Archive for
April 27th, 2006
Stories
48 Missing Detainees Wrongly Identified
“Courtyard 29” is a communal grave place, located in the General Cemetery (ES) of the capital, Santiago. In 1991, 124 missing detainees from the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, were found and 96 were identified. After 20 years, 96 families had the chance to properly bury their relatives.
Last week, 10 years later, 48 families (of the total 96) were notified that there was an error in the process of identification. Javier (ES) posts “Fury and anger are my feelings, and then shame. Shame to be living here, where these things happen. The missing detainees from the dictatorship know they are missing again, but in a democracy.”
The process is very painfully for families of the missing detainees. First, because there are still missing detainees that have not been found and others are not identified, so families always wait for news.
Centros Chilenos (ES), writes “…and all the relatives of the victims cried, and dreamt again and the survivors do not resist this damage that the Government has made, taking away the people in life and now bring them back by mistake.”
A district attorney is in charge of an indictment. One of the issues under investigation is why the Medical Institute Service, who was in charge of the identification, did not consider crucial information that could have alerted them of possible mistakes. An expert from Glasgow University was hired in 1991 by the Medical Institute Service to help in the identification process, but the report he made in 1994, was not considered by the authorities. Shidi (ES) posts that “ The open Courtyard 29, reminds us that it is not about going back … it is about wounds that take time to heal and we have to take into account the mourning of the country that has had problems to overcome it.”
Referring to the press' over- reaction, Alberto Pretch (ES) says, “the non- criterion used to promote this deep doubt and wound is the most macabre thing I have heard in the last 16 years.”
It seems that even in democracy some wounds will not be solved. And it is paradoxical that in a world where technologies exist that are good enough to tell us why King Tut died, or some mother was poisoned, the government did not use the correct ones in this process.
Polish Blogosphere Update
Ever wonder what a day in the life of someone living in Poland would look like condensed into a 10-minute video? Neither did I until I came to Poland. The Blog from Poland set up a webcam from a Warsaw city window. Can you spot the shiny, yellow and red city bus? Using Google technology, you can see a Warsaw city street corner in real-time.
Continuing with the amateurish spectacles, the beatroot reports on a misguided plan by The Lublin Musical Theatre group to stage a performance on the grounds of a former WWII death camp. Alas,
…much to the surprise of the organizers, there were protests. Lots of them. From Jewish groups.
In the comments section, however, DBN wonders where the Polish version of the ACLU is:
Hmm, no protests from the “enlightened liberals” about the “hinderance of free speech”.
Though they were enraged when a university didn't let them exhibit t-shirts with slogans, such as “I had an abortion” or “I jerk off” during a human rights film festival, that dealt, amongs others, with the genocide of the Chechens.
Arguing for a bit more restraint roman comments:
Who comes up with these hair-brained schemes? What part of the word “solemn” don't they understand?
Some Excerpts from West African Blogs
Gambia
Dictatorial rule of Yahya Jammeh of Gambia–Home of the Mandinmories
“Gambians are bleeding from excessive taxation. They are bleeding from the debt burden that is incurred in their name and siphoned off to overseas banks in some of the greatest corruption debacles that has occurred since independence…There's the literal blood, Gambians summarily executed by this government since 1994. There are so many victims and no perpetrators brought to justice. What else do we expect? The culprits of these heinous crimes are in charge of government. They pardon their own crimes, thereby becoming the judge, the jury and the executioner. But what does the ruling party members of the National assembly do? Give the dictator more powers as if he needed more. The only time these group of people have there priorities straight always involve lining their own pockets.”
Ghana
Police, arm robbery and mistaken identity– The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen…
“This calls to question the vigilante-like tactics of police officers who shoot-to-kill without verifying, plus the hard-nosed attitude of the police these days towards armed robbers. The latter is a very good point, given the spate of armed robbery, but mistakes like these are bound to occur if proper regulation by higher-up authorities is not maintained. My view is that given this attitude by the police, armed robbery has been clamped down considerably, but, as always, the double-edged sword is that innocents get killed….At the time that this was going to “press”, there was news that the occupants of a taxi in Dansoman, a suburb in Accra, had all been killed by policemen who believed them to be armed robbers. It is sounding like a case of mistaken identity, as some of the occupants..were themselves victims of an armed robbery!”
Water Privatization– Akwaabaghana
“A Ghanaian lawyer and human rights campaigner has won recognition for his work to stop water being privatised. Rudolf Amenga-Etego, who is campaigning against a privatisation scheme being backed by the World Bank, has won a 2004 Goldman environmental prize. Rudolf Amenga-Etego founded Ghana's National Coalition Against the Privatisation of Water, an attempt to halt a $400m project which would have meant water being sold at full market rates…”
Cameroun
The Future of the French CFA– France Watcher
“One of the burning issues facing countries of the Franc Zone in Africa today is what to do about this currency arrangement following the introduction of the Euro in 1999. So far the appearance is being given that the problem was solved by simply pegging the CFA to the Euro and renewing the Operations Account Agreement with the French Treasury and going back to business as usual. This is all a way of sweeping a serious problem under the carpet in the living room. But with every passing day a hump is growing in the living room under the carpet and nobody seems to understand what is really going on.”
(more…)
Links for Thu, 2006-04
Muay Thai or Kick Boxing is very popular in Thailand and regular bouts are held in major cities. Malaysian blogger Kenny Sia blogs about his visit to a Muay Thai stadium.
Honduras News and Tim's El Salvador Blog both mention the finalized agreement between El Salvador and Honduras over the border dividing the two countries. The decision closes an unfinished chapter of the 1969 “Soccer War.”
Noting that five Mayan languages are at risk of extinction, Chapinadas tells the story of the first graduating class of Mayan translators from the Academy of Mayan Languages.
Onnik Krikorian reports that the Yerevan State Medical Institute's rector refused to meet with Indian students unless the media left while Nessuna translates an article on the meeting.
Shards of Mongolia notes that a plan for a massive development project including shopping, industry, an international airport, and a casino. Curiously, it will not be anywhere near the capital, but instead on the border with China.
Peter writes at neweurasia about the televised confession of Turkmenistan's former General Prosecutor Gurbanbiby Atajanova who was, until recently, the only public official with considerable stature besides the president.
Nessuna has a brief roundup of posts from Armenian blogs on the anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
While Portuguese is Brazil's official state language, M. Bichuetti of The Brazilian Way of Life says that around 180 native tongues are still present. Quoting a linguistics professor, Bichuetti says that some of the languages “are ‘on the verge of extinction,' [while others] are ‘very vigorous.'”
Susan says that it is easy for expats to get on the news on slow news days in Georgia. She took part in a traditional Georgian supra outside the Russian embassy to protest Russia's ban on Georgian wine and made the evening news.
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