NEAR Newsletter May 2004
Welcome to the NEAR Newsletter. In this edition you will find our most recent Action Alerts and also an ‘Academic Freedom in the Media’ section, listing news by country (May 2004). Any comments and suggestions about the content and layout of the newsletter will be gratefully received at roisin.joyce@nearinternational.org.
NEAR Action Alerts *Taken from the NEAR website
Saudi Arabia: One Academic Released Others Still Incommunicado
Dr Tawfiq al-Qussayyir (see NEAR Alert: Academics Held Incommunicado for Criticising National Commission on Human Rights), has reportedly released from prison after he signed pledges that they would liaise with the authorities before carrying out any public activity. However, Dr al-Falih and Dr al-Hamid, are still reportedly held without charge or trial, with other prisoners, at the al-Mabahith al-'Amma prison in 'Ulaysha,in the capital, Riyadh, where they may be at risk of torture and ill-treatment.
Iran: History professor, Dr Hashem Aghajari, Faces Death Penalty Again
A regional court in Iran has reimposed the death penalty on a prominent dissident, Dr Hashem Aghajari the 4 May 2004. BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Mr Aghajari, a history professor at a Tehran college, made a speech in August 2002, which was a seen as an attack on the country's Islamic establishment and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Khamenei.
China: China Jails Harvard-based Researcher
China has sentenced US-based researcher and activist Yang Jianli to five years for illegally entering the country and spying. Yang left China for the US after the suppression of the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. He was banned from returning but did so in 2002, allegedly on a friend’s passport, to investigate labour unrest in northern China.
Thailand: Threats against Academics and Human Rights Defenders
Amnesty International is concerned by anonymous death threats received by several academics and human rights defenders, and two National Human Rights Commissioners, in the wake of ongoing violence in Thailand's far south. The organization is also calling on the Thai Government to initiate independent investigations into recent serious human rights violations, including "disappearances", possible extrajudicial killings and torture, allegedly committed by the security forces in the context of the violence.
Ethiopia: Fear for Arrested Students
Amnesty International has expressed concern over the arrest of fifteen members of the Oromo ethnic group, including some university students. The arrests happened the 18 May 2004, in the capital Addis Ababa. The police have alleged that they were suspected of involvement in a hand-grenade attack at Addis Ababa University on 29 April, which killed one student.
China: Chinese Historian’s Continued Imprisonment for Publication
The Network of Concerned Historians and the International PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee invite our members to send letters in support of the historian Tohti Tunyaz, sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment in China. BACKGROUND INFORMATION: In February or April 1998, Tohti Tunyaz, an Uighur historian and writer, born in Kashgar and graduated from the Central Institute of Nationalities history department, Beijing (1984), later assigned to work for the China National Standing Committee, and studying for a Ph.
** Please continue to send us any relevant cases involving threats to academic freedom and education rights, for potential alerts.
The Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR) is a membership-based, non-governmental organisation which facilitates international collaboration between organisations active in issues of academic freedom and educational rights, and committed to promoting an understanding of, and respect for, the values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
For more information about NEAR, please visit our website at www.nearinternational.org
For further information please contact:-
Roisin Joyce
Deputy Director
roisin.joyce@nearinternational.org