Democratic Voice of Burma reports that 87 year old Kyaw Khaing, chairman of the Taungok township branch of the National League for Democracy, was sentenced to two years in jail, after a trial during which he was denied medical care. He was “slipping in and out of consciousness” during the trial.

“"He has been suffering from dysentery for the last three to four days and he had to be supported [on the way] to the court,” said Tin Thein Aung.

““Deputy police chief Tin Maung San would not allow him to be hospitalized,” he said, adding that the doctor refused to come to the courtroom but instead handed medicine to his son.

This is a nice touch:

“The verdict arrived on the same day that Burma’s ambassador to the United Nations, Than Swe, announced that the government “is processing to grant amnesty to prisoners on humanitarian grounds and with a view to enabling them to participate in the 2010 general elections."”

Roughly one in five of political prisoners in Burma’s jails are members of the NLD.

France24 reports that a Syrian court has upheld jail terms for 12 democracy activists, including Riad Seif, who signed the Damascus Declaration.

The 12 are: Ali Abdullah, Dr Walid Bunni,  Akram Bunni, Riad Seif,  Fidaa Hurani, Ahmad Tomeh, Jabr al-Shufi, Yasser al-Iti, Mohammed Haji Darwish, Marwan al-Ish, Fayez Sara and Talal Abu-Dan.

The good news is that two dissidents arrested and imprisoned in China in 2001 have just been released: Yang Zili and Zhang Honghai. The NY Times has the story. The bad news is that these two were imprisoned for no real reason – the two were members of an informal discussion group that met several times, with no more than four or five people at a meeting. Yet they were deemed to be “threats” to the thug government of China. Perhaps the thugs are really just cowards.

Two other members of the group, Xu Wei and Jin Haike, and scheduled to be released next year.

Yuan Weijing is the wife of imprisoned, blind dissident Chen Guangcheng. She lives under constant guard of a large group of thuggish Chinese security men, with her young children and elderly mother. The thug guards harass her and have in the past brutally beaten people who came to see her. On March 8th, they accosted, assaulted, and drove away a prominent Chinese journalist who came to visit her and bring her food. He is Wang Kegin. Chinese Human Rights Defenders has the story.

““While China marked International Women’s Day with official ceremonies, Ms. Yuan and her family enjoyed no respite from the relentless restriction of movement and the ban on contacting the outside world to which they have been subjected. Why is a government which enjoys ‘world power’ status so afraid of a woman taking care of her small children and an elderly mother, while her husband, who is blind, languishes in jail?” asked Renee Xia, CHRD’s international director.”

The answer, as any rational person would have predicted, is No. ESPN offers some evidence here that the thugs who run China are just as thuggish today as they were in 2001 when China was awarded the games. The suggestion that having the games would change these thugs or improve the situation in China was never credible, except to the credulous.

Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo has been honored with the Homo Homini Award by the People in Need Foundation, AsiaNews reports.

“Liu Xiaobo was honored together with 302 other scholars and personalities who signed the document Charter 08, published on December 9 to ask Beijing for more democracy and respect for human rights. The document was immediately censored in China, and websites that published it have been blocked, but over a few days it was endorsed by more than 8,000 people, including officials of the Communist Party who are convinced that change is necessary. Many of the signers have been interrogated by the police, and Liu was arrested.”

Speaking at a memorial ceremony for Jewish victims of last November’s terrorist attacks in Bombay, India, Prime Minister Harper called the killings “affronts to the values that unite all civilized people.”

“Under our government, Canada will remain an unyielding defender of Jewish religious freedom, a forceful opponent of anti-Semitism in all of its forms and a staunch supporter of a secure and democratic state of Israel," he said to applause.

Harper described the quick installment of a new rabbi at the Chabad center in Mumbai as a signal that the Jewish people will "never bow to violence and hatred."”

Well said.

Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, whom we last saw giving a fine speech at the London anti-Semitism conference, has renewed his challenge to the Canadian Arab Federation’s leadership – the president of this outfit recently called Mr. Kenney a “professional whore.”

“I can tell you, at my ministry, I have no intention of funding that organization as long as it has the current leadership that apologizes for groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, says they should be able to operate legally, that promotes hateful and extreme views, particularly the most pernicious and durable form of hatred, which is anti-Semitism," Kenney said.”

JPost reports that Swiss Jews are worried about a sharp rise in the frequency of anti-Semitic acts in Switzerland – and about the lack of interest in this danger on the part of Swiss authorities.

“The latest anti-Semitic incident was on March 2 at the ZDVO annual fundraiser, held at the famed Teatre du Leman in the Kempinski Hotel in Geneva. It was the target of "violent protests" by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, according to Meyer, lead coordinator of the event.

“Pro-Palestinian group the Collectif Urgance Palestine (CUP), clad in black masks, threw stones, made Nazi salutes, verbally assaulted the event participants and videotaped and photographed the entrance, yelling, "We’re going to find each of you!"”

The Swiss police are something less than energetic in their concern about violence against Jews:

“Meyer cited another incident earlier this year in which the windows of Geneva’s kollel were smashed in with baseball bats – an incident she said the Jewish community regarded as anti-Semitic, but the Swiss police claimed was just vandalism.

"It depends on the point of view," said [police spokesman] Philippe. Aside from that, he noted, it was "an isolated event."”

This is the best part:

“Regarding the purported threatening letters ahead of the ZDVO fundraiser, Philippe admitted, "I have heard that rumor, but it hasn’t been investigated. We judged it was not useful to investigate because we arrived at the conclusion that it was a false rumor."”

Do you see how convenient this logic is? Do you make your conclusions on the basis of an investigation? Or do you decide to whether to investigate on the basis of your conclusions? Of course, it is much less work to do the latter, but it raises the question of what the basis for the conclusion was, if not the results of investigation. What possible basis could there be for such a conclusion?

“The March of the Living is an international, educational program that brings Jewish teens from all over the world to Poland on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, to march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the largest concentration camp complex built during World War II, and then to Israel to observe Yom HaZikaron, Israel Memorial Day, and Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel Independence Day.

“The goal of the March of the Living is for these young people to learn the lessons of the Holocaust and to lead the Jewish people into the future vowing Never Again.”

Let us all say “Never again!”