Gunmen have shot and killed at least 12 Awa indigenous natives, four of them children, in an attack in a southern coastal region of Colombia that is a springboard for cocaine shipments.
Wednesday's attack near the Ecuador border was carried out by "hooded men wearing military uniforms" at the Gran Rosario reserve,80km from the Pacific port of Tumaco, said National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia (ONIC) president Luis Evelio Andrade.
Some 11,000 members of the Awa indigenous group occupy a strip of land along the border region that is also used by drug traffickers to facilitate cocaine shipments across the Pacific.
"In that zone, guerrillas, paramilitaries and the army are active," said Mr Andrade, whose group represents 1.3 million Colombian native Indians.
The Colombia office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which has reported increased attacks by armed groups on indigenous groups,"strongly"condemned the latest killing.
Friday, August 28, 2009
UK police "stealing" from unlocked cars
British police are combing the upscale London neighbourhood of Richmond, looking for things to steal.
Scotland Yard said on Tuesday that officers in the southwest London borough would be checking unlocked cars for precious items - and sometimes taking them - as a reminder to owners to keep their doors locked, their windows closed and their valuables with them.
"The message to car owners is:'Help us to help you'," Chief Inspector Duncan Slade said in a statement.
The force said officers would either write to owners of the unsecured vehicles telling them to be more careful or - if they spotted high-value items in the car -"remove the property for safekeeping".
A note would be left for the owners explaining what had happened.
Scotland Yard said the exercise was meant to keep a lid on car crime in the borough, which has experienced a spike in thefts from inside cars. It said in many cases cars had been left unlocked.
Scotland Yard said on Tuesday that officers in the southwest London borough would be checking unlocked cars for precious items - and sometimes taking them - as a reminder to owners to keep their doors locked, their windows closed and their valuables with them.
"The message to car owners is:'Help us to help you'," Chief Inspector Duncan Slade said in a statement.
The force said officers would either write to owners of the unsecured vehicles telling them to be more careful or - if they spotted high-value items in the car -"remove the property for safekeeping".
A note would be left for the owners explaining what had happened.
Scotland Yard said the exercise was meant to keep a lid on car crime in the borough, which has experienced a spike in thefts from inside cars. It said in many cases cars had been left unlocked.
Tokyo police to rein in "elderly shoplifters"
Tokyo police will try to rein in a wave of shoplifting by lonely elderly people by involving them in community service, a police spokesman said yesterday.
One out of four elderly shoplifters in the capital blamed their crime on loneliness, Japanese media quoted a police survey as saying. Another 8% said it was because they had "no reason to live".
More than half the elderly shoplifters said they had no friends and 40% of them lived alone, media said.
"Making shoplifters do volunteer work in the community is effective," the Tokyo Shimbun quoted J.F. Oberlin University professor Akihiro Sakai, head of a police research panel set up to tackle shoplifting,as saying.
One out of four elderly shoplifters in the capital blamed their crime on loneliness, Japanese media quoted a police survey as saying. Another 8% said it was because they had "no reason to live".
More than half the elderly shoplifters said they had no friends and 40% of them lived alone, media said.
"Making shoplifters do volunteer work in the community is effective," the Tokyo Shimbun quoted J.F. Oberlin University professor Akihiro Sakai, head of a police research panel set up to tackle shoplifting,as saying.
UN envoy slams racist policy
A UN envoy slammed Australia's military-led intervention in remote Aboriginal communities and said racism is "entrenched" in the country,in a damning assessment yesterday.
UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights James Anaya said the intervention policy, where thousands of troops and police were sent to help curb alcoholfuelled sexual abuse and domestic violence, was clearly discriminatory.
He urged the government to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act in the Northern Territory, and called for compensation for the "stolen generations"of Aboriginal children, taken from their parents to promote racial integration.
"It undermines the right of indigenous peoples to control their own destinies,their right to self-determination," Mr Anaya, referring to the intervention, said."There is entrenched racism in Australia.These measures overtly discriminate against Aboriginal peoples."
