Mois : octobre 2007

María Luisa Navarro Garrido – Venezuela

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « I admired the courage of the women and my love for nature grew. I discovered my capacity to confront situations and I pledged my life to the struggles of the people ».

She says also: « I feel a passionate love for life, especially for day-to-day life. Daily life is a crucial reference point for educational projects. We decide our strategies and projects around it. What does this means specifically? We place ourselves within this daily life with its routines and its unforeseen circumstances ».

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María Luisa Navarro Garrido – Venezuela

She works for the Sisters of the Sacred Heart 1), and for the Community Center for Popular Promotion (not on the web).

« I am a woman that had two births, I was born and re-born », explains María Luisa Navarro Garrido. The first birth was to her parents in Madrid, Spain, on May 3rd, 1942. The second one, the re-birth, was after her personal decision to live among the Venezuelan people and was reaffirmed when she was given Venezuelan citizenship in 1990.

« Onto my Spanish roots the Venezuelan sap was engraved and that generated in me a great sympathy towards multicultural society and a special love for Bolivar’s people and for the people of Don Quixote ».

She was born in a home full of women; her father was the only man. They told her about his disappointed face when he knew that he had another girl. Nevertheless, she remembers, « he could not hide his fondness for his four littler girls ».

Along with her sisters she had experienced, since the beginning of her life, the very special sensibility of being a woman. « We were very close and we supported and defended each other in all life situations.

Another special experience was to be born in an artisan’s home. My mother sewed. She made all our clothes during our lives, even my sister’s wedding dress. My father painted pictures that touched me, and I helped him by mixing the colors in his palette for him to create landscapes, portraits, seascapes and still forms of life. They also contributed to the newspaper La Rioja. My mother wrote stories and my father illustrated them ».

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Irom Sharmila Chanu – India

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Irom Chanu Sharmila (born 1970), also known as Sharmila Chanu, is an Indian woman activist of Meitei Manipuri heritage, known for her campaign against the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, colloquially known as the AFSPA. Manipur was, like many other princely states, annexed by the Indian Union in 1949 under disputed circumstances; there have been sporadic separatist movements since. Chanu has been on a hunger strike demanding the repeal of the AFSPA, on November 2, 2000, after soldiers of the Indian Paramilitary Assam Rifles allegedly killed ten young Meitei men in Malom. Three days later, police arrested Sharmila on charges of « attempted suicide », suicide or attempted suicide being unlawful under Indian laws, and she was later transferred to judicial custody. (full text).

Imphal – Irom Sharmila Chanu – the « Iron Lady » who has been taking up fast-unto-death agitation since the year 2000 against the Armed Forces Special Power Act AFSPA), has decided to publish her 6 poems for the general public today … (full text, October 16, 2007).

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Irom Sharmila Chanu – India

She says: « Although the State may think so, I am in no mood for suicide. In any case, if I were a suicide-monger, how could we talk like this? I have no other choice but fasting » … and: « I had gone there (to Malom) to attend a meeting. The meeting was towards planning a peace rally that would be held in a few days. I was very shocked to see the dead bodies on the front pages of the newspapers. That strengthened me to step on this very threshold of death. Because there was no other means to stop further violations by the armed forces against innocent people. I thought then, that the peace rally would be meaningless for me. Unless I were to do something to change the situation » … and: « I realise my task is a tough one. But I must endure. I must be patient. That happy day will come some day. If I’m still alive. Until then, I must be patient. (My time was over, and my crew and I were preparing to leave, when Sharmila stopped us.) Will you help me? I would like to read about the life-history of Nelson Mandela. I have no idea about his life. Will you send me a book about him? It is full of restrictions here. Make sure you address it to the security ward. If not, I may not recieve it » … (full interview).

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U Win Tin – Burma

U Win Tin (born March 12, 1929) is being held prisoner in Burma / Myanmar because of his senior position in the National League for Democracy (NLD) and for his writings. Arrested in July 1989, he has spent the last 17 years in prison. U Win Tin is serving a 20-year sentence on charges including « anti-government propaganda. »

One of the reasons for his detention is his attempt to inform the United Nations of ongoing human rights violations in Burmese prisons. At 76 years of age, he is in a poor state of health, exacerbated by his treatment in prison, which has included torture, inadequate access to medical treatment, being held in a cell designed for military dogs, without bedding, and being deprived of food and water for long periods of time … (full text wikipedia, last modified 3 January 2007).

