Salem-News.com Human Rights articles Page 52

White Van Stories: a Film by Leena Manimekalai

Nobody knows where you are. You are no longer a recorded statistic of society. You just don’t exist anymore.

(CHENNAI) - They hijack your lives. By the shadows of night; by the piercing light of day. They come for you in aggressive military green. Sometimes in cunning civilian shades. They grab you by the throat without reason; they collar your shoulder without a warrant. Like slaves to savages you are led against your will.

You are forced to leave behind a home of broken spirits to lament your loss; loved ones who will tirelessly look for you.

Pro-Tamil leaders Inaugurate Mullivaikal Memorial Museum

The sculptures have been fashioned based on the line drawings rendered by artist Veera Santhanam and have been carved out by Mamallapuram Sthapathi Murugan and his team.

(CHENNAI) - Mullivaikkal Ninaivu Muttram, a memorial for the Sri Lankan Tamils who lost their lives in the bloody war in Sri Lanka has come up in Vilar road near Thanjavur.

A brainchild of World Tamils Confederation, this memorial is the only sad reminder of the dead Tamils in Sri Lanka where each and every remnant of the war with the tiger rebels has been wiped out by the Sri Lankan Army, including the house where LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran lived.

Appeasement Dooms Palestinians to Everlasting Misery

UN's precious gift empowering legal action is squandered while Israel, with US/UK/EU acquiescence, continues to seize land and resources with impunity.

(LONDON) - Later this month Palestinians will be celebrating an important anniversary, namely the decision by the UN General Assembly a year ago to recognise Palestine as a non-member observer state. But not with much joy, I suspect.

Its upgraded status enables Palestine to now take part in UN debates and join bodies like the International Criminal Court (ICC). Predictably, Israel flew into a rage at the prospect and said the move pushed the peace process "backwards", while the US said it was "unfortunate".

Myanmar Peace Talks Fail to Nail Down Cease-Fire Agreement: RFA

The government had aimed to hammer out details of the cease-fire at a meeting this week.

(RANGOON RFA) - Myanmar’s government and armed ethnic rebel groups failed to hammer out details of a nationwide cease-fire accord at the end of landmark peace talks Tuesday, putting off further discussions until next month.

The government delegation and representatives from more than a dozen rebel groups will hold their next meeting in southern Myanmar’s Kayin (Karen) state capital Hpa-An in December, the two sides said in a joint statement after a two-day meeting in Myitkyina, the capital city of Kachin state.

Our Walls Bear Witness: The Plight of Burma`s Rohingya

US Holocaust Memorial Museum honors Burma's Rohingya Muslims; victims of ongoing Genocide.

(WASHINGTON, DC) - Denied citizenship and rendered stateless by the Burmese government, the 800,000 Rohingya lack basic rights, including the right to work, marry, and travel freely, and they routinely suffer severe abuse.

Following violent attacks in 2012 that destroyed numerous Rohingya communities, more than 100,000 are now confined to displacement camps and segregated areas, where they continue to be subjected to violence, including crimes against humanity.

India Shouldn`t Have Denied Visa to Callum Macrae

No Indian visa for Sri Lanka war documentary maker.

(CHENNAI Times of India) - India has denied a visa to Callum Macrae, the director of a documentary that exposed war crimes in Sri Lanka.

Macrae, whose team was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last year, made news again last Thursday when UK's Channel 4 telecast footage acquired from him showing LTTE TV anchor-actor Isai Priya's capture during the last phase of the Lankan war. Priya was found dead on May 18, 2009, with visible marks of torture.

`Desperate Times, Desperate Measures`; That`s the Way!

Western governments used to go to great lengths to say they were standing up for human rights in China. Now, trade ties with Beijing are so lucrative that Western leaders no longer need to lie.

(LONDON PFLT) - Western governments used to go to great lengths to say they were standing up for human rights in China. Now, trade ties with Beijing are so lucrative that Western leaders no longer need to lie.

George Gideon Oliver Osborne, a British Conservative politician, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the country's second-ranking official, says officially, "China is what it is. We have to be here or nowhere". It's business; you see, just business. After all, "Who's Afraid of Chinese Money?"

The Jewish Paradox Arising from The Curse of Zionism

The world always has been anti-Semitic (meaning anti-Jew because Arabs are Semites, too) and always will be.

(LONDON) - I was inspired (perhaps I should say provoked) to write this piece by something U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden said in his speech to the recent J Street National Conference in Washington DC.

He recalled visiting Golda Meir when she was Israel’s prime minister and he was a junior senator. Her parting words to him were, he said, these: “We Jews have a secret weapon in our conflict with the Arabs: We have no place else to go.”

Like Balachandran, Isaipriya Awakens Human Conscience - Is it True or False

Even the Tamil minister of Sri Lanka's ruling Rajapaksa regime has raised his voice for an independent investigation of the murder.

(MELBOURNE) - The death of Prabhakaran's son provoked the Tamil Nadu students demonstration into the streets. At one point nearly a million students were on the road. Similarly, however crude and suppressed human conscience is, it is bound to respond in one form or the other.

The way Isaipriya died has shocked and rock the Tamil in the world. Many proclaim only animals can do such a thing; even animals have occasionally shown love and compassion to fellow animals, In this case the milk of human kindness has virtually dried up and these Sinhalese soldiers behave like brutes.

Do Peace Talks Point to a Carthagenian Peace?

In August of this year, I suggested in Wall Writings that we study the ominous signs that indicate Israel seeks neither fairness nor justice in its dealings with its neighbors in the Middle East region.

(CHICAGO) - On December 24, 2009, the Israeli oil exploration company Givot Olam, posted two media announcements a few hours apart.

Givot Olam’s first announcement revealed that “significant quantities” of oil had been found in the mud of Meged 5, a drill site close to the Palestinian village of Rantis, north west of Ramallah.