Readwrotes Blog

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 08/19/2009 8:36 AM | Jakarta Prita Mulyasari, a 32-year-old woman who is facing defamation charges for sending emails complaining about Omni International Hospital's poor service to her friends, will continue her trial at Tangerang District Court Wednesday morning after Banten High Court overruled her acquittal. M Asnun, the court's chief, told tempointeraktif.com that the court would hear testimonies from witnesses on Wednesday's hearing. Earlier, state prosecutor Riyadi claimed he had new evidence and witnesses to convict the mother of two. Banten High Court had overruled the acquittal of Prita earlier, claiming the Tangerang court had failed to examine the substantive material of the case. On Aug. 27, 2008, Prita, a mother of two, sent emails to her friends complaining of the subpar treatment she had received at Omni International Hospital. She was arrested by prosecutors on May 13 after the hos...

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Fri, 08/14/2009 11:12 PM | National The Indonesian Human Rights Monitor, Imparsial, said the lack of recognition and protection was endangering human rights defenders in Indonesia. “Everyone in the legislative, executive, and judicial bodies have said over and over that they want to protect human rights,” said Poengky Indarti, Imparsial’s External Relations Director. “If that is true then they should first protect human rights defenders who have the same purpose as them.” Poengky said Indonesia has already ratified the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which pronounces that the state would do its best to protect human rights and defenders of rights. The country has also shown improvement in human rights protection at the normative level, she added. “In the past five years the country has ratified many international human rights agreements,” Pongky said. (mrs)

By Aru Pande Washington 05 August 2009 Pres. Barack Obama speaks at the White House, 05 Aug 2009, about the release of two American journalists in N. Korea U.S. President Barack Obama is welcoming the release of two American journalists who were detained in North Korea, but U.S. officials say the move will not necessarily result in a warming of relations between the two countries. Euna Lee and Laura Ling returned home to the United States early Wednesday after being pardoned by the North Korean government, during a visit to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton. A humanitarian mission to bring two U.S journalists home ended successfully with a plane carrying Euna Lee and Laura Ling arriving California early Wednesday. President Barack Obama expressed relief in remarks to reporters in Washington. Freed journalists Laura Ling, left, and Euna Lee, are met by family members as they return home t...

The Associated Press , Kuala Lumpur | Wed, 08/05/2009 10:32 AM | World Human Rights Watch appealed to Malaysia on Wednesday to immediately drop charges against dozens of people arrested during a mass rally against a security law that allows for indefinite detention without trial. Twenty-nine people, including a 16-year-old, were charged Monday with taking part in an illegal rally and other related offenses. Some face up to three years in jail. Police had refused to give a permit for Saturday's rally, which an estimated 20,000 people attended anyway in downtown Kuala Lumpur. They protested against the Internal Security Act, saying the law had been abused to jail government critics without trial. Police crushed the opposition-led protest with tear gas and chemical-laced water and arrested almost 600. All have been released, but it is not clear if anyone else will be charged. New York-based Human Rights Watch in a statement admonished Prime M...

By VOA News 21 July 2009 Iraqi officials say a series of bombings killed at least 18 people in Baghdad and Ramadi Tuesday, three weeks after Iraqi forces formally assumed security responsibilities in urban areas. Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman General Abdul Karim Khalaf told VOA that Iraqi forces can handle their security duties without the assistance of the U.S. combat troops that withdrew from the cities on June 30. In violence Tuesday, police say at least 15 people were killed and more than 100 others were wounded in multiple bombings in and around Baghdad. Three of those blasts occurred in the Shi'ite neighborhood of Sadr City. The deadliest attack involved a series of bombings at a popular market, in Husseiniya just north of the capital that killed five people and wounded almost 30 others. Elsewhere, in Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar, three people died in a double bombing near a restaurant. Parts o...

By Sonja Pace London 20 July 2009 Another British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, the 17th this month. Rising casualties have sparked a political debate about the country's involvement in Afghanistan and why more and more of its soldiers are dying. British soldiers carry coffin of Lieutenant-Colonel Rupert Thorneloe into The Guards Chapel in the Wellington Barracks in London for a funeral service, 16 Jul 2009 Britain has more than 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, about one third of them involved in Operations Panther's Claw against insurgents in Helmand province. And it is there that an increasing number of British troops have been dying, many killed by roadside bombs. The rising toll has not gone unnoticed back home. In the small town of Wootton Bassett in southern England growing crowds gather ever more frequently to pay their final respects as the dead are repatriated and their flag-draped cof...

By Peter Fedynsky Moscow 20 July 2009 Moment of silence is held for Natalya Estemirova (standing l-r: Oleg Orlov, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Alexander Filippenko, Vladimir Lukin Russia's "Memorial" human rights organization has suspended its activities in Chechnya following last week's murder of its local representative, journalist Natalya Estemirova. Human rights activists have blamed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev for maintaining a culture of permissiveness and impunity that led to Estemirova's death. Memorial's Chechen branch has issued a statement saying the health and safety of its members are under a serious threat. The statement adds that Chechen authorities exhibit undisguised hostility toward any independent civic initiative and also complete lack of understanding of civil society, insofar as senior government officials equate human rights activists w...

By VOA News 20 July 2009 Human Rights Watch has called on Nigerian authorities to prosecute security personnel who allegedly killed more than 130 people during sectarian violence last year. Representatives of the group testified Monday before a judicial commission of inquiry in Nigeria's Plateau state. In a report released Monday, Human Rights Watch accuses soldiers and police of arbitrarily killing 133 men and boys, nearly all of them Muslim, in the city of Jos last November. It says most of the killings occurred November 29, the day after clashes between Muslim and Christian mobs killed several hundred people in Jos. The report says police and soldiers shot unarmed citizens, and lined up victims on the ground before executing them. Reuters news agency quotes a Plateau state police spokesman (Mohammed Lerama) as saying the accusations are not true. The judicial commission has been tasked with looking into the cause...

By Peter Fedynsky Moscow 16 July 2009 Natalya Estemirova (2007 file) Russian activists are blaming Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for maintaining a climate that resulted in Wednesday's murder in the Caucasus of journalist Natalya Estemirova. Her colleagues from the Memorial human rights organization and other groups told a Moscow news conference that Mr. Putin's protégé in Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov is specifically responsible for Estemirova's death. Memorial chairman Oleg Orlov called Natalya Estemirova the soul of the organization; a journalist dedicated to uncovering widespread criminality in Chechnya. Orlov accuses Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov of responsibility for her death. Kadyrov was hand-picked by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in his former capacity as president. Orlov says he thinks responsibility for an atmosphere of permissiveness and impunity in Chechnya as well as massive an...

By VOA News 12 July 2009 Logo of Reporters Without Borders The press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders says it is concerned by what it calls the growing repression of journalists and cyber-dissidents in Iran. In a report issued Sunday, the RSF (Reporters Sans Frontieres) announced the detention of five more journalists. RSF says 41 journalists are currently imprisoned in Iran a month after the country's contested election. RSF says Iran is currently the world's biggest prison for journalists, and is becoming the world's most dangerous place for them to operate. RSF says the recently-detained journalists include photographers Majid Saidi and Tohid Bighi, blogger Henghameh Shahidi, and journalists Somaieh Nosrati and Said Matinpour. According to RSF, four of the five are being held in secret locations with no information about their condition being released to their families or legal representatives....