Mood:  sharp

Picture from the SAM file:  Ken Saro-wiwa, martyr killed by the state in Nigeria, prominent human rights campaigner for MOSOP against Shell Oil.

Nigeria: Environment - MOSOP Protests Against Shell

(Lagos)

11 December 2007
Posted to the web 11 December 2007

Ahamefula Ogbu
Port Harcourt

The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) yesterday blocked the entrance of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in Port Harcourt in protest of what they called human and Environmental rights abuses of their people by Shell.

The protest which saw about 250 Ogonis protesting in front of the oil giant coincided with the celebration of the United Nations Human Rights Day where they vowed that Shell was not going to return back to Ogoniland.

The march which was led by the Information Officer of MOSOP, Mr. Bia-ara Kpalap who said that they had no alternative than to make public the negative impact that SPDC has visited on their people.

He said that since Shell entered Ogoni land, they have lost human and natural resources, adding that they were tired of living without peace which was why they had asked the federal government to give the wells in Ogoni to another company.

There was almost a breakdown of law and order when a Shell staff who had removed his name tag came out to where the police were dialoguing with the Ogonis and asked them to use tear gas on the protesters.

This angered the youths who said they have always usedpeaceful means of making their grievances known. Theyinsisted that they would go into the Shell compoundand meet with the Managing Director.The police however pleaded with them to select fiverepresentatives who will go inside and meet with theofficer in-charge of their facilities in Ogonilandwhich MOSOP turned down.Kpalap dismissed the peace and reconciliation effortsof the Reverend Father Mathew Hassan Kukah Committee, saying he became partisan in the matter and startedrelating to shell without recourse to them on the matters of common interest.

He also dismissed the remediation effort by UnitedNations Environmental Agency (UNEP) as it was beingcarried out secretly without the knowledge of the Ogonis which he said smeared the effort. "We are using December 10th, International Human Rights Day, to associate our call for justice with thepending 60th anniversary of the Universal Declarationof Human Rights. The United Nations has longrecognised the injustices in Ogoni and the Niger Delta as a whole. We are calling on the UN and the international community to recognise that abuses arecontinuing and that injustices in the name of oil production must end now.

"We associate ourselves with all those opposing gasflaring, which has been a curse on the Niger Delta for 50 years. It has damaged our environment daily, andnow it is contributing to climate change whichthreatens all of Africa.

"We cannot accept that oil companies can tell theinternational community and the public that they are concerned about climate change and then ask for anextension of gas flaring in the Niger Delta. It ishypocrisy beyond words."Our stance is also informed by reports, endorsed by our own President, which say that agriculture, whichis the lifeblood of our communities, will inevitablybe impacted by climate change", they charged.

Posted by editor at 5:39 PM EADT

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Mood:  hungry

In this age of multinational corporate "greenhouse mafia" prosecuting their agenda by fair means or foul, ie to protect their obscene profits, comes this cracking, intriguing story in UK's The Guardian of Dec 4 2007 : Martin and me (which may well be a title satirising the famous slummy fictional movie Withnail and I).

The Guardian story is no joke for idealistic activists who want peace, love and sustainability via democratic grassroots group process. It's a fair dinkum story of broken trust and espionage and infiltration by BAE Systems - Europes largest arms company - of a non government peace group called CAAT or Campaign Against Arms Trade. This gives the flavour of the serious sh*t they get involved in

     

CAATnews 200 February - March 2007 490kb or webpage version Includes: Legal challenge to ending of SFO investigation; Shut DESO - the big push; using local media; Tanya Tier interview; local campaigns news; arms trade shorts.

The Guardian story is the latest sad, dangerous, unnerving thread in a long line of govt and corporate trickey to protect multinational interests from civil society attempts at moral accountability in the western economic system.

