World

Russia Plans New Military Bases Near Georgia

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A plan to open military bases in the contested province of Abkhazia could threaten Georgia and extend Russian military power abroad, reports Eurasianet.org. Russia is working to restore an old Soviet air base in the breakaway Georgian region, and plans to open a naval base on the Black Sea as well. Abkhazia’s separatist government welcomes the bases due to what Russian military officials call the “threat of … terrorist attacks by Georgian special services.” Yet the new bases shine a more strategic light on Russia’s support for Abkhazian independence.

Democracy & Civics

'Human Rights Prison' Opens in Australia

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Radio Netherlands reports that Australia’s first “human rights” prison is now open in Canberra. The prison, which can house up to 300 co-ed inmates, was designed with “restorative justice” principals in mind, to help prisoners maintain a sense of self-respect to enable their rehabilitation. It boasts bright color schemes, views of nature and reinforced plastic, instead of bars, for the windows. “Prisoners can’t leave the grounds but they don’t have to be treated like animals in a cage,” one official said. Half of the inmates will live in small groups in cottages, while traditional cellblocks for higher-risk prisoners will be somewhat larger, and feature individual toilets.

Democracy & Civics

Thailand: No Free Speech for Critics of Royals

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Thai officials said recently that the government has identified more than 10,000 websites that supposedly insult the country’s monarchy. Insulting Thailand’s king or any members of the royal family is a criminal offense and punishable by time in prison, according to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance. Reports indicate the number of Web sites allegedly insulting the monarchy is increasing, even though the government already blocked 2,300 and has plans to block 400 more. One former Thai minister told The Straits Times that Thailand’s “lese majeste” law — which protects King Bhumibol and his family from criticism — have created the problem, usually spurring court cases that “take up a lot of people’s time.” Media and rights activists are opposed to such protections, and Dr. Tej Bunnag, a former royal advisor, said efforts have been made to amend the law, but did not provide details.

Democracy & Civics

Amid Colombia's Violence, Gandhi's Ghost

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Colombia’s “indigenous guard” is pursuing nonviolence as a means of enforcing justice for the country’s 92 tribal communities, according to The Dominion, an Canadian publication. Hemmed in by violent drug trafficking, and conflict between government soldiers and rebels, around 1.5 million Indians are looking to confront kidnappings, murders and greed with unarmed confrontations and community-based reconciliation assemblies. Rodrigo Dagua, leader of the Jambalo tribe, told the Los Angeles Times: “We forbid violence. All we have is the power to convene.” In late November 2008, when seven villagers were kidnapped from Jambalo, in Southwest Colombia, hundreds of community members banded together, successfully found the hostages and freed them peacefully, despite the rebels’ threat of force, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Democracy & Civics

In Azerbaijan, Radio Silence

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At the start of 2009, Azerbaijan enacted a ban blocking international radio stations from using local frequencies, raising fears of censorship and shifting international alliances. The ban targets broadcasts by the British Broadcasting Corporation, as well as the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America, according to the Moscow Times. As of January 1, all Azerbaijan radio frequencies became government property and no foreign broadcasting licenses will be renewed. Although foreign broadcasters will still be able to find an audience using satellite, Internet and cable technologies in Azerbaijan, the ban will eliminate the majority of the stations’ regular audience. Kenan Aliyev, director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Azerbaijan, told the Christian Science Monitor, “If we lose FM, we lose 95 percent of our audience.”

Democracy & Civics

Uganda Court Challenges Anti-Gay Laws

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In a landmark case, a court in Uganda ruled in favor of two women who were arrested and harassed by police on suspicions of being lesbians. Homosexuality is still illegal in Uganda and homophobia is the norm. Gay rights activists Yvonne Oyoo and Victor Juliet Mukasa filed the suit against the Ugandan government after local officials illegally raided Mukasa’s home looking for “incriminating material” in July of 2005, according to a report on Uganda Pulse. In that raid, Mukasa was beaten up while Oyoo was arrested, held and tortured for several days without a formal charge. Oyoo was detained and forced to strip “to prove that she was a woman”; a Ugandan news website reported that both women were beaten, while Radio Netherlands said Yvonne was sexually assaulted.

Democracy & Civics

Year's Top Issues: War Crimes

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The world is full of ghosts and memories of the many war crimes enacted during the last part of the 20th century. But issues and people around the violence remain very much alive. In the Balkans, the high-profile arrest of former Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic, who helped spearhead the region’s genocidal civil wars, brought additional pressure to arrest other, less-well-known Serb leaders who remain on the run. One reader commented on the Newsdesk.org Web site that Croats and Bosniaks are also to blame, and that a focus on Serbs is one-sided. Targeting Rwanda, Spain indicted 40 Army officers as well as Rwandan President Paul Kagame over the killing of aid workers in the 1990s — charges that Kagame fiercely rejected.

Democracy & Civics

Year's Top Issues: Indigenous Peoples

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Control of natural resources, language, education, access to traditional lands — these are just a few of the issues that indigenous activists rallied around in 2008. Armed with a U.N. declaration affirming a variety of rights around these topics, advocacy groups started last year with a push for greater legal protections. This comes at a time for rising political fortunes for leftists in Bolivia and Ecuador, who successfully harnessed the indigenous vote. And in Brazil, activists won a Supreme Court case that affirmed the land rights of tribal communities living in the northern Amazon region. In Guatemala, however, an leftist advocate for Mayans opposed to large-scale mining in their communities was found beaten and hacked to death.

Environment

Year's Top Issues: Water

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Access to clean water is one of the defining issues of the 21st century, and while the problem is global, much of the action is playing out at the community level. Drought is only deepening in Australia and Ukraine. In China, shortages caused by drought and heavy use are profound — the Yellow River rarely reaches the sea anymore, and the Yangtze dropped to a 140-year low last January, according to reports. Add pollution to the mix, and you have a burgeoning crisis for vulnerable populations in the developing world and beyond. Advocates say market forces will effectively deliver clean water to those most in need; some tout the concept of “virtual water” as a means of facilitating water importing and exporting at the national scale.

Democracy & Civics

Ghost of Thatcher Past Haunts Royal Mail

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A British plan to sell shares of the state-owned Royal Mail Group to a foreign firm has created a heated dispute among labor unions, members of Parliament and pundits on the U.K.’s media circuit. The Telegraph reports that a set of recommendations for partial privatization was accepted by the British government, provoking a bidding war among overseas investors angling for up to a 33 percent stake in the Royal Mail service. The two leading prospects are the Dutch postal group TNT, and the private equity house CVC, according to The Times. Boosters say the deal will mean an updated, globally competitive, automated mail system to replace a 360-year-old system that often sorts mail by hand. Yet critics say privatization will mean the loss of thousands of full-time jobs, decreased quality of remote mail services, and a slide towards Conservative “Thatcherite” policies, which doesn’t sit well with stalwarts of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour Party.