- crowdfunder.co.uk/p/free-julian, #AssangeJet
- Jimmy Dore, Kurt Metzger (jimmydore.com); Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Showing posts with label unrest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unrest. Show all posts
Saturday, June 29, 2024
Details: Julian Assange, WikiLeaks (JDS)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Thai Elephant steps on Burmese landmine
Elephant tears (Tasos_49/Digifancanon/Flickr)(Telegraph.co.uk) Soraida Salwala of the Friends of the Asian Elephant conservation group in northern Thailand says the pachyderm's left foot was severely hurt in Sunday's blast in Burma's Kayin state.
Salwala said Tuesday that the elephant named Pa Hae Po was taken by truck to the group's hospital in the Thai city of Lampang and is expected to recover.
The elephant is the 14th such injury to be treated at the hospital since it began operating in 1993. He joins three other landmine victims that remain hospitalized at the facility. Rights groups say both the Burma army and rebels have laid mines during decades of conflict.
Salwala said Tuesday that the elephant named Pa Hae Po was taken by truck to the group's hospital in the Thai city of Lampang and is expected to recover.
The elephant is the 14th such injury to be treated at the hospital since it began operating in 1993. He joins three other landmine victims that remain hospitalized at the facility. Rights groups say both the Burma army and rebels have laid mines during decades of conflict.
- Thai teacher accused of raping student kills himself
- Cambodian baby who suckles from cow considered weird (Reuters)
- Death industry reaps grim profits as Japan dies (killed by NWO)
- China condemns Mexican president's meeting with Dalai Lama
The relics were excavated in the 19th century by Alexander Cunningham, the first director of the Archaeological Survey of India. The place of excavation, now called Piprahwa in Bihar, was known as Kapilavastu earlier [leading to Indian claims that the Buddha was born in India proper rather than in an outlying region, be it in what is now Afghanistan or Nepal]. Indian and Sri Lankan officials on Saturday unveiled a 16-foot tall [statue of the] Buddha in the Sarnath style from the Gupta period, installed at the entrance to the International Buddhist Museum complex...Monday, February 2, 2009
War in Sri Lanka
Stark warning issued to civilians trapped in fighting Monday, a day after shells hit a crowded hospital in the combat zone, killing at least nine people (AFP).
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – A mother and father lay on the floor, their two young children cradled between them. Floral pillows and other bedding were strewn about: They were apparently sleeping when an artillery shell hit their makeshift shelter in northern Sri Lanka, instantly killing them all.
This photo, taken Jan. 23, along with other pictures and video footage taken last week were given to The Associated Press by independent observers. They offer a rare glimpse of the growing toll the civil war has taken on the estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the all-but-sealed conflict zone.
The images show that despite repeated government denials, civilians are being killed and maimed in the fighting.
Some of the victims were attacked inside a government-declared "safe zone" in rebel-held territory and the wounded were brought to the nearby Puthukkudiyiruppu Hospital, which itself has come under attack. More>>
- Sri Lanka may be verging on victory in 25-year civil war (McClatchy Newspapers)
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Anti-India sentiment grows amid Kashmir unrest
Policemen chase demonstrators during victory celebrations in Jammu 8/31/08. Hindus in Indian Kashmir called off their two-month protest after the government allowed them temporary use of land at the center of a religious dispute for an annual pilgrimage, officials said (Reuters/Amit Gupta).
Indian paramilitary frisks the bag of a woman during curfew in downtown Srinagar, India, 9/1/08. Authorities in Indian Kashmir relaxed a nine-day curfew allowing residents to buy food and other supplies as protests demanding an end to Indian rule continued in Muslim-majority areas of the state (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan).
Aijaz Hussain and Matthew Rosenberg (AP, 8/22/08)
SRINAGAR, India -- The crowd's hostility was unmistakable. Each time they passed Indian soldiers, thousands chanted the name of one of South Asia's most violent Islamic groups.
