Rwanda former spy chief jailed in France

       Almost twenty years ago in April 1994, the world were shocked by horrific event, mass killings of Tutsis in Rwanda. In such a small period of time, 100 days, over 800 000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were slaughtered.

      Recent BBC news reports that French court has jailed former Rwandan spy-chief Pascal Simbikangwa for 25 years over the 1994 genocide. He is found guilty for abetting genocide and for crimes against humanity. Simbikangwa was arrested in 2008, while living in the French Indian Ocean island.

      The actions of the Hutu extrimists groups were extremely violent, inhumaine and cannot be approved. Following the assassination of Hutu president of Rwanda Habyarimana in 1993, which served as a spark to a conflict, extremists set up road blocks, checked identifications cards and killed all who were Tutsi. Moreover, they got the data about Tutsi's addresses and killed them by clubs and machetes going door to door. Men were tortured, women raped and lots of children were killed violently. They killed them regardless of time and place, and numbers of dead Tutsis were found in schools and churches. Furthermore, extremists did not allow to bury dead bodies and they were rotten, eaten by rats and insects.

     Simbikangwa was tried under French legislation that allows universal jurisdiction for genocide and other crimes against humanity commited by foreigners abroad. He served under President Habyarimana and accused for organizing, inciting, instructing massive killing of Tutsi men, women and children.
   
        In a nutshell, I want to add that during those 100 days, almost no country made an effort to stop the massive ethnic cleansing, and conflict was terminated by Tutsis that arrived from Uganda. It gives hope that  nowadays people are getting more concerned about the issues of violation of human rights, and strives for justice and peace.

Failure to combat the problem of illegal drug trade in Afghanistan

      Despite the fact that almost everyone in the world is familiar to the problem of drug-addiction and knows the consequences of such terrible habit, there is huge growth in the cultivation, production, and consumption of heroin, cannabis, and opium.

     The dominant supplier of most of the world's heroin is Afghanistan. According to the Afghanistan Opium Survey for 2013, the land area used for cultivation of opium in Afghanistan reached a high in 2013 of 516 000, it 's 36% increase from 2012. Moreover, 19 of 34 provinces of the country are opium growers, and production and consumption of increased by almost a half (49%), Opium Survey reports.

    Apart from health problems of global population that illegal drug trafficking eradicates, there are vast area of adverse effects like driving corruption, funding insurgency, stimulating instability in neighboring countries and strengthening addiction crisis.

    Illegal drug trade remains to be the main unifying issue of the international community. International organizations like NATO, and states as Russia and Iran outside this institution amplify their efforts to combat the problem. The United States of America, alone, has spent 6 billions of dollars since 2001 to restrain opium production. However, the number of heroin addicted people keeps to be extremely high. Policies of the USA to eradicate opium crops or to offer subsidies for alternative crops have failed. NATO-led coalition avoids former policy due to high risk of driving farmers over insurgencies, while the latter won't benefit the  local community all along of low prices of alternative corps' products.

    Talibans remains to be the main beneficiaries of illegal drug economy. They encourage opium cultivation and production, opposes policies of eradicating corps in order to gain support from local farmers. Furthermore, they impose 10% tax on the opium production, which sponsors their activites.

The horror of deportation

         Forced migration is the problem familiar to lots of nations and ethnicities aroud the world. In one of my previous posts I have mentioned about North and South Korean families that were torn apart due to the war in peninsula and have almost no chance to get in touch with each other. Separation of Germans during the years of Cold war, conflict-induced displacement of Azerbaijan and Armenian people, and massive refugee crisis in Rwanda, which was the result of dreadful genocide serve as examples of this global issue.

       Unfortunately, Kazakhstan also is the land that witnessed pain and sorrow of deported people.   Seventy years passed since almost half million Chechens and Ingushs were forced into exile in remote parts of the USSR. Their harsh trip is marked by various difficulties. People were put in cattle wagons without any water and food. During the 15-day journey to kazakhstan weaker of them died on the way because of cold and starvation. One of the deportees Isa Khashiev has horrible memories of those severe days when his 3-months-old sister had frozen to death and they finally reached the destiantion where native people were unhappy of their presence. They were unwelcome due to misinformation that exiled people were "cannibals" and "barbarians".

          However, this was not the end of their misery. Those who survived the hard journey had to follow strict regulation. Moreover, they had to make regular reportrs to authorities, and in the case of disobedience  risked lenghty prison sentences in labour camps with even worse conditions.

         The exile of innocent people were forbidden subject to discussion under the rule of Stalin until his death in 1953. Only three yeras later, in 1957, displaces people were allowed to return to their homeland.

 

       

       

The problem of cyberbullying

   
        The 21st century is the era in which various gadgets like cell phones, computers, tabletes and etc are the integral part of every human life no matter of age. People get access to the internet using these devices for education, work, communication and entertainment. However, websites and social networks visited using these gadgets could be very dangerous, cause diverse psychological problems and even lead to suicide.

      Kids and teenagers are the most vulnerable group that are often "cyberbullied". Cyberbulling is the bulliying using electronic devices through mean text messages, e-mails, rumors posted on social networking sites, and embarassing photos, videos, and websites. It is very hazardous type of intimidation that can happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and reach any kid. It is really hard to identify person who abuses their child because messages and images are often posted anonymously and spread to wide audience.
Unfortunetly, it is sometimes too late when parents find out that their child was cyberbullied and insulted in social networks.

