Archive for December 23rd, 2014

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23/12/2014

Aceh Redux: The Tsunami that Helped Stop a War

Human Wrongs Watch

Banda Aceh, 23 December 2014 (IRIN)* – When the earthquake struck, Irwandi Yusuf, a leader in the armed separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), was startled in his prison bunk. He began to pack his possessions into a plastic bag. “The earthquake was strong, I thought there might be a tsunami,” he said.
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**Photo: Jefri Aries/IRIN | Aceh rebels with GAM stand guard during a jungle patrol in Jantho, Aceh Besar (File photo 2004)

**Photo: Jefri Aries/IRIN | Aceh rebels with GAM stand guard during a jungle patrol in Jantho, Aceh Besar (File photo 2004)

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“I knew many people would run toward the main door, and the prison guard would shut the gate to stop the crowd because he didn’t know the tsunami was coming.”
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Irwandi, then 44, climbed a metal pole and punched through the asbestos ceiling and tin roof. “I don’t know where I got my strength,” he told IRIN.
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He emerged to find a city overtaken by the sea: “It looked like people were on flying carpets, riding mattresses.”
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He sat on the roof for three hours, smoking to kill time as the water receded. A few years earlier, one popular GAM saying was “independence is only a cigarette away.”

Posted in Asia, Mother Earth, The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

23/12/2014

'Classified Evidence: US Soldiers Raped Boys In Front of Their Mothers'

Human Wrongs Watch

By John Vibes – Mint Press News*

December 2014 – Now, over a decade later the evidence of these events are beginning to surface, but the Department of Defense is still doing their best to keep it under the radar.

251005Abu_Ghraib torture cia

Source: mintpressnews.com

According to a number of global mainstream media sources, the Pentagon is covering up a disturbing video that was never made public with the rest of the recent torture report.

According to various well respected journalists, including Seymour Hersh, the appalling video was recorded at Abu Ghraib, the notorious US torture dungeon in Iraq that made headlines roughly a decade ago, when the inhumane tactics being used at the prison were exposed.

Sadly, it seems that the evidence released years ago was only scratching the surface.

While the video has remained under wraps thus far, Hersh says it is only a matter of time before it comes out.

Giving a speech at the ACLU last week after the senate torture report was initially released, Hersh gave some insight into what was on the Pentagon’s secret tape.

read more »

Posted in Asia, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | Leave a Comment »

23/12/2014

Sales by 100 Largest Arms-Producing and Military Services Companies (outside China) Totaled $402 Billion in 2013

Human Wrongs Watch

Stockholm, December 2014 (SIPRI)* — Sales of arms and military services by the largest arms-producing companies—the SIPRI Top 100—totaled $402 billion in 2013 according to new data on international arms production launched on 15 December 2014 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
A Royal Air Force British Aerospace Harrier GR.9 aircraft conducts a combat patrol over Afghanistan on 12 December 2008. | Photo: Staff Sgt. Aaron Allmon | Wikimedia Commons

A Royal Air Force British Aerospace Harrier GR.9 aircraft conducts a combat patrol over Afghanistan on 12 December 2008. | Photo: Staff Sgt. Aaron Allmon | Wikimedia Commons

This is the third consecutive year of decline in the total arms sales of the 100 largest arms producers and military services providers.*

With a decrease in sales of 2 per cent in real terms compared to 3.9 per cent in 2012, the pace of the decline has slowed slightly. This is partly attributable to significant increases in arms sales by Russian companies and other emerging suppliers.

Sales by companies headquartered in the United States and Canada have continued to moderately decrease, while sales by Russian-based companies increased by 20 per cent in 2013.

Western Europe offered a more mixed picture, with French companies increasing their sales, sales by British companies remaining stable, and Italian and Spanish arms-producing companies’ sales continuing to decline.

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Posted in Market Lords, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | Leave a Comment »

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