The referendum is about to begin in Kyrgyzstan, to choose a new constitution which, despite its flaws, will put greater limits on presidential power and, it is hoped, avoid authoritarianism and promote civil peace. Young people around the country, organized by the Central Asian Free Market Institute and similar civil society groups, are working to promote peace and suppress hatred, revenge, and violence. The shirts (see below) say on the front “I Want Peace in Kyrgyzstan” in Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Russian, and on the back, “One Homeland! One People! One Future!,” also in Uzbek, Kyrgyz, and Russian.

The libertarians in Central Asia are planning to open an office in Osh, as well, to promote peace, liberty, and limited government in the area that has seen so much deliberately provoked violence by people who prefer force and power to persuasion and freedom. It’s not too late to make a modest donation to make that possible. (Ten dollars actually buys something there, and no donation is too small.) Click here for the information. We’ve already raised a few thousand dollars, enough to pay to open the office and equip it, just from Facebook and a few notes, mostly in small donations. Every penny helps!

Peace Activists at the Office of the Central Asian Free Market Institute

Some Faces of Friendship

Getting Ready to Distribute Peace Shirts to Kyrgyz Young People

The Economist: “What happens when you display “Forbidden art”

From Prof. Andrei Zorin of Oxford University (and a contributor to InLiberty.ru and speaker at InLiberty.ru events):

There can be no doubt that a guilty verdict will dramatically change the political climate in Russia and deal a powerful, if not a mortal, blow to the much-hyped modernisation plans of President Dmitry Medvedev. Whether economic and technological modernisation can succeed without political reforms is the subject of intense discussions in Russia. But no one can hope to modernise society without freedom of conscience and the freedom of thought.

Russia’s image abroad, which had just started to improve, will be ruined for at least another decade. The damage to the country’s reputation may prove even longer-lasting than in the Khodorkovsky case. Businessmen are pragmatic people and can sometimes be prepared to trade one of their own to save their investments. Artists and intellectuals are less forgiving.

The story of an art curator and human-rights activist jailed for arranging an exhibition will haunt Russia and all its projects of cultural integration with the West. In such an environment who needs grandiose events like the current “Russian year” in France?

You can sign the petition.

It would advance justice and greatly help to promote peace in Central Asia.

CAFMI Executive Director Mirsulzhan Namazaliev at 2009 Cato University

Kyrgyz libertarians are leading a series of coordinated voluntary efforts to provide emergency aid to the victims of the vicious attacks of the last few days in their country and to promote peace throughout the nation and the region. I’ve been in regular touch with our friends there, and on Tuesday evening I talked to Central Asian Free Market Institute (CAFMI) Director Mirsulzhan Namazaliev by Skype, as he was interrupted by a stream of volunteers working late into the night in the CAFMI offices. He made their resolution clear:

“We are helping those who are suffering, but we are doing more. For me personally this is not only a fight for life. It is a fight for freedom. We don’t want to be ruled by any authoritarian Central Asian or Russian regimes that would exploit this awful violence. The violence we are suffering is a provocation designed to generate chaos and to overturn the chance for a constitutional regime. We will not stand for it. We want peace, we want freedom, and we want a lawful government.”

I was in Kyrgyzstan just last month to work with CAFMI and with the new acting minister of economic development, my friend Emil Umetaliev, a founding member of CAFMI’s board of directors. (CAFMI was founded by two Cato graduates, former Cato intern Seyitbek Usmanov and Cato University graduate Mirsulzhan Namazaliev.) There was guarded optimism about the country’s future, after the corrupt and increasingly authoritarian regime of Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in an uprising after he tried to suppress demonstrations with deadly force. But there was also fear of Bakiyev’s machinations, especially after the revelation of a recorded cell phone conversation between his son, Maksim, and his brother Janybek (who had given the orders to shoot protesters in April), in which they clearly plot violence to derail a new constitutional process and regain power, even proposing how many “fighters” to hire, arming them with iron bars and other implements, and how much to pay them to launch attacks. The recording was chilling. And with the money they looted from the country, they found the thugs to launch attacks on both Uzbek and Kyrgyz villages, in order to spark revenge attacks. Their plans bore fruit this month, as hundreds were murdered, homes and businesses were burned, and between 80,000 and 100,000 people were made refugees.

As Namazaliev put it to me, “We will not stand for it.”

CAFMI Volunteers Load Supplies to Deliver to Refugees

CAFMI’s staff and volunteers are almost all under 25. Few have backgrounds in defense or security. But they immediately put the talents they do have to work. CAFMI volunteers worked with others to solicit, gather, and deliver humanitarian assistance for the thousands of people – mainly mothers and children – who had been driven from their homes, and to create a message of communal peace – of Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Russians, Uighurs, Tajiks and others who were standing together for peace and against murder and hatred. They called together teams of computer experts, technological wizards, social networkers, and activists to build an umbrella coalition: “I Want Peace in Kyrgyzstan” –“Мен Қирғизистонда тинчлик бўлишини истайман!” in Uzbek, “Мен Кыргызстанга тынчтыкты каалайм!” in Kyrgyz, and “Я хочу мира в Кыргызстане!” in Russian.