Sydney Indy Media here carry a reaction from local well travelled activist Ciaron O'Rielly to the 2003-2007 BAE/CAAT expose :

The memories begin for me in mid- '96, when I arrived in England for the first time in 17 years. I came primarily from East Timor solidarity activism in Australia to support a friend, who I had met at the Washingon DC Catholic Worker and who had been active in solidarity with me while I spent 13 months in prison for disarming a B52 on the eve of the first Gulf War. She and 3 other women (using one of the hammers we had used on the B52 and New York and would later use at Shannon in 03) were in Risley Prison (England) following a £1.5 million disarmament action on a BAe Hawk fighter at BAe, Warton, Lancashire. The Hawk figther was already painted in Indonesian Air Force markings and was due for immediate export to the genocidal Suharto regime to be used on the people of East Timor. "Seeds of Hope Ploughshares".... http://www.plowsharesactions.org/webpages/weba.htm 

[etc]

As you can see Soeharto sponsored terrorism of East Timor with BAE hawk jets puts our own region in the picture as regards the santised history of UK based BAE whether you approve of taking a hammer to private property or not. We have to admit we find it hard to condemn in light of the mass murder in East Timor for decades. Not our way but you can see the logic. And the logic of BAE instituting asset protection strategies.

This documented espionage of CAAT reminds of the recent John Pilger movie War on Democracy which apparently carries a very disturbing direct quote from a CIA senior officer who effectively concedes 'sure it's all about keeping the USA financial interests on top by any means possible' with reference to the dirty war in South America in the latter 20C against it's people via local foul dictators such as Pinochet. Ugly ugly stuff. You can catch the video in parts on YouTube starting here.

None more ugly than this one via the BBC referring not to Chile but Argentina in this case while noting Nixon/Kissinger's Operation Condor aggregated all these countries:

     

'Dirty War' priest gets life term 10 October 2007

 A court in Argentina has convicted a former Roman Catholic police chaplain of collaborating in murders during the country's military rule.

 

Von Wernich showed no emotion as he was sentenced

Christian Von Wernich, 69, was convicted for involvement in seven murders, 42 abductions and 31 cases of torture during the 1976-83 "Dirty War". Survivors say he passed information he obtained from prisoners to the police. As he was sentenced, Father Von Wernich showed no emotion. Protesters torched his effigy outside the court. The trial in the town of La Plata, 60km (35 miles) south of Buenos Aires, had lasted for three months. Father Von Wernich initially avoided prosecution by moving to Chile, where he worked as a priest under a false name.

We recall seeing a movie on SBS made in Spanish and perhaps set in Mexico where the radical lecturer mentored the idealistic students in their activism, not fully realising the security agency had their hooks into their teacher and were blackmailing him for the activist details. Of course all the naive idealists were turned in. We took mental note of all this - if a script writer could think it and actors could portray the scenario realistically I got to feeling it was probably quite possible.

We take the view in progressing community media and ecological sustainability concerns one should maintain reasonable transparency and avoid violence in order to best avoid the fearful and over zealous govt agents who do make fatal mistakes at times. For instance the poor Brazilian man shot dead for being in the wrong place and wrong time in the age of errorism on the London Tubes, may he rest in peace:

BBC NEWS | UK | Shot man not connected to bombing

Similarly we take the view best to not trust anyone too much, admittedly a fairly depressing road to follow.

Interestingly we noted these thoughts on the Sydney Indy Media news post linked above 12 hours ago and they were censored off the site. In fact contrary to usual form there are no comments allowed on that particular feature story. We are not sure if it means there are too many inflammatory comments or just mine.

Posted by editor at 1:07 PM EADT

Updated: Thursday, 6 December 2007 4:21 PM EADT

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Mood:  sharp

The Falung Gong lobby have sent through this irritant to the 2008 Beijing Olympics PR machine with a local legal twist:

Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 8:41 AM

Subject: Torture case Won Against Chinese Commerce Minister in Supreme Court

Hi,
 
I am writting to forward you this recent news: Torture case Won Against Chinese Commerce Minister in NSW Supreme Court.
Please read the news below, and see the Judement Order from the case 11474/06.
It is a significantly victory of human rights and justice.
I send you this as I think you might be interested in this important news.
Also, you may be interested in the current event of Global Human Rights Torch Relay videos:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iggPkUZ7c7k
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xC_pesT90BE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uKlN8p_D6Bw
or search HumanRightsTorch for more information.
 