     

        One of the sorrowful examples of this notion was recently reported by BBC. 14 -year-old Italian teenager, Nadia, killed herself after being a subject of online abuse. She sought for sympathy in popular social network called Ask.fm after breaking up with her boyfriend. However, her followers were very aggressive and wrote quotes like "Kill yourself", "Nobody wants you" and etc. According to investigation, she has suicidal inclinations before those messages, so they served as "the last straw" that made her jump from a high-rise building. Nadia's parents were treated to hospital because of her shocking death. This case caused a public outcry and Italian authorities demand Ask.fm's shut down. The anonymous policy of website that cause bullying-related deathes in UK and the USA are being highly critisized by international community. 

      To sum up, I want to add that all accidents related to the cyberbullying should be clearly and transparently covered by media. Moreover, preventive measures at schools and homes must be done by teachers, psychologists and parents to introduce children with these problem of current ınterest.

Reunion of North and South Korean families separated by war

        War is a terrible plague that brings nothing but destruction and disaster to states and turnes to be a calamity for people of each side. Korean War of 1950-1953 was not an exception. It not only separated the integral nation into two hostile states, but slendered millions of civillians forcing them to lost their closest relatives.

        Nowadays, continuous tensions between North and South make more than 72000 Koreans put up with the idea that they have a little chance to see again their relatives living out of the border. Recent news transmits that program, which was suspended in 2010, when North Korea shelled South Korean borders, has been launched again, and will take place in Mount Kumdang, just north of the border, between February 20-25. The program, which gives a tiny spark of hope for people to retrive their family again, although, has plenty of drawbacks. Number of people who will be able to reunite with their lost family members are very limited. Only hundred people of more than 70000 will win such look-in. Moreover, nearly half of the men that are in waiting list are aged over 80 and might never see their brothers or sisters. South Korea uses some kind of a lottery to determine the participants of the program, while North keeps its selection process subterraneous. On top of that, most of the people separated from their family members are not able to get information about their relatives, to learn if they are alive due to each side's willingness to prevent its citizens from exchanging mails, phone calls or even e-mails.

   

      Nevertheless, program might seem a glimpse that mitigates hostile relationships between states, South remains quite sceptical that it could be guarantee of warmer ties. North Korea uses reunion program as bargaining chip to achieve some objectives, namely, cancelliation of annual military drill, or suspends it in relation to South Korean actions that it opposes, paying no attention to the problem of families forced to live apart from each other for decades.

Global Human Rights Violations of 2013

  

      Despite the fact that Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted 65 years ago, it is still more dream than reality. Violation of its articles prevails all over the world and has different forms. Almost in every part of the world people are tortured, suffer from mistreatment, face unfair trials, restricted in their freedom of religion, language and etc. On top of that, descrimination and abuse of rights of women and children continues to plague the world.

       2013 was full of human rights violations, starting from sexual abuse against women ending up with crimes against humanity. Governments reacted almost indifferently with the lack of transparency and little respect of human life. This apathetic attitude induced protest and demostrations of an international community advocating human rights. We will recall some shocking human rights violations in the paragraphs below.

•       600 deaths and 91 women assaulted during riots at Tahrir Square, Egypt.

Hundreds of women were raped and sexually abused by gangs during 4 days of protests against Egyptian President Morsi on June 30. Women needed medical assistance after being attacked and assaulted by sharp objects. Protestors achieved their goal and made Morsi leave the post. However, casualties resulted by protests and violation of women's rights were nearly ignored despite the public discontent.

• Thousands died in horrific building collapse in Bangladesh.

Global garment companies use cheap labor force in developing countries and pay little attention to fire safegurads or other adequate working conditions. Such negligence led to the collapse of the factory in Bangladesh, which killed over 1000 people and injured more than 2500.

• Humanitarian crisis in South Sudan.

There is internal conflict in South Sudan mainly between two ethnic groups Dinkas and Nuers, which led to bloody massacre and forced over 100 000 people to leave their homeland. Furthermore, The UN efforts to solve the problem seem fruitless as its peacekeepers are abeing attacked and found dead.

      To sum up, I want to mark that examples given above are only a tiny piece of the huge problem of violation of human rights happening every day in every part of the world. We must not forget that there is nothing valuable than human life. Therefore, rights and freedoms of any person should be equally respected.

       

Migrants die under tow in Greece

Current unstable situation in the world forces millions of people to leave their homeland to find a place where their life won't  be threatened and they could find food and shelter. They use various ways to abandon a country where their rights are abused, compatriots are killed and cities are destroyed. One of them sea-born refugee traffic. On 22nd of January,2014, the boat carrying 26 Afgans and two Syrian refugees capsized when it was being towed by a Greek coastguard vessel. Unfortuantely, bodies of an 11-year-old child and 38-year-old woman were found, and 10 people are still missing. Incident took place near the island of Farmakonisi, Greece.

The accident caused a piblic outcry. Some non-governmental organizations, namely "Pro Asyl and Ecre" assume that Greek side intentionally tried to prevent migrants landing in Greece. Refugees seeks to enter EU trough Greek -Turkish land border. Therefore, the incident should be regarded as push-back of migrants due to the facts like ignoring begs and cries of survivers on a boat. Moreover, refugee boat was towed at high speed when it capsize.

To defend themselves, Greek side claims that they put out a fire on a stricken boat, rescued 16 people, and searched the area for survivers using helicopter. 

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)and NGOs demand inbiased investigation of circumstances that caused such casualties. They affirm that actions taken by the Greek side to force migrants to turn back to Turkish waters are illegal, inhumane, endanger people's lives and have to be ceased immediately. Furthermore, survivors should be provided by any assiastance and their need must be looked after.