— AP reports: “Google’s attempted detour around China’s Internet censorship rules was met with countermeasures Tuesday by the communist government, which blocked people on the mainland from seeing search results dealing with such forbidden topics as the pro-democracy movement.”
— “On Tuesday, a search request from within mainland China about the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests returned a notice that the ‘page cannot be displayed.’ It also caused the Web browser to disconnect for several seconds. Under the old google.cn, a similar query usually returned a list of sanitized sites about Tiananmen Square.”
Day: March 23, 2010
Nigeria: 41 to be charged with murder, 121 with other offenses in Jos massacre
As a result of the March 7 and March 17 attacks on Christians in Jos, reports state that 41 have been arrested and will be charged with murder, and another 121 will be charged with weapons and arson crimes.
Nigeria – Punch: Jos killings: 41 persons to be charged with murder – Police
— Punch reports: “Forty-one persons out of 164 people arrested by the police in connection with the recent crisis in Jos will soon be charged to court for murder.”
— “One of our correspondents gathered that the police had concluded investigations into the March 7 mayhem, which led to the death of over 500 people.”
— “It was further learnt that 121 others would be charged with unlawful possession of arms and arson.”
— Police statement read:
— “In its resolve to deal decisively with perpetrators of violence in the nation, the Nigeria Police has concluded investigation into the mass killings in Dogo Nahawa, Rasat and Jeji villages in Jos South LGA of Plateau State, which occurred on March 7, 2010.”
— “A total of 164 persons were arrested, detained and thoroughly interrogated, as to their involvement in the sad incidents of terrorism, murder and arson.”
— Punch reports: “The police spoke just as the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria raised the alarm over fresh plans by religious extremists to attack non-Muslims in some parts of the North.”
— “Meanwhile, the National Chairman, Youth Wing, PFN, Dr. Abel Damina, who accused some security agents of complicity in the Jos crisis, appealed to the Federal Government to name the sponsors of the violence.”
— “Speaking with newsmen on Saturday, Damina explained that unless something urgent was done, such killings might not stop.”
— “Damina, who expressed disappointment in the Army, wondered how some people were allowed to cause mayhem, even when there was a curfew in place.”
— “He said, ‘How do you explain a situation where the governor of a state says there is curfew and nobody must go except the soldiers who were on patrol, only for people in Army uniform to go out and start killing Christians?'”
— “The cleric called on the Army to look inwards with a view of carrying out some internal cleansing and identifying those using their positions to terrorise the people.”
Next: Police to charge 41 for murder over Jos crisis
Nigeria: 163 arrested in Nigerian massacre
— CNN reports: “More than 160 people have been arrested in connection with the massacre earlier this month of scores of people in central Nigeria, a national police spokesman told CNN Monday.”
— “Of the 163 arrested, 41 will be charged with homicide, said spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu. The other 122 will be charged with rioting, arson and possession of firearms, he said.”
Next: Jos: in their words
See also reports of March 17 and March 7 attacks:
Nigeria: New Machete Attacks Killing Christian Women and Children – Cut Out Tongues
Nigeria: 500 Christians Butchered in Jos
See also R.E.A.L. postings on Nigeria
Pakistan – Five Sihks Kidnapped – Oppression of Pakistan Minorities
Pakistan – Five Sihks Kidnapped – Oppression of Pakistan Minorities
— AP reports: “Five Sikh men who fled their hometown on the Afghan border were making a quick trip back home when masked men blocked their way with a pickup on a mountain road not far from the Khyber Pass. There were no houses, no buildings, no other cars in sight. The kidnappers covered their faces with black scarves and carried machine-guns.”
— “In a country beset by a powerful Islamist insurgency, where suicide bombings are commonplace and government offensives widely dismissed as ineffective, anyone can become a victim. But for the nation’s minorities — its small communities of Hindus, Christians and Sikhs — life is particularly precarious. Thousands have fled their villages, crowding into urban slums. Thousands more have fled the country.”
— “‘With the rise in militancy in our society in general, and in the northwest in particular, minorities are feeling more threatened,’ said I.A. Rehman, a senior official with Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission. He noted many Sikhs have been driven from their homes, and those who remain are now often forced to pay militants a ‘jizya’ — a traditional tax for non-Muslim.”
— “Singh’s journey, which began on a cold morning in January and ended 42 days later with a March 1 bloody gunbattle, underscores the threats to those minorities, as well as the lawlessness of Pakistan’s frontier regions.”
— “Two months later, it’s still not clear exactly why the Sikhs were targeted: Were the bandits waiting for them? Would they have kidnapped anyone who came by? Certainly their religion made them easier targets, since it is more difficult for them to make use of the region’s informal power networks, the tribal and religious leaders who can protect people in the semiautonomous areas.”
— “On that day, though, as armed men swarmed toward their car, shouting for the five Sikh men to move quickly, all Singh and his friends were thinking about was survival.”
— “Two of them managed to slip away amid the chaos, but three — all sharing the same common Sikh surname, Singh — were quickly captured.”
— “‘They held us at gunpoint, immediately dragged us out of our car,’ said Surjeet Singh, a quiet composed man. He and his friends were blindfolded and driven for about an hour. Then they began walking.”
— “They could see nothing through their blindfolds. They could only feel cold pressing in as they climbed higher into the Hindu Kush mountains.”
