Join Amnesty International’s Write for Rights Global Write-a-thon

(For Amnesty International)

Around the world many governments incarcerate human rights defenders by closing them behind the bars, where they are tortured and their lives put in jeopardy - their crime, they spoke against state sponsored human rights abuses.

Your words have got enormous power and can bring the spotlight on to the dark chambers where these human rights defenders are being tortured. Your letters of support and solidarity can bring in hope in these forgotten 'prisoners of conscience'. Join with me and hundreds of thousands of people around the world in marking International Human Rights Day on 10 December by taking part in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights Global Write-a-thon, the world’s largest human rights event. Through our letters, post cards and more we take action to demand human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled around the world and show our solidarity to those who suffer human rights abuses as well as to those human rights defenders who are languishing in state prisons around the world.

Join Amnesty International’s Write-a-thon by going to the following link and by pledging your letters and your support. You can find all information and resources in that page.

Join Write for Rights Global Write-a-thon

December 3-11 are the key dates for writing the letters, but feel free to start earlier or later. Let us come together and save lives and protect human rights around the world.

Myanmar: Political prisoners must be freed - Amnesty International

(Amnesty International Appeal)

On the third anniversary of the violent crackdown on the “Saffron Revolution”, Amnesty International calls on the Myanmar government to immediately and unconditionally free all political prisoners arrested for their peaceful activism.

The Myanmar authorities continue to imprison over 2,200 political prisoners—more than double the number held before the August 2007 protests against sharp fuel and commodity price rises.

“While the international community, including Myanmar’s ASEAN neighbours, has been calling for free, fair and inclusive elections there, the plight of thousands of political prisoners has been overlooked,” said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher.

Amnesty International believes the vast majority of those held are prisoners of conscience who are being punished merely for peacefully exercising their rights to free expression, assembly and association.

The Myanmar government will hold its first elections in 20 years on 7 November 2010 against a backdrop of political repression and systematic violence. Under Electoral Laws enacted in March 2010, no political prisoner can take part in the elections or hold membership in any political party.

International attention in recent months has focused on the power-play between the military and the government’s proxy parties on the one hand; and the armed ethnic minority groups, the National League for Democracy, and a small number of new opposition parties on the other.

“The long-standing problem of political imprisonment in Myanmar remains very much at the heart of the political impasse in the country”, said Benjamin Zawacki. “These prisoners constitute a significant part of the political opposition”.

In the largest show of public discontent against the military government in Myanmar since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, tens of thousands of protesters—led by Buddhist monks—took to the streets in August and September 2007, demanding economic and political reforms.

The peaceful country-wide demonstrations were violently put down by the authorities in late September 2007. At least 31 (and possibly more than a hundred) people were killed—with many more injured and at least 74 disappeared—and thousands detained.

The brutal crackdown provoked international condemnation, including an unprecedented expression of revulsion and demands for change from the UN Security Council, the UN Human Rights Council and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Yet even as Myanmar prepares for its first elections in two decades, as part of what it calls a “Roadmap to Democracy”, it continues to repress political opposition.

“It beggars belief that the government can attempt to burnish its democratic credentials by holding elections, while it also holds more than 2,200 political prisoners behind bars and out of sight of the campaigns and polls”, said Benjamin Zawacki . “The international community should point out to Myanmar that these practices cannot be reconciled under any genuine Roadmap to Democracy”.

Political prisoners in Myanmar are held in deplorable conditions

Many of those who took part in the Saffron Revolution, such as labour rights campaigner Su Su Nway, monk leader and activist U Gambira, and 88 Generation Student group members Min Ko Naing, Htay Kywe, Mie Mie, Ko Mya Aye and Zaw Htet Ko Ko, are in poor health. In the past two years, at least 238 political prisoners have been moved to extremely remote prisons, restricting their access to relatives, lawyers and medical care. Reports of torture and other ill-treatment are rife. The International Committee of the Red Cross has been denied access to prisons in Myanmar since late 2005.

“On this third anniversary of the Saffron Revolution, Amnesty International calls on world leaders to demand that the Myanmar government free all political prisoners at once, and ensure human rights protection throughout the elections period and beyond”, said Benjamin Zawacki.

Visit the following URL and add your name to this petition calling on the Chairman of the newly-established Myanmar National Human Rights Commission to press the President of Myanmar to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience.

http://amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/Myanmar-must-release-all-prisoners-of-conscience

Meet the Nobel Laureates 2011

The Nobel Prize for the year 2011 in the field of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economic Sciences was announced recently. Just a note on who those Nobel laureates are and their contributions in their respective fields that made them the winners.

Nobel for Physics: Nobel Prize for Physics for the year 2011 was shared by Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Reiss for their discovery that the universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate. They made the discovery based on their studies on distant supernovae or the exploding stars.

Nobel for Chemistry: Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman won the 2011 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his discovery of ‘quasicrystals’, a mosaic-like chemical structure that scientist earlier thought would not be possible. Contrary to what was earlier thought that atoms were packed in crystals in symmetrical patterns, Prof. Shechman showed that atoms in a crystal could be packed in a pattern that could not be repeated.

