Pax Christi Victoria

August Agape

2011-08-13T21:03:00.001+10:00

Pax Christi Victoria Inc.
International Christian Peace Movement

You are invited to the August Agape

What Future for Asylum Seekers?
What are the alternatives to the malaysia solution?

Speaker: Aran Mylvaganam Tamil Asylum Seeker

Sunday August 21

at Kildara, rear 39 Stanhope Street, East Malvern.

12.30 for 1 p.m.

We will begin after a SHARED MEAL and finish around 3.30 p.m.

PLEASE BRING FOOD TO SHARE

(If food needs to be heated please arrive by 12.30)

ALL WELCOME

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Events

2011-08-04T14:35:00.001+10:00

A reminder that August 6 and 9 mark the 66th anniversaries of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is an opportunity to reflect on these tragedies and redouble our efforts to achieve a world without nuclear weapons.

This Saturday (August 6th) your invited to attend a lunchtime vigil in Melbourne at 1-2PM on the GPO steps in Bourke Street Mall followed by a Japanese for Peace concert from 3PM at the State Library of Victoria.

Next Tuesday night (August 9th) ICAN invites you to an evening lecture on the 9th by US disarmament expert Hans M. Kristensen and former foreign minister Gareth Evans. They will discuss the US Nuclear Posture Review of 2010 and its implications for Asia and the Pacific.

DETAILS:

Peace Vigil and Concert

Date: Saturday August 6th
Time: 1 - 2PM
Venue: Melbourne GPO

Speakers Forum

Date: Tuesday 9 August
Time: 5.15pm for a 5.30pm start - 7pm
Venue: Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne
RSVP: fihlvic@gmail.com

We hope you can make it along to these events.

August Agape

2011-08-04T14:31:00.001+10:00

Pax Christi Victoria Inc.
International Christian Peace Movement

You are invited to the August Agape

What Future for Asylum Seekers?
What are the alternatives to the malaysia solution?

Speaker

Aran Mylvaganam Tamil Asylum Seeker

Sunday August 21

at Kildara, rear 39 Stanhope Street, East Malvern.

12.30 for 1 p.m.

We will begin after a SHARED MEAL and finish around 3.30 p.m.

PLEASE BRING FOOD TO SHARE

(If food needs to be heated please arrive by 12.30)

ALL WELCOME

Pax Christi June Agape

2011-05-11T09:47:00.003+10:00

Help to break mainstream media's deafening silence about what is happening in Afghanistan.

The war and Australia’s involvement have been going on for ten long years, thousands have been killed, yet the country remains devastated and insecure.

You are invited to a Pax Christi gathering

Sunday 19 June 2011
12.30 pm for 1.00 pm (for a shared meal)

2.00 pm discussion on

The Way forward in Afghanistan
St John's Uniting Church Hall

567 Glenhuntly Road Elsternwick
(cnr Foster St. Melways 67J4)

Moderated by:
• Joseph Camilleri

With:
• Richard Tanter
• Deborah Storie
• Simon Moyle
• Jessica Morrison
_______________________________________________________

For further information contact:
Rita Camilleri ritac@paxchristi.org.au

February Agape

2011-02-13T15:20:00.001+10:00

Pax Christi Victoria Inc., International Christian Peace Movement

You are invited to the First Agape of 2011

Youth: Towards a Global Culture?

Dahlia Khatab & Rashid Alshakshir

are two LaTrobe students who have taken part in the Young Muslims leadership Programme of the Centre for Dialogue.

Pax Christi sponsored them to attend the Fourth Inter-Civilizational Youth Engagement Program 2010 Consultation in Kuala Lumpur on

"Youth: Towards a Global Culture?"

The purpose of the consultation was:

* To develop a deeper understanding of global challenges and how the young can help in their resolution and
* To identify and examine universal spiritual and moral values that can contribute towards justice, peace and harmony among the different communities and nations of the planet

Larry Marshall, the Director of the Young Muslim Leadership programme, will facilitate a dialogue with Dahlia and Rashid in which they will report on the consultation and invite us to dialogue with them on the issues.

Sunday 20 February 2011

at St John’s Uniting Church, cnr Glenhuntly Rd and Foster St. Elsternwick, Melways 67 J3, Elsternwick Station (Sandringham line,) Tram 67

Please note change of Venue

12.30 for 1 p.m.

We will begin after a SHARED MEAL and finish around 3.30 p.m.

Please BRING SOME FOOD TO SHARE
(If food needs to be heated please arrive by 12.30)

ALL WELCOME

Observations on events in Egypt

2011-02-13T15:17:00.000+10:00

by Joseph Camilleri

There is one aspect to recent events in the Arab world, which has not drawn the attention it deserves. What we have witnessed first in Tunisia, and now more dramatically in Egypt, is one of the great nonviolent revolutions of the last 100 or more years. The revolution is all the more far-reaching in its implications in that it was forged entirely at the initiative of the Egyptian people with no support from and little understanding by the outside world. This was a pervasive revolution that touched and spread across the whole society and was constructed implicitly if not explicitly on the philosophy and techniques of nonviolence. I would venture to advance four additional propositions:

1. The significance of this revolution is that it was nurtured and executed by an Arab and predominantly Muslim society - a possibility which the world generally and the West in particular had until now dismissed as beyond the realm of the feasible -- the conventional wisdom has been that Arabs and Muslims were simply not equipped to envisage an alternative to, let alone directly confront, the politics of tyranny and repression.

2. The revolution has once again demonstrated the power of nonviolence. The key to this does not lie so much in the fact that a tyrant was eventually removed from office. Rather it lies in the fact that the moral integrity of the revolution was so potent that even political elites in the West and in Israel, strong supporters of the Mubarak regime for more than three decades, were reduced to little more than passive spectators. Indeed, the revolution was emotively and intellectually so powerful that in the end the President of the United States had no option but to give it his public and unreserved support. In this there are immense implications for other parts of the Arab world, not least for Palestine.

3. This revolution is not just another re-enactment of the revolutions led by Gandhi or Martin Luther King. It is innovative in ways that will take a long time to assess. But even now we can fairly say that never before has a movement of this kind made such effective use of the new information technology to foster the politics of empowerment and participation - and never before has such a symbolically effective use been made of the uninterrupted occupation of public spaces, and in particular of the city square as the preferred site for the expression of the popular will.

4. To date much western official and unofficial comment has emphasised the prospects for 'freedom' and democracy, with particular reference to free and fair elections. Yet, this is but one part of the story. The social movement that has spread across the Arab world is first and foremost a movement crying out for social justice - for an end to corruption, to abject poverty, to grotesque inequalities, to patterns of aid, trade and investment that have consistently favoured the rich and disadvantaged the poor. Should the protests of the last few weeks result in democratic elections that leave the unjust economic arrangements of the last few decades more or less intact (possibly with tacit Western support), this would indeed be a pyrrhic victory.

Also see the article by John Horgan, ‘Egypt's revolution vindicates Gene Sharp's theory of nonviolent activism’, http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=egypts-revolution-vindicates-gene-s-2011-02-11

December Agape

2010-12-07T10:36:00.002+10:00

Pax Christi Victoria Inc., International Christian Peace Movement

You are invited to the December Agape

Engaging the church on Afghanistan

As the war in Afghanistan drifts on Australia’s place in it becomes more and more questionable. Promoting debate and discussion in Afghanistan has been frustrating and difficult in face of community indifference. This indifference seems to be shared by the churches.

How can we challenge and encourage the church’s to engage the issue and bring it to the attention of their members?

We have invited representatives from the Justice Unit of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and the Justice and International Mission Unit of the Uniting Church in Victoria to meet with us to discuss how the church might pick up the issue

Sunday December 12

at St John’s Uniting Church, cnr Glenhuntly Rd and Foster St. Elsternwick, Melways 67 J3, Elsternwick Station (Sandringham line,) Tram 67
Please note change of Venue

12.30 for 1 p.m.

We will begin after a SHARED MEAL and finish around 3.30 p.m.
Please BRING FOOD TO SHARE

(If food needs to be heated please arrive by 12.30)

ALL WELCOME

Pax Christi Victoria AGM and Agape

2010-11-17T16:28:00.002+10:00

You are invited to The Annual Meeting of Pax Christi Victoria Inc., International Christian Peace Movement

“Where to for the Peace Movement”
Speaker Caz Coleman, Hotham Mission Asylum Seekers project

Reports on what we have achieved in 2010, our vision for 2011, and
election of 2011 committee etc.

Sunday November 21

at Kildara, rear 39 Stanhope Street, East Malvern.

1.45 p,m. after a shared meal beginning at 1 p.m. (Hot food by 12.30 p.m.)

October Agape

2010-10-10T13:27:00.001+10:00

Pax Christi Victoria Inc.
International Christian Peace Movement

You are invited to the October Agape

FAITH, SHARED WISDOM AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

Joe & Rita Camilleri

Joe and Rita have just attended an international interfaith consultation in Kuala Lumpur which Joe and Ian Fry helped to plan and organise. The consultation was attended by distinguished international figures including the Hon. Malcolm Fraser, Judge Christopher Weeramantry, Dr Chandra Muzaffar, and Bishop Philip Huggins. Joe and Rita will report on the consultation and its importance for us.

Sunday October 17

at St John’s Uniting Church, cnr Glenhuntly Rd and Foster St. Elsternwick, Melways 67 J3, Elsternwick Station (Sandringham line,) Tram 67

Please note change of Venue

12.30 for 1 p.m.

We will begin after a SHARED MEAL and finish around 3.30 p.m.
Please BRING SOME FOOD TO SHARE

(If food needs to be heated please arrive by 12.30)

ALL WELCOME

Trial of Creech 14

2010-09-17T10:12:00.002+10:00

Fourteen anti-war activists may have made history today in a Las Vegas courtroom when they turned a misdemeanor trespassing trial into a possible referendum on America’s newfound taste for remote-controlled warfare.

The so-called Creech 14, a group of peace activists from across the country, went on trial this morning for allegedly trespassing onto Creech Air Force Base in April 2009.

From the start of today’s trial, prosecutors did their best to keep the focus on whether the activists were guilty of allegations they illegally entered the base and refused to leave as a way to protest the base’s role as the little-known headquarters for U.S. military operations involving unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, over Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

But a funny thing happened on the way to prosecutors’ hope for a quick decision. Appearing as witnesses for the Creech 14 today were some of the biggest names in the modern anti-war movement: Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson; Ann Wright, a retired U.S. Army colonel and one of three former U.S. State Department officials who resigned on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq; and Bill Quigley, legal director for the New York City-based Center for Constitutional Rights.

By the time those three witnesses finished their testimony as to why they believed the activists had protested at the base, they’d managed to convince Las Vegas Township Justice Court Judge William Jansen to delay his verdict for four months — and had managed clearly to frustrate prosecutors.

For the better part of the day, Clark, Wright and Quigley testified under direct questioning from witnesses and a surly cross-examination from the Clark County district attorney’s office.

Each witness spoke eloquently, and at length, about the need for nonviolent civil disobedience in the face of criminal actions by the U.S. government — which is how most in today’s anti-war movement and many international observers have characterized America’s drone war.

“[People] are allowed to trespass if it’s for the greater good — and there are certainly exceptions [to the law] when there is an emerging, urgent need,” said Quigley, while on the stand.

By all accounts, the Creech 14 trial is the first time in history an American judge has allowed a trial to touch on possible motivations of anti-drone protesters.

No one knows how Jansen will ultimately rule, but most took it as a good sign when, at the end of the day’s proceedings, applause flooded the courtroom and Jansen sent the Creech 14 — all of them part of a robust Catholic anti-war movement — on their way by echoing the words of Jesus Christ with his call of “Go in peace!”

National Conference and National Meeting

2010-08-04T00:14:00.003+10:00

Pax Christi Australia
( International Christian Peace Movement)

National Conference & National Meeting

17-19 September 2010
Kildara Centre, 39 Stanhope Street, Malvern Vic

The Conference
* What does it mean for Australia to be ‘secure?
* Do we need ‘great and powerful friends?’
* Why do we get involved in other people’s wars?
* Whom are we defending ourselves against?
* Is “National Security” the same as ‘human security’?
* Should we be seeking alliances of peace rather than identifying potential enemies?
* Is a real culture of peace possible
* What would it look like?

Programme.
Friday 17 September:

5.00 p.m. Gathering and registration
6.00 p.m. Evening meal

7.30 p.m. KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
A New Approach To Security for Australia
Nic Maclellan (journalist, researcher and community worker in the Pacific islands)

9.10. Reflection
“Images which Shape Us’

Saturday 18 September
9.30 a.m. War and Peace in Australian Identity
Marilyn Lake (Professor of History at La Trobe University )

10.45 a.m. Morning Tea

11.15.a.m: Redefining Security in International Relationships:

Moving towards Cooperative Security and Human Security.

Steph Cousins (Humanitarian Advocacy Coordinator at Oxfam Australia.)

12.30 p.m. Lunch

1.30 p.m. Towards a Culture of Peace:
The Faith Community Contribution .
An interactive, interfaith discussion to develop our own vision of a culture of peace for Australia.

4.15 p.m. Afternoon Tea

5 p.m. Afghanistan: A Test case for Australia, developing a new security Approach Dr Joe Camilleri

6.30 p.m. Evening Meal and social evening

Sunday 19 September
9 a.m. National Meeting of Pax Christi

• Towards a strategy for Pax Christi
• Report from World Assembly
• Asia Pacific Consultation
• PXA contribution to PXI
• Website Workshop
• Election of Nat Chair & Nat Council.

12 00 Worship

1 p.m. Lunch & Departure.

Speakers.
Nic Maclellan has worked as a journalist, researcher and community development worker in the Pacific islands. Between 1997-2000, he was the Educational Resource Development Officer with the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre (PCRC) in Suva, Fiji. Nic has written widely on development, disarmament, human rights and environment in the South Pacific, and is co-author of three books on the region:

Professor Marilyn Lake was awarded a Personal Chair in History at La Trobe University in 1994. She has published 12 books and numerous articles on subjects ranging from labour history to land settlement, sexuality and citizenship, gender and nationalism, feminism and the politics of anti-racism. She co edited the recently published “What’s wrong with ANZAC, The Militarisation of Australian History.

Steph Cousins is the Humanitarian Advocacy Coordinator at Oxfam Australia. Her work focuses on promoting the rights of people affected by crisis to assistance and protection. She also advocates for the prevention of conflict, mass atrocities, arms proliferation and armed violence. Steph is the current Chair of the Pacific Small Arms Action Group and Secretary of the International Detention Coalition Governance Committee.

Professor J A. Camilleri OAM is founder of Pax Christi Australia. Joe is Professor of International Relations and Director of the Centre for Dialogue at Latrobe University. He specialises in international relations theory, security studies, the political economy of Asia Pacific, the foreign policies of the great powers, and the relationship between globalisation and governance.

Registration
Location:
Kildara (Brigidine) Centre
39 Stanhope Street, Malvern.
(next door to St Vincent's Church)

(Stanhope Street runs off Glenferrie Road Train from any city station on Frankston,
Cranbourne or Pakenham lines to Malvern.
Walk or tram 16 up Glenferrie Rd, stop 56
Or
Take 16 tram from the city (Melbourne Uni, Swanston St, St. Kilda road. )
Or from Kew, to stop 56.

Accommodation
We hope to provide billets for interstate and overseas visitors.
There is also a wide range of hotels, motels, and hostels within a reasonable distance. We will help you find one when we know what you are looking for.

Costs
Friday-Sunday , Conference and National Meeting:
$125 or $100 low income.

Friday and Saturday, Conference only
$100 or $80 low income.

Saturday Evening meal only
$20

Registration form
Name(s)………………………………………

…………………………………………………….

Address…………………………………………

…………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………….

Phone……………………...Mob………………

Email……………………………………………

Dietary preferences…………………………...

(All meals vegetarian)

Are you registering for

The whole week-end Y N

Friday & Saturday only Y N

Saturday Evening meal only Y N

Do you require accommodation? Y N

Can you offer accommodation? Y N

Please send with cheque for $20 deposit or full fee to Pax Christi, P.O Box 31, CARLTON SOUTH, VIC 3053 by 1 September

Phone Harry Kerr 03 9893 4946
ahmkerr@hotmail.com
Rita Camilleri 03 9379 3889
ritacam44@gmail.com

Two Vigils

2010-08-04T00:11:00.000+10:00

Friday 6 August, 7 am – 9 am: Remember Hiroshima, Celebrate A Nuclear-Free Pacific.

This year will be the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is also the 25th anniversary of the South Pacific Nuclear Weapons Free Zone treaty, which the US has just said they will join! There will be a Vigil in front of St Paul’s Cathedral (corner of Swanston and Flinders streets). Sponsored by the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, Japanese for Peace, Pax Christi, Quaker Peace and Social Justice Network. Further information, ring Nancy: 0431 475 465.

Afghanistan Monthly Anti-war Vigil.

Afghanistan Monthly Anti-war Vigil

Tuesday, August 17 at 4:30 pm

Location: Flinders Street Train Station (under the clocks)

Hiroshima, Nagasaki Memorial Concert

2010-08-04T00:06:00.000+10:00

Hiroshima, Nagasaki Remembrance Events which Pax Christi is supporting.
Hiroshima & Nagasaki Memorial Concert

Sunday 8th August 2010, 3:00 – 5:00 pm

Village Roadshow Theatrette @ State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

Tickets at door: $15/$10 conc.

Warm up a cold wintry Sunday at a concert for peace
Sixty-five years after the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by nuclear blast, Japanese for Peace will bring together a diverse array of inspiring musicians, speakers and citizens of the world in a concert to celebrate peace and enable us to imagine a world without nuclear threat.

Performers:
Anne Norman – Shakuhachi
Dean Frenkel – Overtone Singer, Didgeridoo
Lee Morgan – Indigenous Musician
Liz Frencham – Singer/Songwriter
Wadaiko Rindo & Ayako Sato – Japanese Drums

Speaker:
Dave Sweeney – Australian Conservation Foundation

Supported by Victorian Multicultural Commission.
Concert proceeds to be donated to a charity organisation.

August Agape

2010-08-04T00:01:00.002+10:00

You are invited to the August Agape

TOWARDS NUCLEAR ABOLITION

The Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference 2010

Speaker: Tim Wright

Tim Wright attended the conference as an NGO representative on behalf of ICAN.

Here an on the spot report of what the conference achieved and didn’t achieve on the road to Nuclear disarmament and of Australia’s role and contribution

TIM WRIGHT is a peace and disarmament campaigner based in Melbourne, and a board member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. He founded and is the current president of the Peace Organisation of Australia, a group committed to promoting peace through education and political lobbying

Sunday August 15

at Kildara, rear 39 Stanhope Street, East Malvern.

12.30 for 1 p.m.

We will begin after a SHARED MEAL and finish around 3.30 p.m.

Please BRING some FOOD TO SHARE

(If food needs to be heated please arrive by 12.30)

ALL WELCOME

Our World In Crisis? Course

2010-05-27T13:38:00.001+10:00

Info about the Our World in Crisis? course, which runs for 6 weeks on Tuesday nights, starting 22 June, at the Australian Volunteers International Building, 88 Kerr Street, Fitzroy, can be found at:

http://www.latrobe.edu.au/dialogue/assets/downloads/OWIC-Brochure2010.pdf

Two Important Events

2010-03-17T07:50:00.002+10:00

Pax Christi would like to invite you to two important events:

1 Palm Sunday. Pax Christi is organising an ecumenical service in Wesley Church, 148Lonsdale Street at 1.15 to precede the rally at the State Library, Swanston and La Trobe Streets, and silent march at 2 p.m. Both events focus on Afghanistan and the need to get troops out so as the Afghans can begin to rebuild their shattered community.

