Prepare for a Human Rights Catastrophe in Ivory Coast

It would seem that despite the protestations of probably the most knowledgeable person about Africa in the U.S. Senate, Laurent Gbagbo’s days are numbered.

After a series of victories in key strategic towns across the Ivory Coast, forces loyal to internationally recognized presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara are poised to advance on Abidjan. And all the while, the circle is tightening around Gbagbo. Last night, the Security Council slapped sanctions on Gbagbo, his wife, and a top lieutenants. Today, his top military commanders defected to the South African embassy with his family today.

The question is: will he go quietly or put up a fight? There are about 9,000 UN peacekeepers in Abidjan with a mandate to protect civilians. But their movement has been restricted by armed groups loyal to Gbagbo. There is also a healthy contingent of French troops, who are well armed and well co-ordinated and have a mandate to support UNOCI. These troops could be the decisive in preventing a large scale human rights violations from being visited upon civilians in Abidjan.

That is very much within the realm of possibility. Amnesty International warns of a potential human rights catastrophe in Abidjan.   Human Rights Watch has already documented a case in which forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo massacred 37 villagers, presumed to be Liberians, in a western town in Ivory Coast:

At least four cars carrying pro-Gbagbo militiamen attacked the village, witnesses said. They were armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and machetes.

The witnesses said the militiamen killed the immigrants inside their homes and as they attempted to flee. They pillaged and burned houses, looting any items of value, including motorcycles, money, televisions, mattresses and clothing.

A 28-year-old Malian man told Human Rights Watch: “At around 3pm we heard the sound of heavy trucks coming and ran into our houses. The men fired into the air, then started breaking down the doors‚ saying: ‘Fire, fire’ and ‘You’re rebels, we’ll kill all of you’.

This could get really ugly.  Really soon.

View the original article here

Prepare for a Human Rights Catastrophe in Ivory Coast

It would seem that despite the protestations of probably the most knowledgeable person about Africa in the U.S. Senate, Laurent Gbagbo’s days are numbered.

After a series of victories in key strategic towns across the Ivory Coast, forces loyal to internationally recognized presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara are poised to advance on Abidjan. And all the while, the circle is tightening around Gbagbo. Last night, the Security Council slapped sanctions on Gbagbo, his wife, and a top lieutenants. Today, his top military commanders defected to the South African embassy with his family today.

The question is: will he go quietly or put up a fight? There are about 9,000 UN peacekeepers in Abidjan with a mandate to protect civilians. But their movement has been restricted by armed groups loyal to Gbagbo. There is also a healthy contingent of French troops, who are well armed and well co-ordinated and have a mandate to support UNOCI. These troops could be the decisive in preventing a large scale human rights violations from being visited upon civilians in Abidjan.

That is very much within the realm of possibility. Amnesty International warns of a potential human rights catastrophe in Abidjan.   Human Rights Watch has already documented a case in which forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo massacred 37 villagers, presumed to be Liberians, in a western town in Ivory Coast:

At least four cars carrying pro-Gbagbo militiamen attacked the village, witnesses said. They were armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and machetes.

The witnesses said the militiamen killed the immigrants inside their homes and as they attempted to flee. They pillaged and burned houses, looting any items of value, including motorcycles, money, televisions, mattresses and clothing.

A 28-year-old Malian man told Human Rights Watch: “At around 3pm we heard the sound of heavy trucks coming and ran into our houses. The men fired into the air, then started breaking down the doors‚ saying: ‘Fire, fire’ and ‘You’re rebels, we’ll kill all of you’.

This could get really ugly.  Really soon.

View the original article here

Prepare for a Human Rights Catastrophe in Ivory Coast

It would seem that despite the protestations of probably the most knowledgeable person about Africa in the U.S. Senate, Laurent Gbagbo’s days are numbered.

After a series of victories in key strategic towns across the Ivory Coast, forces loyal to internationally recognized presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara are poised to advance on Abidjan. And all the while, the circle is tightening around Gbagbo. Last night, the Security Council slapped sanctions on Gbagbo, his wife, and a top lieutenants. Today, his top military commanders defected to the South African embassy with his family today.

The question is: will he go quietly or put up a fight? There are about 9,000 UN peacekeepers in Abidjan with a mandate to protect civilians. But their movement has been restricted by armed groups loyal to Gbagbo. There is also a healthy contingent of French troops, who are well armed and well co-ordinated and have a mandate to support UNOCI. These troops could be the decisive in preventing a large scale human rights violations from being visited upon civilians in Abidjan.

That is very much within the realm of possibility. Amnesty International warns of a potential human rights catastrophe in Abidjan.   Human Rights Watch has already documented a case in which forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo massacred 37 villagers, presumed to be Liberians, in a western town in Ivory Coast:

At least four cars carrying pro-Gbagbo militiamen attacked the village, witnesses said. They were armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and machetes.

The witnesses said the militiamen killed the immigrants inside their homes and as they attempted to flee. They pillaged and burned houses, looting any items of value, including motorcycles, money, televisions, mattresses and clothing.

