Iran and Burma: A picture is worth a thousand words

It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Now given the amount of new material that hit the Amnesty inbox in the last 24 hours, weve got a novel on our hands.

Firstly there was a great eight-minute film made by the International Trade Union Federation that surfaced on YouTube, highlighting the plight of Mansour Ossanlu.

Ossanlu is the leader of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company and has been detained by the Iranian authorities since 10 July. This week Amnesty learnt that the Iranian authorities have been denying him the urgent medical treatment he needs to save his sight. Now if that sounds bad enough, heres a little bit more. He originally suffered the injuries after a confrontation with the governments security forces. And last week it appears they actually took him to a medical centre only to deny him the treatment he needs once he was there.

The ITF have set up a special website for Ossanlu, and you could also send messages of support to him via our website.

The clip is definitely worth a look and just goes to show how important the internet is to human rights defenders.

Then came news that our intrepid team on the Thai-Burma border had recorded a number of interviews with survivors and witnesses of the recent brutal crackdown on peaceful protestors by the Burmese government.

Its harrowing stuff and includes several accounts from individuals who were tortured by the military junta.

The audio clips are now up on the Amnesty website.

On the Burma front, Amnesty is continuing to call for a UN arms embargo and is set to make next Wednesday Free Aung San Suu Kyi Day to coincide with the leader of the National League of Democracys 12th year under house arrest. So keep an eye out for further developments on that one.