Archive for the ‘Human Rights’ Category
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
Pia Akerman;3/1/09; (3 Items)
Life in a refugee camp on the Thai-Burmese border was all that Hsar Muhtaw’s four young children had ever known. They were born in its squalid confines and their father had spent 17 years living there, often hungry, always in overcrowded conditions. Now the family - who fled persecution in military-ruled Burma - is helping to set the standards on how refugees should be resettled in regional Australia. Their experience in the South Australian town of Mount Gambier is being used by Immigration officials and support groups as a template for introducing refugee families to their new life. “Because we were scared of the Burmese army, we ran away to the camp,” said Mr Muhtaw, a 38-year-old Karenni man, one of tens of thousands persecuted by the military junta as an ethnic minority.
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Tags: Australia, Burma, Refugees, Sudan
Posted in Australia, Human Rights, Refugee & Migrant | No Comments »
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
Paul Maley; 3/1/09
The Australian Federal Police refuses to say whether action has been taken against a top counter-terrorism officer found by a government-ordered inquiry to have mishandled the Mohamed Haneef investigation. More than a week after the Clarke inquiry found senior AFP agent Ramzi Jabbour “lost objectivity” when reviewing the state of the case against Dr Haneef, the AFP has yet to provide any details about what, if any, action has been taken against the high-ranking officer. Mr Jabbour, formerly the national manager for counter-terrorism, emerged as a chief culprit in the inquiry report compiled by former NSW Supreme Court judge John Clarke and released just two days before Christmas. Mr Clarke found Mr Jabbour, who had on-the-ground carriage of the botched terror investigation, failed to heed the advice of investigating officers that there was insufficient evidence to charge Dr Haneef.
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Tags: Australia, Haneef, Terrorism
Posted in Australia, Human Rights, Terrorism | No Comments »
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
Michelle Grattan; 3/1/09; (5 Items)
Australia is “unlikely” to take detainees from Guantanamo Bay, but is still considering an American request to resettle some of them. The Government moved yesterday to clarify its position on what could be domestically a highly controversial issue. It also stressed that two requests the Americans have so far made came from the Bush Administration. It is possible that the Government might look more sympathetically on an approach from the Obama regime, in the context of Britain and European countries also helping out the new administration, which takes office later this month. The Coalition yesterday flagged that it would strongly fight any acceptance of detainees.
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Tags: Australia, Guantanamo Bay, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Human Rights, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
Lauren Wilson; 3/1/09; (6 Items)
Members of Sydney’s Muslim community staged a religious and political demonstration yesterday, in a show of solidarity against the Israeli bombing raids on the Gaza Strip. Mosques across western Sydney shut their doors and, in the midday heat, about 2000 worshippers gathered for a communal prayer session in Lakemba’s Parry Park in the city’s Islamic heartland. Some wore the hijab, others came dressed in surf shirts and thongs, but they were united in their condemnation of the attacks on Gaza. Members of organisations such as Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia waved placards urging an international response to the crisis. “Lift the siege, open the borders,” the Hizb ut-Tahrir placard read.
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Tags: Australia, Human Rights, Israel, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Human Rights, Israel & Palestine, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
2/1/09
At least five people have been killed when a suspected US drone fired missiles into a tribal area in northwest Pakistan, local officials said. A security official told the AFP news agency that an unmanned aircraft fired three missiles in the Karikot area of South Waziristan on Thursday. It was the same spot where eight suspected fighters were killed in a US drone strike 10 days ago. According to a local government official, one of the missiles hit a vehicle, killing all five people inside who were believed to be pro-Taliban fighters. He said two other missiles hit a hilltop house that was a known hideout for fighters in the area but was empty at the time of the strike, the official said. “We rushed out of our homes,” Zar Wali, a local resident, told the AFP news agency, saying the powerful explosions caused panic. US forces based in Afghanistan have carried out about 30 missile strikes in Pakistan in 2008, according to a Reuters tally, more than half since the beginning of September.
