In anticipation of the upcoming election in Zimbabwe, president Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party have, in the words of Human Rights Watch's Africa director Daniel Bekele, "resorted to its old campaign tactics of suppressing political opponents by harassment and intimidation." Human Rights Watch has called for them to end their harassment and arbitrary arrests of civil society activists and political opponents, as reported recently on WL Central.
This Saturday, police lobbed tear gas canisters into church windows at St Peters Kubatana in Highfield, reportedly sending parishioners jumping out through windows, and baton-charged the service. Mugabe is a devout Catholic who attended the Pope's funeral in 2005 despite an EU travel ban. Pius Ncube, the Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, and an outspoken critic of Mugabe, said of the trip, "That man will use any opportunity to fly to Europe to promote himself. ... The secretary of state might be rather too busy right now to talk to him, but when someone in the family has died, you appreciate all the sympathy you can get from all people, even murderers, crooks and thieves like Mugabe." Pius Ncube was exposed in 2007 as having a relationship with a married woman, and subsequently forbidden by the Vatican from speaking out about the Mugabe government. Mugabe, a violent anti-homosexual, has enjoyed a high level of cooperation from the Vatican, who also allowed his marriage to his second wife Grace, who was not a Catholic.
The prayer meeting was called to remember the assault on Mugabe political opponent Morgan Tsvangirai and other civic leaders by Mugabe supporters on March 11, 2007. After the police attack, the meeting was taken to Glen Norah church where dozens of people were injured by riot police during a turnout of thousands, including Tsvangirai. Police threw more than thirty teargas canisters to disperse the people, assaulted some people who attended the prayer service including children and made Glen Norah impassable with the chaos.
The Washington Post published a cable days ago on Hamid al-Ahmar, Islah Party leader, well-known businessman and de facto leader of Hashid, Yemen’s largest tribal confederation. The cable suggests that al-Ahmar aimed to remove President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power unless he “guaranteed” there would be “fairness” in the 2011 parliamentary elections, a unity government formed with movement leaders from South Yemen, and removed his relatives from power by December 2009.
The cable from August 31, 2009, indicates Ahmar had plans for demonstrations that would rock Saleh’s regime:
Absent this fundamental shift in Saleh’s governance of the country, Ahmar will begin organizing anti-regime demonstrations in "every single governorate," modeled after the 1998 protests that helped topple Indonesian President Suharto. "We cannot copy the Indonesians exactly, but the idea is controlled chaos." Ahmar said he had conveyed his ultimatum to Saleh through Ahmar’s brothers (NFI) in early August, but had not yet received a response from the president or his inner circle.
Ahmar believes the country would be thrown into “complete chaos” without the support of the Saudi leadership and elements of Yemeni military particularly MG Ali Muhsin. Muhsin has joined the opposition and recently indicated support for a Gulf Cooperation Council initiative that would transfer power to the vice president. And, Saudi Arabia is playing a role as a key mediator in the conflict that continues to intensify in Yemen.
France24 is reporting that former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to acknowledge defeat in the election last November, has been captured and taken to the Abidjan headquarters of rival president Alassane Ouattara, according to "diplomatic sources". Early reports said he was arrested by French troops, there as part of a UN mission approved in March after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and French President Nicolas Sarkozy accused Gbagbo of using heavy weapons against civilians.
It is now being reported that Ouattara troops arrested him. Youssoufou Bamba, the U.N. envoy of president-elect Ouattara stated that Gbagbo has been arrested, is alive, and will be brought to justice, according to the Washington Post. They quote Bamba as saying, “That’s the Republican Forces of Cote d’Ivoire who have conducted the operation. Gbagbo is arrested. He is under our custody. . . . Right now, he is being brought to a safe location for the next course of action.” Bamba is also quoted as saying that he was confident that as “the news will spread” of Gbagbo’s arrest, his forces “will stop fighting and they will lay down their weapons.” He added: “Those fighting are fighting for nothing, because this man is over, this era is over. We will address the serious problem of the humanitarian situation and the security situation . . . and restore public order.”
Image from Reuters
A delegation of the African Union met today with Muammar Gadhafi and South African president Jacob Zuma announced "We have completed our mission with the brother leader, and the brother leader's delegation has accepted the road map as presented by us." The AU mission, is headed by Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and also includes, according to Al Jazeera, "Amadou Toumani Toure, Denis Sassou Nguessou and Yoweri Museveni - respectively the presidents of Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda." Since Denis Sassou Nguessou is the president of the Republic of Congo and the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo is Joseph Kabila, and both are members of the AU, it is unclear who the fifth country is. As reported on WL Central on March 20, the same delegation had earlier condemned the violence in Libya, but at that point the AFP unhelpfully referred to the fifth country as "the Congo". The Guardian says it is the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), and further says Uganda's foreign minister attended, not the president.
