Translation

.يولد جميع الناس أحرارا متساوين في الكرامة والحقوق. وقد وهبوا عقلا وضميرا وعليهم أن يعامل بعضهم بعضا بروح الإخاء‎
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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

UGANDA: Finally ready for male circumcision

The national policy will be launched in July 2010
RAKAI, 29 June 2010 (PlusNews) - The Ugandan government will begin a nationwide male circumcision programme in July as part of its HIV prevention strategy, a senior government official has said.

"We now have a national vision on how to move forward, and a government policy and communication strategy will be launched in July," said Dr Alex Opio, assistant commissioner for health services in the Ministry of Health.

"Circumcision will be carried out in national referral hospitals, district hospitals and health centre IVs [county level health centres] which have the capacity to conduct minor surgeries."

Why the delay?

The government began drafting the policy in 2008 and there has been criticism of the delay in launching the circumcision programme. In terms of the
National AIDS Strategic Plan 2007/8-2011/12, at least 160,000 men should have been circumcised by the end of 2010.

It had taken time to get all the government's ducks in a row. "We needed funding; PEPFAR [the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief] has stepped in to give the ministry and its partners US$5 million for male circumcision over the next year," Opio said.

Unlike neighbouring Kenya, whose programme has already circumcised more than 100,000 men, medical male circumcision was relatively new to Uganda, where only 25 percent of the adult men are circumcised.

"Starting prematurely can do more harm than good; we needed to be sure we were truly ready to deliver safe medical circumcision before we launched," Opio commented.

The Rakai Health Sciences Programme (
RHSP), a medical research facility in central Uganda - one of three sites where research confirmed the protective effect of male circumcision against HIV - has circumcised more than 5,000 men, and is expanding its services to local district hospitals.
''Starting prematurely can do more harm than good; we needed to be sure we were truly ready to deliver safe medical circumcision before we launched''
"We have found pretty high levels of acceptance of male circumcision so far - about 60 percent," said Dr Rajab Kakaire, a medical officer at RHSP. "There is a limit to how many men will accept circumcision without an official government policy; some are sceptical about undergoing a procedure that the government hasn't officially endorsed."

Their figures match those of a 2008
study by Uganda's Makerere University and Family Health International, a reproductive health NGO, which found that 62 percent of men in four districts would consider being circumcised.

"It seems quite fashionable now, like somehow men who are circumcised are more civilised, more educated," said David Sembatya, a motorcycle taxi rider, or 'boda boda', in the neighbouring district of Lyantonde, where RHSP provides male circumcision at the district hospital. "I will definitely do it."

James Nkale, a clinical officer at RHSP, said prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, hygiene, and social status were among the reasons men were so keen to be circumcised. "Men also listen to women, who have better health seeking behaviour and are advising their partners to go for the service."

Misconceptions

Circumcision is a new concept to much of the population and there are some misconceptions. "Of course, the most common fear is pain - people associate circumcision with men wearing skirts and walking with a staggering gait," Nkale said.

"There are also some cultural practices that may be harmful ... some believe it is a curse to have sex with your official wife after circumcision, so the first sexual encounter after the procedure should be with another partner; others believe vaginal fluids are good for healing wounds, so they may have sex before they are properly healed. This is all anecdotal - we don't know how deep-seated these misconceptions are, so we need more studies."

Kakaire said another common perception was that male circumcision was a way of "Islamising" the population; in some ethnic communities the word for male circumcision is "okusilamula", which translates as "to make Muslim". "We discourage the use of that word, instead we use the word "okukomola", which means to trim," he noted.
More on male circumcision
 Zulu king revives male circumcision
 The fringe benefits of male circumcision rollout
 Clinics dispel male circumcision myths
 The cutting edge (multimedia)
Perhaps the biggest fear of male circumcision practitioners and the government is that men will become more sexually reckless after circumcision. "There is a legitimate fear of behavioural disinhibition as a result of being circumcised," Kakaire said. "However, a small qualitative study we did here [Rakai] showed no increase in risky behaviour as a result of the procedure."

The Ministry of Health's Opio said the message that male circumcision was not a "magic bullet" against HIV was central to the communication strategy. "It is just an additional tool in our prevention arsenal - it becomes part of the 'plus' in our ABC [Abstinence, Be faithful and Condomise]-plus strategy," he said.
Getting it right
Kakaire noted that good medical care and counselling were also critical to promoting circumcision, and RHSP has been training nurses, counsellors, and clinical and medical officers for more than two years. In the past year it has trained more than 170 health workers from across the country and is planning to double its training programmes to cope with demand.

One of the reasons this [RHSP] programme has been successful is that the clients get a complete service - from pre-op counselling to the procedure and post-op follow-up," he said. "Clients need to trust the programme for it to succeed."

"We are drawing up a roadmap that will guide the [national] programme," Opio said. "Training is ongoing and we are being careful to ensure that all practitioners of male circumcision follow standards set by our technical guidelines."

MIDDLE EAST: New HIV report turns up some surprises

A women's group meets in Upper Egypt to discuss
Statistics on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the Middle East are hard to come by but a new study launched on 28 June in the United Arab Emirates has attempted to gather all existing data into one place and add some analysis and action points for policymakers.

“In all previous reports we thought there was no HIV data from this region. But there turned out to be lots of data here,” said Laith Abu Raddad, director of the Biostatistics and Biomathematic Research Core at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar and the principal author of the study (not yet available online).

“This report is basically more like a scientific epidemiological study: Getting pieces of data, thousands of data that we managed to collect from every country in the region, putting them together and analysing them to see what they tell us in terms of HIV epidemiology,” he said.

The report, characterizing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Middle East and North Africa, is a joint effort of the World Bank, the UN Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO). It covers 23 countries that the three organizations include in their MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.

According to UNAIDS, about 412,000 people were living with HIV in MENA by the end of 2008, up from 270,000 in 2001. The report said most new infections were from within commercial sex and drug-taking populations.

The report divides the MENA region into two categories according to HIV prevalence: the “subregion with considerable prevalence” (Djibouti, Somalia, Southern Sudan); and the Core MENA region, where HIV prevalence is described as “very limited” (the rest of MENA countries).

Sudan, Somalia and Djibouti

“In north Sudan, we used to think in the past that we have a much more serious problem of HIV but now the data set is more complete, it’s clear that north Sudan really is quite similar to the rest of the MENA countries. But in south Sudan we may have a generalized epidemic,” Abu Raddad said. A generalized epidemic is one that has spread beyond high-risk minority populations to the general population.

