Papuans Struggle for Freedom, but Big Business Scrambles for Profits

  BURNING VILLAGE. Indonesian troops bringing 'order' to West Papua.

The late Billie Holiday sang about the racism and lynchings in America's South,  in Abel Meeropol's song Strange Fruit. Maybe some West Papuan singer will yet record a song about the strange things fished from the sea off their brutally occupied country.

The body of Martinus Yohame was found in a sack floating in the sea near the city of Sorong, West Papua on August 26. Yohame, head of the Sorong branch of the West Papua National Committee, KNPB, had been mising since August 20.
See Report by Amy McQuire in Australia.

It's not hard to guess who might have been responsible his disappearance and death. The island of Papua/ New Guinea was carved up in colonial times.  The eastern side, having been under British and German rule, became an Australian-administered territory, but today is the officially independent state of Papua New Guinea.  Though its people remain poor and their country undeveloped, the mineral wealth beneath it have made it one of the world's fastest-growing economies in recent years. 

West Papua remained under Dutch control until Indonesian troops invaded it in 1961. With UN connivance the people's right to self-determination was ignored, in favour of a rigged plebiscite of  tribal elders selected by the Indonesian military. West Papua became a province of Indonesia, initially as West Irian Jaya. With US and British arms, the Suharto dictatorship suppressed the people, and brought in settlers from Java. 

An estimated 500, 000 Papuans were killed by Indonesian forces.  But then that's about the same as the number of Indonesian worker and peasant communists slaughtered after the CIA-backed coup which brought Suharto to power in Indonesia.

The end of Suharto's rule brought some easing of political tyranny in Indonesia proper, and West Papua regained its own name, but the Indonesian occupation remains, and Papuans can be severely punished simply for raising the flag of independence. Indonesia's rulers are intent on developing and exploiting west Papua's resources in partnership with Western business corporations.

Martinus Yohame was one of those opposing Indonesian rule of his country. Amnesty International  said his disappeance coincided with the detention of another independence activist in the lead-up to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s visit to the region. Yudhoyono was to attend a sailing event in Sorong.Yohame had reportedly staged a press conference in Sorong the day before he disappeared, opposing the President’s visit and raising the issue of illegal logging.

The KNPB were reportedly planning demonstrations, including the raising of the banned “Morning Star” flag, an act for which others have been jailed by the Indonesian government. Two school students were arrested earlier this month for painting pro-independence slogans. Amnesty says Robert Yelemaken, 16 and Oni Wea, 21, were beaten by the arresting police officers, and forced to roll in dirty water and drink paint. Yelemaken has been released but Wea is still incarcerated and facing charges of “incitement”.

Villages Burned

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXbPac6K-9M
A new video sent out by West Papuans from the Pirime District of the Lanny Jaya Regency in West Papua shows scores of West Papuan villagers in hiding after the Indonesian military burned down their houses in a military operation.

http://freewestpapua.org/go/924

Foreign journalists are banned from reporting from West Papua, and two French journalists are being held by the Indonesians, accused of "espionage".

This can hardly excuse the kind of fawning report published in one Australian newspaper:

"Indonesian president-elect Joko Widodo has promised to build a presidential palace on the shores of West Papua's picturesque Lake Sentani as a sign he will pay more attention to the resource-rich but troubled region.

The plan, which includes regular meetings for dialogue with Papuan leaders, has met a mixed reception from senior local figures.

A low-level armed separatist movement has racked West Papua since the 1960s, prompting a huge security presence in the province. Foreign journalists are virtually banned from going there, ostensibly for security reasons, and rampant corruption and discrimination impoverishes the Melanesian-Christian ethnic majority.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/joko-widodo-promises-to-focus-on-west-papua-20140823-107jd0.html#ixzz3CEJdO2yC

That's from the Fairfax-owned Sydney Morning Herald.

And Tory Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said West Papuan freedom campaigners are not welcome in Australia.

But then as one Aussie comments:
"The Federal Government on behalf of all of us Australian taxpayers (which does not incidentally include the super-rich, for whom tax paying is an optional activity) gives Indonesia (read the Javanese Empire) something between $600M and $605M per year, labelled as 'aid'."