(For information of what is Falun Dafa (Falun Gong), please visit
http://falundafa.org, different languages are available for option;
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YV7JOCt0s5g
 
for information of why CCP persecutes Falun Gong, please visit
http://TheEpochtimes.com or http://ninecommentaries.sohnetwork.comm
for "9 comments on CCP")

Thank you. 

Faithfully,

---------------------------------------
On Monday (5/11/07), the Supreme Court of NSW issued a default judgement against Chinese Minister of Commerce,
Mr BO Xilai recognising his failure to provide a defense for the torture case brought against him by
Sydney Falun Gong practitioner and Chinese labour camp survivor, Mr PAN Yu.

This is the first won in a case against Bo Xilai, 58, who had been sued in over ten countries, including the USA,
the UK, Canada, Germany, and Ireland for his role in the persecution Falun Gong practitioners in China.
Bo was served a Statement of Claim in person on 4 September 2007 in Canberra prior to the APEC forum. 

Another two similar cases are in the Supreme Court of NSW and are progressing towards similar judgements against
former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, the 6-10 ´Gestapo-like´ office and its head Chen Shaoji. 

"This is a win not only for all Chinese people and Falun Gong practitioners, but also a potent reminder of the
currently opposing legal sytems between Australia and China, as still to this day, no lawyers in China are allowed
to take on such cases. We are another step closer to the event of the perpetrators of the persecution of Falun Gong
in China being brought to justice at an international level," said Mr Newton XU, legal assistant for the case.

"As soon as the [40,000 watt electric] baton would make contact [with] me, I would lose control of my bodily functions,
rendering me incontinent. They also applied the electric baton to my face and my head, which made me feel as 
though I wanted to die, but I would just hold on. In the end, they applied the baton to the most sensitive spot on my
inner leg. The pain was indescribable," said Mr PAN in a testimony of his ordeal. 
 
As Governor of Liaoning Province in 2000, Bo Xilai played a pivotal role in the campaign of eradication directed against
Falun Gong practitioners. The persecution of Falun Gong in Liaoning is severe, with at least 373 known cases of deaths
of Falun Gong practitioners confirmed - the fourth highest of Falun Gong deaths in Chinese provinces. Liaoning also houses
the Longshan Forced Labour Camp and other labour camps where some of the most brutal human rights violations aimed at
Falun Gong have taken place.

Posted by editor at 10:24 AM EADT

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Mood:  sad

1. Speed up the process of the visa, on highly humanitarian basis Or,  Grant them humanitarian visa instead of parents visa.

2- Issue them a photo ID to enable them to move more freely and comfortably.

3- Allow them to access Medicare services (on humanitarian grounds) and other basic settlements services (English classess...).

Posted by editor at 1:53 PM NZT

Updated: Friday, 19 October 2007 2:02 PM NZT

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Mood:  sharp

We received this forlorn email today from an environmental friend which is a message from the global version of Get Up called Avaaz.org:

Burma is ruled by one of the most brutal military dictatorships in the world. For decades the Burmese regime has fought off pressure--imprisoning elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and democracy activists, wiping out thousands of villages, imposing forced labour, creating refugees-

But last Tuesday Buddhist monks and nuns, revered in Burma, began marching and chanting prayers. The protests spread as hundreds of thousands of ordinary people and public figures joined in, finding the hope they’d lost. Now they’re facing crackdown – so please, show your solidarity to this movement towards reconciliation and democracy and sign the emergency petition supporting the Burmese people -- it'll be delivered to United Nations Security Council members and international media all week:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/tf.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

In the past, Burma's military rulers have massacred the demonstrators and crushed democracy. The world must stand with the Burmese people at this time, to show the military rulers that the world will not tolerate repression and violence.

Right now, global leaders are gathering in New York for the annual United Nations summit. In speeches, press interviews but also in real actions, we need them to show Burma's military junta that the global community is willing to act in solidarity with the protesters.