The agreement apparently calls for: a ceasefire and protection of civilians, humanitarian aid for Libyans and foreign workers - "especially Africans", dialogue between the two sides, an inclusive transitional period, and political reforms which "meet the aspirations of the Libyan people". The delegation will meet the anti-Gaddafi forces tomorrow and if they also agree, it will remain to be seen whether this cease fire is obeyed more than the one imposed by the United Nations was.
In a new announcement from Twitter Profile: @USDayofRage (currently 1,915 followers) via Twitlonger, the movement demands reforms to abate corruption in US elections:
Corporate influence corrupts our political parties, our elections, and the institutions of government.
Bought by hard and soft dollars, disloyal, incompetent, and wasteful special interests have usurped our nation’s civil and military power, spawning a host of threats to liberty and our national security.
We have had enough.
Legitimate government is born of the self-interest and will of the people expressed by its citizens in free and fair elections. It does not spring from a tyranny of corporate or royal patronage, or a system or ideology that runs counter to the aims of life.
The institutions of government were designed to protect the principles of our democratic republic and to serve the will of citizens.
Corporations, even those owned by foreign shareholders, use money to act as the voices of millions, while individual citizens, the legitimate voters, are silenced and demoralized by the farce.
Free and fair elections inspire good citizenship and public service, because they engage the intelligence and genuine good will of the American people.
They produce the kind of stewardship our nation desperately needs, because they ensure that citizens can influence their destiny, and make genuine contributions to society.
and fair elections remedy the myriad ills and abuses of a corrupt and illegitimate government, which prey on the resources and spirits of citizens. (These abuses and ills are listed on the official US Day of Rage twitter hash tag #USDOR.)
Update: Six Syrian human rights groups, including the Syrian National Organisation for Human Rights, the Kurdish Committee for Human Rights and the Defence Committee for Democratic Freedom and Human Rights., released a joint statement saying twenty-six people were killed in Dara'a yesterday at the funerals of protesters killed the day before, and two more were shot dead in Homs yesterday. There are also many reports of people detained and missing.
Probably the best collection of youtube videos of the protests, organized by city, here.
Mass funerals were held in Syria today for the protesters killed yesterday, now reported as 37 by the National Organisation for Human Rights. In Dara'a, security forces fired on the mourners as thousands assembled near the old Omari mosque where six people were killed on March 22 and where the most violence has resulted since.
The UN Secretary-General's office has posted notes from a conversation he had today with President Bashar al Assad of Syria.
Bashar al-Assad (right) with his brother Maher al-Assad (left) and brother-in-law Assef Shawkat (center) in 2000.
Update:Syrian state TV has aired footage of masked gunmen firing on protesters and police. There are many similar videos in different situations on the internet, and different ideas of who the snipers are, Syrian security forces, protesters, or outside forces.
Today protesters in Dara'a destroyed a statue of president Bashar al-Assad's older brother Basil al-Assad and reportedly burnt down the State TV building in Dara'a and set fire to a Baath Party outpost. Al Jazeera's correspondent Cal Perry reports that the army has now been deployed in large numbers to Dara'a. The government's earlier decision to arm the police force with electric batons instead of live ammunition was reversed today.
Syrian state TV (translated by Al Jazeera) said repeatedly today: Over the past Fridays there were a lot of demonstrations in which armed groups used weapons to kill people and security forces - and though we understand that protesting is a right of the population, we can no longer allow chaos to take place and official buildings to be destroyed. So we will use all the means to stop the chaos from taking place.
Protesters are calling for people to come out tonight in great numbers in other cities to take the pressure off of Dara'a.
Video of snipers from AP
The UK's Independent is reporting from an Eritrean priest who tracks migrants across the Mediterranean that the bodies of murdered African migrants have been washing ashore in Libya. Father Mussie Zerai, who is in Rome, says that his contacts in Tripoli have seen five bodies in a hospital that are thought to be part of a group of approximately 335 predominantly Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees who have been missing since a few hours after departing Tajura on March 22 in a boat driven by a smuggler. “There are five bodies in total, two women, two boys and an Egyptian who we believe was the boat’s captain. Their bodies have gunshot wounds in them. Somebody shot them after they left Libya. ... This is a murky affair which must be investigated.” Father Zerai is quoted as saying.
