World races clock to help quake victims

Rescue teams and aid pledges have poured into Pakistan from around the world after the devastating earthquake that has killed about 20,000 people.

"We are rushing against the clock here," a spokeswoman for the United Nations (UN) Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Rescue workers are struggling to pull survivors of Saturday's 7.6 magnitude earthquake from the rubble.

The spokeswoman says an eight-member UN team has begun coordinating the relief effort in the hardest hit areas, and teams from Turkey, China, Britain and Germany are on the ground.

She says the greatest need is for field hospitals, water purification and blankets.

"The logistical problems will be big. We are going to need more helicopters for example."

US, Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are among others dispatching help.

The quake, which General Musharraf's spokesman calls the worst devastation in Pakistan's history, has also killed more than 550 people in India and at least one in Afghanistan.

Pakistani expats pray for quake victims
By In Solidarity 8 October 05

Pakistani Muslims living in Australia have held a special prayer service for the 20,000 people killed in the earthquake that rattled Pakistan, India and Afghanistan on Saturday.

Khawar Saleem Khan, from the Pakistan Australia Friendship Association, says hundreds of people attended the service.

He has also called on the community to donate to Pakistan's national earthquake relief fund.

"That's what we did in the Canberra Islamic Centre," he said.

"We also did a, we call it prayer for the ones who passed away, we did that and approximately 400 attended over there."

Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says there are no reports of any Australian casualties.

Consular officials from Islamabad and New Delhi are checking on the welfare of Australians in the region.

By In Solidarity 8 October 05

Fresh fears raised about aspartame

Ajinomoto SaiNaRa!

Manufacturers dispute study into lab rats fed sweetener.

The European Food Safety Authority is reviewing "as a matter of high priority" the results of a large new study into aspartame, the artificial sweetener consumed by millions of people worldwide and used in more than 6,000 food and drink products.

Researchers at the Ramazzini Institute for cancer research in Italy say their study shows that aspartame causes lymphomas and leukaemia in female laboratory animals "at doses very close to the acceptable daily intake for humans". The authors of the study also say that while rats fed aspartame ate less food, there was no difference in body weight between treated and untreated animals.

One of the largest manufacturers of aspartame, the Japanese multinational Ajinomoto said the allegations made by the Italian study were "not consistent with the extensive body of scientific research which already exists on aspartame".

It questioned the methods used and the record of the institute. It pointed to four previous studies into the carcinogenicity of aspartame that had found no relationship between aspartame and any form of cancer. It added that aspartame broke down in the body into the building blocks of protein that occur widely in the rest of food.

It also helped people reduce their calorie intake. This contribution to cutting obesity helped to prevent cancer, a spokesman said.

The Ramazzini Institute has sent its first results to the European Food Safety Authority. EFSA confirmed yesterday that it would be asking its expert scientific panel on food additives to review the results "as a matter of high priority, in the context of the previous extensive safety data available on aspartame".

EFSA added that until that review had taken place it did not have a basis for recommending that consumers change their diet in respect of aspartame.

Although it had been presented with an outline of the findings by the institute in June, it is still waiting for the full pathology reports from the researchers. The review will also take into account all the other studies and data available.

"This will probably take several months," an EFSA statement said.

The institute said the full data would be published in six weeks' time. Aspartame is widely used to sweeten chewing gum, soft drinks, yoghurts and desserts and other low-calorie foods, and medicines including syrups and antibiotics for children.

Aspartame has been authorised for use in foods for a long time in many countries but has "a controversial history", according to EFSA. Since its approval, the safety of aspartame and its breakdown products has been widely discussed in the press and among scientists. "Up to now aspartame has been considered safe, based on the studies available."

The new study was conducted on 1,800 rats during their full lifespan. Six different dose levels were tested against a control group. The institute said the study, which is to appear in its own publication, the European Journal of Oncology, had been peer-reviewed by seven international experts "in anticipation of controversy".

Ajinomoto said it welcomed the decision by EFSA to review the claim made by the Ramazzini Institute objectively.

By Felicity Lawrence posted 16 July 05

Related:

Aspartame and Medication
Justice Health and Corrective Services under "Duty of Care" provide a lethal cocktail to its prisoners' by way of a so-called sweetener! This on its own is considered a lethal cocktail!

Cover the Uninsured Week

When Medicare doesn't Care! It seems people who cannot afford health care will now be on death row if they can't afford to pay their medical bills?

Dear Friends in Faith?

Thank you for your support of Cover the Uninsured Week and commitment to Americans living without health care coverage. At this time, more than 120 organizations, faith communities, partners and friends have signed on to support the campaign. Please visit Cover The Uninsured Week.org involved for a complete list of who is involved this year.

Included in this week's e-mail:

1. Save the Date! National Launch Event
2. Event Planning Center and Resources
3. National Day of Prayer, May 5, 2005
4. Cover the Uninsured Week Web Button

1. Save the Date! National Launch Event
This year's national launch event will be held on April 27, 2005, in Washington, DC. You can watch the National Launch Event from your computer. Visit Cover The Uninsured Week.org on April 27, 2005 for instructions on how to view the Web cast!

2. Event Planning Center and Resources
If you or anyone in your faith community is planning Cover the Uninsured Week activities, we encourage you to visit the Event Planning Center at http://plan.CoverTheUninsuredWeek.org to publicize your events, send invitations and download and order free planning guides and other materials, including Christian, Jewish and Muslim prayers and study guides. You can find these and other faith based materials at Cover The Uninsured Week/interfaith In addition, Cover the Uninsured Week campaign staff are available to assist you in planning an activity in your community. Visit Cover The Uninsured Week/field for a contact list of campaign staff across the country.

3. National Day of Prayer, May 5, 2005
If you are involved in an interfaith activity on the National Day of Prayer, May 5, 2005, consider including Cover the Uninsured Week handouts and materials at your event. Visit Cover The Uninsured Week/materials to order free Cover the Uninsured Week posters, stickers, fliers, and more.

4. Cover the Uninsured Week Web Buttons
Visit Cover The Uninsured Week/distribution/participants for instructions on posting a Cover the Uninsured Week Web button on your congregation or faith community Web site. (A Web button is a graphic logo/element that links directly to a Web site.) Posting a Web button or the Cover the Uninsured Week Web address is a great way to let your community know about your involvement in a campaign to ensure health care coverage for all Americans!

Thank you for your ongoing support of Cover the Uninsured Week and commitment to Americans living without health care coverage. If you have any questions or need further information, please contact Sally Kurtz at (202) 572-2848 or sally.kurtz@gmmb.com.

By Sally Kurtz and Just Us 18 April 05

Ed: All the way with the USA: Cover the Uninsured Week? That's what happened when the Neo-Liberal fascist party lied to us about Medicare. Now we have to fork it or walk it? There is an old bush saying, 'that you can take a sheep if you're hungry but you must leave the pelt on the farmers fence'. That as well as stealing hubcaps for a living seems likely to become good options for the poor and underprivileged when HoWARd takes over the Senate in July. Tony Abbott must stand down Now!

