Violence Against Women Rising in Afghanistan
Brutality of Attacks Against Women Teachers Leaves Karzai in Tears
On Sunday an emotional Afghan President Hamid Karzai bemoaned the recent wave of violent attacks against women and children. "The cruelty is too much," he said in response to the killing of a 2-year-old child last week and the murder of two women teachers Saturday. (AP Photo )
Dec. 12, 2006— Afghan police have nabbed six Taliban insurgents suspected of killing two women teachers along with three other relatives, Afghan and NATO officials said Tuesday.
Friday night's brutal killings brought to 20 the number of teachers killed in Taliban attacks this year, according to Zuhur Afghan, a spokesman for the education ministry.
He said 198 schools have been burned down in 2006, in a viciously effective campaign that has terrorized the Afghan countryside.
Under the Taliban's harsh version of Islam, women were banned from working and schools for girls were shuttered.
Getting millions of Afghan girls back in the classroom was one of the few visible achievements of the U.S.-backed government, installed in late 2001.
Now that triumph is under threat, said women activists.
Afraid to Attend School
"Many villagers have stopped letting their girls go to school, fearing they will be targeted by the Taliban," said lawmaker Shinkai Kharokhail. "That campaign has had a very negative impact on the people."
School burnings and attacks on teachers have mainly targeted conservative rural areas, where persuading fathers to educate their daughters was already an uphill battle. Female literacy in Afghanistan is a dismal 13 percent.
But Friday's killing in a remote part of mountainous Kunar Province was especially bloody. It sparked condemnations from top NATO officials and the angry Kunar governor, who immediately fired his police chief. President Hamid Karzai, meanwhile, burst into tears during an emotional press conference about the rising violence across Afghanistan.
Family members in the Narang district said gunmen scaled their home's outer wall, burst into the residence and opened fire.
They killed the two young women who worked as teachers, along with their mother, grandmother and a 20-year-old brother, said Ghaleb, a relative who gave only one name.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2719718&page=1
Children threaten stonings as Gaza's chaos deepens
12 Dec 2006 13:06:20 GMT
Source: Reuters
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Background
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
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By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - In a sign of just how far security has fallen in the Gaza Strip, a group of children took to the streets on Tuesday burning tyres and threatening stonings if the "adults" did not stop causing chaos.
Dressed in jeans and a blue shirt, 12-year-old Saeed Salem and his friends said they were enraged by the killing of three young brothers on Monday and fed up with the constant security nightmares that have ruined their short lives.
"We are angry," said Salem, as he and his young colleagues set about burning tyres in a central Gaza street. "We need those who killed the kids to be found and stoned to death."
His friend, Ahmed, his hands blackened from wheeling abandoned tyres on to the bonfire, said the adults were lost in rivalries and had abandoned the kids to their own business.
"We have no amusment parks to attend and no sport clubs to go to. At least let us live in peace," the boy said.
Gaza took another step towards chaos on Monday when gunmen shot dead three brothers, aged between 6 and 9, as they were being dropped off at school.
Their father was an intelligence officer considered close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, giving the killings a political bent, although there is no clear indication yet of who was responsible.
Fatah, the party headed by Abbas, and its Islamist rival Hamas, which runs the Palestinian government, have blamed one another for the killings, deepening tensions between the movements, both of which are well armed.
Abbas sent forces on to the streets to try to restore order on Tuesday and called for a day of mourning for those killed. But despite the greater security presence, rival gunmen still clashed and at least two people were wounded.
As well as the children, mothers also expressed alarm at the killings and despair at Gaza's spiralling crisis. Radio stations have been jammed with callers denouncing the brothers' deaths.
"Life in Gaza has turned to hell," said Umm Mohammad, a veiled woman attending a mourning house to honour the boys.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L12884896.htm
Annan calls for urgent action on Darfur
Tuesday December 12, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
The UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland, in Darfur earlier this year, says the conflict is in freefall. Photograph: Getty Images
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, today urged an emergency session of the UN human rights council to take immediate action over atrocities in Darfur, Sudan.
