MONEY TALKS

Follow the money. In America, well most places, its often all about the money.

Take the University of Illinois and its mascot Chief Illiniwek, for example. The school made $1.8 million in the fiscal year ended last June on licenses granted to reproduce all its logos, including the chief. Details were not immediately available, but a substantial portion came from chief-related licensing, university officials have said.

On top of all that, at many schools booster clubs have promised to boycott should the logos and mascots be changed. Large numbers of alumni also have made it clear that a name change will end their contributions.

At the University of North Dakota, casino magnate Ralph Engelstad committed $100 million dollars to his alma mater, with half earmarked for an 11,500-seat state of the art hockey arena. Engelstad, a former All-American player for North Dakota, was outraged when President Charles Kupchella formed a commission to study the controversy around the team nickname, the Fighting Sioux.

In a letter to Kupchella Tolerance.Org reports, Engelstad threatened to turn off the heat, cease construction of the arena, and withdraw the entire $100 million commitment. The very next day, the State Board of Higher Education voted 8-0 to keep the name.

The following is from Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

Farewell To the Chief
By Mary Annette Pember

American Indian groups and others have largely won their battle over the use of Native images by college sports teams, but the economic backstory is seldom reported.

The battle over the use of American Indian names and mascots among college and professional athletic teams has a seldom-told economic backstory. It’s more than simple alumni sentimentality. Money, influence and power often play a significant role in decisions regarding the use of these symbols. Paraphernalia bearing the images bring in millions of dollars each year to the institutions. But the names and images have been decried as disrespectful and insensitive to American Indians.

And it is the tribes, along with philanthropic, education, professional and civil rights organizations, that are leading the movement to retire the symbols.

The National Congress of American Indians, the National Education Association, the NCAA and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights have all voiced their opposition to the mascots. Last year, the NCAA ruled that teams featuring offensive mascots would no longer be able to host postseason tournaments and would be subject to other penalties and restrictions. That rule, combined with the waves of negative publicity the mascots have generated, has led many colleges and universities to shelve the mascots permanently. According to Suzan Shown Harjo, the executive director of the Morning Star Institute and a columnist for Indian Country Today, more than 3,000 high schools and colleges featured American Indian imagery in 1970. Today, that number has dropped to less than 1,000.

The most recent and possibly most visible mascot retirement came in February when University of Illinois trustees chose to discontinue the use of the school’s mascot, Chief Illiniwek. The circumstances of the Chief’s demise shed a glimmer of light on the powerful economic forces at play behind these struggles. Buried in the fanfare of Chief Illiniwek’s last dance was the fact that the university’s board of trustees met last month to decide what the school will do with the mascot’s trademark. A group of alumni and students who formerly portrayed the Chief have asked to have it transferred to their nonprofit organization, Council of Chiefs. University chancellor Richard Hermann will determine the fate of the Chief’s copyright, a process which he reported could take up to a year. The university earned $1.8 million last year from the sale of licensed merchandise.

According to the News-Gazette of Champaign, Ill., merchandise featuring the Chief brought in six figures on its own. During the meeting, the board also ratified the February decision to drop the use of Chief Illiniwek and voted down a resolution brought by trustee David Dorris directing the school to join a lawsuit by the Council of Chiefs against the NCAA. The suit alleges that the NCAA’s sanction is a violation of free speech and academic freedom.

In 2006, Dennis Hastert, then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, sponsored the Protection of University Governance Act, which would have allowed colleges to sue the NCAA retroactively back to 2005 and collect attorney fees and damages. The bill was co-sponsored by nine mostly Republican representatives from Illinois, as well as U.S. Rep. F. Allen Boyd. Jr., who represents Tallahassee, Fla., home of the Florida State University Seminoles. The bill went largely unnoticed by the media, with the exception of the American Indian press.

“It is virtually unheard of for Congress to provide retroactive causes of action because courts usually toss them out as unconstitutional,” says Harjo. In the end, the bill did not become law, expiring in December 2006. It was referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Last month, U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Ill., reintroduced the bill in the new House.

Harjo, who is Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee, was also among a group of prominent Native leaders who filed a landmark 1992 petition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office arguing that the agency should cancel trademarks owned by the National Football League’s Washington Redskins because the images are disparaging to American Indians. The group was victorious in court in 1999, but the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia overturned the decision on appeal in 2003, ruling that too much time had elapsed between the inception of the trademark in 1967 and the lawsuit in 1999. The court also agreed with the defense’s argument that rescinding the trademark would exert undo economic hardship on team owner Daniel Snyder. Merchandise bearing the Redskins’ logo brings in more than $5 million each year. A new case, brought by six young American Indians, is currently pending. Because none of the new plaintiffs was alive in 1967, lawyers for the Redskins won’t be able to rely on the delay defense.

Money Talks
Soon after taking office at the University of North Dakota in 1999, president Charles E. Kupchella appeared sympathetic to student and community members seeking to eliminate the team’s “Fighting Sioux” nickname. He publicly expressed his desire for a “third solution” to the mascot issue. However, by late 2000, Kupchella was publicly supporting the use of the mascot. Not coincidentally, many observers say, his change in opinion coincided closely with the publication of a letter sent to him and the state board of public education by alumni and donor Ralph Englestad. In the letter, Englestad indicated he would renege on his promise to build a $100 million hockey arena if the university changed the Fighting Sioux nickname. The day after receiving Englestad’s letter, the state board of education voted to keep the logo. Recently, North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem’s office filed a lawsuit on behalf of UND and the board against the NCAA. The trial, which is also seeking cash damages in addition to lifting sanctions for keeping the name, will begin later this year.

“The Ralph,” as the 10-story brick arena is known, is currently owned privately by the Englestad family trust, which stipulates that Fighting Sioux logo be kept indefinitely. The trust rents the arena to the university. Englestad, the multi-millionaire owner of The Imperial Palace Casinos in Las Vegas and Biloxi, Miss., was an eccentric figure. He publicly revered the Nazi party and kept a collection of Nazi memorabilia displayed at his casino, including a painting of himself in a Nazi uniform. Englestad also hosted birthday parties for Adolf Hitler in his casino. He was fined $1.5 million by the Nevada Gaming Commission in 1989 for actions reflecting poorly on the industry. He died in 2002 from cancer.

To date, four schools have negotiated agreements with local tribal leadership eliciting support for their American Indian-nicknamed teams and mascots: The Catawba College Indians, the Central Michigan University Chippewas, the University of Utah Utes and the Florida State Seminoles. Of the four, FSU is the only one that still maintains a mascot.

The 3,300-member Florida Seminole tribe has publicly supported FSU’s use of the Seminole name and the Osceola mascot, who traditionally opens each home football game by riding in on a horse and throwing a flaming spear into the ground. Both the university and tribal leadership insist that no money has changed hands in the arrangement, although some scholarships have been awarded to tribal members. The leadership of the 6,000-member Seminole tribe of Oklahoma also supports FSU’s use of the name and mascot.

The other three schools have arrangements with their areas’ respective tribal groups. In a public statement, NCAA senior vice president Bernard W. Franklin, said, “the decision of a namesake sovereign tribe, regarding when and how its name and imagery can be used, must be respected even when others may not agree.”

COULDN'T HAPPEN TO A NICER GUY

Now be honest. Given the chance wouldn't you like to throw and egg at Karl Rove. Who wouldn't? At American University in Washington the opportunity arose and some answered the call.

Students there tried to make a citizen's arrest of Karl Rove last night at one of his canned "invitation only" speeches in front of the College Republicans.

Student organizers say they organized the demonstration after compelling evidence that Rove violated an act stipulating that all presidential email be recorded on a White House server. I can think of a whole slew of better things to arrest the guy for.

Some of the rowdies even kicked and shook Karl's car. I remember way back in history when I got to do the same to a car carrying Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Lewis Walt when he came calling at the University of Kansas. That was some fun.

The following article is from that beacon of radical news known as the Washington Post.

Students Lie in Front of Car, Delay Rove After Speech
Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Heckling protesters briefly delayed the car carrying top White House aide Karl Rove last night as he left the American University campus, where he had just given a speech. No arrests or injuries were reported after Rove's invitation-only talk.

About 20 students lay in front of the car as it prepared to leave, a witness said.

Josh Goodman, an AU junior, said other students kicked the car "and tried to stop it as best as they could."

He said the car, with Rove in the back seat, left after those in front of it "were all pulled away."

Goodman estimated that the incident lasted for "close to five full minutes," but Maralee Csellar, AU's acting head of public relations, said the delay amounted to a minute or two. She said there were 12 to 15 protesters.

A White House spokeswoman said last night that Rove "is pleased to accept invitations to speak to groups, including students."

"Rarely is there a protest that is not peaceful," spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said. "Karl was never in any danger. He appreciated the opportunity and the invitation."

Kim Bruce, a spokeswoman for the Secret Service, said that after Rove spoke, "several individuals who had gathered outside the speech area threw unknown objects at the vehicle."

In addition, she said, "some individuals ran in front of the vehicle" but "did not impede" Rove's departure.

Goodman said students went to the Ward Circle building where Rove spoke to make a "citizen's arrest" of the presidential adviser. He said the students claimed they had compiled evidence indicating that Rove had violated what they say is a presidential records act stipulating that all presidential e-mail be recorded on White House servers.