— “After hours of walking, they were brought to a set of rooms carved into the mountainside. It would be their home for the next 42 days. There they would be kept chained and often blindfolded. Occasionally, they were beaten. The prisoners never saw their captors’ faces — which were always covered with scarves — and even now they do not know who they were.”
— “They clearly were militant Muslims, forcibly cutting their prisoners hair. Keeping hair uncut is a deeply important religious precept for Sikh men.”
Yemen: Ban on Child Brides Is Imperiled
Yemen: Ban on Child Brides Is Imperiled
— AP reports: “Some of Yemen’s most influential Muslim leaders have declared supporters of a ban on child brides to be apostates”
Yemen: “Women oppose child marriage ban”
— Straits Times reports: “The protesters held up banners proclaiming ‘don’t ban what Allah made permissible,’ or ‘stop violating Islamic sharia law in the name of rights and freedoms,’ an AFP correspondent said. Answering calls by Muslim clerics who oppose the proposal on grounds it goes against Islamic sharia law, the protesters arrived in organized buses.”
Connecticut White Wolves White Supremacist, Nazi Group Members Indicted
Five members of a white supremacist, neo-Nazi group known as the “Connecticut White Wolves” have been reportedly indicted by a federal grand jury on weapons violations, allegedly attempting to sell weapons across state lines. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has reported in past on the activities and history of the “Connecticut White Wolves.”
Connecticut: Five Accused White Supremacists Indicted On Weapons Charges
— Hartford Courant reports:
— “Five members or associates of an alleged neo-Nazi, white supremacist group known as the Connecticut White Wolves have been indicted by a federal grand jury, accused of conspiring to sell guns and homemade hand grenades to what they thought was a similar group out of state.”
— “The group, also known as Battalion 14, is believed to have been formed in the southern part of the state within the past decade by a collection of young, self-professed “skinheads.” More recently, the group has attracted the attention of civil rights groups because of its recruiting efforts and its involvement in disruptive and violent acts.”
Anti-Defamation League reports on “Connecticut White Wolves”
— “Members, though typically young, have been involved in a number of criminal acts in Connecticut and have forged ties with nationally recognized hate groups, including the National Alliance, the Creativity Movement, White Revolution and the Ku Klux Klan.”
— “Like other established hate groups, the White Wolves promote their hateful ideology through leafleting — neighborhoods with white supremacist propaganda.”
— “Although based in Connecticut, the White Wolves have not limited their activities to that state. From the group’s inception (ostensibly on April 20, Adolf Hitler’s birthday), members have sought to expand the group’s influence and attract new members outside of Connecticut by traveling to other parts of the country and reaching out to established hate groups. In August 2002, the White Wolves attended a rally in Washington, D.C., to protest U.S. support for Israel that was sponsored by the neo-Nazi National Alliance. ”
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Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) supports our unqualified, universal human rights for all. We urge Nazi, white supremacist, “white nationalist,” and “race realist” supporters to drop the burden of the hate of supremacism from their hearts, and to rejoin the family of humanity in support of our universal human rights.
Choose love, not hate. Love wins.
Pakistan: 647 women killed in the name of ‘honor’ last year
Sudan: ICC prosecutor: April Sudan vote like ‘Hitler election’
Middle East Online reports on the views of ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo who states that the elections planned for April 11 through 13, 2010 in the Sudan are similar to a “monitoring a Hitler election.” Middle East Online also reports that ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told them ” it was the duty of the Sudanese government in the first place to arrest” President Omar al-Bashir.
Middle East Online reports:
— “The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Tuesday likened Sudanese elections scheduled for next month to ‘a Hitler election.'”
— “The comment came the day after Sudan threatened to expel foreign observers after rejecting their call to delay the country’s first multi-party polls in 24 years over concerns about the way they are being organised.”
— “President Omar al-Beshir issued the warning in an address to supporters in the eastern city of Port Sudan on Monday after the electoral commission decided to press ahead and stage the elections next month as planned.”
— “The EU’s observers on the ground are facing ‘a big challenge,’ Moreno-Ocampo told a press conference in Brussels.”
— “‘It’s like monitoring a Hitler election,’ he added.”
— “The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president on five counts of crimes against humanity, including genocide, and two of war crimes committed in Darfur — its first-ever warrant for a sitting head of state.”
— “Moreno-Ocampo said it was the duty of the Sudanese government in the first place to arrest Beshir.”
— “An ICC appeals chamber last month ordered a review of Beshir’s arrest warrant for alleged atrocities in the war-torn western Sudanese province of Darfur.”
— “It directed judges to reconsider their decision to omit genocide from the warrant issued in March last year, saying they had made ‘an error in law.'”
— “The Sudanese legislative, regional and presidential elections, is scheduled for April 11-13.”
See also R.E.A.L. postings on Sudan:
Washington DC: Sudan Rights Activists Speak Out on Darfur – Despite the Snow
ICC: Judges allow genocide charge against Sudanese leader
Sudan’s Al-Mahdi Defies ICC Charges on Bashir; UN Names New Sudan Envoy
Sudan: VOA – “UN: Clashes on Rise in South Sudan as Polls Near”
Sudan: VOA – “UN: Clashes on Rise in South Sudan as Polls Near”
— VOA: “A U.N. official says incidents of inter-tribal violence have escalated in South Sudan before key elections, killing 450 and displacing nearly 60,000 since the beginning of this year. The April vote is to be Sudan’s first multi-party polls in 24 years”