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Army Sergeant Travis Decker Murdered His Three Children After Being Denied Mental Health Care at JBL... Sat Jun 07, 2025 04:52 | JBLM Whistleblowers
A corrupt military police force and incompetent Commander who denied emergency mental health care and crisis counseling to an American service member resulted in the murder of the sergeant's three young daughters
Gaza doctor grieves her nine children killed in Israeli strike Sun May 25, 2025 20:00 | imc
Israeli regime continues it's slaughter
'The children were completely charred'
Paediatrician Alaa al-Najjar was treating victims of Israeli attacks when her children were killed by an Israeli strike on their home
British doctors working in Gaza describe territory as a ?slaughterhouse? Sat May 24, 2025 00:23 | imc
There?s no food getting in so people are starving,? surgeon Tom Potokar says
British doctors working in Gaza have described the territory as a ?slaughterhouse,? where the patients they are treating are severely malnourished.
Plastic surgeons and orthopedic specialists from the UK are based at the Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis in the south of the territory.
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For the last few years since the CV19 scamdemic undocumented immigration into Ireland has surged. No one is allowed discuss it because they do not want any rational debate about it. If you do you are labelled an extremist. However this out of control immigration is fully facilitated by the Irish government and the EU and the shady figure behind the Neo Con movement pushing for endless war, wokeism and globalist agenda.
[Dublin] National Demonstration for Palestine: End Israeli Apartheid & Genocide Thu Mar 06, 2025 22:35 | ipsc
Sat, 22 March 2025, 13:00 Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin 1
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, supported by over 150 Irish civil society organisations, has called another National Demonstration for Palestine on Saturday 22nd March.
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The Saker >>
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony
Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony
Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony
RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony
Waiting for SIPO Anthony
Public Inquiry >>
Parse failure for http://humanrights.ie/feed/.
Last Retry Wednesday September 17, 2025 22:28
Furious Tory Row Breaks Out at State Visit Reception as Boris Defends Record in Government Wed Sep 17, 2025 19:30 | Will Jones
A furious Tory row broke out at a state visit reception on Tuesday night as Boris Johnson defended his record in government before a gathering of senior Conservative and Reform figures.
The post Furious Tory Row Breaks Out at State Visit Reception as Boris Defends Record in Government appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Trump?s Genius is He Understands There Are No Ordinary People Wed Sep 17, 2025 17:52 | Joanna Gray
Donald Trump's genius is that he understands there are no ordinary people, says Joanna Gray. British politicians would do well to copy his refusal to talk down to the public.
The post Trump’s Genius is He Understands There Are No Ordinary People appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Activists Circulate Guide on How to Ground ?One In, One Out? Flights Wed Sep 17, 2025 15:42 | Will Jones
Pro-migrant campaigners have circulated a guide on how to ground 'one in, one out' flights, telling activists how to contact Air France and prevent the planes from taking off.
The post Activists Circulate Guide on How to Ground ‘One In, One Out’ Flights appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Starmer Faces Disaster in Wales as Poll Shows Labour in Freefall Behind Reform and Set to Lose First... Wed Sep 17, 2025 13:56 | Will Jones
Keir Starmer?is facing a disaster in Wales as a poll shows Labour in freefall behind Reform and set to lose the First Minister post for the first time since devolution.
The post Starmer Faces Disaster in Wales as Poll Shows Labour in Freefall Behind Reform and Set to Lose First Minister Post for First Time appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Debate: This House has Confidence in the President-Elect of the Oxford Union Wed Sep 17, 2025 11:37 | Will Jones
Should the Oxford Union have confidence in its President-Elect, George Abaraonye, whose comments celebrating Charlie Kirk's murder were leaked this week? Is it a matter of cancel culture or basic decency? Join the debate.
The post The Debate: This House has Confidence in the President-Elect of the Oxford Union appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Lockdown Skeptics >>
limerick |
rights, freedoms and repression |
event notice
Thursday December 04, 2008 18:27
by John Lannon
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5The situation is quite desperate in the eastern part of the DR Congo at the moment. Fighting has continued in the North Kivu province despite a ceasefire declared by the armed group, the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) at the end of October. Over one million people, most of them women and children, have been displaced by this fighting; most are in a terrible situation, without adequate food, water, medical supplies or shelter. And there are continuing reports of unlawful killings of civilians, forced recruitment of soldiers (including children who are being kidnapped to bolster numbers amongst the various militia), sexual abuse of women and children on a horrific scale, and other human rights abuses.
