Brazil to probe its military past

Twenty four years after the military left power in Brazil, the government is to create a Truth Commission to investigate crimes committed by the security forces between 1964 and 1985.

Brazil is the only country in Latin America which has not investigated deaths, disappearances and torture which took place during its dictatorship, or put alleged perpetrators on trial.

Read More at BBC

The torture never stops: death by a hundred decibels

What do these artists have in common? AC/DC, the Bee Gees, Britney Spears, Bruce Springsteen, Don McLean, Eminem, James Taylor, Pink, Prince, Queen, Metallica and Nine Inch Nails.

Their music, along with many other songs — such as theSesame Street theme and theStar Spangled Banner — and the works of other performers have been used as implements of torture. This is not the age-old war between teenagers and parents played out in homes. This is serious. Loud rock music has been used by the US in the war against terror, specifically against inmates at Guantanamo Bay. It was labelled "futility music".

Read More at the Sydney Morning Herald

Fatah-Led PA Admits It Tortures Prisoners

(IsraelNN.com) The Palestinian Authority, led by the Fatah party, admitted to a British newspaper that its security forces commonly use torture on prisoners, as charged by the Hamas terrorist organization. The PA is heavily funded by overseas contributions as well as taxes collected for it by the Israeli government.

“This is a shame on the Palestinian Authority,” Haitham Arar, head of the human rights department of the PA Interior Ministry, told the Mail. She admitted that torture, beatings and extra-judicial murders have been common in the Abbas administration.

Read More at Artuz Sheva

Afghan Leader Said to Accept Runoff After Election Audit

KABUL, Afghanistan — Under heavy international pressure, President Hamid Karzai appears set to concede as early as Tuesday that he fell short of a first-round victory in the nation’s disputed presidential election, but the path to ensuring that the country has credible leadership remains uncertain, American and European officials said Monday.

The officials said Mr. Karzai was moving toward accepting the findings of an international audit that stripped him of nearly a third of his votes in the first round, leaving him below the 50 percent threshold that would have allowed him to avoid a runoff and declare victory over his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah.

Read More at the New York Times

British Court Orders Release of Guantanamo Bay Document

Binyam Mohamed spent four years in Guantanamo Bay, and claims that British and American authorities were aware of acts of torture he suffered while he was in Morocco.

A trial was held to determine if an American document that summarizes the accounts of the alleged torture should be released to the public. A British High Court ruled Friday that the documents should be released to the public.

In issuing the ruling, the court noted overwhelming public interest for the documents, and also noted that the report may shed light on illegal activities involving both the U.S. and British governments.

The British government immediately announced an appeal after the decision was announced. As a result, public disclosure of the documents will wait until after the appeal hearing resolved.

"The Government is deeply disappointed by the judgment handed down today by the High Court which concludes that a summary of US intelligence material should be put into the public domain against their wishes," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters.

Source: To The Center

In a Guinea Seized by Violence, Women Are Prey

CONAKRY, Guinea — Cellphone snapshots, ugly and hard to refute, are circulating here and feeding rage: they show that women were the particular targets of the Guinean soldiers who suppressed a political demonstration at a stadium here last week, with victims and witnesses describing rapes, beatings and acts of intentional humiliation.

“I can’t sleep at night, after what I saw,” said one middle-aged woman from an established family here, who said she had been beaten and sexually molested. “And I am afraid. I saw lots of women raped, and lots of dead.”

Read more at The New York Times

RIGHTS-INDIA: Kerala Women Are Battered Wives

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Oct 6 (IPS) - Kerala, the south Indian state which has the highest literacy levels and excellent social development indicators, has an unsavoury side - a land of violent husbands.

An IPS analysis of the data of domestic violence which was recorded in the Kerala State Crimes Records Bureau (KSCRB), under the state government's home department, has revealed a nearly 50 percent increase in wife-beating complaints registered at police stations in the state during the period 1998- 2008.

The number of incidents of crimes relating to spousal assaults on women was 2,333 in 1988 and reached up to 4,143 in 2008.

Read more at Australia.To News

Blast at U.N. Office in Pakistan Kills 5

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A suicide bomber dressed in the uniform of one of Pakistan’s security forces struck the United Nations World Food Program offices in Islamabad on Monday, killing at least five people in what the police said was a serious breach in a building tightly guarded by private security officers.

The Pakistani interior minister, Rehman Malik, said that the bomber asked for permission to use the bathroom, walked inside, and detonated about 16 pounds of explosives in the lobby just after noon, when the compound was filled with people.

Read more at The New York Times

Zimbabweans sued for torture case

Nine Zimbabwean human rights activists and others tortured in custody are suing government officials for $510,000 (£322,000), their lawyer has said.

Jestina Mukoko and eight others are suing two cabinet ministers and various police officers.

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered that terrorism charges against her be dropped because she had been tortured.

Read more at BBC News

Berkeley agrees to U.N. rights treaties

(09-29) 23:08 PDT BERKELEY, CALIF. -- Berkeley became the first city in the United States, and possibly the world, to agree to international human rights treaties on Tuesday night, after the City Council approved a measure usually reserved for countries.

After a brief but spirited debate, the City Council voted unanimously to allow unpaid interns to report to the United Nations on how, or whether, Berkeley complies with treaties on civil liberties, racial discrimination and torture.

Read more at SFGate.com

U.N. Investigator Presents Report on Gaza War

GENEVA — The lead investigator in a recent United Nations inquiry into the Gaza conflict warned on Tuesday that the lack of accountability for war crimes in he Middle East has “reached a crisis point” and is undermining any hope of peace.

The investigator, Richard Goldstone, made his comments here as he presented the Human Rights Council with his final report on violations of human rights and international law in the three-week war in Gaza last winter, which accuses both Israel and Palestinian groups of committing atrocities.

“A culture of impunity in the region has existed far too long,” Mr. Goldstone said. “The lack of accountability for war crimes and possible crimes against humanity has reached a crisis point; the ongoing lack of justice is undermining any hope for a successful peace process and reinforcing an environment that fosters violence.”

Read more at the New York Times

Tbilisi Started '08 War, but Moscow Also at Fault, EU Finds

BRUSSELS -- Both Russia and Georgia claimed vindication Wednesday after a nine-month European Union investigation into last year's war in the Caucasus found that Tbilisi triggered the conflict, but that Moscow acted illegally in the extent of its invasion of Georgia and allowed "ethnic cleansing."

The roughly 1,000-page report, released on Wednesday by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, found no evidence to support Russian claims Georgia committed genocide the night of Aug. 7-8, 2008.

The conflict, which briefly brought the U.S. and Russia into Cold War-style confrontation, left hundreds of people dead and 35,000 displaced, and severely weakened Europe's security agreements. Russian forces remain in occupation of two Georgian territories, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Moscow has recognized them as independent states.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal

Clinton to chair Security Council session on sexual violence

Washington - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton takes her campaign against sexual violence in conflict to the United Nations Wednesday, just as political strife in Guinea provides a fresh example of the kind of grisly actions she wants the world organization to stop.

Secretary Clinton, who has committed to making women's issues a "centerpiece" of her work as the Obama administration's chief diplomat, will chair a session of the UN Security Council on women, peace, and security. At the session Wednesday, she'll promote a US-sponsored resolution that seeks to expand and strengthen a measure approved last year, which condemns the use of rape in conflict and characterizes it as a threat to peace and security.

Read More at CS Monitor