A 2003 UNAIDS and WHO report referred to in the study said Sudan had a 2.6 percent HIV prevalence rate.

Abu Raddad said Djibouti “was the Disneyland of risk behaviour” and had a large number of Ethiopian sex workers serving truck drivers and foreign army bases. “We have this corridor which is certainly full of HIV, but the rest of the country is fine,” he noted.

A 2008 UNAIDS report said Djibouti had a 3.4 percent HIV prevalence rate in its capital and a 1.1 percent rate outside it.

“Technically speaking, the HIV epidemics in Djibouti and Somalia are already generalized, but the context of HIV infection and risk groups in these countries suggests that HIV dynamics are mainly focused around concentrated epidemics in the commercial sex networks,” said the new report.
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran
oci
Pakistan faces a concentrated HIV epidemic among injecting drug users
The report said Pakistan and Iran, where HIV prevalence is low among the general population, faced concentrated HIV epidemics among injecting drug users (IDUs), while this was also a significant mode of transmission for HIV in Afghanistan.

“We know we have a concentrated epidemic among IDUs in Pakistan, and the increase was very rapid over the past few years. In Karachi, for example, we had near zero percent among this group in 2003 or 2004 and then within six months it jumped to 24 percent.”

He said this increase could be attributed to needle sharing, poverty and a lack of awareness.

Egypt and Tunisia

Egypt has a different pattern in terms of the spread of HIV. Surveys of risk groups showed that HIV prevalence was very low among IDUs and female sex workers (FSWs). “This is not a surprise for FSWs. In those kind of conservative countries in the region - and Egypt is one them - we see very little prevalence of HIV among FSWs. But having very low prevalence among IDUs is quite a surprise,” Abu Raddad said.

He said that Egypt appeared to be having an HIV epidemic among men having sex with men (MSM), at a prevalence rate of 6 percent.

“The country also has an interesting pattern. Usually HIV epidemics start with IDUs and then move to MSM, which we see in Iran and Pakistan. But this is not the case in some countries, like Egypt and Tunisia, where the epidemic is starting with MSM,” Abu Raddad said.
Dearth of data
Experts said that despite all the information from different sources that the new report brings together, the region still does not have enough data to form a coherent strategy to tackle HIV/AIDS. The report conceded that the MENA region “continues to be viewed as the anomaly in the HIV/AIDS world map”.

“This is because we have not invested enough in building the right surveillance systems, so we don’t have systems that actually detect and follow up on this issue,” Hind Khatib, regional director of UNAIDS, told IRIN.

“Political commitment should be matched with domestic resources and investment in human resources, which is limited in the region. You have to spend on your programmes and systems and you have to have strategic directions that are focused on the drivers of the epidemic,” Khatib said.

She said she hoped to see the governments of the many low-income countries in the region allocate more funds to HIV programmes, particularly in light of the fact that the financial crisis had made it harder for countries to be eligible for assistance from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Experts agreed that the main challenge for the region was the stigma of HIV/AIDS and discrimination against people living with it.

“We have to bring in the people living with HIV and the civil society. We have to open up in our thinking and policies,” Khatib said.

Monday, June 28, 2010

The Madonna Of The Townships

Brenda Fassie, the bad girl of South African pop, finally gets her shot at musical (and media) stardom in America



The moment was pure Brenda. Making her U.S. debut at Washington's Zanzibar club in July, South African singer Brenda Fassie sang passionately from the diaphragm for almost three hours straight. As if that wasn't enough strain on her petite body, Fassie determinedly put on a frenetic dance show. Suddenly her breasts popped out of her costume. The audience gasped, but Fassie unabashedly grabbed her bare bosom and thrust it at the crowd. "This," she proclaimed, "is Africa!"

But America, it seems, was not yet ready for that part of Africa. "The promoters asked me not to do that again," she said afterward. Which is too bad, because back home Fassie is known (and loved) for her outrageousness. Ask a South African if he likes her music, and he's likely to reply with some vivid, raucous tale. In the townships, Fassie is nicknamed "Madonna," after the provocative American pop star. Fassie is the protagonist of countless tabloid stories involving drug use, bisexuality and tantrums of diva proportions (one local paper even reprinted—verbatim—an interview with Madonna, replacing her name with Fassie's). Last April, as she accepted a prize at the South African Music Awards, she flashed her legs at the crowd. "Nice, eh?" she asked, as the audience cheered. But when she returned to her table, Fassie abruptly hurled obscenities at a tabloid reporter who was sitting nearby, calling him "a homosexual who sleeps with men to get stories." Later, as a rival performer did a TV interview, she snatched away the microphone. "This is my night!" she insisted.

Fassie has been shocking people all her life. When she was born in 1964, her surprised family was expecting a boy, so Fassie's mother, casting about for a name, borrowed one from U.S. country singer Brenda Lee. By her fifth birthday, Fassie was already earning money by singing for tourists. As a teen, she landed gigs with popular acts and got on the charts with a single, Weekend Special, which received international air play. Fassie's 1980s efforts—bubble-gum pop sung mainly in English—were musically unremarkable. But young South Africans loved the lyrics of songs like Too Late for Mama that reflected the realities of the apartheid era, so Fassie became the princess of local music.

In recent years, with her girly, high-pitched delivery ripened into a strong-woman wail, Fassie has entered a new phase of her career. The kids call her the Queen of Kwaito, a pulsating pop style that exploded out of the townships in the early '90s and that Fassie quickly adopted. Kwaito (slang for "these guys are hot") fuses slowed American house and hip-hop, British garage and Jamaican reggae, held together with laid-back bass lines and percussion from traditional African chants. Like hip-hop, kwaito has become a cultural movement that incorporates lifestyle and fashion. And like hip-hop, it sells. In South Africa, where a platinum album means sales of 50,000 units, kwaito records regularly sell more than 100,000. Fassie's 1998 album, Memeza (Shout), was the first South African recording to go platinum on its first day of release. It has sold more than half a million units, spurred by the single Vuli Ndlela (Accept the Situation), which still remains on the South African music charts. Her latest album, Amadlozi (Ancestors), has sold more than 300,000 units.

