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Amnesty International Group #73, ITHACA, NY Newsletter. |
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MEETING: Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2006, 7:30 pm, Kahin Center, 640 Stewart Ave., Cornell West Campus. (Take driveway downhill to building with covered entranceway, in front door. Parking allowed evenings.) Info: 273-3009. >>>> Can’t be at the whole meeting? Come early or late, sign even a single card! AGENDA: ? Write letters on Urgent Action cases, cards, petitions: signatures are powerful! • We've been asked to send a speaker to Ithaca High School the last week in March. Who can speak? • A request for help and ideas, from the sponsor of an asylum recipient. • The group's website: an offer from a new web designer. • Amnesty USA's Annual General Meeting Apr. 28-30, Portland, OR; not too early to plan to go! • Reports and updates on campaigns. NEXT MONTH’S MEETING: Tues. Mar. 21, 2006, 7:30, same place. Always the 3rd Tuesday. (Bring a budding member!) RIDE NEEDED to MEETINGS--coming from Trumansburg area? Please phone 387-4854 (Lisa). Amnesty bases its work on the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights: 30 articles listing rights all people should have everywhere. An article for February: Art. 20. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association. SAMPLE LETTER: Bangladesh. The Ahmadi group see themselves as Muslims, but some other Muslims call them heretics. In Bangladesh they have been the target of threats for some time. Please send this letter or write your own to Mrs. Begum Khaleda Zia, the Prime Minister, at the address given (84¢ airmail) or E-mail pmo@pmobd.org . Extra effect: send a copy to the Bangladesh Ambassador, 3510 International Dr. NW, Washington DC 20008 (regular 39¢ stamp!) or E-mail bdenq@bangladoot.org or fax 202-244-2771 . Source: Urgent Action 30/06, Feb. 7. ALAS, the POSTAGE RATES have gone up: cards are 24¢, letters 39¢. To Canada and Mexico cards 55¢, letters 63¢. To other countries: 75¢ and 84¢. TV Show : Cable Channel 13. Weekly 30-minute program (premiere and 2 repeats). Tues. 9 PM, Wed. 11 PM, and Fri. 9 PM. http://www.pegasysaccess.org/; find "Amnesty International" on Channel 13 grid, or www.lns.cornell.edu/~jae/ai/html/programs.html. *587 (R #538) Kensington Welfare Rights Union *2/14,15,17 Willie Baptist, Education Director of the Philadelphia based Kensington Welfare Rights Union, gave a talk at Cornell's Human Rights Forum on the Poor People's Human Rights Campaign. *588 **(R #562) A Yard to Sweep *2/21, 22, 24 A presentation by Whitney Battle of Cornell University on the archeology of slavery. *589 Prescribing Pain* 2/28, 3/1, 3/3 Michael Hanna and Burke Hendrix (both Cornell U. faculty) explore the paradox of doctors involved in US military torture practices. *590 Nepal's Human Rights Crisis *3/7, 3/8, 3/10 Dinesh Prasain, Coordinator of Nepal's Collective Campaign for Peace, discusses the human rights implications of the 2/05 royal coup that dismantled democracy in Nepal. *591 The Congo: three wars, and the prospects for peace, Part I *3/14, 3/15, 3/17 Herbert Weiss, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, City University, discusses the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has killed an estimated 4 million people since 1996. NEW IN THE GROUP: We held elections Jan. 17. Our co-coordinators are Charlotte Acharya and Jackie Swift. We've received letters from Congressmen Boehlert and Hinchey (they divide Tompkins County). Both backed Senator McCain's amendments to ban torture of detainees by U.S. forces. Boehlert: "I have unequivocally supported the outlawing of torture at every turn in the legislative road....I have served for many years as a member of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus because torture - by its very nature - is opposed to the essence of what America stands for." Hinchey: "I was proud to support Senator McCain's efforts... President Bush's acceptance of the McCain language in December 2005 represented a victory for the principles of decent behavior" but Bush should not have "issued a 'signing statement' that indicated he would not actually conform." Amnesty criticizes all torture--it's inhuman and it yields false information rather than true. IN THE AREA: Cornell Amnesty meets Monday afternoons; has a table in Willard Straight Tuesday lunchtime; writes letters Thurs. 