Later the same day, Shawn Humphries became number 1,001, executed in
Next is line is Stanley Tookie Williams, the former Crips gang founder who was convicted of killing four people but later renounced his violent past. Although he has never admitting he committed the crimes for which he faces death, he has counseled young people not to join gangs.
"We are faced with a country which is at war with its own people" - Justice Rajsoomer Lallah,
former UN Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Myanmar
The recent plea for UN Security Council Action on Burma from former Czech President Vaclav Havel and the retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has led to strong reactions from the Myanmar (Burma) military-led government. The Burmese government has wildly lashed out at everyone it considers to be a part of the opposition both in the country and in foreign governments and NGOs. The plea for action was accompanied by massive reports of slave labor, systematic rape, the conscription of child soldiers and the massive, deliberate destruction of villages, food sources and medical services, especially against ethnic minorities. Recent interviews have been carried out among the thousands of refugees who have fled to Thailand and a smaller number to Bangladesh.
Ann Fagan Ginger works at the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, an organization which seeks to promote social change by increasing the recognition and use of existing human rights and peace law at the local, national, and international levels. She is also the editor of the book, "Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11."
In this interview Ginger discusses the human rights violations which took place in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and how her organization has worked to expose these violations.
For years, Vermont filmmaker and activist Robin Lloyd has traveled throughout Latin America, observing firsthand the death and destruction left behind by U.S.-bred military policies promoting counterinsurgencies. More recently, she has been traveling the world as part of the Women's International League of Peace and Freedom, and continues to work as a filmmaker and publisher of Toward Freedom, a progressive-minded, international public affairs website. On Nov. 20, she took her longstanding opposition to U.S. policies of torture and became one of 40 people arrested at an annual protest against the U.S. Army's Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), and expects to serve at least three months in a federal prison as a result and pay a fine of up to $5,000.Robin Lloyd
[Photo: A man cleans up glass and blood after a suicide attack]
Two and a half years into the occupation, war still rages on in Baghdad, Iraq. Two of the deadliest attacks in the last month occurred at the Palestine Hotel and the Hamra Hotel. Although Westerners frequent these hotels, the casualties were almost exclusively Iraqis living and working in the area. Yet just a few hours after the attacks, citizens were back on the streets, as if nothing had happened.
Despite the election of Pres. Hamid Karzai last year and a new parliament due to convene in January 2006, attacks have claimed at least 1,400 lives in the past year, the highest toll since 2001. Since the spring, evidence has been mounting of a renewed drive by Osama bin Laden’s network, particularly in eastern
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019