Csellar said Rove came to AU to speak to the campus Young Republican Club at its last meeting of the school year. She said he was expected to talk for about 20 minutes and take questions for a similar period. Members were given tickets for the event, she said.

THEY'RE KILLING OUR BEST FRIENDS

If you are like me and you have an animal companion (me, I got a greyhound and that is her picture you see) you have probably been appalled and dismayed by this whole pet food recall thing. Some of you may say that this is no big deal as its just dogs and cats. To you I say, you just don't get it. This is a big deal and heads should roll.

But they won't!

My doggie by the way is fine. She eats food from Three Dog Bakery. However, because there was a possibility that she had eaten some "jerky treats" that have been recalled, I had her kidney functions tested. Everything thankfully came out okay.

What follows below are several press releases from PETA.

April 3, 2007: Damning News From Menu Foods; FDA May Be Wrong About Cause of Pet Deaths
Yesterday, the dean of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine confirmed that Menu Foods had contacted the college in early March, when cats in Menu labs stopped eating their food. Almost a full week later, the company sent tissue and urine samples from sick animals to Cornell, acknowledging that the food was toxic. Nearly two more weeks passed before Menu issued a recall.

Although the FDA continues to blame tainted wheat gluten for recent cat and dog illnesses and deaths, a mounting number of complaints about sick and dying animals who ate only dry food that did not contain wheat gluten strongly suggests that there is another source of contamination. Evidence from reputable laboratories indicates that an excessive amount of vitamin D in pet food may be to blame. Vitamin D overdoses produce symptoms similar to those seen in animals who recently got sick or died after consuming only dry foods. PETA is demanding that the FDA refocus its investigation to include other likely causes instead of pandering to the pet food industry and focusing on an ingredient that is found in only a moderate number of foods.


–April 2, 2007; 10 a.m.: PETA Calls on FDA Head to Resign
PETA President Ingrid Newkirk has called for the commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to step down from his post after revelations that the FDA refused to name the maker of a dry pet food believed to have received the suspected contaminated ingredient. Now, two independent laboratories are claiming that the FDA was wrong when it determined that the agent causing kidney failure in cats and dogs was wheat gluten contaminated with a chemical called melamine found in plastic. The FDA has yet to recall brands of dry food that are reportedly killing dogs and cats. The FDA has deceived the public and media, both about the nature of the recall and about the FDA’s oversight of the pet-food industry. Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, has claimed to the media, “There are really no differences in the regulation of animal food and the regulation of human food. The same people that inspect human food plants also inspect pet food plants.” However, the FDA’s own Web site verifies that the agency has left “regulation” of the pet-food industry to the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), a nongovernmental body with no power.

PETA is calling on law enforcement authorities to investigate whether cruelty-to-animals charges should be filed
In the wake of a massive recall of contaminated and deadly dog and cat food, Menu Foods and Iams are under fire for their cruel and unnecessary laboratory tests on animals. PETA is calling on law enforcement authorities to investigate whether cruelty-to-animals charges should be filed against the companies for alleged failure to warn consumers about the tainted food as soon as they had the information and—just as disturbingly—apparently feeding the tainted food to cats and dogs in order to test it.

Menu Foods reportedly knew of this potentially deadly food as early as February 20, 2007. When reports surfaced that its dog and cat food might have caused severe illness in customers’ animal companions, the company quietly conducted lethal toxicity tests to confirm the contamination. Dogs and cats were forced to ingest toxic and lethal food in Menu’s laboratory before the company announced the recall of pet food from stores nationwide nearly one month after the initial illnesses were reported. During this critical time, countless animal companions may have been at risk of getting sick, and many may have died.

In addition to the appalling failure to disclose information about the contaminated food to its consumers, Menu Foods chose to test the food by forcing healthy dogs and cats to ingest it—instead of using one of the reliable, humane alternatives that are readily available, including chemical analyses of the food, necropsies and tissue analyses of the already deceased animal victims, and non-animal test methods, such as the functional gastro-intestinal dog model (FIDO) or TIM-1 and TIM-2 (small and large gastro-intestinal models).

No one knows how many animals are dying in homes or how many are dying in laboratories for pet-food profits. PETA is calling on Menu Foods to provide full disclosure regarding the location of its laboratories, for law enforcement agencies to investigate whether cruelty-to-animals charges should be filed against Menu Foods in the U.S. and Canada for alleged failure to warn consumers about the tainted food as soon as the company had the information, and for Iams to stop unnecessary suffering and death by immediately ending its laboratory tests on animals.

PETA’s Investigation Revealed Cruel and Deadly Tests Conducted for Iams
For nearly 10 months in 2002 and early 2003, a PETA investigator went undercover at an Iams contract testing laboratory and discovered a dark and sordid secret beneath the wholesome image of the dog- and cat-food manufacturer. Undercover footage captured images of dogs who had gone insane from intense confinement to barren steel cages and cement cells, dogs who were left piled on a filthy paint-chipped floor after having chunks of muscle hacked from their thighs, and horribly sick dogs and cats who were languishing in their cages, neglected and left to suffer without veterinary care. In addition to suffering through painful experiments, animals in Iams labs were denied companionship and enrichment and were confined to their barren cages for at least 23 1/2 hours every day. The recent massive recall by Menu Foods, contract manufacturer for Procter & Gamble’s Iams and Eukanuba brands—of more than 60 million cans and pouches of dog and cat food is further proof that laboratory tests on animals do not guarantee that a product will be safe to use.

"BECAUSE THIS IS THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN"

In a protest over sweatshops, a group of a dozen University of Michigan students took over the reception area of the university president’s office today.

“We’re here until the president takes some action,” Blasé Kearney told the Detroit Free Press.

The group Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality led the action.

The university's administration has been asked by students and SOLE to adopt a program called the Designated Suppliers Program. The DSP requires brands such as Nike or Adidas to produce university goods from factories where workers have a right to form a union.

"While the University of Michigan has been dragging its feet, workers taking risks to stand up for their rights are losing their jobs," Aria Evert, a member of SOLE, said. "If our university is truly committed to workers' rights then we must adopt the DSP immediately, before more factories are forced to close their doors."

A representative from SOLE said 30 other universities have already committed to the DSP program.

The following articles comes from the Detroit News.

Students stage sit-in at U-M president's office to protest sweatshops

ANN ARBOR -- Students carrying sleeping bags, boxes of food, cell phones and laptop computers occupied the office of the University of Michigan's president Tuesday to protest what they said is the school's failure to follow its own policy against contracting sweatshops to make university logo apparel.

"Why am I doing this? Because this is the University of Michigan," said Jason Bates, a 21-year-old sophomore economics student from Novi. "If there is any place where decency and responsibility should be expected from our leaders, it is here."

Bates was among a dozen students who settled into chairs and onto the floor of the staff and reception area outside U-M President Mary Sue Coleman's private office in the Fleming Administration Building shortly after 9 a.m. They vowed to stay until Coleman agrees to honor a policy adopted after another student protest in 1999.

Former U-M President Lee Bollinger established a contractor's code of conduct following a 51-hour student occupation of the same office, calling for the university to contract only with vendors who meet basic humanitarian principals in dealing with workers.

The students claim the university has failed to follow that code. Their demands include Coleman's acceptance of a list of clothing suppliers that the students say pay decent wages and allow workers to unionize.

Students who spoke with a News reporter by cell phone, said they have seen police officers, but have not been threatened or told to move. They said Coleman's staff has treated them kindly. However, they were concerned about what might happen after 5 p.m., when public access to the building closes.

The group inside said more students are prepared to take up the protest by sleeping outside the administration building if they get kicked out or arrested.

University officials were unavailable for comment.

"We made it clear we were getting comfortable and she (Coleman) came out of her private office, Bates said. "We made our demands and made it clear that it is time to get serious on sweatshops. She said something along the lines of, 'We aren't interested in student demands.' "

Bates said Coleman then went back behind her inner office door.

"We let her know that when she was ready to talk, she would know where she could find us. Enough is enough. We aren't leaving. We are putting our foot down on this one."

Blase Kearney, 20, a sophomore political science and Asian studies student said his parents in Cadillac told him to not call them if he gets arrested.

"We expect the university should deal only with companies that pay a living wage and recognize the right to organize. No sweatshop conditions," Kearney said. "We're not leaving until she complies with our demands."

DON'T MESS WITH NURSES

Nurses continue to represent a vanguard of the US labor movement. All across the country nurses have been at the forefront of organizing drives. And they ain't stopping.

Way back last summer an official with the National Labor Review Board ruled that administrators at Flagstaff Medical Center (see picture) repeatedly violated labor laws weeks before nurses voted whether to unionize.

The finding invalidated the results from a two-day vote in June and would have forced the medical center, known as FMC, to hold a new election in the fall, but an appeal of the ruling by FMC has long delayed a new vote.

The following is from the web page of the California Nurses Association.

Flagstaff Hospital Faces Trial for anti-RN Illegal Acts - Administration's Refusal to Settle Charges Stalls Election As Community Coalition to Urge End to Lawbreaking

Flagstaff Medical Center will go on trial May 1 for violating federal law in interfering with the democratic rights of its registered nurses to form a union.

Concurrently, a broad community coalition is forming in Flagstaff that on Tuesday will demand FMC stop its lawless activities and will express concern that FMC’s interference with the RNs’ rights undermines the nurses’ ability to provide quality patient care.

