US women soldiers raped, then persecuted

This video is called The Invisible War (Rape In The US Army) Part 1.

And here come parts 2 to 6.

From Associated Press:

Stacey Thompson, Military Rape Victim, Says Retaliation Prevalent For Those Who Speak Out

By JULIE WATSON 05/31/13 06:22 AM ET EDT

SAN DIEGO — Stacey Thompson had just been stationed at Marine base in Japan when she said her sergeant laced her drinks with drugs, raped her in his barracks and then dumped her onto a street outside a nightclub at 4 a.m.

The 19-year-old lance corporal was not afraid to speak up.

She reported it to her superiors but little happened. She said she discovered her perpetrator was allowed to leave the Marine Corps and she found herself, instead, at the center of a separate investigation for drug use stemming from that night. Six months later, she was kicked out with an other-than-honorable discharge – one step below honorable discharge – which means she lost her benefits.

Now, 14 years later, she has decided to speak out again, emboldened by the mounting pressure on the Pentagon to resolve its growing sexual assault epidemic.

She went public with her story Thursday in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. She is among the scores of service members who have lived in silence for decades and are now stepping forward to fight for an overhaul of the military’s justice system and demand their own cases be re-examined.

“To see that what happened to me 14 years ago is still continuing to happen now, for me that was a big reason why I felt the need to come forward,” she said. “I can finally say I have the strength.”

Marine Corps and Navy officials declined to comment, saying they do not discuss specific cases. The Marine Corps has said it takes sexual assault allegations seriously and continues to improve in responding to and preventing rapes within the ranks. All branches have been implementing sexual assault prevention programs in the past year.

Retaliation is part of a military-wide pattern that has prevented countless cases from being reported and investigated, exacerbating the epidemic, according to victims’ advocates. A Pentagon report released earlier this month found 62 percent of sexual assault victims in the military who reported being attacked say they faced some kind of retaliation afterward.

“It’s an ongoing problem that is not getting better, it’s getting worse, as the latest statistics out of the Pentagon show,” said Brian Purchia, spokesman for Protect Our Defenders, which has been helping Thompson. “Unfortunately commanders are conflicted: When a sexual assault occurs on their watch, it reflects poorly on them and that’s why it’s shoved under the rug. The perpetrators frequently out rank the victims, which is also why there is this bias. They’re going to trust people they’ve known – not an 18 or 19-year-old just new to the service.”

Thompson said military culture will not change until the system changes. She will speak Friday at a news conference in Los Angeles with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to show her support for her bipartisan bill that would put the cases in the hands of military trained prosecutors.

Service members now must report any crimes to the chain of command, even when their superiors have been involved.

“Too many survivors of military sexual assault are afraid to report these crimes because they fear retaliation, and they don’t believe they will get justice,” Boxer said. “They deserve a system that encourages victims to come forward knowing that the perpetrators will be brought to justice.”

Thompson said she was not afraid to report the crime but paid heavily for doing so.

The investigator called her a liar, and military authorities checked her hands for needle pricks after accusing her of using drugs. She said she never used drugs. She was reassigned to another unit, removed from her job and told to report to an office, where she had nothing to do for months.

Then she was kicked out. She continues to suffer from her other-than-honorable discharge, which stripped her of her benefits and she believes has led to her missing out on Defense Department jobs.

“I felt the Marine Corps re-victimized me again after getting raped,” said the 32-year-old mother of three.

Thompson said she shut down after getting out, refusing to talk about her rape. She was afraid of men, especially Marines. To this day, she keeps her dog nearby when she showers and sleeps with lights on in her house, even when her combat Marine husband is home.

“That fear is still with me 14 years later,” she said.

But the fight is there too. Thompson requested her records in December. She said they showed the drug use allegations against her came from her perpetrator’s friends.

She is now appealing her case to the Department of Veterans Affairs and is seeking compensation related to military sexual trauma. After that, she plans to also appeal her discharge status to get it upgraded to honorable.

Several service members have filed lawsuits in the past two years, alleging retaliation after they reported being raped. Among them was another former Marine, Elle Helmer, who said in her lawsuit that after reporting her sexual assault in 2006, the military investigated her for public intoxication and unbecoming conduct. She left the military soon after.

The extent of the assaults came to light when the Pentagon released a report earlier this month estimating that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year and that thousands of victims are unwilling to come forward despite new oversight and assistance programs. That figure is an increase over the 19,000 estimated assaults in 2011.

