Silencing dissent: Syria and USA

Democracy Now!

Syrian Human Rights Attorney Sentenced to Three Years in Jail

Syria has sentenced the prominent human rights attorney Haytham al-Maleh to three years in jail. The 78-year-old attorney was jailed over comments he made on TV criticizing the lack of democracy in Syria and the excessive powers wielded by security officials.
Amnesty International condemned the sentence.

Clinic shelled in northern Sri Lanka: 16 dead

ICRC

At least 16 people have been killed at a makeshift hospital in Sri Lanka's northern conflict zone after the facility was shelled, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said.

The 16 victims - all believed to be patients - died in the clinic in Putumattalan on Monday, Red Cross officials said on Tuesday.

No peers for Darfur

BBC

Jean-Marie Guehenno told the United Nations Security Council that excessive demands from Khartoum "would make it impossible for the mission to operate".

BBC

Two British Muslim members of the House of Lords have arrived in Sudan to push for the release of a British teacher imprisoned for insulting religion.

Official narrative

For the first time, an outraged United Nations Human Rights Council has condemned the Burmese military junta for its violent crackdown on protesters and demanded it be allowed to immediately investigate the situation in Burma.

My own reaction to the news of the UN envoy visiting Burma says a lot, I think of how conditioned we are by the official narrative. I found myself hoping, along with newsreaders and reporters, that Gambari would be allowed to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, and that he would meet the supreme general Than Shwe. But what difference does that make? We weren't told. Oh sure, the UNHRC is 'outraged'. How can a structure which includes states which not only support other states that practise 'violent crackdowns' but are themselves involved in human rights abuses be suitable 'outraged'? Interestingly, the United States does not see fit to join the UNHRC. A touch of honesty perhaps?

Sources in Rangoon told Mizzima that several bodies of monks have been found floating in the Rangoon River and the bodies bear evidence that the monks had been beaten to death.

Is this a matter for friendly diplomacy?

The HRC, in a rare criticism against a government, agreed to place the findings of the special Rapporteur to the UN General Assembly and to the Security Council, which observers say will give more evidence to discuss at the UNSC.

Indeed, that is how we come to accept the official narrative. Our moral ideals are drastically lowered until we honestly believe, that an expression of 'outrage' against the torture and murder of hundreds or thousands of pro-democracy protesters is extraordinary, and therefore, logically, more than sufficient.