Freedom of Religion or Belief in full – A blog by CSW
拥挤的医院大厅、奔忙的穿戴全身防护的医护人员、躺在走廊里的病人、堆放在医院外殡葬车上的尸袋……2020 年 2 月初，57 岁的商人方斌驾车在武汉市内转悠，记录下了他在五家医院的所见所闻。他在社交媒体上发布的短视频让人们难得一见地看到疫情中心地带发生的一切。
2020 年 2 月 1 日，方斌被警方短暂拘留。获释后，他变得更加敢言。在社交媒体上广泛传播的视频中，他直言不讳地说：“病毒的根源是暴政！” 几天后，2 月 9 日，他在 YouTube（一个在中国被禁止的社交媒体平台）上呼吁“全民反抗”、要求当局“还政于民”后消失。
Continue reading “一个破碎了24年的家庭——法轮功维权人士方斌的故事”方斌、张展和另外至少两名公民记者的先后失踪引起了全世界媒体的关注。尽管当局知道方斌及其妻子是资深法轮功维权人士，但很多熟悉的朋友在呼吁释放方斌时，选择不提他的信仰背景。他们可能意识到中国社会仍对法轮功这一信仰团体存在某种歧视，或者担心当局对方斌抓捕判刑可能不基于其网络言论而基于其信仰，他甚至可能因之遭到当局酷刑。
Earlier this month, the BBC released information gathered from exclusive interviews with three individuals living inside North Korea. Their reports have brought the country back into the headlines, revealing the devastating reality of the situation for North Korean citizens since the COVID-19-triggered border closure in January 2020. They describe widespread starvation and brutal repression, without feasible means of escape.
Hanna Song from the North Korean Database Centre for Human Rights (NKDB) said in an interview with the BBC ‘This [report] takes us back to the most difficult time in North Korean history.’
Song is referring here to the widespread famine of the 1990s known as the arduous march.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was founded in 1948 under the leadership of Kim Il-Sung. The communist nation’s economy was built on a system of state control: a public distribution system for food and material goods, and a state-assigned job system dictating citizen employment.
Continue reading “With echoes of ‘the most difficult time in North Korean history’, the international community must do more to bring about change”
Por Benedict Rogers
Cuando escuché que mi amigo el Reverendo Dr. Hkalam Samson, uno de los pastores cristianos más importantes e internacionalmente reconocidos de Myanmar/Birmania, había sido arrestado en el aeropuerto de Mandalay el 5 de diciembre cuando intentaba viajar a Bangkok, varios pensamientos pasaron por mi mente.
En un principio, no me sorprendió, porque la actual junta militar ilegal, que tomó el poder en un golpe de Estado el 1 de febrero de 2021, ha sido aún más brutal, despiadada e inhumana que cualquiera de las sucesiones de dictaduras militares que han gobernado Myanmar durante la mayor parte de las últimas seis décadas.
Por otro lado, debido a sus conexiones internacionales, pensé que su arresto podría simplemente conducir a una breve detención, con fines de interrogatorio. Esperaba que fuera liberado en cuestión de días. Este es un hombre, después de todo, que se ha reunido con el Presidente de los Estados Unidos en la Casa Blanca, o con un Ministro de Estado en la Oficina de Relaciones Exteriores, Commonwealth y Desarrollo del Reino Unido, parlamentarios de todo el mundo y ha asistido a foros internacionales, incluida la Conferencia Ministerial Internacional sobre Libertad de Religión o Creencia en Washington, DC en 2019.
Continue reading “El hecho de que el Reverendo Dr. Hkalam Samson continue en la cárcel es una prueba de que nadie está a salvo en Myanmar”
By Benedict Rogers
When I heard that my friend Reverend Dr Hkalam Samson, one of Myanmar/Burma’s most senior and internationally renowned Christian pastors, had been arrested at Mandalay airport on 5 December as he attempted to travel to Bangkok, several thoughts went through my mind.
On one level I was not surprised, because the current illegal military junta, which seized power in a coup on 1 February 2021, has been even more brutal, ruthless and inhumane than any of the succession of military dictatorships that have ruled Myanmar for most of the past six decades.
On another level, due to his international connections, I thought his arrest might simply lead to a brief detention, for the purposes of interrogation. I half expected him to be released within a matter of days. This is a man, after all, who has met the President of the United States in the White House, a Minister of State in the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, parliamentarians around the world and has attended international fora including the International Ministerial Conference on freedom of religion or belief in Washington, DC in 2019.
Continue reading “The continued imprisonment of Reverend Dr Hkalam Samson is proof that no one is safe in Myanmar”
27 April 1993: Eritrea declares official independence from Ethiopia after a referendum which saw a 98.5% turnout with a 99.83% vote in favour.
The vote took place nearly two years after the defeat of Ethiopian forces in Eritrea in May 1991, which brought with it an end to nearly three decades of civil war. The referendum installed the leader of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF, which later became PFDJ – People’s Front for Democracy and Justice) Isaias Afewerki as president, and it was hoped that he would lead the Eritrean people into a just and democratic future – then-US President Bill Clinton even referred to him as a ‘renaissance African leader’.
Continue reading “The international community must assist in transforming Eritrea’s pathocracy into a genuine democracy”Sadly, this did not occur. Afewerki remains the only ruler Eritrea has ever known, and under his leadership the nation’s heroic liberation struggle has been resolutely betrayed due to his obsession with absolute power.