Only 3,374 of these crimes were reported, resulting in just 238 convictions. The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing next week on legislation to combat military sexual assault, including the bill sponsored by Boxer and other lawmakers.

Britain: Lawyers for former soldier Donna Rayment, who alleged she was sexually assaulted whilst serving in the army, said yesterday they are going back to court in a bid to force a prosecution: here.

Related articles

• Stacey Thompson, Victim of Military Sexual Assault, Speaks Out (lezgetreal.com)

British Conservative sexual abuse scandal

This video from Britain is called Nigel Evans: Rape Arrest.

After earlier British Conservative party sexual abuse scandals, today from weekly The Observer in Britain:

Tory MP Nigel Evans arrested after sex assault claims by two men

Deputy speaker in House of Commons held and house searched following allegations

Lin Jenkins

Sunday 5 May 2013

MPs from across the political spectrum have expressed shock after the House of Commons deputy speaker and Conservative MP Nigel Evans was arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault.

Detectives visited his home in Pendleton, Lancashire, on Saturday morning following allegations made by two men who were in their 20s at the time of the alleged attacks, which are said to have taken place at the property in July 2009 and March 2013.

The house and his car were searched by officers while Evans was held in custody at Preston police station. He was released on police bail until 19 June.

The prime minister, David Cameron, is understood to have been informed about the arrest of the 55-year-old, MP for Ribble Valley since 1992, one of the few Tory strongholds in the north.

…

Evans is openly gay, having come out as homosexual in 2010, the year he was elected to his current post. In the 2010 general election Evans retained his seat with a majority of 14,769 over Labour, with Ukip making a then strong showing in fourth place with 3,496, or 6.7% of the vote.

If the police take further action the Tory party will face the prospect of a potentially difficult byelection. With Ukip support surging, Nigel Farage’s party is bound to see the vacancy as an opportunity to establish a foothold in the House of Commons for the first time.

Lancashire police said: “A 55-year-old man from Pendleton in Lancashire has today, Saturday, 4 May 2013, been arrested by Lancashire Constabulary on suspicion of rape and sexual assault. The man will be interviewed at a police station in Lancashire during the course of the day. The offences are alleged to have been committed in Pendleton between July 2009 and March 2013.”

Evans, who earns £102,000 a year as an MP and deputy speaker, was first elected as a councillor, while working in his family’s newsagent business, to West Glamorgan county council in 1985. Five years later he became leader of the Conservative group.

Evans is known as a rightwinger who voted against the minimum wage and is a strong Eurosceptic. Originally from Swansea, he was John Major’s spokesman on Welsh affairs. He held various positions as a parliamentary private secretary in Major’s government including to Tony Baldry in the ministry of agriculture, food and fisheries. In 1999 he was appointed as vice-chairman of the Conservative party, a post he held until 2001.

At the time of his coming out as gay he said he was tired of living a lie and dealing with threats of blackmail from political enemies. He came out at the launch of a parliamentary group set up to help MPs and staff at the Palace of Westminster to be open about their sexuality.

“I could not afford it to be used as leverage against me. I couldn’t take the risk. I don’t want any other MP to face that kind of nastiness again. I am sure there are other gay MPs who would like to be open about their sexuality but are fearful of the consequences. I hope this new group will help them to do so,” he said.

…

In an interview shortly after announcing he was gay he said he regretted supporting section 28, the law introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government banning the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities in schools.

He said: “I was confused about how to protect youngsters at school. The law did the opposite of what was intended. We shouldn’t have been telling young people that being gay was wrong.”

Asked in a newspaper interview why it had taken him so long to publicly disclose his sexuality, he said: “Growing up in the 60s, it just wasn’t done.

“There were just as many gay politicians as there are now but none of them was out. I realised I was gay when I was about 12 or 13, though at the time I wished I wasn’t. I thought I might just be going through a phase and that it would fade away. I had a girlfriend.

“I suppressed it. In those days you kept it quiet. It was more or less impossible to enter politics – in either party – as an openly gay person. When Margaret Thatcher was asked about homosexuals in the party, she said: ‘Oh, we don’t talk about those sort of things.’ It was all swept under the carpet.”

UKIP Scotland spokesman under fire for saying ‘selfish’ gays want to ‘destroy our society’: here.

