Welcome to the latest newsletter. The next meeting  is on Thursday 9th November 2017, 7.30pm  at Moordown Community Centre. On the agenda – Castlepoint, Write 4 Rights, Case File, Exhibition Bournemouth library.

This is now organised for Friday November 24th, 7.30 for 8.00 prompt at the Brunswick Hotel, 199 Malmesbury Park Road, Charminster, Bournemouth BH8 8PX. For those unfamiliar, our quizzes are informal but competitive! Teams of up to 6, entrance £5 a person. Due to popularity, and past overcrowding. We are now obliged to limit total numbers to 50. Please get your tickets here  This will let you print off tickets once booked – You will still need to pay on the night! Please book as soon as you can as we can promote the event more widely if numbers are low. Any problems, please leave a message (with contact details) on 07787350946, or reply to this newsletter.

Every year Amnesty International has encouraged and helped groups send greetings cards to prisoners of conscience around the world in December. Traditionally there were just half a dozen names selected.  In recent years Amnesty has branded this as “Write for Rights” (W4R) and produced much more informative information leaflets, covering many more prisoners of conscience. We have always made this a mainstay of our December meeting. If you would like to work on Write for Rights from home, or take to work on within a workplace or other organisation you belong to, please go to the AIUK site. You can download a PDF or follow up individual pages on the different cases. In recent years the group have used the “pod” at Castlepoint to engage the public. We are hoping to finalise a date at the next meeting – we will let you know as soon as we know.

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SUMMARY

This month we have urgent actions for Brazil and Colombia and the sad news that the body of Santiago Maldonado has appeared in Argentina. You can still sign up to the Peru healthcare petition. The ongoing violations of human rights post the Peace Accord continue to be news in Colombia, while the new government of President Temer has a legislative programme to restrict human rights in Brazil. The deteriorating situation in Venezuela is the subject of a new Amnesty report on home raids by the police, and we bring you updates for Paraguay and good news from Chile too.

COLOMBIA

Amnesty issued a press release stating that nine peasant farmers have been killed and more than a dozen injured in the municipality of Tumaco, allegedly by members of the Colombian Army and National Police. This is a clear signal to the authorities of the need to protect to the civilian population during the implementation of the Peace Agreement, said Amnesty International. The communities were protesting against the slow implementation of the programme for the voluntary replacement of illicit crops, set out in the Peace Agreement signed in November last year. For the full press release click here.

We sent you an urgent action to respond to the killing on 24 October of Aulio Isarama Forastero, Indigenous governor of the Catru Dubaza Ancoso reservation Chocó department. He was killed by armed men, allegedly members of the ELN (National Liberation Army). There have been 21 instances of forced displacement so far this year in Chocó department and the community is at risk of forced displacement following this violence. For those of you who have not yet responded, please write to the authorities listed in the Urgent Action which you can download here.

In a profound analysis of the ongoing land disputes in the Cauca Valley, The Guardian reports that “The 50-year civil war is over but, in the Cauca Valley, indigenous communities are on frontline of fight against drug gangs, riot police and deforestation.” The Peace Accord, by causing the FARC to abandon this area, has led to multiple incursions by armed groups. Indigenous communities, in an attempt to conserve the environment and respect traditional values, have responded. For the full article, please   click here. [Read more…]

SUMMARY

In this month’s newsletter we have new urgent actions on Colombia and Chile, an updated one on Venezuela, and a new report on the Peruvian government’s failure to provide adequate healthcare to indigenous communities whose water sources are contaminated. We have good news from Colombia about the ceasefire between the ELN (National Liberation Army) guerrilla group and the government, and about the visit of a formerly imprisoned union leader to Amnesty UK’s office. In Brazil, reports emerged of the murder of members of an uncontacted indigenous tribe at the hands of illegal gold miners. Meanwhile in Venezuela, the detained former Defence Minister is once again being held incommunicado. During its annual Embassy crawl, the Lambeth Group delivered a letter to the Embassy of Chile expressing concerns about the safety of Rodrigo Mundaca. You can opt into working on his case.