What: Community coalition press conference
When: 9 a.m., Tuesday, April 3
Where: Front entry steps, Flagstaff City Hall
211 W. Aspen Ave. , Flagstaff

For the third time in five months, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) late Friday indicted FMC for ongoing illegal actions.

Last October the NLRB issued its first complaint against FMC for penalizing nurses who testified under subpoena on the hospital’s threats of wage freezes if nurses voted for the union in June 2006 as RNs were deciding on affiliation with the National Nurses Organizing Committee, the national arm of the California Nurses Association.

In January, the NLRB ordered a new union election citing those threats which it said had prevented a fair election. In March, FMC initially agreed to settle a new round of charges, but the administration abruptly reversed course, delaying the new election. As a result, the hospital will now face trial in front of a federal administrative law judge before an election can be held. The NLRB does not conduct elections while the employer is engaged in ongoing unlawful conduct.

"We have fought hard just to have our right to a fair election,” said Nancy Swann, FMC RN. “FMC needs to stop violating the law and honor our united voices to have our union so that we can deliver the best, safest patient care for our community. It is time for FMC to stop interfering with our rights and demonstrate the same respect and dignity for nurses that we have for our patients."

According to the latest NLRB complaint, the hospital has created a bogus, management-controlled union intended to subvert the ability of RNs to form their own, independent union. The so-called Alliance for Professional Nursing Excellence has begun dealing with FMC officials on issues affecting working conditions, a clear violation of federal law, the NLRB charges.

Additionally, the NLRB charged Friday that the hospital has also broken the law by threatening RNs with the loss of pay increases and retirement benefits if they vote to join NNOC/CNA. The complaint came as a result of a thorough field investigation by labor board agents in Flagstaff involving examination of hundreds of hospital documents and talking with many nurses.

Included in the later group, the Board alleges that FMC has:

“threatened its employees with loss of wage increases and benefits if they supported the Union”
“threatened its employees with unspecified reprisals because they discussed their appraisals and other terms and conditions of employment with their fellow employees”
“created an impression among its employees that their concerted activities were under surveillance”
"FMC needs to end its serial lawbreaking, which continues even after it has been repeatedly sanctioned by the federal government. Hospital officials are also compromising the well-being of the community by refusing to respect the rights of its professional caregivers to form a strong, independent union. It's time for this behavior to stop," said NNOC/CNA organizing director David Johnson.

NNOC/CNA is one of the nation's largest and fastes- growing organizations of RNs, representing some 75,000 RNs in 50 states.

EVENT (AND IT IS FREE): CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY AT SACREMENTO

Free-Speech Activist Jello Biafra @ CSUS

Here's something to wake you up: Punk icon and free-speech activist Jello Biafra is scheduled to set foot in Sacramento as part of his current lecture/spoken word tour. The former lead singer with the Dead Kennedys, founder of the Alternative Tentacles label and longtime activist gives a lecture and spoken- word performance. And maybe the best part about an already sure-to-be-good show? It's free. Check out the ex-Dead Kennedys frontman April 9, 7:30 p.m. at the CSUS University Union Ballroom (6000 J St). For more info: (916) 278-6997.

Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958) is more widely known by the stage name Jello Biafra. A punk rock musician, political activist and owner of an influential record label, he is best known for his time as the lead singer and song writer for San Francisco punk band, the Dead Kennedys. After his time with the band concluded, he continued as a musician in numerous collaborations and as a spoken word artist. Through his record label, Alternative Tentacles, he released many of his own recordings. Politically, he is a member of the Green Party[1] and actively supports progressive political causes. He is a self-proclaimed anarchist[1] who advocates civil disobedience and pranksterism in the name of political change. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics in the tradition of the Yippies to highlight issues of civil rights, social justice, and anti-corporatism.

His stage name is a combination of the brand name Jell-O and the name of the short lived country of Biafra which attempted to secede from Nigeria in 1966. After four years of fighting and horrific starvation in Biafra, Nigeria regained control of the nascent Biafran state. Jello Biafra created his name as an ironic combination of a nutritionally poor mass-produced food product and mass starvation. He said he likes how two ideas clash in people's minds.

Time: Monday, April 9, 2007 - 7:00pm PST

PALESTINIAN JOURNALISTS DEMAND RELEASE OF BBC REPORTER

Palestinian journalists are demanding the release of a British collegue being held somewhere in Gaza. The journalists' union took to the streets of Ramallah today to make known its concern. It wasn't the first time the union and others have expressed their displeasure over the situation and the reaction of security forces to it.

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, also today expressed its grave concern about the fate of the highly respected BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who is believed to have been abducted in Gaza on 12 March 2007.

Johnston has been the BBC correspondent in Gaza for three years – the only western broadcast journalist both living and working there.

Last week WAFA, the Palestinian News Agency, reported Amnesty International renewed its call for the immediate release of Johnston.

Amnesty International said that Johnston's kidnapping and disappearance was the latest in a series of abductions and other acts of lawlessness, especially in the Gaza Strip, which stem from a long-standing problem of impunity and the failure of the PA government to ensure the rule of law.

The Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported:

Alan Johnston was among the few foreign reporters who remained in the Gaza Strip after a series of kidnappings that had affected his colleagues more than once. All these cases of hostage-taking ended peacefully but have left fear and concern in the hearts and minds of journalists that prompted some of them to leave whilst others would only travel escorted by security teams or with local reporters and in safe locations.

One reporter who spoke to Asharq Al Awsat on condition of anonymity stated that it is easier to obtain information about the Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit who was also kidnapped than about the BBC correspondent, Alan Johnston. He believes that Johnston may have been kidnapped by the Army of Islam group led by Mutaz Daghmash, who cannot be contacted and with whom the entire authority cannot use force because he simply does not belong to a political faction and relies on more than 13,000 armed members of his family that completely dominates an area.

Abu Mujahid, the spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC),says that the PRC had been in contact with the Army of Islam on a number of occasions and the presumed parties, all of which denied that they were holding the hostage. He confirmed that at this point the responsible party and its demands are unknown. Meanwhile, he revealed that the PRC on each occasion informed the authority of the identity of the kidnappers, without the authority taking measures against them, which is tantamount to giving them permission to carry out such acts again, according to Naim Altobasi, the Chairman of the Palestinian Press Syndicate.

The report below is from the Mann News Agency. Ma'an News Agency (Ma'an means 'together' in Arabic) is a Palestinian on-line News agency that publishes up-to-the-minute news in Arabic, English, and Hebrew. Ma'an News Agency (MNA) began operation in December of 2004 and is one of the main projects of the Ma'an Network which was established in 2002 as a non-governmental organization that aims to improve local Palestinian media production.

Ma'an Network (Ma'an) is composed of nine independent TV stations and production studios located in each major city of the West Bank and Gaza. Ma'an is dedicated to promoting understanding of the Palestinian situation by strengthening cooperation between local and international media. The network shares a vision of fomenting democracy and freedom of thought and ideas in Palestine. It uses both technical and academic expertise in achieving these goals as strives towards sustainable development and human rights for the Palestinian people.

As Johnston's health deteriorates, journalists boycott government activities; Israeli media blames local photographers
Date: 02 / 04 / 2007 Time: 14:54

Ramallah - Ma'an - Dozens of Palestinian journalists participated in a sit-in demonstration, which was organized by the journalists' union in the centre of Ramallah on Monday to protest against the abduction of BBC reporter Alan Johnston.

Alan Johnston was abducted in Gaza three weeks ago.

Ransom

Union head Na'im Toubasi revealed that the health of Johnston is deteriorating and that there are expectations that the kidnappers want a ransom in order to release him. Toubasi declared that the union will escalate protests if Johnston is not released.

Media institutions arranged the strike in Ramallah and announced that they will boycott the presidency and the government for three days, beginning Monday.

Al Jazeera correspondent Walid al Omari criticized the security bodies, saying that they are not paying enough attention to the attacks and assaults on journalistic establishments.

He called on the government and the presidency to take comprehensive measures in dealing with the case of the reporter and punish all those that attack media establishments or the employees of these establishments.

The strike had an increased presence of official media people, despite the decision to boycott official departments and officials.

Local collaboration

Israeli media sources have claimed that Johnston is being held by the Dughmush clan in the Gaza Strip, with the cooperation of local Gaza photographers.

In the Friday edition of the Israeli daily 'Maariv', it was alleged that "a spontaneous amalgamation of local Gaza photographers" are behind the kidnapping of foreign photo-journalists. The presence of foreign journalists threatens the local journalists' livelihoods as freelance work is taken away from them and carried out by foreign, highly-paid, correspondents.

However, Maariv adds that Johnston appears to have the support of the majority of the local Palestinian journalists. Fran Unsworth, the head of BBC news-gathering, told Maariv that local journalists "are helping very much to secure his release." Abd Al-Askar, who, according to Maariv, represents several foreign media organizations in Gaza, said, "Johnston is a friend of the Palestinian journalists."

Unsworth would not confirm that Johnston was being held by the Dughmush family.

Maariv claimed that the Dughmush family is the main beneficiary from these kidnapping operations, alleging that they receive up to US $2 million in ransom money for the release of a foreign journalist. Maariv alleges that the American news network, Fox News, paid out this amount to secure the release of US correspondent Steve Centanni and New Zealander photographer Olaf Wiig last summer.

The Israeli newspaper also affirms that the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, is being held captive by the Dughmush family.

Maariv reported that, in the Johnston case, the British overseas intelligence agency, MI5, is involved, along with security personnel and even workers from the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, which has a large presence in the Gaza Strip. The negotiations are being conducted in secrecy.

