Stories of Human Abuse and Human being in wretched plight all around the World

17 May 2010 India: Authorities must halt unnecessary and excessive use of police force and civil militia attack on adivasi and peasant protestors in Orissa Amnesty International urges authorities in Orissa to immediately halt unnecessary and excessive use of force by police and private civil militias on adivasi (indigenous communities) and peasants protesting against the acquisition of their lands and habitats for steel projects respectively in Kalinganagar and Jagatsingpur. Laxman Jamuda, a 50-year-old adivasi leader was killed and ten protestors including a few women were injured in police firing and nine others sustained injuries during clashes in Kalinganagar, on 12 May. Eyewitnesses informed Amnesty International that the action involved more than 1,000 police officials against about 300 adivasi protestors, some of whom armed with traditional weapons. Eyewitnesses said a 200-strong civil militia supporting the takeover of the lands for the proposed Tata Steel plant for...

Zimbabwe: 700,000 forcibly evicted still ignored five years on 18 May 2010 AI Index: PRE01/158/2010 The government of Zimbabwe must take action to protect hundreds of thousands of people left to survive in substandard settlements five years after a program of mass forced evictions, Amnesty International Zimbabwe and a coalition of partners said today. Amnesty International and the Coalition Against Forced Evictions are calling on the government to provide adequate alternative accommodation or compensation to those left homeless and jobless. “It is a scandal that five years on, victims are left to survive in plastic shacks without basic essential services. The needs of these victims are at risk of being forgotten because their voices are consistently ignored,” said Amnesty International Zimbabwe’s director Cousin Zilala. On 18 May 2005 the government of Zimbabwe began demolishing ...

French politicians urged to reject ban on full face veils 19 May 2010 AI Index: PRE01/163/2010 Amnesty International is calling on French law-makers to reject a draft law banning the wearing of full face veils in public that was adopted by the government and put before Parliament today. The proposal, which is being put forward by the French government after a prolonged public debate on the wearing of Islamic face veils, would prohibit the wearing anywhere in public of any form of clothing intended to conceal one’s face. "A complete ban on the covering of the face would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion of those women who wear the burqa or the niqab in public as an expression of their identity or beliefs," said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's expert on discrimination in Europe. Breach of the law would be punishable by a fine of up to 150 Euros and / or the requirement to complete a community rehabilitation programme. The move comes only a fe...

2nd email - Sri Lanka (en) A survivor of the Sri Lankan war shares her story Vasuki is a Tamil refugee now living outside Sri Lanka.* In 2009, she spent several months in the country’s ‘No Fire Zone’, moving constantly and struggling to save her 2 small children. She describes what she saw during the horrific war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan security forces. Her only hope during that time was that the UN would come to their rescue. It didn’t happen. Vasu...