Israel-Palestine
The leaders of six Palestine human rights organizations today spoke out after Israel designated them as “terrorists.” Israeli authorities say the groups are fronts for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a relatively small armed group. Al-Haq, one of the six organizations and the biggest Palestinian rights group, not only criticizes the Israeli government but regularly speaks out against rights violations committed by Palestinian groups. "I think it is the last bullet in their hands and this is a political bullet because it has no legal basis and no security basis. I challenge them to prove what they said," al-Haq's director, Shawan Jabarin, said. The move has been condemned by international rights groups, Israeli rights groups and by the UN as an attempt to silence the organizations. The US and the EU have asked for proof.
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Western Sahara
The UN today urged Morocco and the Polisario Front to call a ceasefire and restart talks, as it renewed a peacekeeping mission for another year. Morocco in 1975 annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, sparking a rebellion from the Front that continued until a ceasefire was declared in 1991. The detente, however, collapsed last November. Morocco proposes autonomy for Western Sahara under its jurisdiction, while the Front wants a referendum on full independence.
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Myanmar
A military court in Myanmar today sentenced Win Htein, a close ally of toppled civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, to 20 years in prison. Htein, who is 80, becomes the first high-profile member of the former ruling party to be jailed since a military junta overthrew a democratically-elected government in February.
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