A relative of two of the passengers reported them missing to Father’s Zerai’s organisation, Agenzia Habeshia, and human rights organization Everyone Group who say they immediately alerted the authorities to ask for patrols to be sent into international waters and requested the intervention of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “This morning, after two weeks of inaction and indifference from the authorities and international institutions, we heard from Don Mussie Zerai that the bodies of those migrants, riddled with bullets, are being washed ashore,” Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau, co-presidents of the international humanitarian organization EveryOne Group reported. “It would appear that the boat carrying the refugees was attacked in the Mediterranean, and that the shots were so rapid that the migrants did not have time to sound the alarm with the satellite phone they’d taken on board."
As WL Central reported on Tuesday, in an adjournment debate in the UK House of Commons on Monday evening, Henry Bellingham, parliamentary undersecretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, confirmed that Bradley Manning acquired British citizenship at birth.
The video of the debate is now available here.
The opening argument of MP Ann Clwyd (Labour - Cynon Valley) is notable for emphasizing that Bradley Manning's citizenship is not the sole reason a government of laws should be concerned about his treatment. She had earlier raised the interpretation of the British Nationality Act with the foreign minister in committee and in the Commons, but in this address, she reminds the government of its commitment to speak out against human-rights abuses everywhere, regardless of the victim's nationality. She also asks for assurances that Manning's British family will receive UK consular assistance in their future attempts to visit him at the US Marine base at Quantico, Virginia.
Bellingham responds affirmatively on all three counts -- on the strict interpretation of the Nationality Act (with qualifications based on Manning's right to privacy), on the commitment of the UK government to make formal representations to other nations concerning human-rights abuses, and on the willingness of the government to assist Manning's family in their attempts to visit him.
Previous WL Central coverage of Bradley Manning
WL Central action page for Bradley Manning
Photo by Ai Weiwei
Renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was detained on April 3 at Beijing Capital Airport by customs police while trying to travel to Hong Kong following three police visits to his studio last week. Now there are reports from police authorities late Wednesday that they are investigating Ai Weiwei "for suspected economic crimes in accordance with the law." Following the arrest, police searched his studio and his wife’s home and arrested his wife, his friend and former journalist Wen Tao, and eight of his employees, freeing his wife and the employees within 24 hours. They also confiscated more than 30 computers and hard drives as well as other documents.
The Communist Party's Global Times has spoken out against the reaction to Ai's detention in western countries (the first actual acknowledgement of his detention from Chinese media). In addition, they offer this explanation for his detention: Ai Weiwei is an activist. As a maverick of Chinese society, he likes "surprising speech" and "surprising behavior." He also likes to do something ambiguous in law. On April 1, he went to Taiwan via Hong Kong. But it was reported his departure procedures were incomplete.
Ai Weiwei likes to do something "others dare not do." He has been close to the red line of Chinese law. Objectively speaking, Chinese society does not have much experience in dealing with such persons. However, as long as Ai Weiwei continuously marches forward, he will inevitably touch the red line one day.
Update:The final leg of #365Leaks will be completed during the next hours.
April 5 marks an important anniversary in the history of WikiLeaks. It was the day that WikiLeaks released the "Collateral Murder" video showing a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in New Baghdad. It was when WikiLeaks became a much more prominent organization.
Following "Collateral Murder," WikiLeaks went on to release the Afghan War Logs and the Iraq War Logs. At the end of the year, it began to release 250,000 US State Embassy Cables that still continue to be released. It went from just an organization posting documents to the web to one that made attempts to form partnerships with media organizations to provide context to the information being released.
The year also saw one soldier, Pfc. Bradley Manning, arrested and eventually taken to Quantico Marine brig. Suspected of (and later officially charged with) leaking the material WikiLeaks would go on to release throughout 2010, Manning has suffered cruel and unusual punishment and has been deprived of his right to a speedy trial. Brig officers appear to be using "learned helplessness" techniques to wear Manning down and force him to make a confession that can tie him to Assange and the wider WikiLeaks organization, making it possible for the US government to expand their targeting of WikiLeaks and anyone connected to the organization.