"India, your death will come. Lashkar will come," they chanted, harking back to the early 1990s when militants from groups like Lashkar-e-Tayyaba roamed this predominantly Muslim region's towns and villages and even Kashmir's peaceful separatists openly defied New Delhi.
Those days seem more like the present than the past in Kashmir, where a dispute over 99 acres of land for a Hindu shrine has prompted protests by hundreds of thousands, reviving the separatist movement and threatening to further undermine the India-Pakistan peace process.
While the militants may still be underground, a new generation of Muslim Kashmiris has loudly taken up the separatists' old slogan of "azadi" — freedom — from Hindu-majority India, long viewed by many here as an occupying power.
The latest and largest protest came Friday as an estimated 200,000 people streamed into central Srinagar, shutting down this city once famed for its cool summer weather and sweeping Himalayan panoramas.
They chanted "Death to India!" and "We want freedom!" while soldiers and police kept their distance, hoping to avoid a repeat of clashes that have killed at least 34 people in recent weeks.
Such scenes have pierced the notion, widely held throughout India just months ago, that a semblance of normal life was returning to Kashmir after 19 years of rebellion. Militant attacks were down, separatist politicians appeared sidelined, and tourists were back lounging on houseboats on Srinagar's Dal Lake.
That is all gone now, pushed aside by the anger at Indian rule that many here say was subsumed but never extinguished.
"This is a freedom movement, a people's movement," said Salman Ahmed, a 27-year-old protester. "We are united to fight India until we get freedom."
SRINAGAR, India -- The crowd's hostility was unmistakable. Each time they passed Indian soldiers, thousands chanted the name of one of South Asia's most violent Islamic groups.
"India, your death will come. Lashkar will come," they chanted, harking back to the early 1990s when militants from groups like Lashkar-e-Tayyaba roamed this predominantly Muslim region's towns and villages and even Kashmir's peaceful separatists openly defied New Delhi.
Those days seem more like the present than the past in Kashmir, where a dispute over 99 acres of land for a Hindu shrine has prompted protests by hundreds of thousands, reviving the separatist movement and threatening to further undermine the India-Pakistan peace process.
While the militants may still be underground, a new generation of Muslim Kashmiris has loudly taken up the separatists' old slogan of "azadi" — freedom — from Hindu-majority India, long viewed by many here as an occupying power.
The latest and largest protest came Friday as an estimated 200,000 people streamed into central Srinagar, shutting down this city once famed for its cool summer weather and sweeping Himalayan panoramas.
They chanted "Death to India!" and "We want freedom!" while soldiers and police kept their distance, hoping to avoid a repeat of clashes that have killed at least 34 people in recent weeks.
Such scenes have pierced the notion, widely held throughout India just months ago, that a semblance of normal life was returning to Kashmir after 19 years of rebellion. Militant attacks were down, separatist politicians appeared sidelined, and tourists were back lounging on houseboats on Srinagar's Dal Lake.
That is all gone now, pushed aside by the anger at Indian rule that many here say was subsumed but never extinguished.
"This is a freedom movement, a people's movement," said Salman Ahmed, a 27-year-old protester. "We are united to fight India until we get freedom."
Supporters of Pakistani largest Islamic group Jamaat-e-Islami take part in a rally to condemn alleged government atrocities in Indian-controlled Kashmir, 8-31-08 in Lahore, Pakistan. Hundreds of the supporters an Islamic group rallied in Lahore to express solidarity with Indian Kashmiri Muslims and against the target killing of the leaders of All Parties Hurriyat Conference in Indian controlled Kashmir (AP Photo/K.M.Chaudary).
The timing could not be worse. Divided between India and Muslim Pakistan, Kashmir lies at the heart of their rivalry. The unrest is straining already tense relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors, who have fought two wars over Kashmir.
Statements from Islamabad supporting the protesters have prompted angry responses from New Delhi. They've also raised suspicions of a Pakistani hand in the unrest, reflecting India's belief that recent political turmoil in Pakistan is allowing hawkish elements there to renew the struggle against India after four years of peace talks.