And it would seem the government and business interests are less interested in attaching human rights strings to that 'aid' than in making sure they get their money's worth (even if it is not their money) in the shape of business deals, contracts and mining concessions in Indonesia and its colony of west Papua.  

Fortunately, many Australians, and many people in Pacific island states, are taking a different kind of interest in West Papua, and supporting its people's rights.


See also:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/28/west-papua-my-people-need-australias-help-before-it-is-too-late

Benny Wenda’s Statement on murder of Papuan leader Martinus Yohame

September 1, 2014

Free West Papua Campaign founder Benny Wenda in Port Vila, Vanuatu, 2013  Photo: Humans of Vanuatu

A public statement from Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and Free West Papua Campaign founder, Benny Wenda

Dear friends, supporters and fellow Papuans.

It brings me great sadness to learn that last week, our dear friend and brother, Martinus Yohame was found murdered after being kidnapped by the Indonesian security forces in West Papua.
It is an act of extreme evil to abduct and kill someone just because they are peacefully speaking out for their human rights to self-determination and on behalf of the Free West Papua Campaign I fully condemn his murder and demand that those responsible be brought to justice.
I would like to thank Amnesty International for joining the call in demanding justice for his case and in helping to further defend the rights of our people.
Martinus Yohame was a true freedom fighter of the West Papuan people who died not for himself but for the whole nation. He will be missed by us all.
Martinus was the Chairman of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) in Sorong and always mobilised the Papuan people to resist Indonesian State oppression.
On 20^th August 2014, he gave a press conference, declaring that the people of West Papua refused the Indonesian president (who was arriving near the Sorong Region).
Martinus always called publicly for a Free West Papua and strongly condemned Indonesia’s destruction of our natural environment.
Just for making such comments, Martinus was kidnapped by suspected members of the Indonesian security forces the next day.
His body was found on 25^th August, floating in the sea after he was tied up and shot several times, with his face smashed in.
How can the Indonesian government claim to be a democracy when they commit such evil brutality against peaceful activists?
When I hear about the murders of more and more of my people, I am always full of sadness and grief.
How can they do this to human beings?
Tomorrow, the Free West Papua Campaign will be holding a protest outside the Indonesian Embassy in London, United Kingdom to demand justice for the murder of Martinus Yohame and an end to all the killings of our people.
We will meet at 12:00 outside the Indonesian Embassy at 38 Grosvenor Square and call for a Free West Papua.
I urge all supporters around the world to also hold similar demonstrations against the killings and in support of justice and freedom for West Papua, in memory of the life and vision of Martinus Yohame.
We lost a great freedom fighter and our hearts are full of grief but we remember that his death was never in vain and that his vision will continue to inspire the new generation of young West Papuans to stand up and struggle for freedom as he did.
On behalf of the campaign, I give my sincerest and deepest condolences to the family of Martinus Yohame, who never got to see him in a Free West Papua.
In your hearts and our hearts, he lives on today and his dream is the dream of all our people.
It was not fulfilled in his lifetime but with his spirit, and the spirit of every Papuan; we will continue to struggle on until the dream of a Free West Papua becomes a reality.
Today we cry, but I am certain that one day we will celebrate together in a Free West Papua and remember the sacrifices of the brave martyrs like Martinus, who died for our freedom.
Farewell Martinus Yohame, you have given the ultimate sacrifice for our people, dying for the freedom of West Papua.
May you rest in peace. Your struggle is our struggle and we will always remember you as we continue this campaign for a Free and Independent West Papua, once and for all.

Benny Wenda
www.bennywenda.org

Israel loses a battle Down Under

AS Israeli bombs and missiles rain on Gaza, Israelis with nothing better to do take their ringside  seats in supposedly endangered Sderot to applaud, and Knesset members who should be in a different kind of secure institution clamour for a war of extermination.

In Israel itself, as well as around the world, there are demonstrations. Among those on the London protest today, with a banner calling for Palestinian freedom, were a fairly new group called Young Jewish Left, some of whose families could have been counted on to back 'Israel Right or Wrong' in the past.

If  Bibi Netanyahu and those competing to be more warlike think they can ignore such voices, they may soon learn otherwise. Even the US State Department, having seen the peace talks it sponsored collapse with nothing achieved, has warned Israel that it may be facing a tidal wave of boycott and sanctions.