If Manning is responsible for leaking material many have benefited from reading in the past year, he is clearly a hero. Today, WL Central celebrates "365 Days of WikiLeaks." We also call attention to Manning's inhumane treatment, which must come to an end now, and call on everyone sympathetic to the cause of freedom of information and transparency to support this brave individual if he came to the conclusion that information he had access to needed to be seen by the world so massive injustice and suffering in wars and under repressive regimes could begin to come to an end.
Follow this feed as @kgosztola tweets #365Leaks — to honor the bold work of WikiLeaks over the past 365 days. Tweets will come throughout next days, specifically: (1) 7-9 am New York Time on April 5th (2) 8-10 pm New York Time on April 5th, (3) 7-9 am New York Time on April 6th and (4) and, finally, to finish up, (4) 8-10 pm New York Time on April 6th.
Update: Rop Gonggrijp writes on his blog: "It may be good if we all take a deep breath and get grounded a bit here. There are no new events other than the justice minister in The Netherlands providing rather obvious answers to questions from MPs. I really don’t think the minister giving perfectly predictable answers should be news. There is, as of yet, no indictment. Let alone an extradition request. I helped publish a video documenting war crimes. My lawyers and me have absolutely no idea what crime they could even charge me with. If they indeed want something from me, the prosecutors are likely facing the same problem.
"So there may very well never be an extradition request, just a very long period of nothing much happening. Which doesn’t mean this isn’t something to worry about or keep a close eye on. But it’s probably not worthy of getting in a nationwide or even global frenzy over just yet."
Uri Rosenthal, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands, responded to questioning from Green MP Arjan El Fassed by saying that he does not rule out extradition of Rop Gonggrijp (pictured left) to the US.
As reported by the UK Friends of Bradley Manning, the British Government has tonight recognised that Bradley Manning is a citizen of the United Kingdom.
Ann Clwyd MP, spoke of Manning in parliament just after 10PM, a continuation of her previous efforts to raise Manning's case in the UK. On March 16, Ann Clwyd raised the question of Manning's treatment with Foreign Secretary, William Hague, during his testimony before the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. (The exchange between Clwyd and Hague appears in the last several minutes here.). The next day, Ann Clwyd formally requested during Business Questions in the Commons that a debate be held on the conditions of Manning's detention. She explicitly compared Manning's treatment to that "meted out" to prisoners at Guantanamo.
Tonight she was answered by Henry Bellingham MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who, while defending the US “effective and robust judicial system,” and stressing the limitations of UK involvement, also noted some very important points:
El País: La corrupción policial en Ecuador es generalizada (Police corruption is widespread in Ecuador)
"La corrupción "es generalizada" en las filas de la Policía Nacional de Ecuador y quien fuera su comandante, Jaime Aquilino Hurtado, utilizó su poder como la máxima autoridad del cuerpo para extorsionar, acumulando así dinero y propiedades, facilitar el tráfico de personas y obstruir las investigaciones contra compañeros corruptos. (Corruption is widespread "in the ranks of the National Police of Ecuador and who was their commander, Jaime Aquilino Hurtado, who used his power as the ultimate authority to extort the police, accumulating money and property, to facilitate the trafficking and to obstruct investigations against corrupt colleagues.)"
Read more (Spanish) Google Translate
El País: El fiasco de las pruebas de la CIA (The fiasco of the CIA evidence)
"El CD Rom facilitado por Microsoft Corporation a la CIA con los correos electrónicos de varios sospechosos de enviar desde España suicidas a Irak contenía información explosiva, pero en los tribunales españoles no sirvió de nada. (The CD Rom supplied by Microsoft Corporation to the CIA with the emails of several suspected suicide bombers sent from Spain to Iraq containing explosive information, but in the Spanish courts to no avail.)"
El País: "Los más buscados" por EE UU: el sandinismo antidemocrático y corruptor ("Most Wanted" by the U.S.: the Sandinistas undemocratic and corrupting)
"El gubernamental e izquierdista Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN), cuya revolución acabó en 1979 con la dictadura de Anastasio Somoza, prometió establecer la justicia social en Nicaragua, pero acabó siendo un movimiento corruptor, autoritario, que avasalló a la oposición y aceptó fondos del narcotráfico, según afirma un informe de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Managua. (The governmental and leftist National Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN, Spanish acronym), whose revolution in 1979 ended the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, promised to establish social justice in Nicaragua, but ended up being a spoiler movement, authoritarian, who overpowered the opposition and accepted funds drug trafficking, according to a report from the U.S. Embassy in Managua.)"
