Monthly Archives: May 2003

Janet Reno Urges Better Domestic Violence Enforcement — Be Afraid, Very Afraid

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The Toledo Blade reported in April that former U.S. attorney general Janet Reno called for increased enforcement to combat domestic violence.

Reno pointed out that when she was state attorney general for Dade County, Florida, she made domestic violence a priority. Reno did not mention that she also railroaded a number of defendants in the 1980s when she was Dade County chief prosecutor as part of the nationwide hysteria over child sex abuse (see Frontline’s excellent site about the Dade County prosecutions).

Reno asked an audience at the University of Toledo, “If we cannot have peace in our homes, where can we have peace in our world?”

But if we cannot have justice in our courts, how can we have it in our world? Reno allowed herself and her office to be caught up in a hysterical movement and innocent men paid the price. Punish men and women who engage in violence against loved ones by all means, but resist falling prey to demagogues like Reno who pervert justice to further their own careers.

Source:

Janet Reno urges better effort against domestic violence. Toledo Blade, April 8, 2003.

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Myanmar Denies Its Military Uses Rape as a Tactic

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The military dictatorship that runs Myanmar recently denied accusations from a U.S.-based human rights group that its military uses rape systematically against women from ethnic groups that the government is fighting.

Refugees International released a report in early April documenting 43 rapes by the Myanmar military against ethnic women living along the Thailand-Myanamar border. Refugees International spokeswoman Veronika Martin told Agence-France Presse,

Rape is widespread and committed with impunity, both by officers and lower ranking soldiers. The culture of impunity contributes to an atmosphere in which rape is permissible.

The Myanmar government replied that while individuals soldiers may be involved in isolated instances of rape,

But ‘systematically using rape as a weapon of war’ is just too ridiculous and these organizations that are putting out such preposterous allegations need to be reminded that the Myanmar Defense Forces also comprises ethnic [minorities] . . .

However, AFP notes that in May 2002 two Thailand-based human rights groups documented a total of 625 rapes of ethnic minority women by members of the Myanmar military from 1996-2001. The U.S. State Department reported in December that it found evidence corroborating those claims of systematic rape.

Source:

Myanmar rejects latest US rape accusation. Agence-France Presse, April 7, 2003.

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Documentary, Human Rights Reports Chronicle Zimbabwe’s Use of Rape Against Dissidents

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The United Nations Regional Information Networks recently carried a report about the premier of “In A Dark Time,” a documentary about groups affiliated with Zimbabwe’s corrupt government using rape as a weapon against dissidents in that country.

For example, the film includes a 16-year-old girl describing how a pro-government militia seize her and her siblings and then raped her as a punishment for her mother’s support of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group, and Physicians for Human Rights have all documented the ongoing systematic use of rape in Zimbabwe over the past several years. A 2002 Amnesty International report warned of “mounting reports of rape and sexual torture by the [pro-government] militia . . .”

UNRIN reports that studies of the use of torture and other illegal tactics by the government of Zimbabwe and its supporters have found that 40 percent of those subjected to such attacks have been women, who are frequently stripped naked and beaten. Beginning in the summer of 2001, pro-government supporters began using rape and other means of sexual torture with increasing frequency against female supporters of the opposition.

According to UNRIN, the pro-government militias are also illegally kidnapping women and forcing them into concubinage. The young women are forced to perform various domestic duties for the soldiers as well as have sex with them.

All of this, of course, is a direct violation of the Geneva Convention and other international treaties. Ironically, the documentary about these abuses was premiered in South Africa. South AFrica’s Thabo Mbeki has been a leading proponent of a policy of constructive engagement toward Zimbabwe, and has called, for example, for the readmission of Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth after its membership was suspended due to rising levels of political violence (Mbeki has also restored to calling critics of his appeasement policy “white supremacists”).

Source:

Focus on rape as a political weapon. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, April 8, 2003.

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Afghan Women Training for Role in Information Technology

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What a difference a couple of years and a war makes. Under the Taliban, women in Afghanistan could not work outside the home and the Internet was banned because of all the immoral content it carried. Now, women in Afghanistan are training in computer networking to help kick start Afghanistan’s information technology industry.

Reuters ran a story in April noting that of the 17 people who graduated from Kabul University’s first certificate program in networking skills, 6 were women. Reuters quoted 18-year-old Nabila Akbari saying, “My personal goal is to share this knowledge with other Afghans, especially Afghan women.”

Rita Dorani, 23, another graduate of the certification program added,

My message for all Afghan women is to try as much as possible to learn about computers, because it is essential for every man and woman to be aware of this global technology. Men should allow women to learn this technology.

No, the U.S./Northern Alliance war in Afghanistan did not turn the country into a democratic paradise overnight where women have the same sort of rights they enjoy in the West — in fact, as Reuters notes, some rural areas of Afghanistan have reimposed Taliban-style limitations on women. But even with that in mind, there’s still no doubt Afghanistan is a much brighter place for women today than it was prior to the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban.

Source:

Afghan Women Usher in IT Age. Reuters, April 8, 2003.

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