We are fortunate in having Deborah Storie who has spent four years living in Afghanistan to speak at the service.

2 Many of you attended the Forum on Afghanistan last October.

We are holding second forum on 11 April which will focus on the need to get Australian and other foreign troops out of Afghanistan. We also hear of real possibilities for building peace and restoring community at the local level which need our support. As this is an election year in Australia we want o develop a network and a strategy for bringing Afghanistan to people’s notice and to promote public debate.

Sunday 11 April 2010, 2.00 - 5.30 pm

Centre for Theology and Ministry,
College Crescent, Parkville.
Between St Hilda’s & Ormond Colleges

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Prof Joseph Camilleri
Director, Centre for Dialogue, LaTrobe University.

Ms Onnie Wilson
Malalai Joya Committee of Australia and
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

Mr Chip Hendriss
Communications manager, Uniting Church, former military media officer with U.S. military and with Australian defence force, member Standfast, Veterans against Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

ADMISSION FREE
Further Information 03 9893 4946

Invitation to a Book Launch

2010-03-17T07:43:00.002+10:00

The Centre for Dialogue, La Trobe University &
The Australian Centre for Science, Innovation & Society, The University of Melbourne

take great pleasure in inviting you to
the launch of the new book

Worlds in Transition: Evolving Governance Across a Stressed Planet

by Joseph A. Camilleri and Jim Falk

to be launched by

The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG
Former Justice of the High Court of Australia
&
Prof Stuart Macintyre
Laureate Professor and Ernest Scott Professor of History, the University of Melbourne

Prof Dennis Altman
Director, Institute of Human Security, La Trobe University
will act as Master of Ceremonies.

Tuesday 13 April
6.00 pm – 7.30 pm

Yasuko Hiraoko Myer Room, Asia Centre
Level 1, Corner Swanston Street & Monash Road
The University of Melbourne

RSVP: by 5:00pm Thursday 8 April to c.siokou@latrobe.edu.au

2010-02-18T17:08:00.002+10:00

Pax Christi Victoria Inc.
International Christian Peace Movement

You are invited to the first Agape of 2010

Jessica Butcher and Joanna Sullivan

represented Pax Christi Australia at the
Inter-civilisation Youth Engagement Program 2009:
an international interfaith youth seminar
organised by the Movement for a Just World in Malaysia

The Theme was

"Ethics and the Global Economic Crisis:

How can young people in particular help to find solutions?

Jessica and Joanna will report and engage with us on their experiences at IYEP3.
They will focus on what became a major issue at the conference:
If young people are to help to find solutions

HOW WILL THEY BE EMPOWERED?

WILL THEY BE HEARD?

They have a fascinating story to tell.

Sunday February 21

At the Unitarian Church 110 Grey St, East Melbourne
1 p.m.

We will begin after a SHARED MEAL and finish around 4.15 p.m.

PLEASE BRING COLD FOOD TO SHARE

ALL WELCOME

Please note new time & venue. Some parking behind

Pax Christi December Agape

2009-11-23T11:52:00.002+10:00

The next Pax Christi Agape will be held on

13 December at 4.30 pm

The speaker is Dr Visier Sanyü. Visier is the National Coordinator for the Refugee and Displaced Peoples Program of the National Council of Churches

He is a member of the Naga people, whose homeland has been split between India, China and Burma.

The venue is Kildara, rear 39 Stanhope Street, East Malvern.

Please bring some food to share for a meal around 7.30 pm.

All welcome.

Public meeting: Monday 16 November 2009, 6.00 pm

2009-11-02T16:49:00.001+10:00

Trade, labour mobility and development in the Pacific

Speakers include:

Maureen Penjueli (Fiji) - Coordinator, Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG)

John Salong (Vanuatu) - Director, Vanuatu Women’s Development Scheme (VANWODS)

The Australian government has been pushing for greater regional economic integration in the Pacific islands, and promoting a regional trade agreement known as PACER-Plus. But what will free trade and increased overseas investment mean for workers and local communities in the Pacific? What are the costs and benefits of increased labour mobility in the Pacific and seasonal work schemes which provide access for Pacific workers to the Australian and New Zealand labour markets?

Join us to hear from two leading campaigners for trade justice in the Pacific:

* Maureen Penjueli from Fiji is co-ordinator of the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), which links regional community, church and women’s organisations to raise awareness about the social, cultural and economic impacts of PACER-Plus and free trade in the Pacific.

* John Salong from Vanuatu is director of the Vanuatu Women's Development Scheme (VANWODS), a non-government microfinance group, which provides disadvantaged women with access to credit and income earning opportunities. John has been active in the debate about remittances, seasonal labour mobility and development options for rural communities in Vanuatu.

Venue: Meeting room 1, Ground floor, Trades Hall (Corner Lygon and Victoria Streets, Carlton – enter off Victoria Street)

For further information contact: Gary Lee (Aidwatch) on (02) 95578944 or Nic Maclellan on 0421840100.

Special Forum on Afghanistan

2009-09-24T09:33:00.002+10:00

On behalf of Pax Christi Victoria I invite you to a special Forum on Afghanistan on SUNDAY 18 October 2009 at 2 -5.30 p.m at the Centre for Theology and Ministry, College Crescent Parkville (between St Hilda’s & Ormond Colleges).

We are holding this forum because we believe there is an urgent need for all of us to be much better informed about the very confusing situation in Afghanistan. It is likely that Australia will be requested to send more troops in the near future even as the Netherlands and other European countries are pulling their troops out.

Will this achieve anything?

Can foreign armies bring democracy to Afghanistan or are they making a difficult situation worse?

Who are the Taliban and what do they seek to achieve?

Will withdrawal leave behind chaos?

What is happening to the ordinary people, especially the women?

Is a military presence in Afghanistan the way to deal with terrorism?

Are there ways in which Australia and the International community can contribute to a just peace?

These are just some of the questions about which we need to be informed so that we can make constructive representations to the Australian government.

We are very fortunate that Prof Amin Saikal AM, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies Australian National University and a native of Afghanistan has agreed to come to Melbourne to be the keynote speaker.

Other speakers include

· Ms Fazila Tasmim Hajeb who is a Graduate of Kabul University; presenter and broadcaster with SBS radio, language teacher and Deputy Chair: Tents4Peace

· Prof Joseph Camilleri Director, Centre for Dialogue, LaTrobe University.

We hope to draw together a wide cross section of concerned individuals and groups so that we can together make an informed commitment towards the realisation of a peaceful future for Afghanistan.

Meetings

2009-09-01T19:23:00.002+10:00

Sunday 20 September, 10 am – 4 pm: Workshop: Who Will Stop Nuclear Next Use? Australia-Japan civil society cooperation for nuclear disarmament. Speakers: Rolf Ekeus, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute; Gareth Evans, Co-chair, International Commission of Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament; Kawasaki Akira, Tilman Ruff, Patrick Morgan, Jimbo Ken, Richard Tanter, Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Hugh Saddler, Nakamura Keiko, Kandori Shizuka, Joseph Camilleri. RMIT Storey Hall, 342 Swanston Street. Free admission. Nautilus Institute, RMIT, Japanese for Peace and Australian Government. Further information: Nautilus Institute: Tel: 9925 3170; Email: jonathan.odonnell@rmit.edu.au; Website: http://www.globalcollab.org/Nautilus/australia/

Sunday 20 September, 4.30 – 7.30 pm: Pax Christi Agape. Guest: Joe Camilleri will give an update and lead a discussion on the activities of the Centre for Dialogue and its involvements. Kidara Centre, rear 39 Stanhope Street, Malvern.

Sunday 18 October, 2 – 5 pm: Public Forum: Where to for Afghanistan? Prospects for a Just Peace. Centre for Theology and Ministry (CTM), 1 Morrison Close, Parkville (between Ormond and St Hilda’s Colleges). Parking on The Crescent or on site; tram 19 (North Coburg) stop 13 Gatehouse Street.

Revolutionary Haitian Priest, Gerard Jean-Juste, Presente!

2009-06-01T12:02:00.001+10:00

by Bill Quigley

Though Haitian priest Father Gerard Jean-Juste died May 27, 2009, at age 62, in Miami from a stroke and breathing problems, he remains present to millions. Justice-loving people world-wide mourn his death and celebrate his life. Pere Jean-Juste worked uncompromisingly for justice for Haitians and the poor, both in Haiti and in the U.S.

Pere Jean-Juste was a Jesus-like revolutionary. In jail and out, he preached liberation of the poor, release of prisoners, human rights for all, and a fair distribution of wealth. A big muscular man with a booming voice and a frequent deep laugh, he wore a brightly colored plastic rosary around his neck and carried another in his pocket. Jailed for nearly a year in Haiti by the U.S. supported coup government which was trying to silence him, Amnesty International called him a Prisoner of Conscience.

To read the full article go to:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/31

'Jihad' evangelicals on trial

2008-10-14T07:06:00.002+10:00

Saeed Saeed October 03, 2008

Deen, Hanifa: The Jihad Seminar. Crawley, University of Western Australia Press, 2008. RRP $29.95. ISBN 9781921401121

In January 2002, the Victorian Labor Government passed its Racial and Religious Tolerance Act prohibiting the vilification of persons on the grounds of race and religious beliefs.

Mainstream religious groups and human rights activists applauded the move, viewing the legislation as providing an extra layer of legal protection from an increasingly intolerant society.

Free speech warriors and evangelical groups organised rallies and dedicated many inches of column space to opposing the laws, citing them as an attack on freedom of speech and censorship of deeply held religious beliefs.

It took a year for the first case to arrive at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) — the state's peak Muslim body — accused the Christian evangelical group Catch the Fire Ministries of religious vilification after a series of lectures about Islam by Pastors Daniel Scott and Daniel Nalliah offended Muslim converts in the audience.

Sensing a good yarn, self-proclaimed 'literary sleuth' Hanifa Deen attended the tribunal sessions to observe what she expected would be a cut and dried three-day hearing. Like most legal and media observers, Deen didn't expect the case to drag on for five years and reach as high as the Supreme Court.

Full points then must be given for Deen's patience and tenacity. The result is a book far removed from the lazy Islam versus Christianity narrative pushed by the mainstream press. Instead, The Jihad Seminar frames the story as being 'convert driven' with new Muslims on one side and born again Christians on the other.

Deen was granted full access to the Muslim complainants while she managed to land a few key interviews with Scott and supporters of Catch the Fire.

She states both sides believed they had no choice but to see this matter through to the courts. For Muslims the seminar was viewed as blatantly offensive and they finally had legal armoury to defend themselves. Catch the Fire, who view interfaith activities with disdain, viewed the case as an attempt to muzzle their preaching.

Deen made the right decision to eschew the case's turgid legalities in favour of its broader implications. This gave her the licence to step out of the court room and discuss wider issues of racial and religious tolerance, from the global rise of Islamaphobia and John Howard's identity politics to the disturbing scenes of the Cronulla Riots.

Deen is a feisty presence throughout the book. Her persistent research uncovered some of the hidden motives behind the case. She reveals it was more than just a simple dispute. Instead it was used by both sides to pursue their political means.

The ICV was supported by a large cohort of religious groups who viewed this case as an important test of how this legislation could be practically applied. At the same time the little known Catch the Fire Ministries captured the imagination of cashed up American evangelical groups, whose donations helped finance the expensive case.

Deen is a gifted writer whose lucid prose helps makes sense of some of the convoluted legal manoeuvres of the case. A secular Muslim with a love for Monty Python, she never hides her irreverent side. When it works it reveals some cutting descriptions. She describes Pastor Nalliah's religious history as a 'job application for the after life', and the Muslim imams she met as 'usually nice men, but they are now what I would call witness box material'.

When it doesn't work she comes across as condescending to the deeply religious converts she interviews. This is unfortunate as their true stories are seldom told.

Nonetheless, The Jihad Seminar is a timely book on a misunderstood legislation, devout religions and the corrosive impact that racism and religious vilification continue to play in Australian society.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saeed Saeed is a Melbourne writer and youth worker.

source from Eureka Street: http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=9178

US believes nuns have a habit for terrorism

2008-10-13T08:06:00.001+10:00

BALTIMORE, Maryland - Two Roman Catholic nuns jailed for non-violent action against nuclear weapons were also listed as terrorists by US authorities.

Sister Ardeth Platte, 72, and Sister Carol Gilbert, 60, came back from two weeks out of Baltimore to find letters from the Maryland state police saying they had been wrongfully listed as suspected terrorists on a 2005-2006 federal database.

"To be labelled a terrorist is really very hard to hear and to accept, when your whole life has been one of loving nonviolence," Platte said.

Maryland State Police have sent letters to 53 activists wrongfully declared terrorists by authorities, inviting them to look at their entries in the database, after which the files would be deleted.

The Dominican nuns broke into a US nuclear missile silo in Colorado in 2002 and painted crucifixes with their own blood, earning Platte and Gilbert prison sentences of 41 and 33 months respectively.

"If they can label us as terrorists, they can label all kinds of people as terrorists," Gilbert said. "So then people become afraid to speak out against what the established government might be saying - and that is the demise of democracy."

Source from Brisbane Times: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2008/10/11/1223145683867.html

Micah Challenge & MDG

2008-09-22T15:44:00.001+10:00

Rev Joel Edwards

Incoming Director of Micah Challenge International -
the international campaign by churches to mobilise public
support to lift millions out of hunger and acute poverty.

Also member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission UK;
International Chair of the World Evangelical Alliance;
Member of Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation;
Honorary Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral, London

Thursday 16 October, 3.00-4.30 pm

At the new facilities at
YARRA THEOLOGICAL UNION
98 Albion Rd, BOX HILL VIC 3128

Entry to forum by donation
Off street parking available.
The Conference room is also
accessible via 34 Bedford St

Norwegian Government Fund Blacklists Rio Tinto

2008-09-14T09:18:00.001+10:00

Emma Alberici, ABC,2008-09-11

Rio Tinto has been blacklisted by Europe's biggest investor for "grossly unethical conduct" through its involvement in the world's biggest gold mine in Indonesia. The Norwegian Government's sovereign wealth fund, the equivalent of Australia's Future Fund, was one of Rio's biggest investors before deciding to withdraw its $1 billion investment.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/11/2361534.htm?section=world

The Government Pension Fund divests its holdings in mining company, Ministry of Finance, Norway, 2008-09-09

http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/fin/Press-Center/Press-releases/2008/the-government-pension-fund-divests-its-.html?id=526030

The recommendation from the Council on Ethics, Ministry of Finance, Norway [PDF, 143 KB]

http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/FIN/etikk/Recommendation%20RT.pdf

Companies Excluded from the Investment Universe, Ministry of Finance, Norway

http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/fin/Selected-topics/andre/Ethical-Guidelines-for-the-Government-Pension-Fund---Global-/companies-excluded-from-the-investment-u.html?id=447122

Grasberg Minerals District, Freeport-McMoran Copper and Gold

http://www.fcx.com/operations/grascomplx.htm

Norwegian Pension Fund, Statement by Rio Tinto, 2008-09-10

http://www.riotinto.com/media/news_12275.asp

Indonesia: Resources and Conflict in Papua, ICG, 2002-09-13

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=1449

New Study Links Indonesian Politician to 2002 Murder of U.S. Schoolteachers

2008-08-18T08:21:00.001+10:00

S. Eben Kirksey, Ph.D.
University of California
skirksey@ucsc.edu
+1.831.600.5937

Andreas Harsono
Pantau Foundation
aharsono@cbn.net.id
+62.815.950.9000

Fresh evidence links Indonesia’s military to the 2002 murder of two American school teachers in the remote Papua province. An article in the latest issue of South East Asia Research, a peer-reviewed journal published in London, is a forensic account of a murder that is still the subject of an open FBI investigation. “Credible sources link Indonesian intelligence agents to the planning of this attack,” said co-author Eben Kirksey, an American anthropologist. “But, Senior Bush Administration officials—including Condoleezza Rice, John Ashcroft, and Robert Mueller—have helped cover-up evidence of Indonesian military involvement in the murder of U.S. civilians,” continued Dr. Kirksey. “The FBI has failed to bring this case to a definitive resolution.”

FBI agents apprehended a group of Papuan villagers in 2006 and delivered them to Indonesian authorities. Indonesian courts sentenced seven of these men, including alleged ringleader Antonius Wamang, a guerilla fighter in Papua’s independence movement, to jail time for participating in the attack. But, Indonesian military involvement was not seriously considered at the trial. “The Indonesian trial was a sham,” says co-author Andreas Harsono, an Indonesian investigative journalist. “Why did America trust this important case to a court system known for widespread corruption?”

Indonesian Politician, Agus Anggaibak, Allegedly Set Up the Murder
Agus Anggaibak, a 27-year old member of the regional parliament, helped plan the ambush, according to reliable sources. He also reportedly facilitated contacts between the shooters and active duty military agents. In an interview with the authors, Anggaibak admitted to having ties with Indonesia’s intelligence agency, BIN. Anggaibak denied any involvement in the attack. But, he also admitted to meeting with Antonius Wamang, the convicted ringleader. “Credible journalists have long reported that the highest levels of the Indonesian military had foreknowledge of this murder,” said Dr. Kirksey. “We have identified the probable field agent who carried out the plan.”

Evidence of Indonesian Military Shooters
Indonesian soldiers fired their weapons at the crime scene, according to ballistics reports. School teachers who survived the ambush saw uniformed men speed away from the crime scene in the moments after their colleagues were murdered.

The article, titled “Criminal Collaborations? Antonius Wamang and the Indonesian Military in Timika”, draws on over 2,000 pages of Indonesian-language courtroom documents, recently declassified U.S. State Department cables, and over 50 interviews. The full article is available through university libraries and can be purchased on-line: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ip/sear. South East Asia Research is published by IP Publishing Ltd for the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London.

Cholera outbreak in West Papua: Indonesian Government response ineffective

2008-06-29T19:59:00.002+10:00

New reports from Human Rights and Church sources in West Papua state that 85 people have died in a Cholera outbreak over the past 3 months in the adjacent Nabire and Paniai regencies of West Papua.

Previous reports by Indonesian authorities in early June stated 17 people had died. At that time Health authorities disputed figures from West Papuan Human Rights workers that there had actually been 34 fatalities if cases in the villages were counted.

“This latest Cholera outbreak started in April and has continued through to June 2008. Based on information supplied from the ground the Institute of Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights believes that the Indonesian Health Department and Provincial government response has been grossly inadequate. It appears that people were treated in the community health centers when people were able to physically carried there but the government response in those affected villages was very limited.”

“Indeed for the Government personnel the response was a matter of mutual blaming and a refusal to take responsibility. Everybody in the Government has avoided taking responsibility and has blamed each other for what went wrong.”

The Papua Health Office was reported in the Jakarta Post (June 4th, 2008,) as identifying an ‘Ogawa-type vibrio cholera viral infection’ following tests in Jayapura.

Cholera, which is a bacterial disease, attacks the gut lining with infected people quickly developing symptoms of severe diarrhea & massive fluid loss. The disease can be fatal within 18 hours if re-hydration & therapy does not occur.

This Cholera epidemic was first reported in Paniai in early April 2008 at Ekemanida village. It has spread to nearby villages at Kamuu and North Kamuu Districts. The villages where the disease was reported are Ekemanida, Idakotu, Dogimani/Idadagi, Makidimi/Egebutu, Ekimani/Nuwa, Denemani/Apagogi, Kimupugi, Dikiyouwo, Duntek, Boduda, Deiyai, Goodide, Idakebo, Mogou and Dogimani.

