The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance on Aug. 24 joined critics of French mass deportations of Roma who overstay their visas and summary demolition of their encampments. The commission accused the French government of "stigmatizing Roma migrants" and holding them "collectively responsible for criminal offenses." On Aug. 22, Pope Benedict XVI urged French pilgrims "to accept human diversity," and Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, the archbishop of Paris, was promised a meeting with the interior minister to discuss the Roma policy after he denounced it as a "circus." (AP, AFP, NYT, Aug. 26)

The UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) is on the defensive since the NGO International Medical Corps revealed this week that rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), and members of a local Mai Mai militia, raped at least 154 women in North Kivu—a few kilometers from a MONUSCO base. The new head of MONUSCO, Roger Meece, addressing reporters in New York via video conference from Goma on Aug. 25, said that two patrols of peacekeepers were never told by the population that the rapes were being committed—even though these attacks are said to have lasted over three days.

US Army Private First Class Nasser Abdo, 20, is seeking a discharge on the ground that his religious belief as a Muslim forbids him from fighting in any war as a member of the US military. He applied for conscientious objector status on June 7, and if granted would be discharged from the military under the provisions of AR 600-43. Despite PFC Abdo's efforts to seek CO status, his unit has decided to deploy him from Fort Campbell, KY, to Afghanistan—possibly as soon as late August or early September.

From the War Resisters League (WRL), Aug. 25:

Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime!
Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old intelligence analyst stationed in Iraq, stands accused of disclosing a classified video, published by WikiLeaks on April 5, 2010, depicting American troops shooting civilians from an Apache helicopter in 2007.

European Union's top diplomat criticized Israel on Aug. 25 over the conviction of a leader of Palestinian protests against the West Bank separation barrier. Catherine Ashton said she was deeply concerned by the guilty verdict against Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, one of the organizers of weekly marches from he Palestinian village of Bil'in to the co-called "apartheid wall" nearby.

Indigenous community leaders on Aug. 23 staged a take-over of Santiago-based Radio Bío-Bío to protest the station's failure to report on the hunger strike of 32 Mapuche activists. The protesters demanded that Radio Bío-Bío air an interview with a spokesperson for the prisoners, who began their hunger strike on July 12. Dressed in traditional garb and carrying musical instruments, the Mapuches gathered outside the studio's main entrance at 9:30 AM and put a padlock on the door.

On Aug. 20 Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced that it had approved 19 and rejected 15 of the 34 people who had applied to run for the presidency in general elections scheduled for Nov. 28 [see Update #1043, where we gave the number of applicants as 33, following our sources]. The approved candidates included Jude Célestin (Unity); former prime minister Jacques Edouard Alexis (Movement for the Progress of Haiti, MPH); former senator Myrlande Hyppolite Manigat (Coalition of National Progressive Democrats, RDNP); economist Leslie Voltaire (Together We Are Strong); Chavannes Jeune (Alliance of Christians and Citizens for the Reconstruction of Haiti, ACCRHA); and singer Joseph Michel Martelly ("Sweet Micky," Peasant Response).

Henry Benítez Huamán, 14, died on Aug. 12 from a gunshot wound he received one week earlier when police agents attacked protesters in the town of Kitena, in La Convención province of Peru's southeastern Cusco region. Another victim, Juan Carlos Aragón Monzón, remained hospitalized in Cusco city with a gunshot wound in his right leg, while 18 people were apparently injured by rubber bullets. The autopsy report on Benítez Huamán showed he was hit by a metal bullet in the chest, disproving initial claims by the police that they only used rubber bullets. The demonstrators were protesting plans by the Camisea LNG consortium to export natural gas.