Massacre, 52 Hacked, Burnt to Death in Kenya’s Tana River District -By Mark Hanrahan| HuffPost

 

A man waves a machete in front of a burning barricade during Nairobi riots in 2007. Ethnic clashes that saw at least 52 people hacked or burnt to death were the worst attacks since Kenya’s 2007 post-election violence (Photo: AP)

Scores of people, the majority women and children, were killed in ethnic violence in the Tana River district of Kenya on Tuesday.

“It is a very bad incident…. [The victims] include 31 women, 11 children and six men. 34 were hacked to death and 14 others were burnt to death,” said Joseph Kitur, the regional deputy police chief for the area, according to the AFP.

The violence, which took place in the coastal region of Kenya, was between the Orma and Pokomo groups. BBC News reports that the two groups have been embroiled in a long history of conflict, caught up in a cycle of revenge killings over the theft of cattle, as well as grazing and water rights.

Kenya’s Capital FM quoted a police source as saying they believed that the Pokomo attacked the Orma people on Tuesday.

The killings constitute the single worst incident of violence in the country since 2007, when a wave of post-election violence led to the deaths of 1,200 people.

 

 

Reprint: Kenya Killings: Clashes in Tana River District Kills at Least 48 People -By Mark Hanrahan| HuffPost

 

 

 

101 East: Australia’s Lost Generation | AJE (Documentary)

Young Aborigines are four times more likely to commit suicide than non-indigenous Australians due to a variety of reasons including a disconnection from traditional culture and land. 101 East’s Yaara Bou Melhem visits remote aboriginal communities which have seen a spate of young suicides and looks at some of the desperate attempts by some of the worst affected aboriginal communities to save their young.

 

5 Year Israeli Blockade Causes Healthcare Crisis in Gaza| Guardian UK (Video)

Medical staff and the parents of patients discuss the effect of five years of Israeli blockade and Hamas rule on Gaza’s healthcare system. Power cuts and shortages of drugs and equipment mean patients are suffering. Those in urgent need of medical care often seek treatment in Israel — but permission to travel is not always granted.

Gaza Healthcare System in Crisis -By Rawles, Payne-Frank, & Schembri| Guardian UK

 

Migration

Almost everywhere on the world, migration is a hot topic. Most of the time the debate about migration is fierce and charged with prejudices and fears. At the political level, this has far-reaching consequences, ranging from electoral victories of populist right-wing parties to the increasing isolation policy of Europe and the United States. But what exactly is migration? What are its causes? And what are problems and opportunities?

Video by Joern Barkemeyer and Jan Kuenzl

 

Ethnic Killings Continue in Cote d’Ivoire Despite Regime Change | Amnesty International (Video)

Côte d’Ivoire security forces and a state-backed militia are creating a climate of fear that is preventing hundreds of thousands of people displaced by post-election violence from returning to their homes.

A new Amnesty International report We Want to go Home, but We Can’t: Côte d’Ivoire’s Continuing Crisis of Displacement and Insecurity describes how ethnically targeted killings and attacks by the government security forces (FCRI) and a militia composed of Dozos (traditional hunters) have left the population unable to leave the relative safety of temporary camps.

 

Iran Public Execution Displays Brutal Culture of Violence | Amnesty International (Video)

Graphic new video footage of a public hanging in Iran this week highlights the brutalization of both the condemned and those who watch executions, according to Amnesty International.

The video provided to Amnesty International was shot on 19 July, and shows the execution by hanging of three men in Azadi Square in the city of Kermanshah. The men had been convicted of rape.

The three men are shown standing on top of buses as guards drape ropes fixed to a bridge overhead around their necks, before a crowd of onlookers including children.  The crimes for which the men were condemned and the execution is announced over a loudspeaker, then the buses are driven away.

Video courtesy of Fazel Hawramy of kurdishblogger.com

 

Caught on Video: Taliban Execute 16 Pakistanis –By Salman Moosad | NYT

WARNING: The video above is extremely violent and/or graphic. You must be 18+ years old to view it.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Taliban insurgents have released a video showing them killing 16 Pakistani men who were captured in a raid last month in a restive northwestern province, a spokesman for the Pakistani military said Monday, July 18th.

The graphic video shows the 16 men, most of whom appear to be police officers, standing in a line with their hands tied behind their backs. Four insurgents stand in front, holding assault rifles, with their faces covered by scarves.

One insurgent makes a brief speech in Pashto, the language spoken in the country’s northwest, accusing the men of killing six children in the Swat district.

“These are the enemies of Islam who originated from Pakistan,” he says, according to a translation of the statement posted by the Long War Journal, a Web site that specializes in reports on militancy. The speaker in the video describes the 16 men as “murtards,” or those who have abandoned Islam.

“They are the Pakistani police, soldiers and their supporters who recently lined up six kids in Swat and shot them execution-style,” the insurgent says. “These Pakistanis are now our captives, and we will avenge the death of the children by doing the same to them.”

A quick burst of gunfire follows. The men fall to the ground, and some can be heard moaning. Then an insurgent approaches them one by one and fires rounds at each man who still appears to be alive.

Another person, holding a video camera, films the execution and walks up and down capturing images of the victims. The video runs 5 minutes, 36 seconds in all.

No Taliban group had yet publicly claimed responsibility for the video, which was first shown on the LiveLeak video-sharing Web site.