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Dismantle the war machine, slash taxes, privatisation and keep social services Slash taxes and end welfare state [social services state], report urges? Dismantle the War Machine not Welfare [Social Services]!

AMA slams major parties over Indigenous health
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says Indigenous health standards will continue to be as poor as some third world countries, because the nation's major political parties are not serious about fixing the problem.

Potent strike into Howard's heartland before it's too late!
HOPE, urgency and Medicare Gold constitute Mark Latham's now formidable assault on The Lodge. In his first campaign launch Latham has unveiled a mega-initiative -- free hospital treatment, public or private, for all Australians aged 75 and over.

Govt urged to restructure Medicare
The Institute of Health Economics and Technology Assessment says raising taxes alone is not a sustainable way to finance a health system, particularly as Australia's population ages.

Protesters arrested during PM's Tas visit
Inside he addressed a community morning tea and talked of the benefits of Australia's free trade agreement with the United States and reiterated his commitment to the Government's Medicare reforms.

Inmate takes legal action over lack of needle exchange

UK: A prisoner who claims that the refusal of the prison service to introduce a needle exchange policy represents a real and immediate risk to his life has started legal proceedings against the home secretary. Lawyers acting for John Shelley, a long-term prisoner currently in Long Lartin jail, near Evesham, are seeking a judicial review of current policy.

Under this policy prisoners are being issued with disinfecting tablets, which the Department of Health, doctors and drug-user support groups say are inadequate in protecting addicts from blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis.

A gay former prisoner who was wrongly diagnosed as HIV positive claims that Home Office figures on the number of prisoners with HIV are the "tip of a hidden iceberg". He said this was due to prisoners failing to report their condition to jail staff from fear of discrimination. During one sentence, he said, he was moved 38 times because no prison would accept him.

The last survey of prisoners with blood-borne viruses was carried out in 1997/98. The Public Health Laboratory Service concluded that 0.36% of inmates were HIV positive and 7.8% had Hepatitis B. A further 7.5% tested positive for Hepatitis C, regarded as the most serious of these viruses, directly responsible of around 100 deaths a year in the UK and a major contributor to a further 5,000 deaths annually.

A recent Home Office report suggested that 2% of prisoners inject drugs in prison and it acknowledged that there may be significant under-reporting of the problem because of the stigma, and illegality, of drug use in prison. A previous study suggested that 6.7% of inmates injected drugs and that there was a high level of needle sharing by prisoners who used drugs intravenously.

When the introduction of disinfecting tablets was reported a spokesman for the Department of Health said it would not recommend it as a suitable method of sterilising needles. It later denied saying this.

However, a department report, commissioned in 1999, states that, "although cleaning equipment is a safer practise than not cleaning at all, the practise - of disinfecting needles - has only been shown to reduce the risk of HIV and may offer little or no protection against more enduring or prevalent hepatitis C".

At least 99% of health authorities operate needle exchange programmes, which have proved to reduce the spread of blood-borne viruses among drug addicts who inject.

Shelley's solicitor, Sean Humber, said that the failure of the prison service to consider needle exchanges, "exposes prisoners and prison officers alike to unnecessary risks and is a breach of their human rights".

Glen Fielding was released from prison in October. In 1993, after being told he was HIV positive, he received his first jail sentence. During that five-year term he said he was in 38 different prisons as a result of staff refusing to have contact with him.

"Every time I was moved prison officers would refuse to be handcuffed to me."

He was advised to go on protection on the vulnerable prisoner wings and received daily abuse from staff and prisoners because of his supposed condition. "Staff were frightened of me," he said.

He went back to prison in 1997, serving seven years. Although he had by then been told that the earlier diagnosis was wrong, he was still treated with suspicion by staff and inmates. This was largely due to him not hiding his sexuality, he said.

Mr Fielding took a successful legal action to force the prison service to supply condoms to inmates.

Although Mr Fielding, 43, is not a drug addict, he said he began to notice the problems associated with needle sharing. In one prison, Littlehey, near Huntingdon, 32 prisoners were sharing one needle, fashioned from a biro and a needle that had been secreted by a diabetic prisoner, he said.

"Of the 32," he said, "four were HIV positive. By the time I left that nick, all 32, the whole shooting match, had contracted the virus."

Mr Fielding said that, in 12 months, in two jails in the south of England, he met at least two dozen HIV positive prisoners who had not declared their condition to prison staff.

"It may sound awful," he said, "but I could not blame them, after the dreadful experiences I suffered as a result of my wrong diagnosis."

He said the prison service had to face up to the reality of the drug situation and work to stop the spread of blood-borne viruses.

"Drugs are coming into prison, everybody knows that they are," he said.

"Therefore the prison service has an obligation to prevent the spread of ill health."

Tim Newell is a former prison governor, widely respected for his innovative therapeutic work with prisoners at Grendon jail. Now a consultant for the Butler Trust, he said the issue of drug abuse was huge and needed a multi-faceted approach to address it. His basic view is that that the problem should be seen and treated as a health issue, rather than a prison one.

"I agree that what they are doing - in relation to disinfecting tablets - may be a dangerous practice," he said. "The ideal way of dealing with this serious problem would be for the prison service to implement a needle exchange policy."

By Eric Allison posted 15 April 05

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People who are addicted to heroin usually take the drug because it relieves them of problems such as low self-esteem, distrust and fear of abandonment. They may have poor communication skills & poor relationship skills.

Efficacy of 'baby bottle' sterilising tablets disputed
The Department of Health and the Prison Service appeared to be at odds last night over a needle cleansing programme designed to protect prisoners from blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis.

Government shirking obligations to prisoners
Over 50% of prisoners have Hepatitis C. Many have contracted the disease whilst in prison due to the Government's refusal to provide clean needles as is generally available. Is this the gross negligence for which the Government is trying to shirk responsibility?

MJA - BBCD Outbreaks in NSW prisons
Seems some of our friends in & around Corrections Health Service (CHS) were able to take advantage of a couple of recognised cases of needle sharing by HIV positive prisoners to gather data for a study.

Drug law blamed for hep C epidemic
THE federal Government's conservative tough-on-drugs policies have triggered an explosion in hepatitis C infections, a secret health department report has found.

The Thai Drug Users' Network is a group of individuals who use or have used drugs We have come together to respond to the deplorable health and human rights situation of drug users in our country, and in particular the current climate of fear caused by the extrajudicial killing of people allegedly involved with drugs.

Drugs firms 'creating ills for every pill'

UK: Expensive new medicines are oversold when cheaper therapies or prevention would work better, say MPs

The power of Britain's multi-billion-pound drugs industry has turned this country into an over-medicalised society that believes in a pill for every ill, a Commons inquiry will claim this week.