I've not been an uncritical supporter of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) myself, especially not when people keep talking about them in initials, which I suspect can mean we are talking among ourselves like a cult, and not communicating with the uncommitted, nor thinking how and when to apply each tactic so as to be both justified and effective.

But I've no doubt that boycott as such is a legitimate and reasonable tactic to adopt, whether to put pressure on Israeli institutions or simply to express one's repugnance at what the Israeli state is doing. And as people look for something alse to do after writing letters and going on demonstrations I can see more and more looking for such means.

That's why a court case in Australia has highly topical importance. I'm grateful to blogger Asa Winstanley and the Electronic Intifada website for bringing it to our attention.

Back in October an Israeli group called Shurat HaDin, misleadingly claiming to be a human rights group, brought a case to an Australian court against an associate professor  called Jack Lynch of the University of Sydney.

Lynch had refused to endorse a fellowship application from Dan Avnon of the Hebrew University, because of the boycott of Israeli academic institutions and their links to the Occupation and the military.

He explained the academic boycott strategy: “to withhold cooperation from fellowship schemes which represent institutional links between our university and these two Israeli universities which therefore make us [in Sydney university] indirectly complicit in the occupation.”

Since there was nothing to prevent the Israeli candidate from applying to others to endorse his application, and Jack Lynch was simply exercising his own choice, one might of thought that was up to him. But Shurat HaDin took the Australian academic to the Australian federal court, claiming his stance was discrimination, and motivated by racism against Jews. So the issue was not whether Dan Avnon had been unfairly treated but whether it was illegal to apply or advocate a boycott at all.

Australian Jewish institutions which are not normally that critical of Israel thought this was not the way to oppose the boycott, and said it was a bad move. Jack Lynch was able to point to other occasions when he had worked with Jewish and Israeli colleagues, so could not be accused of general prejudice. Sure enough, in April, the court struck out most of the case.



And now those bringing the case have withdrawn. Jack Lynch says this shows the boycott is "fireproof".


.Shurat HaDin are not just some naive independent outfit who happened to make a mistake. As Asa Winstanley points out:

A US State Department memo published by WikiLeaks shows the group’s leader Nitsana Darshan-Leitner admitting to taking a lead from Mossad, Israel’s international spy agency, notorious for dirty tricks campaigns and for assassinations of Palestinian activists, political leaders and fighters.

Shurat HaDin has been been heavily involved in Israel’s strategy of using global courts to attack critics of Israel – dubbed “lawfare.”

But as Jack Lynch says, the case had “completely backfired” on Shurat HaDin, which had gone around leading politicians touting the so-called London Declaration Against Anti-Semitism, and getting them to sign up that BDS activism was antisemitic.



In a statement to the press, Lynch said the final collapse of the case against him represented a “complete vindication for the principled stance I have taken in fighting off a despicable attack on political freedom in Australia.”

Now Australian academic unions which had been worried about the legal implications can feel free to back members who engage in a boycott. Meanwhile the judge must decide on how to recover some of the costs of the case, and Jack Lynch is hoping he can be reimbursed. 

For my part, remembering the time-honoured history of boycotts, from the origins of the word in Ireland , through those of Nazi Germany and South Africa, I am glad that a shameful attempt to hide the power of a brutal occupier behind the rights of individual Jews has been rebuffed. Had Shurat HaDin succeeded it might have damaged the Palestinian people but it would most certainly have harmed the Jews.

If Shurat HaDin is really close to the Israeli  "intelligence" services our verdict must be "Misguided by Mossad"!


http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/academic-boycott-israel-now-fireproof-australian-court-challenge-fails

Waging "Lawfare" Down Under

NOT content with misusing Australian passports for dirty operations in the Gulf and elsewhere, Israel's Mossad spying agency is behind a phoney "human rights" outfit that is trying to use Australia's courts to silence and intimidate people who oppose what Israel is doing to the Palestinians.

The Israeli law center Shurat HaDin has filed a law suit in the Australian federal court against an Australian academic, Jake Lynch, director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University, for supporting the the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

Claiming that Lynch’s support of the BDS movement violates Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act, they hope to focus on his refusal to sponsor Hebrew University of Jerusalem academic Dan Avnon for a fellowship. But whatever the unfairness or otherwise of this application of the boycott (friends of Avnon say he has a good record and is not a racist), Lynch argues that it was just an individual decision, and did not prevent Avnon from obtaining other sponsors. He also points out that his Centre has more than once hosted Israeli and Jewish speakers.

