Amnesty International Usa

Carole Nagengast's desk blotter is filled with jottings: "Iraq team special project . . . police and nat'l guard deportations . . . angry people . . . Center for Victims of Torture." Her office, fitted into a back bedroom of a rustic house in the woods, seems an unlikely place to face the world's ominous concerns and cruelty. Nagengast, however, chairs the board of an organization that, she says flatly, raises "a big stink"--Amnesty International, USA.

A groundbreaking pact to regulate the global weapons trade still has a chance of  success after Iran, North Korea and Syria blocked the draft treaty at the United Nations this week.  But even if the treaty passes, its power will hinge on how nations that flout it are held accountable. Under the draft agreement, countries must regulate the flow of weapons and their parts, something that many of them don't do now. Before sending arms abroad, a country would have to weigh whether the weapons could be used to violate human rights or international humanitarian laws, harm women and children, fuel terrorism or cause other kinds of abuses.

Re "A secret voyage to expose a tragedy," Column One, June 13 Terrific reporting. I'm glad your reporter was not only able to get a moving story but that he was able to avoid arrest, a fate that has been the lot of almost 2,000 political prisoners currently held in Myanmar prisons as documented by Amnesty International. Freedoms that we almost take for granted, such as the ability to travel and report, don't exist there. Sometimes doing journalism borders on heroism. Jim Roberts Long Beach The writer is a Myanmar country specialist for Amnesty International USA.

Re "Obama sets new rules in war on terror," Jan. 23 President Obama's move to claim what he calls "the moral high ground" in the war on terrorism raises the question: How does this make America safer? After the events of 9/11, there isn't much high ground of any kind, moral or otherwise. Obama's righteous sense of fair play might get him a warm round of applause at the next ACLU luncheon. However, this is not a boxing match. We cannot expect to win a contest in which we unilaterally agree to fight fairly against an opponent who claws, scratches, gouges and hits below the belt.

Oversight of charitable organizations and the commercial fund-raisers they employ can be helpful in weeding out firms with unprofessional standards. However, I am concerned that reports such as state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer's ("Fund-Raising Firms Kept 56% of Money," Dec. 28) give an incomplete picture of reputable organizations. By focusing on specific fund-raising activities, rather than a full year's work, the report could lead donors to believe that most of their money goes to hired, commercial firms and not the cause itself.

Re your April 29 article on oil exploration in the Niger River Delta: Shell official Basil Efoise Omiyi's bragging about the progressive community support the company has "gone out of its way" to give to residents of the Niger Delta is the cheapest of PR tactics. The community projects, like the flowers an abusive man brings after beating his spouse to a pulp, are inadequate compensation and irrelevant to recovery. Omiyi concludes with the disingenuous pronouncement, "To expect us to change the government is something you shouldn't expect from a corporate body."

Amnesty International USA is taking its slogan of "Get up, stand up for your rights" one step further and asking people to jog for the cause at its Run for Freedom Race on Saturday. The international nonprofit organization, which plans on making the run an annual event, advocates for political and other nonviolent prisoners worldwide. All runners are asked to register at Huntington Street and Pacific Coast Highway, south of the Huntington Beach Pier, at 7 a.m. A 5K race begins at 8 a.m.

Wearing a leopard-print suit by Yves Saint Laurent, French movie star Catherine Deneuve gave Amnesty International USA a dose of glamour along with the premiere of her movie, "Indochine," Monday night. The woman knows all about her powers. When Deneuve was introduced, she sauntered from the rear of the the Royal Theatre to the screen like a newly crowned Miss America--er, Universe. When she got there, she didn't say much except that she hoped everyone would enjoy the movie.

Re "A secret voyage to expose a tragedy," Column One, June 13 Terrific reporting. I'm glad your reporter was not only able to get a moving story but that he was able to avoid arrest, a fate that has been the lot of almost 2,000 political prisoners currently held in Myanmar prisons as documented by Amnesty International. Freedoms that we almost take for granted, such as the ability to travel and report, don't exist there. Sometimes doing journalism borders on heroism. Jim Roberts Long Beach The writer is a Myanmar country specialist for Amnesty International USA.

In an arresting new documentary, a Cambodian dance teacher who lost loved ones to the killing fields of Pol Pot hears that the regional leader who terrorized her in the 1970s has come out of hiding and reinvented himself as a powerful leader in the same village where he once condemned people to death. Her outrage overcomes her fear, and she decides to confront him.

Peter Benenson, the British lawyer who founded the human rights organization Amnesty International with his stated goal "to condemn persecution regardless of where it occurs or what are the ideas suppressed," has died. He was 83. Benenson died Friday night at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England, of pneumonia, Amnesty International USA spokesperson Wende Gozan said Saturday. Benenson had been in ill health for several years.

Sometime soon, the ghosts of Ciudad Juarez may be coming to a movie house, TV set, bookstore, theater or CD player near you.

The police haven't managed to solve it. Neither has the Mexican government. Even the poking and prodding of the international news media so far has failed to crack the eerie wall of silence surrounding the murdered women of Ciudad Juarez. Now, another group is pushing for answers and, ultimately, justice in the dusty industrial town across from El Paso, Texas: artists.

Oversight of charitable organizations and the commercial fund-raisers they employ can be helpful in weeding out firms with unprofessional standards. However, I am concerned that reports such as state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer's ("Fund-Raising Firms Kept 56% of Money," Dec. 28) give an incomplete picture of reputable organizations. By focusing on specific fund-raising activities, rather than a full year's work, the report could lead donors to believe that most of their money goes to hired, commercial firms and not the cause itself.

Re "Obama sets new rules in war on terror," Jan. 23 President Obama's move to claim what he calls "the moral high ground" in the war on terrorism raises the question: How does this make America safer? After the events of 9/11, there isn't much high ground of any kind, moral or otherwise. Obama's righteous sense of fair play might get him a warm round of applause at the next ACLU luncheon. However, this is not a boxing match. We cannot expect to win a contest in which we unilaterally agree to fight fairly against an opponent who claws, scratches, gouges and hits below the belt.

Amnesty International, the worldwide human rights organization, begins a three-day meeting in Los Angeles today with the release of what is expected to be a highly critical report on the city's Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The 67-page report is the culmination of an investigation of alleged police brutality conducted by a three-member Amnesty International team last fall.

Amnesty International USA is taking its slogan of "Get up, stand up for your rights" one step further and asking people to jog for the cause at its Run for Freedom Race on Saturday. The international nonprofit organization, which plans on making the run an annual event, advocates for political and other nonviolent prisoners worldwide. All runners are asked to register at Huntington Street and Pacific Coast Highway, south of the Huntington Beach Pier, at 7 a.m. A 5K race begins at 8 a.m.

Re your April 29 article on oil exploration in the Niger River Delta: Shell official Basil Efoise Omiyi's bragging about the progressive community support the company has "gone out of its way" to give to residents of the Niger Delta is the cheapest of PR tactics. The community projects, like the flowers an abusive man brings after beating his spouse to a pulp, are inadequate compensation and irrelevant to recovery. Omiyi concludes with the disingenuous pronouncement, "To expect us to change the government is something you shouldn't expect from a corporate body."