He writes: « As long as the black stripes on the yellow background are vividly painted, the tiger is still a tiger » … (full text).

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U Win Tin – Burma

Read: One photographer killed and six journalists in jail: Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association condemn the poor state of press freedom, Sept. 25, 2007.

Recently, on August 18, 2007, a public meeting was held in New Delhi under the aegis of the Convention for the Restoration of Democracy in Burma to reiterate solidarity with the struggle for democracy in Burma and demand the immediate release of veteran Burmese journalist, U Win Tin … (full text, Sept. 26, 2007).

Read: TIMELINE – 45 years of resistance and repression in Myanmar, Sept. 27, 2007.

U Win Tin, a journalist, was for years editor-in-chief of a Mandalay-based newspaper called Hanthawaddy, until it was shut down by General Ne Win for running too many articles critical of his regime. In 1988 he established, briefly, the Burmese Writers’ Association; from the beginning he was a leading figure in the National League for Democracy, and an important adviser to Suu Kyi. For these crimes, and ostensibly for harbouring a girl who had had an illegal abortion, he was sentenced to 20 years; he has now been imprisoned for 18, since 1989.

He too has gone to great lengths to keep writing, making ink out of brick powder from the walls of his cell, writing with a pen made from a bamboo mat; now 77 years old, he has, according to PEN, had two heart attacks, lost most of his teeth, and is suffering from diabetes, spondylitis, and a hernia. (Guardian, Oct. 12, 2007).

Read: South Block’s Indifference to Burma’s Struggle for Democracy, Oct. 5, 2007.

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María Esther Ruiz Ortega – Honduras

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « Without women’s participation, peace is impossible to reach. For centuries men have gone to war and the result is chaos. We all need another world. If we live on equal terms, with mutual respect, solidarity, harmony and justice, we shall be building it. And such a world will be a peaceful world ».

She says also: « I worked in a tobacco factory and on Sundays I washed clothes in the stream. I took refuge in God, in religion, because like all human beings I needed something more in my life. That made me a very religious girl. I worked in the tobacco factory until I was 17. I had a pair of sandals made of rubber, a dress to go to mass in and two dresses to wear to work. (I washed one of them and wore the other.) In that way I lived out my youth ».

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María Esther Ruiz Ortega – Honduras

She works for La Nueva Esperanza / The New Hope Women’s Association (not named in the web).

And she says: « My father was a rural teacher and my mother a housewife. My father became an alcoholic, which led to the domestic violence that I experienced during my childhood. He ill-treated my mother both physically and psychologically. I could not stand it, so when I was only four years old I took my little dress and went away to live with my grand mother and my aunt. And I think that was the beginning. That marked the way ». The one who is speaking is María Esther Ruiz, a feminist from rural Honduras, born in Casa Quemada, a community in the administrative district of Santa Bárbara, in the Northwest of the country.

María Ester was a silent girl and for that reason her mother thought she was mentally retarded and decided to not send her to school. But her father, who was a good reader, registered her at school when she was nine years old. Shortly afterwards, in 1959, he was murdered for being an activist member of the Liberal Party.

« My mother and my three sisters and brothers moved into my grand mother’s house where I was already living. Two years after my father’s death, my mother began a new relationship and went to live with her partner ». So at 11 years old, María Esther had to become a ‘mother’ taking care of her three brothers and sisters and also her grand mother. The old aunt was already dead.

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Nosandla Malindi – South Africa

Linked with DELTA Development Education and Leadership Teams in Action.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « If rural women can build their self-confidence and learn coping mechanisms, they can become self-reliant and independent instead of depending on their male partners. Rural life would be manageable ».

Read: DELTA, Women Leaders Arise from African Soil.

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Nosandla Malindi – South Africa

She works for the Development Education Leadership Teams in Action DELTA.

Nosandla Malindi was born in 1960. She has diplomas in business counseling and democratic development. Nosandla is trainer and coordinator of Development Education Leadership Teams in Action (Delta) in Libode, an organization that empowers women from grassroots communities to participate and hold leadership positions in decision-making in South Africa.