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Tags: Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
Helena De Bertodano; 2/1/09
I do not recognise Wajeha al-Huwaider when I first catch sight of her walking through a smart American suburb wearing a tracksuit, her nails painted bubble-gum pink. She is from Saudi Arabia, where women are so oppressed they are not even allowed to drive, and I had expected her to be dressed from head to toe in black, maybe even wearing a veil. Bare-headed and pretty, she power-walks past the perfectly trimmed lawns in this peaceful Virginian town near Washington, looking for all the world as if she has just stepped off the set of Desperate Housewives. Huwaider, 47, a human rights activist and writer who has made herself a thorn in the side of the Saudi Government, is in America visiting her two teenage sons, who live with their aunt and uncle and attend school there. We have arranged to meet at 11am at her sister-in-law’s house. But when I turn up, nobody is home. I knock a few times, watched carefully by a vigilant neighbour, then try to call her mobile phone. No answer.
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Tags: Human Rights, Saudi Arabia, Womens Rights
Posted in Asia, Human Rights, Religion, Womens Rights | No Comments »
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
Sakher Abu El-oun; 2/1/09; (4 Items)
The new year in Gaza began with air strikes as Israeli jets pounded Hamas targets for a sixth day, killing a senior leader of the Islamist movement. Israeli warplanes carried out 20 strikes in the battered enclave yesterday, the army said, after the state’s security cabinet rejected international proposals for a truce. Jets pounded Hamas government buildings, rocket-launching sites and tunnels used to smuggle weapons and supplies into the territory that Israel has kept virtually sealed since June 2007. Nizar Rayan — the most senior Hamas official killed since Israel unleashed its bombardment last Saturday — died after an air strike on his home, medics said.
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Tags: Australia, Israel, Terrorism, USA
Posted in Australia, Human Rights, Israel & Palestine, Terrorism, USA | No Comments »
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
Matthew Denholm; 2/1/09
The immediate future of the Tasmanian pulp mill proposal will be decided by Monday, as federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has ruled out more time for environmental requirements to be met. Mr Garrett yesterday told The Australian he expected to make a decision on whether to approve or reject the project’s environmental impact management plan (EIMP) by late on Monday. The comments appear to end speculation that proponent Gunns, Australia’s largest forest products company, may be granted more time to complete the EIMP to the satisfaction of Mr Garrett and an independent expert advisory group. Mr Garrett is expected to approve the EIMP; however guidelines for ocean outfall modelling may result in a later requirement that mill effluent be treated to tertiary standard.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Trade
Posted in Aid / Trade, Australia, Environment, Human Rights | No Comments »
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
Miki Perkins; 2/1/09
Fifteen years after the introduction of native title, Aboriginal Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma has warned it is a tough and often cruel system in need of urgent reform. Mr Calma said native title sat at the bottom of the hierarchy of property rights, cases dragged on for years and communities most affected by colonisation were least likely to have their title recognised. “The result is that the (Native Title) Act today creates a system which offers extremely limited and delayed recognition of native title — it is far from the original intent of the law,” Mr Calma said. While the passing of the Native Title Act in 1993 was a momentous occasion, there was a need for better outcomes, he said. “There is a pressing need for an overarching, system-wide look at reforming the native title system.”
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Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Human Rights, Land, Reconciliation
Posted in Aboriginal, Aid / Trade, Australia, Human Rights | No Comments »
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
Patricia Karvelas; 2/1/09
Eight indigenous communities, ranging from the Western Desert lands in Western Australia to the Torres Strait Islands off Queensland, will receive $31.1 million over five years to create jobs for Aborigines and conserve Australia’s natural assets. Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the projects would provide jobs and training for more than 80 indigenous rangers, building on the 130 indigenous ranger positions already created by the Rudd Government’s environmental schemes. Indigenous unemployment stands at about 14 per cent, but in many remote areas and some outer metropolitan areas it is much higher. “With these latest projects, we continue to provide real employment opportunities for indigenous people in remote and regional communities,” Mr Garrett said.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24864001-5013404,00.html
Australia, Aboriginal, Environment
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Environment
Posted in Aboriginal, Aid / Trade, Australia, Environment, Human Rights | No Comments »