One of the major fears resulting from these kidnappings is that foreign journalists will no longer be based in Gaza. Alan Johnston, one of very few foreign journalists permanently residing in the Gaza Strip, was due to leave the Gaza at the start of April. It is unknown whether a new permanent Gaza correspondent will be sent to replace him.

"We must think about returning a correspondent to the field," Unsworth told Maariv. "We have to bring the story to our public but we have yet to decide how to act."

At least for the time being, however, foreign journalists are not at risk of being killed. "The positive aspect of the abductions is that there is no ideological base like there is in Iraq," an Israeli photographer told Maariv. "In Gaza, it's all a matter of money, except for the Razuri [a Peruvian photographer working for AFP who was kidnapped in January] incident. Razuri is a vegetarian and when his abductors brought him meat, he refused to eat it and they saw to it that he had vegetarian food. They have no intention of harming the abductees because in the end, they want the money and maybe to instill a little fear."

POLICE VIOLENCE IN MEXICO DESCRIBED BY OHIO STUDENT

A student from Ohio has described the treatment of himself and others protesters by Mexican police in, shall we say, a less then favorable way.

His observations are, of course, anything but unusual.

A report by the U.N. Committee Against Torture last fall cited Mexico's police for their crackdowns on protests between 2004 and 2006 in which it says officers allegedly sexually abused female demonstrators and beat others.

The torture committee report called on Mexico “to guarantee that the use of force is solely employed as a last resort.” The committee is made up of 10 independent experts who meet to review countries´ adherence to the 1984 U.N. Convention Against Torture.

The following is from the Athens (Ohio) News.

OU student gets arrested, roughed up after Mexican protest
2007-04-02
By Mike Ludwig
Athens NEWS Campus Reporter

An Ohio University student in Mexico with the Study Abroad program got more than he bargained for when Mexican police swept him up during an anti-President Bush protest on March 13.

In an interview on Friday, senior Chris Stenken, back in Athens after his harrowing experience in southern Mexico, recounted his arrest, beatings by police, and subsequent release.

On March 13, when President George W. Bush came to Merida, a mid-sized Mexican city on the Yucatan peninsula and a quick stop on his tour of Latin America, he must not have expected a warm welcome. A small army of Mexican state police and soldiers, along with a contingent of U.S. Secret Service agents, used barbed wire and concrete fences to build an armed fortress around the Hotel Americana where Bush and his aides would be staying.

As expected, hundreds of demonstrators took the streets in protest of Bush and his policies. Among them was Stenken, who had disregarded the advice the school's Study Abroad program and joined the demonstrators, armed with a digital camera and three years of education in Latin-American studies.

Stenken, back in Athens last week after his release from jail in Mexico, described the scene. "About a week before GW was to arrive in Merida, a group of about 20 to 100 people were organizing daily protests, spontaneous marches and demonstrations against the visit of Bush, imperialism and neo-liberalism," Stenken told The NEWS on Friday. "When Bush arrived, hundreds more people became involved with the protests. There were marches three or four times a day. People marched from the center of the city and tried to tear down the wall outside the Hotel Americana, place banners on the wall, do political theater, throw things at the police and at the wall, and engage the military in dialogue."

According to Stenken, the majority of the protesters were peaceful, though some people did engage the police physically. Tensions between protesters and police finally climaxed during the last march, which ended up outside Merida's municipal building, known as the Municipal Palace. Demonstrators attempted to enter the building but were kept out by police, so they gathered outside to protest. When small bands of protesters tried to force their way into the Palace, the police called for backup.

"I'd say about 10 minutes later, two to five hundred state police jumped out of the back of pickup trucks and began running at the population in the city center, the majority of whom ran away from them," Stenken recalled. "These people weren't necessarily protesters but often just out for the night or returning home from work. I ran into a shoe store to hide myself, where I greeted an employee and told her the police were chasing people. A few moments later, about three police officers came in, threw me on the ground, started punching and kicking me and jabbing me with their police batons before dragging me out by my feet."

Stenken claimed that, like a majority of people who were arrested, he was not doing anything wrong when the police picked him up.

"I was simply sitting with my friend on the curb when the police came," he said. "I believe the police pursued me because I ran from them and was wearing an anti-Bush T-shirt."

Several members of the Mexican state police dragged Stenken from the shoe store and out into the street, he said, beating him and smashing his camera along the way.

Megann Walsh, a fellow OU student and friend of Stenken who had been standing with him when the police arrived, caught up to them and tried to explain to the police that her friend had done nothing wrong.

"After everything cleared, I went out to the street and saw Chris getting arrested and I tried to talk to them, saying es ami amigo, he is my friend, and es un estudiante conmigo, he is a student with me," Walsh said on Saturday. "I saw them beating him, especially when he tried to reach out to me. I saw them dragging him away. They didn't even care, you know? I was just a stupid white girl to them."

The police put Stenken in the back of a truck along with others who had been arrested. He said they were continuously beaten and verbally intimidated during the 15-minute drive to a local jail, where they were interrogated and beaten further.

"I was not resisting. I told them I didn't do anything, that I was a tourist and that I was not from Mexico," Stenken said. "We got to the jail where they threw us out of the truck and put us against a wall with out hands behind our heads. They yelled at us and they punched me in the rib and kicked me in the back of the leg. I suffered several baton blows to the ribs. They also took the back of my head and slammed it against the wall three times."

According to Stenken, he and the others were then taken inside the jail where they gave a urine sample before being locked in a holding cell.

"The other people in the cell seemed to be normal citizens," he said. "One was an oboe player with his instrument returning home from a concert. Another was a kid who seemed like he was at the protest. The third was an older man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. All of them had been beaten by the police."

After a period of time in the holding cell, Stenken and his cellmates were taken to another jail called Le Ministerio. Stenken recalls about 60 others being there, most of whom had been arrested during the protest outside the Municipal Palace.

"I was basically lied to and intimidated the whole time," he said. "I was never allowed to make a phone call. They never formally told me what was charged against me."

Outside the jail walls, friends and families of the prisoners began organizing support, he said. People visited the jail and brought home-cooked meals for the inmates. Walsh also tried to visit Chris with the help of a woman named Marta, who works for a local non-profit Indignacion.

"I tried to visit Chris and they didn't want to let me," Walsh said. "I remember Marta saying, 'This isn't justice, this isn't liberty, you are not giving him his individual rights.' When I did get to see Chris, I saw two girls from the (protest) walking by and crying. They were prisoners and I know they hadn't been destructive."

With the help of a high-profile lawyer and the U.S. consulate, Stenken said he was released after three days of being held prisoner without any formal charges or hint of whether he would be out in time to return to the United States with his Study Abroad program.

"I was one of eight people who have been released that I know of," he said. "The other 60-some are presumably still in jail last I heard. They are facing $500 to $5,000 charges or significant jail time, some for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

STENKEN AND WALSH ARE not the only Americans with Athens connections who have been affected by the recent protests and social upheaval in southern Mexico. In the city of Oaxaca last Oct. 27, independent journalist Brad Will was shot and killed, allegedly by para-military patrolmen operating in the city with the support of the Oaxacan state government and its governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, while video-taping protests calling for Ortiz's resignation. Will had family in Athens, and his cousin, Susan Mitchell of Athens (a classified ad rep at The Athens NEWS), has joined the family's efforts to raise awareness about his murder and pressure Mexican authorities to bring justice to his case and to the people of Oaxaca.

"[Brad] went down there to give oppressed people a voice. All he cared about was helping people, and he paid for it with his life," Mitchell said. "We don't want any other families to go through this, so we are raising awareness about Brad and the others who have been killed."

Since Will's death, Mitchell and her family have written letters to senators and congressmen, helped organize a press conference at the National Press Club, and worked with such organizations as Friends of Brad Will, Amnesty International, Global Exchange and Reporters Without Borders, which recently rated Mexico as a "difficult situation" regarding freedom of press and the safety of journalists.

Will's parents recently went to Oaxaca to demand a fair investigation of his death. The case should be cut and dried, as several media sources have identified the gunmen in photos and Will's final video as police and/or thugs under the employ of the state. Ortiz's government, however, is allegedly dragging its feet on the issue.

"When they tried to contact the prosecutor, she was unresponsive," Mitchell said. "There is no prosecutor in the world who could witness such a videotape and not charge someone with a homicide. This prosecutor was appointed by the governor and has tried to blame the protesters when there is documented evidence that it was not them."

EVEN BEFORE THE DEATH of Will, human-rights organizations were condemning the Mexican state police for murder and repression in Oaxaca.

"Illegal militias in Oaxaca are participating in the security forces' 'dirty work'," Amnesty International's Americas Programme Director Javier Zuniga said in a statement released last August. "This needs to be urgently investigated, militias disarmed and disbanded, and those responsible for human rights abuses brought to justice." He was quoted in a letter sent to Mexico's procurador (attorney) general by U.S. Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, D-Ariz. Grijalva's letter was inspired by a conversation with Mitchell at the National Press Club and expresses concern about the situation in Oaxaca and a proper investigation to bring justice in Will's case.

"We are in it for the long run and will not stop until there is justice for Brad and the people he was giving a voice to," Mitchell said of Will's friends and family. "Although we are in pain, our pain is overshadowed by our pride."

