South America Governments Pull Ambassadors from Israel

By: Delisa Morris

News Reporter – South America

Last week five South American countries pulled their diplomats out of Gaza including: Chile, Peru, El Salvador, Ecuador, and Brazil.

A photo of Israel’s operation in Gaza. Photo courtesy of naharnet.com

To protest Israel’s operation in the Gaza strip five South American countries pulled their ambassadors out of Israel this week.  The spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Yigal Palmor, said recalling ambassadors encourages Hamas.

“Israel expresses its deep disappointment with the hasty decision of the governments of El Salvador, Peru and Chile to recall their ambassadors for consultations,” said Palmor. “This step constitutes encouragement for Hamas, a group recognized as a terror organization by many countries around the world.”

Palmor believes these countries are handing terrorists a prize.

“Israel expects countries that oppose terrorism to act responsibly and not to hand terrorists a prize,” he said. “So far, every time Israel accepted plans for establishing a cease-fire and restoring calm, it was countered by Hamas’s sustained rocket fire. El Salvador, Chile and Peru would have been much better advised to promote the international move intended to assist Israel in its efforts to defend innocent civilians and instate a durable cease-fire with the demilitarization of Gaza.”

Jorge Montero, the Chilean ambassador  was called back because of “the escalation of Israeli military operations in Gaza” said the Chilean Foreign Ministry.

“Chile notes with great concern and dismay that such military operations, which at this stage of development are subject to a collective punishment against the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, do not respect fundamental rules of international humanitarian law.”

The Chilean Foreign Ministry went on to note that over 1,000 Palestinian lives, including civilians, have been lost during Operation Protective Edge, which is now in its 27th day.

Furthermore the statement condemned rocket fire by Hamas on the civilians of Israel, but said “the scale and intensity of Israeli operations in Gaza violate the principle of proportionality in the use of force, an essential requirement to justify self-defense.” The statement also called “for an immediate end of hostilities” in Gaza.

The Peruvian foreign ministry, in Lima, published a similar statement condemning Israel’s operation in Gaza.

The executive director of the American Jewish Committee that is active in Latin America, David Harris, said that it was astonishing that the Mercosur statement did not even mention Hamas.

Harris said “the notion that Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay would issue a joint statement with Venezuela voicing concern about human rights anywhere would be laughable, if it weren’t so terribly tragic. Caracas has been one of the main defenders of Syrian President [Bashar] Assad, who is responsible for some 170,000 deaths and millions of refugees, and is a staunch ally of Iran, the principal state sponsor of terrorism in the world, including at least two deadly attacks in Argentina in 1992 and 1994.”

For more information, please see:

NBC News – Chile, Peru Recall Ambassadors from Israel Over Gaza Offensive – 30 July 2014

Israel National News – Chile Recalls Israeli Ambassador Over Gaza – 30 July 2014

The Jerusalem Post – Israel ‘deeply disappointed’ at El Salvador, Peru, and Chile for Recalling Envoy – 30 July 2014

Haaretz – El Salvador Becomes Fifth Latin America Country to Recall Israel Envoy – 29 July 2014

 

First Contact with Indigenous People in Brazil

by: Delisa Morris

News Reporter – South America

Recently, rare video footage has been released by the Brazil Indigenous Affairs department.  In the video you can see first contact being made with indigenous people at the Brazil/Peru border.  These indigenous people are from the Panoan linguistic group and in the video you can see their hesitation at making contact with people from the department.

Panoan linguistic group making first contact with FUNAI Image courtesy of YouTube and Telegraph.co

To sweeten the deal the Brazil Indigenous Affairs department offered the Panoan linguistic group bananas for making the connection.  The contact was made in northern Brazil, along the banks and inside of the Envira River, in the western Acre state of Brazil, close to the Peruvian border.

Another indigenous people, the Ashaninka tribe, laid clothes along the edges of the forest, near the Panoan settlement, in June, as a gesture of friendship.  After, the Panoan’s tried to make contact with the Ashaninka tribe by visiting their settlement.  This was the first time in several decades that an Amazonian Indian tribe visited a settled population without first being contacted or invited.  The Ashaninka often help FUNAI by giving them hints about the whereabouts of other tribes.

Later, Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), travelled to the area with health specialists and interpreters and filmed the second contact on June 29.

