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A representative for the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights conducted a telephone interview on 25 September with Mr. Aye Chan Naing, the Director at the Democratic Voice of Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar), Oslo to report on the situation. According to Aye Chan Naing the protests against the repressive military government that has ruled Burma (Myanmar) since 1962 are growing and they will continue to grow. (26-SEP-07)

Yesterday, 25 September, the Rafto Foundation sent an urgent request to Norwegian authorities as well ambassadors of the Russian Federation, the People´s Republic of China and India in Norway concerning the recent demonstrations in Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar). This is the first time in 18 years that monks have withheld their recognition of leading members of the military junta. (26-SEP-07)
 

“We congratulate The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights on being awarded the prestigious 2007 Rafto Prize. This has put the Dalit cause on the agenda,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre and Minister of International Development Erik Solheim.
(22-SEP-07)

The Rafto Prize for 2007 has been awarded to The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR), India for its brave struggle to promote Dalit rights, and for its efforts to emphasise that the discrimination and oppression resulting from caste prejudice is a serious violation of international human rights. Right, Vincent Manoharan, General Secretary of NCDHR. (20-SEP-07)

The Norwegian Mission to the East in collaboration with the Rafto Foundation and the Norwegian Teacher Academy invites on September 13 (in Bergen) to the seminar on Freedom of belief and human rights in Vietnam. The background for the discussion is the changes taking place in communist Vietnam as rapid economic development intensifies relations with western democracies. (25-AUG-07)
 

Since August 1999, there have been 5,000 abductions in the Caucasus. The actions of Russia´s military in the region are already lawless. It is dangerous work documenting these human rights abuses. One of the few people who are brave enough to do it is Lidia Yusupova, a lawyer and human rights campaigner who directs the Grozny office of Memorial, one of the last NGOs still operating in the Chechen Republic. (25-AUG-07)
 

Only two years have passed since a Norwegian delegation was expelled from Western Sahara. Sad memories resurface now as the two Norwegian youth politicians Andrea Gustavsson and Kamilla Eidsvik were detained and interrogated by Moroccan security forces earlier this week after meeting with Saharawi youth activists, among them Rabab Amidane, right. (23-AUG-07)
 

Former Kurdish deputy Leyla Zana (right), the Rafto Prize Laureate 1994, faces an investigation after she called for division of Republic of Turkey into administrative states, including a “state of Kurdistan.” Zana spoke at a rally before elections in the Republic of Turkey in support of pro-Kurdish independent candidates for Parliament. The investigation will determine whether Zana violated laws on incitement and state unity (06-AUG-07).

Thich Quang Do, the 2006 Rafto Prize Laureate, addressed farmers demonstrating in Ho Chi Minh City against power abuse and state appropriation of lands on July 17. “To solve these problems, we must work together for political pluralism, democracy and human rights, especially freedom of expression. There can be no justice under the one-Party state”. This is the first time in 26 years of detention and house arrest that prominent dissident Thich Quang Do has addressed a public demonstration (30-JUL-07).