Stenken and Walsh have not given up either. They have formed an organization in Athens called Companeros (comrades or companions) to raise awareness and financial support for those still imprisoned for speaking their minds in Merida.

"We've been talking to several bands on campus and plan to hold a benefit, Walsh said. "We do have contacts in Merida to send any money for direct support."

To find out more about supporting political prisoner in Merida, Walsh suggested people contact her at mw309703@ohio.edu. More information on Brad Will, Oaxaca and attempts to bring justice there can be found at www.friendsofbradwill.com and www.indymedia.org.

FRENCH TEACHER UNIONS DENOUNCE POLICE TACTICS TARGETTING SCHOOLS IN CRACK DOWN ON IMMIGRANTS

Teachers in France are carrying out a one day strike today in support of one of their own arrested by cops while she tried to protect her students.

Valérie Boukobza-Rodriguez was arrested while trying to prevent the arrest of an illegal immigrant, the man in question was trying to collect his granddaughter from school. The police had set up checkpoints around the school and were checking the papers of all those coming to collect children. The police used tear gas and truncheons on the small crowd that were also attempting to aid the man and his children.

This is another example of police targetting parisian schools, previously they have taken children from schools. This has led to solidarity groups being set up in many schools by students teachers and parents.

Earlier in the week, there was a demonstration of over 1000 poeple in support of Boukobza-Rodriguez and the use of children and schools in taking sans-papiers (without papers) into custody. Chants called for an end to the expulsions of sans-papiers families who have provided education for children.

The following article is from libcom.org.

France: Solidarity strike for arrested teacher

French teaching unions have called for a one-day strike this Friday in parisian primary schools in support of an arrested teacher.

Valérie Boukobza, the headmistress of a school in the north of Paris, was arrested on the 20th of March after intervening to try to prevent the arrrest of a chinese illegal immigrant who was collecting his two grand-daughters from her school. A police car was damaged and an officer injured in the course of scuffles, with police using tear gas against those present. Ms. Boukobza was arrested and charged with damaging public property, she has since stated that her intervention was part of her duty of care towards the two pupils whose grandfather was being arrested.

Seven French teaching unions (SNUipp-FSU, SE-UNSA, SGEN-CFDT, SUD-Education, Snudi-FO, CGT-Education et CNT Sèvres-Babylone) have put out a joint call for strike action and for a march to begin at Sèvres-Babylone at 2pm.

The unions have denounced the heavy-handed treatment of Ms. Boukobza and have criticised the education authority in her district for failing to support her. The Interior minister (and probable next President) Nicolas Sarkozy has called for the courts to be 'allowed to do their job'. Something which Ms. Boukobza, currently held on remand, is unable to do.

NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO THE 2010 OLYMPIC GAMES

There are a whole bunch of people concerned the costs of the upcoming Olympics in Canada are receiving nowhere near the same amount of media attention as the supposed benefits.

Just yesterday the cops paid attention, of sorts, to those folks and raided the offices of the Downtown Eastside Residents' Association (DERA).

In Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and other areas the process of gentrification has greatly intensified in anticipation of the 2010 Olympics. This has meant increased displacement, policing and incarceration – as well as the loss of life due to opportunistic illnesses, exposure and neglect. This has disproportionately impacted those concentrated in poor areas: Aboriginal people, new immigrants, seniors, people with disabilities, drug users – and creates especially vulnerable conditions for women and single mothers.

"The games have skewed all the priorities for the entire region," comments Burnaby Mayor Corrigan. "Everything's become devoted to this three-week party that's going to happen in 2010. It's like imagining that everything you do in your own life is all designed and built toward your next birthday."

A recent low budged documantary film focuses on these social costs, especially the steady loss of low-income housing in the neighbourhood adjacent to the primary Vancouver venue, GM Place. The film, Five Ring Circus, offers an insightful insider's view of the ongoing housing protests organized the by the Anti-Poverty Committee and affiliated groups. The film documents how outrage at Vancouver City Council's decision not to protect existing SRO housing stock -- in spite of promises to the contrary made during the Olympic bid -- boiled over into angry street protests.

According to its web site:

The Downtown Eastside Residents' Association (DERA) is a community-directed, charitable society formed in 1973 by residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Located in the poorest urban neighbourhood in the nation, DERA has fought for 31 years to focus the attention of government, industry and the public on the key components of poverty and homelessness. We work hard for decent, secure, affordable housing, jobs, livable incomes, community and recreational facilities, park space, safer streets, and community-based neighbourhood planning.

DERA was formed as a reaction against the general attitude of indifference and neglect which many felt to the area, then known as "Skid Road". Skid Road was a powerful and destructive characterization that promoted a feeling of hopelessness.

The Anti-Poverty Committee is an organization of poor and working people, who fight for poor people, their rights and an end to poverty by any means necessary they have also been involved in the struggle.

These groups have been joined by The Native Youth Movement which is calling for a Boycott and Cancellation of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The Games are scheduled to take place on un-surrendered Native Land from February 12-27, 2010. NYM say the 2010 Olympics represent nothing less then, "...a continued history of colonization and Genocide."

The following is from Canada.com.

Vancouver police accused of political attack on social activists with raid

VANCOUVER — Police raided the office of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association in a bid to discredit social activists opposing the 2010 Winter Games, an association spokesman said Friday.

The association’s office was searched Thursday night by police looking for evidence in the theft of the Olympic flag from city hall.

Executive director Kim Kerr said the raid was “a political attack” on his group and the Anti-Poverty Committee, which is campaigning for more social housing.

He said both groups have made public statements they were not responsible for the flag theft, noting the Native Warriors Society has claimed responsibility.

Kerr said police raided the DERA offices in an attempt to undermine the work of the groups around the housing issue.

“Our main concern is that the theft gives police reason to intimidate protesters,” he said.

In a photo e-mailed to news outlets in early March, three people posing with what appears to be the flag said they stole it to honour a native elder who died after being jailed for a highway expansion protest.

Kerr said police arrived about 11 p.m. They didn’t take anything with them when they left.

“They’re (police) trying to point fingers everywhere they can,” said Jill Chettiar of the Anti-Poverty Committee.

She questioned the timing of the raid, three weeks after the flag was stolen.

The committee has said it will protest at the next Vancouver Olympic Games Organizing Committee board meeting in May if the meeting isn’t opened up to the public.

Chettiar said the raid won’t stop her group from pressing on with its protests.

The protesters say the money going towards the Olympics would be better spent to build social housing and ease poverty.

On March 12, anti-poverty activists and a native group chanted slogans and used noisemakers to drown out the speeches at an Olympic flag-lighting ceremony at city hall.

Earlier that day, an Olympic countdown clock was vandalized, despite having 24-hour security.

In February, a ceremony in downtown Vancouver to mark the three-year countdown to the start of the Games was disrupted by anti-poverty protesters who threw eggs and paint-filled balloons.

One person climbed on a stage and shouted obscenities.

THOSE ZANY COMMIES HAVE A NOVEL IDEA

Jerusalem Initiative: Joint Statement of Communist Party of Isreal and the Palestinian People's Party

Jerusalem Initiative

Joined Appeal of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI)
and the Palestinian People's Party (PPP)

To communist and worker parties, peace organizations, trade
unions, women organizations and youth movements

This Year we mark 40 years of the Palestinian territories'
occupation (in June 1967) and the 60 years anniversary to
the UN general assembly resolution regarding the
establishment of two states in mandatory Palestine
(November 1947).

Our parties, the Palestinian People's Party and the
Communist Party of Israel, which for many years foster
cooperation between themselves in the struggles against
Israeli occupation and its crimes as well as for just
peace, hereby address all the communist and worker parties,
peace organizations and workers, women and youth movements
in a call:

Let us mark both of these dates in a world effort, broad as
possible, which aims at ending the Israeli occupation as
soon as possible, and the establishing of a just and
lasting peace between the states, Israel and Palestine.

As part of this effort both our parties would hold and
international conference on June 3rd 2007 in Jerusalem
under the title:

The Jerusalem Initiative for Peace between the two states,
Israel and Palestine.

The 40 years experience of occupation has proven that
there isn't a military solution to the national conflict in
the Middle east' and that peace are vital to all peoples.
Nonetheless, the Israeli government, with the comprehensive
support of the U.S. administration, expands the settlement
in the Palestinian occupied territories, intensifies the
political and economic siege of the Palestinian people and
starves it, and creates fait a compli in order to prevent
the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The
40 years of occupation has proven also that the
Israeli-Arab conflict is a source of danger for the peace
in the region and the peace of the world.

We call upon every peace seeker, party and organization in
the world to declare the week between the 2nd and 10th of
June 2007 as "The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Week", during
which solidarity activities would be held with the
Palestinian people and the Israeli peace forces, who
struggle against the occupation and its crimes and for
lasting peace which is based on the following principles:

The June 4th 1967 lines (the Green Line) will be the agreed
peace borders between the state of Israel and the
independent Palestinian state created alongside it. Any
change in these borders would have to be agreed by both
sides.
In Jerusalem there will be two capital cities the capital
city of Israel and the capital city of Palestine.
All the settlements in the occupied territories will be
dismantled.
The Palestinian refugees' problem will be resolved
according to the UN resolutions.

Such a peace program, which is accepted by the UN and the
international community, is the hope to cease the bloodshed
and the beginning of an era of lasting peace. It is a plan
which has not been implemented, in spite of the fact that
the two state principle solution has been set by the UN
general assembly 60 years ago.
Peace is vital! Peace is possible!
2007 The year of activities for an Israeli-Palestinian
Peace.

