Take Action Thursdays: Investigate War Crimes in Sri Lanka

On Wednesday, I mentioned I’d been inspired to revive Group 133’s blog. As some of you may know, Get on the Bus for Human Rights has become our group’s signature event. The past April marked GOTB’s 15th anniversary. It was a pretty spectacular day. And I’m sure we’ll recap in future posts. Over the last few years we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to utilize social networking and new media tools for GOTB. Our MySpace site is probably defunct (notice how I don’t link to it). Facebook brought us plenty of fans. And we’re finally starting to grow a small following on Twitter. One of the trends I really like on Twitter is FollowFridays — where you tweet the names of Twitter users you’d like others to follow and tag it with #followfriday or #FF. As Amnesty International members, we highlight the cases of individuals we’d like others to follow. We prepare petitions and format letters and emails. And so starting today, Group 133’s blog will be launching Take Action Thursdays.

Say what? The idea is simple. Every Thursday, we’ll post a way for you to take action in support of human rights — and we’ll do our best to include a local angle.

Today we’ll start with Sri Lanka. We’ve been working on the case of J.S. Tissainayagam (Tissa) for well over a year. He’s a Sri Lankan journalist, who was arrested and detained by Sri Lankan police and indicted under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act for two articles written by him in a monthly magazine criticizing the government’s conduct of the war against the opposition Tamil Tigers. While it was announced earlier this month that Tissa would be pardoned, details remain unclear and we continue to urge Sri Lanka officials for a full and unconditional pardon for him. His case was one of the cases highlighted at this year’s Get on the Bus.

Because of our work on behalf of Tissa, Sri Lanka is very much on our minds, here in Group 133. Even more so because this week marks the first anniversary of the end of the 30-year war in Sri Lanka between the security forces and the separatist Tamil Tigers. During the war, both sides committed violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including war crimes. Despite promises by the Sri Lankan government to hold accountable those responsible for these crimes, there has been no investigation by the government so far. I could tell you more, but Jim McDonald does it so much better than me.

This is your first Take Action Thursday folks: Sign AIUSA’s online petition calling for an investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka today.

But wait, there’s more… step out from behind that keyboard.

Candlelight Vigil for Sri Lanka Remembrance Day
Saturday, May 22nd
7-8.30 pm
Harvard Sq., Cambridge (behind Harvard Sq. T station)

Join Group 133 members in Harvard Sq. this Saturday, May 22nd from 7-8.30 pm for a candlelight vigil calling for accountability for human rights violations committed during the 30-year war in Sri Lanka. We’ve got posters and candles. We just need you. Hold a candle, help us collect petition signatures.

Revival. Going Viral. End Violence Against Women

Our little blog has been hibernating. You may have noticed it’s been about a year since our last post. We, as group, on the other hand have been busy organizing bees. Finding the time to document what we do and disseminate that information has been challenging. But I recently had a conversation with our friend blogginrobin over at the Boston Firefly Project about blogs and making news go viral. It got me thinking about ways to revive Group 133’s blog (more about that tomorrow).

In the meantime, I invite you to read blogginrobin’s post that inspired me to jump back into the blog-o-sphere:

I would like to thank Ashley Judd for being gracious enough to say a few words about the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA). She was a panelist at “Slavery and Human Rights” earlier this month with journalist and abolitionist, Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves.

The bill was introduced in the House as H.R.4594 by Rep. Bill Delahunt (MA-D) and it is currently co-sponsored by 71 representatives.  On the Senate side, S. 2982, has been introduced by Sen. John Kerry (MA-D), and this bill currently has 28 co-sponsors.

Violence against women takes many forms.  Rape is often used as a weapon in military conflicts such as the former states of Yugoslavia and in the Congo where the BBC has reported gang rapes are on the rise.

Another form of violence left Manzour, a mother of two from Pakistan, scarred for life after her in-laws threw acid at her causing her chin to fuse to her chest in a report found by the BBC.  The video contains disturbing images.

A reporter from The Economist recently reported the visit of Xinran Xue, a Chinese writer, who witnessed a birth in Shandong province and wrote about it in her book, Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother.

Xinran writes, “when we heard a moan of pain from the bedroom next door. . .The cries from the inner room grew louder- and abruptly stopped.  There was a low sob, and then a man’s gruff voice said accusingly:’Useless thing!’  The writer saw in horror a tiny foot poking from a slops pail after the baby girl was discarded by the midwife.  She tried to save the baby but was restrained by two policeman who told her, ‘Don’t move, you can’t save it, it’s too late.’  An older woman explained the rationale to the writer saying, ‘It’s a girl baby, and we can’t keep it.  Around these parts, you can’t get by without a son.  Girl babies don’t count.’”

This is an outrage, but you can do something about it.  You can help these women break free by asking your US Senator and US Representative to support IVAWA in an e-mail.  Writing personal letters are extremely effective.  One state politician revealed that they pay attention to an issue if they receive five letters on the same topic.  This is an achievable goal.

IVAWA would lend support to non-government organizations that would develop a strategy unique to the area as they work their way towards preventing violence against women.  It could be as simple as funding the education for girls or providing a micro-finance loan that would allow women to be economic independent.  Amnesty International’s website offers a range of actions that you can take to support this bill.

During the panel discussion, Ashley Judd talked about finding your outrage.  Once you found your outrage, your passion will rise up and empower you to make a difference.  My outrage is human trafficking,  a problem which has touched my own city, Quincy, where a Chinese brothel was recently discovered.

Activist and historian Howard Zinn, who passed away earlier this year, wrote, “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change.  Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”

Change starts with you.  Be the change.