Archive - Aug 12, 2009

• House Judiciary: Karl Rove linked to politicized firing of US attorneys
• Congress reviews war contractors' spending practices
• Disabled students face higher rates of corporal punishment
• Mexico overturns sentences of suspected participants in Acteal Massacre
• Haitian activists demand release of political prisoners

• One shot, several injured in massive anti-coup protests in Honduras
• Sunni-Shia conflict heats up in Yemen
• 60th anniversary of Geneva Conventions: progress still needed
• Mountaintop removal mining activists arrested in West Virginia

In Mexico, the Supreme Court overturned the sentences of 22 people who were jailed for the massacre of 45 indigenous Mexicans. The Acteal massacre occurred in December 1997, when a group of paramilitaries, who also came from local indigenous communities, attacked a group of men, women and children, some of whom belonged to the pacifist group Las Abejas.

Eighteen children died in the massacre and more than 80 people were incarcerated for the crimes. But defense lawyers recently asked Mexico's Supreme Court to overturn the sentences of more than 40 of those convicted arguing that their cases had not received due process.

In a divided vote, Mexico's Supreme Court said that irregularities were committed by Mexican prosecutors who handled the case, such as including false evidence and administrative errors. The court ruled that that justifies overturning the sentences of 22 prisoners. The cases of 35 more people are under review.  Some Human rights organizationS opposed the court's decision.  According to Victor Hugo Lopez, who works for the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center in Chiapas.

“We are worried about this move by the Supreme court, because the Supreme Court is only looking out for administrative mistakes here. We also agree that some procedures were violated as these people were investigated. But we think there is more to it.  We do not think that the Acteal massacre resulted from a conflict between rivaling communities. We think the Mexican state is responsible for this crime."

The Fray Bartolome center has conducted in-depth research on the Acteal massacre and has interviewed witnesses and families of those involved.  Lopez says witnesses are certain that those whose sentence may be reverted, were involved in the massacre.

But Lopez also wants Mexico´s supreme court to interrogate important government figures, over their involvement in Acteal. Lopez says he thinks the Acteal massacre was part of a broader plan to eliminate indigenous resistance movements after the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas in 1994.

“We obtained a government document called the 1994 Campaign plan for Chiapas. In this campaign plan, it says that one of the objectives of the Mexican army is to arm civilian groups in Chiapas, so as to douse indigenous resistance and to neutralize all populations that could possibly support autonomy for indigenous peoples.”

More than 80 people are in jail, charged with participating in the Acteal massacre. But the Supreme Court is only considering reverting the sentences of those who did not plead guilty.

A congressional investigation into the controversial firings of US Attorneys has released more than 5000 pages of documents and testimony about the conduct of former Bush advisors Karl Rove and Harriet Miers.  The documents reveal that politics played a big role in the firing of one of the US Attorneys, and that Karl Rove was instrumental in the decision.   FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports.

In Congress, a commission on wartime contracting wrapped up two days of hearings examining the spending practices of top government contractors that provide translators for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Congress members pressed these corporations' executives to explain how they used billions of government dollars following reports that administrative salaries have been rising as salaries for translators have been cut.  FSRN’s Matt Pearson reports.

In some 20 states across United States, teachers are physically abusing students with disabilities.  That is according to a new report from Human Rights Watch and the ACLU.  About 30 states have banned corporal punishment, which often includes paddling a student with a wooden board.  But researchers found that teachers and school administrators often go further and beat, slap, pinch and drag students. FSRN spoke to  Alice Farmer, authored of the ACLU- Human Rights Watch Report.

Amnesty International is calling for the release of Haitian opposition activist Ronald Dauphin, saying it opposes his continued detention without trial.  Dauphin, a member of the former President Jean Bertrand Aristide's Lavalas party, has been in jail for four years.  

Five years have passed since Aristide was removed from power. The democratically elected Aristide was deposed in a coup and flown out of the country on a US government plane.  Now exiled in South Africa, Aristide calls it a “kidnapping” by the United States and its allies in France and Canada. Following Aristide's ouster, many members of his Lavalas party were jailed by the Haitian authorities without a trial and remain in prison today. Judith Scherr has the story.