Police and security forces in Suleimaniya have arrested and tortured many organizers of and participants in the daily anti-corruption protests in recent days. Several organizers have also disappeared or received death threats.  In a marked increase of tensions, an unknown number of additional security troops have deployed to the city, but apparently refrained from taking the protest site by force.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani threatened yesterday, 12 Marchto “deal” with the protests if they do not end by 21 March 2011.  Rather than complying, protest organizers have announced more visible actions in the coming week. 

“The truth has been unleashed,”  a young protester told CPTers today (Sunday), “and cannot be silenced, not even by more soldiers.”

On 25 February 2010, CPTers observed a bulldozer leveling the land on a Palestinian- owned hilltop in the small village of Al Bweireh.  The settlers from Outpost 86 and from Harsina Settlement have been walking or driving through the Palestinian neighborhood every Friday to pray at the top of this hill, because, they say, a settler had been killed on this hill a number of years ago.

Last month, we traveled to Zharawa to meet with friends who live in the internally displaced persons camp there.  Originally created for ninety families, it now houses only two; the others have returned to their villages near the Iranian border.  The families who left felt that despite the episodic bombing of their villages, they preferred their own land, their own homes.  So Zharawa had very much the feel of a ghost town. 

On the bus ride to the camp, I noticed a huge flock of blackbirds flying.  Someone told me the birds are an omen that snow is coming.

As I sat with the kids on 7 February 2011, they were becoming increasingly impatient. They had finished their two-week winter recess that provided a reprieve from the daily uncertainty of whether their journey home would be uneventful or dangerous. As the kids became increasingly eager to take the long way home, instead of waiting for the military escort, I became frustrated with their impatience—even though I knew my frustration was misplaced.

A long white ribbon has been stretched from lamppost to lamppost blocking off streets leading to the city centre here in Suleimaniya.   All along the ribbon stand people in white sashes facing into the square where thousands have gathered to speak publicly to their Kurdish Regional Government.   The ribbon and the people along it make up what one might call “the great white wall of peace,” white being the colour that symbolizes peace in this culture.  The wall has created a space of calm between the protestors and the military further back on the streets.

CPTnet
14 March 2011
COLOMBIA: “They want to seize our territory by any means.”

Christian Peacemaker Teams has been accompanying the communities of the Agriculture and Mining Federation (Fedeagromisbol) from the Department of Southern Bolivar  since 2005. Their leader Teofilo Acuna, who was arrested in 2007, was recently acquitted of all responsibility for the crime of rebellion—news that strengthens the work and the commitment they have shown in recent years.

Below is a summary of the report on the human rights situation in Southern Bolivar released by Fedeagromisbol. Click here  for the full report (in Spanish).

Military forces firing indiscriminately into crowds of unarmed demonstrators, arrests, torture and disappearances of  protest organizers, empty promises made by government leaders have  not deterred many Kurdish people from continuing their demonstrations.  They are demanding an end to what they call a corrupt government run primarily by tribal parties.

 All across the occupied Palestinian territories, women took to the streets on Tuesday, 8 March 2011 in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.