The report will say that the billions of pounds poured into researching and promoting new drugs have fuelled an over-emphasis on medicinal cures at the expense of cheaper and better therapies, or simple prevention.

The MPs heard evidence of 'disease-mongering' drugs firms effectively inventing diseases for which they could then sell treatments, with relatively normal behaviour - from mild depression to low female sex drive - re-labelled as conditions for which drugs were supposedly necessary.

Lord Warner, the health minister responsible for medicines, admitted to the inquiry: 'I have some concerns that sometimes we do, as a society, wish to put labels on things which are just part and parcel of the human condition.'

The report from the Commons health select committee is also expected to criticise the secretive process of licensing medicines in Britain, following several safety scares in which so-called 'wonder drugs' have turned out to have serious side effects.

The common anti-depressant Seroxat was recently linked to an increased risk of suicide in teenagers, while the widely prescribed arthritis drug Vioxx was withdrawn last year over links to fatal heart attacks and strokes.

Labour's election manifesto is now expected to include a pledge to overhaul the drug licensing regime. Expert members of the government's medicines regulator will be banned from holding financial interests in drug firms to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

The seven-month inquiry follows complaints from patients' groups and senior doctors that the interests of the industry are distorting health care priorities.

Prescriptions for Seroxat tripled after it was licensed for mild depression, while it was revealed earlier this year that it was being marketed to doctors as a treatment for ill-defined 'social anxiety disorders'.

Drug firms are banned from advertising directly to patients in Britain, or offering bribes to doctors to prescribe a certain brand. However campaigners say the industry has discovered ways of 'guerrilla' promotion, including generously funding medical charities - which, the inquiry heard, raises the risk of them becoming its 'unwitting foot soldiers'.

One mental health charity, Depression Alliance, receives almost 80 per cent of its funding from drugs companies, while Arthritis Care received money from Merck Sharp and Dohme, maker of Vioxx.

Paul Flynn, the Labour MP who has campaigned to expose the influence of the industry and gave evidence to the committee, said it deserved an 'absolute hammering' for its practices. 'The whole of society has been conditioned to believe that we are dependent on medicines. I have had arthritis all my life and I haven't taken anything for it - I believe in exercise, swimming and walking.'

The inquiry heard of drugs marketed to doctors in papers written for medical journals ostensibly by independent experts which are, in fact, ghostwritten by the firms, which pay academics to lend their names to the reports.

Dr Richard Horton, editor of leading journal, the Lancet, disclosed he had been effectively offered bribes to publish papers showing drugs in a favourable light. He said firms offered to buy 'hundreds of thousands of reprints' - which could be worth up to half a million pounds to his magazine - if their paper went in.

However, a spokesman for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry denied fuelling dependence on drugs: 'I don't think we have ever suggested that medicines are the only answer to health problems.

'It is always down to the doctor to determine whether there is a real medical condition. It is right we should be informing prescribers of what medicines can be relevant.'

When the solution becomes the problem

Reclassification of the cholesterol-lowering drug simvastatin as an over-the-counter medicine for preventing heart disease is a classic example of the pharmaceutical industry's worrying influence, experts warned.

The editor of The Drug and Therapeutic Bulletin , Dr Ike Iheanacho, said long-term trials had not been carried out to test the drug's efficacy or risks in those considered to be in moderate danger of having heart problems. As people could be sold Zocor Heart-Pro, the drug by its brand name, without detailed assessment of their health, there was also a danger that those at high risk of having heart attacks were getting inadequate treatment.

'The absence of any long-term efficacy trails for Zocor Heart-Pro in the target group means that people are, in effect, being used as guinea pigs,' Iheanacho said.

Another example is provided by the anti-depressant Seroxat. In November, Seroxat's manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was trying to market it as a cure for relatively mild forms of depression, despite the fact that the drug has been linked to suicide. 'The thrust was to move sales beyond the $1 billion to the $2bn mark by pushing it to people who were not clinically depressed,' Professor David Healy told the select committee, while Richard Brook, chief executive of Mind, the mental health charity, told the MPs that the plan was 'all about developing new conditions for that drug'.

At the same time, other options are ignored. Britain's GPs have largely ignored the advice of the Chief Medical Office that many depressed patients should be prescribed exercise programmes rather than pills.

By Gaby Hinsliff posted 4 April 05

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US: RED LAKE, Minn., March 25 - In their sleepless search for answers, the family of Jeff Weise, the teenager who killed nine people and then himself, says it is left wondering about the drugs he was prescribed for his waves of depression.

Mother's Little Helpers
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Prozac must have suicide warning
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Family Wonders if Prozac Prompted School Shootings

US: RED LAKE, Minn., March 25 - In their sleepless search for answers, the family of Jeff Weise, the teenager who killed nine people and then himself, says it is left wondering about the drugs he was prescribed for his waves of depression.

On Friday, as Tammy Lussier prepared to bury Mr. Weise, who was her nephew, and her father, who was among those he killed, she found herself looking back over the last year, she said, when Mr. Weise began taking the antidepressant Prozac after a suicide attempt that Ms. Lussier described as a "cry for help."

"They kept upping the dose for him," she said, "and by the end, he was taking three of the 20 milligram pills a day. I can't help but think it was too much, that it must have set him off."

Lee Cook, another relative of Mr. Weise, said his medication had increased a few weeks before the shootings on Monday.

"I do wonder," Mr. Cook said, "whether on top of everything else he had going on in his life, on top of all the other problems, whether the drugs could have been the final straw."

The effects of antidepressants on young people remain a topic of fierce debate among scientists and doctors.

Last year, a federal panel of drug experts said antidepressants could cause children and teenagers to become suicidal. The Food and Drug Administration has since required the makers of antidepressants to warn of that danger on their labels for the medications.

The suicide risk is particularly acute when therapy starts or a dosage changes, the drug agency has warned.

Although some studies link the drugs to an increased suicide risk, the research does not suggest such a connection to violence like Mr. Weise's rampage through Red Lake High School.

Without knowing Mr. Weise's medical history or precise diagnosis, it is virtually impossible to speculate on what factors may have affected him - the drugs, his underlying depression, a gloomy childhood wrapped in tragedy or something else entirely.

"What I can say is that his physician, I'm sure, made the appropriate recommendations based on whatever the dosages were," said Morry Smulevitz, a spokesman for Eli Lilly, which makes Prozac.

The dosage range, Mr. Smulevitz said, runs from 20 milligrams to 80 milligrams a day, so Mr. Weise's 60 milligram dose fell in that bracket. Mr. Weise, though just 16, was taller than 6 feet and weighed 250 pounds.

Ms. Lussier, who lived with Mr. Weise in her mother's house on the Red Lake Indian reservation in far northern Minnesota, said she could not understand what else, aside from drugs, had changed to explain his sudden violence.

