For some years our group has focussed on Campaigns and Actions relating to Cuba – Amnesty has always encouraged groups and individuals to focus their energies on particular countries or individual cases.  The country coordinator, Sue Bingham, last visited the group in 2010, so we were delighted to welcome her back for an update at our May meeting in Moordown.  Sue has done a tremendous amount of work, and visited Cuba numerous times, to ensure we are kept up to date with campaign work.

Ironically, since Sues visit there have been updates and now two Urgent Actions. This is a message from Sue last week when she enclosed the first action…

“I visited Cuba on holiday in May, and it is very chilling for me to receive this Urgent Action, as Roberto was assaulted in the street in broad daylight in the neighbourhood where I was staying. As Amnesty is not officially allowed in Cuba, I did not make contact with any dissidents or attempt to do any Amnesty related research. I did chat to lots of people informally though, of course, and there were several occasions when strangers (e.g. bookseller, guesthouse owner) told me freely that Cuba is a highly controlled society, with no freedom of information or expression. This has never happened before on my previous trips.

The streets seemed busier with a wider range of cars, now that restrictions have been lifted on buying/selling them, but the “pop-up” shops in people’s houses with imported clothes had gone, following the backtracking by the authorities on the new economic freedoms, replaced with tourist T shirts and souvenirs.”

Sue was in touch again a couple of days ago with the second case….

“Three brothers who have been in pre-trial detention in Cuba since late 2012 have now been tried and are due for sentencing. They are at risk of being sentenced to between three and five years’ imprisonment. Amnesty International believes they are prisoners of conscience, detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression.”

Sue has sent model letters:-  UA 20 Jun 14 Journalist attacked model letter

and   UA 27 jun 2014 POCs await sentence model letter

These are the original urgent actions:-

UA 15914 UK Cuba journalist threatened 20 jun 2014

and UA 20113 prisoners of conscience awaiting sentence

Do try to find time to download these letters, personalise, and send to Cuba and/or the UK Embassy. You can also email them if you prefer.

As a local group we are signed up to the South America Region Network. Their coordinators focus specifically on the countries featured below and send us actions when they turn up. At our January meeting we wrote letters to President Santos in Columbia sample letter columbia and President Correa in Ecuador sample letter Ecuador

In this update the focus is on Ecuador, where the government is cracking down on environmental and indigenous organisations opposed to oil and mining activities and there is concern for the safety of activists. There is also feature developments in Colombia: a draft letter to President Santos to follow-up last month’s visit by members of the San Jose Peace Community; and an Urgent Action as a result of the murder of a member of a peasant farmer organisation and concern for the safety of others. In Brazil, a leading indigenous activist has been murdered and there is concern for the safety of construction workers in the run-up to next year’s World Cup while, in Peru, the government has temporarily blocked a gas project that threatens indigenous communities.

Ecuador

There are growing concerns for the safety of Carlos Zorrilla, an environmental activist in Ecuador, and others who have protested against development projects in the northern region of Intag. President Correa has repeatedly attacked their activities during his weekly televised addresses to the nation. These concerns are reinforced by the sudden police closure of environmental organization Fundación Pachamama on 4 December and the failure of government officials to allow such organizations and activists to carry out their activities. Attached is a draft letter,  which we hope you will be able to use to write to President Correa.   sample letter Ecuador
Links to Urgent Actions:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR28/003/2013/en/bd514043-8393-48f7-8d2f-9f2fa65aa8a9/amr280032013en.pdf

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR28/004/2013/en/a4371d7b-159c-45cf-92b7-35c2d8c4a62f/amr280042013en.pdf

[Read more…]

There have been some high profile cases involving the Russian Authorities, such as the continued detention of the Pussy Riot members and now the Greenpeace trials.  But at our last meeting we wrote letters on behalf of 5 men who have recently been denied political assylum in Russia.  There is some bitter irony in their trying to seek refuge in the Russian Federation, but fleeing from Kyrgyzstan they had little choice in where they went. Amnesty International believes the men would be at serious risk of torture and other ill-treatment and their rights to a fair trial would be denied if returned to Kyrgyzstan.

There is a sample letter here:- russian deportation letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. If you also look at this urgent action details re russian deportation, apart from more details it also has other addresses to send the letter to, such as the Prosecutor General and UK Ambassador.

We have just received another Russian Federation Action – this time the detention of Mikhail Kosenko in a psychiatric hospital. Amnesty International believes he is clearly a prisoner of conscience – Mikhail Kosenko press release – and this is a disturbing return to past practices of the USSR. There was the recent case of Raisa Radchenko in the Ukraine, fortunately now released.

Please send a letter to the Russian Authorites on behalf of Mikhail Kosenko – sample here, but please adapt as you wish. Mikhail Kosenko Letter