Related articles

• Cameron’s British Conservatives Shaken Badly in Local Elections. (greatriversofhope.wordpress.com)
• Election 2013: MP blames ‘Nigel Farage effect’ as Tory seats fall to UKIP in Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury (eadt.co.uk)
• British Conservative leader Michael Howard to step down (sridharanraghavan34.wordpress.com)
• Radical Tory response to UKIP urged (bbc.co.uk)

Stop whipping of raped Maldives girl

From Avaaz.org:

Dear friends,

It’s horrific! A Maldives court just sentenced a 15-year-old rape survivor to 100 whip lashings. By threatening Maldives politicians’ precious tourist income we can save this child and stop these outrageous public floggings. Let’s quickly build a one million strong call, then place ads in travel magazines and websites:

It’s hard to believe, but a 15-year-old rape survivor has been sentenced to be whipped 100 times in public! Let’s put an end to this lunacy by hitting the Maldives government where it hurts: the tourism industry.

The girl’s stepfather is accused of raping her for years and murdering the baby she bore. Now the court says she must be flogged for “sex outside marriage”! President Waheed of the Maldives is already feeling global pressure on this, and we can force him to save this girl and change the law to spare other victims this cruel fate. This is how we can end the War on Women – by standing up every time an outrage like this happens.

Tourism is the big earner for the Maldives elite, including government ministers. Let’s build a million-strong petition to President Waheed this week, then threaten the islands’ reputation through hard-hitting ads in travel magazines and online until he steps in to save her and abolish this outrageous law. Sign and forward this email now to get us to a million:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/maldives_global/?bHFhfab&v=23290

The Maldives is a paradise for tourists. But for women there, it can be hell. Under harsh interpretations of sharia law, women and children are routinely punished with flogging and house arrest if found guilty of extramarital sex or adultery. It’s nearly always the women who get punished, not the perpetrators. A staggering one in three women between ages 15 and 49 have suffered physical or sexual abuse — yet zero rapists were convicted in the past three years.

Winning this battle can help women everywhere, as the Maldives government is right now running for a top UN human rights position – on a platform of women’s rights! Global outrage has already forced President Waheed to appeal the sentence in the 15-year-old’s case. But that’s not enough. Extremists inside the country will force him to abandon further reforms if international attention fades. Let’s tell the Maldives that it stands to lose its reputation as a romantic tourist hot spot unless it changes its attitudes to and laws about women.

If enough of us raise our voices, we can get President Waheed and his MPs to face down the extremists. The president is already on the back foot over this shameful, tragic story – let’s seize this moment to prevent more horrifying injustices against girls and women. Sign the petition, then send this email widely:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/maldives_global/?bHFhfab&v=23290

Avaaz members have fought many battles in the global war on women. In Afghanistan, we helped protect a young woman who bravely spoke out about her horrific rape; in Honduras, we fought alongside local women against a law that would jail women using the morning-after pill. Let’s now protect the women of the Maldives.

With hope and determination,

Jeremy, Mary, Nick, Alex, Ricken, Laura, Michelle and the whole Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION

Maldives girl to get 100 lashes for pre-marital sex (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21595814

Maldives government to appeal flogging of rape victim (Dawn, Pakistan)
http://dawn.com/2013/03/01/maldives-government-to-appeal-flogging-of-rape-victim/

Rape victims punished, failed by Maldives justice system (Minivan news, Maldives)
http://minivannews.com/society/raped-victims-punished-failed-by-law-in-the-maldives-53760

Judicial statistics show 90 percent of those convicted for fornication are female (Minivan news, Maldives)
http://minivannews.com/politics/judicial-statistics-show-90-percent-of-those-convicted-for-fornication-are-female-44605

Related articles

• Alleged rape victim in Maldives ‘to be flogged’ (smh.com.au)
• Maldives girl facing 100 lashes for pre-marital sex (radionz.co.nz)
• Court orders flogging of alleged rape victim (abc.net.au)
• Maldives girl, 15, sentenced to 100 lashes for ‘fornication’ (guardian.co.uk)
• U.K. firm wins Maldives airport project (thehindu.com)

Female military veterans, after rape, homelessness

This video from the USA says about itself:

Lackland Air Force Base Rape Victim Talks of Ordeal.

Feb 27, 2013

Virginia Messick was raped by her training instructor at Lackland Air Force Base in 2011. She is the first Lackland victim to speak publicly, in this exclusive interview with the reporter James Risen.

This video from the USA says about itself:

Owning the Past: Female Veterans Share Experiences of Sexual Trauma

Feb 28, 2013

Women who have just completed an intensive therapy program for veterans in Long Beach, Calif., shared their experiences of sexual trauma in the military, which led to homelessness for some.