Excerpt, read:  Video From Taliban Shows Killing of 16 Pakistanis –By Salman Moosad | NYT

 

Genocide: Worse Than War | Full-length Documentary | PBS

Watch Daniel Goldhagen’s ground-breaking documentary WORSE THAN WAR, which premiered on PBS on April 14, 2010, focused on the worldwide phenomenon of genocide.

“By the most fundamental measure — the number of people killed — the perpetrators of mass murder since the beginning of the twentieth century have taken the lives of more people than have died in military conflict. So genocide is worse than war,” reiterates Goldhagen. “This is a little-known fact that should be a central focus of international politics, because once you know it, the world, international politics, and what we need to do all begin to look substantially different from how they are typically conceived.”

WORSE THAN WAR documents Goldhagen’s travels, teachings, and interviews in nine countries around the world, bringing viewers on an unprecedented journey of insight and analysis. In a film that is highly cinematic and evocative throughout, he speaks with victims, perpetrators, witnesses, politicians, diplomats, historians, humanitarian aid workers, and journalists, all with the purpose of explaining and understanding the critical features of genocide and how to finally stop it.

 

Nepali Slaves in the Middle East –By Pete Pattison| Guardian UK (Video)

Pete Pattison investigates the trafficking of people escaping poverty and conflict in Nepal. Unscrupulous agents take huge sums of money from them for work abroad then consign them to slavery and appalling conditions in the Middle East. Many are abused by their employers and some are killed at the hands of agents.

* This video was funded by Anti-Slavery International and the International Trade Union Confederation

Nepali Slaves in the Middle East –By Pete Pattison | Guardian UK (Video)

 

The Dalai Lama Steps Back, But Not Down –By Barbara O’Brien | Guardian UK

Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has retired from politics aged 75 ( EPA/STR).

News of the 14th Dalai Lama’s retirement from politics was no surprise to those of us who follow his “career”. He has said many times he planned to relinquish his role in government to democratically elected leadership. But what took him so long?

years, detractors have accused the Dalai Lama of scheming to retake Tibet and restore the old feudal theocracy, in spite of his public statements in favur of secular, democratic government. If he was so “democratic”, they asked, why did he still assume political authority over exiled Tibetans? And those of us inclined to defend him could only say, he’s going to step down eventually. It’s a relief that eventually has arrived.

On the other hand, Tibetans aren’t sure they are ready to let go of their political lama. Samdhong Rinpoche, Tibet’s prime minister in exile, told the Hindustan Times that without the Dalai Lama, the legitimacy of the Tibetan government in exile might be undermined. The Tibetan exile community, he said, had been functional largely because its members accepted the Dalai Lama’s authority.

Consider the circumstances of Tibetans as a people in diaspora. For centuries, its geography isolated Tibet from the rest of civilization. The Chinese occupation, and China’s reaction to the Lhasa uprising of 1959, drove the Dalai Lama and other religious leaders into exile, with monks and lay people following. And so the long isolation was ruptured, and Tibetans, their culture and Tibetan Buddhism abruptly spilled out into the modern world.

Since 1960, the Central Tibetan Authority (CTA) – better known as the Tibetan government in exile – has occupied headquarters in the lower Himalayas of northern India. For some time the CTA has had an elected parliament and prime minister governing the Tibetan exile community. The CTA makes no claims of political authority in Tibet, and in the event freedom is restored to Tibet it is expected to dissolve.

But in the meantime, the exiles are guests of India, not citizens, occupying a kind of bureaucratic twilight zone. The presence of the Tibetan community likewise has placed India in an uncomfortable position with regard to its powerful and contentious neighbor, China. This awkwardness was on display last month after a police search uncovered nearly $1.6m in cash stored in boxes in a monastery. The money was in currencies of several countries, including China, which set off heated speculation in Indian news media about spy lamas secretly controlled by Beijing.

But the money was the offerings of faithful visitors, accumulated over many years. Because of Indian foreign currency laws, the Tibetans could not deposit the money in a bank without government approval, which never came. So the cash was stored in a monk’s dormitory. “Many typical transactions, from buying land to depositing foreign currency in Indian banks, are either illegal or a bureaucratic nightmare for Tibetans,” Ishan Tharoor wrote in TIME magazine.

In these tenuous circumstances, the Dalai Lama’s leadership has been a source of stability and cohesion for the Tibetans. But he is 75. This week’s announcement may be his way of telling the exiles they need to find stability and cohesion without him, and sooner rather than later. In any event, “Dalai Lama” is not an occupation from which one can retire. The role embodies the history, mythology and spirituality of the Tibetan people, and His Holiness will continue to be a venerated Buddhist monk and teacher. His political duties may be the least important part of his job.

The real challenge to Tibetan Buddhism is yet to come. Earlier this week, the government of China announced a new law, to go into effect next month, stipulating the procedures by which a lama may reincarnate. Seriously. Beijing has also ordered that the 15th Dalai Lama must be born in China and will be recognized by government authority.

When the 14th dies, it is a near certainty that China will give the title of Dalai Lama to the son of a loyal ethnic Tibetan Communist party member, and Beijing will pressure western governments to recognize their boy, and not the child chosen by lamas in India, as the head of Tibetan Buddhism. What’s to become of Tibetan stability and cohesion then is anyone’s guess.

Reprint: The Dalai Lama Steps Back, But Not Down –By Barbara O’Brien | Guardian UK