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Amnesty International is seriously concerned about the sentencing on 6 March of two Sahrawi human rights defenders, Brahim Sabbar and Ahmed Sbai, to one year in prison by a court in Laayoune. The organization believes that they have been imprisoned for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly and may therefore be prisoners of conscience. If this is the case, they should be released immediately and unconditionally. (09-MAR-07)
 

The United States slammed the Burmese junta yesterday for gross violations of human rights and said it would use multilateral avenues to put pressure on the government. The condition in the country with regard to human rights has deteriorated, it said. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Barry F Lowenkron, right, told reporters: “I want to use all the multilateral tools to press for fundamental change in Burma and for the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi, for her demands, for her requests to open up a dialogue.” (07-MAR-07)
 

Tomorrow, Wednesday 7 March at 11.30, the Norwegian Section of Amnesty International, the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara and the Human Rights House Foundation co-host an open meeting at the Human Rights House in Oslo, with the well-known Saharawi human rights defender Aminatou Haidar, right. (06-MAR-07)
 

In its most recent newsletter, the Norwegian Burma Committee (NBC)highlights EarthRights International’s new report Turning Treasue into Tears, in which it is documented that the military regime and its trading partners are guilty of violations of human rights and severe environmental damage through uncontrolled deforestation, damming and gold mining in the Pegu province. (20-FEB-07)
 

Thailand and the Burmese military regime have plans to build several dams on the Salween river inside Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar). The Norwegian Burma Committee asks everyone to sign the universally distributed online petition to the Prime Minister of Thailand to withdraw from the cooperation project with the Burmese junta. Right, the numbers of internally displaced persons along the Salween river are on he rise. (15-FEB-07)
 

The Norwegian state pension fund has invested approximately 200 million Norwegian kroner (in excess of 32 million USD), in the South Korean company Daewoo. This company is known to have sold weapons and other equipment to the military junta of Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar), writes Inger Lise Husøy, Executive Director of the Norwegian Burma Committee. (14-FEB-07)
 

Thursday February 15, Rafto Human Rights Award laureate from 2002 Sidi Mohammed Daddach, right, visits the Human Rights House in Oslo. Daddach, who was released in 2001, was the longest serving human rights activist in Moroccan prisons ever, with the major part of his sentence, 14 of the total 24 years, served on death row. He was released after sustained pressure from Western Saharan and international human rights groups. Read the full invitation to the meeting, in Norwegian, below. (12-FEB-07)
  

Following pressure from the Rafto Foundation and 30 other Norwegian human rights organisations, among them the Human Rights House Foundation, Sidi Mohammed Daddach had his passport back late last year. The passport had been confiscated since 2003. Below is the letter that did the trick, addressed to the Moroccan Minister of the Interior. (12-FEB-07)
 

The Karen Women´s Organization (KWO) today launches its report State of Terror, which documents in detail the terrible treatment suffered by women in the Kren state at the hands of the Burmese army. Among other things, the report documents the army´s systematic use of rape as a weapon of ethnic discrimination, suppression, and ultimately, war. The Norwegian Burma Committee supports the KWO, and stresses that the situation in the Karen state has gone from bad to worse in the last year. (12-FEB-07)