Day: August 4, 2009

South Carolina: Confederate Flag Causes Christian Convention to Cancel

South Carolina: Confederate Flag Causes Christian Convention to Cancel
— WLTX reports: “Another groups pulls out of South Carolina cancelling their National Convention because of the confederate flag. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) based out of Indiana were coming to Charleston, now they’re looking for another venue.”
— “The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have more than 600,000 members across the US and Canada.”
— “‘For African Americans the confederate flag is a system of terror, oppression, separation and racism and we decided to stand in solidarity,’ Reverend Timothy James of the Christian Church said in a phone interview with News 19.”

Louisiana: Ku Klux Klan (KKK) member can have his guns back, state judge rules in Covington

— of Ku Klux Klan member investigated in Louisiana killing…

(U.S.) Louisiana: KKK member can have his guns back, state judge rules in Covington

NorthShore NOLA reports:
— “An alleged KKK member from Bogalusa is entitled to retrieve his guns, ammunition and black robe and hood that were seized during a murder investigation last year, a state judge ruled Monday in Covington.”
— “But the judge said he would not enforce his ruling until an appeal by the district attorney’s office could be heard.”
— “In February, a St. Tammany Parish grand jury declined to charge Random Hines, 28, with obstruction of justice in the killing of an Oklahoma woman who reportedly tried to back out of a Ku Klux Klan initiation last year.”
— “Raymond ‘Chuck’ Foster, the alleged imperial wizard of the Bogalusa Sons of Dixie Knights, is charged with second-degree murder in Cynthia Lynch’s death and is awaiting trial. Authorities have said Lynch was killed after she told Foster, 44, that she wanted to return home to Oklahoma.”

Sudan: Police beat women opposing Sudan dress code trial

(Sudan) Police beat women opposing Sudan dress code trial
— AP reports: “Sudanese police fired tear gas and beat women protesting outside a Sudanese court Tuesday during the trial of a female journalist accused of violating the Islamic dress code by wearing trousers in public.”
— “Police moved in swiftly and dispersed about 50 protesters, mostly women, who were supporting Lubna Hussein, a former U.N. worker facing 40 lashes on the charge of ‘indecent dressing.’ Some of the women demonstrators wore trousers in solidarity with Hussein while others wore more traditional dress.”
— “In the clashes outside the courtroom, witnesses said police wielding batons beat up one of Hussein’s lawyers, Manal Awad Khogali, while keeping media and cameras at bay. No injuries were immediately reported.”
— “‘We are here to protest against this law that oppresses women and debases them,’ said one of the protesters, Amal Habani, a female columnist for the daily Ajraas Al Hurria, or Bells of Freedom in Arabic.”
— Tear gas fired at protesters outside Lubna Hussein trial

Sudanese Feminist Hero Forced into Hiding — Phyllis Chesler report on Lubna al-Hussein

Sudanese Feminist Hero Forced into Hiding — Phyllis Chesler report on Lubna al-Hussein
— Phyllis Chesler reports: “Lubna al-Hussein, is now moving from one relative’s house to another’s. Why? Because she was threatened by a man on a motorcycle who told her ‘she would end up like (that) Egyptian woman who was murdered in a recent notorious case.'”
— Sudanese Women Activists’ petition

Afghan women victims of ‘widespread’ rape: UN

Afghan women victims of ‘widespread’ rape: UN
— “Rape in Afghanistan is ‘widespread’ and violence against women serving in public life is on the rise, a UN report said Wednesday, nearly eight years after the fall of the Taliban.”
— “The 32-page report denounces an institutional failure to curb violence against women and a culture of impunity that leaves such crimes unpunished.”
— “The report, issued by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned of a ‘growing trend’ of violence and threats against women in public life”
— “Women are also the victims of so-called ‘honour’ killings, trafficking and abduction, as well as early and forced marriages and domestic violence, it said. Girls and women are exchanged to resolve disputes over land and property.”
— UN Special Representative Eide Urges Afghans to Challenge Violence Against Women
— “Silence is Violence: End the Abuse of Women in Afghanistan – July 8, 2009”

Iran: White House’s Gibbs: Ahmadinejad ‘elected leader’ of Iran

(Iran) White House’s Gibbs: Ahmadinejad ‘elected leader’ of Iran
— AP: White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is ‘the elected leader’ of the Islamic republic.”
— “Gibbs was asked Tuesday if the White House recognized Ahmadinejad as the country’s legitimate president.”
— “‘He’s the elected leader,’ Gibbs responded.”

North Korea Freedom Coalition Upcoming Events

North Korea Freedom Coalition’s Suzanne Scholte offers the following recommendations in the continuing struggle for freedom in North Korea:

Dear Friends:

Please consider these action items this coming month for the promotion of North Korea human rights:

Write a Letter from America to North Koreans: We will be producing the fifth recording of Letters from America in mid-August and are always happy to receive letters from American citizens with messages to the North Korean people.  Please send your letters via email to skswm@aol.com, so that they can be recorded and broadcast into North Korea on Free North Korea Radio.

Support the Next Balloon Launches into North Korea: We are currently raising funds for the next balloon launches into North Korea which will include radios and North Korean currency.  If anyone is interested in financially supporting this project — we have raised 1/4 of the budget so far, please let me know and I can send more details including the budget.