Such fears are being stoked by repeated skirmishes along the heavily militarized frontier that divides Kashmir — each side blames the other — and the bombing of India's embassy in Afghanistan, an attack New Delhi charges was orchestrated by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency. Islamabad vehemently denies the allegations.
One top Indian security official, A.K. Mitra, chief of the paramilitary Border Security Force, recently told reporters that the ISI plans to use the unrest to sneak 800 Islamic militants into Kashmir.
But on the streets of Kashmir, it is India's continued claim to the region — and the presence of an estimated 500,000 Indian soldiers — that is seen as the problem.
"We are a separate people, we were never part of India," Shabir Hussain, a 30-year-old protester in Srinagar, said Friday.
It's a widely shared sentiment, and its roots can be traced to 1947, when Britain gave independence to its Indian colony by dividing it into largely Hindu India and overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan.
Kashmir, then technically a British protectorate and not a part of colonial India, was caught in the middle. Its Hindu king insisted he wanted to remain independent, dithering until tribal raiders attacked from Pakistan. When he asked New Delhi for help, there was a steep price: union with India.
War broke out between India and Pakistan, and the verdant Kashmir valley, the region's heart, ended up under Indian rule.
In the ensuing decades, separatist movements ebbed and flowed in Indian Kashmir, where the sight of soldiers on patrol became part of everyday life, fueling resentment.
Most of the separatist movements were peaceful until 1989, when Islamic insurgents took up arms hoping to win independence for India's part of Kashmir or see it merged with Pakistan. The rebellion has killed an estimated 68,000 people, most of them civilians.
Few Kashmiris blame the militants for the deaths. "The Indian army has unleashed a reign of terror in Kashmir," said Nissar Ahmed, a 35-year-old government worker. "This is a reaction and response to their atrocities."
Statements from Islamabad supporting the protesters have prompted angry responses from New Delhi. They've also raised suspicions of a Pakistani hand in the unrest, reflecting India's belief that recent political turmoil in Pakistan is allowing hawkish elements there to renew the struggle against India after four years of peace talks.
Such fears are being stoked by repeated skirmishes along the heavily militarized frontier that divides Kashmir — each side blames the other — and the bombing of India's embassy in Afghanistan, an attack New Delhi charges was orchestrated by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency. Islamabad vehemently denies the allegations.
One top Indian security official, A.K. Mitra, chief of the paramilitary Border Security Force, recently told reporters that the ISI plans to use the unrest to sneak 800 Islamic militants into Kashmir.
But on the streets of Kashmir, it is India's continued claim to the region — and the presence of an estimated 500,000 Indian soldiers — that is seen as the problem.
"We are a separate people, we were never part of India," Shabir Hussain, a 30-year-old protester in Srinagar, said Friday.
It's a widely shared sentiment, and its roots can be traced to 1947, when Britain gave independence to its Indian colony by dividing it into largely Hindu India and overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan.
Kashmir, then technically a British protectorate and not a part of colonial India, was caught in the middle. Its Hindu king insisted he wanted to remain independent, dithering until tribal raiders attacked from Pakistan. When he asked New Delhi for help, there was a steep price: union with India.
War broke out between India and Pakistan, and the verdant Kashmir valley, the region's heart, ended up under Indian rule.
In the ensuing decades, separatist movements ebbed and flowed in Indian Kashmir, where the sight of soldiers on patrol became part of everyday life, fueling resentment.
Most of the separatist movements were peaceful until 1989, when Islamic insurgents took up arms hoping to win independence for India's part of Kashmir or see it merged with Pakistan. The rebellion has killed an estimated 68,000 people, most of them civilians.
Few Kashmiris blame the militants for the deaths. "The Indian army has unleashed a reign of terror in Kashmir," said Nissar Ahmed, a 35-year-old government worker. "This is a reaction and response to their atrocities."
.