The Palestinian People's Party
shaab@palpeople.org
970-2-2963593
The Communist Party of Israel
info@maki.org.il
972-3-6293944

March 2007

FREE SHAQUANDRA COTTON NOW!

Hundreds took to the streets of Paris, Texas yesterday to protest the seven year prison sentence handed down to a 14 year old girl accused of shoving a hall monitor at a local school. Shaquandra Cotton, now 15, says the teacher's aide pushed her first and denied her permission to enter school before the morning bell in 2005.

The girl has already spent more than a year at the Ron Jackson Correctional Complex in Brownwood, about 300 miles from her Paris, Texas, home. The facility is part of an embattled juvenile system that is the subject of state and federal investigations into allegations that Texas Youth Commission staff physically and sexually abused inmates.

Her family and civil rights activists say they want her home now. They are condemning the sentence as unusually harsh and shows a justice system that punishes youthful offenders differently based on race.

“My daughter has been (at Brownwood) a year now,” Creola Cotton, standing in front of the Lamar County Courthouse, told the Herald Democrat, “It’s time for her to come home.”

From her blog:
Shaquanda Cotton
Location: Paris : Texas : United States
About Me

I am a 14-year-old black freshman who shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun and was sentenced to 7 years in prison. I have no prior arrest record, and the hall monitor--a 58-year-old teacher's aide--was not seriously injured. I was tried in March 2006 in the town's juvenile court, convicted of "assault on a public servant" and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until I turn 21. Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation.

The first article below is from BET. The second is from the Chicago Tribune.

Texas Teen Gets 7 Years for Pushing Teacher
By Tracy Stokes, BET.com News Staff & Wire Services

In Paris, Texas, last year, a 14-year-old White girl burns down her family's home. Her punishment? Probation. In the same town three months later, a 15-year-old Black girl, Shaquanda Cotton, is sentenced to seven years in prison for pushing a hall monitor at her high school.

Shaquanda had no prior arrests, and the monitor, a 58-year-old teacher’s aide, was not hurt, according to Black leaders in the northeast Texas town of about 26,000 residents. But in March 2006, the same judge, Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville, who let the White teenage girl go on probation, convicted Shaquanda of "assault on a public servant" and sent her to prison at least until she turns 21.

Officials at the Texas Youth Commission declined to discuss the case with BET.com, citing Texas law.

"State law forbids us from acknowledging whether we have any youths are in our system, despite the 50 million issues of print that's been run," said Jim Hurley, a spokesman for the Texas Youth Commission. "We’d have to break the law to talk about it."

Civil Rights Uproar

While the U.S. Department of Education is investigating the incident, the case has civil rights groups in an uproar.

"I don't understand the judge's rationale for his decision," Dr. Howard Anderson, president of the San Antonio Branch of the NAACP, told BET.com.

In highlighting what he called an egregious miscarriage of justice in a town with a long history of civil rights abuses, Anderson pointed to the case of the 14-year-old convicted arson (whose name was not released because of her age), who was slapped with probation, and the case of a 19-year-old White man in Paris, convicted of killing a 54-year-old Black woman and her 3-year-old grandson with his truck. The latter, he said, was also sentenced to probation and told to send the family a Christmas card every year.

"Then you have Shaquanda's case,” Anderson said. “She pushed a hall monitor, and she gets seven years confinement? If I look at all three of these sentences, and I'm not a lawyer, I have to wonder what the judicial system is doing. In this particular case, what is this judge doing?"

Gary Bledsoe, an Austin attorney who heads the state NAACP branch, told BET.com that Shaquanda was merely trying to defend herself.

"All she (Shaquanda) did was grab the aide to prevent a strike,” Bledsoe said. “It's like they are sending a signal to Black folks in Paris that you stay in your place in this community, in the shadows, intimidated.”

Sad History

And keeping Blacks in their place is nothing new in Paris, say leaders, who remind that it’s the site of the first highly publicized lynching of a Black by a large White mob. In 1893, fugitive Henry White was captured in Arkansas and brought to Paris, where he was tortured and burned alive on a train bed as more than 10,000 angry townsfolk cheered and jeered.

Activists say that the Shaquanda sentence is nothing more than a modern-day lynching.

Cotton has been incarcerated at a youth prison in Brownwood, Texas, for the last year on a sentence that could run until her 21st birthday. But like many of the other youths in the system, she is eligible to earn early release if she achieves certain social, behavioral and educational milestones while in prison.

But according to The Chicago Tribune, officials at the Ron Jackson Correctional Complex repeatedly have extended Shaquanda's sentence because she refuses to admit guilt and because she reportedly was found with contraband in her cell – an extra pair of socks.

"She's not admitting any guilt, because she doesn't feel that she did anything," Anderson told BET.com. "Not to mention, who saw the pushing, if it did occur?"

Cotton's mother, Creola, who Anderson describes as "strong-willed," said her daughter was singled out because she accused the school district of racism on several occasions.

In fact, 12 discrimination complaints have been filed against the Paris Independent School District in recent years. District officials dispute the charges, but the U.S. Department of Education, which is still investigating the case, has reportedly asked the U.S. Department of Justice to get involved.

In 1998, Paris, Texas, was named the "Best Small Town in Texas" by Kevin Heubusch in his book The New Rating Guide to Life in America's Small Cities.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

To some in Paris, sinister past is back
In Texas, a white teenager burns down her family's home and receives probation. A black one shoves a hall monitor and gets 7 years in prison. The state NAACP calls it `a signal to black folks.'

By Howard Witt
Tribune senior correspondent
Published March 12, 2007


PARIS, Texas -- The public fairgrounds in this small east Texas town look ordinary enough, like so many other well-worn county fair sites across the nation. Unless you know the history of the place.

There are no plaques or markers to denote it, but several of the most notorious public lynchings of black Americans in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries were staged at the Paris Fairgrounds, where thousands of white spectators would gather to watch and cheer as black men were dragged onto a scaffold, scalded with hot irons and finally burned to death or hanged.

Brenda Cherry, a local civil rights activist, can see the fairgrounds from the front yard of her modest home, in the heart of the "black" side of this starkly segregated town of 26,000. And lately, Cherry says, she's begun to wonder whether the racist legacy of those lynchings is rebounding in a place that calls itself "the best small town in Texas."

"Some of the things that happen here would not happen if we were in Dallas or Houston," Cherry said. "They happen because we are in this closed town. I compare it to 1930s."

There was the 19-year-old white man, convicted last July of criminally negligent homicide for killing a 54-year-old black woman and her 3-year-old grandson with his truck, who was sentenced in Paris to probation and required to send an annual Christmas card to the victims' family.

There are the Paris public schools, which are under investigation by the U.S. Education Department after repeated complaints that administrators discipline black students more frequently, and more harshly, than white students.

And then there is the case that most troubles Cherry and leaders of the Texas NAACP, involving a 14-year-old black freshman, Shaquanda Cotton, who shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun.

The youth had no prior arrest record, and the hall monitor--a 58-year-old teacher's aide--was not seriously injured. But Shaquanda was tried in March 2006 in the town's juvenile court, convicted of "assault on a public servant" and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until she turns 21.

Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation.

"All Shaquanda did was grab somebody and she will be in jail for 5 or 6 years?" said Gary Bledsoe, an Austin attorney who is president of the state NAACP branch. "It's like they are sending a signal to black folks in Paris that you stay in your place in this community, in the shadows, intimidated."

The Tribune generally does not identify criminal suspects younger than age 17, but is doing so in this case because the girl and her family have chosen to go public with their story.

None of the officials involved in Shaquanda's case, including the local prosecutor, the judge and Paris school district administrators, would agree to speak about their handling of it, citing a court appeal under way.

But the teen's defenders assert that long before the September 2005 shoving incident, Paris school officials targeted Shaquanda for scrutiny because her mother had frequently accused school officials of racism.

Retaliation alleged

"Shaquanda started getting written up a lot after her mother became involved in a protest march in front of a school," said Sharon Reynerson, an attorney with Lone Star Legal Aid, who has represented Shaquanda during challenges to several of the disciplinary citations she received. "Some of the write-ups weren't fair to her or accurate, so we felt like we had to challenge each one to get the whole story."

Among the write-ups Shaquanda received, according to Reynerson, were citations for wearing a skirt that was an inch too short, pouring too much paint into a cup during an art class and defacing a desk that school officials later conceded bore no signs of damage.

Shaquanda's mother, Creola Cotton, does not dispute that her daughter can behave impulsively and was sometimes guilty of tardiness or speaking out of turn at school--behaviors that she said were manifestations of Shaquanda's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, for which the teen was taking prescription medication.

Nor does Shaquanda herself deny that she pushed the hall monitor after the teacher's aide refused her permission to enter the school before the morning bell--although Shaquanda maintains that she was supposed to have been allowed to visit the school nurse to take her medication, and that the teacher's aide pushed her first.

But Cherry alleges that Shaquanda's frequent disciplinary write-ups, and the insistence of school officials at her trial that she deserved prison rather than probation for the shoving incident, fits in a larger pattern of systemic discrimination against black students in the Paris Independent School District.

In the past five years, black parents have filed at least a dozen discrimination complaints against the school district with the federal Education Department, asserting that their children, who constitute 40 percent of the district's nearly 4,000 students, were singled out for excessive discipline.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Send messages of encouragement!