Since his suicide attempt and 72-hour hospitalization a year ago, Mr. Weise had seemed to be improving, she said, and he was receiving mental health counseling and a doctor's care at the medical center on the reservation.

Others in Red Lake said, however, that they had seen few signs of improvement in the dour, solitary boy.

The driver of a school bus, Lorene Gurneau, said she often saw Mr. Weise standing outside the middle school, wearing his long black clothes and strange hairdos, staring off into nothing, in a daze, even as children raced by or teachers passed him.

Still, in at least one Internet posting last fall, Mr. Weise sounded determined to improve his life after his suicide attempt, and he noted that he was taking antidepressants.

"I had went through a lot of things in my life that had driven me to a darker path than most choose to take," the posting said. "I split the flesh on my wrist with a box opener, painting the floor of my bedroom with blood I shouldn't have spilt. After sitting there for what seemed like hours (which apparently was only minutes), I had the revelation that this was not the path."

"It was my decision," he went on, "to seek medical treatment, as on the other hand I could've chose to sit there until enough blood drained from my downward lacerations on my wrists to die."

On Monday, in the hours before the shooting, Mr. Weise had seemed cheerful and normal, Ms. Lussier said. His teacher, who was spending an hour a day at his house as part of a "homebound" study program that the school system had created because of his troubles, arrived to give him his homework assignments, as usual. At 12:30 p.m., less than three hours before the shootings, another aunt, Shauna, stopped in.

"He was watching a movie on TV," Ms. Lussier said. "There was nothing out of the ordinary. People keep saying he was depressed, but if you saw him, he was getting better. All we can think of is, what about the drugs?"

Though research has not linked antidepressants to acts of violence on others, several incidents have gained wide publicity.

In 1989, Joseph Wesbecker walked into a printing plant in Louisville, Ky., with a bag of guns and killed eight co-workers and himself. He was taking Prozac, which had recently been approved.

In 1999, a student involved in the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado had reportedly taken Luvox, an antidepressant similar to Prozac.

In 2001, Christopher Pittman killed his grandparents while taking Zoloft, another antidepressant similar to Prozac. His lawyers faulted the drug, but a jury in Charleston, S.C., convicted him of murder in February.

Still, Katherine S. Newman, a professor at Princeton University who has studied school killings, said just a small percentage appeared to have possibly involved psychiatric drugs. Of 27 such killings from 1974 to 2001, fewer than one-fifth of the suspects had been diagnosed with a mental health disorder before the shootings,

Professor Newman said. Dr. Frank Ochberg, a former associate director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said he once dismissed any links between antidepressants and suicides or homicidal acts. The recent research, however, has changed his mind, Dr. Ochberg said.

"If your intention is shooting the place up and dying as you do it, you can put the fantasy together," he said. "Suicidal and homicidal intentions together could theoretically follow the same path."

Monica Davey reported from Red Lake for this article, and Gardiner
Harris from Washington. Jodi Wilgoren contributed reporting from New York.

By MONICA DAVEY posted 29 March 05

Illustration:

Mother's Little Helpers
Approved for adults only, Prozac is being used to medicate children as young as 8 years old. Why are we using powerful drugs to raise our daughters?

N.R.A. Aide Urges Armed Teachers

PHOENIX, March 25 (AP) - All options should be considered to prevent rampages like the Minnesota shooting, including making guns available to teachers, Sandra S. Froman, first vice president of the National Rifle Association, said.

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Big Pharma snared by net
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Prozac must have suicide warning
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UN extends Darfur peace mission

The United Nations Security Council has voted to extend the UN mission in Sudan for one week as the council tries to work out an agreement on a peacekeeping operation and how to stop the bloodshed in Darfur.

UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has asked the council to authorise a 10,000-strong peace force to help stabilise Africa's largest nation after the government and rebels ended a 21-year civil war in January.

But the 15-nation council has been at odds for weeks over questions relating to the separate conflict in Sudan's troubled western Darfur region, where an independent commission found crimes against humanity were likely committed.

The United States has been unable to drum up wide support for targeted sanctions against those responsible for those crimes -- or for its opposition to referring the matter to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

"I think that the council is united in its belief that the peacekeeping operation needs to be deployed immediately, and that we can't wait any longer," US envoy Stuart Holliday said after a council meeting.

He acknowledged there was no consensus on the array of US proposals but said he expected the council to vote next week.

Earlier this week the UN's emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, said that the death toll in Darfur was perhaps three to five times higher than the estimate of 70,000 dead that emerged late last year.

After rebels in Darfur rose up against Sudan's Arab-led government, Khartoum turned to proxy militias to help put down the rebellion -- and those militias have been blamed for a scorched-earth campaign of murder, rape and pillaging.

By In Solidarity 11 March 05

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Deaths in isolation as prison segregation increases

The use of segregation [solitary confinement] of prisoners as punishment has been increasing recently in Australia, the US, and the UK. Segregation can be used for protection or punishment, but in both cases it results in extreme psychological stress. An indication that segregation is being over-used is the appearance of deaths in custody from suicide of those placed in segregation.

From New York: A Death in the Box. A mentally ill young woman died in the most stressful and isolating place in the New York state prison system. Jessica Roger, 21, killed herself in the "box" and many thought she didn't belong there.

From the UK: Put in the way of self-harm in a place intended to protect others. Sarah Campbell, 18, spent the last hours of her life in the segregation unit of Styal prison, Cheshire.

Out of sight but in our minds. In recent years conditions in high security segregation units have deteriorated, and the use of long-term segregation as a control mechanism has increased.

From Australia: Sisters Inside, a Queensland abolitionist group Charity likens Australian prisons to Abu Ghraib AUS: "When you look at the photographs that are coming out of Abu Ghraib and the stories, they're the same stories we hear on a daily basis in our prisons," said Debbie Kilroy of Queensland abolitionist group.

Harm-U Human rights group Justice Action is calling for an independent inspection of the isolation unit at Goulburn known as the High Risk Management Unit due to conditions which violate UN Standards.

Conditions in the HRMU
Justice Action is trying to obtain documents on behalf of prisoners held in the Goulburn High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) from the Federal Attorney General's Department, Corrective Services Minister's Conference regarding the process described below, in which the Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia were adopted. This documentation will help explain the justification for the conditions in the HRMU.

A TOTAL ABUSE OF POWER
We the prisoners at the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Correctional Centre would like to ask you for help in receiving equal treatment and opportunities as other prisoners throughout the system. As we are told that we are not in a segregation unit but we are treated as though we are in one.

Where the Norm is Not the Norm: HARM-U
In the absence of public policy, this paper is an attempt to shine a light through the rhetoric and test for coherency in the policy and function of NSW’s only supermax prison, the High Risk Management Unit. Its present use will be compared with the ‘vision’ flogged by the Premier and the Department of Corrective Services (the Department) at its inception in 2001.