Under the intervention, the conservative government of ex-prime minister John Howard slapped restrictions on welfare payments, alcohol and pornography in 73 desert townships and introduced measures to boost school attendance. The controversial move has met with fierce objections from Aborigines, with one group this week calling on the UN to declare them refugees in their own country, claiming the government action had left them powerless.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has refused to scrap the policy since taking office in late 2007, disappointing many Aboriginal leaders, despite issuing a historic apology for the wrongs suffered since white settlement in 1788. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said moves to reintroduce the Racial Discrimination Act, suspended in the Northern Territory when the crackdown started in June 2007, would come into parliament later this year.
"I think what's important is that we recognise we have a huge task in front of us to close the gap, to close the life expectancy gap, the employment gap,the gap in education," Ms Macklin said.
"We know how big the task is and we intend to keep getting on with it."
Mr Anaya's two-week visit to Australia is the first by a UN rapporteur on indigenous human rights, or roving representative for the international body.
He will report back to the UN Human Rights Council. His comments coincided with the outlining of a new representative body for the highly disadvantaged indigenous population, following the disbanding of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in 2005.
Ms Macklin welcomed the proposal,which called for an independent body headed by elected representatives, but she promised only "modest and appropriate" funding.
Meanwhile, universities and other tertiary institutions in Australia yesterday urged the government to do more to protect international students after a spate of attacks against Indian students.
A coalition of six higher education groups presented a 10-point plan and called for a "student safe" campaign,while urging a crackdown on education agents and other private groups which target foreign students in study scams.
Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard will next week visit India in a bid to soothe tensions over the attacks and scams, which prompted both the prime minister and foreign minister to offer Delhi their personal assurances.
UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights James Anaya said the intervention policy, where thousands of troops and police were sent to help curb alcoholfuelled sexual abuse and domestic violence, was clearly discriminatory.
He urged the government to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act in the Northern Territory, and called for compensation for the "stolen generations"of Aboriginal children, taken from their parents to promote racial integration.
"It undermines the right of indigenous peoples to control their own destinies,their right to self-determination," Mr Anaya, referring to the intervention, said."There is entrenched racism in Australia.These measures overtly discriminate against Aboriginal peoples."
Under the intervention, the conservative government of ex-prime minister John Howard slapped restrictions on welfare payments, alcohol and pornography in 73 desert townships and introduced measures to boost school attendance. The controversial move has met with fierce objections from Aborigines, with one group this week calling on the UN to declare them refugees in their own country, claiming the government action had left them powerless.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has refused to scrap the policy since taking office in late 2007, disappointing many Aboriginal leaders, despite issuing a historic apology for the wrongs suffered since white settlement in 1788. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said moves to reintroduce the Racial Discrimination Act, suspended in the Northern Territory when the crackdown started in June 2007, would come into parliament later this year.
"I think what's important is that we recognise we have a huge task in front of us to close the gap, to close the life expectancy gap, the employment gap,the gap in education," Ms Macklin said.
"We know how big the task is and we intend to keep getting on with it."
Mr Anaya's two-week visit to Australia is the first by a UN rapporteur on indigenous human rights, or roving representative for the international body.
He will report back to the UN Human Rights Council. His comments coincided with the outlining of a new representative body for the highly disadvantaged indigenous population, following the disbanding of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in 2005.
Ms Macklin welcomed the proposal,which called for an independent body headed by elected representatives, but she promised only "modest and appropriate" funding.
Meanwhile, universities and other tertiary institutions in Australia yesterday urged the government to do more to protect international students after a spate of attacks against Indian students.
A coalition of six higher education groups presented a 10-point plan and called for a "student safe" campaign,while urging a crackdown on education agents and other private groups which target foreign students in study scams.
Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard will next week visit India in a bid to soothe tensions over the attacks and scams, which prompted both the prime minister and foreign minister to offer Delhi their personal assurances.
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