Salem-News.com Human Rights articles Page 54

The Olive Tree

The still slow life is mine, my days are years.
Tied to the soil, I reach towards the sky,
as men rush by, so driven by their fears,
and with their fears intact pass on and die.
From Plato's Olive Tree

(MANAMA, Bahrain) - This is the olive picking season. Like other harvests, it should be a season of joy. However, the land-grabbing occupiers of Palestine have imbued Israeli youth with the destructive arrogance of conceited, swaggering, self-loving Jews.

“A group of extremist Israeli settlers set ablaze more than 350 Palestinian olive trees” reports the International Middle East Media Centre.

BURMA: Military MP Says Army Chief Could Become Candidate for President

The 60-year-old Ming Aung Hlaing took over as commander of Burma’s Armed Forces after long-time military junta leader Than Shwe retired in June 2010.

(RANGOON) - The leader of Burma’s military lawmakers has said the group wants to nominate current Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing for president following the 2015 elections. The plan is possible because the country’s president is elected by Parliament, where military officers hold a quarter of the seats.

Brig-Gen Wai Lin, an officer with the Southern Command and a Lower House MP who leads the military lawmakers, told The Irrawaddy that he expects Sen-Gen Ming Aung Hlaing to be a leading candidate for the presidency.

Human Rights: Being Positive

Today (Saturday 11-5) we met in Ramallah for a study day to work and organize for a positive future: one democratic secular state in historic Palestine.

(BETHLEHEM) - From now on our posts will have more positive than negative links/stories. But first an unclassified note (time will tell impact): Israeli warplanes attacked Syria.

The Palestinian negotiating team submitted its resignation following Israel’s announcement of building thousands of new Jewish colonial settler homes on Palestinian lands and its announcement of thousands of home demolitions for native Jerusalemites.

First-Hand Observation

Kenya’s vibrancy
Is just a vibe
With little viability.

(UGANDA) - When you live in East Africa
In the vicinity of Kenya;

When you collate
Books like IT’s OUR TURN TO EAT
With what you see in flesh
Where democratically elected MPs
Pass draconian Bills
Just to piss of those
Who coveted their turn
To gorge themselves;

NO FIRE ZONE - One of the Year`s Most Urgent Documentaries

Beautifully crafted and heart wrenching - The Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting

(LONDON) - Next Tuesday, 5th November at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith as part of Between the Lines festival follow ups we will be showing NO FIRE ZONE: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, followed by a Q&A with the film’s director, Callum Macrae.

The feature-length film is a meticulous and chilling portrayal of the final devastating months of the 26 year long Sri Lankan civil war told by the people who lived through it.

UK Government`s Devotion to Racist Israeli Regime Continues

... as new ministerial stooge is slotted in at the Foreign Office

(LONDON) - letter from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign recently flopped into my Inbox for forwarding to MPs, urging them to write to the Foreign Office and ask what action was being taken to address the growing humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

I edited it slightly and added, to my own MP, that we do mean 'action' not the usual mealy-mouthed drivel from Messrs Hague and Burt.

UN Envoy Condemns Myanmar Violence on Muslims

A United Nations envoy in Myanmar has condemned the violence taking place against Muslims in Myanmar, saying that it threatens reforms in the country

(RANGOON ) - Violence against a Muslim minority in Myanmar is feeding a wider anti-Muslim feeling that poses a serious threat to the country's dramatic economic and political reforms as it emerges from half a century of military rule, a U.N. envoy said on Thursday.

The government says at least 192 people were killed in June and October 2012 clashes between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, most of whom Myanmar deem illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite roots going back generations.

Credible Sri Lankan War Crimes Investigation on the Horizon

More than two years after the Panel's report, the High Commissioner visited Sri Lanka for a week this past August and found, unsurprisingly, that nothing had changed.

(TORONTO) - At the United Nations General Assembly's (UNGA) 68th session in late September, a major stipulation was laid out by UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Navi Pillay, in reference to the shocking slaughtering of tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamil civilians in the spring of 2009.

As the last four years have shown, repeated pronouncements by U.S. and numerous other officials recommending that Sri Lanka take proper action have done nothing to bring even the slightest measure of justice for the horrific crimes of 2009.

APN Denounces New Round of Settlement Approvals

"...he Palestinians’ ability to remain in talks under current circumstances depends more than ever on the United States and the international community." - APN President and CEO Debra DeLee

(WASHINGTON, DC) - Americans for Peace Now (APN) today denounced the government of Israel's actions to move forward with yet more settlement approvals in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

APN once again urged U.S. officials – President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry, and Special Envoy Indyk – to engage forcefully to convince Prime Minister Netanyahu to cease and roll back these reckless, destructive decisions.

Chinese Police Shoot Dead Seven Uyghurs in Kashgar: Group

Chinese authorities usually blame outbreaks of violence in Xinjiang on the region's ethnic minority Muslim Uyghurs, who the government describes as "terrorists". But rights groups and experts say Beijing exaggerates the threat to take the heat off domestic policies that cause unrest or to justify the authorities' use of force against Uyghurs.

(HONG KONG RFA) - Seven ethnic minority Uyghurs have been shot dead by police in separate clashes in China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang and nine others detained for protesting against some of the killings, an exile Uyghur group said on Monday.

The shootings underscore a trend of increasing violence in Xinjiang, where the Muslim Uyghurs complain of discrimination and religious controls under Beijing’s rule.