via Detroit Free Press:
Recession breeds repression, group saysBy RAPHAEL G. SATTER • Associated Press • May 28, 2009
LONDON — The global financial crisis is leading cash-strapped governments around the world to crack down on people protesting against rising poverty and unemployment, Amnesty International said today.
Human rights have become a casualty in many places as attention is focused on pressing financial problems, the human rights organization said in its annual report.
Migrant workers in China, indigenous people in Latin America, and millions across the African continent are already bearing the burden of official repression as they try to protest their growing deprivation, Amnesty said.
While world attention has been fixated on the collapse of financial service titans, those at the very bottom of the economic pyramid are suffering the worst, Amnesty’s Secretary General Irene Khan said in an interview.
“There is a kind of domino effect ... here, and those at the most vulnerable end of the chain are feeling the brunt,” Khan said. She added that the intense focus on fixing the world’s troubled financial system was undermining discussions about inequality, insecurity and oppression. .............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.freep.com/article/20090528/NEWS07/90527116