Delta started in 1992 as a project of the Catholic Welfare Development (CWD). In 1995 it became independent from CWD. Delta has been empowering women in the urban and rural areas in the Western Cape. Nosandla has been a learner and staff from the time of its inception.

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Kurt Julius Goldstein – Germany (1914 – 2007)

Kurt Julius Goldstein and Peter Gingold, the Auschwitz survivors named as plaintiffs in the litigation against the Bush family, are 91 and 89 years of age respectively. Mr. Goldstein claims to have mined the coal for Consolidated Silesian Steel – coal that fueled furnaces where armaments were made, coal transformed into oil, gasoline and airplane fuel for IG Farben that due to patent arrangements benefited the German war effort, coal for trains to transport Jews to the camp, and coal for the ovens to burn them after they were gassed. Mr. Goldstein said from his hotel room in New York, « Genocide is not forgivable and cannot be swept under the rug. » (full text, scroll down to ‘The Bush/Nazi Connection’).

German photo-gallery.

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Kurt Julius Goldstein – Germany (1914 – 2007)

Kurt Julius Goldstein (November 3, 1914 – September 24, 2007), who survived the Auschwitz death camp and went on to play a prominent role in fighting racism and anti-Semitism, has died, the International Auschwitz Committee said Tuesday. He was 93 …

… Born into a Jewish merchant family in 1914, Goldstein later joined Germany’s Communist Party and was forced out of the country when the Nazis came to power in 1933. He fled to Palestine, then went to fight in an international brigade in the Spanish Civil War. When that war ended in 1939, Goldstein was arrested and later handed to the Nazis, who sent him to Auschwitz. After World War II, Goldstein settled in communist East Germany, where he worked until 1978 as the director of a leading public broadcaster. During those years he also worked for the International Auschwitz Committee, maintaining contact with survivors on both sides of the Iron Curtain and reaching out to young people. (full text).

Search Results for “Kurt Julius Goldstein” on YouTube.
… A year later, the Spanish Civil War erupted and many German Communists volunteered to fight: Goldstein soon joined them.[1] When the Second Spanish Republic collapsed in early 1939, Goldstein escaped across the border into France.[1] As return to Germany was impossible, he was interned and held in Camp Vernet (Dept. Ariege/France). Once France fell, his situation became perilous but it was three years before he was detected by the Vichy French authorities and deported to Germany. On arrival, he was sent to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, where he worked in the coal pits for 30 months.

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Hollman Felipe Morris – Colombia

Linked with The Narco News Bulletin.

Listen to the 2.55 minutes spanish Interview, of 07.02.2006, with Hollman Morris on the website of Amnesty International, and its english transcript: Colombia is the world’s third most dangerous country for a journalist to work in according to Reporters Without Borders and New York’s Committee to Protect Journalists. Because of this, Colombian journalists censor themselves. They censor themselves in key issues: drug dealing, the armed conflict, human rights and corruption. Journalists in Colombia are giving up investigating and reporting on those issues because they run the risk of being threaten, killed or having to leave the country, as was my case. In June, the 24th of June if I remember correctly, when we were doing a documentary for the BBC in Putumayo, President Alvaro Uribe said that we knew in advance of an attack committed by the FARC in the Putumayo region, that we made deals with the guerrillas and that we had alliances with them. We denied it and even President Uribe had to denied it hours later President Uribe publicized those lies in all media outlets in Colombia. His retraction only appeared on a website, which didn’t have much publicity. In Colombia these kind of accusations and stigmatizations, particularly when I had received threats 15 days before, cost people’s lives. In Colombia people are killed for that. As long as President Alvaro Uribe doesn’t rectify his accusations properly, his words will cause me trouble. The bodyguards that the government gives me are worthless if the President himself says that I deal with the guerrillas. He puts my life in danger with those irresponsible accusations.

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Hollman Felipe Morris – Colombia

Hollman Morris, producer of the broadcast “ContravÌa” on public channel Canal Uno, a leading expert on the armed conflict and very critical of the government of Alvaro Uribe, received new death threats by e-mail on 27 September. The anonymous writers accused him of being a “guerillero” and an “anti-patriot”. His picture marked with a cross and the words “for very soon” figured on the heading of the message. Morris’s programme has not been broadcast on the first channel for the past two months, because of lack of funds. (full text).

