Group 48 Newsletter - May 2013

Amnesty International USA Group 48

Newsletter5.13

1 BURUNDI: Action - Journalists at Risk from Restrictive Law

3 CHINA: Urgent Action - activist detained, risks torture

4 Maryland Joins Global Trend Against the Death Penalty

6 REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Urgent Action - Teachers freed, strike leaders still harassed

7 Amnesty International Welcomes President’s Remarks on Guantanamo, Calls for Action

BURUNDI: Action - Journalists at Risk from Restrictive LawJournalists in Burundi, as in their neighboring countries, Rwanda and the DRC, have been working courageously to report on issues their governments have tried to keep quiet. Whether it entails reports on the health of the president, an insurgent movement, a shooting in a bar, or simply the acts and words of the opponents of the regime, journalists have been frequently killed, threatened, or imprisoned. Now Bu-rundi is attempting to formalize the re-straints on journalists by creating a legal code that will impede normal journal-istic work. For instance, as the Urgent Action states, Article 19 restricts the

right to report on anything that relates to state and public security, information that threatens the national economy, or insulting the President (outrages et injures à l’endroit du Chef de l’Etat).

For most Americans, the latter stipula-tion is most laughable, although it is actually widely employed throughout the world, and not in repressive regimes alone. Amnesty International is con-cerned that at this very moment when both Rwanda and Burundi are shaping a new legal approach to the laws and codes that regulate journalism that freedom of the press be respected. It is all the more crucial as this is a key

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AIUSA group 48 Newsletter May 2013 Pg 2

historical moment for both countries as they are working through post-genocide attempts to reformulate the shape of their democracy.

Action Please write to the authorities indicated on the accompany-ing Urgent Action urging them to respect the freedom of the press. A sample letter is included below:

Pierre Nkurunziza Office of the President Boulevard de l’Uprona BP 1870 Bujumbura, Burundi

Copies To Republic of Burundi Ambassador to US Her Excellency, Ambassador Angele Niyuhire Embassy of the Republic of Burundi 2233 Wisconsin Ave NW, Suite 408, Washington, DC 20007 Email: [email protected]

Sample Letter Dear President Nkurunziza, I am writing you as a member of Amnesty International, concerned over matters of freedom of the press. It is crucial for a democratic society that the workings of the press be respected and protected. In recent years a number of inci-dents suggesting that journalists have been jailed or repressed have occurred in Burundi, including the case of Jean-Claude Kavumbagu, the editor of a Burundian online news agency, Netpress, who was released from prison on May 16 2011. He had been detained since July 2010 after suggesting that the Burundian security forces could not defend the country.

Jean-Claude Kavumbagu had published an article on July 12 2010, one day after suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, criticizing the capacity of Burundian security forces to protect the country from a terrorist attack. Other similar arrests and acts of intimidation against journalists have also occurred in recent years. The solution to the issue of the international right of the press to be free to practice their work is not to create laws impeding them.

I urge you reject the draft press law in its current form. Please guarantee freedom of expression to all journalists in Burundi

and allow them to carry out their legitimate work freely and independently.

Best Regards,

"Why do we have this tradition of final meals, I wondered, after seeing a request for six tacos, six glazed donuts, and a cherry Coke. Fifteen years later, I still wonder." - Julie Green

In 1998, Julie Green was living and teaching in Nor-man, Oklahoma, when she first read a prisoner›s last meal request in the newspaper. These reports of the final meal requests of death row inmates were regularly published in the paper in Oklahoma and, as Green would discover, in many others states with the death penalty. Green began making sketches based on the descriptions of these last meals and thinking about what they meant and how to repre-sent them. She considered embroidering images of the meals on napkins, but eventually decided to paint images of the meal requests on plates. In the summer of 2000, she moved to Oregon and started the series, applying blue mineral paint to second-hand plates, which were then kiln-fired. The series, which Green intends to continue as long as the death penalty is legal anywhere in the United States, has grown to more than 500 plates.

Read more at: http://www.marylhurst.edu/arts-and-events/art-gym/art-gym-exhibitions/current-exhibi-tion.html

Open and free to the public through Friday, May 17 The Art Gym, Marylhurst University 17600 Pacific Highway (Hwy 43) Marylhurst, OR 97036-0261 (800) 634 9982

The Last Supper Exhibit: Artwork by Julie Green at

Marylhurst University


CHINA: Urgent Action - activist detained, risks tortureAction Please write immediately in English, Chinese or your own language:

◌ Calling on the authorities to give Liu Yuandong immediate access to his family, legal representation of his choosing and any medical attention he may require;

◌ Calling on them to release Liu Yuandong immediately and unconditionally;

◌ Calling on them to ensure that Liu Yuandong is not tor-tured or otherwise ill-treated.

Appeals To PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE MAY 31 2013 TO Director, Tianhe District People’s Procuratorate Liu Zhimin Jianchazhang Guangzhoushi Tianhequ Remin Jianchayuan 19 Longkou West Road, Tianhequ Guangzhoushi 510630 People’s Republic of China Salutation: Dear Director

Director, Tianhe District Public Security Sub-branch Jin Wei Juzhang Guangzhoushi Tianhequ Gong'anfenju 613 Shougoulinglu, Tianhequ Guangzhoushi 510640 People’s Republic of China Salutation: Dear Director

Copies to Premier Li Keqiang Guojia Zongli

Activist Liu Yuandong, a businessman, was detained on 23 February in Guangzhou, China after he took part in a protest against North Korea’s nuclear tests. He is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

Liu Yuandong, a 35-year-old businessman, protested with several other people against North Korea’s nuclear tests on February 23 in the southern city of Guangzhou. They were all detained, and given administrative detention orders ranging from seven to 15 days for violating the Law on Assemblies, Processions and Demonstrations. All but Liu Yuandong have since been released, and have told the media they were de-prived of sleep in custody.

The police told his wife that they were holding him on the grounds that he had "withdrawn the contributed capital after the incorporation of the company" and that they were in the process of issuing a formal arrest notification. His wife, how-ever, has not received any formal arrest notice. Liu Yuandong is detained in Guangzhou city's Tianhe district detention centre.

Liu Yuandong has taken an active part in a number of social movements or protests in China. He was briefly detained after he took part in a solidarity action for the people of the nearby village of Wukan who were protesting against local corruption and land grabs. More than 500 people across China signed a petition in March, within three days, calling for him to be released.

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The State Council General Office 2 Fuyoujie, Xichengqu Beijingshi 100017 People’s Republic of China Fax: 011 86 10 6596 1109 Email: [email protected]

Additional Information Activist and lawyers in China believe that the police decision to investigate Liu Yuandong’s business activities is politically motivated. The police have told his wife that he is suspected of having violated the Criminal Law, Article 159: “Any spon-

sor or shareholder of a company who, in violation of the pro-visions of the Company Law, makes a false capital contribu-tion by failing to pay the promised cash or tangible assets or to transfer property rights, or surreptitiously withdraws the contributed capital after the incorporation of the company shall, if the amount involved is huge, and the consequences are serious, or if there are other serious circumstances, be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and shall also, or shall only, be fined not less than two percent but not more than 10 percent of the false capital contribution or of the amount of the capi-tal contribution surreptitiously withdrawn.”

Maryland Joins Global Trend Against the Death PenaltyMay 2, 2013

Amnesty International urges Governor O’Malley to commute the death sentences of the five men who remain on death row in Maryland despite today’s abolition bill. This would avoid the cruel prospect of the state applying a punishment that it has rightly rejected.

Maryland’s abolition of the death penalty is consistent with a global trend towards ending capital punishment. Accord-ing to the organization’s most recent yearly report on death penalty statistics, despite some disappointing setbacks in 2012, worldwide movement away from the death penalty continued last year.Maryland has joined the overwhelming global trend to-

wards ending the death penalty, Amnesty International said today after Governor Martin O’Malley signed the abolition of capital punishment into law.

The abolition bill, passed by the state legislature in March 2013, makes Maryland the 18th U.S. state to relinquish use of the death penalty since the U.S. Supreme Court approved new capital laws in 1976.

