The story of human rights

Go to http://www.youtube.com/user/unitedforhumanrights for videos about each of the universal human rights.

IWR: Journalism for humanity

A new activist-minded magazine has seen the light of day: Independent World Report (IWR), a bimonthly newsmagazine about issues that don’t get their fair share of (or any) attention in mainstream media. Its credo is journalism for humanity, its reporters are from all over the world. Editor Tasneem Khalil is a Bangladeshi journalist now in exile in Sweden, a survivor of torture for working as an editor for the Dhaka-based Daily Star newspaper, as a news representative for CNN in Bangladesh, and as a consultant researcher for Human Rights Watch. Tasneem found me through my blog and asked me to write for IWR.

My contribution to the first issue is a piece on asylum children in Denmark in which I compare my experiences from the mid-nineties to the situation today. Things are quite different today, and in many ways much, much harder on children than when I used to live in an asylum center, as you already may have read about on my blog.

In the first issue of IWR you can also read an essay on religion’s role in the oppression on women, investigative reporting on forced child labour in the Uzbek cotton industry, an interview with former British diplomat who blew the whistle on torture, Craig Murray, and much more.

I am working on a piece for the next issue, this time about the ICTY. If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave me a comment in the next few days And make sure you browse through the excellent pieces in the first issue of IWR on independentworldreport.com.

14 years since the Srebrenica Holocaust

14 years ago Ratko Mladić and his heavily armed soldiers began their holocaust against unarmed civilians in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, proclaimed by the UN as a “safe haven”. In his own words, Mladić did it in the name of the Serb people. They brutally murdered more than 10.000 Bosnians, among them babies too young to even have been named yet. Their remains were buried in mass graves. The Dutch UN soldiers watched all of it, and even helped separate men from women and children (most of the murdered Bosnians were men, but neither women nor children were spared – countless women were raped, for instance). In the years to come, the remains were dug up and scattered in order to hide the evidence – something not even Hitler had thought of. To this day there are people in the world who admire and idolize Mladić and all those who committed the holocaust with him. Mladić is still at large.

The survivors have seen no justice yet. Cases have been brought to international courts, without any useful outcome. A couple of years ago the Dutch government awarded medals to the soldiers who had been in Srebrenica during the genocide. Is having part in a holocaust really something to be proud of?

Not everyone in Serbia was crying that day

This I didn’t know. After Milošević had died in his cell in the Hague in March 2006 while being tried for war crimes, a group of about 3.000 citizens of Belgrade (mainly young people) walked down the main pedestrian street carrying balloons and chanting “Good riddance”. The march ended in a park where they let go of the balloons.

Sadly, a much, much bigger crowd (I read on B92 it was 80.000) was lamenting the death of the criminal in front of the parliament at the same time. But still, a nice little story of a group of dissidents. I imagine it wasn’t very easy for them, not least because of the massive verbal abuse against them I’ve found on the internet just looking for a couple of articles for more info. There were also plenty of violent attacks by Milošević’s fans in those days, among others on journalists from B92. A lot of buildings were set on fire and demolished as well.

The photos below I found in a Facebook group remembering the event.

Refugee Week 2009

June 15th-21st is the Refugee Week in the UK (other countries may only be marking the Refugee Day on June 20th), and on this occasion the British Red Cross has launched a campaign called Look Beyond the Label. The website tells you how you can join as a blogger, user of social networks like Facebook and Twitter or just plain in your e-mails.

In the videos in the campaign several refugees speak out. Among them Aldijana Bećirević from Bosnia-Herzegovina who had to flee her country in 1995. Today she is a solicitor specialised in immigration law. Her video is very moving, as you can see below. Make sure to see the others’ testimonies as well and find out how you can support the campaign at lookbeyondthelabel.org