PERU

 

In a new report, A Toxic State, Amnesty has revealed how the Peruvian government has failed to provide adequate healthcare for Indigenous communities in Cuninico and Espinar, in the country’s Amazonian and Andean regions respectively.  Studies found that their only sources of fresh water were contaminated with toxic metals harmful to human health.  Amnesty has launched an accompanying campaign about which we shall write to you separately.

Human Rights Watch have issued a report with new evidence that implicates former President Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) in atrocities during Peru’s armed conflict in the 1990s.  The evidence also implicates Humala in the attempted cover-up of incriminating evidence when he ran for president in 2006. [Read more…]

SUMMARY

Lots to report this month, but first we give a warm welcome to a new member of our team: Joe Smith, our new Brazil Coordinator, who has produced the Brazil section of this newsletter.  You will be hearing from Joe himself shortly.  In this newsletter, we report among other things on the continuing deterioration in Venezuela, the disturbing rise in murders of human rights defenders in Colombia and proposals that would seriously reduce human rights protections in Brazil.  There is good news from Chile and Paraguay, advance notice of a new campaign on Peru and a disappearance in Argentina.  You are invited to join the Lambeth Group’s annual Embassy crawl which will include a stop at the Chilean Embassy

COLOMBIA

Many thanks to everyone who wrote to the Colombian authorities about Amnesty’s concerns in Chocó department. We have already received two responses from the Office of the President in reply to your letters. Violence, forced displacements, sowing of anti-personnel mines and recruitment of child soldiers is a continuing concern. Amnesty has a mission there now. The UK embassy in Bogotá sent one of its staff to the Chocó and he has reported back his concerns to the FCO. We have also requested a response from the authorities in Bogotá via their London embassy. For a recent Public Statement by Amnesty on the situation, please download it here.

Huber Ballesteros, the leader of Colombia’s Field-Workers Union, will be visiting us at Amnesty UK’s London office on 6 September. We sent out invitations to you all last week. Huber’s trial was considered to be unfair by Amnesty and he was held in preventative detention for three years, before being finally released. Three months after his release, he received a death threat. Thanks to all of you who wrote on his behalf.

The Colombian NGO Somos Defensores (We are Defenders) report that the number of HR defenders who have been killed in the January-June period of 2017 (51 people) was a sharp increase on the same period in 2016 (35). This increase is entirely due to the activity of paramilitary groups and ‘unknowns’. The full report is in Spanish and may be downloaded here.

Front Line Defenders report that a large paramilitary group threatened five human rights defenders in the region of Barrancabermeja, known as the Oil Capital of Colombia. All five are well-known for their work on the peace process. On 17 August, the daughter of Maria Leonilda Ravelo Grimaldo, one of these HR defenders, was threatened by gunmen while walking her dog.  For the full report please click here.

The Colombian NGO Fundación Paz y Reconciliación (Peace and Reconciliation Foundation) has published an extensive report on the ongoing fighting in Tumaco, Nariño Department between 11 different armed groups. This is a struggle for control of the port and the surrounding coca growing region. The number of murders has increased by two-thirds in the first 6 months of 2017. Former FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia)  rebels have joined new armed groups, while members of the ELN (National Liberation Army) belong to others and paramilitaries and gangs from outside the region have now entered it. The local authorities are overwhelmed and the central authorities have not been able to stem the violence. For the full report in Spanish, with map, please click here The violence here, as in Chocó, and the increased killings of HR defenders illustrate the fragility of the peace agreement. [Read more…]

Welcome to the latest newsletter. The next meeting  is on Thursday 14th September 2017, 7.30pm  at Moordown Community Centre. This newsletter is a bit earlier than usual, to publicise…

Alexander Dakers is a long time Amnesty International supporter; his exhibitions have always encouraged donations to Amnesty.  He was one of the exhibitors at our own Art Exhibition in 2014.  Combining a multitude of artistic techniques and using a variety of subject matter, Alexander provides a reflective outlook exploring the reality of the world we live in and the sins committed against it. As you can see from the poster, this exhibition is at the BIC, Bournemouth, from 1st to 8th September, open from 9.0 to 5.30pm.  Free entry, but donations to Amnesty International “encouraged”!

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