Citizens speak out. In countries like Afghanistan, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Egypt, Greece,
India, Israel, Jordan, Libya, Myanmar (Burma), North Korea, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria
and Yemen, citizens continue to stand for their right to be treated with dignity and
to be able to have a say in their nation's social and political change.
AFGHANISTAN - Australian analyst and news editor Greg Sheridan has called upon the government
to bring troops home from Afgahnistan and Pakistan, stating it will be impossible to
win the war through armed conflict. Meanwhile, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
spokesperson, Brigadier-General Josef Blotz told reporters that NATO is planning to transfer
security responsibility of three provinces and four other areas beginning in July, and
that Afghan security forces have stated they are ready and responsible.
GREECE - Organized by two major trade unions that also went on strike, a rally of some
40,000 people as reported by local media gathered Wednesday in the capital Athens, protesting
austerity measures that the government, in discussions with European Union ministers,
has been formulating to ease the country’s debt crisis. With another 20,000 who were
demonstrating in the city of Thessaloniki, clashes with police resulted in injuries to
43 people on both sides. Meanwhile, after speaking with activists in an effort to find
a mutually satisfactory solution, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou stated that he
would form a new government on Thursday and then request a vote of confidence from Parliament.
SUDAN - The UN Mission in Sudan reports that the Sudanese Armed Forces of the north have
increased bombing raids in the state of South Kordofan, while a north Sudanese rights group
reports that as of Monday, June 13, 65 people had been killed by air strikes in the state
over the past nine days. On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama said that no solution
can come through military means as he called for a ceasefire between the north and the
south, while urging the government of north Sudan to halt aerial attacks and other forms
of deadly and intimidating violence.
CȎTE D'IVOIRE - Despite being nearly two months since the nation’s post-election
crisis was resolved, over 300,000 people remain displaced. Presenting a report to the UN Wednesday,
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said that although security had improved, there is concern
that the country's current military is still committing human rights abuses, including
arbitrary arrests, excessive use of force, sexual violence, and retaliatory killings.
MYANMAR - At least four people were killed while another 2,000 fled a remote region where
government forces have been clashing with members of the Kachin group, an ethnic minority
group that says it is defending its land from government takeover.
JORDAN - Some 300 people rallied Tuesday in front of the offices of Agence France-Presse
in Amman, demanding that the office be closed and that bureau chief Randa Habib be prosecuted
after the news agency published a report Monday that was also confirmed by other international
media organizations, which stated that young men with stones and empty bottles attacked
the motorcade of Jordan's King Abdullah. After the news agency office was ransacked on Wednesday,
Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit phoned Ms. Habib to express regret at the situation and pledged
to address the issue. Palace officials meanwhile denied that the motorcade was attacked, saying
that a crowd of people was actually seeking to shake hands with the king, with police
attempting to protect him.
MIDDLE EAST - As part of a four-day tour starting Thursday, European Union foreign policy chief
Catherine Ashton is visiting leaders in the Palestinian Territories as well as Israel,
Jordan and Egypt in the hope of re-launching peace negotiations in Paris, France to reach
an accord on the terms of an independent Palestinian state.
LIBYA - According to Reuters, a ship chartered by the International Organization for Migration
(IOM) arrived Tuesday in Libya’s Benghazi from Misurata carrying 222 mostly sub-Saharan
African migrants and 30 wounded persons on board. Among the injured is a 12-year-old
boy with severe head trauma due to land munitions, which has already killed civilians, especially
children, and threatens more. Also on Tuesday, Liberia severed relations with Libya as the
latest African country to withdraw support of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s government.
Meanwhile, explosions resumed late Tuesday in the capital Tripoli, the main focus of
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) campaign to defend the Libyan people
from Colonel Gaddafi’s violence.
NORTH KOREA –Marking the 11th anniversary of the first North and South Korean summit,
a group of North Korean refugees now living in the South rallied on Wednesday in the border
city of Paju, sending off leaflets inside balloons that speak out against the North
Korean regime.
SYRIA - On Tuesday, thousands of Syrians fled the town of Maarat al-Numaan in anticipation
of a tank attack by the Syrian army. Some headed to Aleppo and other villages while
others went toward Turkey, where 8,500 refugees have already fled from the town of Jisr al-Shughour.
On Wednesday, the Syrian government called on Jisr al-Shughour’s residents to return
after it had ended a military operation there against alleged armed groups. Meanwhile, activists
report that the army is also moving into two towns in the eastern Deir al-Zour province.
In the capital Damascus, however, thousands of supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
rallied Wednesday waving a huge, 2.3-kilomter-long flag. In an effort to assess the true nature
of the violence against the Syrian people, the human rights agency of the United Nations
released a report Wednesday saying that an estimated 1,100 people have been killed, with
up to 10,000 arrested along with citizen accounts of detentions, torture, and executions by
Syrian forces. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay spoke out strongly against
the alleged abuses, calling for access into the country to conduct a fact-finding mission.
YEMEN - On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of Yemeni citizens rallied in cities across
the country in the largest protests since President Ali Abdullah Saleh departed with
injuries to Saudi Arabia nearly two weeks ago. Meanwhile, in a meeting Tuesday in Saudi
Arabia, foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperative Council vowed to push forward mediation efforts
in Yemen to restore stability there.
AFGHANISTAN AND OTHERS – On Wednesday, an international poll by Thomson-Reuters Foundation
was released, which considered factors such as violence, poor healthcare, sexual assault
and others to rank the following five countries as the most dangerous in the world for women:
#1 - Afghanistan, #2 - Democratic Republic of Congo, #3 - Pakistan, #4 - India, and #5
- Somalia.
In sorrow for those who have perished and are suffering, we pray that all such conflicts
cease so that people in nations throughout the globe may choose to live in freedom, dignity
and lasting peace