Mr Annan called on the council, a new human rights watchdog set up last June, to send an independent team to investigate reports of an increase in violence, including mass rapes of girls as young as eight.
"It is urgent that we take action to prevent further violations, including by bringing to account those responsible for the numerous crimes that have already been committed," Mr Annan said in a recorded address to open the 47-member emergency session.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,,1970351,00.html
Fiji warriors threaten to kill Bainimarama
13 December 2006
By KERI WELHAM in Suva
Fijian warriors have threatened to kill ruling military head Voreqe Bainimarama, and burn the homes of soldiers loyal to the self-appointed President.
Traditional warriors from the 14 provinces of Fiji said Commodore Bainimarama would face the wrath of his people if he did not withdraw his troops and return the islands to democratic rule by Christmas day, The Fiji Sun reported this morning.
The newspaper said the military, which took power in a coup last week and is ruling through means of intimidation and threats to anyone who publicly criticises the new regime, had launched Operation Tuvakarau to protect the Commodore and investigate the threat.
Land Force Commander Colonel Pita Driti challenged the warriors to come forward.
"If these traditional warriors decide to take us on, we are ready for any sort of action. And they should come out prepared instead of hiding and playing mind games."
The death threats continue long-held fears for the Commodore's safety as he executes a "clean-up" of the nation. He has claimed widespread corruption was rotting the government of ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and yesterday moved to overhaul the country's public sector.
He sacked some chief executives and called the remainder together to advise them that, in the absence of government ministers, they must take on the job of leading the country's 62 departments and 22 ministries.
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Caretaker Prime Minister Dr Jona Senilagakali warned the chief executives of cost-cutting and mergers to reduce the number of ministers required in a new government. He led the way, announcing he would take a 10 per cent pay cut, and remove all fringe benefits for himself and his wife. This reduced his package from $106,000 to $68,000.
The military regime also moved to halt the implementation of a VAT (similar to GST) rise from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent. Due to take effect in January, the tax rise had fuelled rage at Qarase's government among some citizens, particularly the poor. Roughly 50 per cent of Fijians live below the poverty line.
Meanwhile, at a hastily-called meeting with the media last night Bainimarama revealed military intelligence suggested Qarase was developing a rival "de facto" government to be run from the west of Fiji. Suva, the capital of the nation of almost 900,000, is in the east.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3898485a12,00.html
Mexican army sent to state plagued by drug gangs
12 Dec 2006 19:32:35 GMT
Source: Reuters
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MORELIA, Mexico, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Mexican soldiers searched cars at checkpoints and the navy patrolled rugged coastal areas on Tuesday in a crackdown on feuding drug gangs that have terrorized a western state.
New President Felipe Calderon is sending 5,000 troops to Michoacan state to battle the drug cartels, in his first high-profile move against crime since taking office on Dec. 1.
Troops in armored cars and federal police set up checkpoints around the towns of Apatzingan and Aguililla, scene of some of the worst violence between rival drug cartels.
Some 500 people have been killed this year in Michoacan, a transfer point for cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines that are smuggled north to the United States.
Beheadings have become common and drug hit men, often better armed than local police, effectively control swathes of the countryside.
"What is happening is that we are putting all our force against that. It's about controlling and occupying territory," Attorney-General Eduardo Medina Mora said.
Calderon, a native of Michoacan's state capital Morelia, said the operation, announced on Monday, was also aimed at disrupting trafficking routes and finding drug plantations.
Navy launches patrolled the sea off the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas on Tuesday, witnesses said.
Almost 3,000 people, mostly drug gang members and police, have been killed in the past two years in cartel wars across Mexico.
Most of the killings have been on the Pacific coast and near the U.S. border. The drug feud involves two main gangs, from northeastern and northwestern Mexico, and their local allies.
