International issues

Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns last week’s murder of journalist Luis Eduardo Gómez in Arboletes, in the northwestern department of Antioquia, and the threats that two journalists, Medellín-based Mary Luz Avendaño and Bogotá-based Gonzalo Guillén, have been getting in unrelated cases.

A year after the first Gaza Freedom Flotilla was attacked by Israel in international waters leading to the deaths of nine activists, the Free Gaza Movement is organising a second flotilla which is currently experiencing difficulties in Greece as the government there is refusing to allow the boats to leave port, citing fears for the safety for the passengers on board.

Napoleon is said to have remarked: “Bayonets are wonderful! One can do anything with them except sit on them!”. Today’s bayonets are nuclear weapons; and we are actually sitting on them.
Mr. Dhanapala is President, Pugwash Conferences on Science & World Affairs. He served as UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs and as Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the USA in 1990s.

There are no weather forecasts for that, so you must do it by yourself. Just watch the sky every time you can as it might rain atomic bombs. It is not about any fiction tall– a technical problem, a new virus or a hiker attack, could order drones (unmanned aircrafts) to empty their full-of-nuclear-weapons’ stomach on your head.

As debate continues to flare in the European Union Government on whose responsibility it is to manage the flow of recent North African immigrants to Italy and their subsequent migration to other regions in Europe, one point remains clear: Immigrants can benefit the Italian economy and contribute much-needed workers to the labour market in Italy.

On Monday night Ireland suffered the most violent incidents in a decade between Protestants and Catholics, who clashed in the city of Belfast some even firing guns, according to Irish police. In the images broadcast by television there were hundreds of youths throwing stones and Molotov cocktails in the Short Strand area.

Regarding democracy demonstrations in Spain (M-15), World without Wars and Violence would like to express its warm support to the people of Spain who are mobilised and organising themselves in search of a better future.

Following the sickening display of glorification of assassination shown by a US president who somehow managed get a Nobel Peace Prize, World without Wars declares: What occurred on Monday, 2nd of May can in no way be described as justice: justice is done when a man accused of a crime is brought before a court of law and given a trial according to international legal standards.

The likelihood of DU use in Libya has now increased following the deployment and use of A-10 and Harrier AV-8B aircraft. ICBUW calls for pressure to be brought on the US to clarify the situation, and to put DU ammunition beyond use.

Below is a letter from Anne, an English teacher living in Japan for the last 10 years. Having survived the Earthquake she writes about the very human response to the tragedy that is afflicting the people in this part of Japan in stark contrast to the scenes of looting and violence that seem to accompany other natural disasters around the world.