6:30-8:30 at Collegetown Bagels. Info kpm27@cornell.edu or fml23@cornell.edu. Ithaca College Amnesty group meets every other Thursday at 7 during the semester: contact Evan Engel, president, 375-2759 eengel1@ithaca.edu. Human Rights Film Festival at Cornell Cinema: "Private" (2004, Italy) Fri . Feb 17 and Sat. Feb 18, 7:30 pm in Uris. A middle-class Palestinian family's life is painfully interrupted when Israeli soldiers take up occupancy in their household. This look at the Middle East conflict "would seem like something out of Kafka if it weren't based on real events and a relatively common fact of contemporary Palestinian life." (NY Daily News) More at privatethefilm.com. Tompkins County Human Rights Commission : Annual awards given Jan. 28. All 11 of them seemed like highlights! But let's list the late Diann Sams, pioneering city legislator; special recognition to the Eyes Wide Open exhibition on the Iraq war and to the St.Patrick's Four; and acclaim for the Cornell volunteer interpreters-translators (a craft that's rarely even noticed!). Info on the Commission and its work for human rights in our county: 277-4080. OUT IN THE WORLD: the UN is working on a new Human Rights Council. Amnesty USA hopes it will be better at calling countries to account than the previous Commission on Human Rights, and asks us to write Pres. Bush asking him to support a stronger and more effective Council. See http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ . Same site: a woman in danger of execution in Iran; oppose U.S. "renditions" of detainees to other countries. AIUSA: Larry Cox will succeed Bill Schultz as Executive Director on May 1. Cox held several posts at AIUSA from 1976 to 1984, and then was Deputy Secretary General of AI in London. He's quoted in the press release: "Amnesty International is uniquely positioned to fight the twin challenges of terrorism and torture because of the strength of its committed activists who give a voice to the voiceless and speak truth to power. Leading AIUSA into a new era of human rights advocacy is both exciting and challenging and will only be viable if we continue our legacy of fighting on behalf of individual human beings." Recently on http://news.amnesty.org/: Jan. 25, " Google's launch of a self-censoring Chinese search engine is the latest in a string of examples of global Internet companies caving in to pressure from the Chinese government." (Yahoo does it too: see http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/takeaction.html for an action to take.) Our group’s Web site (kindness of webmaster Jesse Ernst): http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~jae/ai/index.html. Keep the Newsletter coming: renew subscriptions! $5/year to "AI Group #73, Ithaca," c/o W. Browne, 206 Eddy St., Ithaca NY 14850, 273-3009. Rather get it by e-mail? Ask ewb2@cornell.edu. Info: co-coordinators Charlotte Acharya 227-3471 cba9@cornell.edu; Jackie Swift, swiftlyme@yahoo.com Amnesty International group 73 206 Eddy St. Ithaca, NY 14850 Ithaca, New York February 2006 Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia Office of the Prime Minister Gona Bhaban Old Sangsad Bhaban, Tejgaon, Dhaka, Bangladesh Dear Prime Minister, The Ahmadiyya religious group has a center in the village of Dhanikhola, in Mymensingh district of Dhaka Province. Opposing groups claiming religious authority, specifically the International Khatme Nabuwat Movement, have called for rallies against this and other Ahmadiyya centers, threatening violence against them. I call on the authorities to publicly denounce this threat as well as previous threats and attacks against the Ahmadiyya community. I call on them to ensure that all members of the Ahmadiyya community in Bangladesh are protected by the police and local authorities. In addition, I urge the government to take strict measures to curb the use of hate speech and public rallies to incite violence against Ahmadis. Finally, I urge the government to declare that no member of any group has the right to intimidate or persecute any members of the Ahmadiyya community, and to bring those responsible for such incidents to justice. Thank you for your kind attention to my requests. I would be grateful for a statement from your office, which I see as the most authoritative source of information about the present situation of the Ahmadis in your country. Sincerely, Copy to: Ambassador Shamsher M. Chowdhury Embassy of the People's Republic of Bangladesh 3510 International Drive NW Washington DC 20008 |
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