The footage from the first encounter shows one of the interpreters handing over a few bunches of bananas to the natives before they cautiously retreated.

There was concern early in July when news spread about the tribe making contact with a village, because some natives were showing flu like symptoms before they returned to their forrest home.  According to FUNAI, at least seven people were suffering from flu like symptoms and a virus normally found in outside populations.  This alarmed many campaigners to tune into the rights of indigenous peoples.

It is unknown if the members of the tribe were sick and refused medical treatment.  This raises concern that the natives will spread disease when they return to their home.

Many Brazilian experts believe that the Indians were forced to cross from Peru into Brazil because of illegal loggers and drug smugglers taking over their land.

Currently Peru has two reserves where there are un-contacted tribes including the Murunahua Indigenous Reserve.

According to the 2013 census in Brazil, there are 810,000 indigenous people in the country and 560 of them have been murdered in the past decade.  There are at least 18 tribes spread throughout the amazon region, with no contact to the outside world.

Please view the video of the first contact with the Panoan linguistic group below.  Video courtesy of BBC News.

For more information, please see:

The Independent – Amazonian Indian Tribe Filmed Making Contact with Brazil Village in Rare Video Footage – 31 July 2014

The Washington Post – Indigenous People in Brazil Contacted for the First Time – with Bananas – 31 July 2014

The Guardian – Amazon Tribe Makes First Contact with Outside World – 1 August 2014

BBC News – Face to Face with Isolated Amazon Tribe in Brazil – 31 July 2014

 

 

As the Africa Summit in Washington, D.C. Nears, Activists Push for Gay-Rights

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By: Ashley Repp

News Desk Reporter, Africa 

Africa, as a continent, is home to the strictest of anti-gay laws in the world, and as an issue of human rights, many African nations are facing backlash for their laws and called to address such violations of human rights.  Activists are now calling on prominent world leaders, including President Barak Obama, to push for gay rights to be on the agenda for the African summit in Washington next week.  Activists see this summit as a rare opportunity for the human rights of the African gay, lesbian, and transgender population to be discussed and supported.  The LGBT community in Africa faces some of the worst discrimination, and many human rights activists demand change.

In Africa, 37 African countries have laws on the  books criminalizing homosexuality.  Some nations allow imprisonment of homosexual and transgender people, while some countries, including Nigeria, Mauritania, and Sudan, go so far as to allow for the killing of such individuals.  And while Uganda recently removed the law allowing for the death penalty in cases dealing with gay and transgender people, it still has some of the strictest anti-gay laws.  Creating a safe space for those in the LGBT community in Africa will be a difficult battle, considering how persistent some governments and communities appear to be in maintaining anti-gay laws and culture.  Just last month in Nigeria, over a dozen individuals were assaulted by a mob in order to rid the community of homosexuals.

Many of the LGBT community in Africa live in constant fear of violence, harassment, and punishment.  Discrimination of members of this population is rampant and permeates nearly every facet of life in many African nations.  As a result of the discrimination, the LGBT community bears the burden of poverty due to unemployment or inability to find a job because of known or presumed sexual orientation, abandonment   by family and community, and legal punishment.  With what is effectively rejection by society, members of the African LGBT community have few options and even fewer rights.

Although Obama has already increased sanctions against Uganda for its new anti-gay laws, the summit next week will be a unique opportunity, if the chance is seized, for the leaders of the countries with the strictest anti-gay laws, to be addressed in person for the human rights issues created by anti-gay culture, law, and policy.  And with tensions rising within nations between groups that support and promote the upholding of the tradition anti-gay rhetoric and culture, and those who support LGBT human rights, the time could not be more ripe for a multi-national discussion on the issue.

 

For more information, please visit:

Time- Advocates issue report on the dreadful state of LGBT rights in Africa, as world leaders and leading figures from the continent prepare for the US-Africa Leaders Summit- July 29, 2014

ABC News- Activists Want Gay Rights on Africa Summit Agenda- July 29, 2014

BBC News Africa- Cameroon lawyer wins award for defending gay rights- Mar 18, 2014

The Washington Post- Here are the 10 countries where homosexuality may be punished by death- Feb 24, 2014

As Awareness Grows, Women With Obstetric Fistula May Finally Have Hope

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By: Ashley Repp

News Desk Reporter, Africa

 