From the New York Times in the USA:

Honor Betrayed

Trauma Sets Female Veterans Adrift Back Home

By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN

Published: February 27, 2013

This is the second in a two-part series.

Part I [is]: Attacked at 19 by an Air Force Trainer, and Speaking Out

LOS ANGELES — In the caverns of her memory, Tiffany Jackson recalls the job she held, fleetingly, after leaving the military, when she still wore stylish flats and blouses with butterfly collars and worked in a high-rise with a million-dollar view.

Two years later, she had descended into anger and alcohol and left her job. She started hanging out with people who were using cocaine and became an addict herself, huddling against the wind on Skid Row here.

“You feel helpless to stop it,” she said of the cascade of events in which she went from having her own apartment to sleeping in seedy hotels and then, for a year, in the streets, where she joined the growing ranks of homeless female veterans.

Even as the Pentagon lifts the ban on women in combat roles, returning servicewomen are facing a battlefield of a different kind: they are now the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, an often-invisible group bouncing between sofa and air mattress, overnighting in public storage lockers, living in cars and learning to park inconspicuously on the outskirts of shopping centers to avoid the violence of the streets.

While male returnees become homeless largely because of substance abuse and mental illness, experts say that female veterans face those problems and more, including the search for family housing and an even harder time finding well-paying jobs. But a common pathway to homelessness for women, researchers and psychologists said, is military sexual trauma, or M.S.T., from assaults or harassment during their service, which can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Sexual trauma set Ms. Jackson on her path. At first she thought she could put “the incident” behind her: that cool August evening outside Suwon Air Base in South Korea when, she said, a serviceman grabbed her by the throat in the ladies’ room of a bar and savagely raped her on the urine-soaked floor. But during the seven years she drifted in and out of homelessness, she found she could not forget.

Of 141,000 veterans nationwide who spent at least one night in a shelter in 2011, nearly 10 percent were women, according to the latest figures available from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, up from 7.5 percent in 2009. In part it is a reflection of the changing nature of the American military, where women now constitute 14 percent of active-duty forces and 18 percent of the Army National Guard and the Reserves.

But female veterans also face a complex “web of vulnerability,” said Dr. Donna L. Washington, a professor of medicine at U.C.L.A. and a physician at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs medical center, who has studied the ways the women become homeless, including poverty and military sexual trauma.

Female veterans are far more likely to be single parents than men. Yet more than 60 percent of transitional housing programs receiving grants from the Department of Veterans Affairs did not accept children, or restricted their age and number, according to a 2011 report by the Government Accountability Office.

The lack of jobs for female veterans also contributes to homelessness. Jennifer Cortez, 26, who excelled as an Army sergeant, training and mentoring other soldiers, has had difficulty finding work since leaving active duty in 2011. She wakes up on an air mattress on her mother’s living room floor, beneath the 12 medals she garnered in eight years, including two tours in Iraq. Job listings at minimum wage leave her feeling bewildered. “You think, wow, really?” she said. “I served my country. So sweeping the floor is kind of hard.”

Not wanting to burden her family, she has lived briefly in her car, the only personal space she has.

Some homeless veterans marshal boot-camp survival skills, like Nancy Mitchell, of Missouri, 53, an Army veteran who spent years, off and on, living in a tent.

“That’s how we done it in basic,” she said.

Double Betrayal of Assault

Of more than two dozen female veterans interviewed by The New York Times, 16 said that they had been sexually assaulted in the service, and another said that she had been stalked. A study by Dr. Washington and colleagues found that 53 percent of homeless female veterans had experienced military sexual trauma, and that many women entered the military to escape family conflict and abuse.

For those hoping to better their lives, being sexually assaulted while serving their country is “a double betrayal of trust,” said Lori S. Katz, director of the Women’s Health Clinic at the V.A. Long Beach Healthcare System and co-founder of Renew, an innovative treatment program for female veterans with M.S.T. Reverberations from such experiences often set off a downward spiral for women into alcohol and substance abuse, depression and domestic violence, she added.

“It just pulls the skin off you,” said Patricia Goodman-Allen, a therapist in North Carolina and former Army Reserve officer who said she once retreated to a mobile home deep in the woods after such an assault.

Ms. Jackson won full disability compensation for post-traumatic stress as a disabling aftermath of her sexual trauma, although she was at first denied military benefits.

Choking back tears and in voices edged with rage, two women and a man who served in the American military told a Senate panel on Wednesday how they were raped by superiors and then ridiculed or ignored by military officials from whom they sought help: here.