Show your solidarity to this movement for peace and democracy and sign the emergency petition supporting the Burmese people. It'll be delivered to UN Security Council members and the UN press corps all week:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/tf.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

Thank you for your help!

Our reply is a bit more lateral:

We need to target Singapore which provides cover for the illegal drug trade there in Burma by providing money laundering, while hanging their own odd drug trafficker and user, to sanitise organised crime at senior govt levels of Singapore. We should also target India as a big customer of Burma's Junta. China another big customer for raw materials is probably retreating from active influence in the lead up to Beijing Olympics to sanatise its own tragic record on human rights. Normally China props up several dictators e.g. North Korea and Burma as a buffer from western norms of transparency, just as it abuses its own internal diversity:

 

Thursday, 27 September 2007

Should the world boycott the Beijing Olympics for Chinese human rights abuse?
Mood:  sad
Topic: human rights

 

My impression the fate of the Burmese and North Koreans, is the fate of 70M Falung gong inside China's border. That is extreme fatal violence.

Alot of the world's media are targetting the evil crazy Junta in Burma specifically, but the geopolitiks looks alot more sordid and corrupt than just the internal dictators of Burma. They are a prop as best I can tell. Just like Saddam was for the USA versus Iran, and the pathetic Saudi Wahabist royals vis a vis the rest of the Arabs.

 

One reason I would guess Burma's people are stirring right now is because China is retreating from the Junta with the approach of the Olympics given pressure on human rights in China itself to be sanitised. So Burmese dictators have to make do on their own to manage geo political pressure for change. Without as much Chinese support we see more economic unravel like rising petrol prices. We see less effectively organised state power against democratic opposition. What hope the little folks in this evil power mongering in the shadow of the next Olympics?

 

One hopes greater democracy for the Burmese might be a consolation prize to the world for giving Beijing the Olympics?

Posted by editor at 3:36 PM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 27 September 2007 4:26 PM NZT

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Mood:  sad

On August 3, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, the Ranking Member on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, introduced a House Resolution to boycott the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

He explained, "The Olympics represent the noblest elements of humanity and the Chinese regime represents the opposite. The Olympic torch is supposed to be a beacon of light shining upon mankind's higher aspirations in the world and it's a travesty to have that torch hosted by a regime that is the world's worst human rights abuser."

	Because she practiced Falun Gong, Ms. Wei Fengju was tortured to near death in the Heizuizi Forced labor Camp. Unable to recover, she passed away on July 11, 2007.

On March 28, 2007, actress Mia Farrow, a good-will ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund, drew the world's attention to the Beijing Olympics when she and her son Ronan wrote an op-ed article for the Wall Street Journal [1]. In the article, Farrow launched a campaign to label the 2008 Olympics the "Genocide Olympics." Her forthright candor gave voice to the world's awakening shock at Communist China's ever-burgeoning atrocities, its total disregard for human values and its severe human rights violations.

Not only is China bankrolling Darfur's Genocide [2]; for more than eight years it has sought to eliminate Falun Gong, which in 1999 had an estimated 70 million practitioners in China; it has likewise abused democracy activists, lawyers, human rights defenders, religious leaders, journalists, trade unionists, Tibetan Buddhists, Uighurs, ''unofficial'' church members, and political dissidents.

In 2004, Asma Jahangir the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions stated, "The Special Rapporteur continues to be alarmed by deaths in custody in China. Reports describe harrowing scenes in which detainees, many of whom are followers of the Falun Gong movement, die as a result of severe ill treatment, neglect or medical inattention. The cruelty and brutality of these alleged acts of torture defy description."

... full story continues here

Posted by editor at 2:59 PM NZT

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Mood:  special

Well the non govt sector has really risen to the occassion so far in a many act Shakespearean struggle for the hearts and minds of the voting public here in Sydney. Depending on the weather the main act may well yet be the anti war rally/march on Saturday morning 8th Sept 2007 at Sydney Town Hall at 10 am.

