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A death threat has been delivered to Soraya Gutiérrez Arguello, President of the non-governmental human rights organization Corporación Colectivo de Abogados ‘José Alvear Restrepo’ in Colombia. Please send appeals immediately. (21-MAY-05)
 

Many international free expression groups now believe the Tunisian government’s strategy is to isolate and intimidate its barristers and clear the way for advocates willing to toe the authorities’ repressive line. Index on Censorship was on hand to witness a tense stand-off between riot police and independent lawyers in Tunisia during the first week of May. Rohan Jayasekera reports from Tunis. (08-MAY-05)

In theory the combination of state control and limited access to the net should have barred Uzbekistan’s way to latest reports about the brewing revolt in the country, increasingly available in Uzbek and Russian online. But as report Daniil Kislov and Andrei Kudriashov, partners in Index on Censorship’s 2004 Ferghana Valley projects, that would be seriously underestimating the Uzbeks´ desire for information. (19-MAY-05)

The news about plans to present the descendents of Draza Mihailovic with the Legion of Honor, which the President Harry Truman awarded him with 57 years ago, within the next few days has deeply upset and shaken the democratic and anti-fascist public of Bosnia and Herzegovina. (19-MAY-05)

Official statistics indicate that around 700,000 people in the Republic of Uzbekistan use the Internet, less than three per cent of a population of 26 million. Independent sources estimate that it has even fewer regular users. Access to sites with an oppositional or even just a critical slant is blocked by service providers on instructions from the authorities. (19-MAY-05)
 

Human Rights House Foundation supports the appeal of the The Norwegian Helsinki Committee to the Uzbek president where it calls for impartial investigation of the events in Andijan and other cities of Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan. International PEN and Amnesty International strongly condemn the reported use of excessive force against civilians. Many Azeri human rights organizations have signed a letter to the international community to put the situation on the agenda. (19-MAY-05).
 

On Monday, May 16, the Ministry of Justice introduced a new programme of free legal aid for the members of Roma national minority in the Republic of Croatia. The free legal aid programme is a part of anti-discrimination measures towards Roma communitites, underlined in the National Programme for Roma people. Overall cost of the programme for this year is 55.000,00 € and will be carried out by 32 lawyers from Zagreb and Medjimurska, Brodsko-Posavska and Primorsko-goranska County. (18-MAY-05)
 

On Monday, the Ministry of Justice introduced a new programme of free legal aid for the members of Roma national minority in Republic of Croatia. It is a part of anti-discrimination measures towards Roma communitites, underlined in the National Programme for Roma people. (18-MAY-05)
 

Norway has rejected a request to help North Korea with long-term development because of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. The Norwegian Embassy in Korea and Norway’s state-run radio station NRK said a delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen visited North Korea from Saturday to Tuesday to discuss the reclusive country’s nuclear program with its Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun. (12-MAY-2005)

 On May 9, 2005, during his visit to the Russian Federation for participation in the Victory Day Ceremony, President Bush met representatives of Russian non-governmental organizations, in particular human rights and ecological ones. There were 18 people from all over the Russian Federation and the American president had a brief talk with everyone.  (14-MAY-05)
 

Hrodna Leninski Court rehabilitated the editor of Glos znad Niemna newspaper who
had been fired by the organizational board of the newspaper’s founder, Union of Poles in the Republic of Belarus, in accordance with the rules of the organization’s statute. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice found incompetent the union’s last assembly, at which the new head of the organization was elected. (13-MAY-2005)

According to Eugeniusz Wappa, chief editor of Niva weekly, on 11 May the procurator’s office of Bialystok, presented to the accused members of the program board of Niva weekly proposals of so called “conditional punishment”. After they refused to take the blame, the judge decided the case would be considered at court. (13-MAY-2005)