Epidemic rape in the US Military! Ask Congress to take action: here.

After decade of war, troops still struggling to find work: here.

Related articles

• The New Face of Homelessness: Female Veterans (freakoutnation.com)
• Female Veterans Are Fastest Growing Segment of Homeless Population (colorlines.com)
• Homeless Female Veterans: All Too Often, a ‘Double Betrayal of Trust’ (themoderatevoice.com)
• Bay Pines VA program tackles military sex cases (tbo.com)
• National Review Columnist Says Female Vet Rape Survivors Who Have PTSD Are Actually Just Sluts (jezebel.com)

Indian women’s anti rape demonstration

This video from India says about itself:

Mar 14, 2011

Vice President of the All India Democratic Women’s Association, Subhashini Ali speaks on the occasion of 100 years since the declaration of “International Women’s Day” on 8th March 1911.

And this video from India says about itself:

Jan 31, 2013

In a debate moderated by TIMES NOW’s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, panelists — Justice (Retd) Mukul Mudgal, Former Chief Justice Punjab and Haryana High Court; Malvika Rajkotia, Senior Advocate; Ranjana KumariDirector, Centre for Social Research; Soli Sorabjee, Former Attorney General; Subhashini Ali, President, All India Democratic Women’s Association; Poornima Advani, Former Chairperson, NCW and Kavita Srivastava, National Secretary, PUCL — discuss whether the nature and severity of crime should determine whether an accused can be termed as juvenile.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Women demand better rape law

Monday 04 February 2013

by Our Foreign Desk

Hundreds of women called on the Indian government today to scrap a shoddy sexual violence law passed last week and replace it with a better one.

The law was passed by India’s cabinet on Friday and signed by the president on Sunday.

Demonstrators outside parliament said that it only followed a few of the recommendations made by a government panel set up after the fatal gang-rape of a New Delhi woman in December.

The new law increases jail terms for rape from the current seven to 10 years to a maximum of 20.

It also permits the death penalty in extreme cases of rape that result in death or leave the victim in a coma.

It makes voyeurism, stalking, acid attacks and the trafficking of women criminal offences.

Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said that the government decided to bring in the new law through an ordinance immediately, though it will have to be approved by parliament within six months.

“The government wants to assure everyone that before it is tabled in parliament, we will hold consultations with all political parties,” said Mr Chidambaram.

But the protesters damned the new law as a smokescreen as it ignores marital rape and sexual violence against women by soldiers.

It also doesn’t bar politicians facing rape charges from elections.

“The government should have spent time on drafting a comprehensive Bill and brought it to parliament with candour and sincerity,” said Maimoona Mullah of the All India Democratic Women’s Association.

Related articles

• First witness for Delhi rape trial (bbc.co.uk)
• Activists in India protest against new rape laws they say are inadequate (vancouverdesi.com)
• India president backs rape laws (bbc.co.uk)

Somali police rape woman, then jail her

Part of the propaganda of NATO country governments to sell their “humanitarian” wars to their subjects is to claim that the bloody wars are “for women’s rights”.

Supposedly George W. Bush invaded Iraq, with over a million dead people, millions of wounded people and four million refugees as results, “for Iraqi women’s rights”. In fact, the situation for women in Iraq now is very much worse than before the 2003 invasion.

Supposedly, first George W. Bush, later other NATO governments, invaded Afghanistan “for Afghan women’s rights”. In fact, the new pro NATO regime in Kabul proved to be as misogynistic as their Taliban predecessors, in some cases even worse. Contrary to ads paid by Dutch taxpayers telling Dutch TV viewers to join the air force “to help Afghan girls go to school”, in fact not one Afghan girl more went to school as a result of the bombing by Dutch airplanes. Never mind the Afghan girls killed or wounded by NATO bombs.

In Libya in 2011, ultra religious militias with al Qaeda links were the ground troops of the ‘free world’. After they won that bloody war with the help of NATO bombs and British SAS and Qatari soldiers, they killed the United States ambassador and made the women’s rights situation much worse.

Somalia is another country where NATO governments invaded and waged war. Sometimes the NATO armed forces themselves; sometimes using Ethiopian, Ugandan or Kenyan soldiers as proxy cannon fodder.

This video is called Somali women raped by Ethiopian troops.

In Somalia, the invaders tried to prop a regime in parts of the capital Mogadishu, consisting of brutal warlords who during the 1990s had dragged the dead bodies of US American soldiers through the streets.

