Verdict on Azeri journalist postponed!...

Dear All, Under the civil society and international pressure, the unjust verdict against satirical journalist Sakit Zahidov has been postponed. The court will announce its verdict on October 3. Therefore, you can still send your appeals to the email address of the Office of the President of Azerbaijan at office@apparat.gov.az. Please, see the appeal below for details and background on the issue. Tabib

Hi, everybody, every soul, friends & travelers, human righters & food sharers, conflict relsolving dears, well, some news from HCA-paris (after Corsica, and the Armen-Irina-Florent post-pessimist connection). FIRST : please, when you have some urgent message to post, like the important one two days ago from Azerbaidjan (we would have loved to help you there, guys, OF COURSE, and also forward the message quickly to other specific organisations... if we had found it !), please think of using the Email first to communicate, and then our website only additionnaly (even if it is a good idea : we keep then the memory of the fact better and may reach more readers). SECOND : we are still waiting for your train tickets very urgently, please, for those who haven't, think of us... MORE... HCA FRANCE is meeting at that point again in Paris to taste the Clairette after Sidu (well, the same...), to enjoy our fresh memories with you, and of course to deal with administrative activities (donators, and so on... our reports are in French for now, we'll send you those in English of course). BESIDES yesterday there was a big MONDANE EVENT in Paris organized by Jerome & Jelena & HCA at the Maison de l'Europe et de l'Orient cultural center : JEROME (actually, he was the one who did) has launched his very new cultural magazine about south-eastern Europe called 'Au Sud de l'Est'. The parisian team was here, of course, and also Anastasia ! Take care, lots of hugs, Karine

Some info and petitions.....

Hi my dear sidu's band!! Yesterday evening I saw at tv a reportage about turkmenistan... The french journalist who made this reportage was helped by some turkmen journalist and human rights activist who were arrested when she leaved the country... They were condamned to 6 and 7 years of inprisonment. The journalist is still inprisoned (alive) but the turkmen activist woman died in jail two weeks ago!!! So, please, GO TO THE WEBSITE OF REPORTERS WHITHOUT BORDERS TO SIGN THE PETITION AND SUPPORT ANNAKURBAN AMANKLYTCHEV... The website is www.rsf.org . (in this website there are other petitions...unfortunately press freedom's is not fashionnable in a lot of countries...)

I also want to inform you about the creation of an RUSF agency in Aix en Provence..RUSF (University Without Borders Network) is a network who supports foreign students in France, network who is linked with RESF (Education Without Borders Network, Karine spoke about it in Die).

If you want more information about RESF actions, you can go to the website www.educationsansfrontieres.org and if you want to read the petition in english, go to http://www.educationsansfrontieres.org/article.php3?id_article=320 . To finish, I inform you that this evening I'm going to participate in a debate about corsican diaspora in the corsican diaspora association in Aix en Provence... I think that talking about diaspora with people from corsican diaspora, especially with my point of view (you know it!!) will be very interesting and funny!!!! I'll tell you the result next time... lot of kisses from the south maïa the bee

Action Alert: React NOW!

From the Committee to Defend the Rights of Imprisoned Satiric/Journalist Sakit Zahidov To the Diplomatic Corps in Azerbaijan, the Council of Europe, the European Union, International Human Rights and Media Freedom Organizations, NGOs, and citizens of the world 27 September 2006 Baku, Azerbaijan