Shaquanda Cotton
Jackson Correctional Complex,
Unit 2, Dorm 4
P.O. Box 872
Brownwood, Texas 76804
1125308


Contact the Judge!

Honorable M.C. (Chuck) Superville, Jr., Judge
Lamar County Courthouse
119 North Main
Paris, TX 75460
Phone # 903-737-2410
Fax # 903-785-3858


Contact Governor Rick Perry!

Office of the Governor Main Switchboard: (512) 463-2000
[office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST]

Office of the Governor Fax: (512) 463-1849

Mailing Address
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428

Delivery Address
Office of the Governor
State Insurance Building
1100 San Jacinto
Austin, Texas 78701

SMALL TOWN MAYOR HAS BIG MOUTH

Incorporated in 1907, the City of Toppenish is located in Central Washington and is situated about 20 miles southeast of the City of Yakima. The City covers approximately two square miles and has a population of 9,000 residents.

This little city is now caught up in a controversary surrounding what at best were some stupid and at worst racist remarks made by its mayor.

It seems that a week or so ago local TV station KIMA ran a story about the high crime rate in Toppenish, which is the largest city on the Yakama Indian Reservation.

The mayor didn't like the report and attacked first the messenger (KIMA), then he went on to blame Indians for the problem:

"The Indians don't pay taxes, which affects our revenue to fight the crime". That's why Toppenish is one of the worst gang-infested hellholes in the Northwest? That's why hearing news of the latest shooting, stabbing, drive-by or meth lab bust in Toppenish ranks right up there next to the weather forecast?

Yikes, Mr. Mayor.

The only taxes not paid by local Inidans is the sales tax and that is becasue the town is located on tribal land. In addition, tribal members point out all the money they contribute to the local economy through businesses like Legends Casino.

"It has been reported to me that two percent of the annual revenue is donated to the city of Toppenish," said tribal member Linda Pratt. "So the city of Toppenish is benefiting financially from the Yakama Nation they are not losing out."

The following little ditty comes from the YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Toppenish mayor on the hot seat

TOPPENISH -- City Council members tabled a discussion Monday night about whether to remove Mayor Bill Rogers for blaming the city's budget shortfall on a sales tax exemption for Yakama tribal members.

Three council members voiced concern about how Rogers has treated residents at council meetings, and at least one councilman said he should step down. Rogers has nine months left on his two-year term as mayor, a largely ceremonial job chosen by fellow council members.

Council members began discussing Rogers' actions after hearing from several residents, many of them Yakama tribal members, about the comments he made last week to KIMA-TV, a CBS affiliate in Yakima.

They planned to discuss it in a closed session, but Rogers -- who hired former Lower Valley District Court Judge George Colby to represent him in the matter -- requested it be public.

Rogers even told Councilman Loren Belton, who also disapproved of the comments, that he didn't think the council could remove him if it wanted.

Monday night's meeting drew more than 70 residents, with many lining the wall in the back of City Hall and filling the foyer.

Some residents, admitting they didn't like Rogers' comments, nonetheless favored keeping him in his post. But most of those who said they wanted him out were tribal members who called his comments racist.

Rogers publicly apologized last Thursday for telling KIMA, "The Indians don't pay taxes, which affects our revenue to right the crime," and repeatedly apologized to tribal members during Monday night's City Council meeting.

But his comments continue to be at the center of controversy in town, as they seemed to have unearthed old racial wound suffered by many tribal members.

Some tribal members during the meeting recalled racist statements they grew up hearing about Indians in town, and when Indians weren't allowed in many businesses.

"It seems that attitude toward the Yakama Indians hasn't changed," said tribal member Misty Smartlowit. "It's going to keep going on and it should stop with you."

At the request from Councilwoman Elaine Willman, the council decided to hold off on any discussions about the mayor until Councilwoman Clara Jimenez -- who was absent -- could be present.

Reading from a statement she prepared, Willman defended Rogers and said KIMA took his comments out of context.

Tribal member Merna Jackson questioned the credibility of Willman, who leads the local Citizen's Standup Committee, which in the past has taken aggressive stances against the tribe over an alcohol ban and utility tax.

"And you think know you can write something and condone the mayor's conduct?" she said. "I'm really upset about this."

Councilman Fred Diaz said Rogers has made other comments in the past that offend people and that he should step down.

At least one business owner is also calling for the mayor's ouster, and a grassroots effort by some tribal members is threatening to boycotting local businesses until Rogers steps down.

Yakama Tribal Council Vice Chairman Sam Jim said earlier Monhat tribal leaders would like Rogers to apologize in person but aren't endorsing any boycott efforts.

"We're concerned about what he said," Jim said. "He shouldn't have said it."

It wouldn't be the first boycott by tribal members. In the mid-1990s, strained relations between the city and the tribe saw some tribal members avoiding local businesses.

At Dad's Restaurant, 433 S. Elm Street, the reader board outside says "Wanted, New Mayor for Toppenish." Inside, a stack of open letters calling for the mayor's ouster sits on the counter near the cash register.

Owner Dan Eshleman, who wrote the letter, says Rogers stepped over the line.

Rogers said he was angrily responding to the way KIMA had reported on crime in town when he made the comments to its reporter.

KIMA described the town as "rampant with crime" and that "nearly every resident in the tiny community lives in fear."

Rogers said he still plans to apologize in person to tribal leaders, and has already done so during a telephone conversation with Tribal Council Chairwoman Lavina Washines.

In a statement released Friday, Washines said the tribe didn't want to make any more of an issue of Ropers' comments, but didn't want it to happen again.

A KID'S LIFE IN GAZA

Most children in the Gaza Strip have been tear gassed, have had their homes searched and damaged, and have witnessed shooting, fighting and explosions. Many have been injured or tortured as a result of chronic war that spans generations, says a Queen’s University study released last summer.

According to the study, there is a pattern of violence against Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip that has serious and debilitating psychiatric and psychological effects.

“Gaza has been an occupied territory for a long time, and still is; Israel controls its borders, its air and water access. It has been described as a vast open-air detention centre” says Queen’s community health and epidemiology researcher John Pringle. “Bombs are being launched into Gaza during this latest eruption of Middle East violence, but are being ignored in light of other crises.”

“Children comprise 47 per cent of Gaza’s population and are extremely vulnerable,” Pringle adds. “It seems the international community is neglecting them, that somehow Palestinian children don’t deserve the protections guaranteed under the Geneva Convention and humanitarian law. We must remember that where we drop our bombs, plant our landmines, and aim our guns, is where children are born, play, and go to school.”

Beyond direct confrontation with violence, children’s rights continue to be grossly violated in a multitude of ways – whether it is their right to proper health care, quality education, safe water and sanitation, opportunities for recreation, and protection from all forms of abuse.

UNICEF reports:

Budgetary shortfalls at the Ministry of Health (MoH) have left stocks of essential drugs and disposables at critical levels. At the end of January 2007, 15 per cent of the essential drugs and 8 per cent of disposables were out of stock in Gaza.

While services including immunization and child nutrition were maintained in the face of extraordinary financial and logistical challenges over the past months, a resumption of the public sector strike in early February points to further difficulties in the delivery of basic quality health care. In the West Bank, movement and access restrictions, fuel shortages, and vehicle breakdowns hamper health care delivery in isolated areas.

Under-5 mortality rates are worsening and the nutritional status is threatened by household poverty, poor quality foodstuffs. Chronic malnutrition now stands at 9.9% across oPt, and at an alarming 13.9% in Gaza. More than 70% of nine-month old children in Gaza are anemic.

The following comes from the Canadian site Rabble News.

Health care and children in crisis in Gaza
by Miriam Garfinkle and Reem Abdul Qadir

The children of Gaza are in crisis.

In spite of the removal of the Israeli settlements and permanent army bases from Gaza in the summer of 2005, Israel continues its occupation. According to a report by an Israeli-based legal rights group, Gisha, Israel continues its control over Gaza's air space, its waters, its borders, the movement of goods and people, the taxation system and the population registry.

After the 2006 election in Gaza, Canada was one of the first countries to withhold world funds from the Gazan authorities. This has left the population in a terrible situation.

Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. In an area of only about 365 square kilometres there is a population numbering about 1.25 million. Three-quarters of the population is living in poverty. Forty per cent are unemployed. Food and water supply are precarious and sewage treatment is totally inadequate.

According to Dr. Robert Horton, editor of the Lancet, in a recent article in the New York Review of Books, there are desperate shortages of medical specialists. Diagnostic facilities are unavailable to large sections of the population and procurement of medicine is difficult.

Over 60 per cent of the population in Gaza is under the age of 18. As a result of the ongoing and escalating conflict, children are showing increasing symptoms of stress and depression. According to a survey of children conducted by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP) and published in 2004 by the World Psychiatric Association, a vast majority of children under the age of 11 suffer with significant multiple symptoms that have been identified with “post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Increasing numbers of children have been observed to be bedwetting as old as nine or ten years of age and severely disrupted sleep and night terrors are common. Moodiness, anxiety and hyperactivity are other behavioural manifestations of extreme stress in these children.

Since the year 2000, more than 5000 houses have been demolished in Gaza. In fact, of the children surveyed by the GCMHP, 99 per cent have experienced a shelling of their home. The loss of home has an enormous impact on children. Home is associated with security and comfort. Israeli forces also often raid and vandalize homes. Children, witnessing the powerlessness of their parents to protect them against these acts are left feeling insecure and anxious.

