An Israeli child from a far-right settler group in the West Bank city of Hebron hurls a stone up the stairs of a Palestinian family close to their settlement and shouts: "I will exterminate you." Another spits towards the same family. Another settler woman pushes her face up to a window and snarls: "Whore!"

They are shocking images. There is footage of beatings, their aftermath, and the indifference of Israel's security forces to serious human rights abuses. There is footage too of those same security forces humiliating Palestinians – and most seriously – committing abuses themselves.

They are contained in a growing archive of material assembled by the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem in a remarkable project called Shooting Back. The group has supplied almost 100 video cameras to vulnerable Palestinian communities in Hebron, the northern West Bank and elsewhere, to document and gather evidence of assaults and abusive behaviour – largely by settlers. [Read more and see video]

Imagine Al-Qaeda taking over the control of a small town in the USA. Imagine again that they start house to house search, beat and insult people and put innocent people into jail and inflict inhuman treatment such as American did to Iraqis and other Muslims in Gitmo or Abu Ghraib. Will the American people be happy? Would they tolerate their occupation? Would they not scream and not get rid of those occupiers? Ask any American and the answer to all these question will be a resounding Yes. Then if what is good for USA why is it not good for others?

Talk to any person on the street of Kabul and Baghdad or even Peshawar and they will tell you how much they hate Americans and their manipulative and occupying policies. Every freedom loving people want freedom, the same freedom which the U.S. constitution provides its citizens. In particular death is better for a Pakhtun than an occupation especially by the U.S. The U.S. has no need, no role, and no right to occupy others land and if it wants its own security it must secure others from its own occupation. "Yankees go home" is a very famous slogan which has been repeatedly shouted by millions and millions people of the world in various parts of the world, but deaf ears in Washington refuse to hear it.

Ultimately one has to talk to one's enemies, but the U.S. is always talking the language of force, bullets, and destruction... Instead of pressurizing Pakistan to kill its own people the U.S. must rather encourage and participate in a dialogue with people who want peace in the region and the world at large. Dialogue and negotiation alone will isolate the extremists and solve the problems of terrorism. Force is not the solution. [More]

The problem of Tibet is very complicated. It is intrinsically linked with many issues: politics, the nature of society, law, human rights, religion, culture, the identity of a people, the economy and the state of the natural environment. Consequently, a comprehensive approach must be adopted to resolve this problem that takes into account the benefits to all parties involved, rather than one party alone. Therefore, we have been firm in our commitment to a mutually beneficial policy, the Middle-Way approach, and have made sincere and persistent efforts towards achieving this for many years... However, on the fundamental issue, there has been no concrete result at all. And during the past few years, Tibet has witnessed increased repression and brutality. In spite of these unfortunate developments, my stand and determination to pursue the Middle-Way policy and to continue our dialogue with the Chinese government remain unchanged.

In Tibet today, due to the Chinese government’s numerous actions, driven as they are by a lack of foresight, the natural environment has been severely damaged. And, as a result of their policy of population transfer the non-Tibetan population has increased many times, reducing native Tibetans to an insignificant minority in their own country. Moreover, the language, customs and traditions of Tibet, which reflect the true nature and identity of the Tibetan people are gradually fading away. As a consequence, Tibetans are increasingly being assimilated into the larger Chinese population.

In Tibet, repression continues to increase with numerous, unimaginable and gross violations of human rights, denial of religious freedom and the politicisation of religious issues. All these take place as a result of the Chinese government’s lack of respect for the Tibetan people. These are major obstacles the Chinese government deliberately puts in the way of its policy of unifying nationalities which discriminate between the Tibetan and Chinese peoples. Therefore, I urge the Chinese government to bring an immediate halt to such policies. [More]

Statement of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the 49th Anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day, 10 March 2008

In some counties, a two-year upheaval that kills several dozen and features a double-assassination try (Xanana Gusmao, the prime minister, was also attacked, but not hit) might rank as the biggest thing in recent memory, but in Timor it's not even close. The Indonesian military occupiers -- armed and green-lighted by the United States government -- killed that many on many hundreds of mornings. Their winnowing of the population was so vast that it put them in Nazi-land.

Occupied Timor was the most terrifying place I've ever seen. There was perpetual threat of execution. But, as sometimes happens, the oppressed people actually won. And with gradual independence, starting in 1999, the Timorese won the right to behave as pettily as everyone else, and their leaders have been exercising it.

The rebel Reinado stood for nothing that anyone could discern and the older generation of leaders has been bickering even as there is still hunger in the countryside, side-by-side with newly-won oil money. Compared to the Indonesian Occupation holocaust, all of this is - amazingly enough - small for Timor, but that proportional comparison is, in many senses, beside the point: Just one death ends the world for someone, and when it's preventable, it's inexcusable. [More]