Ecranga's Blog

Remember, remember September

ecranga — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 11:46:38 +0000

Remember September 28, 2009

While The 2010 World Cup is going on in south Africa, 
it's important to remember what happened on another soccer field 
a little north of the current games, a few months ago 
on september 28, 2009 :

The presidential guard, the so-called ‘red berets’, entered a soccer field in Conakry, Guinea (Western Africa) and killed the men, raped women right on the grass, some inserted weapons, a woman was killed after a soldier inserted a rifle through her vagina and shot her to death. A few were kidnapped and taken from the stadium or on their way to receive medical care and taken to private residences and army base and gang raped for days. Witnesses report seeing about 63 corpses being removed he next day form the military base. The presidential army troops took over the hospitals’ morgues to remove and bury the corpses, proof of their crime against humanity. The UN sent a commission to inquiry on this possible crime against humanity. “The government’s official death toll is 57. Human Rights Watch’s investigation found that the actual death toll is likely to have been between 150 and 200″.

“The scale of these crimes and the dearth of any apparent threat or provocation on the part of the demonstrators, in combination with the organized manner in which the security forces carried out the stadium attack, suggest that the crimes were premeditated and organized” Human Rights Watch

After the president’s death in 2008, captain Moussa Dadis Camara proclaimed himself president and seized power with other military officers. The rred berets’ are members of his personal army.

detailed report : ENGLISH version

rapport détaillé : version FRANÇAISE

Yemen getting more critical

ecranga — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:46:00 +0000

In Yemen, thousands of people are being displaced and 16 of them drowned in the river this past week while trying to cross and flee away from the combats in the north of the country between the governement supporting the American war against terrorism on the international scene and the shiite rebels who accuse the government of being pro-US and of using help from Saudi Arabia. The governement’s response has been tighter and tighter repression since then by the use of force and bombing.

Yemen’s president Ali Abdullah Saleh

http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/116/article_83952.asp

Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence extended!!!

ecranga — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:56:37 +0000

August 12 : Today, Aung San Suu Kyi just got sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest by the junte’s (name of the dictatorship in Burma) leader, Than Shwe. Barrack Obama is advocating for her release while China supports Burma’s decision.

Aung San Suu Kyi is 64 and has been under house arrest for 14 years total within a period of 20 years. She is going to appeal to the sentence as well as the Ameican man who invited himself to her house and got sentenced as well.

Comforting embrace

ecranga — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:10:09 +0000

Lord’s Resistance Army

ecranga — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:33:49 +0000

2006, August 4 : LRA declares end of 18 years of combats against Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni. Result : 2 millions people displaced, among those, 1.7 millions live in refugee camps.

That was the situation in 2006…what is it like AS OF TODAY?

2009, August 7 - a new wave of violence has truck Congo lead by the LRA : Lord’s Resistance Army. This past year only, about an additional 260000 persons got displaced due to the on-going conflict spread all over Uganda, Congo and and the south of Sudan. OFFICIALLY, SINCE 2006 AN ADDITIONAL 1.7 MILLION PEOPLE GOT DISPLACED dure to the conflict.

Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is categorized by the United States of America as a terrorist group. Its aim is to take over the presidency and create a new state based on the 10th commandements. The ongoing conflict started when two generals belonging to the ethnic group of the Acholi took over the presidency held by a member of another ethnic : the Langi. Both groups have been fighting ever since, even though Yoweri Museveni (belonging to the other ethnic group of the Ankole), was the one who took over the presidency and his position is the coveted one.

80% of their army is made of children soldiers, kidnapped to their family and then trained. That is why a lot of children sleep in the streets outside at night, they are afraid of being kidnapped to become children soldiers or sexual slaves…the movie Uganda Rising testifies of this humanitarian situation, one of “the most neglected in the world” according to the UN.

Don’t forget AUNG SAN SUU KYI!

ecranga — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:52:13 +0000

I didn’t mean the title to sound as if she was dead…her health is threatened and her life is a threat. Aung Suu Kyi is a Peace Nobel Price, the only one in the world living without liberties. She chose to come back to Burma to fight against the “junta” (dictatorship usually implemented after a coup d’etat). For that purpose she neveer saw her children again, they are living in Great Britain while she is a prisoner in her own house under the government’s surveillance. Her British husband couldn’t even visit her before he died. Her boldness is all the more admirable when one considers the fact that she lived a western way of life while she was studying and where she started a family but nonetheless made the sacrifice of going back to her country to live under oppression. She is now very sick and the government might not grant her the medical care she needs. I will keep everybody posted on her condition. She is currently under trial for allegedly violating her house arrest sentence. The result of the trial will be issued on august 11. Little did I know that her party won the elections with 80% of the poll in 1989 but the junta never acknowledged her victory. I admire this woman and I am happy I stubbled upon an article in… Elle magazine! Check out the picture of this peaceful activist, often compared to Gandhi and be sure never to forget this face. She makes me think of an Asian Audrey Hepburn…

The World’s Most Repressive Societies

ecranga — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:38:31 +0000

I read a UN report on 2009 world’s most repressive societies : in order to make this list, the UN considers two kinds of rights : political and civil rights and rate the access of the people to these rights, 7 being the highest number, aka no access to any rights. I was shocked to see Morocco appear on that list. To be fair, its only western Sahara, but it is still a country geographically close to France where I live and also a highly touristic country where I thought the open borders to the influx of tourists and international trade would have a positive effect on the allpowering kingdom as well as guarantee a minimum of rights – both political and civil – at least thanks to the pressure of popular pressure from the tourists’ part, most of whom are coming from democratic countries.

source : http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/WoW09/WOW%202009.pdf

Board of the most repressive countries 2009

Hello world!

ecranga — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:11:31 +0000

In Afghanistan, children are given heroine to endure the pain or the fever.