Read more (Spanish) Google Translate
(Image Credit: Dali Rău)
By now, those following the story closely are aware that the position of the US on President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime has shifted greatly. A near-180 has taken place.
As announced last evening, the New York Times reported the “United States, which long supported Yemen's president, even in the face of recent widespread protests, has now quietly shifted positions and has concluded that he is unlikely to bring about the required reforms and must be eased out of office, according to American and Yemeni officials.”
A news alert from the newspaper continued, “The American position began to shift in the past week, administration officials said. While American officials have not publicly pressed President Ali Abdullah Saleh to go, they have told allies and some reporters that they now view his hold on office as untenable, and they believe he should leave.”
Since the announcement, suggestions are now floating around that Saleh is buckling down. Well aware that he has lost much of the US’ support, his regime’s police and security forces are stepping in to suppress protests that are, in addition to the increased violence and instability, largely to blame for the US shift.
At the end of today's sitting, the UK Parliament at Westminster will debate the treatment of Bradley Manning, a debate that will be opened by Ann Clwyd (Labour-Cynon Valley).
Clwyd has raised Manning's plight and the concern for him of her constituents in Wales before in committee and in the Commons, and has received considered and relatively positive responses from both the foreign secretary and the leader in the Commons, as we reported here. Manning's mother is a Welsh citizen of the UK.
No time is given for the start of the debate. It is scheduled to go on until 10:30 pm or for half an hour, whichever is later.
Via @GregMitch on Twitter.
Nigerian elections that had been postponed until Monday, April 4th, have been postponed yet again by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which is headed by Professor Attahiru Jega. From the INEC headquarters, the rescheduling was announced by Jega, who said since announcing the rescheduling several requests made to the Commission have urged it to consult more widely and ensure the two-day postponement addresses all logistical issues.
The Commission consulted with the Chairmen of all the political parties in Nigeria and decided the best thing to do would be to reschedule the already rescheduled elections. Thus, the elections, assuming no more logistical problems (corruption) get in the way, will be held on the following dates: Saturday, April 9, Senate and House of Representatives Elections; Saturday, April 16, Presidential Elections, Tuesday, April 26, State of House of Assembly and Governorship Elections.”
This announcement undoubtedly means a tense pre-election social and political climate that has already seen hundreds killed in what Amnesty International calls “politically-motivated, communal and sectarian violence” will continue to persist.
When held, this will be Nigeria’s third general election since military rule ended in 1999. The country has held two previous elections in 2003 and 2007. Both elections resulted in allegations of rigging, voter intimidation and ballot vote snatching.
UK MP quizzes Crown Prosecution Service over Assange extradition case
Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert has raised the relevance of the Human Rights Act to the role played by the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in Sweden's attempt to extradite Julian Assange.
In reply to Mr Huppert's questions during a joint committee hearing on human rights, Keir Starmer, director of Public Prosecutions, admitted that the CPS "are bound by the Human Rights Act, and we are bound by our duties to the court." However, he added that human-rights issues would be for the courts to determine rather than for the CPS.
Impenetrable though those legal distinctions may appear in the abstract, parliamentary attention to possible politicization of law is significant where it appears that the boundaries between law and politics are not clear and stable.
Australian MP and shadow minister reflects on WikiLeaks, Spycatcher, and freedom of the press
Malcolm Turnbull (L-Wentworth), former leader of the Opposition in the Australian House of Representatives and the current shadow minister for Communications and Broadband, spoke to Sydney University Law School on 31 March about his experiences representing former MI5 officer Peter Wright, author of Spycatcher, and about the concerns and responsibilities the Australian government faces relative to Assange's own situation and to WikiLeaks publications generally.
El País: Daniel Ortega, en la lista estadounidense de "los más buscados" (Daniel Ortega, on the U.S. list of "Most Wanted")
"Nicaragua no es una democracia pues los poderes del Estado están controlados por dos personas, el presidente, Daniel Ortega, y el opositor Arnoldo Alemán, expresidente, que no cumplen cárcel porque en el país centroamericano no hay justicia independiente, según un cable de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Managua. (Nicaragua is not a democracy because the branches of government are controlled by two people: the president Daniel Ortega and the opponent Arnoldo Aleman, former president, who are not in prison because the Central American country has no independent judiciary, according to an U.S. embassy cable from Managua.)"
Read more (Spanish) Google Translate
La Jornada: Falta el aval del Senado, pero ya votó Washington por Marisela Morales (The backing of the Mexican Senate is still lacking, but Washington already voted for Marisela Morales)
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