Shurat HaDin is seeking a court order requiring Lynch to apologize and renounce his BDS campaign, stating that his participation in and support of the BDS movement has led to “adverse distinction, exclusion, restriction and adverse preference based on the Jewish race, descent, national and ethnic origin of goods, services, persons and organisations,” reported The Australian.
Lynch dismissed the accusations against him, saying he is certain that “we will prove, in court if necessary, that it does not amount to any form of discrimination or racism.”

http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2013/10/30/shurat-hadin-files-suit-against-australian-academic-for-bds-campaign

http://antonyloewenstein.com/2012/12/13/anybody-else-like-to-speak-out-against-a-courageous-academic-challenging-israeli-apartheid/  

The Murdoch-owned Australian newspaper recently seized on two isolated incidents - a violent late-night attack by some drunken yobs on two Jewish couples at Bondi, and three stupid students singing Springtime for Hitler, to claim that Australia was becoming more antisemitic, and link this to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. Critics said it was the newspaper which was encouraging antisemitism by equating ordinary Jewish people with the Israeli state.   

It is worth noting that the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), regarded as the highest representative body of Australian Jewish communities, and affiliated to the World Jewish Congress, has issued a statement dissociating itself from the Israeli group's lawsuit.  The ECAJ, which has campaigned to oppose BDS, says it regards the academic boycott as "repugnant", and wants to encourage more academic contacts. (Most boycott supporters would point out that their tactic is directed against institutions, not individuals, but this gets ignored). However the Australian Jewish leaders say the way to oppose BDS is with argument, not litigation.

http://www.jwire.com.au/news/bds-litigation-inappropriate-saysecaj/37925  

They may well have born in mind the ignominious collapse of  an ill-advised case brought by Ronnie Fraser, a member of the University and Colleges Union in Britain, against his union.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/tribunal-slams-academic-for-bringing-anti-semitism-case/2002841.article

http://www.bricup.org.uk/

At any rate, ECAJ argues that litigation can be counter-productive, especially if it is pursued for political ends.
http://www.jwire.com.au/news/shurat-hadin-ecaj-disagree-on-skinning-the-bds-cat/38048

But the Israeli organisation Shurat HaDin is no bunch of amateurs. Claimed as a "civil rights" organisation - a description accepted by The Australian and other newspapers, it more accurately describes its actions as "lawfare" - waging war by using law.  When it has not been looking after the "rights" of soldiers accused of using excessive force, and officers charged with war crimes, it has increasingly turned to legal harassment of political opponents and boycott supporters.

A leaked US embassy cable revealed that in 2007, Shurat HaDin's director Nitsana Darshon-Leitner confided to a US official that her group  “took direction … on which cases to pursue” and still “receives evidence” from the Mossad and from Israel’s National Security Council.

The leaked cable was one of those passed on by Bradley Manning and published by Wikileaks. The cable’s author quotes Darshan-Leitner as explaining the government’s rationale for using a proxy rather than going to local courts directly: “The National Security Council (NSC) legal office saw the use of civil courts as a way to do things that they are not authorized to do.”

“Among her contacts, Leitner listed Udi Levy at the NSC and Uzi Beshaya at the Mossad, both key [US] Embassy contacts on anti-terrorist finance cooperation,” wrote the unnamed official who apparently authored the cable after meeting with Leitner in 2007. At the time of the cable was written, the NSC’s head was Ilan Mizrahi, a former deputy chief of Mossad.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Shurat HaDin did not reply to an email sent yesterday seeking comment on the issues raised in this article.

Besides its actions in the courts, Shurat HaDin runs an annual tour of Israeli military bases, courts, prisons, settlements and “the controversial Security Fence.”  It is called "the Ultimate Mission to Israel", and at a cost of about $3,000 per person, it offers the chance to meet Israeli soldiers and officers, undercover collaborators, cabinet ministers and to “observe a trial of Hamas terrorists in an IDF military court.”  Also promised are “briefings by Mossad officials and commanders of the Shin Bet.”

Claiming to take action against "terrorist" regimes and organisations, Shurat HaDin has been guided by the Israeli state and Mossad in pursuing legal actions against bodies deemed as handling funds for them.  