Fassie, 36, is doing so well because while such younger kwaito acts as Arthur Mafokate create dance-party standards, her lyrics address more complex themes dealing with African culture and life. In Sum' Bulala (Do Not Kill Him/Her), she asks taxi operators in the provinces to end their violent rivalries. Fassie has also mostly abandoned English and now sings mainly in Xhosa, Zulu and Sotho. With this marriage of tradition and innovation, she and longtime producer Sello "Chicco" Twala (South Africa's Quincy Jones) are creating the best music of her career. Fassie's new approach invites further comparisons to Madonna, who recently reinvigorated her sound with hip electronica. Fassie likes Madonna but doesn't understand the comparison. "Maybe it's because of the way we dress," she says.

Fassie's personal life remains a work in progress. By her own admission, she spent much of the early '90s in a cocaine haze, missing gigs and becoming a promoter's nightmare, until the overdose death of her lesbian lover, Poppy Sihlahla, impelled her to clean up her act. Ridiculously generous with family, friends and even friends of friends, she has been broke many times, and was once arrested for nonpayment of debts. Those experiences have colored Fassie's perception of success. "I'd rather have happiness than money," she says. "People ask for [money]. Sometimes when I don't have it. I make other people's problems my problem because they want me to; they ask me to. So sometimes I wish I didn't have the little money that I do."

The singer tried to commit suicide three times but says she now lives to see her son Bongani, 17, become a successful musician. Fassie claims that her romantic problems boil down to this: "I'm so good and so loving that men don't believe it."

Kwaito surfaced in New York City in July, when Central Park SummerStage, a popular music festival, featured a young, Fugee-like trio called Bongo Maffin, which has been raising its international profile in the last few months. Fassie, who is shopping around for a U.S. distribution deal, badly wants to be the vanguard of any kwaito breakthrough. Exiting John F. Kennedy Airport this summer, she was a pile of giggles, giddy with excitement about playing the U.S. Then she seemed to recall that she was already a superstar. "Brenda Fassie is in the house!" she loudly announced to no one in particular. A few African tourists who happened to be near the gate asked the Queen of Kwaito to pose for photos, and she obliged. Then, suppressing more giggles, Fassie strode out of the airport, ready to make news. 

Sunday, June 27, 2010

U.S. puts on a brave face after latest World Cup disappointment

Maurice Edu

Ghana's history-making 2-1 victory in the round of 16 adds Rustenburg, South Africa, to a lengthy list of cities where American soccer dreams have perished. But U.S. players' reaction is free of the acrimony and anger that marked some previous World Cup defeats.

Grahame L. Jones

Out here in the bone-dry South African bushveld, with the haze of grass fires hanging thickly in the night air, it is difficult to remember all the places where earlier dreams died.

Places such as Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1930; Recife, Brazil, in 1950; Florence, Italy, in 1990; Palo Alto, Calif., in 1994; Nantes, France, in 1998; Ulsan, South Korea, in 2002, and Nuremburg, Germany, in 2006.

On Saturday, Rustenburg, South Africa, was added to the unhappy roll call. It was here, in Royal Bafokeng Stadium, that the U.S. national team's great African adventure of 2010 reached its sad conclusion.
Americans have come this way before. Until the day when the
World Cup is actually won by a U.S. team — and that day will come — defeat is the reality that ends the tournament.

It has to be faced with as brave a face as possible, and on Saturday night it was.

"It's disappointing, it's hard, it hurts" said goalkeeper
Tim Howard, echoing similar sentiments from all the U.S. players. Some walked tight-lipped through the postgame mixed zone, choosing not to stop. Others had only a few words.

For Ghana, it was a different story. By winning, the Black Stars became only the third African team to reach the quarterfinals of a World Cup.

Cameroon, led by the irrepressible Roger Miller and the goalkeeping of Thomas Nkono, was the first, in Italy in 1990. Senegal, with Boupa Diop in rare goal-scoring form, matched the accomplishment in 2002, when South Korea and Japan co-hosted the tournament.

Now, it is Ghana's flag that flies high. The victory was a deserved one. The U.S. had its chances, but for once, luck was not on its side. This time, there was no great comeback, only a partial one. This time, there was no late miracle goal.

Bob Bradley, the team's coach, put it best.

"There were so many attacking plays that seemed to just miss," he said. "The timing would be a little off, the last ball would be a little off, some of our crosses weren't as good as they needed to be."

And so, at the end, the most bruised and bloodied of the American warriors, Clint Dempsey, exchanged shirts with Ghana defender John Pantsil. The two are teammates at Fulham in the English Premier League.

Dempsey then walked off toward the somber reality of the U.S. locker room. Pantsil made a different journey. He ventured to the far side of the stadium where some Ghana fans were grouped.

From them, Pantsil received a Ghana flag, the black star proudly emblazoned on the field of yellow, green and red.

With flag in hand, Pantsil set off on a celebratory jaunt around the stadium's track, the flag waving high above him. The celebration was not staged, it was spontaneous and heartfelt.

And all of Africa shared the moment.

Looking at the game from a big-picture perspective, could Howard, for instance, be happy for Africa?

His answer was quick.

"It's obviously good for the game," he replied, "but I would have liked to disappoint a lot of people and gone through. It wasn't to be."

Earlier World Cups have ended in acceptance, acrimony and anger for U.S. teams.

In 1994, a loss to eventual champion Brazil was seen almost as the natural order of things. In 1998, there was a sour aftertaste, with finger-pointing and accusations among a splintered team. Four years later, a dubious non-call by Scottish referee Hugh Dallas on a handball by Germany cost the U.S. a chance to reach the semifinals. There was anger, then.

This time around, there was simply disappointment.

The successes of the first round, when England and Slovenia were held to ties and Algeria was beaten, raised expectations to too high a level, perhaps. The team and the country celebrated a little too long and a little too soon.

There was bound to be a letdown.

But the U.S. was up against more than Ghana on Saturday night. It was up against a continent. Not that Bradley agreed with that notion.

"I don't think that was a factor," he said. "We had a country behind us. We had great fans in the stadium tonight, and we had a belief that we could win."

So did Ghana.

Long after midnight, the U.S. team bus set off on the long trek back to its base camp in Irene a couple of hours away. The smoke from the grass fires still hung in the air. The moon still hung high in the African sky.

But dawn and a new beginning seemed a long way away.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Stanley McChrystal, summoned to Washington after 'Rolling Stone' Interview

Mcchrystal Rolling Stone
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has been summoned to Washington to explain derogatory comments about President Barack Obama and his colleagues, administration officials said Tuesday.
 