Demonstrators run towards police during a protest in Jammu 8/30/08. The protest was against the government's backing down from the transfer of forest land to a Hindu shrine trust (Reuters/Amit Gupta).
The spark for the latest unrest was a plan to transfer land to the Amarnath shrine — a cave to which millions of Hindu pilgrims flock every year to see a phallic-shaped icicle revered as an incarnation of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration.
Authorities said bathrooms and shelters for the devotees were going to be built on the land. But Muslims alleged the land transfer would alter the religious balance in the region, comparing the move to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and prompting authorities to scrap the plan.
That, in turn, sparked protests in Jammu, the region's only Hindu-majority city, which were countered by more protests in Muslim-dominated areas such as Srinagar.
While Hindus are still protesting in Jammu, it is the Muslim demonstrations that have taken center stage, threatening India's grip on its only Muslim majority state.
"The peace process between India and Pakistan failed to change the ground situation in Kashmir," said Noor Mohammed Baba, a professor at the University of Kashmir.
"Now this festering wound is manifesting itself on the streets. This is a mass uprising and in many ways more serious and comprehensive than the early 1990s."
The spark for the latest unrest was a plan to transfer land to the Amarnath shrine — a cave to which millions of Hindu pilgrims flock every year to see a phallic-shaped icicle revered as an incarnation of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration.
Authorities said bathrooms and shelters for the devotees were going to be built on the land. But Muslims alleged the land transfer would alter the religious balance in the region, comparing the move to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and prompting authorities to scrap the plan.
That, in turn, sparked protests in Jammu, the region's only Hindu-majority city, which were countered by more protests in Muslim-dominated areas such as Srinagar.
While Hindus are still protesting in Jammu, it is the Muslim demonstrations that have taken center stage, threatening India's grip on its only Muslim majority state.
"The peace process between India and Pakistan failed to change the ground situation in Kashmir," said Noor Mohammed Baba, a professor at the University of Kashmir.
"Now this festering wound is manifesting itself on the streets. This is a mass uprising and in many ways more serious and comprehensive than the early 1990s."
Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain reported this story from Srinagar and Matthew Rosenberg from New Delhi.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Tibet: Olympic torch parade
Chinese Armed Police officers try to block a photographer from taking pictures on them on a street in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region on Saturday, June 21, 2008, as the Olympic torch is to make its way through Tibet's sealed-off capital. (AP Photo/Kyodo News, Takanori Sekine)By Ken Teh
ASA, China -- The Olympic torch was paraded through the streets of Tibet's capital Saturday, the site of bloody riots in March that triggered demonstrations along the flame's international relay stops. Tight security accompanied the flame over its three-hour journey through the historic city, da day after officials announced more jail sentences related to the deadly riots. he torch next travels to neighboring Qinghai province before gradually winding its way across northern China toward Beijing. A special Aug. 3-5 stop in Sichuan was added to honor victims of last month's earthquake ahead of the Aug. 8 opening ceremony in Beijing. The roughly 6-mile run began at Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's former summer palace from where Tibet's traditional Buddhist leader fled into exile in 1959. It ended at a vast square at the base of the hilltop Potala Palace, the traditional seat of Tibetan rulers. Hundreds of police and paramilitary troops lined the route. Onlookers, who had been carefully screened beforehand, waved flags and chanted "go China." About half of the 156 torch runners were ethnic Tibetan, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The Lhasa leg saw the reunion of the main torch with a separate one carried earlier to the top of Mount Everest — one of the highlights of the grandiose global relay that drew ugly confrontations at some of its international stops between Chinese supporters and groups protesting Beijing's human rights record and policies toward Tibet and Sudan. On Friday, Palma Trily, the vice-governor of Tibet's Chinese-appointed administration, told foreign reporters Tibetan exile groups were seeking to sabotage the torch run. The reporters were required to travel in a closely guarded convoy and only allowed to cover the opening and closing legs, isolating them from contact with ordinary residents. Lhasa, which has been under a security lockdown since the riots, all but shutdown for the relay, with streets deserted and most shops closed. A security cordon was thrown up around