In contrast with its defence of Israeli soldiers accused of crimes, it tried to obstruct negotiations for the release of captive Gilad Schalit, according to Israeli journalist Yossi Gurvitz in the online .972 magazine.

As for deciding what constitutes "antisemitism", in 2011, Max Blumenthal discovered that a major funder for Shurat HaDin was Pastor John Hagee, the Texan evangelist who says Hitler was the "hunter" sent by God to drive out Jews and make them go to Israel. But Pastor Jack, apart from denouncing "half-breed Jews, descendants of Esau", is founder of Christians United for Israel, condemns Islam, and has given money to Im Tirzu, which witch-hunts Israeli academics considered left-wing and traitorous. So that's alright then.

http://972mag.com/the-israeli-governments-official-lawfare-contractor/80659/

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israeli-lawyers-group-shurat-hadin-unmasked-mossad-proxy

This Damsel in Distress Needs More Than Tea and Sympathy, though she is entitled to both.

CUP THAT CHEERS, but can it placate Aussie immigration controls?

MAY KING TSANG is a young woman from Bolton in Greater Manchester who has made a name for herself, and I'd say a good one, in the Antipodes, having stepped out of her previous role as an  IT  instructor in order to bring sophistication-seeking Aussies the fine art of brewing, tasting and supping tea.

Tea in all its varieties, on which May King has become an expert and enthusiast, and on which she has built a business. Tea for your health, and tea as in tea parties, tea for which "everything stops", as we used to sing in the good old pre-Thatcher days when England was almost civilised, and tea in the tradition of the Chinese Gong Fu ceremony.


I.T. to High Tea?  The invention of Afternoon Tea in England is attributed to Anna Russel, the 18th century Duchess of Bedford, but as May King and friends show in this photograph, they can blend old and still older traditions. 

"Gong Fu Tea-tasting is an art form in which many Chinese people take their daily beverage.  Gong Fu or Kung Fu may conjure up images of martial arts but the translated words merely means the art of doing something well.  Drinking tea is not just about the fluid intake but it’s about the admiration of the dry leaf, the aroma of the liquor (the liquid derived from the making of the tea) and, of course, in the final tasting of the tea.

 "Here is a little insight into what a Chinese Gong Fu Tea Ceremony entails.  This is my version of the Chinese Gong Fu Tea Ceremony which I call “Chinese Gong Fu Tea Ceremony with a Dash of Milk” as a tribute to my BBC (British Born Chinese) upbringing


http://maykingtea.wordpress.com/

As May King jokes, "Gong Fu or Kung Fu may conjure up images of martial arts..."
but I first met her in London through the anti-war movement. It was a wet and windy night in Wembley and we were the only two volunteers who turned up to leaflet outside Wembley Park tube for a meeting of the Stop the War Coalition.

Strangers in the night soon got along fine, as I discovered May King was from Bolton, just up the road from my home town Salford, and our shared greater Manchester imperviousness to the rain was reinforced by her cheerfulness and sense of humour. 

At this time May King was working as an IT instructor, and her job with the Swedish firm Ericsson took her out of the country sometimes, but I met her again at a fundraising quiz night in Willesden, and later with her partner Euan, also a tekkie, at the 'Skies Are Weeping' concert in Hackney (dedicated to Rachel Corrie). Each time I remember for her geniality and ready laughter. Right now she needs more than that resilient sense of humour.

I remember another friend telling me Euan and May King had wed in a Scottish castle (though they started married life in the less noble London Borough of Hackney).  That choice of venue might show their romantic imagination, but along with creativity May King has kept her common sense and feet on the earth. "Whilst we all love tea many questions are poised with accompanying bold statements and at times we often forget that our own opinions may not be held by others.  I was brought up in a working class background; my parents didn’t have two pennies to rub together.  I was also brought up in a Chinese household which meant no hoighty-toighty-ness; simple as you like with no fuss.  These two influences have also lent themselves into my business."

The lass from Bolton certainly seems to have carved out her own niche since traveling via Brent (and Hackney) with her spouse to Brisbane. Invitations to speak at food trade fairs, worldwide contacts exchanging tea lore, a Facebook page turning into a group promoting Queensland businesses and training. Seeing her enthusiastic and colourfully illustrated postings about different teas and fresh travels, one could not help but share her joy and wish her continued success and happiness.