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who publicly apologized Tuesday for using "poor judgment" in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, has been ordered to attend the monthly White House meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in person Wednesday rather than over a secure video teleconference, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. He'll be expected to explain his comments to Obama and top Pentagon officials, these officials said.

Obama has the authority to fire McChrystal. His predecessor, Gen. David McKiernan, was sacked on grounds that the military needed "new thinking and new approaches" in Afghanistan.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen has told McChrystal of his "deep disappointment" over the article, a spokesman said.

The article in this week's Rolling Stone depicts McChrystal as a lone wolf on the outs with many important figures in the Obama administration and unable to persuade even some of his own soldiers that his strategy can win the war.

The interview describes McChrystal, 55, as "disappointed" in his first Oval Office meeting with Obama. The article says that although McChrystal voted for Obama, the two failed to connect from the start. Obama appointed McChrystal to lead the Afghan effort in May 2009. Last fall, though, Obama called McChrystal on the carpet for speaking too bluntly about his desire for more troops.

"I found that time painful," McChrystal said in the article, on newsstands Friday. "I was selling an unsellable position."

Obama agreed to dispatch an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan only after months of study that many in the military found frustrating. And the White House's troop commitment was coupled with a pledge to begin bringing them home in July 2011, in what counterinsurgency strategists advising McChrystal regarded as an arbitrary deadline.

In Kabul on Tuesday, McChrystal issued a statement saying: "I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team, and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome."
 
"I extend my sincerest apology for this profile," the statement said. "It was a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened."
 
WATCH: McChrystal apologizes
Mullen talked with McChrystal about the article Monday night, Capt. John Kirby, Mullen's spokesman said. In a 10-minute conversation, the chairman "expressed his deep disappointment in the piece and the comments" in it, Kirby said.

The Rolling Stone profile, titled "The Runaway General," emerged from several weeks of interviews and travel with McChrystal's tight circle of aides this spring.

In the interview, McChrystal he said he felt betrayed by the man the White House chose to be his diplomatic partner, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry. If Eikenberry had the same doubts, McChrystal said he never expressed them until a leaked internal document threw a wild card into the debate over whether to add more troops last November. In the document, Eikenberry said Afghan President Hamid Karzai was not a reliable partner for the counterinsurgency strategy McChrystal was hired to execute.

McChrystal accused the ambassador of giving himself cover.

"Here's one that covers his flank for the history books," McChrystal told the magazine. "Now, if we fail, they can say 'I told you so.'"

Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Kabul, said Eikenberry and McChrystal "are fully committed to the president's strategy and to working together as one civilian-military team."

McChrystal has a history of drawing criticism, despite his military achievements.

In June 2006 President George W. Bush congratulated McChrystal for his role in the operation that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. As head of the special operations command, McChrystal's forces included the Army's clandestine counterterrorism unit, Delta Force.

He drew criticism for his role in the military's handling of the friendly fire shooting of Army Ranger Pat Tillman – a former NFL star – in Afghanistan. An investigation at the time found that McChrystal was "accountable for the inaccurate and misleading assertions" contained in papers recommending that Tillman get a Silver Star award.

McChrystal acknowledged he had suspected several days before approving the Silver Star citation that Tillman might have died by fratricide, rather than enemy fire. He sent a memo to military leaders warning them of that, even as they were approving Tillman's Silver Star. Still, he told investigators he believed Tillman deserved the award.

This week's development comes as criminal investigators are said to be examining allegations that Afghan security firms have been extorting as much as $4 million a week from contractors paid with U.S. tax dollars and then funneling the spoils to warlords and the Taliban, according to a U.S. military document. The payments are intended to ensure safe passage through dangerous areas they control.

The payments reportedly end up in insurgent hands through a $2.1 billion Pentagon contract to transport food, water, fuel and ammunition to American troops stationed at bases across Afghanistan.
__
Associated Press Writer Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.
The top U.S. war commander in Afghanistan apologized Tuesday for a magazine profile in which his aides are quoted mocking Vice President Joe Biden and Richard Holbrooke, the special U.S. representativ...
 

Wikileaks plans to release files about deadly U.S. airstrike on Afghan civilians

washingtonpost.com
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer

Wikileaks.org plans to release as soon as this week documents related to a U.S. airstrike that killed Afghan civilians last year and plans to release combat footage of the incident this summer, the founder of the whistleblower site said in an interview Monday.

Julian Assange said the documents pertain to an attack near the Afghan village of Garani, which killed scores of civilians in May 2009

In April, Wikileaks released video footage of a U.S. Apache helicopter attack in Iraq that killed several civilians, including two employees of the Reuters news service. The release catapulted Wikileaks into global headlines and sparked debate over a site that aims to uncover government and corporate secrets.

Assange said Wikileaks does not try to identify sources. He also said he did not know whether Pfc. Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst, was the source. Manning reportedly claimed to have given the Garani and the Iraq videos to Wikileaks.

"We don't verify sources," Assange said. "We verify documents."

Wikileaks has nonetheless secured three American lawyers, pro bono, to help Manning, 22, who is being held in Kuwait for allegedly leaking classified videos and documents to the whistleblower site. Daniel Schmitt, a spokesman for the group, said those lawyers have not had access to Manning.

"We seem to be stuck at a very early stage, which is that only lawyers representing Mr. Manning are allowed to contact him, but only Mr. Manning could tell what lawyers do represent him," Schmitt said, calling the situation "a bit like a catch-22."

Manning has been assigned a lawyer with the Judge Advocate General Corps, Capt. Paul Bouchard. An Army spokesman said he was unaware whether Manning had retained civilian counsel.

Under law, a service member's detention must be upheld by a military magistrate. The service member may be held as long as an investigation is pending but must be charged within a "reasonable" time, depending on the complexity of the investigation, according to Lt. Col. Chris Carrier, an attorney for the Army Judge Advocate General Corps in Washington

Assange, in his first public appearance since Manning's arrest, voiced concern about Manning's detention without charge and without access to a private lawyer. At a European Parliament panel in Brussels, the Wikileaks founder also took questions about his own security.

His whereabouts had been the subject of much speculation in recent weeks -- he canceled two appearances in the United States -- amid reports suggesting that U.S. authorities were seeking his arrest. Assange said that there had been "uncertainty for a period" but that intermediaries have indicated he is not the target of any manhunt.
The Army has said it is investigating Manning but has not detailed the files that might have been leaked. A former hacker who struck up an online correspondence with Manning has said he turned Manning in to authorities after the 22-year-old confided in him that he had shared sensitive videos and hundreds of thousands of State Department cables with Wikileaks.