The previous government of former President Vicente Fox announced "the mother of all battles" against narcotics smugglers but failed to stop the killings.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N12385571.htm
Brutality of Attacks Against Women Teachers Leaves Karzai in Tears
On Sunday an emotional Afghan President Hamid Karzai bemoaned the recent wave of violent attacks against women and children. "The cruelty is too much," he said in response to the killing of a 2-year-old child last week and the murder of two women teachers Saturday. (AP Photo )
Dec. 12, 2006— Afghan police have nabbed six Taliban insurgents suspected of killing two women teachers along with three other relatives, Afghan and NATO officials said Tuesday.
Friday night's brutal killings brought to 20 the number of teachers killed in Taliban attacks this year, according to Zuhur Afghan, a spokesman for the education ministry.
He said 198 schools have been burned down in 2006, in a viciously effective campaign that has terrorized the Afghan countryside.
Under the Taliban's harsh version of Islam, women were banned from working and schools for girls were shuttered.
Getting millions of Afghan girls back in the classroom was one of the few visible achievements of the U.S.-backed government, installed in late 2001.
Now that triumph is under threat, said women activists.
Afraid to Attend School
"Many villagers have stopped letting their girls go to school, fearing they will be targeted by the Taliban," said lawmaker Shinkai Kharokhail. "That campaign has had a very negative impact on the people."
School burnings and attacks on teachers have mainly targeted conservative rural areas, where persuading fathers to educate their daughters was already an uphill battle. Female literacy in Afghanistan is a dismal 13 percent.
But Friday's killing in a remote part of mountainous Kunar Province was especially bloody. It sparked condemnations from top NATO officials and the angry Kunar governor, who immediately fired his police chief. President Hamid Karzai, meanwhile, burst into tears during an emotional press conference about the rising violence across Afghanistan.
Family members in the Narang district said gunmen scaled their home's outer wall, burst into the residence and opened fire.
They killed the two young women who worked as teachers, along with their mother, grandmother and a 20-year-old brother, said Ghaleb, a relative who gave only one name.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2719718&page=1
Children threaten stonings as Gaza's chaos deepens
12 Dec 2006 13:06:20 GMT
Source: Reuters
Printable view | Email this article | RSS [-] Text [+]
Background
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
More
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - In a sign of just how far security has fallen in the Gaza Strip, a group of children took to the streets on Tuesday burning tyres and threatening stonings if the "adults" did not stop causing chaos.
Dressed in jeans and a blue shirt, 12-year-old Saeed Salem and his friends said they were enraged by the killing of three young brothers on Monday and fed up with the constant security nightmares that have ruined their short lives.
"We are angry," said Salem, as he and his young colleagues set about burning tyres in a central Gaza street. "We need those who killed the kids to be found and stoned to death."
His friend, Ahmed, his hands blackened from wheeling abandoned tyres on to the bonfire, said the adults were lost in rivalries and had abandoned the kids to their own business.
"We have no amusment parks to attend and no sport clubs to go to. At least let us live in peace," the boy said.
Gaza took another step towards chaos on Monday when gunmen shot dead three brothers, aged between 6 and 9, as they were being dropped off at school.
Their father was an intelligence officer considered close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, giving the killings a political bent, although there is no clear indication yet of who was responsible.
Fatah, the party headed by Abbas, and its Islamist rival Hamas, which runs the Palestinian government, have blamed one another for the killings, deepening tensions between the movements, both of which are well armed.
Abbas sent forces on to the streets to try to restore order on Tuesday and called for a day of mourning for those killed. But despite the greater security presence, rival gunmen still clashed and at least two people were wounded.
As well as the children, mothers also expressed alarm at the killings and despair at Gaza's spiralling crisis. Radio stations have been jammed with callers denouncing the brothers' deaths.
"Life in Gaza has turned to hell," said Umm Mohammad, a veiled woman attending a mourning house to honour the boys.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L12884896.htm
Annan calls for urgent action on Darfur
Tuesday December 12, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
The UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland, in Darfur earlier this year, says the conflict is in freefall. Photograph: Getty Images
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, today urged an emergency session of the UN human rights council to take immediate action over atrocities in Darfur, Sudan.