A P P E A L

Respected Members of the Diplomatic Corps, the Council of Europe, the European Union, Human Rights and Media Freedom Organizations, NGOs, and citizens of the world, ONE DAY TO PREVENT AN INNOCENT JOURNALIST FROM BEING IMPRISONED! Tomorrow at 3 p.m. Baku local time, Grave Crimes Court Judge Azer Orujov will hand down the verdict in a politically-motivated criminal drug case against revered Azerbaijani satirical journalist Sakit Zahidov. The local and international community has one last chance to express its concern about the completely groundless case against Zahidov, prevent his conviction and call for his release. INNOCENT JOURNALIST FRAMED AND IMPRISONED! Zahidov has been in police custody since he was arrested on 23 June 2006 and was initially charged with possession of a large amount of drugs with intent to resell it. On the day of Zahidov's arrest, 10 grams of heroine was found in Zahidov's pocket while he was being searched in the police station. However, Zahidov has always maintained that the illegal substance was planted on him by police and that he neither uses, nor deals drugs. In a small break during the last court hearing, the prosecution changed the drug dealing charge against Zahidov to a drug use charge, as they were unable to provide any evidence that Zahidov dealt drugs. However, there is also no evidence to back up the drug use charge. Police admitted in court that an "express" urine drug test given to Zahidov on the day of his arrest came back clean. And doctors called to testify in court denied ever performing a drug test on Zahidov. According to them, statements they wrote in medical documents that Zahidov was a drug user, were based only subjective, visual assessments. Zahidov`s lawyer has said a blood sample taken from Zahidov, which according to the authorities showed traces of illicit substances, was in fact used to carry out an HIV test. The prosecution has asked the court to sentence Sakit Zahidov to three years of imprisonment. While this is a welcome change from the 12 years of imprisonment the prosecution was initially seeking in it drug dealing case against Zahidov, it remains absurd, since Zahidov is NOT a drug dealer, NOT a drug user and certainly NOT a drug abuser. SEND APPEALS TO AZERBAIJAN'S AUTHORITIES BY SEPT. 28, 3 P.M. BAKU LOCAL TIME! The international community must unite and put pressure on Azerbaijan's government and authorities to prevent this innocent father of five and sufferer of chronic heart problems from wasting away in prison for three years for no reason. We, the Committee to Defend the Rights of Imprisoned Satiric/Journalist Sakit Zahidov, appeal to you. We ask that you write appeals to the presidential administration of Azerbaijan at office@apparat.gov.az before 3 p.m. Baku local time, tomorrow (Sept. 28), and call for Azerbaijan's leadership to encourage the country's judicial system to hand down a fair and objective verdict in Sakit Zahidov's case, so this innocent man can be freed. On behalf of the Committee to Defend the Rights of Sakit Zahidov Committee Chairperson Emin Huseynov Committee to Defend the Rights of Imprisoned Satiric/Journalist Sakit Zahidov (Mirza Sakit) Address: 33 Khagani St., Baku Azerbaijan, Tеl: (+99 412) 418-03-34, E-mail: irfs.az@gmail.com

IRINISM

Dear people, I just came back to Graz today. When I arrived to Germany two young policemen of course didn't bother to check the passports of the four US tourists and four grandmothers from Italy playing cards - they took my passport and the passport of the black skinned lady... And as soon as I arrived to Austria drunken teenagers in the train were rude to me and (even worse) they badly sang some shitty marching songs. Well, I guess that means that I got back to the place I call home. Now... I am really happy that I met all of you. I wrote a short diary of our meeting (and everything that happened before and after the meeting), I think I will translate it soon and post it here. Armen - I would love to help you, but I don't know who Elena is... Bravo Maia! Please let us know the name of the blog with the photos. And - don't forget to send your tickets to Bernard. One more thing: I lost a bag somewhere between Paris, Lyon and Die - it looks really funny, it is actually a belt with a circle and another small yellow (not "hello") circle in it. I will be happy if somebody finds it and sends it to Austria. Kisses, Irina

Armen from Armenia

This is me. I miss u all. Guys, maybe someone knows the E-mail address of Elena, because I cant finde it in my list. Than, if somebody has written some materials about our Sidu, even if it is some impretions in the note-book, and if it is in Russian or English, pleas put it on the block or send directly to me, I would like to put sach a material in our Newsletter. Than, where are u all guys? Than, It was not a joke-I really miss u. Than, thats all...