In March, April 2006, in the highland regencies of Jayawijaya and Yahukimo 178 and 33indigenous West Papuans respectively died reportedly from Cholera epidemics.

Paula Makabory representing the Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights said, “Cases of fatal diarrhea, which include undiagnosed Cholera, have been increasingly reported in Nabire and Highland areas of West Papua in the past few years.”

Paula Makabory also said today, “ Earlier this month our organisation alerted the World Health Organisation (WHO) of this current Cholera outbreak but that organisation in Indonesia appears to have not responded. We contacted the WHO because previous experience is that the Indonesian Government agencies and provincial government would not mount an adequate response.”

“Although there are massive amounts of money available to government in West Papua that money is not being used to control the contagious diseases, which also includes HIV/AIDS, TB, as well as Malaria, in the indigenous population. Little of the Special Autonomy funds budgeted for health is being effectively. West Papua remains closed to access from international NGO and the media so none knows what is happening.”

“The Special Autonomy process which Jakarta set up 7 years ago is not serving the peoples education and health needs. Many West Papuans view the combination of lack of health services and military occupation as deliberate and 'Genocide'.”

“West Papua must be opened up to the world so the basic human rights including the right to adequate health of Indigenous West Papuan can be promoted. There is a new set of diseases which have never been experienced by remote & isolated highland communities which are continuing to spread into these communities.”

“West Papua should be opened to international health organisations to assist local communities in developing the ability for detection and treatment of disease and to assist in public health generally, including pre and post natal care of mothers and babies.”

“Talk by international countries such as Germany of swapping Indonesia’s international debt in return for implementation of health programs by the Global Fund[1] will be most effective in West Papua if there is increased political freedom. International attention is necessary so that the critical health services can be rapidly implemented. The indigenous communities must be given the freedom to join in this health reform so they can help themselves. ”

Paula Makabory said, “There is a need for a major rethink about how community health and human rights is addressed in West Papua as the indigenous people do not trust the Indonesia Government. The international community, NGOs and Governments should be encouraging local health projects which are necessary to respond to the health crises in West Papua.’

“If the West Papuan people are not empowered in the field of health, the health of the West Papuan people will continue to deteriorate.”

For further information contact,

Paula Makabory +61 402547517

Dr Anne Noonan +61 2 99601698

Matthew Jamieson +61 418291998

[1] Germany cancels 50 mln euro Indonesian debt (June 23 2008, Thomson Financial)

Matthew Jamieson
Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights
PO Box 1805, Byron Bay NSW 2481 Australia
matthew@hr.minihub.org
tel +61(0) 418291998

Democracy and death in Myanmar

2008-05-30T10:27:00.002+10:00

By Larry Jagan

BANGKOK - Amid Myanmar's perhaps worst-ever natural disaster, the ruling junta has pushed through a new constitution which guarantees its future hold on political power. Over the weekend the military government held a referendum on the new charter in the country's worst cyclone-hit areas, completing a voting process many onlookers have characterized as flawed, rigged and even immoral.

The military government proceeded with the vote amid a gathering humanitarian crisis, where over 100,000 are believed to be dead or missing and as many as 3 million left homeless by Cyclone Nagris, which first hit Myanmar on May 2 and 3. Officials controversially went ahead with the first round of voting on May 10, while postponing the polls until May 24 in the worst cyclone-hit areas.

In the official statement announced by the state media, less than a week after the first round of voting, the Myanmar attorney general and head of the committee that organized the vote, Aung Toe, said that 99% of the 22.5 million eligible voters had turned out to vote, and some 92.4% voted yes on the new charter. A day after the second round, where nearly 5 million voters were registered to vote, the government announced a 90% voter turnout and that 92.9% had approved the constitution.

To read the full article from Asia Times, click on:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JE29Ae01.html

Daniel Berrigan: Forty Years After Catonsville

2008-05-22T08:44:00.001+10:00

by Chris Hedges

Forty years ago this month, Father Daniel Berrigan walked into a draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, with eight other activists, including his brother, Father Philip Berrigan, and removed draft files of young men who were about to be sent to Vietnam. The group carted the files outside and burned them in two garbage cans with homemade napalm. Father Berrigan was tried, found guilty, spent four months as a fugitive from the FBI, was apprehended and sent to prison for eighteen months.

Father Berrigan, unbowed at 87, sat primly in a straight-backed wooden chair as the afternoon light slanted in from the windows, illuminating the collection of watercolors and religious icons on the walls of his small apartment in upper Manhattan. Time and age have not blunted this Jesuit priest’s fierce critique of the American empire or his radical interpretation of the Gospels. There would be many more “actions” and jail time after his release from prison, including a sentence for his illegal entry into a General Electric nuclear missile plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, on September 9, 1980, with seven other activists, where they poured blood and hammered on Mark 12A warheads.

“This is the worst time of my long life,” he said with a sigh. “I have never had such meager expectations of the system. I find those expectations verified in the paucity and shallowness every day I live.”

To read the full article from The Nation, click on:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/21/9105/

Protest Camps Against American Military Bases in Japan and Italy

2008-05-14T09:18:00.000+10:00

By Ann Wright

The presence of the US military, 63 years after World War II, is a huge source of anger for the citizens of Japan, Korea, Germany and Italy. On the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, the US military uses an artillery firing range known as Yausubetsu. The range is small in comparison to ranges in the United States and Germany - only 30 kilometers by 10 kilometers - but the source of irritation to Japanese farmers whose land was taken for the range and for those who live near the range is large. The peaceful rolling hills and valleys of the area are the home of the dairy industry of Hokkaido. The Japanese have used a cartoon of an angry dairy cow with boxing gloves as their symbol of protest of the US military's use of the range.

The Japanese government pressured farmers in the area to sell their land when the artillery range was established in 1962. All but three families eventually sold out. Mr. Kawase refused to sell or move, and instead has built three structures that are used by activists year round to protest Japanese and American use of Yausubetsu for artillery practice. Mr. Kawase, a very spry 82 years old, build a huge Quonset hut on his property where 100 activists can sleep on mats, make posters and banners and listen to speakers. In the kitchen of the building, activists cook huge meals from plants and vegetables of the Hokkaido countryside and serve fresh milk and cheeses from angry local dairy herd owners.

On the roof of the building, for military aircraft flying over and those on the land to see, Mr. Kawase has painted in huge Japanese script the text of Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan:

"Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of forces as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized."

To read the full article from Truthout, click on:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051108F.shtml

Australia acknowledges need for a Nuclear Weapons Convention

2008-05-05T20:37:00.000+10:00

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Australia today delivered a statement on nuclear disarmament to the Non-Proliferation Treaty meeting in Geneva. It was much different from statements made in previous years. It even included a reference to the need for a nuclear weapons convention (NWC) for the first time ever. This is something which disarmament experts have described as quite significant. The reference is a cautious one, but using those words in this forum is rare. The only other countries so far to have mentioned an NWC at the meeting have been Costa Rica, Malaysia and Iran.

The statement read: “Australia under a new Government is fully committed to realizing a world free from nuclear weapons … A world free of nuclear weapons will require carefully calibrated steps that buttress international peace and security. Every state, whether holding nuclear weapons or not, must play a part in realizing that world. And at an appropriate time, the international community will likely need to consider complementary legal frameworks, including a possible nuclear weapons convention, for the eventual abolition of nuclear weapons.”

Australia welcomed reductions made by the nuclear weapon states in the size of their arsenals but said that “the international community, Australia included, remains hungry for further, irreversible reductions and greater transparency from states holding nuclear weapons. Concurrent with their warhead reductions, nuclear weapon states need to confirm a reduced role for their nuclear weapons in national security policies.”

It concluded with these words: “We are making progress towards realising the vision of a world free from nuclear weapons, albeit neither as fast nor as consistently as we would wish. Yet one thing is for certain – that without a renewed global commitment to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation … the vision will remain little more than that. Australia is ready to join such a renewed commitment.”

Source from the ICAN blog:
http://icanw.blogspot.com/2008/04/australia-acknowledges-possible-need.html

Human Rights Report: West Papuan flag raising ‘political’ detainees and prisoners are tortured and receive inhuman treatment in custody

2008-05-05T09:39:00.002+10:00

5 May 2008

The Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights (IPAHR) has received information detailing the mistreatment of West Papuan political detainees
& prisoners, who are held by the Indonesian police and prison service in Jayapura, Manokwari and Timika.

There are serious concerns for the safety and health of the prisoners. It has been reported that prisoners have been physically abused and tortured while in custody.

These concerns have been relayed to IPAHR by a number of different Church organisations and Human Rights workers in West Papua. This report is collated from Indonesian language reports and by information supplied by Church & Human Rights sources.

Prisoners & detainees, detailed in this report, have been arrested as a result ofinvolvement in flag-raising events or for displaying the symbols of the West Papuan flag, the Morning Star on their clothing.

Cultural symbols, like the Morning Star flag, were previously permitted under the Special Autonomy law, are now banned under Regulation 77 / 2008.

Two leading Human Rights organisations in West Papua have said the detention of nonviolent activists under Law 77 / 2008 is a regressive step for freedom of political expression in West Papua. This ban violates Indonesia’s constitutional commitment to freedom of expression according to these Human Rights advocates.

The Government of Indonesia has ratified the treaties of Civilian and Political Rights and also the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which contradicts the Indonesian law used to make these prosecutions.

Chris Warinussy, a respected Lawyer in Manokwari, reported that police in West Papua have intimidated journalists, who covered the Manokwari
demonstration, which called for reversal of regulation 77 / 2008.

One defendant in Timika who brought a video camera to a protest in December 2007, has been accused of intending to distribute footage of the flag-raising protest to the outside world.

There is real cause for concern about the safety of these groups of West Papuan Political prisoners. IPAHR urges organisations and individuals to contact their own Government and the Indonesian Government and Embassies to raise concerns about the wellbeing of West Papuan political prisoners and to call for their immediate release.

For further information contact:
Paula Makabory, Els-ham in Australia on +61 402547517;
Chris Warinussy, LP3BH Manokwari on +62 81527077564;
Matthew Jamieson, IPAHR in Australia on +61 418291998
Details of recent treatment of detainees & prisoners is outline below:

- Conditions of Detainees in Jayapura and Manokwari arrested during March 08;
- Report by LP3BH on condition of political prisoners in Manokwari;
- Detainees who face life imprisonment over flag-raising in Timika are tortured;
- Beating of Filip Karma in Prison.

1/ Prisoners in Jayapura and Manokwari detained during March 08

The following information is taken from an Indonesian language report of KPKC Synod GKI Papua on condition of detainees in Manokwari and Jayapura. This report is similar to the second report by LP3BH, which forms second part of this document.

There are seven political detainees arrested in March 2008 who were sick. The details of the detainees are shown as follows;

1. Six detainees, imprisoned by Police in Manokwari, Jack Wanggai, Elimelech Obet Kaiwai, George Richard Ayorbaba, Mathinus Luter Koromath, Eddy Ayorbaba and Frans Kareth; &

2. Zakarias Horota (27) who is from the student organisation FNMPP and is imprisoned in Jayapura police station.

Detainees in Manokwari

On Monday 21 April 2008, the Team from LP3BH, Manokwari, was assisted four students detainees who were very ill to go to Police Clinic in Manokwari.

These people were:

1. Yakubus (Jack) Wanggai* who suffered from painful chest and asthma.
2. Elimelech Obet Kaiwai whose suffered from symptoms of heart attack, headache and acid liquid was coming out of his mouth.
3. George Risyard Ayorbaba, who suffered from chest pain and coughing.
4. Marthinus Luter Koromath, who suffered from cough, diarrhoea and chest pain.

*SMS sent on 2 May 2008 said tha Yakubus (Jack) Wanggai sickness is getting worse. Mr Wanggai has reported that his right hand may be broken.

The prisoners are under the responsibility of Dr Andi Mappaodang. They were prescribed the same medication for stomach disorder (Antasit), and their blood pressure record was to be very low. The LP3BH team donated some extra food for the detainees.

It is report that Eddy Ayobaba was taken to hospital on 20 April with positive Malaria. Frans Karet reportedly suffers from sharply painful chest because he has to sleep on the floor without any blankets or matrass.

It is reported that the foods, which have been given to them by the police, in Manokwari, are already off (decomposing) or were not cooked properly, which has made them sick.

The prisoners also report that the General chief commander of police officers, Ipda. Pol. Edy Saputra, always interrogates and terrorizes them during meal times.

Eleven prisoners are currently in detention in Manokwari arrested in March 2008. This group are:

Yakobus Wanggai

Frans Kareth

Markus Solig Umpus

Edy Ayorbaba

Daniel Sakwatorey

Marthinus Luther

Noak AP

George Risyard Ayorbaba

Ariel Werimon

Leonardus Decky Bame

Elimelech Obat Kaiwai

This group is being supported by LP3BH, Manokwari.

Students in Jayapura

Zakarias Horota was reported to be complaining about his breathing and a sharply painful chest. The police officers, took him to the Polices hospital of Bhayangkara on Friday 19 April 2008.

The following day, the SKP Catholic Bishop and KPKC Synod GKI (Protestant Church) recommended Mr Horota to go to the Catholics hospital of Dian Harapan. The report says the results taken at the Catholics Hospital did not support diagnosis of lungs pleurisy or Malaria. Zakarias Horota was still reported to be in painful condition.

On Thursday 24th of April 2008, the KPKC GKI synod visited Mr Horota and others in prison in Jayapura. The conditions in the jail were reported to be very poor and the air ventilation was not good which resulted the detainees suffering from breathing problems. Also it was reported that the prisoners had only been given a main meal twice a day and that there was not enough water sometimes not given any at all. At times the group reported hade no water to drink and were forced to drink dirty water from flash toilet tank. They were also reported to be locked up in a very tiny room, where they had to are take turns sleeping in the night and day time as there was not room for all to lie down.

The detainees had raised this issue to their lawyer, Gustaf Kawer, who taken the matter to the Police headquarters. The police reportedly answered that they have not enough budget from Government so they could not do little to change these conditions.

The following four West Papuans are reported in police custody in Jayapura arrested in March 2008:

Zakarias Horota

Elias Weah

Ester Doloros Tapnesa

Abu Muri

Kontras is providing legal support for this group.

2/ Report by LP3BH on condition of political prisoners in Manokwari

(This translation was posted by TAPOL and is similar to one above produced by GKI)

A report from the LP3BH dated 21 April 2008 lists the dates of questioning of the eleven detainees being held in connection with the events of 3 and 13 March 2008 over a period from 26 March till 9 April.

On 14 April the parents of the detainees were invited by the police to discuss the interrogation process and the preparations underway to hand the cases on to the prosecutors' office and the Manokwari district court.

On Monday 21 April, the defense team accompanied four of the detainees to the police clinic for examination because they were complaining of health problems:

1. Yakobus Wanggai was having breathing problems and his blood pressure was 90/70

2. Elimemech O.K. was having heart palpitations, headache and acidity in the mouth. Blood pressure 70/50

3. George Riayad Ayorbaba had chest pains and a heavy cold.

4. Marthinus Luther was coughing, had chest pains and was suffering from diarrhoea.

Yakobus Wanggai also told the team that on 20 April Eddy Ayorbaba fell ill and was taken to the police clinic. A blood test confirmed that he was suffering from Malaria.

On 22 April, Markus Solik Umpes, the father of one of the detainees who had arrived in Manokwari from Sorong was allowed to meet his son for the first time.

Report signed by: Yan Christian Warinussy and team members were Thresje Juliantty Gaspersz SH, Yohana Matini SH, Semuel H. Yensenem SH

3/ Detainees who facing life imprisonment over flag-raising in Timika are tortured

Six West Papuan non violent protestors face a minimum of twenty years for their alleged part in a flag raising event in Timika, on December 1st 2007.

The Catholic Office for Justice and Peace (SKP) in Timika report that while in detention the six detainees have been tortured. They reportedly have injuries to their chest and head in addition to suspected broken bones caused from being kicked and punched by the police while in custody.

Local human rights defenders advocating for the rights of the six political prisoners have also been harassed and intimidated by the police.

The six prisoners claim that they do not know who raised the flag. They all claim that on the morning of December 1st 2007 they were woken up and asked to gather outside the church.

Mr. Pigai who brought a video camera owned by LEMASA, the Amungme Indigenous Council, to the protest is one of those arrested. Police have accused Mr. Pigai of trying to distribute footage of the protest to the outside world[1].

The SKP report that the accused were part of a group of 35 of nonviolent demonstrators arrested in front of the St Petrus Paulus church last December 2007.

Within a week of the original arrests 29 those who were detained were released.

The trial of the Timika 6 is listed below is reported to have begun. The accused are:

- Jacobus Pigai (male / 35 years old). Occupation: Civil Servant Department of Tourism, Kabupaten Mimika. Mr. Pigai is also the Executive Secreatry of LEMASA – the Amungme Indigenous Council, Timika

- Melki Magai (male / 20 years old )

- Polce Magai (male / 20 years old)

- Sumien Magai (male / 20 something years old)

- Juli Gwijangge (male / 20 something years old)

- Kuniel Nurigi (male / 20 something years old)

At the demonstrations the Morning Star flag was raised as part of peaceful celebrations to mark what most West Papuans consider to be their national day.

SKP and Foker LSM are reported to be supporting the prisoners.

Police in Timika have accused the six of “intentionally wanting to separate from the United Republic of Indonesia”, charging them with rebellion and treason under sections 55, 106 and 107 of the Indonesian Criminal Code.

These controversial sections of law are a legacy of Indonesia’s authoritarian past. Under the rule of former dictator, General Soeharto, these sections prohibiting freedom of expression were used to crackdown on acts of political dissent.

Human Rights Watch has called for the sections on treason to be repelled and for West Papuans arrested for peaceful flag raisings to be released as part of Indonesia’s commitment to restoring democracy and protecting human rights.

Human Rights Watch has said that the arrest and detention of activists in Manokwari and Jayapura has no basis in law and called for the prisoners to be released.

Previously allowed under Special Autonomy and former President Abdurrahman Wahid’s rule as a symbol of Indigenous identity, in recent months Indonesian legislators have passed a new law (Law 77/2007) that bans displays of the Morning Star flag and other symbols deemed associated with "separatism".

4/ Beating of Filip Karma 28 April 2008

Rev Sofian Yoman and others report that Filip Karma has bean beaten in prison. Rev Yoman reports that the incident occurred on 28 April 10.45 pm and Fillip Karma was violently beaten by a prison officer, named Eli Awi in Abepura prison.

Eli Awi, who is a Papuan man was said to be drunk at the time. Rev. Yoman is reported that Eli Awi hit Karma 5 times in head 2 times in body in the incident after repeatedly asking for money for alcohol.

Also note: Alo Runwarin, legal advocate from Els-ham, reports that Filip Karma’s detention conditions allow him to go out of the prison during day but must return to prison at night. Mr Karma does use this provision.

Filep Karma and Yusak Pakage, two nonviolent activists were charged in relation to raising the Morning Star flag in December 2004. Karma and Pakage were sentenced to 15 and 10 years respectively.

Last year Filip Karma is reported to have produced documentation about being mistreated while in custody.

End

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Free access for overseas journalists remain is restricted in West Papua.

UN has torture questions for Rudd

2008-05-01T22:59:00.001+10:00

Mark Dodd | May 01, 2008

KEVIN Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations has been applauded by the UN, but the world body has raised serious concerns about Australia's compliance with its treaty obligations to combat torture.

Questions were raised yesterday by the UN Committee Against Torture in its review of Canberra's compliance with the international conventions on torture, cruelty, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment.

A copy of the committee's review was received by The Australian. Australia is among 145 nations that are signatories to the convention on torture and is obliged to present itself for periodic review by the UN.

