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> Tues., Mar. 11, 2003
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
UK Arrests for UN Spying
FARC Blames Colombian Government
Update on the Occupied Territories
More on CA 3 Strikes
Sri Lankan Women
UK Arrests for UN Spying
Judges to the International Criminal Court were sworn in
today in the Hague with the notable absence being the United
States. The court has jurisdiction in the 89 countries that
have signed and ratified the 1998 Rome treaty establishing
the court, or in cases referred to it by the Security Council.
Britain is among the signers, along with the rest of the European
Union nations. Questions have been raised about whether a
British soldier could be tried before the court for war crimes
that might be committed in a war with Iraq. Meanwhile, the
British government has made at least one arrest in the scandal
surrounding alleged US and UK spying in the United Nations
security council. The story broke last week in the British
newspaper the Observer. The paper reprinted what it said was
a US memo telling US diplomats to step up surveillance of
security council members who might be wavering on the vote
to authorize force against Iraq. US officials have yet to
take credit for the memo, but the arrest in the UK suggests
that this will not be the last. Josh Chaffin reports from
DC.
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FARC Blames Colombian Government
Yesterday, Colombia's largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC, issued a communiqué
stating that they were not responsible for the Feb 7th bombing
of Bogotá's exclusive Club Nogal that left 36 dead
and 107 wounded. Breaking their silence regarding the bombing,
the communiqué states that the incident was an act
of state terrorism with the intention of creating a counter-guerrilla
hysteria both nationally and internationally. After the bombing,
the Colombian government was quick to blame the FARC for the
incident and swiftly initiated an international campaign to
condemn them as terrorists. Then on February 13, a US government
plane with four Americans and one Colombian aboard was either
shot down or crashed in FARC territory in Southern Colombia.
One American, Thomas Janis, a decorated veteran and a Colombian
army sergeant were found dead near the scene of the crash.
The other three Americans, whose names remain undisclosed,
have been taken as prisoners of war by the FARC. From Bogotá,
Nicole Karsin has more.
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Update on the Occupied Territories
Two Palestinians and an Israeli Soldier were killed in separate
incidents today in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza. This follows
a bloody week in the territories after two major incursions
in to the Gaza strip claimed the lives of dozens of Palestinians
and a suicide bombing killed 15 Israelis in Haifa. Kristen
Ess has more from the Gaza strip
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More on CA 3 Strikes
For the last decade, the state of California has been applying
what is called the Three Strikes law which allows sentencing
Californians for 25 years to life on their third conviction
of a felony. Supposedly designed to take violent offenders
off the streets, this law has targeted largely poor, non-violent
offenders, and largely people of color. On April 1st 2002,
the United States Supreme Court agreed to take on two California
Three Strike cases: the case of Leandro Andrade who received
50 years to life for stealing video tapes and the case of
Gary Ewing who received 25 years to life for stealing 3 golf
clubs. Last week the Supreme Court ruled that the three strikes
law did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Sonali
Kolhatkar has more from Los Angeles.
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Sri Lankan Women
This week, the sixth round of peace talks begin between
the Sri Lankan government and the separatist guerrilla army
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE. For twenty
years, Sri Lanka has been torn apart by ethnic conflict between
the majority Singhalese Buddhists and the minority Tamil Hindus.
Last month Sri Lanka celebrated one year of ceasefire, but
both the army and the LTTE continue their recruitment of soldiers
and arms. Women, who have fought in the LTTE's guerrilla war
for years, say joining the LTTE has liberated them from the
constraints of South Asian society. As part of FSRN's coverage
for International Women's Day, Miranda Kennedy reports from
Sri Lanka.
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