"la corse" is ok with kosovo

hi everybody! i just want to say that i am agree with irina... YOU HAVE TO SIGN YOUR MESSAGES because we are all "hca-club"... i tried to publish my photos in this blog but my computer doesn't want to help me so i'll open an other blog, just for photos... when i'll know the adress, i'll give you all informations by mail... i contacted some artists for the compilation, and they gave me the authorization to keep some of their songs... but i have to call the producer now... so... when i'll be sure i'll post a message in the blog. so, a lot of kisses from the south and take care of you (and the rabbit)!!!

my mobile charger is back!

finally my mobile charger got back home. actually, it had much more interesting journey than me: it chased it's train by all those crazy TGV or ICE and than it alsmost got lost in miscommunication of a big city. i want to thank all people that provided charger's journey to Kiev, but i'm sorry, i won't send it's ticket to Olivier.

Press release from S.T.U.P.I.D.

PRESS RELEASE FROM S.T.U.P.I.D. – THE SECRET TOILET UNIT FOR PAINTING AND INTERIOR DESIGN
Our elite paratrooper commando (located in Bernard’s basement) is carrying out a precision painting operation.
We are invading the toilet next door.
Our goals are:
1) TO MAKE SURE THAT THE SIDU IN DIE WILL NEVER EVER BE FORGOTTEN
(at least by Jelena and Jérôme)
2) TO PROMOTE CONTEMPORARY ARMENIAN INTERIOR DESIGN
(using Armenian alphabet and Armen from Armenia)
3) TO MAKE LIFE MORE PLEASURABLE FOR JELENA & JEROME
(at least the part of their life they spend in their toilet – separately or together)
We unfortunately expect collateral damage (from Clairette, of course) but we plan to stay out of reach of the INTERNATIONAL PAINTING COURT (and ask for amnesty after Jelena calms down…).
Pictures are coming soon.
Armen, Florent, Irina & and one real rabbit
ps : no animal was harmed during this action for peace and innovative interior design

Editing and Improving the Blog

Dear ALL, I am very glad that our blog is up and running :) I have just edited the links section and included the three links of HCA based in Turkey, Armenia and France. I looked at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsinki_Citizens_Assembly), it mentioned the web-site based in Turkey as "official" one, so I listed it as "official" one, but correct me if I'm wrong. I also encourage you, especially those of you who know even a little bit about HTML to enter blog Template and change/edit/improve the blog appearance as you deem better. Also, please bear in mind that the purpose of the internet blogs in general is not that much acting as a discussion forums, but serving as an online information sharing tool. So, please, do post information on your activities, on the activities of other civil society actors you know which may be of interest to our group and DO post ACTION ALERTS for us all to act all together. All the best to each and all of you!... Tabib

HCA Youth Network Blog

HCA Youth Network Blog

Dear Friends, It was a great pleasure and honour to meet you. I hope that we will gather soon in Poland on the next SIDU. Our Polish governmental coalition is almost broken, so there is a chance that the next meeting will be in the country without fascists in parlament and goverment. So don't worry, come to Poland;) Nice to hear that Maia has already started to do something with compilation. Very good idea! I'll do my best to find some contacts with musician from our side. Best wishes from Poland Jacek

hello everybody!!!!

first i want to say "thank you tabib!!" because now we've got a space to talk and exchange.... so i will try to write in english (not so easy for me ;-( ) ... second, i hope that you have travelling well... it was very difficult to leave you but i think that this place has to be a very important "rendez vous" for all of us.... so i wait for your messages. i'm going to call corsican groups for our compilation, i think that i will have more information in some days... i transfered all my photos in my computer but it is very difficult to burn 40 cds with 700 photos so i have to choose the more interesting photos (200 or 300) and burn 40 compilations... but if you personnaly want some particular photo, send me an email and i will try to do for the best... long life for our club!!! maia the bee

Welcome!

Welcome to Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Youth Network Blog!