Australia was praised for closing down offshore detention centres for asylum-seekers, but the UN wanted to know why the Government was building a new centre on Christmas Island.

"More information was also requested on the so-called super-maximum security prisons," the review said. "This formulation led to concerns that there was a period of isolation of unjudged persons. Also the absence of a definition of torture in Australian law was a gap that needed to be addressed."

To read the full article from The Australian, click on:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23625755-31477,00.html

WEST PAPUA NATIONAL COALITION FOR LIBERATION

2008-04-28T19:46:00.002+10:00

Port Moresby, 29 April 2008

The leaders representing 29 West Papuan political and civil society organisations have formalized the establishment of the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation [WPNCL]. This coalition represents the 1.5 million West Papuan people from over 600 tribal communities on the western half of the island of New Guinea. (The landmass of West Papua is an area of 430,000 square kilometers, which is about the same size as France.)

At a meeting held in Port Vila, Vanuatu during April 2008, the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation elected Richard Yoweni of the National Liberation Army of West Papua (TPN PB) as Chairman, Dr. John Otto Ondawame as Vice Chairman and Mr. Rex Rumakiek as the Secretary General.

The Secretariat for the WPNCL will be established at the West Papuan Peoples Representative Office in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

"The establishment of this WPNCL shows the determination of the people of West Papua to take control of the agenda and progress their struggle for self determination and independence in the international arena. This organisation seeks to reclaim and protect the resources, culture and lives of the West Papuan people in the face of Indonesian colonization of our land", said Clemens Runawery spokesperson for the WPNCL.

"Indonesian Government control over West Papua for the past 45 years and the implementation of its so-called 'Special Autonomy' package in the past 5 years has grossly failed the West Papuan people."

Mr Runawery went on to say, "Under Special Autonomy there has been very poor administration leading to the rapid deterioration of health and education of Papuan people, an ever increasing wave of the HIV/AIDS disease and huge profiteering from the exploitation of West Papuan natural resources and rainforests.”

“There is now a disastrous situation where West Papua people are on the brink of becoming a minority in their own land."

"International support for Special Autonomy has been a success for international investors, lincluding BP at the Tangguh gas project & RTZ at the Freeport copper mine. These investments have effectively underwritten the occupation of West Papua by the Indonesian security forces.”

“Indonesian is in a phase of business expansion in West Papua and that means the abuse of human rights of indigenous West Papuans, the restriction of political freedom and tightening military control. The expansion of Indonesian Government backed businesses and economic interests is at the expense of the people of West Papua."

"WPNCL is now seeking Observer Status with the Melanesian Spearhead Group and the Pacific Islands Forum as a platform for the people of West Papua within the United Nations and other international forums."

"The WPNCL will seek to reverse the so-called Act of Free Choice of 1969 and re-inscribe West Papua on UN Decolonization Committee in so that the people of West Papua are given the due process of 'self-determination'."

“The WPNCL will continue to seek internationally mediated negotiation with the Republic of Indonesia as the best way of resolving the ongoing armed conflict promoted by the Indonesian security forces and reversing the disastrous human rights and spiraling health situation of the West Papuan people.”

The Chairman of the West Papuan National Coalition for Liberation, Richard Yoweni, said today, "On behalf of people of West Papua, the WPNCL Secretariat would like to convey publicly our heartfelt thanks to the Government, Political Parties, Chiefs, Churches, NGOs and the people of Vanuatu for their continued support for our struggle for self determination."

For more information please contact:

Clemens Runawery +675 72074704; or

Paula Makabory +61 402547517

Students detained in Jayapura

2008-04-22T19:37:00.000+10:00

22 April 2008

Urgent action: Students detained & demonstration in Jayapura today

A demonstration involving about 500 West Papuan people was reported to have occurred in Abepura, Jayapura today.

Large numbers of Brimob (Para-military police) and Military were visible in and around the Jayapura and also the rural districts of Deparpre, Dempta and Genyem this morning.
Police and Military reportedly stopped large groups of people who sought to attend the demonstration. These reports said that 300 people were stopped in Boroway outside Sentani, who were from Genyem, Yuk and Lereh Districts. Another group of 300 people from Kerom District were stopped by the army at the Tami River.

The West Papuan student organisation Front Pepera, was reported to have organised the demonstration and was demanding that the Republic of Indonesian recognise West Papuan sovereignty back to the year 1961. Front Pepera was reported to be demanding that the Indonesian Government begin to negotiations about sovereignty with the West Papuan people.

Police arrested 7 students as they were unfurling banners at 10.30 am this morning. The names of arrested students are Yosias Yeimo 22, Benyamin Sabu 30, Nebon Pahabol 25, Marthen Goo 29, Santon Tekege 27, Emilianus (Demianus) Keiya 27 and Gunawan Inggeruhi 22.

The students were taken by heavily armed police to Jayapura police station at 11.30 today after being detained in Abepura Police Station.

A group of three human rights lawyers: Alo Renwarin Els-ham, Aberth Rumbekwan Komnas Ham and Gustav Kawer are representing the group at the main Police Station in Jayapura.
Mr Renwarin has reported that Police have said they would release the group tomorrow after 24 hours. Mr Renwarin said that the Police said group were being treated as witnesses at this stage and would not been charged.

The students had refused to answer questions from the local Military commander in the Abepura before being transferred to Jayapura police station.

Serious concern is held about the detention of this group.

Other West Papuans who have been first held as witness have been charged with subversion related crimes.

There are now 20 West Papuans political prisoners who have been detained for involvement in peaceful demonstrations in recent months. A group of six demonstrators has been convicted in Timika and there are two groups in Manokwari and Jayapura awaiting trial.

We are advised that concerned persons should contact the police station in Jayapura to support the release of the 7 students.

The Chief of Police is Commander Roberth Djoenso and telephone numbers are +62 812 4809366, +62 813 44808899 and +62 812 4811950

Tell the Indonesian Police your name, where you are from and your country and politely ask them to release the students named above.

The contact details for the lawyers acting for the students are:
Alo Renwarin +62 816 4336370
Alberth Rumbekwan +62 813 51994742

For further information contact:
Paula Makabory, Els–ham in Australia +61 (0) 402547517
Matthew Jamieson, IPAHR + 61 (0) 418291998

Matthew Jamieson
Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights PO Box 1805, Byron Bay NSW 2481 Australia matthew@hr.minihub.org tel +61(0) 418291998

“OUR WORLD IN CRISIS?” 2008 SERIES Tuesdays 29 April – 1 July, 5.15 pm

2008-04-15T08:18:00.000+10:00

This is an excellent course which studies Australia's place in our increasingly complex and globalising world. Principal facilitator Prof Joseph Camilleri, with workshop discussions, lectures, simulations, debates and guest practitioner and expert interviews. See course details at http://www.josephcamilleri.com/owic. There are a limited number of half scholarships available for those on low income.

This 10-week course will cover Climate of Change, World Economy, Poverty or Development, National or Human Security, Energy and Climate Change, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Afghanistan, Clash or Dialogue of Civilisations, Human Rights, Deomcracy and UN Reform, Race and Culture in Austral and Australia and the World. Venue: Australia Volunteers Internation, 88 Kerr Street, Fitzroy. Principal lecture is Prof. Joseph Camilleri. Fees $550 (Institutional), $450 (Individual), $295 (low income).

For further information contact Craig 0400 022, email: owic2008@wachy.com

Pax Christi April Agape

2008-04-15T08:16:00.001+10:00

We have much pleasure in inviting you to the April Agape
Sunday 20 April 2008 at 4.30 pm

At Kildara Centre
Rear 39 Stanhope Street (East), Malvern

Faith and Struggle in Burma

Speaker Alison Tate
International Officer Australian Council of Trade Unions

And members of the Burmese and Karen Communities

4.30 Meeting
6 pm Worship/Reflection
6.30 Shared meal (please bring some food to share)

June 15 Kildara Centre 4.30 pm: Women’s role in conflict resolution

Alternative Anzac Day Commemoration

2008-04-15T08:13:00.000+10:00

10.30 am Friday 25 April 2008
Unitarian Church, 110 Grey Street, East Melbourne

• Remember those who died in World War One
• Remember the Australian peace movement of those years
• Promote peace in Iraq and Afghanistan
This 90-minute commemoration will be made up of short talks interspersed with stories, poems, songs, images and silence. It will be followed by a light lunch of Iraqi food. Donations requested to cover costs.

PROGRAM INCLUDES:
Michael Noone: Audio-visual presentation
John Wollin: ‘Treatment of returned Anzacs’
Peter Abrehart: ‘My grandfather, an Anzac’
Nancy Atkin: ‘The costs of war’
Denis O’Donnell: ‘Reflections of a Vietnam CO’
Bob Muntz: ‘Reconciliation between Vietnam veterans and protesters’
Nic Maclellan: ‘Mistreatment of nuclear veterans’
Val Noone: ‘Relevance of Australian peace movement 1914-18’

Enquiries: Val Noone and Mary Doyle, , 9419 8631.

Secret US plan for military future in Iraq

2008-04-08T14:38:00.002+10:00

Seumas Milne
The Guardian,
Tuesday April 8 2008

A confidential draft agreement covering the future of US forces in Iraq, passed to the Guardian, shows that provision is being made for an open-ended military presence in the country.

The draft strategic framework agreement between the US and Iraqi governments, dated March 7 and marked "secret" and "sensitive", is intended to replace the existing UN mandate and authorises the US to "conduct military operations in Iraq and to detain individuals when necessary for imperative reasons of security" without time limit.

The authorisation is described as "temporary" and the agreement says the US "does not desire permanent bases or a permanent military presence in Iraq". But the absence of a time limit or restrictions on the US and other coalition forces - including the British - in the country means it is likely to be strongly opposed in Iraq and the US.

Iraqi critics point out that the agreement contains no limits on numbers of US forces, the weapons they are able to deploy, their legal status or powers over Iraqi citizens, going far beyond long-term US security agreements with other countries. The agreement is intended to govern the status of the US military and other members of the multinational force.

To read the full article from The Guardian, click on:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/08/iraq.usa

Fight violence with nonviolence

2008-03-28T08:05:00.002+10:00

Unarmed civilian peacekeepers are saving lives today.
By Rolf Carriere and Michael Nagler

Atlanta

Legends relate that Buddha stopped a war between two kings who were quarreling over rights to a river by asking them, "Which is more precious, blood or water?"

Could ordinary people use the same kind of wisdom – and courage – to check the impulse to fight wars today – over oil, water, or identity? Mahatma Gandhi thought so. He created teams of civilians called the Shanti Sena or "Army of Peace" and deployed them in various communities around India where they could avert communal riots and provide other peacekeeping services.

Over the past 25 years nonviolent peacekeepers have been going into zones of sometimes intense conflict with the aim of bringing a measure of peace, protection, and sanity to life there. Rather than use threat or force, unarmed peacekeepers deploy strategies of protective accompaniment, moral and/or witnessing "presence," monitoring election campaigns, creating neutral safe spaces, and in extreme cases putting themselves physically between hostile parties, as Buddha did with the angry kings in ancient India.

Civilian unarmed peacekeeping has had dramatic, small-scale, quiet, and unglamorous successes: rescuing child soldiers, protecting the lives of key human rights workers and of whole villages, averting potentially explosive violence, and generally raising the level of security felt by citizens in many a tense community.

To read the full article from the Christian Science Monitor, click on:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0327/p09s01-coop.htm

Indonesian Defence Minister visits Australia after Indonesian security forces go on shooting rampage in West Papua

2008-03-26T14:15:00.001+10:00

26 March 2008

One teenage student is in hospital in a serious condition after being shot in the stomach when Indonesian security forces went on a shooting rampage against local people in the Paniai Lakes region of West Papua two weeks ago. The human rights violation coincides with the visit of Indonesian Defence Minister Sudarsono who is in Australia to attend the East Asia Dialogue Forum. The report from the remote region of Paniai demonstrates the disastrous role that Indonesian combat troops and paramilitary police are having throughout West Papua.

The shooting rampage by the Indonesian security forces was sparked when local people demonstrated outside a local Police station on the 10th of March 2008. Indigenous residents of the remote highland town of Enarotali [1], about 120 km inland of the coastal city of Nabire, gathered at the police station after Police beat a local civil servant, Yavet Pigai.

Local human rights workers at the scene report that the police were supported by Indonesian military forces from the Koramil (district headquarters) and Tim Khusus (Army Special Services). These military forces were described as combat troops from outside the province.

Police and Military personnel are reported to have opened fire on the group. Local sources said the military and Brimob (Police Mobile Brigade) continued shooting for two hours. One report said hundreds of troops were involved and that local people, some of who had been wounded had fled into the forests.

“Our sources described the incident as a terrifying experience for local people. It was clearly an action to intimidate local people and show that the Indonesian police and military were the authority in the region” said Matthew Jamieson on behalf of the Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights (IPAHR).

A total of 9 local people were reportedly wounded. The names of two young men were given to IPAHR by these local sources, both of whom were described as students. Mangki Pigai (aged 18 years) was taken to hospital in a serious condition after a bullet lodged in his stomach. Another student, John Pigome (aged 20 years) was beaten by Police and sustained serious head injuries consistent with being beaten with a gun.

The incident was sparked after Mr. Yavet Pigai, the civil servant, was knocked off his motorbike by an excavator working on road works near a village called Mogokobitadimi.[2] At the time of the incident Mr Pagai, who works for the District Government of Paniai was travelling to a meeting at the local government office in the town of Madi.

Mr. Yavet Pigai was then beaten by police on the road and taken to the police station at Enarotali where he was beaten again. Mr. Pigai sustained injuries to his face and back.

Police and Army personnel had been supervising the work of a road building contractor. The incident is believed to be related to local opposition to road building business in the Paniai region, which are supported by the security forces.

It was reported by Human Rights sources that Paniai’s head of the regional administration Mr. Naftali Yogi told a press conference that the police and army “must apology to the local people and reflect on what they have done”. Mr. Yogi said that, “the police and army should take full of the responsibility on the incident because the case was a simple one but the security forces took a very serious action on trying to kill innocent people there”.

In a report tabled at the most recent session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (2008), the Catholic Office of Justice and Peace in Jayapura (SKP) reported 242 documented individual cases of torture and ill treatment by the security forces in West Papua since 1998.

In the course of their human rights investigations SKP found that most of the human rights violations were committed by the police or military were outside of police or military custody.

SKP said that most documented cases were not prosecuted. The only case of torture that was brought to trial was after the Abepura case in 2000 in which the two (Brimob) police officers who charged were acquitted.

Finally, SKP found that the use of torture and cruel and degrading treatment by the security forces towards the Indigenous population was both widespread and formed a culture of violence and racism embedded within the security forces.

Matthew Jamieson, spokesperson for Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights stated today that, “the shooting in Paniai follows the common pattern of indiscriminate violence against indigenous West Papuans. There is virtual legal impunity from prosecution for police and military forces involved in Human Rights abuses. Indonesian forces are stationed throughout West Papua, right down to the village level. The policy of stationing large numbers of combat troops and paramilitary police in every region is proving calamitous for indigenous West Papuans.”

“There are reports of both police and military at all levels of the command chain being involved legal and illegal business activities. In the Paniai Lakes region this includes road building and construction industries, logging, illegal wildlife rackets and goldmining. These business operations give the security forces a vested interest in generating conflict in order to justify their continued presence in the troubled territory.”

“The presence of senior commanding officers in West Papua, such as Burhanuddin Siagian, who have been indicted for ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ in East Timor, reinforces the culture of violence and impunity within the Indonesian security forces. “

Reports of police and military violence in Enarotali come in the wake of widespread nonviolent demonstrations in Jayapura, Manokwari, Serui and Sorong protesting the Indonesian government’s decision to ban the Morning Star flag. Several West Papuan leaders arrested in these demonstrations are in custody facing charges of rebellion and subversion.

For further Information contact:

Matthew Jamieson + 61(0)418291998

[1] The Indigenous Mee people of the Paniai Lakes region sustain a large population through intensive agriculture based around pigs and sweet potato. The group has suffered greatly during Indonesian rule in West Papua with many thousands of people killed by Indonesian security forces, especially during the 1960s and 1970s. In recent years the main Indonesian government development has been road building to link Enarotali and the interior with the coastal port city of Nabire. The Paniai region is highly prospective for minerals and is adjacent to the Freeport McMoRan/Rio Tinto gold and copper mine, which has been conducting exploration in the region.
[2] There has been a recent history of human rights violations and community decent associated with road building. In January 2006 a young boy, Moses Douw, was shot dead in the community market on his way to school in the village of Wahgette. On three young local people were shot by the military after local people had protested about issues related to road building.

Matthew Jamieson
Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights
PO Box 1805, Byron Bay NSW 2481 Australia
matthew@hr.minihub.org
tel +61(0) 418291998

Kamran Mofid's Palm Sunday Speech

2008-03-24T16:44:00.002+10:00

I am delighted and honoured to be here today, making this brief presentation. I wish to thank you for inviting me and to thank you for the generosity of your hospitality and friendship.

I am especially delighted to be in Australia now: a time of change and a time of hope. You, the good people of this beautiful land, decided that you wish to be, once again, a country of hope, a country of justice, peace and compassion, when you voted in your general election a few months back. Since then your new government has taken a few gallant steps, enhancing peace nationally and internationally. We need more governments around the world to be inspired by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and under take similar humane and just policies. I hope that people like Mrs. Clinton and Barack Obama are taking notice!

Friends, I can talk much about war and peace in general. But I wish to say a few words about war and peace in the Middle East.

As we all know, the Middle East seems on the brink of overwhelming disaster. Iraq is wrecked by insurgency and sectarian warfare. The ongoing conflict in Afghanistan is not much different to the disaster in neighbouring Iraq. Israel and Hezbollah have fought to a bloody standstill, a disastrous war for all. The Israeli-Palestinian struggle festers like a raw wound. There is great controversy over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The “Selective” push for “Democracy” –hugely expensive both in material and human life costs- is in ruins.

Prof. Stiglitz (a Noble Prize winner in economics) and his colleague, Bilmes , in a recently published book, have identified and estimated the economic and monetary cost of the Iraqi adventure to America - just America - at conservatively estimated $3 trillion. The rest of the world, will probably account for about the same amount again.

This month America will have been in Iraq for five years - longer than it spent in either world wars. Daily military operations (not counting, for example, future care of wounded) have already cost more than 12 years in Vietnam, and twice as much as the Korean war. America is spending $16bn a month on running costs alone (ie on top of the regular expenses of the Department of Defence) in Iraq and Afghanistan; that is the entire annual budget of the UN.

By way of context, Stiglitz and Bilmes list what even one of these trillions could have paid for: 8 million housing units, or 15 million public school teachers, or healthcare for 530 million children for a year, or scholarships to university for 43 million students. Three trillion could have fixed America's social security problem for half a century. America, says Stiglitz, is currently spending $5bn a year in Africa, and worrying about being outflanked by China there: "Five billion is roughly 10 days' fighting, so you get a new metric of thinking about everything."

To understand the magnitude of this disaster to all better, let us look at the figures once again:

$16bn The amount the US spends on the monthly running costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - on top of regular defence spending

$138 The amount paid by every US household every month towards the current operating costs of the war

$19.3bn The amount Halliburton has received in single-source contracts for work in Iraq

$25bn The annual cost to the US of the rising price of oil, itself a consequence of the war

$3 trillion A conservative estimate of the true cost - to America alone. The rest of the world, will shoulder about the same amount again

$5bn Cost of 10 days' fighting in Iraq

$1 trillion The interest America will have paid by 2017 on the money borrowed to finance the war

3% The average drop in income of 13 African countries - a direct result of the rise in oil prices. This drop has more than offset the recent increase in foreign aid to Africa.

