For a list of upcoming meetings for the Ithaca Amnesty group, go to http://www.ithacaamnesty.org/?page_id=6.

MEETING: Tuesday, May 16, 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!

· The group’s new updated website http://www.ithacaamnesty.org/.

· Report from delegates to Amnesty USA’s Annual General Meeting Apr. 28-30, Portland, OR: Govind and Jackie brought back materials and impressions.

· We have a new Action File (prisoner case in Eritrea); come hear the details. Reports and updates on campaigns.

NEXT MONTH’S MEETING: Tues. June 20, 2006, 7:30, same place. Always the 3rd Tuesday. (Bring an up-and-coming member!)

AWAY FOR THE SUMMER? or (alas) LEAVING FOREVER? Let us know of changes of address: 273-3009, ewb2@cornell.edu.

Amnesty bases its work on the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights: 30 articles listing rights all people should have everywhere. An article for May: Art. 26. (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

SAMPLE LETTER: Chad. The country, adjoining Sudan, has been hard pressed to care for refugees from Darfur. Recently opposition movements, perhaps linked to the Sudan authorities, have sought to overthrow the government. After an attack on the capital, many unconnected people were arrested and are being held in secret, particularly human-rights worker Mounoudji Fidel. Please send this letter or write your own to the President at the address given (84¢ airmail). Extra effect: send a copy to Ambassador Bechir Mahamoud Adam, Embassy of the Republic of Chad, 2002 R St. NW, Washington DC 20009, Fax: 202 265 1937. Source: Urgent Action 108/06, 28 April 2006.

STAMPS now cost: cards 24¢, letters 39¢. Canada, Mexico cards 55¢, letters 63¢. Other countries: 75¢ – 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 here.

*597 (R #577) **Defending Women, Defending Human Rights *5/9,10,12
This video from Amnesty International explores the lives of 5 women Human Rights Defenders in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, Spain, Nepal and the Occupied Territories.

*598 Orthodox, Outspoken and Out of the Closet – I *5/16,17,19
A presentation by Rabbi Steven Greenberg, author of “Wrestling with God & Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition” (University of Wisconsin Press, 2004), which explores homosexuality and Jewish tradition.

*599 Orthodox, Outspoken and Out of the Closet – II *5/23,24,26**
Rabbi Steven Greenberg continues exploring homosexuality and Jewish tradition.**

*600 (R# 460) New Yorkers against the Death Penalty *5/30,31,6/2**
A program from the TV series Human Rights Forum, produced by Jordi Torrent for New York City’s Public Access Cable.

*601 Fat, Famine & Froot Loops: what’s democracy got to do with it? *6/6,7,9
A presentation by Food Activist Anna Lappe, Small Planet Institute.

*602 Use Your Voice for Human Rights *6/13,14,16
A video on how AI does its work, narrated by Patrick Stewart**

IN THE AREA: Cornell Amnesty elected new co-presidents: Katie Bowers khb4@cornell.edu and Matt Krueger mek42@cornell.edu.

Ithaca College Amnesty group meetings: contact Evan Engel, president, 375-2759 eengel1@ithaca.edu.

Trumansburg High School Amnesty is showing the award-winning documentary “Lost Boys of Sudan” on refugees from fighting in southern Sudan Thursday,

May 18th, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. “Immediately following the film, Peter Kuch, a former “Lost Boy” from Sudan, will be speaking and answering questions.

We’d love to have other AI members join us!” See http://www.lostboysfilm.com/ for more info. Contact: Kara FrostClapp, 277-5557, KFrostClapp@tburg.k12.ny.us.

OUT IN THE WORLD: The Amnesty International USA Urgent Action office is moving from scenic Colorado. New director: Natasha Nummedal, nnummeda@aiusa.org; 600 Pennsylvania Ave SE, 5th floor, Washington, DC 20003, (202) 544-0200.

Apr. 25 update on Urgent Action: “Prisoners of conscience Krishna Pahadi, Dr Devendra Raj Panday, Dr Mathura Prasad Shrestha and Shyam Shrestha were among hundreds of civil society and political party activists who were released on 25 April amid a historic political transition in Nepal“—the king restored Parliament and democracy. (The four were the topics of last month’s Sample Letter; Krishna Pahadi is former chair of Amnesty Nepal.)

Further good news in UA updates: human rights defender Stany Mbazumutima, of Burundi, is no longer suffering intimidation by the police as of May 5 (we wrote letters for him last month).

Recently on http://news.amnesty.org/: weapons brokers fueling killings and other abuses; racial killings in Russia; evictions in South Korea; abusive treason trial in Ethiopia; halt persecution of union leaders in Colombia; AI’s report on the US government’s “climate of torture”. (The U.S. has been reporting and responding to questions in Geneva this month about how well it observes the Convention Against Torture. For the UN Committee Against Torture’s 59 questions, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/05_05_06cat.pdf or the Committee’s site http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/cats36.htm).

Our group’s new updated Web site (kindness of Govind Acharya as well as Jesse Ernst): http://www.ithacaamnesty.org/. 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

Ithaca, New York

  May 2006

 

Son Excellence Général Idriss Déby

Président de la République

Présidence de la République

BP 74

N’Djaména

CHAD

 

Your Excellency,

 

We here are aware of the difficulties encountered by your Government in coping with the insurgency. Nevertheless recent measures have had the effect of repressing members of the civil population. I refer particularly to the arrest of an observer of human rights, Mr. Mounoudji Fidel, who has been held arbitrarily since 25 April of this year. I ask Your Excellency to intervene to free Mr. Fidel, who is regarded as a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International. In addition, I appeal for Imam Abdel Hamit, secondary school student Noueuse Fadoul and all persons not directly involved in armed operations to be released from detention. I call upon Chad, as I call upon my own country, to detain persons only when there is legally well-founded evidence to charge them with crimes, and to bring such persons before a court immediately upon their arrest.

 

Thank you for your kind attention to my requests. I would be grateful for a statement about the cases of Mr. Fidel and the others from Your Excellency’s Government, which I see as the most authoritative source of information about the development of events in your country.

 

Respectfully,