Group Newsletter November 2017

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.

South America Newsletter
The November edition of the South America Regional Newsletter is now on the blog. Our group has focused on South America since its inception, which is also reflected in our case files – see below. The 3 volunteers who run the network for AIUK – and produce the newsletter – do a huge amount of work on our behalf.
STOP THE VIOLENCE AGAINST THE ROHINGYA IN MYANMAR
In the last few weeks, over 600,000 people – mostly Rohingya – have fled Myanmar to nearby Bangladesh. In fact, more Rohingya refugees fled to Bangladesh in September than the total number of people who fled by sea to Europe in 2016.
Last week Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi visited Rakhine State for the first time since the military crackdown. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was quoted saying   three things to the people – “they should live peacefully, the government is there to help them, and they should not quarrel among each other.”
This isn’t very reassuring. Add your voice; demand Myanmar authorities end the shocking violence now

Jorge Lázaro Samba Nunes dos Santos

A case file is an AI action that focus on one individual or situation. This long term narrow focus ensures a constant pressure on authorities to take action. We have been writing to authorities in Bahia State, Brazil on behalf of Jorge Lázaro, for about two years now.

Two of his seven children have been murdered. Jorge Lázaro has been under huge pressure since the first murder in 2008 : he is seeking justice for the killings of his sons, trying to keep himself and his family safe, and providing necessary minimum living conditions such as a home and food.
To add to the tragedy of two murdered sons, on July 10th 2016 Jorge’s youngest son, Denilson was shot whilst walking home.  Luckily Denilson survived and is currently recovering.
There are downloadable letters you can adapt on our take action page.There is also a link so you can send him a message of support via AIUK.

Leopoldo López
In August Leopoldo López was transferred out of Ramo Verde prison to his house, where he will continue to serve his sentence. However, he was briefly returned to prison in August, along with others, following a statement he made about the deteriorating situation in Venezuela. He is now back home, and there has been no updated action from AIUK. There is a statement on our “take action page” from AIUK.