P.O. Box 130901, Houston, TX 77219-0901
281-587-5386
http://www.amnestyhouston.org
mail@amnestyhouston.org

Monthly meeting first Wednesday of every month (except holidays).

NEWS AND NOTES

Monthly Meeting Agenda:

       Introductions
       Reports by Coordination Groups:
       Group case (Bárbara Italia Méndez)
       Death Penalty
       Radio Committee
       Stop Violence Against Women Campaign
       Denounce Torture Campaign
       South Asian Regional Action Network (SARAN)
       Refugees
       Out Front Campaign
       AI staffers, Adiyah Ali and Will Cordery Amnesty's "Protect the Human" campaign that we want to launch in Houston.
       Who Will Bring Letter Next Meeting
Old Business:
       World Refugee Day June 21
       Fall Art Show
       Concert Tabling
       Stanley Milgram Documentary
New Business:
       Human Trafficking Event, September 14
       9th Annual March to Stop Executions, October 25
 

Local Group 23 News:

• Phivan Wright represented AI at a panel discussion about volunteerism at the Hugh O'Brian Youth (HOBY) Leadership Seminar at Rice University. HOBY is an organization founded by actor Hugh O'Brian to help young people develop leadership and critical thinking skills. The panel discussion was volunteerism, "helping Africa vs. homefront".
• We had a table at the World Refugee Day celebration at the Southwest Multi-Service Center. It was extremely well-attended and very informative and enjoyable for the table volunteers, Veronique Schlumberger, Marci Pampe and Phivan Wright. All the main agencies providing services to refugees were represented. There was food and performances (music and dances) by refugee groups.
• Veronique Schlumberger continues to work finding a venue for the fall art show, "Intended Consequences". She is working with Talento de Bilingue, Shrine of the Black Madonna and Diverse Works.
• We had a table at the Pride Festival and got lots of signatures on petitions. Thanks to Hana Pinard for coordinating the event, to Bill Ohsie, Esmeralda Salinas, Elissa Goss, Christine Cox, and Cecilia and Linda Abad for tabling. Also thanks to Bill Ohsie for setting up the table and the Abads for taking the box back.
• We had a table at the Cure concert. Thanks to Christine Cox for coordinating the volunteers and contacting the venue and thanks to Deborah Lowery-Adams, Esmeralda Salinas, Sarah Newhouse and Isabel Arras tabling the concert.

• We have openings for Group Coordinator, Secretary and New Member coordinator.

In reaction to the reported release of 1,157 people who were involved in the Tibet protests last march, Amnesty International said:

"We are encouraged by the news of the release of 1,157 people and we look forward to receiving information about the trials of the 116 people in custody announced by the Tibetan authorities."

The reported prisoner releases come after Amnesty International published a report this week urging the Chinese government to provide information about the more than 1,000 people detained during the protests last March who remain unaccounted for. The organization also called for free access to Tibet by independent observers.

Amnesty International partnered with BlogCatalog.com on May 15 for "Bloggers Unite for Human Rights," a unique internet initiative in which bloggers from all over the world simultaneously posted for human rights on the same day. The goal was to reach millions of people around the world with the human rights message, even people in countries where freedom of expression is regularly suppressed.

In addition to promoting the campaign to hundreds of thousands of its members, Amnesty International provided BlogCatalog.com with source material for the bloggers. Topics included the wrongful imprisonment of journalist Shi Tao in China, illegal detentions at Guantánamo Bay and the continuing murder, rape, abduction and displacement of people in Darfur, Sudan.

Since last year, BlogCatalog.com has evolved from a blog directory into a member-driven online community for bloggers. More than 100,000 bloggers interact on BlogCatalog every day.

"Bloggers Unite for Human Rights is a great way to harness the power of the Internet to fight injustice and make the world a better place," said AIUSA Executive Director Larry Cox.

One of the most vulnerable refugee populations in Iraq today are the Iraqi Palestinians. Since the Iraq War, this population has been one of the groups hardest hit by the violence.

An Amnesty International mission visited some of these refugees in March. At least 729 who fled Iraq since 2003 are stranded in appalling conditions in overcrowded tents in the Al-Tanf camp, which is located in a no-man's land on the Iraq-Syria border. The narrow strip of land is wedged between a concrete wall and the main road from Baghdad to Damascus. Temperatures range from 122 degrees in summer to below freezing in winter. Approximately 2,700 Palestinians are stranded in camps like this with nowhere to go. Another 13,000 remain trapped inside Iraq, targeted without means to escape.

Amnesty International wrote today to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak calling on him to urgently intervene to stop any further forcible returns of Eritrean asylum-seekers from Egypt back to Eritrea and to ensure that Egypt honours its commitment to allow a meaningful access to the asylum-seekers by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Egypt.

Asylum-seekers returned to Eritrea are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment, particularly those who have fled from compulsory military service. Amnesty International urges the Egyptian authorities to heed the calls made on 19 June 2008 by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour to stop the forcible returns and by UNHCR requesting unhindered access to all asylum-seekers currently in custody.

Since 11 June 2008 the Egyptian authorities forcibly returned up to 1,000 asylum seekers to Eritrea, and further deportations are expected. Among those returned were some 400 Eritrean asylum-seekers who, according to Egyptian security sources, were deported from Cairo International airport on Egypt Air flights to Asmara, on 18 June 2008. The deportees included 35 men and 30 women who had been detained in Qanater prison, south of Cairo, and who were reportedly beaten by prison officers on 17 June, as they tried to resist their deportation. They were then forced into trucks of the Ministry of Interior and driven to the airport. Security forces escorted all deportees and forced them into an Egypt Air airplane. Some reportedly attempted to escape but failed.