The survey also reveals that 96 per cent of children have witnessed shooting, fighting or explosions often resulting in the death and injury of civilians. Sonic booms — the incredibly loud and distressing sound of the supersonic flight of military planes similar to thunder — have become an increasing feature of Israel's occupation. The Israeli air force carries these out over populated areas especially at night and in the early morning. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and the Gaza Community Health Program petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel demanding these flights be halted.

For years, children have been exposed on a daily basis to heavily armed Israeli military personnel and tanks threatening them on the streets. Children have had to cross random military checkpoints on their way to school and have had their schools attacked with gas and live ammunition.

The term post-traumatic stress disorder is not really valid here because there is no “post” for these children — the trauma is ongoing and pervasive. Health care providers are trained to deal with emotional trauma using the supportive and protective factors in a child's life. In the Gaza situation it is difficult to find these factors. Fundamentally there is no safe place.

These days one hears a lot about the Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan who are adults who have been specifically trained for warfare. Yet many of them are traumatized by the experience of seeing comrades injured or killed, or suffering injuries or danger themselves. The trauma goes on, long after the experience has ended and they are back in a place of safety. How much worse then for children who witness and experience these events day after day, week after week with no end and with no place of safety.

As Canadian health care professionals, we are deeply troubled by the situation and worried for the future of the people of Gaza and especially these children. What will the long-term effects be of this endless trauma? What can we, as Canadians and health care professionals, do about it?

Resilient health care providers on the ground, like Dr. Mona El-Farra and Dr. Eyad El Sarraj, have been struggling to provide adequate grassroots primary health and mental health care in Gaza for years against these mounting odds. We have worked with a group of Palestinians and Jews in Toronto to organize a fundraiser to support the health care operations in which these physicians are involved. We are also insisting that the Canadian government restore and indeed increase its funding to Gaza.

We also demand that Israel stop its continued methods of collective punishment of civilians in direct contravention of international law. Ultimately there can be no solution to this horrific situation until there is an end to the military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, which continues and indeed escalates, despite the 2005 pull-out of Israeli settlements.

There is both a public health and mental health crisis unfolding in Gaza at a breakneck pace. As human beings, as Canadians, as Jews and Palestinians, we all have a moral obligation and vital stake in protecting these children and giving them access to a viable future. The alternative is unthinkable.

Miriam Garfinkle M.D. and Reem Abdul Qadir M.S.W. R.S.W. are health care professionals who write from Toronto.

BUSH AND ARROYO GUILTY AS CHARGED

After months of preparation the much-awaited Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal’s (PPT) second session on the Philippines has declared the Bush and Arroyo regimes guilty of crimes against humanity.

The verdict came after three days of hearing testimony on political killings, abductions and other alleged violations of human, economic, civil and political rights in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Read by tribunal president François Houtart of Belgium , the verdict linked the extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations to the US-led "war on terror" and said these were "committed with the support and full awareness of the [US] government" and thus qualified as "crimes against humanity, with all the consequences for the persons who are responsible for them."

Among the verdict's findings was the existence of what it called "the politics of impunity" and the government's "attitude of denial," noting that "Even the most brutal atrocities hardly elicit any decisive action or even oral condemnation" from the administration.

It noted the administration's hedging on releasing the report of the Palace-created Melo Commission and that the findings of UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston, which said most of the murders were linked to the military, were "totally denied and even derided by the government."

The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal is an international opinion tribunal, independent from any State authority. It examines and judges complaints regarding violations of human rights and rights of peoples that are submitted by the victims themselves or groups representing them. The Tribunal was founded in June 1979 in Italy by law experts, writers and other intellectuals. It succeeded the Russell Tribunals I and II or the International War Crimes Tribunal, which held two sessions in 1967 to expose the war crimes committed against the Vietnamese people.

In 1980, the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal convened a Session on the Philippines to hear the case against the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, at the suit of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). It was the first international juridical body to condemn the US sponsored Marcos dictatorship. Marcos was later deposed through a popular uprising in February 1986.

Arroyo and Bush, Jr. were found guilty of charges ranging from systematic violations of civil, political, social, economic, and cultural rights to violations of national self-determination and liberation committed against the Filipino people. Bush in particular was indicted for his role in renewed military intervention and for supporting Arroyo’s brutal counter-insurgency program in the guise of counter-terrorism.

Initiators of the charges said the political killings, forced disappearances, torture and other violations of human rights escalated in the context of the U.S.-backed counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism programs of Arroyo.

Asia Journal reports the verdict issued by the international forum of lawyers and human rights experts against the Arroyo government will be sent to the United Nations (UN), International Court of Justice (ICJ) and other world bodies to focus "world attention on the human rights crisis in the Philippines."

A statement from the tribunal secretariat quoted its general secretary, Gianni Tognoni, as saying that, aside from the UN and ICJ, the verdict would also be sent to the European Parliament and "various foreign governments" with the aim of getting world opinion to "add more pressure [on] the US-supported Arroyo government to stop the killings."

Although the verdict "may be legally non-binding, it is nevertheless morally binding," tribunal president François Houtart of Belgium said.

The tribunal called the Philippines' membership in the UN Human Rights Council "unacceptable" because it "undermines the credibility of the UN in this field, is an intolerable offense to the victims;" and "a denial of the many well documented denunciations of the dramatic violations of human rights in the Philippines."

It also called "sharp attention to the safety of the witnesses who courageously have contributed to the fact-finding task of the tribunal. If anything would happen to any of them, we will hold the government of the Philippines responsible for that."

Among the witnesses who appeared before the tribunal was Senator Maria Ana Consuelo "Jamby" Madrigal, who, according to the statement, described the country as "ruled by a military junta with…Arroyo acting only as a figurehead."

It also quoted Madrigal as saying that the verdict "will dispel the claims of the Arroyo government that there is democracy in the Philippines."

Others who testified, either in person or through a video hookup from the Philippines were Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary general of human rights alliance Karapatan; Dr. Constancio "Chandu" Claver; Dr. June P. Lopez, an expert in handling torture and trauma victims; retired Navy captain Danilo Vizmanos; UP Faculty Regent Roland Simbulan; Bishop Elmer Bolocon of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines and Ecumenical Bishops Forum; Elmer Labog, chair of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (May First Movement); and Danilo Ramos of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines).

Other tribunal jurors were Japanese novelist and social activist Oda Makoto; Dutch criminal law professor Ties Prakken; Norwegian lawyer and former foreign ministry officer Oystein Tveter, Malaysian social development expert Irene Fernandez, and Colombian Lilia Solano.

The following article comes from Bulatlat (Philippines).

Victims’ Kin Welcome Guilty Verdict on Arroyo, Bush by Int’l Tribunal
BY EMILY VITAL

Families of victims of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other human rights violations welcomed the verdict of an international tribunal declaring both the Arroyo and Bush governments guilty of crimes against humanity.

In a press conference in Quezon City, Monday, Dee Ayroso, coordinator of Desaparecidos, said in Filipino, “The verdict of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal is a big victory for all of us. Let the whole world know that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and George W. Bush are criminals.”

The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) released its 13-page verdict Sunday, around 2pm at the Pax Christikerk in The Hague, the Netherlands. Francois Houtart, president of the PPT’s Second Session on the Philippines, read out the verdict after three continuous days of hearing testimonies from at least 13 witnesses.

Houtart described the extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, massacres, torture and other atrocities allegedly committed by the Arroyo government as “crimes against humanity”. Such violations which the PPT said were in no way justified as “necessary measures against terrorism,” said Houtart.

Evangeline Hernandez, spokesperson of Hustisya (Victims United for Justice) and mother of slain human rights advocate Benjaline Hernandez, said, “Now, we stand on a high moral ground. We have come a long way to seek justice. The international community has seen the true face of Arroyo.”

Hernandez added, “We, the relatives of numerous victims of extrajudicial killings, are no longer fearful or ashamed.”

Houtart warned that the Arroyo government will be held accountable if something happens to the witnesses who testified before the PPT.

Ayroso said, “We hope that the PPT’s findings will pave the way for the ouster of Arroyo.”

In 1980, the PPT’s First Session on the Philippines declared Marcos guilty of human rights abuses. The dictator was ousted in 1986 through a popular uprising.

Aside from Houtart, who is from Belgium and Director of the Centre Tricontinental (Cetri), the PPT jurors included Oda Makoto (Japan), well-known novelist and social activist; Ties Prakken (The Netherlands), professor in criminal law Maastricht University; Oystein Tveter (Norway), lawyer and former Director of the Karibu Foundation and former foreign ministry official in South Africa and Zambia; Irene Fernandez (Malaysia), lawyer, social development expert and head of Tenaganita; and Lilia Solano (Colombia), 2005 Right Livelihood Awardee (alternative Nobel) and Director of Project for Life and Peace.

The PPT jurors also found ‘unacceptable’ the membership of the Philippines in the United Nations Human Rights Council, saying it is an ‘intolerable offense’ to the victims.

Meanwhile, Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) disputed Malacañang’s claim that the PPT is a mere black propaganda. Reyes pointed out that the respondents were invited to attend the hearings through their embassies in Rome and in The Hague. “They (Arroyo and Bush) waived their right to defend themselves and to air their side.”

Bayan is also one of the complainants in the case against Arroyo.