How does this pro Pentagon pro NATO government act in women’s rights issues?

From the BBC:

30 January 2013 Last updated at 13:30 GMT

Somalia: Anger over woman charged after alleging rape

A human rights group has urged Somali authorities to drop charges against a woman who accused security forces of raping her.

The woman, who has not been named, could face between three and six years in prison for insulting a government body and making a false accusation.

Four others, including her husband and a journalist, have also been charged.

US-based Human Rights Watch said the charges “made a mockery of the new Somali government’s priorities”.

…

‘Politically motivated’

Attorney General Abdulkadir Mohamed Muse brought charges against the five of insulting a government body and persuading someone to give false evidence or giving false evidence, among other accusations, in a court in the capital, Mogadishu, on Tuesday.
Map

The charged journalist, Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim, has been in detention since 10 January.

Two days earlier he had interviewed the woman about the rape allegations, but did not report the story.

The police allege he collected material for a news report by al-Jazeera about rape in camps for displaced people in Mogadishu. The Qatar-based news network has said Mr Ibrahim was not involved in its story.

According to Human Rights Watch, the woman retracted her allegations after two days of police interrogation without a lawyer present.

Afterwards she was released, but her husband was arrested in her place. A man and woman who helped introduce her to the journalist were also arrested.

Mr Muse told the BBC Somali service on Saturday that the accused had plotted to discredit the government and its security forces – and the woman and her accomplices had been paid by the journalist to lie.

An investigation had revealed that the police station where the woman had originally reported the alleged rape in Hodan, a district in Mogadishu where many displaced people live, had found no medical evidence to back up her rape allegation, he said.

The BBC’s Mohamed Mwalimu in Mogadishu says the woman, who is caring for a child, has to report to the police twice a day. The other four accused remain in jail.

Media organisations in the city have been outraged by the case and have held demonstrations in protest, he says.

“Bringing charges against a woman who alleges rape makes a mockery of the new Somali government’s priorities,” Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

“The police ‘investigation’ in this case was a politically motivated attempt to blame and silence those who report on the pervasive problem of sexual violence by Somali security forces.”

He said donor countries funding Somalia’s police force and criminal justice system needed to make it clear that “they won’t be party to injustices”.

…

When President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was asked about the case on a visit to the US earlier this month, he said it was a legal matter in which he could not interfere.

The trial will resume on Saturday in Banadir regional court in Mogadishu.

See also here.

US-backed Somalia Regime Admits Soldiers Raped Women: here.

Related articles

• Somalia: Government Charges Woman Who Says She Was Raped By Security Forces (huffingtonpost.com)
• NUSOJ Calls for the Release of the Somali Journalist held for interviewing a Woman who said that She Was raped (appablog.wordpress.com)
• Somali Journalist Arrested After Story on Rape (abcnews.go.com)

Moroccan rapist marrying to be abolished

This video, in French, is about the campaign for women’s rights and against rape in Morocco.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Morocco to reform rape law

Wednesday 23 January 2013

The Moroccan government said today that it plans to outlaw the traditional practice of forcing rapists to marry their victims.

Women’s rights activists welcomed Justice Minister Mustapha Ramid’s announcement but said that it was only a first step in reforming the law that still doesn’t do enough to stop violence against women.

The law allows those convicted of “corruption” or “kidnapping” of a child to go free if they marry their victim and the practice was encouraged to spare family shame.

Related articles

• Morocco Won’t Let Rapists Marry Victims to Escape Penalty (newser.com)
• Change in Moroccan Law Will No Longer Link Rape to Marriage (news.softpedia.com)
• Morocco Scraps Law That Allowed Rapists To Marry Their Victims (sfluxe.com)
• Morocco to change rape marriage law (aljazeera.com)
• Under-age rape law change welcomed (timesofmalta.com)
• Morocco to change laws forcing youths to marry their rapists after teen’s suicide (theprovince.com)

Savile child abuse, police, Thatcher failure

This video from Britain is called Jimmy Savile & Margaret Thatcher.

By Paddy McGuffin in Britain:

Prosecutors and police: we failed to stop Savile

Friday 11 January 2013

Predatory paedophile Jimmy Savile could have been prosecuted for offences against at least three victims while he was alive but the complaints were not taken seriously enough, it was admitted today.

The disgraced TV presenter used his celebrity status to “hide in plain sight” and commit hundreds of sexual offences, a joint report by the Metropolitan Police and children’s charity NSPCC found.

