Savo Heleta's Blog, page 13

Top Ten Reasons American Christians Support Torture

"The more often American Christians go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists," at least according to the recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life."

"More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is 'often' or 'sometimes' justified. Only 42 percent of people who 'seldom or never' go to services agreed."

"White evangelical Protestants were the religio

Converting for Jesus in Afghanistan

While making a documentary in Afghanistan a year ago, Brian Hughes, an American documentary maker and former member of the US military, came across a group evangelical Christian soldiers in the US army who are trying to convert the Afghan Muslim population into Christianity.

 

As Jeremy Scahill writes, a video recently aired on Al Jazeera shows Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, telling American soldiers that as followers of Jesus Christ, they a

Obama's War Crimes and Torture Double Standards

Ben Chang, spokesman for president Obama's National Security Adviser, said on February 5, 2009 that Obama's Administration supports "the International Criminal Court in its pursuit of those who've perpetrated war crimes [in Darfur:]. We see no reason to support deferral [of the indictment:] at this time."
 

 

However, when the alleged war criminals are Americans, such as the former president George Bush and the rest of his Administration, as well as the CIA and U.S. army personnel, then Barack Obama

Jacob Zuma: NO to African Dictators and Tyrants

African dictators, tyrants, and alleged war criminals are very likely to regret the April 2009 election victory of the African National Congress and its president, Jacob Zuma, more than the South African opposition parties.

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On April 22, South Africans voted in forth democratic elections since the end of apartheid. The African National Congress won about 65% of the vote, thus paving the way for Zuma to become the new president of South Africa.

Quoting unidentified South African diplomatic sources,

Bush administration responsible for torture

According to a recently declassified 232-page report titled "Inquiry into the treatment of detainees in US custody," by the US Senate Armed Services Committee, "US government backing for the CIA's harsh interrogation methods set the tone for abuses by US troops towards detainees" in Iraq and elsewhere.

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 It is not appropriate simply to blame soldiers and low-ranking officers for what took place at Abu Ghraib prison, the report said.

"In my judgment, the report represents a condemnation of both the

Walkout at Ahmadinejad's Speech on Racism

Delegates from about 30 countries walked out of a speech by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at the UN anti-racism conference held in in Geneva, Switzerland.

 
In his speech, Ahmadinejad said "Jewish migrants from Europe and the United States had been sent to the Middle East after World War II in order to establish a racist government in the occupied Palestine... And in fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressi

Rwandan Genocide: The World Watched and Did Nothing

Fifteen years ago, in only three months almost a million Tutsis and many moderate Hutus were brutally slaughtered by the Hutu army and extremists in Rwanda.
 
 
During this time, the world watched and did nothing.

The Western media portrayed the killings as just another outburst of "tribal" violence on African soil, suggesting that nothing could be done to stop "savages" from killing each other in their "barbaric" outbursts of violence.

Under intense pressure from the United States and Britain, the

Afghan "Democratic" Government Worse than the Taliban

One of the reasons George Bush and the United States went to war in Afghanistan was to topple the ruthless Taliban regime with a long record of human rights abuses and bring "freedom and democracy" to the country.

It turns out that the new "democratic" government of Afghanistan, backed by the United States, is hardly any better than the Taliban when it comes to human rights abuses.

 

 

In some ways, the new government is even worse than the Taliban.

As German Der Spiegel writes, Afghan President, Ham

Book Review: "Not My Turn to Die" in the Financial Times

My book, Not My Turn to Die: Memoirs of a Broken Childhood in Bosnia (March 2008, AMACOM Books), was reviewed by Stefan Wagstyl from the Financial Times:

Not My Turn to Die is the memoir of Savo Heleta, an ethnic Serb living in the mainly Muslim town of Gorazde who was 13 when war broke out. Unlike many Gorazde Serbs who flee the town, Heleta’s parents decide to stay – they have Muslim friends, and are well-known and liked in the community.

The enormity of their misjudgment dawns on them as ethnic

Darfur and Gaza: Some people matter more than others

The recent conflict between Israel and Hamas has created fury around the globe, especially in the Muslim world. A number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa saw some of the largest demonstrations in their history condemning the killing of civilians and children in the military operation.

The Middle Eastern media, such as Al Jazeera, covered the confliclt 24/7.

One has to wonder why the Darfur conflict has never received similar attention.

Even though millions of innocent Muslims have b