Nobel for Physiology or Medicine: Three scientists shared the Nobel for Physiology or Medicine for the year 2011 for their discoveries about the immune system that opened new avenues for the treatment and prevention of many infectious diseases as well as cancer. One half of the Nobel would be shared by Bruce A. Beutler and Jules A. Hoffman for their discovery concerning the activation of innate immunity and the other half by Ralph M. Steinman for his discovery of the dendritic cells and its role in adaptive immunity.

Nobel for Literature: Tomas Transtromer bagged the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature. According to the Nobel Committee the Swedish poet was awarded the Nobel because through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality.

Nobel for Peace: The 2011 Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded jointly to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee bagged the coveted prize for organising women for ending the long war in Liberia and Tawakkul Karman for her leading part in the struggle for women’s right, democracy and peace in Yemen.

Nobel for Economic Science: Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims won the Nobel Prize for Economics for developing methods to answer questions regarding the causal relationship between economic policy and different macroeconomic variables such as GDP, inflation, employment and investment.

Source: Official website of the Nobel Prize and The Hindu newspaper

10 Years of Afghan War

Today on 7th October 2011 it is 10 long years since the start of the Afghan War initiated by the United States and now under the aegis of NATO. The United States is at their longest war in the history, longer that the Vietnam War and the number of American causalities has reached around 1,800. Add to this the millions of Afghans who lost their life in this destructive war and a million others who have become physically incapacitated. The most terrible news is that we are not any near to an end to this war and the NATO apparently has no genuine strategy at their hands for the withdrawal of the troops from the Afghan soil.

One of the biggest mistakes done by the United States when they started the war was that they entered into war in a country about which they didn’t had any in-depth knowledge. The socio-cultural fabric of Afghanistan was quite different from what had been understood by the United States. As the retired US army general Stanley McChrystal remarked recently the United States began the Afghan war with a “frighteningly simplistic” view of the country. A war that was started by the US with the popular support of the American public on account of their outrage after the 9/11 attacks by al-Qaeda has disintegrated into an unpopular war in the United States mainly because of the high causality of the war and the financial burden on the exchequer. Barack Obama during his campaign trail promised troop withdrawal as one of the main items of his presidential agenda. But he has failed miserably to keep up with his promise and the Afghan War is being considered as one of the main failures of his foreign policy. The killing of the al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden seems to be the only noteworthy result of the Afghan War for the United States.

In this 10th year of the Afghan War one must analyse what changes have been brought about in the country as a result of this long war. The Taliban that was in power in Afghanistan was heavily influenced by the Deobandi fundamentalism and enforced one of the strictest interpretations of Sharia law, which came under heavy criticism from the various Muslim scholars all over the world, particularly for their treatment of women. With the fall of the Taliban there have been vast improvements in the living condition of women. There has been reduction in the discrimination against women and greater access to education and health care. In Afghanistan many laws were enacted that gave equal status for men and women and set apart a quarter of parliamentary seats for the women. There has been improvement in the condition of human rights in the country, yet corruption and mismanagement have put many of these improvements in jeopardy. The new Afghan government has fallen well short of expectation and is not able to improve the sense of security among the people of Afghanistan.

Though the Taliban is out of power they still exist in many pockets of Afghanistan and find many hiding places in Pakistan. From these centres they are still fighting the NATO troops and killing common Afghans in large numbers. Suicide attacks have increased manifold and are putting Afghan lives in danger. The outrageous suicide attack by Taliban that killed peace negotiator Burrhanuddin Rabbani shows the murderous ability that the Taliban still holds. Afghan authorities blame Pakistan for harbouring the deadly Taliban commanders in different places in that country. It is commonly believed by many international security experts that the plot for killing Rabbani was hatched in Quetta, Pakistan, which is considered as the headquarters of the Taliban in Pakistan with the support of the Pakistani spy agency, the Inter Service Intelligence or the ISI.

One of the most important facts that the United States and the NATO have now recognised and realised is that the Afghans largely resent the existence of foreign troops in their soil. Many Afghans have taken to the streets demanding the immediate withdrawal of the foreign troops from Afghanistan. They protest against the continuous existence of foreign troops and condemned the killing of the civilians. At the same time many Afghans believe that once the foreign troops leave the country the Taliban would come back to power and establish their cruel and oppressive government in the country. The trust of the Afghans on the Afghan police and army that are driven by corruption, illiteracy and drug use is quite minimal and many believe that they will not able to fight against the battle-hardened Taliban forces for long.

Anyways the United States and NATO are planning for a phased exit from Afghanistan with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen claiming that the overall security situation in Afghanistan has improved and that the Afghan forces have taken lead in maintaining security in seven provinces and districts in Afghanistan. US President Barack Obama announced this year his plan to withdraw 10,000 US troops by year end and another 23,000 more by next summer.

10 years, without any doubt, is a very long time for a war to continue and therefore it is imperative for the United States and the NATO to strategise to leave Afghanistan after giving the responsibility for security to the Afghan troops. The later it becomes the graver would be the causality of the war, not to mention the increase in the enormous financial resources that should be committed for the war.