Isolation, psychiatric treatment and prisoner control
Prisoners can, and have died as a result of injectable anti-psychotics, and that this is a worry regarding Deaths in Custody, as well as being an extremely harrowing experience to undergo if it doesn't kill you.

Put in the way of self-harm in a place intended to protect others
UK: Sarah Campbell, 18, spent the last hours of her life in the segregation unit of Styal prison, Cheshire. "The seg", as those places are referred to, used to be known as "the block", short for punishment block. They are, by design, bleak, soulless places, prisons within prisons, where those who have offended against the "good order and discipline" of the establishment are meant to dwell and reflect upon the error of their ways.

Out of sight but in our minds
UK: In recent years conditions in high security segregation units have deteriorated, and the use of long-term segregation as a control mechanism has increased.

By Gregory Kable 1 March 05

Related Links:

Australian Detention Centres

Detention Centres, Solitary Confinement
On Friday night the NSW Council for Civil Liberties awarded Sydney solicitor John Marsden honorary life membership. Julian Burnside was invited to make the speech in Marsden's honour. In the course of his speech, Burnside referred to the unregulated use of solitary confinement in Australia's immigration detention centres, criticising it as inhumane and also as unlawful.

Australia's "GITMO" System
Australia's "GITMO" System In June 2002 on the PM program on ABC radio, PHILIP RUDDOCK is quoted as saying: "Well, let me just say, detention centres are not prisons. They are administrative detention.

Australian Mentally Ill Prisoners in Solitary Confinement

Mental Health Tribunal recommendations on forensic inmates
Below is the answer we have received from the Minister for Health regarding prisoners recommended for parole or release by the Mental Health Tribunal FYI.

Isolation, psychiatric treatment and prisoner' control
The 2003 NSW Corrections Health Service (now Justice Health) Report on Mental Illness Among NSW Prisoners states that the 12 month prevalence of any psychiatric disorder in prison is 74%, compared to 22% in the general community, and while this includes substance disorder the high rate cannot be attributed to that alone.

Australian Prisoners in Solitary Confinement

The prison system requires assiduous oversight
As NSW Attorney General Bob Debus noted in 1996: "The kinds of complaints which occur in the system may seem trivial to outsiders but in the superheated world of the prison, such issues can produce explosive results."

Crime and Punishment
Mark Findlay argues that the present psychological approach to prison programs is increasing the likelihood of re-offending and the threat to community safety.

Goulburn Jail breaches UN standards
NSW: Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has called on Justice Minister John Hatzistergos to bring Goulburn Jail's Maximum Security Wing into line with United Nations standards, after a prison inmate's covert survey of his fellow inmates revealed problems with rehabilitation programs and basic amenities.

Where the Norm is Not the Norm: HARM-U
In the absence of public policy, this paper is an attempt to shine a light through the rhetoric and test for coherency in the policy and function of NSW’s only supermax prison, the High Risk Management Unit. Its present use will be compared with the ‘vision’ flogged by the Premier and the Department of Corrective Services (the Department) at its inception in 2001.

Justice Denied In NSW Corrective Services
There used to be a (VJ) or Visiting Justice who would go into the prison and judge any claim or accusation that was made by any prisoner or prison guard. If it were found that a prisoner had offended then punishment was metered out.

Prisoner Abuse Not Just in Iraq
The shocking revelations of abuse of prisoners by US prison guards in Iraq have been denounced by politicians around the world, including our own Prime Minister.

Conditions in the HRMU
Justice Action is trying to obtain documents on behalf of prisoners held in the Goulburn High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) from the Federal Attorney General's Department, Corrective Services Minister's Conference regarding the process described below, in which the Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia were adopted. This documentation will help explain the justification for the conditions in the HRMU.

A TOTAL ABUSE OF POWER
We the prisoners at the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn Correctional Centre would like to ask you for help in receiving equal treatment and opportunities as other prisoners throughout the system. As we are told that we are not in a segregation unit but we are treated as though we are in one.

On the treatment of prisoners at the NSW HRMU
Prisoners sister's letter from her brother: Following our phone conversation some weeks ago I would like to set out a few points on the treatment of prisoners in the High Risk Management Unit at Goulburn (Super Max) (Guantanamo Bay).

Escape proof but not so the prisoners mind
Fewer prisoners escape from prison these days because they're "cemented in" by materials that do not break and by legislation that can keep prisoners in jail until they die.

Watchdogs slaughtered in NSW
On Tuesday the Carr Government reduced transparency and accountability yet again and New South Wales is in danger of becoming entrenched with cronyism and intimidations with the Carr Labor Government that continues to slaughter the watchdogs.

High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) INSPECTION
The Special Care Unit (SCU) at Long Bay Correctional Centre was inspired by Barlinnie. The SCU was opened in 1981 to replace the Observation Unit, which was strongly criticised by the Nagle Report. The SCU was closed in 1997 because of lack of record-keeping which could give a measure of effectiveness.

Carr's Castle the real story H.R.M.U.The High Risk Management Unit Goulburn Correctional Centre. A prisoner writes, " I was unsuccessful in my letters to Dr Matthews CEO of the Corrections Health Service on my problem regarding air - claustrophobic effect the cells have on me. Just recently the management decided my injuries are not seriously affecting me so no further discussions are necessary.

Mental health care is being reinstitutionalised

Deinstitutionalisation of mental health care in the 1970s in western Europe now tends to be compensated or even overcompensated for by reinstitutionalisation.

Priebe and colleagues (p 123) compared the data on changes in service provision in six western European countries.

The number of psychiatric hospital beds has been reduced in five countries, but in only two countries this reduction outweighs the number of additional places in forensic institutions and supported housing.

The authors discuss possible explanations, but reasons for the phenomenon remain unclear.

Source: Mental health care is being reinstitutionalised

By BMJ posted 17 January 05

Related:

Reinstitutionalisation in mental health care: comparison of data on service provision from six European countries Objective To establish whether reinstitutionalisation is occurring in mental health care and, if so, with what variations between western European countries.

UK:

Mentally ill face 'Asbo' measures
UK: People with mental health problems living in the community could be banned from leaving their homes under proposals to reform mental health law, a legal expert has warned.

Report slams 'unjust' jailing of women on remand
In 2002, more than 1,200 women were received in prisons in England and Wales and two-thirds were on remand. The majority are vulnerable women, many have mental health or drug problems and 71% have never received a prison sentence before.

Concern as UK prison suicides hit record level
UK: More prisoners took their own lives in English jails in August than in any other month since records began, prison reformers said today.

End of years of despair as Holloway closes its doors
But now Holloway prison in north London - where Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, was hanged in 1955 - has been earmarked for closure, along with several other women's prisons, which have been hit by a spate of suicides.