Press targeted with threats, assaults and boycotts in run-up to regional elections. (full text, 28 September 2007).

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Robin M. Coupland – England

Linked with Weekly Ethical Reflection, with Centre for the Study of Human Rights, and with The Missing.

He writes:  » … Today, analysis of any war, rebellion or massacre tends to focus on political motives, who is the guilty party or on the kinds of weapons used. However, when the story extends to the victims, somehow rational argument gets lost to sentiment. If we witness directly acts of armed violence and their effects, logic deserts us; there is something about armed violence that is so profoundly shocking, or dare I say exciting, that it defies objective analysis. Perhaps this is as it should be but if we can look past what shocks us, there sits a health issue like all others – for it is undoubtedly a health issue for the victims – and this invites a preventive approach » … (full text).

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Robin M. Coupland – England

Robin M Coupland is the adviser on armed violence and the effects of weapons for the International Committee of the Red Cross. He joined the ICRC in 1987 and worked as a field surgeon in Thailand, Cambodia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Angola, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan. He has developed a health-oriented approach to a variety of issues relating to the design and use of weapons. A graduate of the Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine, UK, he trained as a surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and University College Hospital, London. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985.

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Elisabeth Reusse-Decrey – Switzerland

Linked with Geneva Call, and with Fight against Landmines.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « For successful commitment, confident enthusiasm overcomes a lack of time and money ».

She says also: « I let my convictions speak for me, but that also means that when a negotiation breaks down I am hurt because it means my convictions could not overcome the problem. To be engaged with the heart means that setbacks are also felt with the heart ».

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Elisabeth Reusse-Decrey – Switzerland

She works for Geneva Call.

Elisabeth Reusse-Decrey started Geneva Call in 1998 as an independent, humanitarian non-governmental organization (NGO) to complement the work of the Ottawa Treaty to ban landmines by States. At that time, she was a member of the Geneva Parliament (chosen to be its President in 2000-2001) who was most active in disarmament and peace issues.

In 1995, she became involved in the Swiss Campaign Against Mines and was sensitized to the human destruction caused by mines from her vantage point as a professional physiotherapist.

The purpose of Geneva Call is to engage armed non-state actors (NSAs) to renounce the use of landmines and to respect humanitarian norms. Since the Ottawa Treaty only deals with States, she developed a Deed of Commitment that NSAs can sign to show their willingness to destroy stockpiles and renounce using mines.

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Sunila Abeysekera – Sri Lanka

Defying threats to her life, as UN award-winning Sri Lankan human rights activist she has brought abuses in Sri Lanka to the attention of the international community. (UNESCO).

She says: « I always hope for peace. That hope is what gives me the energy to continue with the work that I do. Even if I don’t see it achieved in my lifetime, I have to continue working for peace and justice in Sri Lanka because that is what my children and future generations who live on this beautiful island will inherit. I don’t believe that people are inherently violent or war-like. I know that it is a wide range of economic and social and political factors that push people to war and to conflict. I believe that as rational and humane beings we have the potential to create structures of non-violent forms of resolving conflict and of living together in harmony ». (full interview text).

And she says: « The human rights framework has enabled us to engage in most times constructive and sometimes very frustrating conversation with organizations like the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, that focuses on the protection of refugees and people who are displaced as a consequence of conflict ». (full text).

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Sunila Abeysekera – Sri Lanka

According to a recent United Nations study, Sri Lanka is the country with the second highest number of disappeared people in the world. And yet there seems to be hardly any debate within the country about human rights violations. Why is this? (full text).

Sunila Abeysekera, executive director of the Sri Lankan rights group INFORM statement to the UNHRC, the number of disappearances and targeted killings in Nepal had dropped dramatically after the U.N. field office was set up there, argued more transparency in Sri Lanka would help much more than short visits from overseas officials and called for UN monitors to Sri Lanka. (full text).

Read: Sri Lanka’s Humanitarian Crisis discussed in Swiss seminar.

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