A 28-year-old Malian man told Human Rights Watch: “At around 3pm we heard the sound of heavy trucks coming and ran into our houses. The men fired into the air, then started breaking down the doors‚ saying: ‘Fire, fire’ and ‘You’re rebels, we’ll kill all of you’.

This could get really ugly.  Really soon.

View the original article here

UN Human Rights Commission adopts resolution against criticism of Islam*

Posted: March 27, 2011 | Author: barenakedislam | Filed under: EnemyWithin-American | 32 Comments »

Arab News – JEDDAH: The UN Human Rights Council unanimously adopted a new resolution on the elimination of forms of discrimination and violence based on religious beliefs.

The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), which represents the Islamic group at the council participated in the March 24 discussion. The United States and the European Union too were represented.

Informed sources in the OIC General Secretariat here said that the new resolution related to combating religious intolerance and negative stereotypes, stigmatization, discrimination, and incitement to violence, and violence against individuals based on religion and belief is not a substitute for an earlier resolution adopted by the UN on combating defamation of religions, which the Human Rights Council had adopted many times in the past several years.

The sources stated that the new resolution is a qualitative breakthrough because it was adopted unanimously, adding, it gives the widest margin of freedom of expression (CRAP!) , with the rejection of discrimination and incitement and stereotypes used by the other or against the symbols of the followers of religions.

However, the sources stressed that the issue of acceptance of the new resolution comes as a goodwill gesture by the organization in order to reach the necessary consensus, bridge the gap, and partner with the West in addressing the anti-Islam sentiments that prevailed in some Western communities toward Muslims.

According to informed sources, the US Secretary of State (HIJAB) Hillary Clinton had invited the OIC to lead, along with both Washington and the European Union, the efforts to draft a new resolution to ensure the foundations adopted by the previous resolution, giving a wider margin of freedom of expression (MORE CRAP).

This is the most contentious of the resolutions, because in countries with strong protections on speech and other forms of expression, the idea that a religion can have the same defamation protections as living individuals is considered an affront to individual rights.

View the original article here

Plutonium Found In Fukushima, TEPCO Executive Says "Radioactive Substance Shouldn’t Have Any Impact On Human Health"

Shit just got real. The spin? It is not harmful to human health. Oh really? We can't wait for Kan to eat some plutonium on national TV to confirm this. In the meantime we await the retraction from TEPCO claiming they made a mistake and they really meant platinum not plutonium.

Plutonium has been detected in soil at five locations at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday.

The operator of the nuclear complex said that the plutonium is believed to have been discharged from nuclear fuel at the plant, which was damaged by the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

While noting that the concentration level does not pose a risk to human health, the utility firm said it will strengthen monitoring on the environment in and around the nuclear plant.

Meanwhile, high levels of radiation exceeding 1,000 millisieverts per hour have been detected in water in a trench outside the No. 2 reactor's building at the nuclear plant, with the contaminated water suspected to have come from the reactor's core, where fuel rods have partially melted, authorities said Monday.

The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the electric power company, known as TEPCO, is expected to pump out similarly highly contaminated water that has been building up in the basement of the No. 2 reactor's turbine building, which is connected to the trench, to eventually remove the water.

The company said the high radiation level in water in the trench connected to the No. 2 complex was detected Sunday, adding that the radiation level in the air in the trench stood at 100 to 300 millisieverts.

At a radiation level of 1,000 millisieverts per hour, people could suffer a decrease in the number of lymphocytes -- a type of white blood cell -- in just 30 minutes, and half could die within 30 days by remaining in such conditions for four hours.

TEPCO also found Sunday afternoon that the radiation level at the surface of the trench water adjacent to the No. 1 complex was 0.4 millisievert per hour. But it could not measure the level at the gutter linked to the No. 3 unit as rubble prevented the firm from checking it, the company added.

Although it remains unknown whether the contaminated water has flowed into the sea from the trenches that are 55 to 70 meters away from the shore, TEPCO suspects the high concentration of radioactive substances found in seawater near the plant reactors' drainage outlets may be linked to the trench water.

Earlier in the day, the nuclear agency said radioactive iodine-131 at a concentration 1,150 times the maximum allowable level was detected Sunday in a seawater sample taken around 1.5 kilometers north of the drainage outlets of the troubled No. 1-4 reactors.

Haruki Madarame, chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, a government panel, told reporters he is ''very worried'' about the high-level radiation detected in water in the trenches, which is outside the radiation-controlled area set by TEPCO.

March 28 (Bloomberg) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. found plutonium contamination in soil near the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant that was tested, Sakae Muto, vice president at plant operator, said at a press conference shown on a webcast today.

The plutonium probably came after the accident at the reactors following Japan’s strongest earthquake and tsunami, he said. The radioactive substance shouldn’t have any impact on human health, he said.

Fear not: TEPCO will bravely continue to sacrifice its workers even after this discovery. Per Reuters:

Attached is a report from the ANS on why this discovery means that Reactor 3 is compromised.

View the original article here