At times like these, it is easy to despair. But somehow, for the sake of humanity and the enlightened self interest, the cycle of violence and inflicting inhumanity on each other must be broken. Here the wise words of Martin Luther King rings true as ever, “Sooner or later, all the peoples of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love”.

By now everybody should clearly know that, force begets force; hate begets hate; toughness begets toughness. And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and everybody. All of us collectively must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe.

Some timely questions at this time in our history are: What now for the Middle East? How can Middle East’s broken heart be healed? How can we, East and West, Muslims, Christians, Jews- All the Children of Abraham- work together for the common good to bring peace, justice, freedom and prosperity for all to the region?

Moreover, what can we do about this? What role can we play as individuals and collectively as humanity? The ageless wisdom teaches us that humanity has a very significant role to play in founding the” Kingdom of Heaven on Earth”. In order to fulfil this most sacred role, however, we must first heal and transform ourselves. This is our responsibility; this is our destiny.
Below are my suggestions:

I believe that, there will be no path to peace in the Middle East without engaging the religious traditions of the region and in turn enabling the faith communities to get behind the process of economic and business development. Many people in the Middle-East and around the world express their highest hopes and aspirations for what it means to be human through religion.
Religion, after all, is a powerful constituent of cultural norms and values, and because it addresses the most profound existential issues of human life (e.g., freedom and inevitability, fear and faith, security and insecurity, right and wrong, sacred and profane), religion is deeply implicated in individual and social conceptions of peace. To transform the conflicts besetting the world today, we need to uncover the conceptions of peace within our diverse religious, spiritual and cultural traditions, while seeking the common ground among them.

The people of the Middle-East have the resources for doing so within the Abrahamic faiths. We have to insist that the lives of an Iraqi civilian, an American or British or Australian soldier, an Israeli teenager in a café, and a Palestinian child all carry the same inherent value. Here again we can be inspired by the wisdom of our religions if we note what they say about love and its true meaning and value.

The major religions of the world prescribe the unselfish love and service of others. Only when this love extends to all humanity without exception can a dignified and peaceful human future become possible. God is love and love is God. St. Paul wrote, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs”. Judaism teaches that “those who are kind reward themselves”. The Quran reads, “My mercy and compassion embrace all things”. In these and other traditions, unselfish love is deemed a Creative Presence underlying and integral to all of reality, participation in which constitutes the fullest experience of spirituality.
People everywhere, given a chance prefer to be compassionate, spiritual and caring. They want to be able to practice their religions freely. More and more, they also want to see that their religious values have a bearing on their economic systems and structures. This philosophy is nowhere stronger than in the Middle-East, whose people by and large are very spiritual, religious, hospitable, informed and cultural.

I hope with your help and prayers and actions we will witness peace in the Middle East and indeed every where in the world.

I now will conclude my talk by reciting a prayer and a poem; both have had a major impact on my thinking. First, Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love;where there is injury, pardon;where there is doubt, faith;where there is despair, hope;where there is darkness, light;where there is sadness, joy;
O Master, grant that I may not seek so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Second, a poem by the Persian, Sufi sage and philosopher, Molana Jalal-e Din Rumi, very relevant and timely, given today's world situation:

What is to be done, O Moslems? For I do not recognise myself.
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem.
I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;
I am not of Nature’s mint, nor of the circling heaven.
I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;
I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity.
I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulgaria, nor of Saqsin.
I am not of the kingdom of ’Iraqian, nor of the country of Khorasan
I am not of this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise, nor of Hell.
I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwan.
My place is the Placeless; my trace is the Traceless;
’Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.
I have put duality away; I have seen that the two worlds are one;
One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call.
He is the first, He is the last, He is the outward, He is the inward;
I am intoxicated with Love’s cup, the two worlds have passed out of my ken;
If once in my life I spent a moment without thee,
From that time and from that hour I repent of my life.
If once in this world I win a moment with thee,
I will trample on both worlds; I will dance in triumph for ever.

May this prayer and the poem be a source of inspiration to all those who are dividing and separating God's people for their own selfish, arrogant reasons.

In all, when I am inspired by something so powerful, I feel renewed in my hope for this world that has long turned in the darkness of greed, anger, revenge, fear, confusion, and pain.

Peace, justice, love, vocation, service, altruism, volunteerism, faith, hope and charity, these are the true values of our religions. With Easter just around the corner, this may be a good time for peace builders all over the world to join hands, be inspired by the teachings of their religions guiding us all to the chosen destination: the promised “city of peace”.

In conclusion and summing up, I wish to invite you to participate at the 7th Annual International Conference of GCGI, which this year will take place from 30th of June to 4th of July in Melbourne at Trinity College, where these and other relevant issues will be discussed and debated, so that together we may built a world that is free, just, peaceful and prosperous for all God’s people.

Thank you and God bless.

Kamran Mofid
Founder, Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative (UK)
www.globalisationforthecommongood.info

Pentagon admits postponing brain screenings

2008-03-19T07:12:00.001+10:00

Ed Pilkington in New York

The Pentagon has admitted that it delayed introducing a routine screening of troops returning from Iraq for mild brain injuries because it feared that the extent of the problem could mushroom to the scale of the Gulf War syndrome after the first Iraq war.

The head of the Pentagon's medical assessments division has told USA Today that he wanted to avoid another controversy as potentially huge as Gulf War syndrome.

To read the full article from The Guardian, click on:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/18/usa.iraq

Nations working to ban cluster bombs

2008-03-18T07:58:00.002+10:00

Hugh MacLeod

...

In a report released last month, Human Rights Watch said Israel dropped 4.6 million cluster bombs on southern Lebanon, more than in recent wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq combined.

Last month, 122 nations met at a Cluster Munition Coalition meeting in Wellington, New Zealand, to work out final discussions for an eventual treaty banning cluster bombs. The draft, which has been endorsed by 82 nations, would bar signatory nations from producing, using or stockpiling cluster bombs.

Supporters say the final treaty, which is expected to be signed in Oslo, Norway, later this year, would be the most significant advance in disarmament since the 1997 ban on anti-personnel mines.
...

To be sure, cluster bombs have been used in warfare since World War II and are standard air-dropped bombs for many nations. At least 14 countries and a small number of nonstate militias - Hezbollah, for example - have used cluster bombs in at least 30 nations and territories, while at least 76 nations have stockpiles, according to Human Rights Watch.

Cluster bomb manufacturers say the failure rate is typically between 10 and 15 percent. But the United Nations says it is between 20 and 30 percent and was even higher in southern Lebanon due to Israel’s use of Vietnam War-era and Chinese bombs, whose date of effectiveness had long since expired.

“By their nature, cluster bombs are very likely to fail,” said Farran, the U.N. spokeswoman. “They are not accurate and not reliable.”

Farran said the mine removal campaign in Lebanon is far more daunting than that in Kosovo, an area comparable in size. “In a 2 1/2-year program, (the U.N. Mine Action Service) cleared 25,000 submunitions, and that was 90 percent of the problem,” she said. “In Lebanon, in a year and a half we have cleared 137,000 submunitions.”

To read the full article from The San Francisco Chronicle click on:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/17/MNGMV7SGR.DTL

N.J. Quakers help save lives a world away

2008-02-27T13:01:00.000+10:00

By Edward Colimore
Inquirer Staff Writer

The tiny town of Gharm, Tajikistan, surrounded by snowcapped mountains, is still feeling the aftereffects of a civil war that killed more than 50,000 people a decade ago.

Trenches and earthen fortifications scar the high ground overlooking the Rasht Valley, and unexploded cluster bombs are claiming lives - often those of children who pick up the softball-size munitions.

Thousands of miles away, in Woodstown, Salem County, Frank Lenik, a Quaker and former Peace Corps volunteer, knew of the plight of the people there and wanted to help.
In his work as a surveyor, Lenik uses magnetic detectors similar to those utilized by United Nations contractors to locate and dispose of abandoned munitions.

So, when he saw the manufacturer of the devices offer a deal, Lenik went to members of his Woodstown Quaker meeting to raise money to purchase some.

Today, three detectors - two bought by the Quakers for about $1,500 and a third donated as part of a deal with the manufacturer - are being used under U.N. auspices in Tajikistan. And Lenik, his fellow Quakers, and others are raising money to buy more.

"From one small corner of New Jersey, we can reach around the world and send some good, positive energy," said Lenik, 48. "Fifteen hundred dollars is a small amount of money to do so much good."

U.N. officials say unexploded munitions are common in dozens of countries - wherever war has broken out, from Tajikistan and Somalia to Lebanon and Laos.

What's uncommon is getting equipment through private citizens to help dispose of them.

"I've never heard of a group doing this," said Richard Kollodge, a spokesman for the U.N. Mine Action Service, who took reporters to Tajikistan in June to acquaint them with the cluster-bomb problem.

"Countries acquire this equipment, but Tajikistan has a tight budget and can't afford them," Kollodge said. "This is a godsend."

To read the full article from The Philadelphia Inquirer, click on:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/12274791.html

A Valentine’s Day Tribute: The Things They Do for Love

2008-02-16T06:37:00.002+10:00

by Olga Bonfiglio

Americans are largely unaware of the vastness and lethality of U.S. nuclear weapons stockpiles, say Sisters Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson, the three nuns who did time in federal prison for breaking into the N-8 Minuteman missile site in October 2002.

Now that the sisters are all back from prison, they spent some time with me to explain how their religious commitment and civic duty led them to become activists for nuclear disarmament.

In 1978 after Sisters Ardeth and Carol first heard Helen Caldicott’s message on the dangers of nuclear weapons, they decided to work for the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign in Michigan, their home state. At the time, Michigan held the sixth largest cache of nuclear weapons in the country. The two sisters helped to organize a statewide ballot initiative for the Freeze in 1982, which passed at 56 percent.

They continued to work to free Michigan of all nuclear weapons until the Defense Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) inactivated the Wurtsmith Air Force Base near Oscoda in 1993 and the K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base near Marquette in 1995.

Continuing to feel the intensity of their call to eliminate nuclear weapons, Sisters Carol and Ardeth then joined Jonah House in Baltimore and became members of Plowshares. The worldwide peace organization spotlights the dangers of militarism and weapons of mass destruction through symbolic acts like their blood-spilling on the N-8 missile site.

To read the full article from CommonDreams, click on:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/14/7048/

Upcoming Events

2008-02-10T07:41:00.000+10:00

The first Agape of 2008

Sunday 17 February 4.30 pm at Kildara Centre, rear 39 Stanhope Street, Malvern

Rev Dr Merrill Kitchen
(Principal of the Churches of Christ Theological College)

will speak on

The Politics of Holy Week:
The Journey to Jerusalem,
Then and Now

Palm Sunday
16 March 2 pm
Stop the War Rally and March
State Library

April Agape
Sunday 20 April 4.30 pm at Kildara Centre, rear 39 Stanhope Street, Malvern

Jill Jameson
(Member of an international Buddhist Peace Fellowship Team to Burma and Thailand)

will speak on

Faith and Struggle in Burma

Our World in Crisis? Interpretations and Responses

2008-02-10T07:39:00.000+10:00

Tuesday 29 April – 1 July, 5.15 pm:
Our World in Crisis? Interpretations and Responses. This 10-week course will cover Climate of Change, World Economy, Poverty or Development, National or Human Security, Energy and Climate Change, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Afghanistan, Clash or Dialogue of Civilisations, Human Rights, Democracy and UN Reform, Race and Culture in Australia, and Australia and the World. Venue: Australia Volunteers International, 88 Kerr Street, Fitzroy. Principal lecture is Prof. Joseph Camilleri. Fees $550 (Institutional), $450 (Individual), $295 (low income). For further information contact Craig 0400 422 022, email: owic2008@wachy.com ; website: http://www.josephcamilleri.com/owic

Putin says 'new arms race' has begun

2008-02-10T06:28:00.000+10:00

David Blair, London
February 10, 2008

PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin declared the onset of a "new arms race" on Friday and vowed to expand Russia's military strength to ward off predatory foreign powers.

In a televised address to the State Council in Moscow, Mr Putin delivered the belligerent rhetoric which has become his hallmark. Appraising global events, the President said: "It is already clear that a new phase in the arms race is unfolding in the world."

He added that "no steps towards compromise" had yet been made on America's plan to station a missile defence shield in Europe. "There has been no constructive response to our well-founded concerns," said Mr Putin. Consequently, he has vowed to modernise Russia's armed forces.
"We are being forced to take retaliatory steps. Russia has and always will have a response to these new challenges. In the near future, Russia will start production of new weapons systems that will not be inferior, and in some cases excel, those held by other countries."

This was necessary to defend Russia from unnamed foreign powers who, he claimed, were bent on controlling the world's natural resources.

To read the full article for The Age, click on:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/putin-says-new-arms-race-has-begun/2008/02/09/1202234227114.html

Papua New Guinea: Waking Up Finally to the HIV and AIDS Threat

2008-02-09T07:53:00.000+10:00

By Kevin Pamba

MADANG, Dec 5 (IPS) - When the new government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) set up in August a separate ministry devoted to containing HIV and AIDS in this Pacific Island country, it reflected the enormity of the threat to its six million people.

The government also increased funding for the fight against HIV and AIDS in its 2008 national budget passed on Nov. 20 from 12 million Kina (3.7 million US dollars) in 2007 to 15 million kina (4.6 million dollars).

Yet, this response is being seen as coming too little too late. Experts have been warning PNG of a sub-Saharan Africa-like AIDS epidemic for a decade now, but the government and the public took little notice.

According to the National AIDS Council’s ‘2007 Estimation Report’, released in August, as of December 2006 there were 4,017 people who tested HIV positive, a 30 percent increase from 2005, bringing the cumulative number of diagnosed cases to 18,484.

The council also reported that "the revised estimates indicate that the national HIV prevalence is 1.28 percent among adults aged 15-49 years.’’

Many believe that PNG should be doing far more if it is to win the war against HIV and AIDS. For a start it could stop marginalising people already living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHAs) says Joe Egu, a well-known campaigner in the country.

To read the full article from IPSNEWS, click on:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40348

Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Letter of Support for Fr. John Dear's Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize

2008-02-02T22:56:00.000+10:00

Archbishop Desmond Tutu
In support of The Reverend Father John Dear, S.J.:
Nobel Peace Prize 2008

Dr Leo Rebello, World Peace Envoy from Bombay, India and Dr Charles Mercieca, President of International Association of Educators for World Peace, USA have nominated the Reverend Father John Dear, SJ for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize.

I commend Father Dear to you and support his nomination.

Fr John Dear is a Jesuit priest who has been in the forefront of the religious peace movement in the United States. He is the embodiment of a peacemaker. He has led by example through his actions and in his writings and in numerous sermons, speeches and demonstrations. He believes that peace is not something static, but rather to make peace is to be engaged, mind, body and spirit. His teaching is to love yourself, to love your neighbor, your enemy, and to love the world and to understand the profound responsibility in doing all of these.

He is a man who has the courage of his convictions and who speaks out and acts against war, the manufacture of weapons and any situation where a human being might be at risk through violence. Fr John Dear has studied and follows the teachings of non-violence as espoused by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., he serves the homeless and the marginalized and sees each person as being of infinite worth. I would hope that were he to receive this honor his teachings and activities might become more widely accepted and adopted. The world would undoubtedly become a better and more peaceful place if this were to happen.

For evil to prevail requires only that good people sit on the sidelines and do nothing. Fr John Dear is compelling all of us to stand up and take responsibility for the suffering of humanity so often caused through selfishness and greed. I hope you will consider his nomination favorably.

God bless you,

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Pioneering Blackwater Protesters Given Secret Trial and Criminal Conviction

2008-01-30T07:07:00.000+10:00

By Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet.
Posted January 29, 2008.

Protesters who re-enacted one of Blackwater's worst civilian massacres in Iraq got jail time, while the real killers remain free.

Last week in Currituck County, N.C., Superior Court Judge Russell Duke presided over the final step in securing the first criminal conviction stemming from the deadly actions of Blackwater Worldwide, the Bush administration's favorite mercenary company. Lest you think you missed some earth-shifting, breaking news, hold on a moment. The "criminals" in question were not the armed thugs who gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded more than 20 others in Baghdad's Nisour Square last September. They were seven nonviolent activists who had the audacity to stage a demonstration at the gates of Blackwater's 7,000-acre private military base in North Carolina to protest the actions of mercenaries acting with impunity -- and apparent immunity -- in their names and those of every American.

The arrest of the activists and the subsequent five days they spent locked up in jail is more punishment than any Blackwater mercenaries have received for their deadly actions against Iraqi civilians. "The courts pretend that adherence to the law is what makes for an orderly and peaceable world," said Steve Baggarly, one of the protest organizers. "In fact, U.S. law and courts stand idly by while the U.S. military and private armies like Blackwater have killed, maimed, brutalized and destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis."

A month after the Nisour Square massacre, on Oct. 20, a group of about 50 activists gathered outside Blackwater's gates in Moyock, N.C. There, they reenacted the Nisour Square shooting and staged a "die-in," involving a vehicle painted with bullet marks and blood. The activists stained their clothing with fake blood and dramatized the deadly shooting spree. Some of the demonstrators marked Blackwater's large welcome sign -- with the company's bear claw in a sniper scope logo -- with red hand prints. The demonstrators believed these "would be a much more appropriate logo for Blackwater," according to Baggarly. "We're all responsible for what is happening in Iraq. We all have bloody hands." It took only moments for the local police to respond to the protest, the first ever at Blackwater's headquarters. In the end, seven were arrested.

The symbolism was stark: Re-enact a Blackwater massacre, go to jail. Commit a massacre, walk around freely and perhaps never go to jail. All seven were charged with criminal trespassing, six of them with an additional charge of resisting arrest and one with another charge of injury to real property. "We feel like Blackwater is trespassing in Iraq," Baggarly later said. "And as for injuring property, they injure men, women and children every day." The activists were jailed for five days and eventually released pending trial.

To read the full article from AlterNet, click on:
http://www.alternet.org/story/75244/

Catholic Priest, Other Protesters, Sentenced in Santa Fe

2008-01-27T06:28:00.000+10:00

by Joline Gutierrez Krueger

There was little peace, love and understanding as a federal judge castigated a nationally known activist and Roman Catholic priest for an Iraq war protest that blocked a Santa Fe elevator in 2006.

“I’m not interested in making a martyr out of you,” U.S. District Judge Don Svet said Thursday in Albuquerque before sentencing the Rev. John Dear to 40 hours of community service and $510 in fines and fees, to be paid immediately.

Dear was the last of the group known as the Elevator Nine to be sentenced.

Six of the nine eventually went to trial on federal charges after they occupied the elevator of Sen. Pete Domenici’s Santa Fe office for more than five hours. Two others took plea deals, and one was a minor whose charges were dropped.

All six were found guilty in September. The other five have been sentenced.

Dear’s attorney, Penni Adrian, had asked the court for mercy, saying Dear had a “lifelong commitment to peace and human decency.” His action that day was “but a legal misstep,” she said.
Adrian also said she received word Wednesday that Dear had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Gandhi Peace Award.

But Dear asked for no mercy, using his time before the court to condemn the Iraq war.
“This war is unjust, morally sinful and just downright impractical,” he said.

To read the full article from the Albuquerque Tribune, click on:
http://abqtrib.com/news/2008/jan/25/catholic-priest-protester-santa-fe-sentenced-and-f/

Pre-emptive nuclear strike a key option, Nato told

2008-01-22T22:58:00.000+10:00

Ian Traynor
in Brussels
Tuesday January 22, 2008

The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists.