Legal adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Levitt QC said Savile could have been prosecuted in 2009 had police taken his victims’ allegations more seriously.

She found that “had the police and prosecutors taken a different approach” prosecutions could have been possible in relation to three victims.

Police and prosecutors treated the claims “with a degree of caution which was neither justified nor required,” Ms Levitt said.

Surrey Police received an allegation in May 2007 that Savile had sexually assaulted a teenage girl at Duncroft Children’s Home in the late 1970s.

As a result of that investigation, two more allegations emerged.

The first that around 1973 Savile had sexually assaulted a girl aged about 14 outside Stoke Mandeville hospital.

The second, in the ’70s and again at Duncroft, Savile had suggested to a girl aged about 17 that she perform oral sex on him.

And separately a complaint was made to Sussex Police in March 2008 alleging that around 1970 Savile had sexually assaulted a woman in her early twenties in a caravan in Sussex.

Ms Levitt found that Surrey Police had not informed the alleged victims that other complaints had been made, while Sussex police told the complainant that corroboration was needed and the prosecutor did not question why victims would not support court action or seek to build a case.

Surrey Police consulted the Crown Prosecution Service about all four allegations and it was decided in October 2009 that no prosecution could be brought because the alleged victims would not support police action.

A total of 450 people have come forward alleging sexual abuse by Savile since October. Among the recorded crimes are 34 rapes and 126 indecent acts.

Of his victims, almost three-quarters were children – the youngest of whom was eight years old at the time.

The earliest reported offence committed by Savile was in Manchester in 1955, and the final reported allegation was in 2009.

Commander Peter Spindler, who is leading the national investigation into Savile’s abuse, said: “Savile’s offending footprint was vast, predatory and opportunistic.

“He cannot face justice today, but we hope this report gives some comfort to his hundreds of victims.

“They have been listened to and taken seriously.”

NSPCC’s Peter Watt added: “The sheer scale of Savile’s abuse over six decades simply beggars belief.

“He is without doubt one of the most prolific sex offenders we have ever come across,” said Mr Watt.

From Civilsociety.co.uk:

Savile lobbied Thatcher to increase charitable tax relief, archives show

Tania Mason | 11 Jan 2013

Newly-published government papers dating back 30 years have shown that Jimmy Savile approached then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher about increasing tax relief on charitable donations.

He also met her several times to drum up support for his Stoke Mandeville Hospital appeal – a successful campaign, as the government eventually donated £500,000 to the £10m appeal.

Official records of meetings and a number of letters between the pair were published by the National Archives just before the new year, under the 30-year rule.

Jimmy Savile was thanked in a letter from ex-PM Margaret Thatcher — after finding children’s party entertainers for her as he abused kids: here.

Savile’s extraordinary access to Thatcher detailed in secret files: here.

Revealed: Jimmy Savile’s close friendship with Margaret Thatcher: here.

Rape victim ‘pressured by police to drop claim against man who later killed’: here.

Police investigating allegations of child abuse have seized a list that includes names of government ministers and other prominent establishment figures: here.

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• Jimmy Savile scandal: Report reveals decades of abuse (sott.net)
• Jimmy Savile report: Abuse victims to seek compensation (metro.co.uk)
• Jimmy Savile abused dying child, 11, at Great Ormond Street (thesun.co.uk)
• Six shocking decades of sordid and cruel abuse (yorkshirepost.co.uk)
• Cops Will Fix It: Jimmy Savile boasted his pals in police would protect him from child abuse claims (mirror.co.uk)
• ‘A mere drop in the ocean’… number of Savile victims could DOUBLE (standard.co.uk)
• Media reaction to Savile report (bbc.co.uk)
• Revealed: Jimmy Savile’s close friendship with Margaret Thatcher (independent.co.uk)
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Sir Jimmy Savile abused little children

From Reuters:

Jimmy Savile Police Report: He Abused Hundreds Of People Over Six Decades; Youngest Victim Was 8

01/11/2013 1:47 pm EST

* Late BBC star suspected of 214 crimes including rape

* Savile given knighthood by Queen Elizabeth and Pope

* Abuse started in 1955 and continued until 2009

* Police looking into “informal network” of abusers (Recasts, adds details, quotes throughout)

By Michael Holden

LONDON, Jan 11 – The late British TV presenter Jimmy Savile, honoured by both the queen and the pope, sexually assaulted hundreds of people, mainly children, at BBC premises and hospitals over six decades of unparalleled abuse, a police-led report said on Friday.

