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In companionship with Norwegian-Vietnamese Centre, the Rafto Human Rights House issues the below letter of appeal from the Alliance for Democracy and Human Rights for Viet Nam. The letter gives voice to a call for joint protests against the recent political oppression orchestrated by the Communist Vietnamese authorities towards the democracy movement of the country. (13-MAR-07)
 

Join the letter that is being sent to the UN Secretary General regarding the respect for the fundamental rights to self-determination of the Saharawi people. Campaign is launched by Western Sahara Task Force and Belgian Committee of Support to the Saharawi People. (12-MAR-07)

Ablikim Abdiriyim, son of Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer, has been tried in secret, reports Amnesty International. Ablikim is reportedly very ill as a result of beatings suffered in detention, and continues to be denied access to the medical treatment he needs. Ablikim was reportedly tried on January 28, 2007 on the charges of “subversion of state power”, “ethnic separatism” and “sending information over the internet to Ms. Kadeer”. (12-MAR-07)
 

-Women are tortured and raped. And we have no legal protection, said Aminatou Haidar, right, who celebrated the international Women´s Day in Bergen. The Sahrawi human rights activist addressed the great differences in how the day is marked in Norway and back home in Western Sahara. -Here, you can demonstrate and celebrate in peace and freedom. In Western Sahara, women and youth will be beaten up by the Moroccan occupation forces if we take to the streets to demonstrate. (09-MAR-07)
 

For the first time in decades, the deserted Western Sahara village of Tifariti is reawakening to life. Located in the strip of land close to the Mauritanian desert border that is under the control of the Sahrawi pro-independence movement Polisario, Tifariti hosted on February 26 more than 800 delegates participating in an international solidarity conference. (28-FEB-07)
 

On February 19, the Moroccan occupational authorities arrested a Swedish journalist Lars Björk, who was visiting Western Sahara for his work. He is accused by the Moroccan authorities of inciting the Sahrawis to demonstrate and of having bad intentions. The Moroccan authorities have threatened him with expulsion from Western Sahara and, even worse, to charge him as if he was like an Al-Qaida sympathizer. (20-FEB-07)

On 7 February 2007 the Rafto Foundation received a letter from the Vietnamese embassy in Copenhagen informing that a long planned visit to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to meet with Vietnam’s leading dissident, Venerable Thich Quang Do, is not possible. The Rafto Foundation is accused of harming good relationships between Norway and Vietnam. Right, Arne Lynngård, Chairman of the Rafto Foundation. (13-FEB-07)
 

For decades, a large part of the Saharawi / Western Saharan population has lived in camps in the barren desert of neighbouring Algeria. For ever more Saharawis, this is the only life they know. Their own country is but a distant dream. Independent photo journalists Rådmund Steinsvåg and Anne-Torhild Nilsen of Berserk Productions made it into the camps and produced this photo gallery. (12-FEB-07)
 

Uyghur political prisoner Ismail Semed was executed on the morning of February 8 in Urumchi, the provincial capital of East Turkistan (also known as Xinjiang Province) in northwest the People´s Republic of China. Semed, who was 37 years old at the time of hisexecution, was sentenced to death in October 2005 on charges of “attempting to split the motherland” and other charges relating to the alleged possession of firearms and explosives. 
(10-FEB-07)