The big media have been putting in some pretty amazing balancers at times too. On the Sydney Morning Herald website yesterday before say 7 am they led on the front page with a graphic cartoon of Howard and Bush both wearing "I'm with stupid" T shirts pointing to eachother. The graphic didn't make the paper cut or even the daytime web readership, but it would have gone across the world back to the USA Democrat aligned bloggers.

Similarly on abc talkback midday yesterday a caller manager to calmly ask "why are we allowing a mass murderer into our country" (take your pick I suppose, the caller meant GW Bush, but think China, Indonesia etc). This created quite an awkward moment for compere James Vallentine worried about "slander" and balance. Or was he?! Only he knows.

The big media are featuring a courageous stunt by the Chaser comedy team here:

Posted by editor at 8:26 AM NZT

Updated: Friday, 7 September 2007 8:52 AM NZT

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Mood:  special

Picture above: South Sydney Herald, no relation to Fairfax publications, circulation 21,000 home delivered, August 2007 cover with Reverends Graham Long, Dorothy McRae McMahon (a writer for SSH) and Andrew Collis all of the South Sydney Uniting Church.

Pictures above: flyer for People's APPEC, supporting groups obscured by photo flash include Aid Watch, Australian Catholic Social Justice Council .....Jubilee Australia ......The Commons Institute....Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA ....etc

Posted by editor at 8:54 AM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 30 August 2007 9:55 AM NZT

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Mood:  down

Sydney Indymedia news website is down for maintenance.

This seems quite incredible given APEC is only a week away. Perth is effectively the primary IMC for APEC news now apart from my own humble news website here

www.sydneyalternativemedia.com

SIM was also down for nearly 2 months prior to the controversial state govt election.    We have no idea why SIM is down but it does disempower the civil society sector to not have such a long standing indymedia website down. I have no idea if its been sabotaged, compromised or lacking staff. Maybe someone else knows. 

This writer was talking to a Chilean democracy activist at Addison Rd Community Centre on Sunday and he immediately assumed it was ASIO. Who would know.

Good to see posts at Perth IMC by long time effective organisers like Graeme Dunstan and his street theatre characters. Ghosts indeed.

Also there is the Canadian story of police infiltrators at Quebec which is a ripper, well sourced and very revealing - note they were masked and one was carrying a rock. APEC is definitely not a place "to rock". Anyone with such attitudes, not least the police, is not welcome here in Sydney.

In Feb 2003 250-500,000 peace protesters marched entirely peacefully. That's the democratic action we want. Others intent on public vandalism or mindless damage are NOT WELCOME. Like George Bush and Rice actually with their organised military industrial terrorism.

This writer was intent on not attending APEC wankery but on reflection think we should support the anti war march like in Feb 2003, this time in lawyer's suit and legal observer signage, and solicitor's card. At least to do a decent report for community media and gather evidence of any police misbehaviour - which does seem possible to justify their huge budget but should be avoided at all costs.

It would be a severely ethical dilemma if SAM's editor saw evidence of protester violence. SBS Dateline reported a blogger who went to jail rather than give up footage of protesters to the FBI - the longest imprisonment of any media practitioner in the USA apparently - the story is curiously absent from their archive here http://news.sbs.com.au/dateline/index.php?page=archive

Here are google results for the jailed 'blotter' Josh Wolf here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Wolf

The Blotter: Jailed Blogger Could Spend a Year in Detention
at
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/11/jailed_blogger_.html

(US ABC network)

Personally this news website editor would find it pretty hard to go to jail for an idiot breaking a police van window, damaging the cause of the protest movement and our reputations, but you never know, depending on the journalism principle of protecting sources.

The time is approaching where reputable blogs, blots or whatever will need our our media union coverage which may or may not mean the official MEAA, which is might be noted shows no interest in helping over a fascist blacklisting of SAM's editor  from Sydney University campus for simply reporting a student education protest.

MEAA on the evidence to date are not at all interested in the community media right to know, only the Big Media with their big dollars.

Posted by editor at 11:46 AM NZT

Updated: Tuesday, 28 August 2007 12:17 PM NZT

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