Assange said that "as far as we can determine," Wikileaks does not have those cables. "We have tried hard to understand whether we have that material," he said.

According to U.S. officials, the cables Manning purportedly leaked would amount to about half a year's worth. The cables would include political reporting, much of which would probably be fairly innocuous. But State Department officials have expressed concerned about the disclosure of sources, which could be embarrassing or could chill normal diplomatic relations.

Manning's case is but the latest instance in which the government has investigated alleged leakers or whistleblowers. Still, prosecutions in leaking cases are rare.

Schmitt, the Wikileaks spokesman, referred to a challenge for leakers: the difficulty of remaining anonymous. Manning, for instance, was said to have been detained after detailing his actions to a relative stranger, Adrian Lamo, whom he met online.

Said Schmitt: "From a human perspective, it is very difficult for any of our potential sources, if you're contributing to exposing something that is unjust or corrupt . . . you're the only one who is taking any risk in the whole story and you're not paid by anyone, not getting covered, not getting famous for breaking the scoop."

Staff writer Glenn Kessler contributed to this report.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Six arrested over shooting of Rwandan in South Africa

Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa
Lt Gen Nyamwasa used to be a close ally of President Kagame

Six people have been arrested in South Africa over the shooting of a Rwandan dissident, police say.

Police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo refused to give the nationalities of the suspects but said more arrests were likely.

Former army chief of staff Lt Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa is recovering in hospital after what his wife called an assassination attempt.

Rwanda has denied any involvement in the shooting in Johannesburg.

The BBC's Karen Allen in Johannesburg says a Rwandan national known to Lt Gen Nyamwasa is believed to be among those detained.

FAUSTIN KAYUMBA NYAMWASA


  • 1994: Helped bring Paul Kagame to power and end genocide

  • 1998: Appointed army chief of staff

  • 2006: French judge accuses him of shooting down plane of Rwanda's ex-President Habyarimana in 1994

  • 2008: Spain accuses him of links to death of Spanish nuns

  • Feb 2010: Leaves post as ambassador to India, flees to South Africa

  • Accused of links to grenade attacks in Kigali

  • June 2010: Shot in Johannesburg

Brig Mariemuthoo said the six would be charged with attempted murder but declined to give any more details, saying the investigations had reached a "sensitive stage".

Sources close to Lt Gen Nyamwasa told the BBC on Sunday that he was recovering and should be able to leave hospital in a few days.

Once a close confidante of Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, Lt Gen Nyamwasa fled to South Africa in February and has since accused the president of corruption - charges Mr Kagame denies.

Rwanda's government accuses Lt Gen Nyamwasa of links to grenade attacks in Kigali earlier this year and has previously tried to secure his extradition.

Lt Gen Nyamwasa has denied the allegations.

There have been several recent defections from the military ahead of elections due in August.

Rosette Nyamwasa'Grabbed the gun'
 
The Nyamwasas had been returning from a shopping trip at around midday on Saturday (1000 GMT) when the gunman approached their car.
 
[Mr Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband Rosette Nyamwasa
 
"[The gunman] spoke to my driver, but he wanted space to be able to shoot my husband," Rosette Nyamwasa told the BBC.

"Then when my husband bent, he shot. And fortunately, it went into the stomach and not in the head.

"My husband got out immediately.

"And he grabbed the gun. In that kind of scuffle, the guy couldn't cock the gun."

She added that Mr Kagame wanted her husband dead.

"[Mr Kagame] said it in parliament that he will actually kill my husband, that wherever he is he will follow him and kill him," she said.

But Rwanda's Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in a statement that Mr Kagame's government "does not condone violence" and said she trusted South Africa to investigate the shooting thoroughly.

Lt Gen Nyamwasa also claimed the judiciary was compromised and told the BBC in a recent interview that the judges were now "President Paul Kagame's property".

A couple of months after Lt Gen Nyamwasa went into exile along with another top military officer, Mr Kagame reshuffled the military leadership.

At the time, two high-ranking officers were also suspended and put under house arrest.
Arrest warrants

Lt Gen Nyamwasa played an important role in the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), led by Mr Kagame, which put a stop to the killing and which is now in power.

But France and Spain have issued arrest warrants against Mr Nyamwasa for his alleged role in the lead-up to and during the genocide, along with other senior RPF figures.

Mr Kagame, in power for the past 16 years, is viewed by many in the West as one of Africa's more dynamic leaders.

However critics have raised concerns about his more authoritarian tendencies and the government has recently been accused of harassing the opposition ahead of the elections.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Martyrs of the Green Movement

by MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles

19 Jun 2010 19:3517 Comments
Names of 110 killed in political violence over the past year.

The Iranian year of 1388 ended on March 20, 2010. It was one of the most turbulent years in the country's modern history. Its beginning and end were both marked by much promise, but for completely different reasons. The year had begun with the hope that the presidential election of June 12, 2009, would result in the election of a candidate with a vision for a better Iran -- a more open, more tolerant society, with less corruption, no political crimes, freedom of the press, and freedom of thought. This hope was dashed when the hardliners rigged the election and declared Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the "victor."

But precisely due to this antidemocratic fraud, the Green Movement that had arisen before the election gathered strength. It spread its wings and presented to the world a completely different image of Iran: a country with a young, educated, dynamic population that is willing to stand up to the forces of oppression and repression, express itself eloquently, and sacrifice for a better future. Thus, as Iran begins its new year, there is renewed hope.

Mousavi-supporter-Azadi-square-Tehran.jpgThe past year also recorded the largest number of Iranian people who lost their lives due to political violence since the bloody summer of 1988 (1367 in the Iranian calendar), when about 4,500 political prisoners were executed. The riots that erupted in mid-1992 and, particularly, the Eslamshahr riots of April 1995 did result in many deaths (though still not as many as in 2009), but they had mostly to do mostly with people's anger over rampant inflation and lack of basic services and were not fundamentally political.

How many people were murdered in 1388 due to political violence? No one really knows, and in a nation where there is virtually no independent press to serve as a watchdog, it is very difficult to get an accurate estimate of the total number of casualties. We can, however, distinguish between two groups among those confirmed as dead. In one group are those whose families have declared the martyrdom of their loved ones to the two committees that Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have set up for compiling the list of the killed. In the second group are those whose families have been under tremendous pressure not to report the death of their loved ones to the two committees, and not to speak to the press.