Calling for root-and-branch reform of Nato and a new pact drawing the US, Nato and the European Union together in a "grand strategy" to tackle the challenges of an increasingly brutal world, the former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a "first strike" nuclear option remains an "indispensable instrument" since there is "simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world".

To read the full article from the Guardian, click on:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/nato/story/0,,2244782,00.html

It's time to let the courts back in

2007-12-31T19:57:00.000+10:00

David Marr
December 29, 2007

Because of a poor track record, I've just about given up on New Year's resolutions. No second helpings. Be kinder to Piers. Buy some clothes. Read more. That sort of thing.

Failure should stop me wishing resolutions on others. But I'm a journalist facing a new year with a new government and a sense there's no better time than now for Labor to fix something that went badly awry last time around.

We can pinpoint the moment the long slide began. On May 5, 1992, two days before a Federal Court was due to free 35 Cambodian boat people imprisoned without charge for more than two years, the Keating government rushed legislation through parliament establishing Australia's trademark system of mandatory detention.

The immigration minister, Gerry Hand, made no secret of what Labor was up to: messing with habeas corpus. He made the point that day not once but twice - "I repeat: the most important aspect of this legislation is that it provides that a court cannot interfere with the period of custody."

He swore blind this was a temporary measure. "It is designed to address only the pressing requirements of the current situation." Fifteen years later the system proposed by Labor and supported by the opposition is still in place.

The resolution I propose for Labor back in power - and for the Opposition once again in opposition, the courts that have dithered on the issue and those newspaper pundits who never understood what was involved - is to make 2008 the year Australia stops messing around with habeas corpus.

The right to have the courts - not the Crown, governments, ministers or public servants - decide who languishes in the clink, was not easily won. But habeas corpus has been the backstop guarantee of liberty in the English-speaking world since the time of Charles II.

To read the full article in the Sydney Morning Herald, click on:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/its-time-to-let-the-courts-back-in/2007/12/28/1198778699733.html

Aid restrictions are killing the women of East Timor

2007-12-31T06:45:00.000+10:00

Australia's near neighbour East Timor has a birth rate of 8.5 per woman and a maternal death rate 20 times that of Australia. It is hardly an unusual case: around the world one woman dies in childbirth every minute. Another 68,000 women die every year as a result of unsafe abortion, which also leaves about 5 million women permanently injured or diseased.

These are horrifying statistics. The fact that Australia is partly responsible for them should shame and anger us all.

The AusAID family planning guidelines, instituted in 1996 by a Coalition government desperate for the support of the ultra-conservative Senator Brian Harradine, forbade any organisation that accepts Australian aid dollars from providing, recommending or even supplying information on abortion - even when to do so may save the woman's life.

Funded organisations are also restricted as to the types and methods of contraceptives they can suggest. Harradine retired in 2005 and had not held the balance of power for some years before that - but the AusAid restrictions remain.

...

Family planning services, such as those banned by AusAID, save women's lives, improve their ability to contribute to society, help to reduce overpopulation and infant mortality, and slow the spread of diseases including HIV/AIDS. All of these things, in turn, work to reduce poverty and raise the life expectancy and health outcomes of the community as a whole.

To read the full article from the Sydney Morning Herald, click on:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/aid-restrictions-are-killing-the-women-of-east-timor/2007/12/30/1198949671171.html

Rich nations fail to honour climate pledge

2007-11-24T18:50:00.000+10:00

A group of rich countries including Britain has broken a promise to pay more than a billion dollars to help the developing world cope with the effects of climate change. The group agreed in 2001 to pay $1.2bn (£600m) to help poor and vulnerable countries predict and plan for the effects of global warming, as well as fund flood defences, conservation and thousands of other projects. But new figures show less than £90m of the promised money has been delivered. Britain has so far paid just £10m.

To read the full article from The Guardian, click on:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/24/climatechange.greenpolitics

Naim Ateek: A History of Nonviolence

2007-11-17T05:34:00.000+10:00

Naim Ateek had just turned 11 when forces of the Haganah, the pre-Israel Zionist paramilitary organization, occupied his village of Beisan in Palestine. Days later, the villagers were informed that they were to be “evacuated,” forcibly moved off land that Palestine’s Jewish minority now claimed for its own state. Ordered to gather in the village center, the Ateeks took what they could carry, and joined the other frightened families, all clutching heirlooms, photographs, jewelry, and awaiting an uncertain future, away from the homes in and lands on which their families had lived for generations.

It is perhaps surprising then, that even after this experience of forcible dispossession, and even after the shock of the 1967 war, in which thousands more Palestinians were displaced and the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem came under military occupation, even after years of witnessing and enduring brutality at the hands of Israeli soldiers and settlers, Ateek has been a constant advocate of nonviolence as the only course for Palestinian independence. A parish minister to Palestine’s small Christian community since 1966, Ateek founded the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in 1989 for the purpose of developing a theology to help Palestinians cope with and overcome the daily oppression and injustice they continue to endure as a subject population under military occupation.

Though he advocates nonviolence as “the only option, and the only strategy,” Ateek does not shrink from making extremely trenchant criticisms of Israel’s policies. Which is why a late October conference at Boston’s Old South Church, featuring Ateek, was provocatively titled, “The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel.” Underscoring the apartheid parallel, the keynote speaker for the conference was Desmond Tutu, the former archbishop of Cape Town and one of the guiding spirits of the anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s and 1980s.

While Tutu was lauded universally for his moral and prophetic voice against the South African government’s policies, he has been denigrated for suggesting a similarity between South African apartheid and the Israeli occupation and colonization of the West Bank. Similarly, despite Ateek’s commitment to nonviolence and reconciliation, he has been denounced as an anti-Semite and a terrorist-sympathizer for insisting that Palestinians have a right to reject and resist a system that severely proscribes all aspects of Palestinian life, while at the same time privileging the rights of Israeli settlers and facilitating their takeover of Palestinian lands, a system which Ateek and the organizers of the North American Friends of Sabeel conference hold is very much like apartheid.Many scholars, including many Israeli scholars, have for years been using the apartheid framework to understand Israel’s policies toward Palestinians in the occupied territories. As UCLA professor Saree Makdisi points out, there are, in fact, “two separate legal and administrative systems, maintained by the regular use of military force, for two populations — settlers and natives — unequally inhabiting the same piece of land.” Furthermore, when people like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu insist that the apartheid comparison is appropriate, one listens.

To read the full article from The American Prospect, click on:
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_history_of_nonviolence

Demands for full access for UN Special Rapporteur on Torture

2007-11-15T18:24:00.000+10:00

Press Release
(Translation from Indonesian)

The Human Rights Defence Coalition in Papua urges the Government to give full access to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture during his visit to Papua

During the past nine months,Indonesia has been visited by three UN human rights experts, Hina Jilani, the special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Human Rights Defenders in June, Louise Arbour, head of the UN Human Rights Council, and Professor Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.

Professor Manfred Nowak is visiting Indonesia from 10 - 25 November.

According to his mandate, he is visiting Indonesia in order to help eliminate all forms of torture that still occur in Indonesia. The visit is part of Indonesia's commitment as a member of the UN Human Rights Council, in particular regarding its willingness to comply with various procedures laid down by the Human Rights Council. The types of torture to be investigation by Professor Nowak have been defined under the UN Convention Against Torture adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948 [this is when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted] which was ratified by Indonesia in 1998.

Professor Nowak will visit a number of detention centres and prisons where torture has occurred. He will also meet law enforcement officers, victims and humanitarian activists.
There are serious concerns among anti-torture groups at home and abroad about his visit to Papua because of the controversy surrounding Indonesia's commitment to upholding human rights. In conformity with its position as a member of the UN Human Rights Council, the government should give the fullest possible access to the UN envoy. This would ensure that the initiative in inviting the UN envoy is not mere lip-service but is a genuine commitment by Indonesia to respect humanitarianism and restore its credibility on the world stage.
We therefore call upon the Indonesian Government and institutions concerned with law enforcement and the defence of human rights:

1. to give the fullest access to the UN Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak to visit places of conflict and detention centres and prisons

2. to be fully cooperative during the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur to Indonesia

For further information, please contact Brother Septer Manufandu at the Secretariat of the NGO Joint Forum in Papua, phone:0967 573511.
Jayapura, 14 November 2007

J. Septer Manufandu Br. Yohanes Budi Hermawan O.F.M
Executive Secretary FOKER LSM Director SKP
Jayapura

Alosius Renwarin, SH Pdt. Dora Balubun, STh
Director Elsham Papua Coordinator, KPKC
Sinode GKI

Matius Murib Leonard Imbiri
Kontras Papua General Secretary DAP

Peneas Lokbere Paskalis Letsoin, SH
Chair of the Victims' Community Director LBH
Papua

Elias Weah
Secretary-General FNMPP

Secretariat of NGO Foker Papua :

Translation by TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign
111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Croydon CR7 8HW, UK.
tel +44 (0)20 8771 2904 fax +44 (0)20 8653 0322 tapol@gn.apc.org http://tapol.gn.apc.org

Sent by Matthew Jamieson
Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights PO box 1805, Byron bay NSW 2481 Australia matthew@hr.minihub.org tel +61(0) 418291998

Sri Lanka: Sinhala Nationalism and the Elusive Southern Consensus

2007-11-08T13:16:00.000+10:00

The latest report from the International Crisis Group examines the nationalism of Sri Lanka's largest ethnic community and its relationship to the almost 25-year conflict. Recent history shows the Sinhalese are not unalterably opposed to a fair deal for the minority Tamils but competition between their major parties, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), together with the violence and intransigence of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), have led President Rajapaksa to adopt a hardline nationalist approach. Until the sources of Sinhalese nationalism are taken more seriously, it will continue to challenge attempts to produce a political settlement.

To read the full report from International Crisis Group, click on:
Sri Lanka: Sinhala Nationalism and the Elusive Southern Consensus

The Iraq war has become a disaster that we have chosen to forget

2007-11-06T07:51:00.000+10:00

Madeleine Bunting
Monday November 5, 2007

Government ministers now talk of Iraq as a tragedy, as if it was a natural disaster and they had no hand in its making. There's a public revulsion at the violent sectarian struggles best summed up as "a plague on all their houses", as even the horror gives way to exhaustion.

The irony is that in this great age of communications and saturation media, this is perhaps the most important war to become nigh on impossible to report. Unless the reporter is embedded with the occupation forces, it takes either terrifying courage or extraordinary ingenuity to bring images to our screens of those caught up in the awful maelstrom of this imploded country.
Without the human stories that bring people and their suffering so vividly to life, there is little chance of public opinion re-engaging with the biggest political calamity of our time.

The Iraq war represents the end of the media as a major actor in war. In Bosnia journalists stirred western Europe's conscience with their vivid accounts; these were people we came to understand, recognise and empathise with, and public opinion forced recalcitrant governments to take note and act. It was a lesson not lost on the Kosovans: they ensured the media saw every atrocity, and the coverage was used to secure a comparable outcome to Bosnia - western governments were forced to act. But in Iraq the number of journalists killed (now at least 138) means that this war is near private - the images and people who might make the horror of this war real don't reach our screens. It's no longer a war that is accessible to public scrutiny or to democratic engagement.

It may have been Iraqi suspicion of western media that ensured this outcome, but it's one that serves US interests nicely. The indifference, the exhaustion and the difficulty of reporting leaves the US forces with arguably a freer hand than they have had in any field of operations for decades. While the Americans and the British keep trying to persuade their public that the war is over - a habit initiated by George Bush himself when he announced his pyrrhic victory on an aircraft carrier in the Gulf in May 2003 - they can carry on fighting it. And there are plenty of people only too eager to hope their political leaders are right and that the whole problem of a country they never knew much about just goes away.

To read the full article from The Guardian, click on:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2205216,00.html

Arms makers winning war on terrorism

2007-11-04T06:39:00.000+10:00

Frank Walker
November 4, 2007

ARMS manufacturers are making record profits from the war on terrorism and unprecedented spending on weapons programs.

The massive earnings have drawn condemnation from Australian defence experts, who say expensive weapons such as jet fighters, warships and satellites are not the way to combat terrorism.

The world's biggest arms maker, Lockheed Martin in the US, maker of fighter jets including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which Australia is buying, announced last week it had increased third-quarter profits by 22 per cent to $US11.1 billion ($12.1 billion).

Northrop Grumman, maker of aircraft carriers, submarines and bombers, increased profits 62 per cent to $US489 million.

At General Dynamics, maker of the Abrams tank, which Australia has just bought, profits climbed 24 per cent to $US544 million.

Britain's BAE said its profits were up 27 per cent to £657 million ($1.23 billion).

In Australia profits for the Government-owned naval ship and submarine builder ASC rose 60 per cent last year to $30 million. The company was set up to build the Collins class submarines and is involved in the $8 billion air warfare destroyer project.

Hugh White, professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University, said the big-ticket weapons were designed to contain China, not combat terrorism.

"They don't admit to it. They sell it to the people as a response to terrorism, but that is not what they are doing," Professor White said.

To read the full article in the Sydney Morning Herald, click on:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/arms-makers-winning-war-on-terrorism/2007/11/03/1193619200266.html

An inspiration against nuclear arms

2007-10-31T07:26:00.000+10:00

Published on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 by The Boston Globe
RIP Randy Forsberg: An Inspiration Against Nuclear Arms
by John Tirman

Randy Forsberg, who died this month at age 64, left a remarkable legacy: She helped end the Cold War, the most costly and dangerous confrontation in world history. This singular achievement was not hers alone, of course, but she spurred the massive social movement in the United States and Europe that convinced the superpowers - the United States and the Soviet Union - that they had to stand down from their nuclear rivalry.In 1980, she invented the call to freeze the nuclear arms race, and this simple but compelling idea - essentially, a moratorium on new nuclear weapons as a prelude to gradual disarmament - became the rallying cry for millions of people sickened by the rush to develop and deploy new nuclear weapons and missiles, space weapons, stealth bombers, and all the other expensive, provocative gadgets of the arms industry.

To read the full article from the Boston Globe, copy the two lines below and click:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/
2007/10/30/an_inspiration_against_nuclear_arms/

Toxic feelings at proposed nuclear dump

2007-10-29T06:38:00.000+10:00

Lindsay Murdoch in Tennant Creek
October 29, 2007

ABORIGINAL landowners surrounding the proposed site of Australia's first nuclear dump have changed their minds about allowing access to trucks carrying waste as bitter argument rages among indigenous groups about the Federal Government's plans.

"I won't sign any agreement because my mob disagrees with building the dump there," said Sammy Sambo, senior elder of the Milwayi clan, which owns the only road to the site in Muckaty, a former cattle station 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek.

"We are upset about the way those government fellas have gone about trying to convince us and are confused and worried about what to do next."

Elders of two Aboriginal clans owning parts of Muckaty, including land adjoining the site, have told the Herald they have not been properly consulted, contradicting the federal Science Minister, Julie Bishop, who said last month she was satisfied that potentially affected Aboriginal groups have had "adequate opportunity to express their views".

To read the full article from the Sydney Morning Herald, click on:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/toxic-feelings-over-dump/2007/10/28/1193555533389.html

CLIMATE CHANGE

2007-10-26T08:00:00.000+10:00

Not only is a community at risk, but there are national interest reasons to worry about the future of the Cocos Islands, writes DAVID CORLETT

The Cocos Islands rise only marginally above the surface of the ocean. According Simms, the kampong or village on Home Island is just 1.3 meters above sea level. A twenty centimetre levy around the island gives it a bit more height. But with tides rising to 1.3 meters, the Home Island community is already precariously close to sea inundation. With climate change-induced rising sea levels, the delicate balance seems likely to be broken.

The Australian government has declined to resettle Pacific islanders who are threatened with forced migration due to climate change-related factors. It will have little choice with the Cocos Malays. They are, after all, Australian citizens. And there is some irony in the fact that they are also devout Muslims. Commentators from the Right who have been calling for an end to Muslim immigration to Australia will have to accept that the Cocos Malays have as much claim to be in this country as they themselves have, notwithstanding the islanders’ commitment to Islam.

To read the full article from Australian Policy Online, click on:
http://www.apo.org.au/webboard/comment_results.chtml?filename_num=178493

South Korea to host worldwide Anglican peace conference

2007-10-21T13:30:00.000+10:00

Peace initiatives and reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula will be the foci of a worldwide Anglican peace conference November 14-20 when more than 150 Anglican leaders, ecumenical guests and other participants will travel to South Korea for TOPIK (Towards Peace in Korea).

The conference will begin with a three-day peace trip to Geumgangsan in North Korea, where delegates will meet employees of the Hyundai Asan Company and hear about its programs of development and economic support for projects in North Korea, including flood-relief aid. The visit to North Korea will be followed by a four-day forum in Paju, near Seoul, South Korea. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will preach at the November 16 opening Eucharist, which is expected to draw more than 400 worshippers.

The forum will introduce and summarize Korean experiences of war and forgiveness, conflict and reconciliation, and explore ways to contribute to establishing a permanent peace in Northeast Asia.

"This gathering promises to produce some lasting changes in the relationships with North Korea," Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori said. "It seems especially timely given recent progress in talks with the North Korean government."

About 100 South Koreans will be joined by 40 overseas delegates from 20 countries, including Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori; Japan Primate Nathaniel Makoto Uematsu; Taiwan Bishop David Lai; Archbishop Roger Herft of Perth (Australia); Bishop Kumara Illangasinghe of Kurunagala (Church of Ceylon, Sri Lanka); Bishop Terry Brown of Malaita (Solomon Islands); and Archbishop Francis Kyung Jo Park (Anglican Church of Korea). Peter Ng, partnership officer for Asia and the Pacific, and the Revd Canon Brian Grieves, director of Peace and Justice Ministries, will travel to Asia as part of an Episcopal Church delegation.

"The joint participation of Japanese and American representatives in a place of former warfare and occupation may provide opportunities for apology, forgiveness and the beginnings of reconciliation," said Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori.

Recently retired Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Robin Eames will attend TOPIK as special emissary of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, who has offered his full support for the conference. "The conference aims to further develop the mutual understanding necessary for successful peacemaking efforts and the church's role in them," Archbishop Williams said in a letter of commendation.

Mission and development agencies represented will include the Church Mission Society, United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, Anglican Board of Mission, Episcopal Relief and Development and the Partnerships Department of the Anglican Church of Canada.

The forum venue in Paju, although close to Seoul, is also near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the heavily fortified zone which runs the width of Korea, dividing the Peninsula into two halves. In 2005, former Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold prayed at the DMZ and met with South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun as part of a two-week visit to Asia.

The TOPIK conference was first envisioned in response to a 2005 resolution from the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), the Anglican Communion's chief legislative body, which called for peace, reconciliation and reunification between North and South Korea. Organizers hope the conference will support and encourage others working for peace in areas of conflict. The Anglican Church of Korea wishes to begin a longer-term program of aid to the north, continuing beyond the end of the conference.

"Although an armistice agreement ending hostilities was signed in 1953, no peace treaty has yet been signed to end the Korean War. It is only in this last year that the railway lines between North and South Korea have been rejoined, even if only for a trial run," a news release announcing the TOPIK conference reports. "More than 50 years of almost total separation has broken apart families and cut all the normal lines of communication. While this conference began in response to an ACC resolution, it now also represents a growing spirit among South Koreans (eager) to breach the division and heal the pain of separation over such a long period." Canon Grieves commended the Anglican Church in Korea's long tradition of witnessing for human rights and reconciliation on the peninsula.