I Want Peace in Kyrgyzstan -- in Three Languages

Some Peace Graffiti (this one in English)

The “I want Peace in Kyrgyzstan” campaign has five coordinated elements:

1. Use cell phones, databases, and the internet to organize volunteers effectively and to create and disseminate maps (using Google Maps and other techniques) to guide deliveries of aid to victims and to help people to avoid areas in turmoil, burning buildings, and road blocks and ambushes set up by thugs.

2. Create a modern campaign for peace in three languages (Kyrygz, Uzbek, and Russian) – with a brand, a logo, street graffiti, slogans, t-shirts, stickers, leaflets, hand-written letters from children, radio interviews and public announcements, text messages, and other means to calm tensions and promote peace. Representatives of the various ethnic groups appear together to pledge peace and to build the rule of law and freedom together.

3. Combat disinformation and misinformation that might fuel ethnic hatred and violence, and respond rapidly to malicious rumors and hate campaigns before they bear their evil fruit.

4. Contain the spread of reprisals and hatred throughout Central Asia, by providing reliable information to media, helping to combat ethnic smears and suppress revenge attacks against minorities in other countries, and quickly rebutting calls in nearby countries for military intervention into Kyrgyzstan, which carries the very real danger of regional war.

5. Create a “Peace Room” (not a “War Room”) in CAFMI’s Bishkek offices to be open 24 hours a day to coordinate the collection and dissemination of information. Volunteers in the Peace Room utilize cell phones, social networking sites, twitter, text messages, phone trees, and more and monitor mass media constantly. The CAFMI office is now fully staffed with volunteers and working around the clock.

The young volunteers and staff of CAFMI are donating their time, risking their lives, and contributing their scarce resources, in a country with a per-capita income of about $2,100. If you’d like to stand with a group of very brave, very determined, and very committed libertarians to stop the violence in their country, provide emergency aid to the victims, avoid regional war, and lead the region to peace and freedom, you can send a tax-deductible donation to the Central Asian Free Market Institute (CAFMI) through the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which has provided support to CAFMI. Please write to Erin.Grant@AtlasNetwork.org and 100% of your donation will be dedicated to CAFMI’s work in Central Asia. Even small donations will help. It would be a decision you would not regret. (You can follow CAFMI’s work on their Facebook page and Namazaliev writes in Russian and in English on NewEurasia.net, Twitter, and other media. He covered the April uprising against Bakiyev’s authoritarian regime in The Independent and was quoted frequently by CNN and many other news organizations.)

Volunteers Collecting Donated Supplies in Bishkek Neighborhoods

CAFMI Volunteers After Days of Loading Donated Supplies at Manas Airport to Send to Victims of Violence in Osh and Jalalabad

The trade embargo against the people of Gaza is itself a crime, and the incompetence and avoidable deadly violence of the Israeli authorities in dealing with the aid flotilla are further arguments that it should be lifted.

Searching for weapons is one thing, but embargoing trade and aid altogether is another. How can the Israeli authorities expect peace from people who, in the end, feel that they have nothing to lose? Free the trade with Gaza and let the people there work, produce, and flourish. Let them trade with Israelis. Search for weapons, but do so with intelligence, not rank incompetence that results in the spilling of blood.

Once again, the Israeli authorities have shown that, when a trap is set, they are quite willing to step into it. A bad policy coupled with utter stupidity and incompetence will prove disastrous for everyone. Perhaps the Israeli authorities may learn something from what happened. I hope so.

There is a great deal of evidence that freeing trade creates or supports peace. The Israeli authorities should consult it.

Dan Griswold on “Peace on Earth? Try Free Trade among Men”

Jagdish Bhagwati on free trade and peace

Some updates:

These articles are well worth reading, to give a sense of what is included in the embargo, which goes far beyond the quite justified interdiction of weapons and war material:

CBS: “Israel’s Gaza Blockade Baffles Both Sides”
Wall Street Journal:Gaza Blockade Hampers Private-Sector Economy

Daily Telegraph: “Nick Clegg: tell us the laws that you want scrapped”

The public will be asked what laws they want ripped up, in far-reaching reforms designed to put back “faith in politics”, the Deputy Prime Minister will say.

The reordering of power will sweep away Labour legislation and new criminal offences deemed to have eroded personal freedom.

It will involve the end of the controversial ID cards scheme, the scrapping of universal DNA databases – in which the records of thousands of innocent people have been stored – and restrictions placed on internet records. The use of CCTV cameras will also be reviewed.

Dubbed the “Great Reform Act”, the measures will close down the ContactPoint children’s database. Set up by Labour last year, it includes detailed information on all 11 million youngsters under 18.

