AIAU were invited to a talk about youth activism organized by ‘Humanity in Action’. Three activists from Sudan, Venezuela and Belarus spoke about the youth groups they are involved in, why they are active and the challenges they face.
To find out more about Humanity in Action, visit their website.
Below you can find a summary of the talks provided by Dearbhla Ryan and Christoph Zimdahl. AIAU cannot guarantee for accuracy.
Sudan
Mai Ali is a Sudanese non-violence trainer and human rights defender, affiliated with several NGOs and nonviolent youth movements in Sudan. She has organised over a hundred workshops on human rights, non-violence e.t.c.
Mai started off by giving a brief historical background to the conflict in Sudan. Sudan is divided by ethnicity and religion. North Sudan has a mostly Muslim and Arabic speaking population while South Sudan consists of English speaking Christians. The central government sits in the northern city of Khartoum and has always been a Muslim regime basing most of its legislation on Sharia law since the 1980s and 1990s. Since 1958 there has been a succession of dictators; General Abboud between 1958 and 1964, Jaafar Nimeiry between 1964 and 1985 and Omar al-Bashir from 1989 until today.
The two civil wars between north and south were between 1955 and 1972 and, 1983 and 2005. Around two million people lost their lives throughout these turbulent years while millions of others were displaced. In 2005 the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed between the government in North Sudan and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). Both sides agreed to end the war, share power and make unity in Sudan attractive.
However, a month after signing the CPA the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement leader John Garangs’ was killed. South Sudan turned to self-determination. South Sudanese voted in favour of independence in January 2011 and acquired this in July 2011. However, there is ongoing conflict between North Sudan and South Sudan over the Abyei area.
Mai said the Darfur area (in conflict since 2003), the Abyai zone and the Blue Nile area are still in conflict over ethnic tensions.
Sudanese in the South have continuously struggled against discrimination from the regime. They have also consistently tried to resist the North’s attempts to impose Sharia law in the South.
General elections in 2010 saw for the first time a candidate in the North who supported an end to discrimination for South Sudanese. However, according to Mai election corruption by Bashir ensured his re-election.
Demonstrations protesting this corruption and the realization that many ordinary Sudanese had no awareness or knowledge of the elections at all led to Mai and three friends to set up the foundation of Girifna (“Fed up”) in North Sudan.
They decided to start off with simple messages and symbols communicating to the people that they wanted an alternative and non-discriminatory government. In the first three days 500 people were asking what they could do get involved with the foundation. Two days later that figure jumped to 1,500.
Girifna fundraised successfully at a local level and began to publish small pamphlets about their group and their aims, emphasizing the need for non-violent protest. They protested the government but also made gestures of peace and reconciliation with the South by helping to build a school and donating clothes to communities in South Sudan.
The government has responded aggressively and has arrested tortured and intimidated activists and protestors.
Despite these challenges Mai and her fellow activists in Girifna continue to organize and protest against corruption and discrimination.
You can follow their work on the Grifina website and on their Facebook group:
http://www.girifna.com/
http://www.facebook.com/Girifna
For more information on Sudan you can check out some of these links. However, it is near to impossible to get a brief summary of the complex history of Sudan!
Insight on Conflict – Timeline: http://www.insightonconflict.org/conflicts/sudan/conflict-profile/timeline/?gclid=CPmWsqDriKwCFQSFDgodxl0r_Q
Crisis Group – Sudan Conflict History: http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/key-issues/research-resources/conflict-histories/sudan.aspx
Venezuela
Rodrigo Diamanti is the International Director & President of “Un Mundo Sin Mordaza “. He is also founding director of the Fundación Futuro Presente and director of Liderazgo y Visión, two NGOs that have set up national programs for Youth Leadership in Venezuela. In 2007 Diamanti co organized the Venezuela Student Movement where action focused on creating a conscience of leadership in Venezuela. Furthermore, he is part of the Alliance of Youth Movements. .
