WRI activists

We, members of War Resisters’ International (WRI), express our profound horror and deep sadness at the torture and murder of Nigerian pacifist, Chidi Nwosu, founder and president of the Human Rights, Justice and Peace Foundation, affiliate member of WRI. Nwosu, a lifetime human rights activist and promoter of nonviolent social change, was brutally assassinated in his home on December 29th, 2010.

WRI, a pacifist network with 90 affiliates in 40 countries, recognizes that this is the first time in its 90-year history that the founder and president of an affiliate member has been murdered.

All five participants in the blockade action. From left to right are Iraq Veterans Bobby Whittenberg-James and Crystal Colon, Jeff Grant, Military Spouse Cynthia Thomas and Afghanistan Veteran Matthis Chiroux.

Aug. 23, 2010 (KILLEEN, TX) - Five peace activists successfully blockaded six buses carrying Fort Hood Soldiers deploying to Iraq outside Fort Hood’s Clarke gate this morning at around 4 a.m. While the activists took the width of Clarke Rd.

Phyllis Higgins, a pacifist and a volunteer with the WRI (and other pacifist organisations), has died on June 10th, 2010. She will be remembered with kindness by the many WRI activists to whom she had extended her hospitality while they were staying in London.

GALZ (Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe) staff Ellen Chadamena and Ignatius Muhambia were bailed on Thursday, 27 May, and will have a "remand" hearing on 10 June, before appearing in the high court on 18 June. They face charges of ‘insulting the office of the President’ and allegedly possessing ‘pornographic material’. Their lawyer told press that they would be medically examined "so that we can pursue an action against the people who were responsible for the beatings and torture.”

ZLHR Press Release – 26 May: Two Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) employees on Wednesday 26 May 2010 alleged that police severely tortured them in their holding cells.

David Hofisi and Dzimbabwe Chimbga, the lawyers representing the two employees Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Mhambi told Harare Magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi that their clients were tortured during their
detention in police cells and asked for an investigation into the alleged torture.

Subsequent to the arrest of Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Muhambi, employees of the WRI's affiliate Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) on charges of “possessing dangerous drugs and pornographic material” on the 21st May 2010, the police have gone further to search the house of Chesterfield Samba, former WRI Council member and the Director of GALZ. The raid took place this morning (26 May 2010) at 0600hrs.

Early this morning police raided the home of the director of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, Chesterfield Samba. Chesterfield - a former member of the WRI Council - was not there, but they confiscated his passport, birth certificate and various other belongings.

Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights issued the following press release:

Police on Monday 24 May 2010 pressed fresh charges against two employees of WRI affiliate Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), who were arrested last week after the police raided their offices in the capital.

Police on Monday charged Ellen Chademana, who attended the WRI conference in India in January 2010, and Ignatius Muhambi with contravening Section 33 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly undermining the authority of President Robert Mugabe.

Up to eight hundred anti-nuclear campaigners from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and a number of other countries joined a blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston in Berkshire from just before 7am in the morning. Every gate was closed by blockaders in the course of the morning. Twenty-six arrests were reported, on suspicion of criminal trespass (for entering the site) and highway obstruction.

George Willoughby died on 5 January 2010. He was 95. His death came just short of the one year anniversary of the passing of his wife and partner in peace, Lillian, who died on January 15, 2009, just a few feet from where George spent his last minutes.

George and Lil were always there for peace, and it seemed would always, like rocks, be there for us. They were our touchstones and our teachers. Now, both are gone.

Bill Sutherland, unofficial ambassador between the peoples of Africa and the Americas for over fifty years, died peacefully on the evening of January 2, 2010. He was 91.

I enter my second term as chairperson much more optimistic than in 2005 when I was elected as chair. And with the state the world is in, there is need for optimism about what movements can achieve. The Executive and staff will review our work more thoroughly in the report which is being prepared for our conference, but key features are that

there is a solid set of achievements in the programme work carried out or coordinated by the office