Month: June 2012

Source: Indypendent

“We are not giving up just when we started the engine,” declared a protestor during the March of Millions in Moscow on May 6, the day before Vladimir Putin’s inauguration. That day, 700 protestors were arrested and more than 150 others, resisting nonviolently, were injured in a clash with riot police. It was the first time, in what had been a month-long standoff between police and protestors, that the regime flinched, making the dangerous mistake of turning its guns on its own citizens. read more

Source: Indypendent

Last October I was at a jirga in Islamabad where 80 people from Waziristan had assembled to talk about the US Predator drones that buzz around overhead, periodically delivering death by Hellfire missile. A jirga is the traditional forum for discussing and resolving disputes, part parliament, part court of law. The turbaned tribal elders were joined by their young sons on a rare foray out of their region to meet outsiders and discuss the killing. The isolation of the Waziris is almost total – no western journalist has been to Miranshah for several years. read more