Burma: Refugees learn to' love your neighbour'
12 Dec 2014In 2011 the Burma Army broke a 17-year ceasefire in Kachin State, displacing over 120,000 innocent civilians. Many fled to refugee camps where food and healthcare is limited and the risk of trafficking is high. In these places of despair, Partners Relief and Development has been working with local organisations to train and equip volunteers to lend a helping hand. The volunteers are themselves refugees helping their fellow refugees. Partners says these volunteers live by one rule, ‘Love your neighbour’. Already 150+ volunteers have been trained. Altogether they are caring for nearly 8,000 internally displaced person's . Those who need food receive it. Those who are sick are cared for. Community is brought into a thrown-together refugee camp in the midst of tensions as a coalition of 15 civil society organizations call for the army to withdraw. See also:
Bangladesh: Christian school attacked
12 Dec 2014Hundreds of extremist Islamists attacked a Christian school in Bangladesh in response to locals who were outraged by rumours stating the school was forcing Muslim children to convert to Christianity. The school welcomes children of all faiths. A spokesperson from Love Bangladesh Mission said the mob of about 200 people didn’t injure the children but 12 of its 14 members of staff were badly beaten. Millions of Bangladeshi students attend madrasas that were established in the 1970s, soon after Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan. There are two kinds- private Quomi madrasas and state-sponsored Alia madrasas. Some madrasas are hidden in secrecy and viewed with suspicion for their links with militant Islam. The furious mob’s ‘most wanted’ was Michael Robin Mondol, who is in charge of both the school and church. They were calling his name loudly, but the staff managed to hide him.
Kenya: al-Shabab – growing concerns
12 Dec 2014At midnight on Monday al-Shabab Somali militants killed 36 non-Muslims after separating them from Muslim workers. The victims were captured while sleeping in their tents at a quarry in Kormey. al-Shabab carried out the attack because of the presence of Kenyan forces in Somalia. There is growing concern in Kenya about security in regions bordering Somalia after a spate of similar attacks. Borders with Somalia and Ethiopia are dominated by largely Muslim Somalis. Many of those killed came from the south of Kenya where Christians predominate. These attacks affect the economy and social make-up of the region as most of its workers - skilled and unskilled - are non-Muslim Kenyans. Many Christians, including nurses and teachers, fled the area after a bus attack last week. A presidential adviser has warned that al-Shabab is trying to fan a religious war. Christian leaders have publicly accused Muslim leaders of not doing enough to tame radicalism within their ranks.
Israel: Tension is rising
12 Dec 2014Attacks in Jerusalem are continuing to increase. Examples are a firebomb at Jerusalem’s ‘co-existence’ school, the foiling of a Hamas cell’s planned attack in the West Bank, and cars and vans are being used more and more as weapons to ram into pedestrians by militant Palestinian organizations. The open-ended cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip was partially undermined by a Salafist terror group that fired their own rockets into Israel. The Gaza war has not solved any problems. Hamas is still shooting test rockets into the sea and want to repair the damaged tunnels. Behind the scenes the Palestinians plan to bring a resolution to the UN Security Council that requires Israel to withdraw from the ‘occupied territories’ by November 2016. The pressure on nations to take a stand on one side or the other grows. In October British Parliamentarians voted to support the recognition of a Palestinian State. See:
Last Wednesday Senator David Leyonhjelm from the Liberal Democratic Party introduced a bill into the Senate to remove the concept that marriage is between a man and a woman. The bill would allow any Australian to marry regardless of ‘sex, sexual orientation and gender identity’. His extreme libertarian ideology assumes all men are islands and that there is no such thing as society. Fortunately there are many members of Australia’s federal parliament who are for marriage as it is. This means Senator Leyonhjelm’s bill faces an uncertain future. So why is it being brought up? Mr Abbott promised pre-election to empower his party to decide whether the coalition has a conscience vote on same-sex marriage, and Senator Leyonhjelm believes there is enough support for that to occur.
Kabul is protected by a fortress-like ‘ring of steel,’ with police and soldiers manning roadblocks and spot-checking vehicles, but in recent weeks suicide bombers have managed to carry out attacks metres away from the office of the city's police chief and near an international military base, They have also attacked convoys and bombed the car of a prominent female parliamentarian. The parliamentarian survived but civilian casualties were high. On Sunday 45 people were killed when a bomber detonated his explosive vest in a crowd of spectators during a volleyball game. On Tuesday in Nigeria an estimated 50 were killed when two teenage female suicide bombers detonated their devices in a busy Market in Maiduguri. Boko Haram is blamed for the deaths of 1,500+ this year in Nigeria. Last month there were five separate suicide bombings in Iraq, killing 130+. British citizen Kabir Ahmed is reported to have carried out one of these suicide bombings.
Australia: Child suicide – A shame on the nation
28 Nov 2014Remote Australia is in the grip of a suicide epidemic that is taking the lives of children as young as eight years old. Aboriginal towns in the Kimberley area have the highest rates of suicide in the world. As the West Australian city of Geraldton buried 11-year-old Peter Little, who was found hanging from a tree by another child, indigenous leaders called for urgent action to address this growing crisis. As many as one in twelve Aboriginal deaths are caused by suicide. ‘We are talking about an epidemic,’ said Tony Abbott’s chief indigenous adviser. ‘We are looking at a society in collapse. I am a father and I cannot understand how an 8 or 9-year-old child can’t see a future for themselves. It’s unimaginable.’ While the destitution of remote communities increases and suicide numbers increase the government stands accused of gross complacency on indigenous peoples' challenges.
The lawyer representing two Christian pastors and a deacon facing six years detention for their faith has been denied access to his clients ahead of an appeal hearing. Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said the situation was unacceptable and they are concerned about the lack of due process in the cases and the exceptional nature of punishment for men who have committed no crime but are being punished for their faith. CSW are urging the Iranian authorities to release these men and the many others held in contravention of the international covenants guaranteeing freedom of religion or belief to which Iran is party. Pastor Irani, one of the prisoners, has had seriously deteriorating health but no medical care since his detention. Another Christian pastor, American citizen Saeed Abedini, is serving an eight-year sentence and is the subject of an international campaign for his release.