How detox and self-help brought suicide jail back from the brink
UK: Six suicides in 12 months made Styal jail notorious and the Prisons Ombudsman criticised the prison and its staff for serious failures. But things are changing.

Belmarsh detainees consider suicide, says freed man
UK: The first of the Muslim detainees released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism has told the Guardian his fellow prisoners are suffering such severe mental problems that they constantly consider suicide.

Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
UK:The already overcrowded prison population is set to go on rising and will top 80,000 within the next three years, a senior Home Office civil servant warned yesterday.

Terror suspect tells of 'torture' that led to death wish
His doctors say that his mental health problems do not warrant being held at Broadmoor, but the home secretary refuses to move him to a lower grade psychiatric hospital. The only alternative on offer is a return to Belmarsh high security prison, where he was held with 11 other terror detainees before the harsh regime took its toll on his mental health. When he pulls up his shirt sleeves in the visitor room at Broadmoor, he reveals dozens of scars up and down his arms, inflicted using pens, plastic and anything else he can find. Since his detention, he has been repeatedly harming himself, from drinking toilet cleaner to setting himself on fire.

USA:

Schizophrenia: talking may help when drugs don't
New research has strengthened the case for using 'talk therapy' in the treatment of schizophrenia, especially for those who don't respond well to drugs.

From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib Doesn't It Ring a (Prison) Bell
Those inmates locked away in administrative segregation, especially those with mental illnesses, are subjected to extreme deprivations and daily psychological harm.

Maoist Internationalist Movement
This long term isolation causes serious mental and physical health problems for many prisoners. And these torture cells are used to target politically active prisoners using a system of classification that makes it impossible for prisoners to appeal their assignment.

The psychiatric protection order for the "battered mental patient"
Psychiatric patients are routinely treated against their will. Legally enforceable psychiatric protection orders would protect patients from coercive psychiatric interventions.

Mental Illness In Jails
US-REPORT ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF SERVICES FOR PERSONS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS IN MAINES JAILS AND PRISONS PREPARED BY NAMI MAINE FALL, 2000

Australia:

Review of the Mental Health Act 1990
Indigenous Social Justice Association & Justice Action Mental Health Act Review Submission.

Review of the Mental Health Act 1990
This discussion paper is designed to look at the general terms of the Mental Health Act 1990, focussing on operational and treatment issues. The Paper has separate sections on each Chapter of the Act, and seeks general comments on all aspects of the legislation as well as identifying specific areas where suggestions for reform have arisen in the past, or as part of preliminary consultation on this Paper.

Winning goals: Rethinking Crime and Punishment
Extracts in this feature are adapted from I Would Rethink Crime and Punishment By...published today by the thinktank Rethinking Crime and Punishment.

Prison boom will prove a social bust
Hardened criminals are not filling NSW's prisons - the mentally ill and socially disadvantaged are, writes Eileen Baldry.

Isolation, psychiatric treatment and prisoner' control
The 2003 NSW Corrections Health Service (now Justice Health) Report on Mental Illness Among NSW Prisoners states that the 12 month prevalence of any psychiatric disorder in prison is 74%, compared to 22% in the general community, and while this includes substance disorder the high rate cannot be attributed to that alone.

Where the Norm is Not the Norm: HARM-U
In the absence of public policy, this paper is an attempt to shine a light through the rhetoric and test for coherency in the policy and function of NSW’s only supermax prison, the High Risk Management Unit. Its present use will be compared with the ‘vision’ flogged by the Premier and the Department of Corrective Services (the Department) at its inception in 2001.

Crime and Punishment
Mark Findlay argues that the present psychological approach to prison programs is increasing the likelihood of re-offending and the threat to community safety.

Fed Govt threatens force over mental health spending!
The Federal Government has threatened to coerce the states and territories to spend more on mental health services.

Deaths in Custody, Police Powers and Mental Illness
The NSW Police Force should not have a role in the psychiatric diagnosis and medication of the public. Police are not medically trained in this speciality.

Police to uphold law not decide mental health
A diagnosis of mental illness could be made over the phone instead of in person, and involuntary psychiatric patients could lose the right to have their case reviewed by a magistrate, under proposed changes to NSW mental health laws.

Carr Govt dramatic increases in the NSW prisoner pop...
Following the opening of the 500 bed Kempsey prison, and a new 200-bed prison for women at Windsor the Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS) and community organisations specialising in the rehabilitation of prisoners, have expressed concern....

Australia's "GITMO" System
Australia's "GITMO" System In June 2002 on the PM program on ABC radio, PHILIP RUDDOCK is quoted as saying: "Well, let me just say, detention centres are not prisons. They are administrative detention.

At The Ministers Pleasure?
20 people have been recommended for release from Long Bay Prison Hospital yet they are still there.

Attack prompts call for increased mental health funding
The Western Australian Opposition is calling for a review of mental health funding following the weekend attacks on two nurses at Perth's Swan Districts Hospital.

Government justice not personal justice
Mr Brett Collins of Justice Action said, "Victims should be looked after properly by implementing restorative justice measures and victims should be compensated for their pain and suffering. " However prisoners are entitled to serve their sentences in peace and privacy as well."

Sentencing: Violent crime and practical outcomes
In addition introducing restorative justice programs giving the offender a chance to interact with the offended person if they wish and visa-versa. People are not "dogmatic" therefore should be given a second chance opposed to Life means Life!

Jails-The new asylums?
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Asylum seekers -- no, not what you think -- but those who are so disillusioned with the current approach of our mental health system that they believe we should go back to the old ways and rebuild the asylums.

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IN N S W
Ms CLOVER MOORE (Bligh) [4.43 p.m.]: Today I speak about the shocking situation for people with mental illness, and call for urgent government action. There have been calls for reform of mental health services as far back as the 1983 Richmond report, followed by the 1988 Barclay report and the 1993 Burdekin report.

Conditions in the HRMU
Justice Action is trying to obtain documents on behalf of prisoners held in the Goulburn High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) from the Federal Attorney General's Department, Corrective Services Minister's Conference regarding the process described below, in which the Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia were adopted. This documentation will help explain the justification for the conditions in the HRMU.

Forensic Hospital at Long Bay
NSW should reject the government decision to set up a secure forensic hospital at Long Bay - or in any place where it can be influenced by the Department of Corrective Services (DCS) (or probably Corrections Health Service (CHS) for that matter).

Escape from hell?
A third person has escaped from the Adelaide's Glenside psychiatric hospital as health authorities prepare to begin a second review of security.

Escape proof but not so the prisoners mind
Fewer prisoners escape from prison these days because they're "cemented in" by materials that do not break and by legislation that can keep prisoners in jail until they die.

