Social Cause 01 (Jul 08 - Jul 15)

[winston]

Friend of activist charged

A close friend of mainland labour rights activist Li Wangyang has been charged with the serious offence of instigating subversion to topple the government, human rights watchers said.

Zhu Chengzhi was among the first to dispute the claim that Li committed suicide.

Since Li's death, Zhu had been placed under administration detention for 10 days for disrupting social order. But he has not been released since then.

The charge has sent a shock wave through rights activists in light of the seriousness of the charge.


Source: The Standard HK

[winston]

China releases petitioner after outrage

A Chinese woman sent to a labour camp for demanding seven men who forced her daughter into prostitution, be given harsher punishment, was released Friday after an online outcry, state media reported.

Tang Hui was given 18 months of "re-education through labour" in the camp after she protested repeatedly outside government buildings, that the men's sentences were too low, the official Xinhua news agency said.

She had accused police in central Hunan province's Yongzhou city of falsifying evidence to reduce the sentences of the seven men, who kidnapped and raped her 11-year-old daughter and forced her into prostitution.

Xinhua said she was released on Friday after her lawyer appealed the sentence. Authorities have agreed to investigate her claims that police falsified evidence, the report said.

The Hunan and Yongzhou governments could not immediately be reached for comment.

Tang's case had caused public outrage, with many Chinese taking to the Internet, to demand that the system of re-education through labour -- often used to punish dissent -- be scrapped.

"Please make abolishing the unconstitutional re-education through labour system the first step of political reform," posted one on the popular Sina Weibo microblog.

"The resolution of this matter is so unfair. The state should protect citizens," posted another.

Xinhua said Tang's daughter was kidnapped in October 2006 and forced to perform over 100 sexual acts before she was rescued two months later.

Two of the accused were sentenced to death, four were given life sentences and one was jailed for 15 years.

The girl's father, Zhang Hui, told Xinhua before the mother's release that his daughter was still traumatised by the incident and would struggle to cope without her mother.

"Her mother is the closest person to her. I am afraid that she might break down or even try to kill herself if she realises her mother has been taken away to a labour camp because of her," he said.


Source: AFP Asian Edition

[winston]

Britain urges world to unite against hunger

British Prime Minister David Cameron was to call on world powers on Sunday to boost their efforts to tackle malnutrition across the globe.

Taking advantage of the large number of foreign officials gathered in London for the Olympic Games, Cameron was to urge international action to save 25 million children from stunted growth over the next four years.

The "hunger summit" at his Downing Street residence, is being co-hosted by Vice President Michel Temer of Brazil, which will host the next Summer Olympics at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

"While people around the planet have been enjoying and competing in these Games there's another world where children don't have enough to eat," Cameron was to say.

"The figures are shocking. One in three child deaths are linked to malnutrition. And 171 million children are so malnourished by the age of two, that they can never physically recover," he added.

"Even if malnourished children are able to fight off sickness and infection in their earliest years, their bodies and minds never fully develop.

"It is a tragedy for them, and it's a tragedy for their societies they live in. Children who could grow up to become doctors, farmers, engineers and entrepreneurs or great Olympians are left far behind."

Cameron was set to pledge £120 million ($188 million, 153 million euros) from Britain to fund research into drought-resistant and vitamin-enhanced crops for Africa and South Asia.

The research could help the regions grow 11 million more tonnes of cereals, feeding up to 45 million people for a year, Downing Street said.

Cameron was also due to announce British funding for a joint programme with Switzerland and Ireland helping people in developing countries to hold officials to account over food aid.

Another programme in Kenya will support a mobile texting scheme to allow early warning of "hunger hotspots", so that food supplies can be delivered more quickly, Downing Street added.

World sport stars including Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie and Brazilian footballer Pele were due to attend the summit, along with ministers and international organisations.

The conference comes ahead of the closing ceremony for the London Olympics on Sunday, which will see the Olympic flame extinguished in the British capital and organisers hand over to the Rio 2016 team.


Source: AFP European Edition

[winston]

There is no act too small, no act too bold.

The history of social change is the history of millions of actions, small and large, coming together at points in history and creating a power that governments cannot suppress.

- Howard Zinn

[winston]

While some parts of the world is starving, bankrupt Spain, sees it fit to have their "Tomatina" festival, where they throw tonnes of tomatoes at each other.

Then they ask you to bail them out ... go figure.

[winston]

Thousands hold rally in Hong Kong against patriotism class

HONG KONG — Thousands of protesters held a rally in Hong Kong Saturday in a final push to force the government to scrap Chinese patriotism lessons before the start of a new school year.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... aff4df.311

[winston]

Upset villager blasts local government office

A villager in rural east China unhappy over social injustice detonated an explosive in a local government building Monday, killing himself and wounding six others, state press said.

Qu Huaqiang, a "disgruntled petitioner,'' allegedly set off homemade explosives at the government offices in Tengjia township, Shandong province on Monday morning, Xinhua news agency said.

It was not clear if the injured were government officials. No other details were immediately available.

News of the bombing circulated widely on the Internet with numerous microbloggers expressing sympathy with the suspect bomber, while criticising as a sham China's petition system, an age old institution aimed at addressing injustice.

An official in Tengjia when contacted by AFP confirmed the bombing, but denied that Qu was a petitioner. Township authorities were investigating the incident, he said, while refusing to comment further.

Over 30 years of robust economic growth has produced a yawning income gap between China's rich and poor, with the nation's poorest often complaining of exploitation by local government over cheap labour and inexpensive farmland.

Petitioning the government over alleged injustices has long been seen as a sole way to seek redress, but is rarely, if ever, successful, they say.

The system has largely failed to accommodate the enormous amounts of petitions received, while police often resort to placing petitioners in extra legal jails to control their activities, rights groups have said.

After the news of the bombing spread, microbloggers also appeared to support such conclusions.

This proves once again the so-called People First petition system is a sham. It misleads the people and induces violence,'' said Yu Jianrong on Sina Weibo, a popular microblog.

"The so-called legal petition system is becoming a trap for petitioners. I propose the repeal of the petition system,'' said Shijie gongmin_Daweiwangsai.

Said Nizhigala, "This is a good comrade who knows revolt. I pay my respect to him.''

In apparent concern over copycat bombings, Xinhua later retracted its characterisation of Qu as a "disgruntled petitioner'' from its Chinese language news report, AFP said.

Source: The Standard HK

[winston]

Campaigners lose court fight for inquiry into 1948 Malaysia 'massacre'

Campaigners calling for an official investigation into the "massacre" of 24 Malaysian rubber plantation workers by British troops more than 60 years ago have lost a high court fight.

Relatives of victims challenged a government decision not to hold an inquiry into the shootings at Batang Kali, Malaya, in December 1948.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/sep/0 ... a-massacre

[winston]

Hong Kong backs down over Chinese patriotism classes

The Hong Kong government has backed down over plans to make schoolchildren take Chinese patriotism classes, after weeks of protests. City leader Leung Chun-ying said the classes would be optional for schools.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-19529867

[winston]

US declassifies trove of documents on Katyn massacre

The United States on Monday declassified more than 1,000 pages of documents related to the Katyn massacre of thousands of Poles by Soviet forces during World War II.

The massacre in 1940 ordered by Stalin in Katyn, near Smolensk in western Russia, claimed nearly 22,000 Polish lives, including those of many military officers.

The National Archives said a US congressional panel called the Madden Committee concluded in 1951 that the Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, or NKVD, was responsible.

Source: AFP American Edition

http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?a ... &buid=3281