The credible Iranian sources reporting on the number of people killed include Norooz News, the website of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Iran's largest political party and leading reformist group; Kalame, Mousavi's official website; and Kalameh Sabz, Jonbeshe-Rah-e Sabz, and Aras News, three reformist news sites supportive of the Green Movement. In a few cases, news wires aligned with the hardliners, such as the Fars News Agency, which is controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have also confirmed the deaths of demonstrators or those who were arrested.

Several organizations have also published lists of people whose deaths have been confirmed by multiple credible sources. One is the League for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran. Its list of confirmed murders, containing more than 100 names, was first published in August 2009 and updated on March 10, 2010. A list of 72 names was published by Aseman Daily News in September 2009. Norooz News just published the precise addresses of the graves of 50 people in Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery.

What follows is the list of 107 confirmed dead collated from all of the credible sources. Their age, if known, is in parentheses. First, a few statistics: 13 of the killed (12 percent) were women; at least 23 of them were university students (22 percent); two were tortured to death; two were journalists. In several cases, there is no information about how the victims were killed -- all we know is the location of their graves.
1. Neda Agha Soltan (27), university student, murdered on June 20, 2009, in Tehran.
2. Kianoush Asa, university student, killed on June 15, 2009, in Tehran.
3. Behzad Aghazadeh Ghahramani, murdered on July 17, 2009, after the Friday prayers in Tehran led by former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
4. Morad Aghasi, murdered on July 17, 2009, in the Kahrizak detention center on the southern edge of Tehran.
5. Mina Ehterami, university student, killed on June 15, 2009, in the attack on the Tehran University dormitory.
6. Hossein Akhtar Zand (32), murdered on June 15, 2009, in Shiraz.
7. Arman Estakhripour (18), beaten to death on July 13, 2009, in Shiraz.
8. Neda Asadi; nothing is known about the circumstances of her death.
9. Amir Eslamian, university student, working for Mousavi's campaign; his body was discovered on November 27, 2009, in Boukan.
10. Saeed Esmaeili Khanbebin (23), hit in the head and killed.
11. Sohrab Erabi (19), pre-university student, murdered in Evin Prison on June 20, 2009.
12. Alireza Eftekhari (29), journalist, killed by hits to the head on June 15, 2009; his body was given to his family the following month.
13. Naser Amirnejad (26), university student in aerospace engineering, killed in Yasouj.
14. Mohsen Entezami, murdered in the Kahrizak detention center on July 14, 2009.
15. Vahed Akbari (34), killed on June 20, 2009, after his arrest in Tehran's Vanak Square.
16. Hossein Akbari, killed by hits to the head on July 26, 2009.
17. Mohsen Imani, university student, killed in the attack on the Tehran University dormitory on June 15, 2009.
18. Fatemeh Barati, university student, killed in the attack on the Tehran University dormitory on June 15, 2009.
19. Mohammad Hossein Barzegar (25), killed by a bullet to his head, after being arrested in Tehran's Haft-e Teer Square on June 17, 2009.
20. Yaghoub Boroayeh, university student, killed by a bullet on June 25, 2009.
21. Jafar Boroayeh, assistant professor at the University of Ahwaz, killed by a bullet to his head on June 28, 2009.
22. Sorour Borouman (58), killed on June 15, 2009, in Tehran.
23. Hamed Besharati (26), blogger and poet; nothing is known about the circumstances of his death.
24. Jahanbakhsh Pazouki (31), killed by a knife on December 28, 2009 (Day of Ashura).
25. Mohammad Javad Parandakh, university student; nothing is known about how he was killed.
26. Dr. Ramin Pourandarjani, physician on duty in the Kahrizak detention center, presumably poisoned on November 10, 2009.
27. Amir Arshaf Tajmir, killed on December 28, 2009 (Day of Ashura) in Tehran.
28. Farzad Jashni, killed on June 20, 2009.
29. Somayyeh Jafargholi, university student, killed by a bullet on September 27, 2009.
30. Bahman Jenabi; nothing is known about the circumstances of his death.
31. Amir Javadifar, university student, arrested on July 9, 2009; died in prison.
32. Moharram Chegini Gheshlaghi (35); nothing is known about how he was murdered.
33. Mohsen Haddadi (24), computer programmer, killed by a bullet to his forehead on June 23, 2009.
34. Ali Hassanpour, killed on June 15, 2009, in Tehran's Azadi Square; his body was given to his family 105 days later.
35. Amir Mehdi Hamzehlouei, killed in Gheyterieh Park in Tehran on October 2, 2009.
36. Hesam Hanifeh (19), killed by a bullet to his chin on June 16, 2009.
37. Mehrdad Heidari, journalist, killed on July 13, 2009, in Mashhad.
38. Masoud Khosravi, killed in Tehran's Azadi Square on June 15, 2009.
39. Sh. Khezri, university student, killed in Tehran's Baharestan Square on June 15, 2009.
40. Abbas Disnad (40), killed by hits to his head on June 20, 2009; his body was given to his family after $15,000 was paid.
41. Mohammad Raeis-Najafi, beaten to death near Tehran's Azadi Square on June 15, 2009.
42. Mohammad Ali Rasekhi-Nia (40), killed by a bullet on December 28, 2009 (Day of Ashura).
43. Fatemeh Rajabpour (38), killed with her mother, Ms. Borouman (number 22 above).
44. Shahrokh Rahmani (26), run over by a car on December 28, 2009 (Day of Ashura) in Tehran.
45. Dr. Rahimi; nothing is known about the circumstances of his death.
