letters – Page 2

September 2013 News Update – South America Region

September 30, 2013 by zarganar

As we explained in a post in July, 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. Some have already featured on this blog – such as Chile – but most of the actions you can still send letters.

COLOMBIA

On 22 August Danilo Rueda, a member of the human rights NGO Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission was threatened by two men. This follows an attempt to kill a member of the organisation in the Curvaradó River Basin, in the north-western department of Chocó. The Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission has been working with the communities of the Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó River Basin but had to leave due to death threats. Urgent action: http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR23/039/2013/en
Elker León Cataño is a community leader of families forcibly displaced from the Hacienda Bellacruz farm in Cesar Department in 1996 by paramilitaries operating with the armed forces. On 20 August three armed men asked to see him at his home but he managed to escape. He is also a member of the Horizon Colombian Association of Displaced Population (Asociación Colombiana Horizonte de Población Desplazada, ASOCOL). Three members of this group were shot at on their way back from filing a complaint with the Valledupar office of the Human Rights Ombudsman about threats by paramilitaries. Other members of the group have found men who appeared to be keeping the ASOCOL office under surveillance. These threats have taken place after a ruling earlier this year which could result in restitution of land to the families. Urgent action: http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR23/038/2013/en

Paramilitaries have arrived in areas around the Cacarica River Basin in north-western Colombia. They are said to be in possession of a list of community leaders who they label as guerrilla collaborators. Many paramilitaries left Unguía Municipality in Chocó Department to go to the Cacarica River Basin reportedly to “teach a lesson” to the inhabitants. Witnesses say around 100 paramilitaries were seen boarding boats and on 9 September paramilitaries entered the Cacarica River Basin. There are regular army checkpoints in this area but they had been removed when the paramilitaries arrived. Urgent Action: http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR23/041/2013/en

[Read more…]

Raisa Radchenko in Psychiatric Hospital

July 25, 2013 by zarganar

rasia-rodchenko548x331 This is an updated Urgent Action (which we hadn’t previously seen or acted on) relating to the Ukraine. Raisa Radchenko, a 70 year old human rights activist, was detained on 11 July 2013 by police and taken to Zaporizhzhya Regional Psychiatric Hospital. Despite having no history of mental illness and without a court order authorising treatment without consent, she was nevertheless subjected to psychiatric treatment.

The sample letter – to the regional Govenor – is self explanatory. There are more details on the AIUK website, also including a TEXT campaign if you prefer. The address of the Embassy of Ukraine is 78 Kensington Park Rd, London W11 2PL

Update – Raisa has since been released. No further action.

July 2013 News Update – South America Region

July 22, 2013 by zarganar

Going back a couple of decades, the group was an active participant in a Regional Action Network involving Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay – although 90% of the work centred on Brazil. This has gradually evolved into the South America Region and we get periodic updates and actions from the hard working voluntary coordinators. We thought you may find it useful if we shared the updates to give you a feel for some of the ways Amnesty currently works and the campigning that is being done. At the end of the report is a link to an Urgent Action and sample letter:-

Paraguay

In early July AIUK coordinators and staff at the International Secretariat were able to brief the new UK Ambassador to Paraguay, Jeremy Hobbs, before he departed to take up his post. The Embassy closed in 2005 and is just now reopening. We were able to brief the Ambassador on the human rights situation in Paraguay and, in particular, the two case files of indigenous communities removed from their lands, Yakye Axa and Sawhowyamaxa.

Venezuela

On 14 June Judge Alfiuni was released from detention. In December 2009 she released banker Eligio Cedeño in accordance with Venezuelan law and was herself arrested the following day. Amnesty International has consistently denounced her detention as undue political interference and arbitrary in nature, in contravention of the independence of the magistrates and judges. The conditions imposed on her release are harsh: she may not leave the country, speak to the press or communicate on social networks.