During the meeting Rodrigo elaborated on the work of the global campaign “Un Mundo Sin Mordaza” meaning “A World Without Censorship” which fights against censorship and promotes freedom of speech. The campaign itself originated in Venezuela as a result of the persecution of the Venezuelan media by the government. However, it was extended to the defense of freedom of expression in every country affected by governmental censorship.
As Rodrigo explained, with the Election of Hugo Chávez as the Venezuelan President there also came a shift towards a more dictatorial rule including censorship of the country’s media after being home to the region’s first democracy since the end of the 1950’s. And indeed, Censorship in Venezuela is now ranked 114th out of 169 countries according to Reporters without Borders. Ever since Chávez came into office in 1999, the lack of separation of power in the Government and the inexistence of strong institutions to protect the people from the Government’s arbitrariness has lead to the shutting down of TV and radio stations as well as newspapers and undercutting journalists’ freedom of expression that had before reported about grievances of the government or given advertising space to those calling for anti-Chávez demonstrations, like the five main private Venezuelan TV stations, whose broadcast licenses weren’t renewed by Chavez after the incident.
As a result of the exercised government control and due to the imprisonment of government critical opposition leaders “Un Mundo Sin Mordaza” started organizing country and even worldwide protests with steadily increasing numbers of participants. With their white painted hands and red gags around their mouths the supporters and activists of the campaign protest for a world in which everyone is able to exercise free and unrestricted freedom of opinion and speech as defined in Article 19 of the Universal Convention on Human Rights. The white hands symbolise the peaceful protest they engage themselves in. In opposition to throwing rocks the activists are handing out flowers to the police at demonstrations in hope to achieve change by using peaceful and democratic ways of protesting.
If you would like to find out more about “Un Mundo Sin Mordaza” visit the campaign’s Facebook page or website at www.sinmordaza.org
Belarus
Mikita is an activist for ‘Revolution Through Social Networks’ in Belarus. He spoke to us about the situation in Belarus, often referred to as ‘the last dictatorship in Europe’.
Since the current President Lukashenko took power in 1994 there has been an authoritarian regime limiting the citizens’ political participation, right to peaceful protest and any real opposition to the Government. Since independence in 1991 the economic situation has deteriorated and remained this way for more almost twenty years under Lukashenko. This has led to a desire for a change in Government by many Belarusians. However, due to the use of police intimidation, the military and intelligence units, to keep citizens from protesting and participating in fair elections, there has been no change.
In June 2011 Mikita and other young people came together to participate in a silent protest in a main square in Minsk. The first time in Minsk saw a hundred people take part. By the third protest there were nearly 5,000 in Minsk and 20,000 protesting in various towns and cities across Belarus. A social network popular in Belarus helped to spread the message and coordinate the protests. This network has two million users in Belarus. Mikita credits this network with attracting so many people to the group and the protests. As many of Belarus’ leading democratic activists live abroad in Lithuania, Poland etc. it is a good way to communicate with people back home.
The protest aimed to be completely peaceful and silent in order to comply with all laws with the intention of giving the authorities no legitimate reason to intervene. At first Mikita told us the Government treated the protest as a joke but later as more people were involved the authorities became more aggressive. According to Mikita the Government tried to limit access to the internet and close down their group page on the social networking site. As the site is based in Russia and the Russian Government supports Lukasheko the group was closed. However, the group is back online and has nearly 30,000 users. The Government also passed legislation restricting people from assembling in the street in groups larger than three.
Unfortunately the main information page for ‘Revolution Through Social Networks’’ is on a Russian social network site. However, a very kind Belarusian friend gave me a few links relating to the protests and the group:
Silent protests – Revolution through the Social Networks
Video and article
http://rt.com/politics/protest-belarus-independence-day/
Photos and videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTzyZFFvCfk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD1ERKCWiMQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzuKnDmosFU&feature=player_embedded
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2084806_2295974,00.html
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