Parents on the inside leave children on the edge
Life in jail is an ordeal but it's a much harsher sentence for the child of a prisoner, writes Paola Totaro. 30 July 03

History of trauma dogs sole parents and the government
Australia's sole parents including those who were squarely divided by the Family Court of Australia which include tens of thousands of lone mothers on welfare benefits have experienced rape, physical assault, torture and mental health disorders at some time during their life, a new study shows.

Child detainees 'living in a nightmare', report finds
A report being released today documents disturbing evidence about mental health for children in detention centres.The report is a joint work by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, NSW University and NSW psychiatrists.

The children's crusader
It is all about prevention. As Fiona Stanley sees it, with one in five Australian teenagers experiencing significant mental health problems, there are just not enough treatment services to cope with the demand.

National Mental Health Conference
I attended a National Mental Health Conference Last Monday 21 of June at Canberra ACT. The conference started off with a welcome message from Patrick Dodson.

Schizophrenia: talking may help when drugs don't
About one in every 100 Australians experience schizophrenia at some point in their life, suffering delusions and hallucinations such as hearing voices and believing other people want to harm them. In extreme cases it can lead to suicide.

RIOT ACT READ AGAINST INSPECTION TEAM
The secrecy of the unit holding several people charged with terrorist offences here in Australia was confirmed during an attempted community inspection by a delegation from Justice Action. The delegation comprised four women and two men.

Report recommends freeing child detainees
The Human Rights Commission has found that some children held in Australia's immigration detention centres have been exposed to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

A review of psychiatry, law and politics in Victoria
Neither Bad Nor Mad tells the story of Garry David, a convicted Australian murderer who became famous by sending out threats to the public and descriptions of his extreme self-mutilations to news papers while incarcerated.

Presentation at the Ngo Mental Health Conference
I am James Condren from Justice Action I am a Community Mentor and caseworker. My role is to do prisoner support for those who are in Jail or at risk of going to Jail.

Turning the Tide or Cuckoo's Nest?
In NSW we are currently at a watershed as to how forensic patients in particular and the mentally ill in general will be treated. If we don't strongly register our protest against their objectification now we will later be just railing against a fait accompli.

Jails-The new asylums?
QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Asylum seekers -- no, not what you think -- but those who are so disillusioned with the current approach of our mental health system that they believe we should go back to the old ways and rebuild the asylums.

Cry for help that led to the morgue
According to ABC Radio News the hospital procedures prior to the man below's death (R.I.P.) are to be investigated by someone from CORRECTIONS Health Service (?!). I wonder how the Daily Terror et al got their photographers in the scene so soon...

Escape from hell?
A third person has escaped from the Adelaide's Glenside psychiatric hospital as health authorities prepare to begin a second review of security.

Victim plea for counselling?
The mother of murdered Wagga Wagga woman Janine Balding said she remains a supporter of the death penalty despite one of her daughter's killers pleading his innocence and despite that penalty not being an option in Australia.

Parents on the inside leave children on the edge
The study's author, Simon Quilty, said children and their remaining parent were often unsupported, increasing their vulnerability to mental health problems. "This enormous group of children are born into situations they simply have no control over. This also puts them into family environments which, often by loss of a parent to prison, makes them even more marginalised. "This effectively puts them at far greater risk themselves of becoming involved in some form of criminal activity."

PRISONERS OFFER OF RECONCILIATION
Premier Bob Carr, Deputy Premier Andrew Refshauge, Senator Aden Ridgeway,and other community representatives have been invited to receive the message from the men of "The Hole.

History of trauma dogs sole parents and the government
Australia's sole parents including those who were squarely divided by the Family Court of Australia which include tens of thousands of lone mothers on welfare benefits have experienced rape, physical assault, torture and mental health disorders at some time during their life, a new study shows.

Child detainees 'living in a nightmare', report finds
A report being released today documents disturbing evidence about mental health for children in detention centres.

Letter from the mother of a prisoner on remand at the High Risk Management Unit Goulburn Correctional Centre
I am writing to give you permission to make any inquiries on my behalf as I am invalid pensioner who doesn't drive and been only well enough to travel by train once in 15 months to see S. I have enclosed a copy of S's letter and also a copy of gaol papers form I have to fill out and wait to see if I'm allowed in to see him. He doesn't get any visits. He is in the Supermax and deprived of any privileges not even legal Aid will fund a solicitor to see him in Goulburn.

Judicial, mental health and police corruption
Ian Kay, who blew the whistle on judicial and police corruption here in Victoria has recently been improperly incarcerated in MAP Prison, Melbourne for doing nothing more than writing a letter of complaint to his local MP. It seems he is one of the first victims of the Australian Government's so-called tough line on terrorists, which in reality is a poorly made smokescreen for stifling dissent and disclosure of malpractice in the government bureaucracy.

Howard, where's your head at?
How many Australians will convert this fear into Mental Illness?

RESTORING TRUE JUSTICE:
Australian prisons are fast becoming the new asylums of the third millennium. The prison industry is booming, while Australia spends far less on mental health services than similar countries.

Alcohol pickles your brain
Pickle point; a leading professor Dr. Bud said after releasing his report on the problems associated with alcohol.

Cuba Middle East

Habib's call renews welfare concerns
Waiting: Maha Habib has spoken to her husband for the first time in two-and-a-half years.

Hicks defence team likely to gain more time
The head of the military trials planned for two Australians held at Guantanamo Bay says he believes their defence teams will be given whatever additional time they need to prepare for trial.

Hicks, Habib denied natural justice: Liberal MP
A federal Liberal MP has accused the Government of not doing enough to secure a fair trial for Guantanamo Bay detainees, David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib.

Guantanamo abuse claims prompt new inquiry calls
New claims of abuse at Guantanamo Bay Cuba have prompted fresh calls for an Australian inquiry into the treatment of detainees David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib.

Mamdouh Habib: Taunted and Tortured!
Habib came to ASIO's notice when he fell out with the ADF obviously someone had it in for Mamdouh and the ADF tipped off ASIO and the AFP to taunt him. By the sounds of it he was declared a wog. That's Aussie slang for get the bastard he's not one of ours and we can discriminate against him he is an easy target. Aussie race hate!

Howard rejects spy agency overhaul
Prime Minister John Howard has played down the need for a major overhaul of Australia's spy agencies as a result of an inquiry by former intelligence officer Phillip Flood.

He was an undercover agent for the blues
He was my journalist, he was working undercover. The fellow knew all of the moves.... He really had me romping, bare footing stomping. He just kept igniting my fuse....

Man faces terrorism charge in WA
Australian Federal Police Chief Mick Keelty says a Perth man has been charged with conspiracy to commit a terrorist act in Iraq.

Habib to face US military trial
The United States Government has given the go-ahead for the Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate, Mamdouh Habib, to go to trial for being innocent. Mr Habib could now be granted access to a military and civilian legal team.

US tortured Habib in Egypt: report
Australian terror suspect Mamdoub Habib was allegedly tortured in Egypt before being sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, according to the Pakistani Government.