Potala Square, with costumed performers taking the place of Buddhist pilgrims who visit to turn prayer wheels and prostrate themselves in front of the palace, which is now a museum. Palma Trily also announced that 12 more people had been sentenced for taking part in the March 14 riot in the city that spawned further protests throughout Tibetan-inhabited regions of western China. He gave no details about their offenses or the punishments meted out. Palma Trily said another 1,157 people had been released from detention over minor offenses related to the violent anti-government protests, in which Beijing says 22 people died. Chinese officials say the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, was behind the March unrest. They also accuse the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate of trying to sabotage the Beijing Olympics and preparing "suicide squads" to carry out attacks. The Dalai Lama has denied the charges. Tibet is still closed to foreign tourists. Foreign journalists have been allowed to visit only as part of closely monitored government tours. Activist groups say the torch relay leg in Tibet and the separate relay to the peak of Mount Everest are an attempt by Chinese leaders to symbolize their control over the Himalayan region. China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially independent for much of that time. New York-based Human Rights in China called the Lhasa relay a "provocative decision" that harmed efforts to "find a peaceful long-term solution for Tibet and the region."
ASA, China -- The Olympic torch was paraded through the streets of Tibet's capital Saturday, the site of bloody riots in March that triggered demonstrations along the flame's international relay stops. Tight security accompanied the flame over its three-hour journey through the historic city, da day after officials announced more jail sentences related to the deadly riots. he torch next travels to neighboring Qinghai province before gradually winding its way across northern China toward Beijing. A special Aug. 3-5 stop in Sichuan was added to honor victims of last month's earthquake ahead of the Aug. 8 opening ceremony in Beijing. The roughly 6-mile run began at Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's former summer palace from where Tibet's traditional Buddhist leader fled into exile in 1959. It ended at a vast square at the base of the hilltop Potala Palace, the traditional seat of Tibetan rulers. Hundreds of police and paramilitary troops lined the route. Onlookers, who had been carefully screened beforehand, waved flags and chanted "go China." About half of the 156 torch runners were ethnic Tibetan, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The Lhasa leg saw the reunion of the main torch with a separate one carried earlier to the top of Mount Everest — one of the highlights of the grandiose global relay that drew ugly confrontations at some of its international stops between Chinese supporters and groups protesting Beijing's human rights record and policies toward Tibet and Sudan. On Friday, Palma Trily, the vice-governor of Tibet's Chinese-appointed administration, told foreign reporters Tibetan exile groups were seeking to sabotage the torch run. The reporters were required to travel in a closely guarded convoy and only allowed to cover the opening and closing legs, isolating them from contact with ordinary residents. Lhasa, which has been under a security lockdown since the riots, all but shutdown for the relay, with streets deserted and most shops closed. A security cordon was thrown up around Potala Square, with costumed performers taking the place of Buddhist pilgrims who visit to turn prayer wheels and prostrate themselves in front of the palace, which is now a museum. Palma Trily also announced that 12 more people had been sentenced for taking part in the March 14 riot in the city that spawned further protests throughout Tibetan-inhabited regions of western China. He gave no details about their offenses or the punishments meted out. Palma Trily said another 1,157 people had been released from detention over minor offenses related to the violent anti-government protests, in which Beijing says 22 people died. Chinese officials say the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, was behind the March unrest. They also accuse the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate of trying to sabotage the Beijing Olympics and preparing "suicide squads" to carry out attacks. The Dalai Lama has denied the charges. Tibet is still closed to foreign tourists. Foreign journalists have been allowed to visit only as part of closely monitored government tours. Activist groups say the torch relay leg in Tibet and the separate relay to the peak of Mount Everest are an attempt by Chinese leaders to symbolize their control over the Himalayan region. China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially independent for much of that time. New York-based Human Rights in China called the Lhasa relay a "provocative decision" that harmed efforts to "find a peaceful long-term solution for Tibet and the region."
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