But starting after a change in her personal circumstances, May King has also had an albatross hovering over her in the shape of the authorities wanting to take away her visa, and permission to remain in Australia. I had noticed lately that she seemed a little preoccupied, not her usual jolly self, even slower to laugh at my jokes. It seems that having been persuaded to extend her time once, the authorities have returned to the visa topic again, so that just when everything seemed to be going well and Queensland society to have accepted May King with pleasure as one of its own, she could have only days to start packing her bags and get thrown out.

Why? I know nothing about Australian immigration laws, apart from the news that after Labour and "Liberal" leaders competed in inhumanity, arguing whether to sink boats or send people to Papua New Guinea, the country has been rewarded with a government not unlike our own. But I had not heard of any hoarding vans parading Brisbane as one did through Brent, telling people to "Go Home".    
What has May King Tsang done wrong?  She has not, so far as I am aware, committed any crime. She is not even unemployed or taking benefits. She has not been peddling drugs, unless Lapsang Souchong has been reclassified. Like most immigrants, in Australia or here, far from taking anything away from society she is giving it something, in more ways than one. In fact, I'd say May King Tsang   is the sort of person any society should be glad to have, and I only question whether Australia, particularly Queensland, deserves her!  But my prejudices apart, May King Tsang deserves the right to stay and pursue her career, I hope my friends in Australia and all fair minded people there will agree and give her support.


  May King makes appeal

Online Petition:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/keep-may-king-tsang-where-she-belongs.html

Australia closes door on Bahraini rights speaker

HOWEVER good the image of a country and its people for standing up for human rights and fair play to all, you can count on its Immigration officials to ruin it. Not that I would imagine these were acting without a word of advice from those above them in government..
 

A prominent Bahraini surgeon and human rights defender, Dr Ghassan Dhaif, has been barred from entering Australia for a speaking tour organised by Amnesty International Australia and the Bahrain Australia Youth Movement.

The Department of Immigration rejected Dr.Dhaif's visa application on the grounds that he may seek asylum even though he applied for a Temporary Work (Short Stay Activity) Visa (Subclass 400) with the support of Amnesty International Australia, the Australia Council of Trade Unions, the Australian Nursing Federation and the Australian Education Union.

He was due to speak about the military crackdown and human rights crisis in Bahrain, in which he was arrested, incarcerated and tortured for over one year for the crime of treating injured protesters.

“It is disappointing that one week following a condemnation of Bahrain’s human rights crisis in the Federal Parliament of Australia, immigration has denied a Bahraini human rights defender from entering the country”, said Abdulelah al Hubaishi, Bahraini refugee and spokesperson for the Bahrain Australia Youth Movement.

Last Monday, resolutions were tabled in the Lower House of the Federal Parliament of Australia condemning the ongoing repression of Bahrain’s mass protest movement. During the parliamentary debate, Federal Members of Parliament highlighted the heavy repression of Bahraini medics.

Al Hubaishi continued, “It is clear that western countries are backing the Bahraini regime and continuing their standard practice of hypocrisy. The Australian government is only concerned with human rights on paper but in reality it is silencing the Bahraini people”.

The Refugee Action Coalition has condemned the decision of Australian immigration to reject Dr Dhaif’s visa application.

“Denying a visa to Dr Ghassan because he might claim asylum is another shameful example of the Australian government’s lack of humanitarian principles in relation to refugees. The government is more concerned about competing with the Coalition to maintain a hard line on refugees than taking a stand with those fighting for human rights in Bahrain,” said Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition.

The events organised as part of the speaking tour will proceed regardless.

“Attempts to silence Dr Ghassan Dhaif only cause us to raise the volume of our voices. We must stand in solidarity with the Bahraini people and continue to expose the daily human rights violations in Bahrain.

While health services continue to be militarised and thousands of political prisoners are behind bars, we will build the international solidarity movement and generate pressure on the Bahraini regime and its allies”, concluded Al Hubaishi.

Contact Bahrain Australian Youth Movement:  
bahaus.movement@yahoo.com.au

Information received via Middle East and North Africa Solidarity network 
www.menasolidaritynetwork.com