Saturday, September 27, 2008

Am I Not Human?

http://ncowie.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/darfur-poster.jpg

We all have the responsibility to inform ourselves of what is happening in our world to our human siblings, and why. After this is accomplished, we have the responsibility to do something. Protest. Meditate. Pray. Do something. You're effort is important to the health of the collective.
Please join us in consistent blogging on the 27th of each month, where we ask on behalf of our human siblings in all suffering areas who are either barred from communication by their governments, or lacking in technology to ask: Am I Not Human?

Let's ask ourselves if continuing to act like this level of suffering isn't present, serves the balance of the world at all. If this can go unchecked in Darfur, who is to say it wouldn't go unchecked here? Is our economic system not a mess now because of the usurper administration's criminal war? Is there not a food crisis?
We are all in this together. This is beyond being about national borders. This is about humanity. We are all one. We must act like it.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Prosecution of Underage Captives labeled as Terrorists

Magnus Bergmar, Executive Director. Children’s World
magnus.bergmar@childrensworld.org
World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child
Box 150, S-647 24 Mariefred, Sweden

Re: Unlawful Prosecution of Underage Captives labeled as Terrorists


Dear Magnus Bergmar:

As the United States of America prepares to choose the next President, I am fearful the next administration and the rest of the world will forget about the underage captives taken in the combat zone and branded as “terrorist”. Some of these children were only 14 and 15 years old when detained by the U.S. military.

In the past, we written to you and kept you abreast of their plight. Now one of the government tribunal prosecutors has quit and is ready to testify that the rights of one of these children were violated.

These children were taken into custody, originally denied representation and parental visits. They were held incommunicado in isolated areas and tortured.

Now a former U.S. military prosecutor at Guantanamo who accuses his superiors of suppressing evidence refused Thursday to testify in a war crimes case unless he is granted immunity… Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, who was called as a defense witness, revealed a day earlier that he quit over what he called ethical lapses by prosecutors. (Source: http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/935093.html)

Mohammed Jawad, captured in Afghanistan in 2002, is now 23 and facing charges for which he could be given a life sentence, including attempted murder on allegations that he threw a grenade that injured two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter.

Previously mentioned cases include:

One child prisoner, Mohamed el Gharani, is accused of involvement in a 1998 al-Qa'ida plot in London led by the alleged al-Qa'ida leader in Europe , Abu Qatada. But he was 12 years old at the time and living with his parents in Saudi Arabia … After being arrested in Karachi in October 2001, aged 14, he has spent several years in solitary confinement as an alleged al-Qa'ida-trained fighter.

One Canadian-born boy, Omar Khadr, was 15 when arrested in 2002 and has also been kept in solitary confinement. The son of a known al-Qa'ida commander, he is accused of killing a US soldier with a grenade in July 2002 and was placed top of the Bush administration's list of detainees facing prosecution.

According to Lt Commander Jeffrey Gordon, Senior Pentagon spokesman... "There is no international standard concerning the age of an individual who engages in combat operations... Age is not a determining factor in detention.

Eddie Griffin pleads to the world on behalf of these children who are being maliciously prosecuted. The U.S. media will not cover these cases, because they know that these so-called terrorists were only children.

Eddie Griffin

Copy to:

UNITED NATIONS
HUMAN RIGHTS

Ursula Wynhoven
wynhoven@un.org
CC: unicef@unicef.se

The Child Protection Section
Programme Division UNICEF NY
childprotection@unicef.org
www.unicef.org

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Amnesty International's Darfur Demonstration on the 27th



From Amnesty International:


On September 25, Amnesty International
and its co-sponsors will hold a demonstration for Darfur at the Dag Hammarskjold
Plaza, across from the United Nations. The purpose of the demonstration
is to call on the UN Member States to i) honor their commitment to aid
and protect the people in Darfur, ii) uphold their promise to provide funding,
equipment, and peacekeeping, and iii) uphold the UN Security Council’s
promise of justice for Darfur .


on behalf of Amnesty International. All the information is below in the
email and attached as a word document. If you need more information, or
if you have anyone who would like to assist Amnesty with the event, please
contact SARA BENNETT at sbennett@aiusa.org or 212 633 4160.

Thanks!

Lillian Tan

Corporate Action Network Intern
Business & Human Rights
Amnesty International, USA
5 Penn Plaza
New York, NY 10001
(212) 633-4246
corpaction@aiusa.org


*******************

(Read More)

Thankyou Cooper for keeping us informed.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Bombing Darfur


Drumbeats from Amnesty International tell us that the Sudanese government used a Russian-made Antonov plane with the “UN” symbol on its wing to drop bombs on Darfur. This act shows that the Sudanese government does not intend to comply with the UN arms embargo. This is a clear violation of international humanitarian law and a clear example of why the current UN arms embargo needs to be expanded to cover all of Sudan.

Amnesty International issued its new report Blood at the Crossroads with accounts of Russian and Chinese weapons used to violate human rights in Darfur. In one case, the report describes Russian-supplied Mi-24 attack helicopters being delivered to the Sudanese government in 2006. Since then, the Sudanese government has used these helicopters in indiscriminate aerial attacks in Darfur.

It is undeniably clear that the current UN arms embargo cannot effectively restrain the arms flow into Darfur. At the same time, Sudanese armed opposition groups in Darfur are allegedly receiving their weapons from Chad. The innocent people of Darfur are left in the middle of this conflict.

With our encouragement, our Senator and Representatives can help stem the flow of weapons to Sudan. Senate Resolution 660 and House Resolution 1462 1) condemn the ongoing flow of weapons into Darfur and 2) call for an expansion of the UN arms embargo to cover all of Sudan. Leadership from the United States is necessary to signal to the rest of the world that ongoing violence in Darfur will not be tolerated.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Ebook Series Announcement



Greetings all *_^

This is a quick note to announce the discontinuance of the ebook series due to lack of content. It was hoped this could be provided to readers monthly, but there haven't been enough submissions, and it makes more sense to provide quality content over quantity.

The blog posts may also be less frequent during certain periods, but the commitment to posting in solidarity on the 27th of month for the 'Am I Not Human' campaign will continue. Your voice is very important. Please join us to remember our human siblings who are barely acknowledged by mainstream media on the 27th of every month.

If you have updates, tips, and are interested in joining our group of coordinators, feel free to drop a message here:
rootsofhumanity@gmail.com or post them here in the comments.

Continue to shine
-PurpleZoe