Amnesty International is concerned that those deported were not given access to the UNHCR in Egypt to assess their protection needs, and are reported to have been subjected to ill-treatment during their transfer to the airport

The organization reminded the Egyptian President that these forcible returns of Eritrean asylum-seekers to Eritrea go against assurances made by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 15 June 2008 that UNHCR office in Egypt would be granted access to the Eritreans to assess their asylum claims. The same night it was reported that about 90 Eritrean asylum-seekers were deported from Aswan airport to Eritrea.

Amnesty International condemns the alleged ill-treatment by police of Emin Hüseynov, director of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), in Baku on 14 June. Amnesty International calls upon the Azerbaijani authorities to ensure that investigation of this latest incident does not follow the pattern of procrastination, inaction and implausible explanation characterizing investigations of assaults on journalists.

Emin Hüseynov was one of a number of journalists and media representatives covering an event held at the Alaturka Café in Baku commemorating Argentinean revolutionary Che Guevara. Some 30 police officers raided the event at 1pm in the afternoon and detained about 20 participants. The detainees, including Emin Hüseynov and IRFS colleagues Rasim Ali?v and Mirrehim Hasanov, were taken to Police Department No.22 in the Nasimi District of Baku, allegedly due to the fact that those detained did not have identity documentation with them.

When Emin Hüseynov objected to being photographed and having his finger prints taken without explanation at the police station, he was reportedly taken into another room and severely beaten, including with the butt of a gun around the head. Those beating him reportedly also threatened to kill him, threats which were overheard by Emin Hüseynov's colleagues outside the room. When brought out of the room he allegedly lost consciousness, as witnessed by his colleagues. Requests from his colleagues to provide medical assistance were ignored until about 4:45pm, when he was released.

Emin Hüseynov was hospitalized with severe head and neck pains. Official investigators visiting Emin Hüseynov have reportedly attributed his condition to a "neurasthenic reaction" or "self-harm". On 17 June he was moved from the emergency ward of Baku's Centralized Emergency Medical Assistance Hospital to the neurological department for continued treatment.

Emin Hüseynov's Institute has widely publicized violations of the right of freedom of expression in Azerbaijan and advocated for the rights of journalists. He was previously assaulted and beaten by police in October 1993 and November 2006, when he was thrown to the ground and beaten by police during the forcible dispersion of a demonstration by journalists.

Furthermore, numerous serious assaults by unknown perpetrators against journalists following the unsolved murder of journalist and editor Elmar Hüseynov in 2005 have not been investigated or prosecuted. Amnesty International calls upon the Azerbaijani authorities to change this pattern and demonstrate their commitment to human rights standards by ensuring the prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigation of the assault on Emin Hüseynov.

Military commission pre-trial hearings at Guantanamo were set to resume June 19 in the cases of Mohammed Jawad and Omar Khadr; both were juveniles when detained by the US military in Afghanistan in 2002. These are the first commission hearings to take place since the US Supreme Court ruled last week that the Guantánamo detainees had the right to challenge their detention in the federal civilian courts. Amnesty International has an observer at the hearings.

As well as challenging the legality of the proceedings, the lawyers for the two detainees are raising disturbing allegations of torture and other ill-treatment and continuing concerns about the detainees' physical and mental health.

The lawyer for Mohammed Jawad, Air Force Major David Frakt, has filed a motion to dismiss attempted murder charges against him on the ground that the US military had tortured him in Guantánamo through severe sleep deprivation and other ill-treatment. Records revealed that Mohammed Jawad was subjected to what is known as the "frequent flyer program" in the course of a two-week period in May 2004, when he was transferred to different Guantanamo cells 112 times every two hours. Mohammad Jawad, who was still a teenager at the time, had already tried to commit suicide some months before.

At the time he was subjected to the treatment, his lawyer said, custody records showed Mohammed Jawad had already been determined to have "no intelligence value" -- one alleged purpose of the "frequent flyer" program (which reportedly stopped in March 2004). His record further showed only minor disciplinary infractions, such as calling out to fellow detainees in Pasto (his own language) while in isolation.

Amnesty International is deeply concerned by these allegations as well as by recent allegations of ill-treatment in Mohammed Jawad's case. He is alleged to have sustained injuries just over two weeks ago, when he was restrained for banging his foot with his flip-flops against his cell door. He was shackled and allegedly pepper-sprayed in the face while being held face-down on the ground. He allegedly still bore signs of visible injury when his lawyer saw him yesterday. He is believed to be currently held in Camp Five where he is reportedly on a restricted diet. A complaint by his lawyer is reportedly pending investigation.

During his last appearance before a military commission in March, Amnesty International's observer noted that Mohammed Jawad was visibly agitated; at one point he removed his headphones (for interpretation) saying he had a severe headache, and he put his head down on the table and did not raise it again for the rest of the proceedings.

Omar Khadr, a Canadian national who, was 15 years old when taken into US custody, also faces a military commission hearing today, at which legal motions will be considered. He has reportedly complained recently of feeling unwell and suffering dizziness, although a military health professional who visited him reported yesterday that he found him to be "in good health with no complaints or problems".

Two days ago, Amnesty International's observer made a request jointly with other NGO observers from Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First and the ACLU to be allowed to view the cells where Mohammed Jawad and Omar Khadr are currently held, because of concerns raised about the impact of their conditions on their mental and physical health. No response has yet been received from the authorities to this request.

Letter writing actions have moved to a special section of our website.