Global Witness, a UK-based NGO, described the conflict as follows in a submission to the UN Security Council:
"The conflict which has been tearing eastern Congo apart is a complex conflict, with a multitude of actors and causes. International attention has tended to focus on its political and ethnic dimensions. But the economic dimension is also extremely important, as it is economic opportunism, among other things, which has enabled some of the most violent armed groups to survive. Eastern Congo is an area rich in minerals – in particular, cassiterite (tin ore), gold, coltan and wolframite. The desire to gain or maintain control of these mines has been a central motivating factor for all the main warring parties."
Global Witness quite rightly point out that MONUC, the UN peacekeeping force in the region, should be given the mandate and the means to stop armed groups from using natural resources as a source of financing. They also add that companies should refuse to buy or trade in minerals which benefit armed groups and military units.
Many of the goods made using these minerals end up in our homes and workplaces, so in one way or another we are all implicated in the suffering of the Congolese people.
Some useful sources of information on the conflict:
* Amnesty International briefing on what's happening in North Kivu (eastern DRC): http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR62/014/2008/...n.pdf
* International Crisis Group page on conflict in DR Congo: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=2829&l=1
* Global Witness page on DRC conflict: http://www.globalwitness.org/pages/en/democratic_republ....html
I also recommend an excellent Human Rights Watch report entitled "We Will Crush You" which documents the Kabila government's use of violence and intimidation to eliminate political opponents in the DR Congo. Its at http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/11/25/we-will-crush-...you-0.
There is a vigil in Galway tomorrow Dec 5th at 5.00 pm shop street (outside lynches castle) to show solidarity with the Congolese and call for the Irish Government to use its voice at the UN to ensure that the 3000 extra troops that have been authorised for deployment to Monuc (the UN force already deployed in DRC) are sent immediately and are properly resourced. All welcome.
There is a vigil in Galway tomorrow Dec 5th at 5.00 pm shop street (outside lynches castle) to show solidarity with the Congolese and call for the Irish Government to use its voice at the UN to ensure that the 3000 extra troops that have been authorised for deployment to Monuc (the UN force already deployed in DRC) are sent immediately and are properly resourced. All welcome.
Thanks to John Lannon for his information on Eastern Congo, and the links he suggests. Coltan, used in mobile phones, is one of the minerals for which armed forces, and their international corporate accomplices, are fighting to control in Eastern Congo.
A century ago, rubber was the resource that caused untold suffering for Congolese civilians. King Leopold of the Belgians, in particular, ran a brutal regime of slave labour to extract rubber for enormous gains to him and to Belgium. Roger Casement played a crucial role in ending the rubber slave labour system in Congo when he published his report to the Foreign Office in 1905.
Besides the armed forces in eastern Congo, who are the international corporations making gains from the extraction of coltan today? Does anyone know has there been any study done? Or anything in progress?
Donal's questions in relation to international corporations role in the plundering of the DR Congo are very important. Coltan, along with gold and cassiterite (tin oxide) are the "blood minerals" of the DR Congo.
According to Carina Tertsakian of Global Witness, minerals like coltan go through a whole chain of buyers, traders, companies and middlemen. There are tens of thousands of people working as miners in eastern Congo; some of the mines are controlled by the rebels, and some by the army. There are also civilians digging in the hope of finding a few francs by selling what they find to buyers who come to the mines. These civilians might be found by militia groups and taken over, resulting in forced labour - often with young boys involved.
In a recent contribution at http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20081112-colta...wanda, Tertsakian said:
"The minerals from these mines are bought by various Congolese businessmen and sold on to traders, known as "comptoirs", in border towns. The minerals leave the country in raw form through neighbouring cities, and then travel to other countries where they are processed. This happens in many places, for example, Malaysia. It's then bought by various foreign and multinational firms. I couldn't say for a fact that big IT and mobile phone companies like Nokia are buying products directly from these armed rebel groups. But I can say that I don't know of any company that verifies and carries out checks about the origin of their supplies. These firms should absolutely be aware of where the product has come from, but they don't ask any questions."
Global Witness are sifting through statistics about exports to find which companies are buying the minerals and from where. Its not an easy task but hopefully they will be able to work back along the supply chain. And hopefully we'll have a report from them in due course.