human rights

This blog was written by a Zimbabwean refugee living in South Africa. Visit SW Radio Africa for more about the billboard at the centre of controversy in South Africa.

Before I fled Zimbabwe, I lived in an area that strongly supported the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. I too was a supporter but was not seen to be that active.

About three and a half years ago the youth militia, who we call the Green Bombers, were deployed into our area to identify people who were MDC supporters. I was approached by about ten Green Bombers at my home and they accused me of being a member of the MDC and indicated I caused trouble in the area. They told me that I was to leave the MDC and start supporting the ruling ZANU PF party but I told them I would not give up my support for the MDC.

These militia then beat me severely until I was unconscious. This beating took place in front of my family. They threatened that if I continued to support the MDC, they would evict the family and myself from our house. They then left and assaulted other MDC supporters in the area as well as doing damage to their houses.

Over the next two to three years I was arrested on four occasions by members of the security forces and CIO, on each occasion I was badly beaten and humiliated in front of other people as an example as to what would happen should they be so foolish as to support the MDC.

When you bring a child into the world, you stare into clouded little eyes and see a future of endless potential and opportunity. You promise to move heaven and earth to make
sure your precious baby will know a better life than you.

But, in Zimbabwe the new mother stares in terror into the eyes of her newborn infant, for she knows only too well that the road ahead is one filled with potholes and obstacles, dead ends and u turns.

This is a story written by a 14 year old child, a victim of the Zanu PF government's Operation Murambatsvina.We give it to you here, literally in her own words. We've obscured some details to protect the child from potential reprisals.

1. Read page 1 (view large)

This is a picture of Maxwell Mazambani's buttocks. He was lucky because his colleague, Fibion Mafukidze, was killed. A press release on the attack describes what happened and his condition as follows:

Maxwell Mazambani, the MDC candidate for Ward Five in Gutu North in last year's council elections, is battling for his life at a Harare private hospital following brutal assaults by soldiers and Zanu PF supporters on 25 September 2007.

Mazambani, 32, was abducted from his home by a white Nissan pick-up truck that belongs to the wife of Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi. The six soldiers abducted Mazambani and three others and took them to Eastdale Farm, an airforce base between Gutu and Chivhu.

One of the abductees, Fibion Mafukidze, has since died as a result of the assaults. Mazambani was later dumped in a bush near his rural home. Relatives discovered him dumped in the bush and took him to Gutu police station. He was later taken to Chivhu hospital before he was transferred to Harare on Thursday, 11 October 2007.

Mazambani is on a dialysis machine and cannot speak. He has deep tissue injury on the back. His kidneys are damaged and he has clots on the lungs.

As the editor from Boxun, I can tell you that we receive a lot of news that is not covered by official media.

What exactly is happening in China?

Democracy in China affects every corner of the world. For example, with issues in North Korea, Burma, etc., China is playing a strong role, but it could be improved.

source: Times online

Read more Burmese stories and about how bloggers worldwide took action on yesterday's "International Bloggers' Day for Burma on the 4th of October".

The information compiled through a massive Facebook group about Saturday's global protests in support of Burma is now available at burma-watch.org. If there's a protest happening in your city, chances are there are details here.

They've also got PDFs for download with comprehensive news roundups.

Filmmaker Alex Gibney, who made the Why Democracy? film Taxi to the Dark Side (about murder, torture and abuse in US-run prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and Cuba) wrote the following in response to today's New York Times report on the existence of a secret Justice Department memo endorsing extreme forms of interrogation of detainees.

The President and the Vice President of the United States appear to have an unquenchable thirst for cruelty. The proof is that their political myrmidons in the Department of Justice and in the office of the Vice President have gone to extraordinary and unprecedented lengths to make coercive interrogation and torture the official policy of the United States of America.

Today, an extraordinary article appeared in the New York Times, which revealed the existence of secret documents that chronicle the ruthless and indefatigable efforts of a small group of men inside the Department of Justice to maintain the ability of US personnel to continue to engage in torture or - if that word offends - a policy of intentional cruelty toward prisoners.

The Home of the Brave?

Not quite, as we who engage find out, on a daily basis.

From a rather expected and mainstream news source comes this-

Secret US endorsement of severe interrogations

The New York Times reports today that the US Justice Dept. issued a secret memo in 2005 that endorsed brutal methods of extracting information from detainees, in sharp contrast to the department's public stance on torture.

The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

This will come as no surprise to the subjects of Alex Gibney's Why Democracy? film, Taxi to the Dark Side -- at least those who didn't die as a result of torture.

DailyKos writer MCJoan suggests that the main result of this news should be the refusal of the US Senate to approve attorney-general nominee Michael Mukasey unless he publicly repudiates torture and vows that the Justice Dept. under his tenure will not sign off on torture as it did under his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales.