IADL Opposes Decision on The Cuban 5

The International Association of Democratic Lawyers

(IADL) Finds the Holding Of The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals

Decision in the Cuban 5 Case a

Politically Motivated Travesty of Justice

The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), a non-governmental organization of jurists with national affiliates on all continents, and in consultative status with ECOSOC, issues this statement to express its findings regarding the June 4, 2008 opinion of the panel of 11th Circuit Court of Appeal in the Cuban 5 case.
These five men, Fernando Gonzalez, (aka Ruben Campa), Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, and Ramon Labanino (aka Luis Medina), came to Miami to monitor the right wing anti-Cuban activities of many groups hostile to Cuba, with the main purpose of trying to prevent acts of terrorism against the Cuban people. These five men were prosecuted, not just for the crime of failing to register as foreign agents, but for conspiracy to commit espionage, with Gerardo Hernandez charged with conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the shoot down of several planes of a right wing group known as "Brothers to the Rescue". They have been in prison for almost 10 years, and fighting in the Courts for justice.
IADL has consistently claimed that the prosecution of these five was illegitimate and politically motivated--designed mainly to placate the Cuban community in Miami which has engaged in many hostile and terrorist acts against the Cuban people, as well as to carry on the United States' campaign to isolate and harm the Cuban people.
IADL believes the original prosecution of these men is the height of hypocrisy, especially in light of the government's protection of known terrorist Luis Posada Carrilles. IADL supported the original opinion of the panel of Judges in August 2005 who found that the defendants did not get a fair trial in Miami, given the prejudice and fear generated against them in the Miami community. IADL condemned the decision of the full 11th Circuit which overturned that decision. IADL sent representatives to the hearing before the panel on August 20, 2007 to hear the oral arguments on the appeal issues which had not been dealt with in the first appeal, to wit the rulings on: the failure to suppress evidence from searches conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, sovereign immunity, discovery procedures, jury selection, prosecutorial and witness misconduct, jury instructions, and sufficiency of the evidence to support their convictions, and sentencing. The representatives of IADL joined a large delegation of international observers at the hearing in August 2007.
The Court rejected the claims made by the defendants and unanimously upheld the convictions of 4 of the 5 and split 2-1 on the conviction of Gerardo Hernandez on the conspiracy to commit murder. The panel did vacate the life sentences of Antonio Guerrero and Ramon Labanino, and the 19 year sentence of Fernando Gonzalez, on the grounds that they did not gather or transmit top secret information. Their cases have been remanded to the District Court for re-sentencing.
The decision of the panel to uphold these convictions based on a record of prosecutorial and witness statements which inflamed the jury is a travesty of justice. Because this case deals with Cubans who opposed the actions of some in the exile community it is, of necessity, politically motivated. As agents of the Cuban government who were not involved whatsoever in spying on the United States government but only on groups in the Cuban exile community, they should have been deported rather than tried and sentenced to such long terms.
Whatever steps are taken by the defendants from this time forward, IADL will continue to support the five and maintain that they did not get a fair trial. IADL further calls on all of its members and others in the legal community to condemn the decision and to take actions seeking the release of these five men.
Jitendra Sharma, President, IADL
Jeanne Mirer, Secretary General

June 6, 2008

Pay No Attention to Your Feelings

Why Can’t “Lefty” Ideologues Comprehend
China’s Human Rights Failures?
My reaction to this:
CNN MARCH 13 REPORT ON INDIA

Western Media Fabrications regarding the Tibet Riots
Fake Videotape used by CNN, by Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, April 16, 2008

"On the day of the Lhasa Riots (March 14, 2008), there is evidence of media fabrication by CNN,"[...]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8697

Michel Chossudovsky is an intensely credentialed individual with books published and tenure at a big time Canadian university and a terrific blog, which I read several times a week. However, the hysteria he has displayed over how western media has represented the story of the second Tibetan uprising is disconcerting, to say the least. At times in the past, my inclination has been to grant the professor the benefit of the doubt, for all the above reasons as well as having enjoyed several of his articles at globalreasearch.ca. The difficulty comes in trying to get a handle on what he wants to accomplish vis-à-vis his articles on US/China/Tibet affairs.
It seems the professor has sufficient time to hunt and peck for ulterior motives behind what clearly was the natural development of people deciding to take their smoldering rage and fling it outward, elsewhere, anywhere. There’s just so much occupation and exile a person can tolerate before the idea of death at the hands of ATTEMPTING liberation seems better than daily compliance with being conquered.
CNN broadcasts over televisions and requires visuals to accompany their news reports. But you had to report CNN had no footage, only photographs. Why? “… the Chinese government has refused to allow CNN to even enter Tibet.”
What to do? Like many other news outlets, show footage that is related, if not precise. CNN then picks up the narrative from the reporter in Beijing:

John Vause in Bejing: "And what could be worrying here to Beijing is that these demonstrations are being joined by ordinary Tibetan civilians, lay Tibetans." [my bold]

In his report Mr. Vause declared there was a complete crackdown on transportation, communication, etc. Did the Tibetans do this to themselves? Why does the Chinese government continue to keep Tibet isolated? More pertinent to this discussion, why don’t you, Professor, care about the Tibetans? Perhaps CNN used bad judgment but it would be much more reprehensible if they were presenting an outright falsehood. People don’t expect hard news from CNN. We get the headlines and photos, then we all go to the Internet and read Michel Chossudovsky who tells us we’re idiots for caring about people who’s lives are so controlled their own government absolutely won’t let us look at their daily lives!
The real story here was that Beijing, enraged that their carefully crafted image of harmony was smeared by their own bad behavior, sent the entire nation of Tibet into a virtual prison by cutting them off from all communication. That is the story, Professor Chossudovsky, not the obvious fact that CNN mishandled the story by using the wrong footage. The story began on March 13, when the people of Tibet, within and in exile all over the world rose as one to be heard. And their story was heard and will continue to be heard, despite misinformation and misrepresentation, wherever it comes from.

Chinese Police Imprison Tibetan Students, But Uyghur Muslims Join in Solidarity

Chinese Muslims Support Tibet
Tibetans Around China Feel Fallout From Crackdown
2008.03.19
KATHMANDU—Tibetans around China felt the weight of state power following Beijing’s armed crackdown on anti-Chinese protests and riots that have swept through Tibetan regions of the country since last week.
A Han Chinese teacher in the northwestern province of Gansu said students at the Maerkang Normal College had been forbidden to return to their homes in the rural area of Maerkang county, leading to clashes with police and campus security guards.
[...] Meanwhile, authorities in Beijing threw a police cordon around colleges with large Tibetan student populations.
A Tibetan student enrolled at the Southwest University for Nationalities in Sichuan’s provincial capital, Chengdu, said communication with his family and friends in rural Ngaba had been difficult.
[...] And a Tibetan student enrolled in a university in Shanghai said he was under surveillance by the authorities. “It is inconvenient for me to talk,” he said.
“My cell phone is under surveillance. I cannot tell you if there have been protests on campus. It’s inconvenient.”
Many remote areas of the Sichuan, Gansu, and Qinghai plateau are home to large Tibetan populations, many of whom are nomads. Tibet also has an internal border with China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uyghur ethnic group, who also deeply resent Beijing’s rule.
Exiled Uyghur leaders are expressing support for Tibetans who have been staging protests through much of western China over the last week.
Uyghur American Association president Rebiya Kadeer, a businesswoman and leading dissident, accused the Chinese authorities of “atrocities” and defended the Tibetans’ right to protest peacefully.
[...] “Tibetans and Uyghurs have been living under the yoke of Chinese oppression for decades. They have been subjected to Beijing’s assimilationist policies aimed at eroding their religious identity and at accelerating cultural alienation,” Kadeer said.
[...] “The world community cannot turn a blind eye to the obstinate refusal of the Beijing regime to fully engage in open, serious, and meaningful negotiations with leaders of Tibet and East Turkestan,” Kadeer said, using the Uyghurs’ own name for China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Dolkun Aysa, chairman of the Eastern Turkestan Union in Europe and general secretary of the World Uyghur Congress, led a three-hour protest in Munich on March 18 to show solidarity with the Tibetans.
“The main purpose of this demonstration is to show solidarity and cooperation between Tibetan and Uyghur people and to inform the world” about Chinese repression, Aysa said in an interview with RFA’s Uyghur service.
“We are cooperating with Tibetans to organize demonstrations expressing our full support for the Tibetan people, while at the same time informing the public and the media regarding the existence of the same problems, the same political reality, and the same suffering of the Uyghur people in Eastern Turkestan,” he said.
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/2008/03/19/tibet-arrest/

The Iraqi Refugee Crisis

From today's EU Observer comes a substantial report on the refugee crisis:
Iraq and the EU: five years on
20.03.2008 - 09:21 CET By Renata Goldirova
It has been five years since the United States began its military operation dubbed 'Iraqi Freedom'. The war resulted in a deep rift in transatlantic relations, caused a split within the European Union and made Iraqis the single largest group seeking refuge in Europe.
[...] Some estimates suggest that up to one million Iraqis have been killed since 2003, while the financial burden amounts to some $9 billion for London and $845 billion for Washington. Former head of the IMF Joseph Stiglitz has recently estimated the cost to be as high as $3 trillion.

[...] According to fresh numbers released by the UN high commissioner for refugees earlier this week (18 March), asylum requests from Iraqis climbed to 38,286 in 2007, a sharp increase from the 19,375 claims in 2006.
A number of non-governmental organisations have therefore blamed the EU for not doing enough over a major refugee crisis, pointing to the fact that the treatment of Iraqis varies significantly from one member state to another.

For example, Sweden's reception facilities have been under huge pressure, as the Scandinavian country is the only one within the 27-nation bloc granting refugee status or other protection to almost all Iraqi asylum seekers. A total of 9,065 Iraqis applied for refugee status there in 2006, compared to 2,330 the previous year.

The EU "cannot continue to ignore one of the world's major displacement crises," says a statement of a group of eight NGOs, including Amnesty International and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles.

In general, it is estimated that six million people inside Iraq need urgent humanitarian assistance as a result of the conflict. Some 2.5 million are internally displaced, while an additional two million are hosted by neighbouring countries such as Syria and Jordan.
http://euobserver.com/9/25856/?rk=1

Petition for Iraqi Refugees

Urge President Bush to Acknowledge and
Address the Iraqi Refugee Crisis
With more than 4 million Iraqis forced from their homes, fleeing violence and persecution, the current Iraqi refugee crisis is the worst displacement of people in the Middle East since 1948.
The President has yet to even publicly acknowledge this crisis. Tell President Bush to commit to leading the international response to the Iraqi refugee crisis.
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/asylum/lifeline/

Students in China Stand in Solidarity

Tibetan Students in Beijing Hold Vigil
March 17th, 2008
As China’s so-called “surrender” deadline for Tibetan protesters approached, dozens of Tibetan students in Beijing held a candle lightvigil at the Central University for Nationalities. This simple yet courageous expression of solidarity with Tibetans inside Tibet took place as Tibetans protested at Chinese consulate and embassies around the world, many for the 5th or 6th day in a row.
Please read the statement below written by my colleague Tendor and know that your courage and conviction keeps us strong.

Tibetans living in foreign lands constantly carry a burden of loneliness. At times like these, when the Chinese government is killing hundreds of Tibetans in Lhasa and shooting at thousands of peaceful protesters in other parts of Tibet, it must truly be lonely and scary to be a Tibetan living in Beijing.
In a small but powerful show of courage and solidarity, dozens of Tibetan students in Beijing held a candle light vigil inside the Central University for Nationalities. We deeply admire the young Tibetans for this brave and risky act.
We support your actions. We are with you.
Tibetans all over the world, including India, Nepal, Europe, Australia and North America are rising up and surrounding the Chinese embassies and consulates to show the Chinese government that until and unless they resolve the Tibet issue, we will never allow them a moment of rest.

http://beijingwideopen.org/