Hugo Chavez defends three tyrants and a terrorist during speech

Venezulan leader Hugo Chavez has been reported by the BBC as having defended Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ugandan dictator Idi Amin during a televised speech to various socialist politicians.

Chavez certainly sounds a little confused about whether he wants to put Amin's poster above his bed or not, saying: "We thought he was a cannibal... I don't know, maybe he was a great nationalist, a patriot."

Normally, only the most stupid of commentators on Indymedia* would defend Mugabe or Amin (although a number seem to defend Ahmadinejad).

Hugo Chavez also defended Carlos the Jackal, whose real name is Ilich Sanchez Ramirez, saying "he is wrongly considered to be a bad guy and is to be praised as a key revolutionary fighter, instead" and described him as "one of the great fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organization".

This is the same Ilich Sanchez Ramirez who put bombs on France's TGV trains in 1983, killing four people, who claimed to have thrown a grenade at a resturant in Paris, and who was hired by Communist Romania's brutal secret service, to murder Romanian dissidents in France.

Ramirez is currently serving life in a French prison for the murders of two secret service agents and an alleged informer.

He is also a fan of fellow terrorist Osama Bin Laden, and praised the undertaking of the September 11th attacks.

It seems Chavez forgot to mention him in his recent speech.

I would say that the mark of a "bad guy" is someone who does not care about the human rights of French citizens or about who he works with.

Hugo Chavez should be condemned for his praise of human rights violators, as well as being urged to spend more time on fixing his country's issues.


*Not all commentators are stupid on Indymedia, nor are all articles. I read the site on an occasional basis. It is just that much of the content is dogmaticaly ludicrous.

Slave rescuer Aaron Cohen interviewed in the Observer

Today's Observer magazine has a fascinating interview by Carole Cadwalladr with Aaron Cohen, the founder of the Abolish Slavery Coalition.

Cohen, whose book Slave Hunter: One Man's Global Quest to Free Victims of Human Trafficking was published this June, has rescued children from sex slavery and child solider camps all over the world.

In his book, he estimates "it's estimated that 27 million people are enslaved today – double the number taken from Africa during the three and a half centuries of the slave trade. Approximately 80,000 new victims are trafficked across international borders each year."

Some of the testimonies of former victims can be seen at the Polaris Project Action Centre.

You can support Cohen and find out more about human trafficking at the online philantrophy platform Causecast.

Cohen is also on Twitter.

Pressure from those opposed to slavery does have an effect.

In July, the Burmese Shan State Army (SSA) signed an agreement promising to no longer use child soliders in return for aid, in order to increase international credibility.

Your support of Aaron Cohen could make a difference to tens of thousands of slaves around the world.

Youtube: BBC's The Big Questions: Antisemitism from 15th November

Via Harry's Place, parts one and two of The Big Questions: Antisemitism, broadcast on Sunday 15th November on BBC One.





You can also read comments on the program by panalist Tony Greenstein and Jewish Chronicle blogger Aaron16.

The first comment left on the Harry's Place blog page to where these Youtube videos were posted was very interesting.

By "yesiam" (which might be short for "yes, i am an idiot"), it reads: "Your boys took a hell of a beating. Trying to defend that fascist little state called Israel in the Middle East by citing antisemitism is no longer good enough.The eyes of the world have been opened. Israel is a pariah state.Free Palestine."

This comment equates British Jews with the events taking place in the Middle East.

People are entitled to have whatever views on the conflict between Israel and Palestine they want.

My own view is that both sides have been guilty of human rights abuses, and that blindly refraining from criticsing one side whatever they do is the wrong approach to take.

Even if someone is strongly opposed to Israel's actions, it does not make it right to attack Jewish people or support attacks on Jewish people.

The Jewish state and Jewish citizens, either living inside or outside Israel, should not be lazily confused.

The current debate, as seen on Channel Four's Dispatches recently, about whether there is an "Israel lobby" and how powerful it is should not be confused with ordinary Jewish citizens either.

Clearly, some people are unable to understand this, as Jonathan Boyd writes in his Guardian article:

In April 2002, at the height of the Palestinian intifada, media reports began circulating that a massacre had been committed by the Israel Defence Force in Jenin, in the West Bank. Rumours circulated that hundreds of Palestinians had been killed. The BBC suggested 150. Saeb Erekat, interviewed on CNN, claimed 500. Yasser Abed Rabbo intimated 900. The overarching impression was that the IDF had committed a horrific atrocity.

On the following Saturday, I was walking to synagogue, wearing my kippah (skull cap) in the north London suburb of Finchley. On the way, I was punched in the face by a young man. It was an entirely unprovoked assault. We were simply crossing paths when he delivered a sudden, forceful, right hook. Taken aback, my first response was to ask why he had done it. "That's what happens to Jews," he responded, "when they behave like that."

That is the only time in my life that I have been a victim of an antisemitic assault. It is possible, I suppose, that it had nothing to do with the events in Jenin, but I find that very difficult to believe. My attacker saw me as a legitimate target directly linked to the so-called "massacre".

Russian antifascist activist Ivan Khutorskoy murdered in eastern Moscow

Ivan Khutorskoy, one of the key figures in the Russian antifascist movement Antifa, was shot dead in eastern Moscow on Monday 16th November.

Many believe his killers were neo-nazis.

According to Schnews, Khutorskoy's address has been published on neo-nazi websites, and three previous attempts have been made to kill him.

The Brighton activist freesheet comments: "Ivan’s life and death show the perils of fighting the increasingly state-assisted far-right movement in Russia and the bravery of those who do so."

On Tuesday, a memorial gathering was held for Khutorskoy outside the Tsvetnoy Boulevard metro station, before being attacked by riot police.

Some of those at the memorial later attacked the offices of Young Russia (Rossiya Molodaya), for alleged links with murderous neo-nazi groups, something that Young Russia's leader Maxim Mishchenko denies.

According to Sky News, the murder of Ivan Khutorskoy has been linked to the arrest of two nationalists suspected of the murders of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova.

Find out more about Ivan Khutorskoy at Indymedia Nederland.

Iranian web crime unit set up to locate "insults and lies"

A special unit of the Iranian justice system has been set up to police the Iranian internet.

While senior Iranian police officer Brigadier General Esmail Ahmadi-Moqaddam claims that the "cyber police division" will oppose "Internet crime.", it is disturbing that, according to Article 19, there is also an emphasis on combatting "insults and lies".

This term has been used by the judicary to describe opposition statements.

Colonel Mehrdad Omidi, the head of the web crime unit, said cyber-crimes would be treated as seriously as armed robbery. He pledged to intervene in "political matters on the internet, should there be an illegal act", according to the Guardian.

Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Amnesty International, said: "This new unit will further undermine freedom of expression, which is already severely limited in Iran.

"The authorities’ aim seems to be to deter people from criticizing the government or circulating information – such as information on human rights violations – that they wish to suppress...Iran will be applying to cyber activists the same flawed legal standards that have resulted in the imprisonment of scores of journalists who did nothing other than report the facts, peacefully and objectively."

As the Guardian notes, Iranian opposition candidates rely on the web to communicate their messages. While newspapers supporting them have been closed, websites supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi still exist.

The Iranian government must not be allowed to limit the right to free expression. Support the Iranian resistance and the Green Revolution.

Soft sentences make a mockery of the right to be safe

The right to be safe is a basic phyiscal human right. I would question how much British justice protects this right, given two recent cases.

In Rochdale, Greater Manchester, three people who attacked their victim so savagaly that pendant from her bracelet became embedded in her eye were given referral orders or community sentences, according to the Rochdale Observer.

Despite an appeal from the Observer, District Judge Paul Richardson refused to lift an order banning publication of the identies of the attackers, who are sixteen.

Kirsty Leigh Hood, 19, was sentenced last month for verbally abusing the same woman shortly before the attack, including shouting "BNP" at her.

Richardson even told one of the attackers: "When not inebriated, it seems you have good sense.If you didn't, we'd have seen a lot more of you in this court. This is a final chance."

Of course, the lack of money to fund the criminal justice system, including prisons is a huge contributor to the weak sentencing regime.

Via The Policeman's Blog, which also notes that Ashleigh Holliman was sentenced to just 120 hours community service after nearly blinding Jennifer Wilson after smashing her in the face with a glass in Watford, Hertfordshire.

Questions have also been raised about the response of Hertfordshire Police to this incident, according to the London Evening Standard.Wilson ended up using Facebook to locate her attacker.

While it is important that our response to criminals does not include barbarity, the right to be safe is

Rwandan milita leaders arrested in Germany over Democratic Republic of Congo war crimes

The BBC reports that Ignace Murwanashyaka, the leader of the Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), and his aide Straton Musoni have been arrested by German police on suspicion of war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The pair are accused by German prosecutors of being in command of a Hutu militia that carried out crimes against humanity on Congolese civilians.

According to Global Security, the FDLR is made up of key members of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, as well as a mix of displaced Rwandan Hutus, some of whom are former Rwandan Army soliders.

They describe themselves as "Rwandans determined to defend their motherland kept under constant threats of extermination by a tyrannic and barbaric regime."

The organisation is described as being "among the worst offenders in the onslaught against women, hundreds of thousands of whom have been raped over the past decade of conflict", according to Chris McGreal in the Guardian.

In November 2005 Murwanashyaka was blacklisted by the United Nations for violating an Democratic Republic of Congo arms embargo, and was subjected to a travel ban and assets freeze.

American demonstrations against homophobic Ugandan laws on Thursday 19th November

This Thursday, 19th November, two demonstrations are taking place in America opposing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, which allows Ugandan courts to sentence homosexuals to life imprisonment.

In New York, a rally will take place at Uganda House on 336 East 45th St from 12:30pm, organised by Sexual Minorities Uganda.

In Washington D.C, a rally will take place at the Ugandan Embassy to the United States,5911 16th Street, NW,Washington, DC 20011 between 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm.

The Washington demonstration is 1 mile northwest of the Georgia Ave/Petworth Metro Stop on Quincy Street and also accessible via 16th Street buses.

If you are in New York or Washington this Thursday, why not attend the demo and oppose homophobic laws in Uganda

The bill continues to attract international condemnation.Members of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights have denounced the bill in the European Parliament.