2 articles: Italian hostage/Afghan women still face abuse

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whimsicaldeb
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2 articles: Italian hostage/Afghan women still face abuse

Post by whimsicaldeb » May 30th, 2005, 3:52 pm

This is an fyi posting. Here are two articles that are in my local paper as of today. Clementina Cantoni, and all the women are still in our prayers ~ d

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cct ... 773341.htm
Posted Monday, May. 30, 2005

Afghan TV shows Italian hostage

By Daniel Cooney

ASSOCIATED PRESS

KABUL, Afghanistan - A video of a kidnapped Italian aid worker was broadcast Sunday on Afghan television, showing her wrapped in a brown blanket flanked by two men aiming rifles at her head -- a tactic reminiscent of Iraqi abductions.

Clementina Cantoni, 32, a worker for CARE International, responded to prompts from a man not shown on the video, identifying herself and naming her father, mother and an uncle.

The tape, broadcast by independent Tolo TV, then zoomed in on her face. She had a blue scarf on her head, spoke quietly and looked nervous.

It was not clear when the recording was made. But near the end of the tape, the man who was speaking off-camera asked Cantoni the date.

"Today is May 28, Sunday," she said. The date referred to Saturday and the discrepancy could not be explained.

Cantoni was abducted May 16, dragged from a car by four armed men as she was being driven to her home in Kabul, the capital.

She has been in Afghanistan since 2002 and was working on a project helping Afghan widows and their families.

The TV station did not say how it had obtained the tape. The Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed the woman on the video was Cantoni.

"The video is reliable. Thus it's reassuring that it shows that Cantoni is in good health," ministry spokesman Pasquale Terracciano said from Rome. "The contacts continue."

He declined to comment when asked to elaborate about how the video ended up in the hands of the Afghan TV.

Authorities have said they suspect the kidnapping was the work of the same criminal gang accused of abducting three U.N. workers last year. They were released a month later.

The director for CARE International in Afghanistan, Paul Barker, said he had seen the video and he didn't see any obvious signs that Cantoni was ill or had been mistreated.

"We were encouraged that Clementina looks relatively well and healthy in the video. Her eyes look fine, she looks composed, obviously frightened. I would be much more frightened than she was under the circumstances. But on balance we were encouraged by this development," he said.

Government officials could not be reached for comment.

President Hamid Karzai on Friday paid tribute to Cantoni, calling her a "daughter of Afghanistan."

Posters seeking information about her have been plastered across the city, and Afghan widows who benefited from her aid work have held rallies demanding her release.

Sunday's broadcast was the second time hostages in Afghanistan have been recorded on video that was shown on television.

It will further reinforce fears that militants or criminals here are copying tactics used in Iraq.

CARE's British director in Iraq, Margaret Hassan, was kidnapped in Baghdad in October and thought to be killed after pleading for her life on a video, but her body has not been recovered.

Three U.N. workers also were abducted in Afghanistan last year and held for a month before being released.

They had been recorded pleading for their freedom on a video that was broadcast by the media.

Early Monday, an explosion shook the headquarters of NATO's 8,000-strong International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, but there were no immediate reports of injuries, said Lt. Col. Karen Tissot Van Patot, a spokeswoman for the force. She said officers were investigating the cause.

An Afghan police officer outside the compound, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a rocket had hit inside the heavily fortified base, which is near the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic missions in central Kabul.

In the south on Sunday, gunmen killed Muslim cleric Mullah Abdul Fayaz, a week after he led a meeting a week ago in Kandahar of about 500 clerics from across Afghanistan that condemned the Taliban rebels and called on people to support the government.

Fayaz was shot to death while driving in the center of Kandahar city, said deputy police chief Gen. Salim Khan.

Ten suspects have been arrested after the killing, he said.

Karzai condemned the killing, saying he was "deeply disturbed by this crime, which is an attack on Islam."

A purported Taliban spokesman, Mullah Latif Hakimi, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call. His claim could not be verified.

Fayaz, one of the most influential clerics in Afghanistan, was a supporter of Karzai and his killing is a setback for the president, who needs to maintain the backing of the country's powerful Muslim clergy.

After a winter lull, loyalists of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban government and other militants opposed to Karzai's U.S.-backed government have intensified their insurgency with a series of bombings and other attacks.

U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan troops have hit back hard, killing nearly 200 suspected insurgents and capturing dozens since March.

---end of first article

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cct ... 773349.htm

Posted on Mon, May. 30, 2005

Afghan women still face abuse

By Daniel Cooney

ASSOCIATED PRESS

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan women are in constant risk of abduction, rape and forced marriage, and the government is doing little to address their plight, the human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released today, 31/2 years after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime.

A spokeswoman for the Afghan Women's Affairs Ministry, Nooria Haqnagar, acknowledged that abuse was still rife and said, "In some remote areas, men deal with women like animals."

In its report, Amnesty called on the government and the international community to do more to improve the lives of women.

"Throughout the country, few women are exempt from violence or safe from the threat of it," the London-based organization said in its report.

It said women are traded like commodities to settle debts and disputes and that some women commit suicide to escape being forced into unwanted marriages.

"Afghanistan is in the process of reconstruction after many years of conflict, but hundreds of women and girls continue to suffer abuse at the hands of their husbands, fathers, brothers, armed individuals," the report said.

"Societal codes, invoked in the name of tradition and religion, are used as justification for denying women the ability to enjoy their fundamental rights. Perceived transgressions of such codes have led to the imprisonment and even killing of some women," it added.

"Some authorities treat women who run away to escape these situations as criminals and imprison them."

The rights group urged President Hamid Karzai's government to condemn violence against women and reform the justice system so it is better equipped to protect women's rights.

Haqnagar, the spokeswoman, said the government was working to improve the lives of women, but that the number of abuse cases reported to authorities had increased in recent months.

She said on average 10 women were lodging complaints every day.

"In Herat province, women are burning themselves to escape abuse. They must have huge problems to take such violent measures against themselves," she said.

Haqnagar, who is also the director of the ministry's awareness and education department, said improvements had been made for women in cities, where the central government's authority is strongest, but in remote rural areas where it has little control, few gains had been made.

Haqnagar said teams from the ministry had been dispatched to 10 provinces to raise awareness about women's rights.

"We are trying our best to find solutions to these problems," she said.

Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, millions of women and girls have returned to work and school.

Equality is embedded in a new constitution, and some women have abandoned the head-to-toe public veiling that was mandatory under the tough Islamic regime.

-- end of second article

el macho
Posts: 11
Joined: May 31st, 2005, 2:56 am

Post by el macho » June 2nd, 2005, 5:45 pm

Image

God is with you, and we all too.
How God or Allah can let to happen such things to such a good and nobile person?

Image
We are all praying for you Clementina.

http://www.geocities.com/freekidnappedpeople/

God is with you!

Please release innocent italyan aid worker Clementina Cantoni(32), "daughter of Afghanistan", "Force of good"![/img]

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