Category Archives: human rights

India – Police said to have set fire to journalist, causing his death

Reporters Without Borders is dismayed to learn that Indian journalist Jagendra Singh died on 8 June from the 60 percent burn injuries he received when police accompanied by a government official raided his home in Shahjahanpur, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, on 1 June

A well-known critic of Uttar Pradesh state government minister Ram Murti Verma, Singh had accused the police of deliberately setting fire to him during the raid. He died in a hospital in Lucknow, the state capital.

Singh named police inspector Sriprakash Rai as the person who set him on fire. Relatives and other eye-witnesses confirmed his version of the events.

Singh also accused Verma of subjecting him and his family to a “reign of terror” because of Singh’s investigative reporting and comments about him. Singh recently posted an article on Facebook about Verma’s alleged involvement in land seizures and illegal mining.

After he died, his family refused to cremate the body until the police registered their complaint. The police finally opened an investigation into suspected murder, criminal conspiracy and intimidation, provisionally detaining Verma, the police inspector and four other suspects the day after Singh’s death.

A police representative nonetheless denied Singh’s version, claiming that Singh set light to himself to avoid arrest. He did not say why the police wanted to arrest him.

We are shocked to learn of Jagendra Singh’s tragic death and we offer his family and friends our condolences,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk.

We note that an investigation into this terrible crime has been opened and we hope it will be as thorough and as transparent as possible so that all the perpetrators and instigators are quickly identified.

Ismaïl added: “We also hope that the justice they receive will be exemplary. The most severe sentences must be passed on those found guilty. Their senior government positions or membership of the police should have absolutely no impact on the way the justice system functions in this case. The most severe sanctions must be taken against those who will be found guilty. ”

A journalist for more than 15 years, Singh worked for leading India dailies such as Amar Ujala, Hindustan and Swatantra Bharat before focusing on social networks.

Ranked 136th out of 180 countries in the <a href=”http://index.rsf.org/

via India – Police said to have set fire to journalist, causing his death.

Creative people are more likely to suffer from mental illness, study claims

Painters, musicians, writers and dancers are 25 per cent more likely to carry the gene variants than their non-creative peers, new research suggestsmf.gif

Oops… ya think it might be that others simply do not understand them and think they are odd? Being misunderstood and put down, can be a downer.

via Creative people are more likely to suffer from mental illness, study claims.

Even Black Joy Is a Crime | Dame Magazine

When Lakaydra Walker graduated from Senatobia High School recently, her brother, Henry Walker, waved a towel as a relative shouted, “You did it, baby!” only to be promptly removed from the ceremony. And Lakaydra’s aunt, Ursula Miller, called her niece’s name out as she received her diploma.

Shut up all that Black noise! Civilization is under attack!

Outraged, Senatobia School Superintendent Jay Foster, who threatened to remove any of those cheering and celebrating “thugs” from the ceremony, went to police to demand charges be filed against the Walker family.

“The goal was to allow all graduates to have the privilege of hearing their name called,” he said. So he sought the arrest of their family members. If it weren’t so outrageous and disgusting, we would have to laugh at the logic of arresting a family so that kids could celebrate this educational accomplishment.

What’s next, the football-game-to-prison pipeline? Or mass arrests for excessive cheering at a basketball game. Not to worry: lacrosse, golf, field hockey and water polo are safe.

Two weeks after the graduation ceremony, the family members were served with warrants that demand fines up to $500 and threaten prison time.

Racism runs deep.

In 2012, Shannon Cooper cheered with unfettered joy as her daughter, Iesha walked across the stage to receive her diploma from South Florence High School in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Soon thereafter she was arrested for disturbing the peace, handcuffed, and removed from the ceremony. That same year, an Ohio school administrator denied Anthony Cornist and four other students a high-school diploma because, you guessed it, “excessive cheering.”

Black people can’t do nothinnnnn’.

via Even Black Joy Is a Crime | Dame Magazine.

Main Tuareg-led rebel coalition in Mali agrees to sign peace accord | News | DW.DE | 05.06.2015

The head of the rebel alliance, known as the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), said on Friday that his group will sign a final UN-brokered peace agreement in just over two weeks’ time to end fighting in the north of Mali.

“We will sign the peace accord on June 20,” Bilal Ag Cherif said after talks in the Algerian capital, Algiers, to clarify security issues.

The Malian government and several other armed rebel groups signed the so-called “Algiers Accord” last month, but the CMA rejected the deal as falling short of its demands and called for amendments.

The final June peace agreement will take account of CMA demands, such as having the northern part of Mali, know by the Tuareg as “Azawad,” recognized as a “geographic, political and juridical entity.”

The government in Bamako said the CMA would sign a “security accord” in Algiers on Friday preliminary to the final deal.

via Main Tuareg-led rebel coalition in Mali agrees to sign peace accord | News | DW.DE | 05.06.2015.

Pssst! Everyone can see what you are doing… Grin – Erdogan targets Turkish press, takes on the Times, too | News | DW.DE | 05.06.2015

“It is obvious that anyone who disagrees with the government is declared an enemy of the state, and the government has used all its power and resources to make this happen,” said Ekrem Dumanli, editor-in-chief of Zaman newspaper, who was detained in December and who is now prohibited from leaving Turkey while his case remains pending in court.

via Erdogan targets Turkish press, takes on the Times, too | News | DW.DE | 05.06.2015.

Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian

On Monday the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was charged with supporting.

The prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead withthe trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive support” to the armed Syrian opposition.

That didn’t only include the “non-lethal assistance” boasted of by the government (including body armour and military vehicles), but training, logistical support and the secret supply of “arms on a massive scale”. Reports were cited that MI6 had cooperated with the CIA on a “rat line” of arms transfers from Libyan stockpiles to the Syrian rebels in 2012 after the fall of the Gaddafi regime.

Clearly, the absurdity of sending someone to prison for doing what ministers and their security officials were up to themselves became too much. But it’s only the latest of a string of such cases. Less fortunate was a London cab driver Anis Sardar, who was given a life sentence a fortnight earlier for taking part in 2007 in resistance to the occupation of Iraq by US and British forces. Armed opposition to illegal invasion and occupation clearly doesn’t constitute terrorism or murder on most definitions, including the Geneva convention.

via Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq | Seumas Milne | Comment is free | The Guardian.