Help Rescue North Korean women from being trafficked in China: 318 Partners, led by American hero and rescuer, Steve Kim is constantly rescuing refugees, especially trafficked victims, out of China and therefore is in constant need of support.  Furthermore, Civil Courage Prize winner and another American hero and rescuer, Philip Buck, is now trying to raise funds for a rescue of a family right now.  If you can help these noble efforts, please visit and consider a donation to 318 Partners: http://www.318partners.org/

Help Shut Down Funds for Kim Jong il’s Chosun Fund: Izumi Asano from Reach has gathered information about a fund based in Hong Kong http://www.chosunfund.com/pages/chosun/about.aspx that is calling for investment in the DPRK  in violation of the most recent Security Council resolution.  He is requesting individuals to contact chief executive and head of the Hong Kong government, Sir Donald Tsang (e-mail address: ceo@ceo.gov.hk), to stop the ChosunFund in Hong Kong.  Attached is information that Asano prepared and sample letter to send.

Mark Your Calendar to Participate in Events September 24: Next International Protest to Save North Korean Refugees:  The date of September 24, 2009 has been chosen as the date for the next International Protest to Save North Korean Refugees.  September 24 is the day in 1982 that China became a signatory to the 1951 Refugees Convention, the very agreement it is violating with its repatriation of North Korean refugees.  On that date around the world, people will be calling attention to China’s violation of this agreement.  It is becoming increasingly more known thanks to the testimony of the defectors and coverage by the news media of the horrors that the refugees are facing both in China and when they are repatriated to North Korea.

We are seeking country coordinators and city coordinators in the USA especially where there are PRC consulates (DC, NY, Chicago, LA, San Francisco and Houston).  We are already planning a day of activities in Washington DC and city and country coordinators can mark that day in the way they choose: demonstration, protests, prayer vigil, delivery of petitions at PRC embassies and consulates at noon.   Plus, we would ask everyone to also considering sponsoring a special screening that evening or an evening that week of Crossing, On the Border, Seoul Train or any film depicting the plight of refugees in which funds would be requested to help the rescue operations being conducted by rescuers like Steve Kim and Phillip Buck in USA, Kato Hiroshi in Japan, Tim Peters and the North Korea defector groups in South Korea, etc.

Please let me know if you would be willing to be a city or country coordinator for September 24 to focus attention on the North Korea refugees.

More on Calling or A Special Tribunal to Stop North Korea’s Atrocties:  I am pleased to include below another OPED which appeared in the Chosun Ilbo on Wednesday regarding the need for a special tribunal.

Acta Non Verba,
Suzanne Scholte

How Can We Stop Today’s Endless Atrocities Being Committed Against the Korean People?
Suzanne Scholte
Seoul Peace Prize Laureate 2008

This past week was the 50th anniversary of Captive Nation’s Week, which was first established in 1959, to recognize the nations whose people are held “captive” under communism. Communism is now responsible for the deaths of over 100 million people – and today in North Korea millions have perished just within the last decade and hundreds more will die this week in political prison camps, detentions centers, because of starvation and lack of medical care and through public executions – innocent men, women, and children.

How can the government of South Korea stop the rising death toll in North Korea?  South Korea needs to send a powerful signal to those committing crimes against the Korean people by convening a Tribunal of respected South Korean judges and legal experts to gather evidence and begin to prosecute those responsible.  Because North Koreans are citizens of the Republic of Korea under Article III of their constitution, North Koreans have standing in Korean courts.  Those committing these heinous acts on behalf of the Kim Jong-il regime must be put on notice that one day they will be held accountable and punished.  For example: the Musan detention center guard who beat and crippled Bang Mi Sun who had been sent there as punishment because she had fled to China to feed her starving children; the political prison camp guards at Camp No. 14 who tortured Shin Dong Hyok when he was just fourteen years old because he could not explain why his mother had tried to escape; and the North Korean border guards who beat to death the teenage daughter of Ko Mae Hwa and the North Korean security police who killed her father because she worked for Free North Korea Radio – all must be held accountable for their actions.

Furthermore, people like Kim Young Soon – a Yoduk survivor who lost her father, mother, son, and daughter –  may be able to have some peace in her life if she knows that her government will pursue those who destroyed her family when she was sent to Yoduk simply for knowing Kim Jong-il’s first wife.  Working with the group “Democracy Network Against the North Korean Gulag” and the survivors of these camps, the tribunal can collect the names and get sketches of the faces of the perpetrators in these camps who have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Koreans.

Now is a crucial time to send this signal because North Koreans are becoming increasingly aware of the true conditions outside their “paradise.”  Kim Jong-il’s days are numbered and he can no longer isolate and subjugate the North Korean people.  South Korea must be ready for that day of reckoning when the atrocities of this regime become known to the world.

After giving a speech recently, I was approached by a Korean American who fled his North Korean hometown of Hamhung as child with the U.S. Army in 1950 when the Chinese invaded.  His father had told him to go with the retreating U.S. Army.

This Korean American never saw his family again because the Americans never came back to North Korea as his father predicted.  Regarding South Korea, he told me bitterly: “We North Koreans would never had abandoned our South Korean brothers and sisters if the Communist had taken them over and we had been free.”

His statement reminds us that reunification will not just come with the end of communism in the North.  Convening a Tribunal is a critical step for South Korea to stem the atrocities being committed against the Korean people now, and to begin the process of reconciliation and healing that will start with reunification.

#########

http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/07/29/2009072901481.html