“Maryland has abandoned a punishment that should have no place in a society that claims to respect human dignity, and that in the U.S.A is riddled with discrimination and error,” said Brian Evans, Amnesty International U.S.A’s Abolish the Death Penalty campaign director. “More than a third of U.S. states have now abolished the death penalty, and we urge the remaining 32 states, and the federal government, to follow suit.”

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1. Last Thursday Alberta Street 6 - 9pm We need volunteers! Please contact Lauren Zielinski at [email protected]

2. Interested in doing more to abolish the death penalty in Oregon? Join our Faith Outreach or Membership Teams! Contact us at [email protected].

Volunteers Needed for Anti-Death Penalty Work

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Such a trend can also be seen in the U.S.A where four states have legislated to abolish the death penalty in the past five years – New Mexico (2009), Illinois (2011), Connecticut (2012) and now Maryland.

In addition New Jersey abolished the death penalty in law in 2007, the same year neighboring New York state commuted its last death sentence, following a 2004 court ruling that its capital law violated the state’s constitution.

On the other hand, seven U.S. states – Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, Missouri, Ohio, Alabama and Florida – account for nearly three-quarters of the more than 1,000 executions nationwide since 1994. Texas alone accounts for 37 percentof all U.S. executions since 1976 (when the U.S. Supreme Court gave its approval to new capital laws) and today is approach-ing its 500th execution.

Background information In January 2013, when Governor O’Malley introduced a bill in the Maryland state legislature to abolish the state’s use of the death penalty, he said it “does not work in terms of pre-venting violent crime and the taking of human life.” Pointing to the global picture, he noted that abolitionist countries were

“a much more expansive community than the number who still use the death penalty.”

His position is in line with that what Amnesty International has been saying since it started to campaign against death penalty 36 years ago: there is no convincing evidence to indi-cate that the death penalty works as a special deterrent against crime.

The organization opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, regardless of the nature or circumstances of the crime; guilt, innocence or other characteristics of the individual; or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. The death penalty violates the right to life and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

More than two thirds of the world’s countries – 140 – have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. In 2012, at least 682 executions were known to have been carried out in 21 countries worldwide. At least 1,722 newly imposed death sentences in 58 countries could be confirmed, compared to 1,923 in 63 countries the year before.

On April 9th, I sent an update about Oregon House Joint Resolution 1 (HJR 1), the legislation resolu-tion sponsored by Representative Mitch Greenlick to abolish the death penalty in Oregon. On April 16, the Oregon House Judiciary was scheduled to hold a working session to move HJR 1 to the House Rules Committee for further action. However, for some reason, HJR 1 did not move to the Rules Committee and on April 18th, HJR 1 'died' in the Judiciary Committee due to lack of action. No other action is possible on this resolution during the rest of this legislative session.

The reasons why House Joint Resolution 1 failed to move to the House Rules Committee as expected are being investigated. Despite this result, Repre-sentative Greenlick deserves our thanks for his efforts to end the broken death penalty system in Oregon.

Action Request: Please write a letter, send an email or make a phone call to Representative Greenlick thanking him for his efforts to end the use of the death penalty in Oregon.

Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, H-493 Salem, OR 97301 Capitol Phone: 503-986-1433

In Solidarity, Terrie Rodello AIUSA Oregon State Death Penalty Abolition Coordinator

Oregon Death Penalty: Thank Representative Greenlick for his proposal to end the death

penalty in Oregon

District Address: 412 NW Couch St #104 Portland, OR 97209 District Phone: 503-297-2416 Email: rep.mitchgreenlick @state.or.us


REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Urgent Action - Teachers freed, strike leaders still harassedLeaders of the CPRE (m), Hilaire Eyima (m) and Claude Nzingoula (m),

◌ Expressing concern for the safety of leaders of the CPRE currently in hiding and seeking assurances that leaders of CPRE will not be arrested or threatened for exercising their right to freedom of expression and association;

◌ Calling on the Congolese authorities to ensure that the ha-rassment and intimidation of leaders of the CPRE by agents of the DGST will be stopped;

Appealing to the authorities to respect the rights of the teach-ers and to engage in a constructive dialogue with CPRE as a means to peacefully resolve the teachers

Appeals to PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE JUNE 10th 2013 TO: President of the Republic of Congo SE M. Denis Sassou-Nguesso Palais du Peuple Brazzaville, Republic of Congo Fax: 011 242 222 81 4557 (keep trying)

Two teachers in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, detained for a week in connection with an on-going strike, have now been released without charge. However leaders of the union still face harassment and intimidation by the Congolese authorities.

