Billy Briggs
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This is the latest on the murder of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya (SEE SUNDAY HERALD LINK BELOW) who was shot dead in Moscow in October, 2006. More than 100 journalists have been murdered in Russia since the early 1990s. In...
Photographer Angela Catlin and I spent some time recently in Irsael and the West Bank documenting peace projects for an international festival in Edinburgh. The region often makes headlines for the wrong reasons but despite the...
I'm just back from a trip to Israel where I witnessed a Bedouin village being razed to the ground by security forces, and Sunday Herald in Scotland published the following article. Israel is forcibly removing Bedouin Arabs from land...
A private member's Bill is currently making its way through the UK parliament and is due for its third reading. If enacted it would enable victims of torture to seek compensation through the courts for torture they've suffered abroad...
There's a protest planned for London tomorrow at the Austrian Embassy. The issue surrounds the detention of 10 animal rights campaigners in Austria imprisoned under a new law intended to fight organised crime gangs. According to...
Hi, I am sure you are aware that the violence in Zimbabwe is spiralling out of control and many more people's lives will be at risk in the coming hours and days. Please find below a list of telephone numbers for police stations and...
Billy Briggs Much attention has been given to the conflict in Iraq, but much less to the resulting humanitarian crisis. Five years after the US-led invasion, at least 4.7 million Iraqis – equivalent to almost the entire population of...
Hi folks, Please read this urgent message below and take some action. UA 138/08 Fear of tortureIRAN Farshad Dousipour (also known as Doustipour) (m), aged 23, Kurdish student Kurdish student Farshad Dousipour was arrested on 15 May by...
Billy Briggs Please find below a feature of mine that appeared in yesterday's edition of Sunday Herald Magazine, published in Scotland. The article comes ahead of an exhibition on Iraqi refugees to be held in Glasgow as part of UK...
I visited Guatemala in 2006 to interview Fredy Peccerelli, executive director of the Guatemalan Foundation of Forensic Anthropology, for an article for The Guardian's G2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2007/feb/02/features11.g2...
On Friday, an important bill comes before parliament so please read the following from the organisation Redress – "Justice is a torture survivor's right. Public acknowledgement of thewrong committed and compensation for the physical...
Thanksfor reading my posts from Damascus. Photographer Angie Catlin and I are currently in the process of producing an exhibition on Iraqi refugees to be held in Glasgow in June as part of Refugee Week. We've interviewedaround 30...
We went back to Saida Zeinab yesterday to conduct more interviews with refugees and were invited into the home of a family who left Baghdad for Damascus in November, 2006. The family were too afraid to provide their real names, as they...
Over the past few days we've heard some harrowing stories from the refugees, but one interview we conducted yesterday really got to Angie and I. We met with Wayhda Abead Al Wahed, a mother of six children, at her two roomed home in the...
Yesterday I met with three refugee families living together in only one flat in the Jeramana area, east Damascus. In total there are 14 people sharing one living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. These people are Sabians...
We visited 'Iraqi Street' in the Saida Zeinab district of Damascus today to meet with more refugees, accompanied, of course, by a Syrian government minder to ensure we that did not stray from places we had permission to work in. I...
Today we visited a UNHCR centre at 'President Bridge' in Damascus where registered refugees come to collect food and supplies. Once every two months people are allocated a food ration of rice, tea, oil, sugar, lentils rice and pasta...
I'm in Damascus for a week with photographer Angie Catlin to interview Iraqi refugees for a project we're working on in conjunction with the Scottish Refugee Council. Alas, hiccups from the outset. When we arrived at the airport last...
Imminent execution PAKISTAN Zahid Masih (m) Zahid Masih, who worked for the Pakistan army, is due to be executed on 12 March. According to local human rights organizations, he was found guilty of the murder and sexual assault of a nine...