"During the days of dictatorship in the south, it was a beacon of hope for its courageous call for democracy," he said. "It continues that tradition in its call for reunification with the north, and I think this conference will be a major building block in that direction. We in the U.S. church will have to do our part to advocate that our government's policy is consistent with the goal of reunification."

Article from: Episcopal News Service by Matthew Davies

A letter from Archbishop Francis K Park of the Anglican Church of KoreaTo All Those Attending the Worldwide Anglican Peace Conference on Korea

Greetings in the Name of the Lord:

Firstly, I would like to say thanks to all of you, our brothers and sisters, who are coming to attend the Worldwide Anglican Peace Conference, Seoul 2007 joining in this expression of the Anglican Communion throughout the world in seeking a role to make efforts for peace on the Korean peninsula and throughout all of North East Asia.

As you will know already from media sources, the summit meeting of the leaders of South and North Korea from October 2-4, 2007 was indeed an historic occasion. The Summit declaration outlined the order for dealing with the necessary and important issues relating to peace between South and North Korea. We believe all these things are attributed to God's grace working in the world and are the fruits of the fervent prayers of peace loving Christian people. It will require much interest and prayer for the decisions announced at the South North Korea Leaders Summit to be actualized.

I can assure you that the Peace Conference Preparation Committee is doing all that it can to ensure the success of the Peace Conference. We are endeavoring to enable all those participating in the Conference from November 14 through 20 to have a deep and meaningful experience through the process of the Conference. Unfortunately the visit to Pyongyang has proved too difficult to realize at this stage but we have arranged a visit to a significant location which symbolizes the relationship between South and North Korea. From Wednesday November 14 to Friday November 16 we will make our peace journey to the Geumgang Mountain area of North Korea. Then from 4 pm on the afternoon of Friday November 16 we will have the official opening ceremony of the Peace Conference. The Peace Forum will continue through Saturday November 16 to Tuesday November 20. Also the Peace Conference Preparation Committee is currently doing all that it can to arrange the details for the departure of overseas Conference participants by Wednesday November 21. In order to facilitate the smooth operation of the Worldwide Anglican Peace Conference, the Preparation Committee requires the cooperation of the Conference participants in various matters. Because the Geumgang Mountain area is part of North Korea there are various procedures which have to be completed in advance of our visit. Above all each visitor to the Geumgang Mountain area will require documentation similar to an entry visa. To this end we need a photograph of each participant and a copy of the picture page of their passport.

Also through this upcoming Peace Conference we hope to take the opportunity to establish a worldwide Anglican network for peace in North East Asia. With this in mind we are compiling the profiles of the different Conference participants. Conference participants at the Worldwide Peace Conference will be able to obtain mutual understanding and much material that will be of value to themselves in their own work as well.

Finally, we expect positive participation from those attending the Peace Forum. I believe that all Conference participants, not just those giving presentations, can bring very valuable material from the depths of their experience in their fields of activity. Those participants scheduled to give presentations at the peace forum should submit their material to the Preparatory Committee before October 26, 2007. Please refer to our official Conference website www.topik2007.org for full details regarding the Peace Conference. Let us portray in our hearts and prayers our passion to cultivate peace in Korea and throughout North East Asia.

Remaining united together as one in the Holy Spirit.

The Most Revd Francis K Par
Primate Bishop of the Anglican Church of Korea
Chairman of the Peace Conference

The power of nonviolence

2007-10-19T08:10:00.000+10:00

By Shaazka Beyerle and Cynthia Boaz
Published: October 18, 2007

It was not a surprise that the Burmese junta violently cracked down on the "saffron revolution." The generals had lost all credibility in the eyes of their people, and were left with only one tool of control - repression.

But no matter how many guns and tanks they have, the generals still depend on ordinary soldiers to do their dirty work. History teaches that once enough people stop carrying out their orders, or switch sides, the junta's power will disintegrate.

Through this lens, the saffron revolution isn't over, it has just begun.

Disobedience is at the heart of nonviolent struggle. "Even the most powerful cannot rule without the cooperation of the ruled," Mahatma Gandhi said. Nonviolent movements succeed not necessarily when there are masses on the streets, but when enough people withdraw their cooperation, refuse to obey, and thus undermine the sustainability of the existing system.
Reports of defiance continue to leak out of Burma. Dissident sources report that opposition posters are appearing in public spaces, on prison walls, taped to helium balloons, and even on river rafts.

To read the full article from the International Herald Tribune, click on:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/18/opinion/edbeyerle.php

Priests Protesting Torture at Fort Huachuca Jailed for Justice

2007-10-18T07:57:00.000+10:00

Bill Quigley

TUCSON, Arizona — October 17 — Louis Vitale, 75, a Franciscan priest, and Steve Kelly, 58, a Jesuit priest, were each sentenced today to five months in federal prison for attempting to deliver a letter opposing the teaching of torture at Fort Huachuca in Arizona. Both priests were taken directly into jail from the courtroom after sentencing.

Fort Huachuca is the headquarters of military intelligence in the U.S. and the place where military and civilian interrogators are taught how to extract information from prisoners. The priests attempted to deliver their letter to Major General Barbara Fast, commander of Fort Huachuca. Fast was previously the head of all military intelligence in Iraq during the atrocities of Abu Ghraib.

The priests were arrested while kneeling in prayer halfway up the driveway to Fort Huachuca in November 2006. Both priests were charged with trespass on a military base and resisting orders of an officer to stop.

In a pre-trial heating, the priests attempted to introduce evidence of torture, murder, and gross violations of human rights in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib in Iraq, and at Guantanamo. The priests offered investigative reports from the FBI, the US Army, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Physicians for Social Responsibility documenting hundreds of incidents of human rights violations. Despite increasing evidence of the use of torture by U.S. forces sanctioned by President Bush and others, the federal court in Tucson refused to allow any evidence of torture, the legality of the invasion of Iraq, or international law to be a part of the trial.

To read the full article from Common Dreams, click on:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/17/4650/

A time for honest talk

2007-10-11T07:57:00.000+10:00

Patrick Dodson
October 10, 2007

History will judge Australians harshly if efforts are not made to help indigenous people survive.

THE announcement on September 20 that the Government and Galarrwuy Yunupingu had agreed to negotiate a 99-year lease on lands occupied by a small community in East Arnhem Land reveals the dysfunctional relationship between indigenous Australia and the Federal Government as well as the tragic public policy mess that embroils that relationship.

The announcement highlights three overriding themes that define our Government's vision for indigenous people in this nation and the manner in which it conducts the affairs of government to achieve its policy objectives.

To read the full article from The Age, click on:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/patrick-dodson/2007/10/09/1191695905428.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

We trained Burmese officers, police admit

2007-10-08T19:17:00.000+10:00

Craig Skehan
October 5, 2007

THE Australian Federal Police has confirmed three of its officers trained 20 Burmese police in intelligence gathering, as the international group Aidwatch warned that such co-operation should be curtailed amid the brutal suppression of democracy activists.

The 20 police were among more than 70 from Burma who, during the past three years, have participated in a regional training program at the Australian-funded Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Co-operation in Indonesia.

Kate Wheen of Aidwatch said yesterday that Australian-imparted skills could be misused by the military regime in the pursuit of its critics.

The junta has acknowledged that at least 15 people have been killed by Burmese security forces during the past fortnight.

To read the full article from the Sydney Morning Herald, click on:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/we-trained-burmese-officers-police-admit/2007/10/04/1191091276262.html

Don't mention the 'N' word

2007-09-27T08:04:00.000+10:00

Katharine Murphy

September 27, 2007

Australia has signed an important nuclear energy agreement. So why the odd announcement?

A COUPLE of weeks ago, a senior Australian official you've probably never heard of strapped himself into the comfortable end of an aeroplane bound for Vienna. After the long journey, he went along to an important meeting, and acting with the authority of the Commonwealth, signed a document that commits Australia to being a full partner in a global energy grouping you will know about only if you follow national political events with abnormal interest.

...

If you are interested in understanding what happened in Vienna you can pop onto the website of the US Department of Energy and read all the documentation, including a GNEP statement of principles committing member countries to doing things alarming to opponents of nuclear energy, including expanding the number of power plants, managing waste and establishing international supply frameworks. The US, China, France, Japan, Russia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Poland, Slovenia, Ghana, Jordan, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine, and, yes, Australia, signed on the dotted line.

Possibly about now you need a bit more information about this grouping to understand where our analysis is going. GNEP is a partnership of countries committed to using nuclear energy. The alliance comprises fuel suppliers and users. While still in its formative stages, this grouping is about making a serious commitment to nuclear as a long-term energy source rather than as the stop-gap alternative you put up with until something nicer comes along.

To read the full article from The Age, click on:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/dont-mention-the-n-word/2007/09/26/1190486391722.html

Pine Gap on US missile front line

2007-09-21T07:47:00.000+10:00

Craig Skehan
September 21, 2007

PINE GAP could play a direct role in a controversial new generation of ballistic missile defences developed by the US and Japan, the Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, has told Parliament.

The rare statement on the secret facility near Alice Springs is likely to further alarm Russia, which yesterday joined China in criticising military co-operation between Australia, Japan and the US - which includes missile defence research.

"The strengthening of US-Australian-Japanese ties has got our attention," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, Alexander Losyukov, told the Vremya Novostei newspaper. "Narrow alliances, especially tight military-political unions, are a worry."

Mr Losyukov suggested missile defence collaboration was not justified by fears of North Korea because it would not have a long-range missile capability for years.

To read the full article from the Sydney Morning Herald, click on:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/pine-gap-on-us-missile-front-line/2007/09/20/1189881683368.html

Refugees in their own land: 2m Iraqis forced to flee their homes

2007-09-20T13:21:00.000+10:00

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Thursday September 20, 2007

Nearly two million Iraqis have become refugees in their own land in the past year, redrawing the ethnic and sectarian map of Baghdad and other cities, a report by the Iraqi Red Crescent said yesterday.

In Baghdad alone, nearly a million people have fled their homes.
Last month saw the sharpest rise so far in the numbers of Iraqis forced to abandon their homes - 71.1%.

The forced migration raises questions about claims from the Bush administration that the civilian protection plan at the core of its war strategy is making Iraq safer for Iraqis.

To read the full article from The Guardian, click on:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2172857,00.html

Judges Block Gaza Activist Case

2007-09-20T07:58:00.000+10:00

Ed Pilkington,
New York
September 20, 2007

THE parents of a US peace activist who was crushed to death when protesting against Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza four years ago have been refused permission to sue the maker of the bulldozer that killed her.

A US federal appeals court has ruled that Caterpillar, which supplied several bulldozers used by the Israeli Defence Force in house demolitions in the occupied territories, could not be sued as this would bring the judiciary into conflict with the executive branch of the US Government.

To read the full article from The Age, click on:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/judges-block-gaza-activist-death-case/2007/09/19/1189881593164.html

Jubilation as UN Adopts Historic Statement on Native Rights

2007-09-18T08:31:00.000+10:00

by Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS - Despite strong objections from the United States and some of its allies, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution Thursday calling for the recognition of the world’s 370 million indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination and control over their lands and resources.The adoption of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples comes after 22 years of diplomatic negotiations at the United Nations involving its member states, international civil society groups, and representatives of the world’s aboriginal communities.

An overwhelming majority of UN member countries endorsed the Declaration, with 143 voting in favor, 4 against, and 11 abstaining.

The United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand stood alone in voting against the resolution. The nations that neither supported nor objected were Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burundi, Colombia, Georgia, Kenya, Nigeria, Russia, Samoa, and Ukraine.

To read the full article from One World, click on:
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/153160/1/

God and Empire

2007-09-13T08:40:00.000+10:00

John Dominic Crossan, New Testament scholar and bestselling author, has just published an illuminating book about the nonviolence of Jesus, God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now (Harper San Francisco, New York, 2007).

To read the review in NCRCAFE, click on:
http://ncrcafe.org/node/1292

'Guilty!' - Of Trying to See Our Senator

2007-09-11T07:13:00.000+10:00

Rev. John Dear

On Thursday, September 6th, 2007, six of us were found guilty in Federal court in Albuquerque, NM by a Federal judge for trying to visit the office of our senator. We will be sentenced in a few weeks. The message? It is a Federal crime to attempt to speak to an elected Republican about the U.S. war on Iraq. Don’t visit your senator. Don’t get involved. Don’t speak out. Don’t take a stand for peace–or you too may end up in jail.

to read the full article from CommonDreams, click on:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/09/3711/

Indonesian police 'hit and run' and then beat survivors in Nabire, West Papua

2007-09-04T08:28:00.000+10:00

Media Report, August 31st 2007

Nabire, West Papua: Police crash a police car into a group of five West Papuan youths, killing one and critically injuring two others, report human rights workers in Nabire.

Decky Nagapa (22 years old), a farmer from Wonerejo village, close to Nabire died at the scene. After the incident the four police personnel in the car including the driver were reported to have fled from the scene. Three of the Policemen except the driver then returned to the scene of the incident.

The human rights workers report that the survivors, Deni Nakapa (27 years old) and Januarius Zonggenau (20 years old) both students from Wonerejo, who both suffering severe injuries, were then savagely beaten by police while being transported to the hospital.

Januarius Zonggenau (20 years old) was so badly beaten by police that he was unconscious when he arrived at the hospital.

The incident occurred two weeks ago on the 17th of August, Indonesia’s Independence Day.

The deceased and the two injured men are all from the Moni tribal group.

The two injured men suffered substantial injuries to the head, arms, back, and legs. Both men were admitted to the Public hospital in Siriwini. Both men were released on the 31st of August.

Zonggenau and Nakapa are both students studying in Manodo, Sulawesi and were visiting home for the holidays. Manado is the home of a sizeable and politically active West Papuan student population.

According to two witnesses at the scene, the driver and the three passengers – all policemen and driving a police owned car – clearly saw the men sitting by the side of the road when the car suddenly turned towards the men and increased speed.

The two injured survivors were then forced into a police car where they were beaten by police before being taken to hospital.

The driver of the police car, reported to be Rizal Asal from Buton in Sulawesi, is in police custody. Witnesses say that the car involved in the incident is a light blue Kijang displaying police license plate number DS 7472. The names of the other three policemen at this stage are not known and it is unclear whether these men are under investigation or not. Witnesses and advocates of the three men are calling for a full investigation and charges to be laid against the three policemen as well as the driver.

This tragic incident is the latest in a series of recent incidents in Nabire. This includes recent “mysterious” killings of a church youth leader and human rights advocate Matius Bunai (29 years old) and teh killing of Ones Keiya (31 years old), a farmer. In addition human rights and local church workers in Nabire are being threatened. Troops stationed in Nabire are also carrying out military operations in the Jamo valley inland of Nabire.
Several weeks ago there was also a mass food poisoning event in Nabire which left scores of people sick and and many being admitted to hospital.
Also last week in Nabire there have been protests by students over corruption in the education department and a strike by teachers in the last week over lack of pay which closed 196 primary schools in the district.

Spokesperson for the Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights, Paula Makabory said today, "It is incredible that the Indonesian Police can do anything they like to Papuan people and get away with it. The Indonesian security forces are expanding a campaign of terror against the Papuan people in Nabire and a number of regional centres in West Papua."
"The Central government in Jakarta appears to have no interest in controlling their security forces. These security forces are working to cause conflict with the Papuan community. Human rights abuses in West Papua are increasing and it seems like the policy is supported by Jakarta. "
"You have to think that the Indonesian government sanctions this kind of intimidation and abuse of the West Papuan people. The Governments policy of Special Autonomy has failed in West Papua. The security forces are now tightening their control and carrying out repression of the community. A human rights crisis is unfolding in Nabire and the world must take notice."

For more information phone:
Paula Makabory +61 (0)402 547 517
Matthew Jamieson on +61 (0)418 291 998

Weapons inspector fears new arms race

2007-08-30T23:16:00.000+10:00

Sarah Smiles
August 27, 2007

Former top UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has warned that Australian uranium sales to India could help the country generate nuclear weapons.

He said Australian uranium sales could free up India to use its own uranium to create weapons-grade material and heighten tensions in the region. Dr Blix said the world had entered a dangerous period of re-armament.

To read the full article from The Age, click on:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/weapons-inspector-fears-new-arms-race/2007/08/26/1188066946419.html

Indonesian Military Operation in Jamo Valley causes starvation and displacement

2007-08-29T23:39:00.000+10:00

Reports from Human Rights workers confirm that the Indonesian military (TNI) and police launched a new military offensive in the Jamo (also spelt Yamo) Valley in the remote Puncak Jaya region of West Papua, in the first week of August 2007.

These sources said that a mother and two children died from starvation when they were hiding in the forest after fleeing the military operations.

Local people are reported to have been beaten by Indonesian security forces and many people have fled to the surrounding forests and mountains to hide.

Human rights workers say that the affected area includes the villages of Wundu and Propalo. The only way in and out of this rugged area is by walking or light aircraft or helicopter.

The troops involved in the operation were reported to be from TNI Battalion 756 in Wamena and Battalion 752 Nabire and the paramilitary Mobile Police Brigade (Brimob) from Jayapura.

One source said that the military operations began when the TNI and police came from Mulia to surround a hideout of the OPM/TPN guerrilla leader Goliat Tabuni. It was reported that this military operation was unsuccessful.

Another report said that the entire population of young people (men and women) in some villages had fled into the forests and mountains in fear of reprisals from the Indonesian security forces. The Indonesian security forces are said to have accused the villagers of supporting Goliat Tabuni and the OPM/TPN guerrillas. This source also said that only young children and old people are left in Wundu and Propalo villages and that they are traumatised.

“The security forces surrounded our church, forced us out of church and beat us. They destroyed our houses, pigs, and food gardens. We villagers become the victims, caught between the TPN/OPM on one side and the Indonesian military on the other. That is why people have fled their villages” said a source from the area who did not want to be named.

The Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights (IPAHR) is deeply concerned about the welfare and security of local people in the Jamo valley in Puncak Jaya.

“Over the past year the people in this region have been repeatedly been displaced from their homes by military operations. The repeated military offensives and ongoing occupation of this region by the Indonesian security forces makes the lives of the people very difficult and means that people have had to flee their homes, pigs and food gardens and live from the little they can find in the mountain forests,” said Paula Makabory representing Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights.

“The capacity of local human rights and church workers to assist is also severely constrained by the Indonesian security forces and the Goliat Tabuni’s OPM/TPN group.”
“The Indonesian Government ban on international media & humanitarian organisations in West Papua means that international community cannot assess of the situation or provide humanitarian assistance in the Jamo valley.”

For more information contact:
Paula Makabory, Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights Tel +61 402547517Matthew Jamieson, Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights Tel + 61 418291998
Matthew Jamieson
Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights
PO box 1805, Byron bay NSW 2481 Australia
matthew@hr.minihub.org
tel +61(0) 418291998

Prepare for long war: UK general

2007-08-29T08:07:00.000+10:00

Michael Evans, London August 29, 2007

THE head of the British army has ordered his senior staff to make preparations for "a generation of conflict", in a speech the Ministry of Defence tried to keep secret.

General Sir Richard Dannatt gave warning of the dangers posed by a "strident Islamist shadow" and suggested the British army was "on the edge of a new and deadly great game in Afghanistan".

He also told senior staff that the trust and respect of the public could be "increasingly difficult to gain" in the context of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The challenge of this generation is as great as any that have gone before us," he added.
General Dannatt's thoughts were revealed in a speech given to a conference on future land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute in London in June. The speech remained secret because the Ministry of Defence did not allow the media to attend.

But, under a Freedom of Information request, the contents of the address to senior British and overseas military have now been released.

In his address, General Dannatt underlined the importance of achieving success in Iraq and Afghanistan, which he said were the "all-consuming focus" of the army at present.