Hilaire Eyima and Claude Nzingoula were released on April 25th 2013 without charge, but only after they were forced to read a statement to the national media calling on other teach-ers to end the strike and asking forgiveness for their part in it. However, teachers continued to strike and leaders of the Co-alition for Improving the Teaching Profession (Concertation pour la revalorisation de la profession d’enseignant) CPRE, a coalition of teachers’ trade unions, are still being harassed and intimidated by the authorities.

The chairman of the CPRE, who is still in hiding, was called on April 4th 2013 on his mobile phone by an agent of the General Directorate for the Surveillance of the territory (Direction générale de Surveillance du Territoire, DGST) who threatened him and urged him to call off the strike. The agent told him that unless he leaves the country, security agents will find him and other members of CPRE currently in hiding.

Action Please write immediately in French, English or your own language

◌ Expressing concern at reports that leaders of teachers’ unions taking part in the on-going strike are being forced against their will to make statements to call off the strike and denouncing their participation;

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Group CoordinatorJoanne [email protected]

TreasurerTena [email protected]

Newsletter EditorDan [email protected]

Concert TablingWill [email protected]

Legislative CoordinatorDan [email protected]

Central Africa / OR State Death Penalty AbolitionTerrie [email protected]

IndonesiaMax [email protected]

Central AmericaMarylou Noblemarylou_noble@ yahoo.com

Darfur (Sudan)Marty [email protected]

North KoreaErica [email protected]

Prisoners’ CasesJane [email protected] Cornelia Cerf Ron [email protected]

AIUSA Group 48 Contact Information

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Salutation: His Excellency/Son Excellence

Minister of State for Justice and Human Rights; Keeper of the Seals M. Aimé Emmanuel Yoka Ministry of Justice and Human Rights BP 2497 Brazzaville, Republic of Congo Fax: 011 242 222 81 4167 (keep trying) Salutation: Dear Minister/Monsieur le Ministre

Copies To Minister of the Interior and Decentralization M. Raymond Zephyirin Mboulou Ministry of the Interior and Decentralization BP 800 Brazzaville, Republic of Congo Fax: +242 222 81 3317 (Keep trying)

Also send copies to the Republic of Congo ambassador in the US: His Excellency, Ambassador Serge Mombouli Embassy of the Republic Of Congo 1720 16th Street, NW Washington, DC 20009 Email: [email protected]

This is the first update of UA 104/13. Further information: http://amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR22/001/2013/en

Additional Information Congolese teachers have been on an indefinite strike since February 25th 2013 demanding an improvement in the teach-ing profession, including higher wages and effective and fair recruitment within the public education system. The strike was called by CPRE after negotiation with the government failed.

Amnesty International Welcomes President’s Remarks on Guantanamo, Calls for ActionAprl 30, 2013

In response to President Obama’s remarks today about Guan-tanamo, Zeke Johnson, Director of Amnesty International USA’s Security with Human Rights Campaign, issued the following statement:

“President Obama is right to recommit to closing Guanta-namo. But it’s time to do more than talk. Instead of send-ing more medics to force feed detainees, a process that can amount to ill-treatment, he should take concrete steps to keep his promise to close the detention facility.

“Even under current Congressional restrictions he can trans-fer out people like Shaker Aamer. Aamer has been cleared to leave and the UK government says he should be free with his wife and children in London.That process should start today.

“Furthermore, President Obama should again make the case to Congress and the American people about why it is so important to close the detention facility, and show he’s serious by appointing a high level White House position to manage the closure process. All detainees must either be charged and fairly tried in federal court, or released.”

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AIUSA group 48 Newsletter May 2013

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