46. Hamid Rezaei, killed on January 1, 2010, in Homayounshahr.
47. Ramin Ramazani (22); nothing is known about how he was murdered.
48. Mohsen Ruhol-amini (25), university student, killed in the Kahrizak detention center.
49. Babak Sepehr (35); nothing is known about how he was killed.
50. Fahimeh Selahshour (25), killed by hits to her head in Tehran's Vali-Asr Square on June 14, 2009.
51. Fatemeh Semsarpour, killed by a bullet on June 20, 2009, near Tehran's Azadi Square.
52. Ashkan Sohrabi (18), high school student, killed by a bullet in Tehran on June 20, 2009.
53. Tina Soudi, university student, killed by a bullet on June 20, 2009, in Tehran's Enghelab Square.
54. Hassan Shapouri, killed on July 14, 2009.
55. Ali Shahnazar (41), killed on September 29, 2009.
56. Ali Shahedi (24), killed on June 21, 2009, while detained by police.
57. Kasra Sharafi, university student, killed in the attack on the Tehran University dormitory on June 15, 2009.
58. Kambiz Shoaei, university student, killed in the attack on the Tehran University dormitory on June 15, 2009.
59. Shafi' Nejad, killed on June 15, 2009.
60. Zahed Shekarabi (20), tortured to death in Esfahan on July 21, 2009.
61. Yousef Saleh; nothing is known about how he was murdered.
62. Davoud Sadri (27), killed by a bullet on June 15, 2009, in Tehran; his body was given to his family after $6,000 was paid, plus a $350 charge for the bullet.
63. Seyyed Reza Tabatabaei (30), killed by a bullet to his head on June 20, 2009, in Tehran.
64. Vahid Reza Tabatabaei (29), killed by a bullet to his head on June 26, 2009, in Tehran.
65. Hossein Toufanpour, killed by a bullet to his head on June 20, 2009, in Tehran.
66. Hossein Tahmasebi (25), killed when his head was repeatedly hit by an object on June 15, 2009, in Kermanshah.
67. Salar Tahmasebi (27), university student, killed by a bullet to his head on June 20, 2009, in Tehran.
68. Maysam Ebadi, killed by a bullet to his abdomen on June 13, 2009, in Tehran's Sadeghieh Square.
69. Saeed Abbasi (28), killed on June 20, 2009; his body was given to his family after $8,000 was paid.
70. Abolfazl Abdollahi (21), killed by a bullet to his head on June 20, 2009, in Tehran.
71. Hamid Araghi, killed by a bullet on June 27, 2009; his family, initially told to pay $12,000 for his body, eventually paid $5,000.
72. Kaveh Alipour (19), killed on June 20, 2009; his family paid $3,000 to get his body.
73. Mostafa Ghanyan, university student, killed in the attack on the Tehran University dormitory on June 15, 2009.
74. Reza Fattahi, university student, killed in the Kahrizak detention center on July 14, 2009.
75. Ali Fathalian, killed in Tehran; nothing else is known.
76. Shahram Faraji (30), killed on December 28, 2009 (Day of Ashura) in Tehran.
77. Mehdi Farhadirad (34), killed by a bullet to his face on December 28, 2009 (Day of Ashura) in Tehran.
78. Mohammad Hossein Fayzi (28); nothing is known about how he was killed.
79. Sajjad Ghaed Rahmati; nothing is known about how he was murdered.
80. Salar Ghorbani Param (22); nothing is known about how he was murdered.
81. Rahim Mahmoudpour, killed by a bullet on August 3, 2009, in Tehran.
82. Hamid Maddah Shourcheh, university student, killed after his head was repeatedly hit by an object.
83. Moazzez (27), killed by a bullet to his eye on June 20, 2009, near Tehran's Azadi Square.
84. Pouya Azadbeigi, arrested on June 20, 2009, and died soon after his release.
85. Dr. Moghsoudlou; nothing is known about the circumstances of his murder.
86. Behzad Mohajer (47), killed by a bullet to his heart on June 15, 2009.
87. Maryam Mehraaein (24); nothing is known about how she was murdered.
88. Taraneh Mousavi, murdered on June 28, 2009.
89. Seyyed Ali Mousavi Habibi (42), nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi, assassinated on December 28, 2009 (Day of Ashura) in Tehran.
90. Mostafa Mirebrahimi (22), killed under torture in August 2009.
91. Mohammad Naderipour, university student and Mousavi campaign worker.
92. Nader Naseri, killed on June 20, 2009, in Tehran.
93. Ahmad Nejati, killed by hits to his head.
94. Ahmad Naeimabadi, killed by a bullet in Tehran's Azadi Square.
95. Iman Namazi, university student, killed in the attack on the Tehran University dormitory on June 15, 2009.
96. Mohammad Ali Nikzadi (22), architect, killed by a bullet to his abdomen on June 16, 2009, in Tehran.
97. Masoud Hashemzadeh, killed by a bullet on June 20, 2009, in Tehran.
98. Iman Hashemi (27), killed by a bullet to his eye on June 20, 2009, in Azadi Street in Tehran.
99. Mostafa Kashani Rasa, Mousavi campaign worker, killed by a bullet at the campaign headquarters in Gheytarieh, Tehran, on June 14, 2009.
100. Mohammad Kamrani (18), died in Tehran's Mehr Hospital.
101. Mehdi Karami (25), killed by a bullet to his neck on June 15, 2009, in Tehran.
102. Mostafa Karim Beigi (27), murdered by a bullet to his head on October 27, 2009.
103. Parisa Kolli (25), university graduate, killed by a bullet to her neck on June 21, 2009, in Tehran.
104. Majid Kamali (23), killed on August 25, 2009.
105. Amir Kaviri; nothing is known about how he was murdered.
106. Mostafa Kiarostami (22), killed by hits to his head on July 17, 2009.
107. Milad Yazdanpanah (30), killed by a bullet in Azadi Street in Tehran.
Three other people lost their lives for the Green Movement. One is Mohammad Asghari, who was a computer expert and worked for the office of computer security at the Ministry of Interior. He leaked a considerable amount of information about the actual vote count after the rigged June 2009 election and mysteriously lost his life in a car accident soon thereafter. It is widely believed that he was murdered.

