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Sharon Grimes, W A M M
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Kenyan Activist Receives Peace Prize
Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan woman, won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee chair said she “represents an example and a source of inspiration for everyone in Africa fighting for sustainable development, democracy, and peace. Maathai started an environmental movement that has planted 30 million trees in Africa, has advocated for women’s rights, and has pushed for greater democracy in Kenya. In 1998 an international agricultural research organization blamed poor farmers in developing countries for being a threat to forest lands. Maathai stood up for the rights of the poor, saying that it is common to blame poor people. “Poor people are the victims, not the cause.” She is currently working to protect the remaining indigenous forests from “some of the richest people in the country.”
IRA Opposition Re-joins Peace Process
In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Defense Association (UDA) has said it wants to rejoin the peace process. UDA is an outlawed anti-Catholic group, which is blamed for killing more than 400 people in its “war” against the Irish Republican Army. The group now says it wants to focus its energy on “community development, job creation, social inclusion, and community politics.”
Mexican Forest Protection Expanded
A plan to protect 370,000 acres of tropical forest on the Yucatan Peninsula was agreed to by Mexico and the Nature Conservancy. It is part of the 1.8 million-acre Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, which includes Mayan ruins and a variety of exotic plants and animals.
Swedes Scale Back Military
Sweden is scaling back its military by eliminating 1,000 officer positions, closing a third of its 30 military bases, scaling back mandatory military service, and cutting the number of officers, civilian employees, and soldiers in the 20,000-person armed forces.
Apology for Massacre
Bosnian Serb government officials issued an apology for the 1995 massacre of 7,800 Muslim civilians in Srebenica. In June, the government reviewed a Bosnian Serb commission report on what is considered the worst civilian massacre in Europe since World War II, and acknowledged that their security forces had carried out the killings.
Judge Upholds Rights of Guantanamo Suspects
A U.S. District Judge (Colleen Kollar-Kotelly) ruled in October that terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay must be allowed to meet with their lawyers and that their meetings cannot be monitored by the government. More than 500 men have been “detained nearly incommunicado for nearly three years without being charged with any crime,” she said, and “their ability to investigate—their capture and detention is seriously impaired.”
Court Rules Against Metal Detector Check for Protesters
An Atlanta court ruled that fears of terrorism are not reason enough to search protestors. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said that people may not be required to go through metal detectors when they gather in November for the annual protest against the School of the Americas, a U.S. training academy for Latin American soldiers. The court said that September 11, 2001, “cannot be the day liberty perished.” Authorities began using the metal detectors after the terrorist attacks.
Pakistan Imposes Harsher Penalties for Honor Killings
In an attempt to stop so-called “honor” killings, Pakistan’s lower house of Parliament passed a bill in October that would impose harsher penalties for honor killings than for “ordinary” murder. If passed by the upper house, punishment would include a seven-year prison term or the death penalty in extreme cases. In 2003, 1,261 women were victims of honor killings, in which women are killed by relatives for allegedly dishonoring their families. The women usually are suspected of adultery or have married without their families’ consent.
Author and Activist Arundhati Roy Receives Australian Peace Prize
Award-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy has won the 50,000 Australian dollar ($37,000) Sydney Peace Prize. Roy was awarded this year’s prize for what its judges said was her advocacy in demanding justice for the poor and people displaced by dam projects, as well as her opposition to nuclear weapons.
89-year-old Quaker Activist Is Not Slowing Down
An 89-year-old Deptford Quaker, Lillian Willoughby, went to jail in Philadelphia October 20 to protest the war in Iraq. She and five other protestors obstructed the entrance to the city’s federal building during an antiwar protest the day the United States went to war in Iraq. They chose a seven-day jail term over a $250 fine. “I don’t believe [in] supporting the war in any way.” Willoughby said that nonviolence isn’t something that just happens. “You have to learn to do it, to train for change,” whether it’s dealing with violence on the street or violence between nations.
Refuseniks Nominated for Peace Prize
Courage to Refuse, the influential group of Israeli reserve officers and soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories of Palestine have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by two formers recipients of this great honor. The simple fact of this nomination is critical acknowledgement of the importance of this Israeli movement against occupation. The influential group, founded by David Zonsheine, has grown from 52 to 620 participants.
Nuclear Weapons Bill Defeated in Congress
On November 20, Congress said ‘NO’ to new nuclear weapons! The omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2005 deleted all funds for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (a new nuclear “bunker buster”) and advanced concepts for nuclear weapons. In addition, there will be no funds allocated for “advanced test readiness,” a program that reduces the time needed to prepare for a nuclear explosion at the Nevada Test Site. Funds for the modern plutonium pit facility were cut from $30 million to $7 million, and none of this can be used to select a site for the facility. This is a remarkable victory for everyone who worked to stop the Bush administration’s drive to develop new nuclear weapons.
Muslim, Christian & Jewish Solidarity
FaithfulAmerica.org, a U.S.-based Christian group, has produced an advertisement for Arab TV condemning the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail. In the ad, Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious figures are featured offering their solidarity with the Iraqi people. w
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Word Up!
“The US and other Western governments turned a blind eye to Amnesty International reports of widespread human rights violations in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, and ignored Amnesty International’s campaign on behalf of the thousands of unarmed Kurdish civilians killed in the 1988 attacks on Halabja. Once again, the human rights record of a country is used selectively to legitimize military actions.”
– Amnesty International
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© 2004 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete December 2004 - January 2005 Index - click here
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