Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 9. April 2006 / Time Line April 9, 2006
Version 3.004/09/2006
8th grade suicide related to student exercising constitutional rights
Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 12:41:47 -0700
Eighth grader Anthony Soltero shot himself through the head
on Thursday, March 30, after the assistant principal at De
Anza Middle School told him that he was going to prison for
three years because of his involvement as an organizer of
the April 28 school walk-outs to protest the anti-immigrant
legislation in Washington. The vice principal also forbade
Anthony from attending graduation activities and threatened
to fine his mother for Anthonys truancy and participation in
the student protests.
Anthony was learning about the importance of civic duties and
rights in his eighth grade class. Ironically, he died because
the vice principal at his school threatened him for speaking
out and exercising those rights, Ms. Corales said today. I
want to speak out to other parents, whose children are
attending the continuing protests this week. We have to let
the schools know that they cant punish our children for
exercising their rights.
Anthonys death is likely the first fatality arising from
the protests against the immigration legislation being
considered in Washington, D.C. Anthony, who was a very
good student at De Anza Middle School in the Ontario-
Montclair School District, believed in justice and was
passionate about the immigration issue. He is survived
by his mother, Louise Corales, his father, a younger
sister, and a baby brother.
Ms. Corales will speak to the community after mass on Sunday,
April 9, 2006 at 12:00 p.m. at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.
She will ask for a prayer for Anthony, whose funeral and
burial are scheduled for Monday, April 10 in Long Beach,
where he was born.
CONTACT: R. SAMUEL PAZ
(310) 410-2981
(310) 989-6815
04/09/2006
Is the TRC threatening to become a cold case?
By Chiara Carter
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20060408100132911C850371
Ten years ago this month, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(TRC) began its hearings into human rights violations in East
London.
The atmosphere was emotionally charged; the political tensions
knife-edged. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the TRC chairperson, broke
down in tears, court actions delayed some hearings, and the first
victims stepped forward to tell their stories; narratives that
would be echoed over the next two years in 140 hearings across the
country, with about 2 400 victims testifying and the names of some
27 000 recorded.
The final tally was 21 519 victim statements containing evidence of
30 384 gross human rights violations. The commission made more than
15 000 findings before it passed the baton to the government to
follow up on recommendations ranging from redress to retribution,
in the form of further investigation and prosecution.
The wheels of justice have ground exceedingly slowly since then.
Prosecutions touching on TRC-related matters can be counted on the
fingers of one hand. And despite a TRC growth industry replete with
symposia, books and academic papers, many of the names that were
synonymous with the horrors of the past are now barely recalled;
files containing secrets by and large remain secret and attempts to
pursue reparations from corporations abroad have met with
opposition from government. Nothing much more has been uncovered
about the apartheid past; and those who cocked a snook at the TRC
have continued to do so with mounting confidence.
Bluntly, in 2006, much of the past that was the grist to the TRC
mill now amounts to a cold case...
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