Hicks movie to premiere in Adelaide
A movie about Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks, President versus David Hicks, by award winning filmmaker Curtis Levy will be screened in Adelaide tomorrow.

There is no justification for torture
In the weeks since the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison were revealed, evidence continues to seep out of similar mistreatment of prisoners in other US military detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.

US lawyers demand access to Habib
Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees, including Mamdouh Habib, have written to United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demanding access to the men.

Guantanamo prisoners may be moved to US soil
The US authorities may move hundreds of prisoners from their controversial Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba to the United States following new Supreme Court rulings, the Los Angeles Times has reported.

Children at Abu Ghraib prison
....broadcast an eight-minute segment reporting that the International Red Cross found at least 107 children in coaliton-administered detention centers in Iraq. The report also quotes from a yet-unpublished June 2004 UNICEF report, which (as near as I can tell through my crappy German) confirms that children were routinely arrested and "interned" in a camp in Um-Qasr. UNICEF seems particularly vexed with the "internment" status, since that means indefinite detention.

Govt urged to seek civil lawyer for Habib
The Law Council of Australia has called for the Federal Government to ensure Guantanamo Bay inmate Mamdouh Habib has access to a civil lawyer.

Pentagon names tribunal for Hicks trial
The Pentagon has named the officers who will decide the fate of David Hicks and two other Guantanamo prisoners charged by the United States in the first US military tribunals since World War II.

US terror suspects can challenge detention
The US Supreme Court has ruled that US courts have jurisdiction to hear appeals from foreign detainees held as enemy combatants in the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Hicks lawyer praises Guantanamo decision
The lawyer for an Australian man detained at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base has welcomed a US Supreme Court ruling permitting judicial appeals from foreign detainees held as enemy combatants.

Hicks and Habib in the Melting Pot
Australia: The United States has brought three criminal charges against Australian David Hicks, accusing him of conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder and aiding the enemy, the Pentagon has said.

Rumsfeld had approved abuse
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorised hoods, the stripping of prisoners and the use of dogs to terrify inmates at Guantanamo Bay almost two years ago, documents released yesterday revealed.

How much is that doggy in the prison? Woof woof!
Did the Iraqi prisoner's get their rations while they were treated like chums?

Failure to condemn prison abuse risks lives: Kenny
The Prime Minister is morally bankrupt stay "alert and alarmed"

Prisoner's identity concealed to prevent Red Cross access
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, acting at the request of the CIA, ordered that a suspected Iraqi insurgent leader be detained off the books to conceal his identity from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Pentagon has confirmed.

US has secret prisons: rights group
The United States is holding terrorism suspects in more than two dozen detention centres worldwide, about half of which operate in total secrecy, according to a new human rights report.

This won't hurt much
For some time now, I've been trying to find out where my son goes after choir practice. He simply refuses to tell me. He says it's no business of mine where he goes after choir practice and it's a free country.

Australia asked to dig deeper for aid programs

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is urging Australia to increase foreign aid.

The OECD gave Australia's foreign aid programs high marks, commending the Government's peace-building [colonialism] and AIDS-prevention efforts in the Pacific.

However, the organisation says Australia could be more generous.

Even though Australia's economic growth has outpaced most of the industrialised world in recent years, the country's foreign aid programs remain at 0.25 per cent of gross national income.

The OECD wants Australia to do more, with an eye to eventually reaching the United Nations goal of putting 0.7 per cent of gross national income to foreign aid programs.

UN Complicity in WAR

UN panel proposes criteria for legitimate military action
With countries still bitterly divided over the war in Iraq, a high-level panel appointed by the United Nations has recommended a five-step guideline to determine when to use military action.

Fallujah refugees in desperate need of aid: UN
More than 200,000 people who fled Fallujah ahead of the US attack have yet to return and many are in desperate need of aid, with temperatures in Iraq heading towards freezing, a new UN emergency report says.

US accused of breaching international law
The United States is violating international law by holding prisoners in its war on terror incommunicado and in secret hiding places, Human Rights Watch said in a report to be published on Tuesday calling for an end to such practices.

Allies 'planned' Iraq war despite denials
The United States, Australia and Britain started to plan the invasion of Iraq months before the conflict, according to a report Wednesday quoting a leaked Pentagon document.

UN warns of Iraqi malnutrition
One in four Iraqis are dependent on food rations to survive and many of them have to sell what little food they have for basic necessities like medicine and clothes, the UN World Food Program (WFP) said.

Annan tells world leaders to respect law
United Nations (UN) secretary-general Kofi Annan has made an impassioned plea to bring about the rule of law across the globe today. Mr Annan told world leaders to respect international law at home and abroad.

CO-OFFENDERS DO NOT REBUFF UN ON 'ILLEGAL WAR'
The 'coalition of the killing's' complicities - the US, Britain and Australia - have insisted that their countries' military action in Iraq was legal after they have committed war crimes against humanity.

Iraq war illegal, says Annan
United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan says the United States decision to invade Iraq in March 2003 was "illegal". Australia was a key supporter of the war on Iraq and sent troops to join the United States-led invasion last year.

Ed: Just how much more can the UN and Australia do for peace?

By Just Give 17 December 04

Related:

Violence never the answer, Pope says
Pope John Paul II has condemned [the Coalition of the Killing, NATO, and UN complicity] man's readiness to use violence to impose [resource wars] peace, and denounced what he called the unfolding drama in Iraq which had led to "uncertainty and insecurity" for the whole world.

E Timor threatens campaign against Aust over oil deal
East Timor's Foreign Minister is threatening to launch an international campaign to pressure Australia for a bigger share of their own oil and gas royalties from the Timor Sea.

Fool me twice 1-20 -Official release (BALI BOMBINGS/ETimor) Exposing the Australian government's lies about the East Timor massacres, the cover-up of the Bali bombings (including '93 WTC attack) and subsequent anti-terror legislation forced through parliament.

HoWARd Government intelligence cover-up
The Federal Opposition has described the Government's failure to release the final report into the claims of intelligence failures within the Defence Department as a cover-up.

Lest We Forget Eureka Stockade!
On October 16, 1975, five journalists filming the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, for Australian TV channels, were killed at a place called Balibo. This name seems set to become one of the rallying cries of 2nd Renaissance secession movements in Australia. The facts surrounding the Balibo killings are so damning of the central governments of Australia and Indonesia that the event will rank in Australian consciousness with the Eureka Stockade uprising of 1854.

TIME TO GO JOHN SYDNEY PREMIERE...
BLACK BULLION I Jen Hughes: The Howard Government's withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea has forced East Timor to back down on their right to negotiate their Maritime Boundaries on an equal footing and access their resources for survival beyond the paternalism of Australia and other colonial powers. A film about the tension between personal friendship and the betrayal of trust for black bullion.