On Feb. 26 the Center for Economic and Political Investigations of Community Action (CIEPAC), a non-governmental organization based in San Cristobal de las Casas in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas, received a note reading: "Enjoy your last day. We will kill you I am looking for you and now we have found you." This followed a series of incidents of surveillance and harassment directed at CIEPAC's members over several months. The organization is asking "national and international organized groups in solidarity [to] maintain your vigilance in anticipation of events that might occur shortly, continue your solidarity with social movements in Mexico, and denounce the continuous violations to human rights that are affecting civil society in this country." (CIEPAC bulletin, Feb. 26)

Armed with clubs, rocks and machetes, at least 3,000 Nahuatl indigenous people blocked roads in Soledad Atzompa municipality in the central eastern Mexican state of Veracruz on Feb. 26 and 27 to demand the removal of the military from the 14 municipalities in the Sierra de Zongolica. They also demanded social services and materials for the villages in the region, and punishment for four soldiers accused of the rape of 73-year-old Ernestina Ascension Rosario, who died on Feb. 26 of the injuries she sustained in the assault. In the Feb. 27 demonstration the protesters detained state public safety secretary Juan Manuel Orozco, state prosecutor Emeterio Lopez and other officials for a half hour and damaged their vehicles.

A petition from the Organization of Women's Liberation in Iran (OWLI):

To: all progressive organizations and all freedom-loving people
Your help is urgently needed to release 36 women activists in Tehran!

4th March 2007, a gathering of women activists in front of the Engelab Court, Tehran, was brutally attacked and 36 women were arrested. The gathering was called to protest against the arrest and trial of 5 women activists who were jailed in connection with protests on 22 Xordad [last June] in Haft Tir Square. Their “crime” was to stage a gathering “against the country’s security.” The 5 arrested women activists are Parvin Ardalan, Susan Tahmasbi, Shahla Entesari, and Fariba Davoodi Mohajer.

A statement from the Organization of Women's Liberation in Iran (OWLI):

Azar Majedi in a round table discussion with BBC Radio Scotland:
Military attack on Iran is a human and environmental tragedy in the region!

On 25 February 2007, Azar Majedi, the Chairperson of Organisation for Women’s Liberation, took part in a round table discussion with BBC Radio Scotland Sunday Live programme, about the possible military attack on Iran by USA. The other participant was Mr. Douglas Mary, supporter of New Conservatism and Mr. Bush.

A statement from the international women's rights group MADRE:

On February 26, 2007, Houzan Mahmoud, an international representative of MADRE's sister organization, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, received an e-mail signed by Ansar al-Islam, the notoriously brutal jihadist group based in Kurdistan/Iraq.

Frederick Vreeland, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East and South Asia affairs and former US ambassador to Morocco, has an op-ed in the March 3 New York Times on the usually obscure crisis in Western Sahara, optimistically entitled "Will Freedom Bloom in the Desert?" Its nice to see the "newspaper of record" finally paying some note to the long struggle in Africa's last colony, but the paucity of coverage makes it all the more frustrating that this lead op-ed is a piece of dishonest propaganda for Morocco's pseudo-solution of an "autonomy" plan, which Vreeland writes "it behooves all members of the United Nations Security Council to support."

Twelve Islamic militants were convicted of terrorism-related charges in Morocco March 2, including eight with alleged ties to al-Qaeda who supposedly had volunteered to fight in Iraq. The appeals court in Sale handed down prison terms of two to 15 years in the separate cases, the stiffest being for a Tunisian, Mohamed Ben el Hadi Messahel, a former restaurant worker in Milan, Italy. The seven others, all Moroccan, were convicted on charges of "organizing a criminal group preparing and committing terror acts" and lesser counts, receiving sentences of up to 10 years. One defendant was acquitted. Authorities said the faction also had ties elsewhere in North Africa and Europe, and links to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which recently merged with al-Qaeda. Two defendants, Ayoub Zanm and Abdelhak Kouani, got two years each for organizing a criminal gang and "membership in a group of fighters in Iraq." Proceedings in four other terrorism cases involving 10 defendants were postponed until the spring. (AP, March 3)

Australian "peacekeeping" troops killed four in a raid on rebels in East Timor March 4, but their leader Alfredo Reinado escaped. Reinado, who deserted the army last year and is wanted for his alleged role in deadly clashes that brought down the government, stole more than 20 automatic weapons in a raid on a police post, prompting President Xanana Gusmao to request his arrest by Australian forces. The exchange of fire followed a tense stand-off in the town of Same, where tank and helicopter movements were reported. (AP, The Australian, March 4)