Monthly Archives: May 2015

Fourty years since the end of the Vietnam war

According to the Aspen Institute’s Agent Orange in Vietnam Program, chemicals used by the US military during the war continues to have harmful impacts in Vietnam today. There are many testimonies about the horrors of the war and even about the lies that were used to motivate it, including the false flag Tonkin Gulf incident. However, what lacks is responsibility for many of the war crimes — see for example Jonathan Schnell’s article on war and accountability.

Instead of demanding accountability, many countries are today working closer with the US military than ever before. For example, the Swedish government now welcomes US warplanes on their territorry, including the B-52, known for devastating Vietnam. The fact that only a few small parties in the Swedish parliament are critical against this, illustrates that many others today ignore the atrocities of the Vietnam war or too simply dismiss them as mistakes.

It is more clear than ever, that we still need to remember Vietnam.

Seminar on whistleblowers

Civil Rights Defenders and Svenska PEN invite you to a seminar where Thomas Drake, Daniel Ellsberg and Jesselyn Radack will talk about the importance of whistleblowers, how they are treated and what states and the international community need to do to improve their protection. The seminar will be held on 5 June in Stockholm. Read more on the web page of Civil Rights Defenders, where you can also find the address to sign up.

The seminar will be broadcasted live on Bambuser and should also be also available to view afterwards. See the Bambuser channel of Civil Rights Defenders.

Protest against TPP

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement is getting closer to completion through a mechanism called fast track. UN experts say TPP and fast track threaten human rights. There is special reason to be concerned if you are a citizen of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the USA or Vietnam. To protest against TPP, see stopthesecrecy.net and stopfasttracknow.org.