The other two are Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani (37) and Arash Rahmanipour (19). They had been arrested before the election, but were hanged in early January 2010 in what is widely believed to be a message to the supporters of the Green Movement that they too could be hanged. Neither one had committed any serious offense.
In addition, Dr. Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, professor of physics at the University of Tehran, was assassinated. There is considerable evidence that he was murdered by the hardliners, although this is not a certainty.

These are freedom fighters who lost their precious lives for their ideals. Their place in history is assured. The Iranian people will never forget them.

Mir Hossein Mousavi has declared 1389 the year of patience, resistance against the hardliners, and efforts to achieve citizens' legal rights. Certainly, those who have lost loved ones need a lot of patience. Let us hope that by the end of the year Iran will be well on its way to a democratic society, so that those who lost their loved ones can see the fruits of their sacrifice.

Muhammad Sahimi is a columnist for Tehran Bureau.

Copyright © 2010 Tehran Bureau

Saturday, June 19, 2010

New autopsy for Egypt 'police beating victim'

Activist with image of Khaled Said

Activists marched in Egyptian cities to demand a new probe into the death

A second autopsy has been ordered for a young man who human rights activists claim was killed by police in Egypt.

Khaled Said, 28, died on 6 June after plainclothes policemen reportedly tried to search him in an Alexandria cafe.

His family and campaigners claim he was dragged out and beaten to death on a busy street in full view of passersby. His death led to angry demonstrations.

Egypt's interior ministry said Mr Said died after swallowing a bag of drugs when police tried to arrest him.

Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud transferred the case to Egypt's most senior coroners on Tuesday.
 
Street protests
The United States expressed concern over the death in the northern port city, and Washington welcomed Cairo's decision to launch an investigation.

"We urge the Egyptian authorities to hold accountable whoever is responsible," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

Campaigners took to the streets of Alexandria and Cairo to demand a fresh investigation after the interior ministry said Mr Said died after swallowing drugs.

Photos of Mr Said's battered face have been circulated in Egypt by human rights activists.

They say his death is evidence that Egypt's emergency law has created a culture of police impunity.

The law, which has been in place for nearly 30 years since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat by an Islamic militant, was recently renewed for a further two years.

Egypt's parliament has said that new legal limits would be introduced, guaranteeing that the law would be used only to counter terrorism and trade in illegal drugs.

But the government's political opponents also claim the legislation is used to target them in the name of national security.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Pride Toronto in hiding after spirited denunciation from queer leaders

No one takes giant shame placard from former honorees
Marcus McCann

Armed with an oversized cardboard shame award, a group of queers trying to give back their trophies ran into a problem on June 7: the offices of Pride Toronto (PT) were locked.

As one, two and eventually three police cruisers showed up, it became increasingly clear than no one from PT was going to accept the giant shame certificate nor the statuettes from former grand marshals, honoured dykes and other honorees.

A police officer on hand said that no one was inside the building but that someone from PT had alerted police to the protest on Sunday, apparently out of fear it would lead to vandalism.

After PT announced that its board had voted 4-3 to ban the term “Israeli Apartheid” from the parade, queer community leaders mobilized to pressure PT’s board to reverse its decision. First, Alan Li refused to accept the title of grand marshal, then Jane Farrow declined the honoured dyke title. Since then, both Michelle Walker (community service award) and ILGA (international marshals) have turned down honours.

During the press conference, PT issued a statement on its website, saying the decision to ban the term "Israeli Apartheid" was not taken lightly.

"The board of Pride Toronto listened to members of our community," it said. "What we heard overwhelmingly was that the use of the words 'Israeli Apartheid' made participants feel unsafe."

Tim McCaskell, a member of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA), spoke to Xtra after PT's release.

"If people feel unsafe, I would suggest that they are being manipulated," he said. "If the word is 'uncomfortable,' well, Pride makes a lot of people uncomfortable."

An hour earlier, you could have heard a pin drop when James Loney approached the podium at the 519 Community Centre, where more than 100 queers gathered for a press conference before marching on the PT office.

Loney — a peace activist who spent four months as a hostage in Iraq — was one of nearly two dozen PT honorees    giving back their awards.

“Us queers know it in our bones: silence equals death,” Loney said, as he discussed how silence affected him and his partner following his abduction.

Video of the press conference:


Loney was joined by Farrow, Walker and a raft of others who spoke against PT. On hand were:

Queer leaders carried a "Shame Award" to the doorstep of Pride Toronto's Dundonald St office.
James Loney (“Fearless” Theme Award, 2006)
Zahra Dhanani (Honoured Dyke, 2006)
Sky Gilbert (Grand Marshal, 2000)
Faith Nolan (Honoured Dyke, 2009)
El-Farouk Khaki (Grand Marshal, 2009)
Rachel Epstein (Honoured Dyke, 2007)
Gareth Henry (International Grand Marshal, 2008)
Anna Willats (Honoured Dyke, 2008)
JP Hornick (Grand Marshal, 2002)
John Greyson (Arts & Culture Award, 2009)
Savoy Howe (Award for Excellence in Sports, 2008)
Leonardo Zuniga (Human Rights Award, 2009)
Matthew Cutler (Youth Award, 2009)
Michelle Walker (Community Service Award, 2010)
Jane Farrow (Honoured Dyke, 2010)

Six others were to return their awards but couldn’t attend in person:

Gloria Careaga and Renato Sabbadini (International Grand Marshals, 2010)
Faisal Alam (Spirituality Award, 2009)
Victor Mukasa (International Grand Marshal, 2009)
Salah Bachir (Grand Marshal, 2005)
Rosanna Flamer-Caldera (International Grand Marshal, 2007)
Alan Li (Grand Marshal, 2010)

Discontent with PT went beyond its banning of “Israeli Apartheid,” as speaker after speaker drew links between the act of censorship and other moves to whitewash the celebrations.

Farrow pointed out that performers on all PT stages must sign an agreement promising not to say anything offensive or political. Farrow says the clause, which has been in effect since 2008, was defended by PT organizers as preventing musicians from endorsing, for instance, mayoral candidates.

“This is not speech that anyone needs to be protected from,” she said.

JP Hornick, one of the women charged in the Pussy Palace raids, decried the de-sexing and de-politicizing of Pride.

“This is not a parade; it’s a march. It’s about sex. It’s about who we fuck,” she said.

Anna Willats, Pride Toronto's honoured dyke in 2008, told the boisterous room that queers need to take back Pride “if we want to put on a World Pride [in 2014] that doesn’t look like the Santa Claus Parade.”

Performer, playwright and provocateur Sky Gilbert remembered his experience of being told not to perform sex acts on his float in the late ’90s, after he gave head to a dyke’s strap-on dildo the year before.

He also defended PT executive director Tracey Sandilands — sort of.

“I’m sure that she’s a nice person. I suspect that she’s maybe a nice person. Tracey Sandilands is the new face of corporate Pride, but she’s just doing her job,” he said, adding that political queers have allowed Pride to become a sanitized spectacle.

Musician Faith Nolan says that she’s been following as alternative Pride events spring up. She was invited to perform at one — apparently to be held at the Gladstone — which was to be a non-political show of unity that didn’t choose sides between PT and QuAIA.

“I looked at it and I emailed them back and said, 'Absolutely not,’” adding, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

Groups will outline plans for alternative Pride celebrations at a community meeting at The 519 tonight (Monday, June 7), at 6:30pm. The proceedings will be streamed at xtra.ca. (UPDATE: Watch our recording below. First chunk missing due to internet connection issues at the event — our apologies!)