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Pakistan to release Australian Jack Thomas after five months jail
without charge
The Musharraf government in Pakistan announced this week that it will
release Jack Thomas, a 29-year-old Australian citizen and former taxi
driver imprisoned without charge since January 4.
Thomas, who was accused of having links with Al Qaeda,
is to be freed because the Pakistani government could find no
evidence to substantiate the allegations. But the Howard government,
which has ignored increasingly desperate Thomas family pleas for
assistance over the last months, has ominously suggested that
Jack Thomas could be charged under Australian anti-terror laws.
Click Here to read complete story .....
Two European
journalists and US Minister Rev Mua to be Released
Great news! The 'diplomatic relations' have secured the release of the two European
journalists and US Minister Rev Mua. The trio were detained for almost one month in Laos following their arrest for reporting on the Ethnic Hmong cleansing in the Xieng Khouam Province. They were taken to trial and sentenced by the Laos court 15 years.
Their release gives me a strong sense of dejavu. They had to pay compensation,
retain their criminal conviction for life and agree to other ludicrous demands
made by the Communist dictatorship, just as we had to in order to go home to our children.
Click Here to read complete article .....
Court turns down extradition request -
Achara Ashayagachat
The Criminal Court has declined to extradite 16 Lao dissidents
wanted in Vientiane for a bloody raid at a checkpoint on the Thai border three
years ago.
Click Here to read complete story .....
Belgian reporter and French cameraman held after reporting on Hmong minority
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières) today called on the Laotian
authorities to release two freelance journalists, Belgian reporter Thierry Falise
and French cameraman Vincent Reynaut, who were arrested a week ago after preparing
a report on the desperate situation of the Hmong ethnic minority.
Click Here to read complete story .....
News Updates on this story
Fri Jun 13 - Laos Refuses Access to Arrested Foreigners - Click Here to read complete story .....
Sunday June 15 - DJ Laos Says Won't Show Leniency Toward Detained Journalists
PHNOM PENH (AP)--Laos will show no leniency toward two European journalists and an ethnic Hmong-American arrested in the communist country for alleged involvement in a murder, its foreign minister said Sunday.
Click Here to read complete story .....
In parts of Laos, the Vietnam War is still being fought
Journalists' arrest highlights a former CIA-backed group battling Communist government.
Click Here to read complete story .....
Hundreds of children's locked up in Thai prisons
Here is the picture that the tourists should not see. Hundreds of thousands of tourists are visiting Thailand every year - but few knows that some of the children's are kept in custody in Thai prisons.
Their crimes: They have criminal mothers. There are right now 33 children in the provincial prison in Chiang Rai. All are under 5 years old, and all of them are born after that their mothers got imprisoned. The kids must be here with their mothers. No relatives want to adopt them, says Saichol Puek-On, Security manager of the prison. She tells us that the kids are in the prison until the mother is freed. Until their mother is freed, they are locked in the womans department of the prison. She tells us that the kids are locked behind bars until they are four years old. Their mothers was pregnant when they came here, and they have no chance to adopt the life outside the prison.
If you have some things they can play with, please send them to us, says Saichol Puek-on to Thaivisa. We try to take care as much as we can.
Source: Thaivisa.com
Prison standoff ends peacefully - Inmates forward 12-point demand
A 12-hour standoff at Thung Song district prison was brought to a peaceful end yesterday after some 700 inmates troubled by poor welfare and alleged extortion seized control of the prison.
They also called for the immediate transfer of Udom Krui-nara, the prison commander, on grounds of incompetence.
Click Here for Full Story
In Memoriamn
James Leander Nichols was born in Australia in 1931. A
long-time resident of Burma, he operated a shipping company from 1945
until 1962, the year when private firms were nationalised, and was the
godfather and close friend of Noble Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi. Leo Nichols was appointed the Norwegian Honorary Consul to
Burma in 1969, and in 1978 he was appointed consul for Denmark. In
1993, the State Law and Order Restoration Council(SLORC)withdrew
permission for him to serve as a consul, and he subsequently continued
to act as a de facto honorary consul for Norway, Denmark, Finland and
Switzerland. He was arrested on April 5,1996 and charged with
operating a fax machine and phone line without official permission. It
is widely understood he was arrested for his close association with Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi. On May 20, 1996, he was sentenced to three years jail
and fined US$5,000. A month later on June 22 he died in prison while
waiting for an appeal. The SLORC initially claimed Mr. Nichols died
of a stroke in Rangoon General Hospital, while Foreign Minister Ohn
Gyaw later said he died from eating food' he should not have taken'.
Leo Nichols was hastily buried in a cemetery in Rangoon the day after
his death. No autopsy was conducted and due to the haste of the burial
none of his family were able to be present at the funeral. Leo
Nichols is survived by his wife, Felicity Nichols, and five children.
http://www.aappb.org/D%20Nichols.html Courtesy of Assistance
Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)
Urgent Action Required to Stop the persecution of Christians in Laos
The Laos govt is continuing in their persecution of Christians who do not denounce their faith. In some cases, they are even shot for this. Some people have been arrested "just for speaking freely and openly about their faith and in other parts of the country, Lao Christians have been ordered to close their churches and to stop their worship practices".
No matter what religion you may or not be, I encourage you to write an express your concerns about these violations of human rights. The United States Commission on International Freedom released their latest findings in a report February 2003.
The Commission draws attention to abuses including arrests, prolonged detention and imprisonment of members of minority religions, forced renunciations of faith of Christians, and extensive governmental interference with and restrictions on all religious communities, including Evangelical Christians, Roman Catholics, Baha'is and Buddhists.
The US Commission determines that the Laos Government has been engaged in particularly severe violations of religious freedom, as defined in the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA).
The report, as well as information about the US Commission can be found on
http://www.uscirf.gov
URGENT ACTION REQUIRED
Click Here to Send a letter of protest regarding this issue
Prominent Burmese Political Prisoner Dr. Salai Tun Than, Launches Hunger
Strike inside Insein Prison
Washington / Rangoon April 28: - Days after U.S. President George W.
Bush showered praise on Burma's democracy movement, the Free Burma
Coalition has received news that one of the country's most prominent
political prisoners, Dr. Salai Tun Than, a 75-year-old professor, has
launched a hunger strike to protest violations of fundamental human and
religious rights in the Southeast Asian country's notorious Insein
prison.
Dr Salai Tun Than has now been released - Click here to read ...
Click Here to read the whole story
Click Here to read a statement by Salai Tun Than's daughter Mai Theingi Tun Than
Click Here to Sign the Petition for the Release
U Thu Wai, U Htwe Myint, Professor Dr.Salai Tun Than and All Political Prisoners in Burma
Cooperation with the International Committee of The Red Cross
Although there has been no M.O.U signed between the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Union of Myanmar and the International Committee of the Red Cross ( ICRC ), the Myanmar Government has allowed the ICRC delegates to access and take interviews freely and in private with the inmates in the prisons and work camps, starting on 6-5-99 as a confidence-building measure.
During the ICRC visit to prisons and work camps, the delegates have been finding the conditions of detention based on the accommodation and population of prisons, health, sanitation, personal hygiene, clothing and bedding of inmates, food, work, recreational facilities, health care, rights and restriction of inmates, contact with outside, freedom of religion, social communication and care.
The International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC) have carried out its visits to 33 prisons and 10 work camps until on 27-4-2001. The ICRC visited some prisons and work camps repeatedly and there were 1 prison for five times, 2 prisons for four times, 9 prisons for three times, 18 prisons and 1 work camp for two times so far.
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