human rights

For the past two weeks Pyi Maung hasn’t spoken with his parents in restive Burma. It’s one of the longest silences between him and his parents, but it’s for a good reason: He doesn’t want to get his parents in trouble. MORE »

The tiny huts, the small latrines and the white tents inside metal barricades looked startlingly familiar even though they were part of a replica of a refugee camp. I felt a little jolt in my heart as I stood in line Thursday to get inside the “camp” set up in Loring Park in Minneapolis. This was one flashback, to my time in a camp in Kenya, which I never thought I’d relive here. MORE »

The Burmese government has tried to shut down the internet. Some blogs have been blocked. A few still get through. From one of the remaining blogs: “Today morning 11:30 am in Burma time this is how they come out and try to kill people.” MORE »

Thailand has held 149 Hmong people, including men, women, and ninety children in a two-room cell for the past nine months with no access to the outside. Their only access to drinking, cooking, and bathing water is a single stall toilet. Having done nothing wrong, the Hmong have been designated as political refugees, a status that has been certified by the United Nations. MORE »