Chinese police close Muslim quarter in Lhasa

LHASA, China: China's Tibet problem got a human face this week in images of crying, red-robed monks, giving international concern a new focal point just as Beijing gears up for the arrival of the Olympic torch.

The outburst by 30 monks at Lhasa's holiest shrine dealt a setback to the government's plans to use a three-day trip for foreign reporters to show that protests and deadly anti-Chinese rioting in the Tibetan capital two weeks ago had subsided

Selanjutnya

US Intelligence is Tapping Indonesian Phones: Detachment 88, Kopassus Get Covert US Aid

by ALLAN NAIRN (http://www.newsc.blogspot.com/)

US intelligence officers in Jakarta are secretly tapping the cell phones and reading the SMS text messages of Indonesian civilians.

Some of the Americans work out of the Jakarta headquarters of Detachment 88, a US-trained and funded para-military unit whose mission is described as antiterrorism, but that was recently involved in the arrest of a West Papuan human rights lawyer.

The Papuan lawyer, Iwangin Sabar Olif, was seized by police and Detachment 88 on the street and later charged with "incitement and insulting the head of state" after he forwarded SMS text messages that criticized the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), as well as the President of Indonesia, Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. (West Papua is a restricted-access region where Indonesian forces have been implicated in rapes, tortures, kidnappings, assassinations, mass surveillance and intimidation.)

The information on the US surveillance program is provided by three sources, including an individual who has worked frequently with the Indonesian security forces and who says he has met and formally discussed their work with some of the American phone tappers, as well as by two Indonesian officials who work inside Detachment 88.

The first source says that the he was told that the Americans are employees of the US CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), but it could not be confirmed whether they work for the CIA or other US agencies. He says that through his work he has observed that these US intelligence specialists help run a sophisticated wiretapping network that uses much new US equipment

Untuk selanjutnya sila click di sini

Apa yang pentingnya adakah di sini juga begitu?
Apakah isu keselamatan bisa mengatasi hak asasi seseorang?
... entahlah

Berita Ummah::State Clampdown on Radical Religious Groups (Kyrgyzstan)

Government plans to tighten legislation on religion are unlikely to restrict most religious organisations and will help prevent extremist activity, say NBCentralAsia experts.

On July 12, Toigonbek Kalmatov, director of the State Agency for Religious Affairs, announced that his agency is drafting five laws that tighten restrictions on religious activity.

Kalmatov told NBCentralAsia that the changes are aimed at preventing radical groups that act unlawfully and organisations which are banned in other countries from operating in Kyrgyzstan.

His agency will be given the authority to thwart unlawful organisations, halt their activity and expel religious extremists from the country.

Over 2000 religious organisations are currently registered in Kyrgyzstan. Most are Islamic but there are also 360 Christian groups, one Hindu, one Buddist and 14 new religious organisations.Kalmatov explains that there are around 400 unregistered groups whose charters are not in keeping with Kyrgyz law. The state will not bar them from registering, provided they change their manifesto.

Some accredited organisations are more radical in their activity than their charter suggests and the agency will take action against them, as well as underground groups.

Prominent Islamic figure and director of Dil Murogu Centre for Morality, Ethics and Culture Ozubek Chotonov does not believe that the changes will adversely effect religious groups that operate legally.

Under current legislation, some organisations “are not subject to controls at all”, and so “the activity of destructive sects [should be] curbed” along with political religious organisations, he says.

Ikbol Mirsaitov, a leading expert with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which is affiliated with the president, agrees that the rules should be tightened.

“The growth of radical religious organisations, the lack of control over them and their failure to abide by the law gives the state agency grounds for reviewing Kyrgyz legislation towards [them],” said Mirsaitov.

Nevertheless, a debate has been sparked in Kyrgyzstan about whether the agency should be a controlling force or “a bridge that links” the state with religious groups.

Kalmatov adds that “faith is freedom” and the constitution states that Kyrgyz citizens can join any religious organisation whose actions are lawful. The state does not have the right to interfere in this regard, he says.

Source: http://muslimuzbekistan.net/en/centralasia/featured/story.php?ID=12185