the Myanmar Government Authority to stop sailing boats with Rohingya women and children to Malaysia.

It is learned from reliable sources that at least two boats a week sail loaded with not only Rohingya youths but also Rohingya children and women to Malaysia by risky sea route.

BURMA: Declaration to Submit Petition for the Confiscated Land of Rohingya

There are hundreds of villagers who have lost their land; they are from Kin Daung, Atwin nga tay, Sein Daung, Tankyak kan, Lay Myro, Dabru Chaung, Nanra Goon villages and so on.

(RANGOON Burma Times) - According to the villagers of Atwin Nga Tay village tract, City peace and development council (Ma-Ya-Ka) and land registry has released a notification to submit petition for the confiscated Rohingya land.

The land was confiscated for the military and for a Buddhist pagoda, in 1988 and 1994. There were hundreds of acres of land that were confiscated for battalions and one hundred acres for the pagoda that is located in a Buddhist village.

London`s Tamils Want to Share Their Horror Stories with David Cameron

There is a structural problem in the Sri Lankan constitution: Tamils just aren’t recognised as equal.

(LONDON Vice) - If you've heard anything about the persecution of Tamil people in Sri Lanka, it's likely you've only been exposed to the tip of a very large, very depressing iceberg.

The country's authorities have systematically attacked the Tamil population for over 60 years, engaging in a prolific campaign of sexual and human rights abuses, most notably the murder of at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in 2009. The Tamils believe that their people have been the victims of a genocide.

BBC: David Cameron `Breached Protocol` in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's government has accused David Cameron of breaching protocol on his visit to the country, during which he raised concerns over alleged human rights abuses against Tamils.

(LONDON) - A senior source told the BBC that the prime minister had "brushed aside" an official and had failed to acknowledge a dance reception. They added that they "expected better". But Mr Cameron told MPs on Monday that his visit had succeeded in raising awareness of human rights issues.

In May 2009, Sri Lanka's army defeated the separatist Tamil Tigers after almost 30 years of brutal and bloody civil war.

Intaction Anti-Circumcision Activists Picket Home of Leading Pediatrician

On Saturday November 16, members of the anti-circumcision activist group INTACTION http://www.intaction.org picketed outside the home of Susan Blank, M.D., chairperson of the American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Circumcision.

(NEW YORK CITY) - Members of the anti-circumcision activist group INTACTION picketed outside the home of Susan Blank, M.D., chairperson of the American Academy of Pediatrics Task Force on Circumcision.

The Intaction picketers are demanding the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Task Force retract it’s recently released report (Pediatrics Vol 130 No 3 Sept 2012 "Circumcision Policy Statement") that promotes infant circumcision.

An Open Letter to Sri Lankan Journalists

Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. So many people gave us secret thumbs-ups or whispered, winked or nodded their support. Sometimes in the most surprising places.

(COLOMBO) - I definitely detected a delicious sense of “schadenfreude” from among you brave – but mischievous - Sri Lankan journalists, over the relentless harassment of me and my Channel 4 News colleagues by state intelligence, police and immigration officers.

I’m not referring to the ranting rottweiler “reporters” who do the regime’s clunky propagandist bidding, although I have no doubt that they enjoyed it too.

SRI LANKA: Uprooted Trincomalee Tamils Demand Justice for Genocide

The uprooted people have not even provided refugee relief allowance for the last several months...

(CHAMPOOR TamilNet) - A section of uprooted Tamil families from Champoor, now staying at one of four so-called welfare centres in Trincomalee, staged a protest on Saturday carrying slogans that demanded justice for genocide and urged global attention on the continued refusal by the Colombo government in allowing them to resettle in their own lands in Moorthoor East.

On Friday, a day before the protest, the occupying Sri Lankan military intelligence operatives, went on a house-to-house and camp-to-camp round instructing the Tamils not to take part in any protest during the ‘Sri Lanka CHOGM’.

BURMA: OIC Chief Visits Rohingya Camps: `I Was Crying`

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi — who has said little in defense of the religious minority — declined to meet with the OIC delegation.

(RANGOON) - The secretary general of the world’s largest bloc of Islamic countries said emotional visits with members of the long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim community — chased from their homes in Burma by Buddhist mobs and arsonists — brought him to tears.

“I’ve never had such a feeling,” Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said late Saturday, as he and other delegates from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation wrapped up a three-day tour to Burma that included talks with the president, government ministers, interfaith groups and U.N. agencies.

Cameron Calls for Independent Sri Lanka War Crime Investigation, Rajapakse Remains Defiant (GRAPHIC PHOTOS)

Cameron had words of hope, but it is clear that he is appalled over the treatment of media in Sri Lanka.

(SACRAMENTO) - The disappointment in British Prime Minister, David Cameron's decision to attend CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) this year rang sharply through the world's Tamil communities.

But in the end he made clear that Sri Lanka's lackadaisical regard for its own war crimes will not be enough to thwart an independent, international war crime investigation.