But he appeared to play down the prospects of achieving all of the main objectives.

To read the full article from The Australian, click on:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22323187-31477,00.html

Uranium sales to India 'in breach of treaty rules'

2007-08-28T07:33:00.000+10:00

Anne Davies, Washington
August 28, 2007

AUSTRALIA will be in breach of an international anti-nuclear treaty, as well as specific undertakings given by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, if the Government goes ahead with plans to sell uranium to India.

Critics of the proposed agreement with India have seized on a statement made by Mr Downer 10 years ago, in which he said Australia could only sell uranium to countries that had signed up to "full scope safeguards" on their nuclear plants.

Experts says that the proposed sales to India will be subject to a regime that falls well short of "full scope safeguards".

To read the full article from The Age, click on:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/india-uranium-sales-in-breach-of-treaty-rules/2007/08/27/1188067032740.html

West Papua: Special Treatment

2007-08-27T14:50:00.000+10:00

By: Erica Vowles

Wednesday 22 August 2007

The rights and revenue that were supposed to flow from West Papua’s Special Autonomy Law — implemented by the Indonesian Government in 2001 — are yet to transpire for the majority of West Papuans, according to delegates at a conference in Sydney last week.

‘Most of them don’t know what Special Autonomy is,’ said J Budi Hernawan, director of the Jayapura-based Office for Justice and Peace, at the Paths to Justice and Prosperity conference at Sydney University last Thursday. ‘They hear that the money will be available but they are waiting and nothing happens.’

Hernawan believes that the Papuan political elite are too distracted by the fight over resources to implement real changes in the standard of living for Papuans.

To read the full article from The New Matilda, click on:
http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetailmagazine.asp?ArticleID=2422&HomepageID=217

How ASIO is eroding the rule of law

2007-08-25T07:06:00.000+10:00

Anne Gooley
August 25, 2007

IF YOU have been following the coverage of the detention of Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef and feeling a sense of deja vu, you are not alone.

Many aspects of Haneef's case bear strong similarities with those of my clients, deported United States peace activist Scott Parkin and Iraqi refugees Mohammed Sagar and Mohammad Faisal. The cases also provide similar illustrations of the Australian Government's willingness to undermine civil rights in the name of national security and to use the migration system with political intent.

Sagar, Faisal and Parkin were all given adverse security assessments by ASIO, leading to the deportation of Parkin from Australia in 2005, and the extended forced detention on the island of Nauru of Mohammed Sagar and Mohammad Faisal from 2001.

To red the full article from The Age, click on:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/how-asio-is-eroding-the-rule-of-law/2007/08/24/1187462515474.html

'Solution' branded a costly flop

2007-08-25T07:00:00.000+10:00

Jewel Topsfield
August 25, 2007

EVERY asylum seeker processed in offshore centres such as Nauru under the Federal Government's controversial Pacific Solution has cost taxpayers more than half a million dollars, a report says.

The report, by aid organisation Oxfam Australia and refugee advocacy group A Just Australia, says the "flawed system" fuelled mental illness in refugees, failed to uphold Australia's commitment under international law and squandered taxpayers' money.

It says that since the Pacific Solution was introduced six years ago, the Government has spent $1 billion — more than $500,000 a person — to process fewer than 1700 asylum seekers on Nauru, Christmas Island and Manus Island.

To read the full article from The Age, click on:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/solution-branded-a-costly-flop/2007/08/24/1187462524633.html

West Papua: Mysterious killings are a return to the Suharto era style of repression

2007-08-22T08:32:00.000+10:00

21 August 2007

Two West Papuan men have been murdered in separate incidents in what appears to be a return of the ‘mysterious killing’ style of political repression, which was carried out by the Indonesian security forces during the Suharto era.

The Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights holds grave concerns that this new information from Nabire suggests that the Indonesian security forces have moved to increase the intimidation of West Papuan community by engaging in a campaign of brutal extra-judicial killing & torture.

Statements from the senior military commanders, like Lt General Zamroni and Col. Siagian, to repress political descent, which they characterize as ‘separatism’, coincides with a deteriorating the human rights environment in West Papua.

“What is particularly distressing is that in the past few days the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has also said he will not tolerate ‘separatism’ or any interference that would slow down the development of Papua province. The statements of the President parallel those of the military commanders in West Papua and will likely increase the human rights abuses occurring in West Papua.”

Spokesperson for the Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights, Matthew Jamieson said, "The information coming to us signals that the human rights situation in West Papua is deteriorating fast. In the past two months there has been increased threats to human rights defenders, reports of militia being formed in regional centers, torture of Papuan activists at the hands of security forces, a report of the killing by Police of three public servants in the Star Mountains region, and shootings of Papuans by military personnel in Jayapura and the case of the server torture of a man by military near Tanah Merah."

Church workers investigating the murders of the two Papuan men in Nabire believe that these killings were examples of ‘mysterious killings’ and were committed by the Indonesian security forces. The mutilated bodies of both men were dumped on a street in Nabire.

The dead men were Matius Bunai (29 years old), a youth leader of the Maranatha Kingmi Church and civil servant with the Police department, and Ones Keiya (31 years old), a farmer. Both men were residents of Siriwini neighbourhood in Nabire, were from the Mee tribal group and were members of the Kingmi church.

Church sources report that Matius Bunai was killed sometime after midnight on the 6th August after returning home from a church worship service. His beaten and lacerated body was dumped on the street and found at 7am on the 7th of August by a primary school student walking to school. Ones Keiya was found bleeding and close to death by the side of a road at 7pm on the 23rd of July by a motorcycle courier. He died hours later in the Nabire hospital. There were no witnesses to both attacks.

The bodies of both men showed similar signs of injuries: smashed forehead, deep cuts on the head, lacerations on the feet and hands, and cuts by a knife.

A Church worker in Nabire accused the police of refusing to investigate the killings of the two men. “The Police treat us as if we were animals. If non-Papuans are killed the police are very busy looking for the culprit, but if Papuans are killed the police do nothing. This behaviour makes Papuans feel as if the police want to wipe us out in our own land. As long as the Indonesian military is in our land we feel these mysterious killings will continue” said the Church worker from Nabire, who asked not to be named.

For further information contact

Matthew Jamieson, Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights Tel +62 418291998
Paula Makabory, Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights & Els- Ham West Papua Tel +62 402547517

Australia is backing a nuclear rogue

2007-08-20T06:46:00.000+10:00

Andy Butfoy

THE Australian Government will be seen around the world as pulling the rug from under global arms control. This is an obvious consequence of its decision to pave the way for uranium sales to India, a country that rejects treaties aimed at stopping the nuclear arms race. The Government, apparently led by Foreign Minister Downer, believes boosting mining profits, and following Washington's lead on nuclear co-operation with India, are more important than reinforcing global non-proliferation rules.

To read the full article from The Age, click on:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/australia-is-backing-a-nuclear-rogue/2007/08/19/1187462081031.html

Israeli soldiers express pain of war

2007-08-15T11:34:00.000+10:00

By Colin Hinshelwood

"One day I saw an elderly Palestinian. Really old. With a long white beard, his face all wrinkles, carrying two shopping bags, passing by a small religious Jewish boy, probably a first-grader, six to seven years old, maximum nine. The child came up, looked at the Arab in the eye - mind you, this is a street that both Jews and Arabs are allowed to use - and said to him: 'You filthy Arab!' spat in his face and ran off. Far away, he climbed some roof and threw stones at him. I was shocked." This is just one excerpt from a catalogue of testimonies from Israeli soldiers who have recently come forward and spoken out for the first time about the mind-numbing situation they find themselves in while on duty in the Palestinian occupied territories. Many of the accounts make for macabre reading.

To read the full article from Asia Times, click on:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IH15Ak04.html

Hollywood tears up script to make anti-war films while conflicts rage

2007-08-15T08:04:00.000+10:00

For Americans sitting in cinemas watching the summer's fun movies, such as The Simpsons and Hairspray, the trailer for Lions for Lambs is jarring and unexpected. It opens with a moody shot of the Washington Memorial, and shifts to a series of quick-fire scenes about President George Bush's "war on terror".

Lions for Lambs, scheduled for release in the US on November 9, is not a documentary nor an art house film nor even a Michael Moore-style piece of agitprop. It is mainstream Hollywood, starring Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, who also directed it. It is one of about a dozen Hollywood films due for release or being made that deal with America divided, the national debate over Iraq and Afghanistan, and other consequences of 9/11.

This is a departure for Hollywood. During the second world war, there were almost no films made other than propaganda ones. The same happened during Vietnam: it was three years after the fall of Saigon before film-makers felt brave enough to make explicit anti-war movies - Mash hid its colours behind humour and a previous war.

To read the full article from The Guardian, click on:
http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2148221,00.html

Doves fly as Hiroshima delivers nuclear plea

2007-08-07T08:41:00.000+10:00

Toru Hanai in HiroshimaAugust 7, 2007

JAPAN marked the 62nd anniversary of Hiroshima's atomic bombing with a solemn ceremony as the city's Mayor criticised the United States for refusing to give up its nuclear weapons program.

Tens of thousands of elderly survivors, children and dignitaries gathered at the Peace Memorial Park yesterday, near ground zero where the bomb was dropped, to remember the 250,000 people who died.

To read the full article from the Syndey Morning Herald, click on:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/doves-fly-as-hiroshima-delivers-nuclear-plea/2007/08/06/1186252630714.html

Dodgy outcome demands review

2007-08-03T11:06:00.000+10:00

George Williams - posted Friday, 3 August 2007

The Howard Government repeatedly defended its anti-terror laws during the 25 days it detained Mohamed Haneef.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, for example, said: "The system is working as intended." In fact, key parts of the law did not operate as intended and, to the extent that they did, this only strengthens the case for reform.

No one should be allowed to judge their own mistakes, especially where extraordinary powers have been exercised and national security is at stake. There should be an inquiry into Haneef's case by a respected, independent person such as a former High Court judge. It should not be left to a Senate committee to deliberate for months, only to provide a partisan report.

To read the full article from Onlineopinion, click on:
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6195

Kingmi Church Office raided again by Police, resulting in injuries and arrests

2007-07-31T15:20:00.000+10:00

Yesterday the embattled Kingmi Church in West Papua was again violently occupied by Indonesian Police.

Three members of the Kingmi church in West Papua, Nason Uti (25 years), Leo Keiya (30 years) and Naftali Kobepa (26 years), were hospitalised and two others were wounded in an attack by the Indonesian security forces. Three other Church members were arrested by police and have now been released.

According to eyewitnesses, Police from the mobile paramilitary Police Brigade, Brimob, supported by members of the TNI (Indonesian military) forcibly entered the Kingmi Church Synod office and ransacking the offices, smashing windows and damaging church equipment.
The police and military actions followed a confrontation between members of the Kingmi church and a group reportedly from the Indonesian Tabernacle Bible Church who want to gain control of the Kingmi church assets. The Indonesian Tabernacle Bible Church claim to the church had been previously supported by Police action.

This is the third time the Indonesian police have now occupied the Kingmi church synod office. Police also occupied the Church in December last year then again in May 2007. Both times they used excessive force to evict pastors and church workers. A decision in April 2007 by the Indonesian court recognising the Kingmi Synod’s right to maintain control of the Church assets in West Papua.

The conflict appears to stems from a decision by the Kingmi Church to re-establish their own independent Synod in West Papua in 2006 and the advocacy work undertaken by the Kingmi church in relation to Human Rights in West Papua.

Paula Makabory from the Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights said “that the situation in West Papua appears to be rapidly deteriorating. The Indonesian police and military appear to be taking more repressive action against community based organizations in West Papua.

“These repressive actions by the security forces follow statements by Col. Siagian and other senior Indonesian military personnel threatening and justifying the use of State violence against civilians, including those engaged in peaceful protest.”

"The attack on the Kingmi church follows threatening action by the police against Rev. Sofyan Yoman, President of the Fellowship of Baptist Churches in West Papua who had a gun pointed at him by Indonesian police on Sunday."

For more information contact:
Rev. Benny Giay from the Bureau of Justice and Peace of the Kingmi Church: +62 852 4437 3166
Paula Makabory from the Institute of Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights: +61 402 547 517

Matthew Jamieson
Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights
PO box 1805, Byron bay NSW 2481 Australia
matthew@hr.minihub.org
tel +61(0) 418291998

Rising to the humanitarian challenge in Iraq

2007-07-31T07:50:00.000+10:00

Armed violence is the greatest threat facing Iraqis, but the population is also experiencing another kind of crisis of an alarming scale and severity. Eight million people are in urgent need of emergency aid; that figure includes over two million who are displaced within the country, and more than two million refugees. Many more are living in poverty, without basic services, and increasingly threatened by disease and malnutrition. Despite the constraints imposed by violence, the government of Iraq, the United Nations, and international donors can do more to deliver humanitarian assistance to reduce unnecessary suffering. If people’s basic needs are left unattended, this will only serve to further destabilise the country.

Source from Oxfam. To learn more, click on:
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2007/07/30/oxfam.pdf

Police use gun to threaten Rev Sofian Yoman, outspoken Human Rights advocate

2007-07-30T23:35:00.000+10:00

The Rev Socretez Sofian Yoman, President of the Baptist Church in West Papua, has been threatened by members of the Indonesian Police and members of military intelligence with a gun outside Sunday service in Jayapura.

Rev Socratez Sofian Yoman, the President of the Communion of Baptist Churches, Jayapura, West Papua, is an outspoken advocate of Human Rights and a critic the action of the TNI (Military) and the policies of the Indonesian Government in West Papua. Rev Sofian Yoman has spoken about military & police human rights abuse, the recent rise of Military backed civilian militias in West Papua, the failure of Jakartas 5 year old 'special autonomy’ package and the policies of Indonesian government which he has described as 'Genocidal'.

Reports last night and today indicate that Rev Sofian Yoman was threatened and intimidated by members of the Indonesian Police, Brimob and Military (TNI) intelligence service outside the Sunday service of the Baptist Church in Jayapura at 5.30 pm 29 July 2007.

Outside the Church Rev Sofian Yoman was approached by the Police and threatened at gun point. Rev Yoman said that a pistol was pointed directly at him and he was verbally threatened. The Policeman with the pistol was reported to be Abiddin Zainal, a member of the local police in Abepura.

Rev Yoman said he told the Police that they had no business at the Church and they had gone away but returned after a short period and threatened him with the gun.

He also said that, "Military intelligence has infiltrated the Baptist church and are trying to subvert the work of the church in relation to protecting the Human Rights of the West Papuan people."

Rev Yoman said, that members from the Indonesian administration and security forces in the Highlands were trying to silence him and have him 'forcibly removed 'from his role as President of the Baptist church in West Papua.

Rev Yoman said that the Police action is supported by Bupati/regent Pegunaungan Bitang (Star Mountains District) Wellington Wenda, Bupati Jayawijaya, (Wamena District) Nicolas Yigibalom, Major TNI (Military) Marthen Kogoya & Adolof Kogoya member MRP (Peoples Legislative Assembly).

Paula Makabory spokesperson for the Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights said “This intimidation is to silence an outspoken church leader and is similar to the attempt earlier this year by the Police to take control of the Kingme church (Bible Tabunacal Church of West Papua).”

“The West Papuan churches are one of the few independent voices for the rights of the people. Rev Sofian Yoman is a fearless voice for exposing what is happening in West Papua. But the TNI (Indonesian military) try to influence other members of the church to pull him down.”

"Parts of the Indonesian government and particularly the military are taking increasing action in West Papua to stop people who speak for the rights of the people."

“My organisation is very concerned about Rev Yomans personal safety, especially with the apparent rise in repressive action by the Military and Police. The Indonesian President should step in to safeguard Rev Yoman and other West Papuan people so they have the right to speak freely.”

For further information contact:

Paula Makabory, Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights, Australia Tel +61 402547517;

Rev Socratez Yoman, President, Communion of Baptist Churches, Jayapura, West Papua Tel +62 812 4888458;

Matthew Jamieson, Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights, Australia Tel +61 418291998

Matthew Jamieson
Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights Inc
PO box 1805, Byron bay NSW 2481 Australia
matthew@hr.minihub.org
tel +61(0) 418291998

Federal Government decides to appeal sentences of Pine Gap 4

2007-07-16T19:32:00.000+10:00

The Director of Public Prosecution has decided to appeal the leniency of the sentences of the Pine Gap 4. For details see:

http://bushtelegraph.wordpress.com/2007/07/15/pine-gap-4-crime-and-punishment/

http://webdiary.com.au/cms/?q=node/1944

2007-07-11T10:53:00.000+10:00

Palestinian Family Receives 2007 Michael Sattler Peace Prize

ROTTENBURG, Germany — The 2007 Michael Sattler Peace Prize has been awarded to the "Tent of Nations — People Building Bridges" project in Palestine. The German Mennonite Peace Committee gave the prize in recognition of the creative and non-violent solutions the Christian Palestinian Nassar family uses in their struggle against encroaching illegal colonization.

In the Middle East conflict, land and ownership requirements have important roles. Who owns the land? The Nassars' right to their farmland on a hill south of Bethlehem is confirmed by British, Jordanian, Israeli and Ottoman papers, some 100 years old. Nevertheless, Israeli settlers lay claim to the land.

The Nassar family operates the farm themselves, always keeping at least one family member present. In the last few years they have also operated a simple Christian retreat and meeting center, while continuing their 15-year struggle in Israeli courts for their possession rights.
Jewish settlements already occupy the surrounding hills, but despite the difficult circumstances, the Nassar family continues to live a Christian witness. They combine the rightful claim to their land with the active hope the conflict in the Middle East can be peacefully overcome and justice can become possible.

With the prize, the German Mennonite Peace Committee, together with its ecumenical partners, remembers the Anabaptist Michael Sattler, who was burned May 20, 1527, in Rottenburg for his Christian witness and non-violent stance. Besides Sattler, three other Anabaptists were executed that day, and his wife Margarethe was drowned a few days later in the Neckar River.
The award was presented at a ceremony at the Kirchgasse Protestant church on May 20, 2007, in Rottenburg followed by a worship service at the site of Sattler's execution. The award is supported by the Evangelical and Catholic churches of Rottenburg, the Catholic Peace organization Pax Christi, and the City of Rottenburg.

To read the original, click on:
http://www.mwc-cmm.org/News/MWC/070705rls1.html

Remembering Hiroshima & Nagasaki World Music Peace Concert 2007

2007-07-07T08:20:00.000+10:00

Japanese for Peace (JfP) will present a World Music Peace Concert from 3 pm to 5 pm Sunday, August 5th, 2007, at the Melbourne Town Hall. Tickets are available at the door: $15 full/ $10 con. Facilities are available for people with disabilities. Children under 12 years are admitted free.

Performers include David Jones – Tibetan/Japanese Meditation Music; Ajak Kwai – Sudanese Singer; Kate Tempany & Friends – Indian Tabla; Noriko Tadano - Shamisen; Rindo Daiko – Japanese Drums.

Speaker: Professor Joseph A. Camilleri - La Trobe University.

Proceeds will go towards the Non-Governmental Organisation, Darfur Australia Network. See http://www.darfuraustralia.org.au.

For interviews or more information, contact Anna at info@jfp.org.au or 0421-981-961, or visit our website at http://www.jfp.org.au.

Peace Rally will start from 12:30pm at State Library organised by Nuclear Free Australia. http://www.nukefreeaus.org.

Prof. Kevin Clements on Peacemaking

2007-07-06T20:51:00.000+10:00

You can listen to the ABC interview with Kevin Clements, Director of the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, at the University of Queensland, talking about peacemaking in Burundi and elsewhere by clicking on:

http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/conversations/stories/s1963870.htm