Savile, one of Britain’s biggest TV stars in the 1970s and 1980s, abused youngsters at 13 hospitals where he did voluntary work as a porter and fundraiser, and even at a hospice treating terminally ill patients.

The youngest victim was an 8-year-old boy, and the last of the 214 offences of which he is suspected took place just two years before his death in 2011 at the age of 84.

“He groomed a nation,” said Commander Peter Spindler, who led the police investigation and said the scale of his crimes were without precedence.

A one-time professional wrestler, Savile became famous as a pioneering DJ in the 1960s before becoming a regular fixture on TV hosting prime-time pop and children’s shows until the 1990s.

He also ran about 200 marathons for charity, raising tens of millions of pounds (dollars) for hospitals, leading some to give him keys to rooms where victims now allege they were abused.

While many colleagues and viewers thought the cigar-chomping Savile was weird, with his long blonde hair, penchant for garish outfits and flashy jewellery, he was considered a “national treasure”, honoured not just by the queen but also by the late Pope John Paul II who made him a papal knight in 1990.

However, Friday’s report said he took advantage of his fame to commit predatory offences across Britain, including 34 rapes or serious sexual assaults. Of his alledged victims, 73 percent were under 18 and 82 percent were female. The oldest was 47.

In all, 450 people have given information about him and detectives said more victims were likely to come forward. However, the report, issued jointly by London police and the NSPCC children’s charity, said some would never feel able to break their silence.

“He hid in plain sight, behind a veil of eccentricity double-bluffing those who challenged him, from vulnerable children right up to and including a prime minister of the time,” said Peter Watt from the NSPCC.

He said Savile had “cunningly” built his life’s work around getting access to children to abuse.

Related articles

• Jimmy Savile spent ‘every waking minute’ thinking about abusing boys and girls (Telegraph) (telegraph.co.uk)
• Sick Savile preyed on Leeds hospice – but police never took him seriously (yorkshirepost.co.uk)
• Jimmy Savile report reveals TV star abused children as young as ten (metro.co.uk)
• ‘Appalled’ BBC offers apology to Jimmy Savile victims (standard.co.uk)
• Cops: BBC legend Savile committed 214 sex crimes (worldnews.nbcnews.com)
• Jimmy Savile ‘sexually assaulted children aged just 10′ (mirror.co.uk)
• Jimmy Savile Sexually Abused Hundreds, Police Report Concludes (npr.org)

German bishops sabotage child abuse inquiry

This video says about itself:

The Catholic church in Germany is under an increasing amount of pressure as more cases of sexual abuse in its schools and institutions come to light.

From Deutsche Welle in Germany:

Catholic Church in Germany calls off study on sexual abuse

The Catholic Church in Germany has terminated an investigation into alleged cases of sexual abuse by clergy members. It is unclear whether the research will be continued by a different team.

The German Bishops’ Conference confirmed that it has ended cooperation with the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (KFN) which had been investigating sexual abuse cases committed by employees of the Catholic Church, citing the lack of trust.

“The relationship of mutual trust between the bishops and the head of the institute has been destroyed,” the Bishop of Trier, Stephan Ackermann, explained on Wednesday morning, saying that constructive cooperation had become impossible.

“Trust is vital for such an extensive project dealing with such a sensitive issue.”

In an interview with public broadcaster “Deutschlandfunk,” Christian Pfeiffer, the head of the KFN institute accused Church officials of hampering his team’s research efforts by continually attempting to intervene in and control the investigation. In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper he spoke of censorship.

In 2011, the German Bishops’ Conference had authorized the KFN to launch an investigation into sexual abuse cases. This followed reports of abuse at several Catholic schools across Germany, claiming that children had repeatedly been abused.

The team of experts around Christian Pfeiffer consisted of retired prosecutors and judges and was allowed access to personnel records on Church employees going back more than a decade.

The investigation was to determine how such abuses came about, how the Church had dealt with them in the past, and what conclusions could be drawn to prevent new cases.

This followed a spate of allegations in 2010 of abuse of children by priests and other Church employees and the subsequent criticism of the Church’s slow response.

The Catholic Church officially apologized to the victims in March of 2010, and offered victims 5,000 euros ($6,546) each in compensation.

See also here.

The Catholic Church in Germany has closed its hotline for victims of sexual abuse due to lack of use. Critics say the church is not doing enough to counter this ongoing problem: here.

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• German Church drops abuse inquiry (bbc.co.uk)
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