human rights

Villagers forced out of their homes by riot police

Julien — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:21:03 +0100

By our regional editor in China, Zhang.

In less than four years the village of Taiping in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in south-west China, has seen over 70% of its residents expelled by the authorities. Despite fervent protest on the part of the inhabitants, there are now only 300 houses where 1000 used to stand, and still the project continues. The most recent development in the programme has seen 33000 square metres of collectively-owned land sold - in secret - to developers for 1.2m RMB (€115,000). This amount is considered to be extremely low for such an area and, furthermore, the villagers who live on the land will receive almost nothing from the payment.

Forced out of their homes by riot police last Friday afternoon, two of the residents ended up in hospital - one of them 82 years old. Cut off from electricity and water by the government, the entire village had slowly become more and more inhabitable every day.

And the villagers' part of the deal? Three percent of the payment divided between all of them. Any right to complain? Petitioners against the plans were either imprisoned or silenced.

Pakistani students cover protests on campus, continued…

Julien — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:37:00 +0100

Report by Team Observers

President Pervez Musharraf announced on Thursday that the legislative elections will take place before 15 February. But the state of emergency stays in place and access to non-state television channels is still blocked. However, an online protest movement is gaining speed as increasing numbers of local internet users get involved. The Observers Team has compiled some of the material produced by these citizen journalists.

The bizarre interrogation of a blogger

Julien — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 14:52:00 +0200

Material compiled by our regional editor for the Middle-East, Marc Daou

Freedom of expression is kept under close supervision in Syria, and the internet is no exception to the rule. The latest example cites the case of Roukana Hamour, a family woman who ran for the last legislative elections to denounce the corruption and vote-catching of the authorities.

Roukana was arrested on 25 October outside her home and in front of her children. She was then interrogated by the Syrian secret services, specifically on the subject of a critical commentary of the regime posted on her blog. She was released three hours later.

She tells of the conditions of her arrest, which she compares with a kidnapping; and her interrogation by the secret services.

Post your questions to Marc Daou and Roukana Hamour