In addition, schools will not be able to take a child’s fingerprint without parental permission.

In an attempt to protect freedom of speech, ministers will review libel laws, while limits on peaceful protest will be removed.

HT: Jim Peron

Mr. ‘Abdul Hamid al-Fakki is in danger of execution in Saudi Arabia. Amnesty International has issued an “Urgent Action” memo on the case. The memo offers information on the case and some very concrete things you can do to save the life of a man charged with a non-crime.

In the case of Ali Hussain Sibat, there is no news. I wrote on his case for the Daily Star of Beirut with my friend Raja Kamal, of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy Studies: “Ali Hussein Sibat must not be executed“.

Letters help, my friends. I have sent letters. You can also sign an on-line petition to save the life of ‘Abdul Hamid al-Fakki here.

Someone I know is in prison in Egypt for the heinous crime of blogging. It is important to let the Egyptian authorities know he is not forgotten. He has suffered not only the loss of his freedom, but terrible abuse. Please help by writing to him. And please follow the guidelines and not include anything incendiary or likely to lead to his being harmed further.

URGENT REQUEST: Flood the Jail with Mail

The Case of Greene v. County of Sonoma et al.

That victory for the interventionist,therapeutic state destroyed the lives of two men who loved each other. Not in 1950. In 2008.

David Bernstein on the rather, um, selective history of “Progressivism” given by the “Center for American Progress”: “Whitewashing Progressivism”

One could add many, many sins to the account of so-called “Progressives,” including prohibition, victimless crime laws generally, vice squads, public morals legislation, and generally attempting to replace the rule of law by the rule of wise and moral “experts,” i.e., themselves.

New York Times: “Putin Visits Venezuela to Discuss Oil and Arms”

Mr. Putin’s one-day visit built on a relationship rooted in billions of dollars of Russian arms sales to Venezuela over the past decade. Venezuela has also emerged as one of Russia’s most vocal supporters, recognizing two Russian-backed separatist enclaves of Georgia in 2009 and applauding Russian efforts to advance the ambitions of an embryonic group of gas-rich nations.

New York Times: “Criticism of Chávez Stifled by Arrests”

When Judge María Lourdes Afiuni issued a ruling in December that irked President Hugo Chávez, he did little to contain his outrage. The president, contending on national television that she would have been put before a firing squad in earlier times, sent his secret intelligence police to arrest her.

CNN: “Detained gay couple to face trial in Malawi”

Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were arrested in December at their home in Blantyre, Malawi, for professing love and marriage in the traditional way. Police discovered the couple when local newspapers reported on their engagement ceremony, known as a chinkhoswe.

….

Monjeza and Chimbalanga appeared in court this week. They were together, bound to each other — by handcuffs.

The CNN has an update on the awful case of Ali Hussain Sibat, “TV presenter gets death sentence for ‘sorcery’”

I co-authored an article on his case, calling for his release, with Raja Kamal, “Ali Hussein Sibat must not be executed” (It was also published in Arabic in a number of Arab newspapers.)

Respectful letters to the King of Saudi Arabia, directed to the embassies, may help.

Nick Hogan is free….but we want him not only to be free from jail, but a free man, without fear of idiotic “laws” dictating whether people may smoke in his pub. And without having to pay ransom to the state for his freedom.

Bravo!!!!! I am so pleased by this. Congratulations to Mr. Hogan and to Old Holborn.

Yesterday on the radio I heard an interview with Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, who recounted his family’s nightmare as they were attacked by a SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team, which assaulted them, abused them, and killed their dogs. It was chilling. Radley Balko of Reason covers the story; “4.5 SWAT Raids Per Day”

After some shocking numbers about the huge numbers of SWAT attacks, Balko notes,

Worse even than those dreary numbers is the fact that more than half of the county’s SWAT deployments were for misdemeanors and nonserious felonies. That means more than 100 times last year Prince George’s County brought state-sanctioned violence to confront people suspected of nonviolent crimes. And that’s just one county in Maryland. These outrageous numbers should provide a long-overdue wake-up call to public officials about how far the pendulum has swung toward institutionalized police brutality against its citizenry, usually in the name of the drug war.

I don’t smoke. I don’t like smoking. I hate the smell it leaves on your clothes when others smoke around you. But that doesn’t change my views about this injustice: “Pub landlord is first person in Britain to be jailed over smoking ban”

‘Ninety per cent of people who come into my pub want to smoke, even the non-smokers think there should be a choice. These laws are ridiculous.’

If you’re like me and don’t like being around a lot of cigarette smoke, don’t go to places where other people smoke.

From the International Free Press Society:

These idiots should have their paper boycotted until they rescind their apology.

The editor of Jyllands-Posten, which originally printed the cartoons in 2005 and is published by the same media company as Politiken, said that its sister paper had failed in the fight for freedom of speech and called it a “sad day” for the Danish press.

….when a newspaper is intimidated by threats of violence.