Colombia

In theory, paramilitarism ended with the demobilisation process. However, groups continue to operate with impunity. Since our last update a paramilitary plan to kill human rights activists has been exposed. Members of the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes in Sucre (MOVICE) have been threatened and attacked by paramilitaries. These and other organised crimes have been planned from within prison. On 3rd June the police commander of the Department of Sucre in northern Colombia received an e-mail saying paramilitaries (believed to be the bloque Héroes de los Montes de María) were intending to kill human rights defender Juan David Díaz, his wife and another person. His father Eudaldo was killed after he denounced links between paramilitaries, local politicians and the Armed Forces in February 2003. [Read more…]

Indonesia and Laos

July 16, 2013 by zarganar

At our July meeting we did a substantial amount of letter writing (for us!). In the curious absence of Urgent Actions or news from our other campaigns, we revisited some ongoing pages from the A.I.U.K. site. The letters are all edited versions of what you can find on the site – and again you can personalise them further yourself.

Teacher jailed for Waving a Flag

johan Johan Teterissa, a primary school teacher, is serving a 15-year sentence for leading a peaceful protest in 2007. He was arrested with 21 activists during a government-organised event in Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, attended by the President of Indonesia. The protestors performed a traditional war dance and unfurled the Benang Raja flag, perceived by government authorities to be a symbol of the Republic of South Maluku independence movement. He never received medical treatment for the injuries he sustained after being tortured in the early days of his detention.

There is some background information here.

Please write:- Johan Teterissa letter

Imprisoned for Peacefully Calling for Change

On the morning of 26 October 1999, a group of 30 young people belonging to the Lao Students Movement for Democracy (LSMD) gathered in front of the National Assembly building in the Lao capital, Vientiane to call for peaceful political, social and economic change. As they attempted to unfurl banners they were quickly surrounded by policemen and five of the protesters – Thongpaseuth Keuakoun, Seng-Aloun Phengphanh, Bouavanh Chanmanivong, Keochay and Khamphouvieng Sisaath – were arrested and sentenced to long terms in prison for treason.

Less than two years later, 40-year-old Khamphouvieng Sisaath died in custody after he was ill-treated by prison guards. He had been tied spread-eagled to a post in the prison yard and left in the hot sun for hours until he died of heat exhaustion. No investigation is known to have been carried out into the circumstances of his death. [Read more…]

Nine Teenagers Forcibly Returned to North Korea

June 24, 2013 by zarganar

This is a change of style – setting letter writing as blog posts rather than just adding to one long Letters page. This should prove easier to keep relevant and link to via facebook and the newsletter. Let us know what you think.

North Korea may have faded from the news these past months, but sadly threats to its citizens goes on. North Koreans are prohibited from travelling abroad without state permission and recent crackdowns have made it increasingly difficult to cross the border into China and escape via another country such as Laos or Thailand. China returns all ‘undocumented’ North Koreans if caught. Laos typically detains undocumented North Koreans found in Laos, but used to allow them to travel on to South Korea.

Unfortunately authorities in Laos have recently returned nine teenagers who had crossed illegally into their country via China. By placing these young teenagers back in the grasps of the North Korean authorities, they are now likely to be sent to one of the infamous gulag style prison camps and detained under atrocious conditions. Amnesty is seriously concerned for their safety.

The teenagers, aged between 14 and 19, are now at serious risk of being tortured, detained in prison, sent to forced labour camps or even executed. Under International Law, no one should be sent back to a country where they are at risk of human rights violations, such as torture or execution. Those who escape North Korea should be entitled to international protection because of such risks. The South Korean government even appealed to the Chinese and Laos authorities to send them to South Korea instead.

There is an Urgent Action that we worked on as a group this month (June 2013). UA North Korea

There is a draft letter you can either copy or utilise youself to send of a letter asap.north korea letter

Please write before 12 July to Kim Jong-Un, Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, care of:

Ambassador of the Permanent Mission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the Office of the United Nations in New York
Mr Sin Son-ho
Permanent Mission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in New York
820 Second Ave, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10017, USA
Fax: +1 212 972 3154
Email: dpr.korea@verizon.net
Salutation: Dear Ambassador

There is another address you can write to within the Urgent Action form