Nearly half of African girls are at risk for obstetric fistula.  This serious condition is defined by tears between the  birth canal and urinary tract, that causes the affected individual to constantly leak urine and feces.  This condition occurs at particularly high rates in Africa due to poverty, child brides, female genital cutting, sexual assault and rape, and unattended births.  Young girls are highly susceptible, as in rural parts of Africa, girls are often married and become pregnant before their bodies are sufficiently developed to handle the birth of a child. Furthermore, in rural regions with scare resources, unattended births compound the already dire situation that many women face.  In such conditions, women and girls giving birth may experience  exceptionally long labors that can not be properly or quickly addressed by medical personnel.  The child often dies in the situation of an unattended and prolonged labor, and if the mother does not die, she often sustains serious tears, or fistula.

Once a woman sustains a fistula, the condition is debilitating, humiliating, and there are few qualified individuals readily available to perform the surgery necessary to repair the tears.  As such, few women are able to receive medical care and are burdened by the stigma and pain associated with fistula.  Because of the constant fecal and urine leakage, affected women are often ostracized by their communities and families.  Husbands often abandon their wives; families of a rape victims who become pregnant and are then affected by fistula, are often ostracized for being “damaged” and “impure.” Communities may also abandon affected women, with the aim of avoiding the smell that  accompanies the fistula condition, and any possible fertility and birth “curse” that may follow affected women.  Abandoned by family and community, many of these women are left to suffer and die alone.

As debilitating and traumatizing as this disease is for women in rural and resource scarce areas, repair of the fistulas is relatively simple with involvement of qualified medical personnel.  As more awareness is called to the condition and the situations that underly the high occurrence of the condition, money, interest, and facilities can be focused to address at least some of the cases of obstetric fistula in rural Africa.  Attention given to the issues of child brides, sexual assault, and unattended births, may play a role in reducing the number of women who are affected by fistulas every year.

 

For more information, please visit:

Voices of America- Many African Females at Risk of Obstetric Fistula- June 25, 2014

Mercy Ships- Mercy Ships Provides Free Obstetric Fistula Surgeries in Africa- May 22, 2014

Aid For Africa- Fistula Foundation

Aljazeera- Fistula surgery transforms lives in Kenya- May 23, 2014

Bodies Recovered from Captured Libyan Base

By: Danielle L. Cowan (Gwozdz)
Senior Desk Operator, Africa

TRIPOLI, Libya – At least 35 bodies have been recovered from a Libyan military base that was overrun by Islamist-led militants.

Rival militias have been battling for control of Benghazi (photo courtesy of AFP)

 

The special forces base in Benghazi was captured on Tuesday, after two days of intense fighting.

An Islamist and jihadist alliance announced the capture of the main military base in the eastern city in a statement Wednesday, which was confirmed by an army official.

Libyan special forces fled from the Benghazi military base as militants overwhelmed them with rocket fire. A special forces spokesman told Reuters that militants have since assumed control of the military camp.

Libya has been facing violence since 2011. The violence came from militias uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.

The new parliament is said to be holding an emergency meeting this week.

A Red Crescent spokesperson told AFP that “up to now we have managed to recover 35 bodies. But there are more to be found.”

Further, the spokesperson said that “Special forces under the command of [Colonel] Wanis Abu Khamada withdrew after several attacks.”

Many western governments – including the United States, UK, France, and Germany – have already asked their citizens to leave the country. Several have also evacuated their embassies.

At least 97 people have also been killed in fighting between militias battling for control of Tripoli’s main airport in the past week.

The government has blamed clashes between the armed groups for starting a fire at a Tripoli fuel depot, and for preventing firefighters from putting out the blaze.

The special forces are one of the units of Libya’s regular armed forces that support rogue Libyan general Khalifa Haftar, but they have not placed themselves under his command.

Hafta began his offensive against radical Islamist groups in Beghazi dubbed “Operation Dignity” in mid-May.

The militias reportedly agreed on a ceasefire on Wednesday to allow the blaze to be brought under control.

For more information, please visit:
BBC News – ‘Dozens of bodies’ at captured base in Benghazi, Libya – 30 July 2014
Alakhbar English – Libya Islamists capture Benghazi base – 31 July 2014
War News Updates – Diplomats Flee Libya As The Violence Escalates Out Of Control – 30 July 2014
Gsbuzz – ‘Dozens of bodies’ at captured base in Benghazi, Libya – 30 July 2014