Mr Annan called on the council, a new human rights watchdog set up last June, to send an independent team to investigate reports of an increase in violence, including mass rapes of girls as young as eight.
"It is urgent that we take action to prevent further violations, including by bringing to account those responsible for the numerous crimes that have already been committed," Mr Annan said in a recorded address to open the 47-member emergency session.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,,1970351,00.html
Fiji warriors threaten to kill Bainimarama
13 December 2006
By KERI WELHAM in Suva
Fijian warriors have threatened to kill ruling military head Voreqe Bainimarama, and burn the homes of soldiers loyal to the self-appointed President.
Traditional warriors from the 14 provinces of Fiji said Commodore Bainimarama would face the wrath of his people if he did not withdraw his troops and return the islands to democratic rule by Christmas day, The Fiji Sun reported this morning.
The newspaper said the military, which took power in a coup last week and is ruling through means of intimidation and threats to anyone who publicly criticises the new regime, had launched Operation Tuvakarau to protect the Commodore and investigate the threat.
Land Force Commander Colonel Pita Driti challenged the warriors to come forward.
"If these traditional warriors decide to take us on, we are ready for any sort of action. And they should come out prepared instead of hiding and playing mind games."
The death threats continue long-held fears for the Commodore's safety as he executes a "clean-up" of the nation. He has claimed widespread corruption was rotting the government of ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and yesterday moved to overhaul the country's public sector.
He sacked some chief executives and called the remainder together to advise them that, in the absence of government ministers, they must take on the job of leading the country's 62 departments and 22 ministries.
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Caretaker Prime Minister Dr Jona Senilagakali warned the chief executives of cost-cutting and mergers to reduce the number of ministers required in a new government. He led the way, announcing he would take a 10 per cent pay cut, and remove all fringe benefits for himself and his wife. This reduced his package from $106,000 to $68,000.
The military regime also moved to halt the implementation of a VAT (similar to GST) rise from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent. Due to take effect in January, the tax rise had fuelled rage at Qarase's government among some citizens, particularly the poor. Roughly 50 per cent of Fijians live below the poverty line.
Meanwhile, at a hastily-called meeting with the media last night Bainimarama revealed military intelligence suggested Qarase was developing a rival "de facto" government to be run from the west of Fiji. Suva, the capital of the nation of almost 900,000, is in the east.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3898485a12,00.html
Mexican army sent to state plagued by drug gangs
12 Dec 2006 19:32:35 GMT
Source: Reuters
Printable view | Email this article | RSS [-] Text [+]
MORELIA, Mexico, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Mexican soldiers searched cars at checkpoints and the navy patrolled rugged coastal areas on Tuesday in a crackdown on feuding drug gangs that have terrorized a western state.
New President Felipe Calderon is sending 5,000 troops to Michoacan state to battle the drug cartels, in his first high-profile move against crime since taking office on Dec. 1.
Troops in armored cars and federal police set up checkpoints around the towns of Apatzingan and Aguililla, scene of some of the worst violence between rival drug cartels.
Some 500 people have been killed this year in Michoacan, a transfer point for cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines that are smuggled north to the United States.
Beheadings have become common and drug hit men, often better armed than local police, effectively control swathes of the countryside.
"What is happening is that we are putting all our force against that. It's about controlling and occupying territory," Attorney-General Eduardo Medina Mora said.
Calderon, a native of Michoacan's state capital Morelia, said the operation, announced on Monday, was also aimed at disrupting trafficking routes and finding drug plantations.
Navy launches patrolled the sea off the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas on Tuesday, witnesses said.
Almost 3,000 people, mostly drug gang members and police, have been killed in the past two years in cartel wars across Mexico.
Most of the killings have been on the Pacific coast and near the U.S. border. The drug feud involves two main gangs, from northeastern and northwestern Mexico, and their local allies.
The previous government of former President Vicente Fox announced "the mother of all battles" against narcotics smugglers but failed to stop the killings.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N12385571.htm
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