81-year-old Maria Martin Lopez told Supreme Court judges how when she was six, Franco supporters came to her house and took her mother away.

“They shot her,” Martin said. “My father had me go with him to try to find her body. Later, we found her. They’d stripped her naked, and thrown her clothes in the brambles.”

Martin said they tried to complain to authorities but were told to drop the matter. “If not, they said, we’d end up just like my mother.”

Spaniards like Martin have long been barred from testifying in court by Spain’s Franco-era amnesty law, passed in 1977. But a few years ago Spanish investigative judge Baltazar Garzon challenged the law and began to investigate. He argues that the killings were crimes against humanity.

Garzon used the same principal to have the late Chilean dictator Augosto Pinochet arrested in 1998, despite Chile’s own amnesty law. For trying the same thing at home, Garzon is now in the docket.

Among victims, there is outrage that it is Garzon under investigation and not the crimes themselves. 75-year-old Pino Sosa Sosa, from the Canary Islands told judges that her father’s whereabouts are still a mystery.

“We’re here for justice,” she said. “They took my father from the house, beat him, threw him in jail. They took the sustenance of our house from us, because my mother fell sick afterward. She never could find him.”

Defenders of Spain’s 1977 amnesty law say it remains the only way for Spain to move forward. Digging in the past, they say, could lead to political instability. But during testimony Maria Martin displayed a hand-drawn map of where she says her mother’s remains lay.

“Here, where the stream passes,” she said, anxiously pointing to her scrap of paper. “There, right up next to the bridge.”

Garzon’s prosecutors cut Martin’s and others’ testimony short, arguing the same point that has stunned international human rights groups: That this trial is about whether judge Garzon broke the law, not about who was killed by whom, more than half a century ago.

Would YOU be willing to do without the latest iPhone or iPad in order to send a message? Add your thoughts in the comments below.

Read an excerpt of Thomson’s recent blog post on Apple:

“… it’s become increasingly clear that the Apple empire is built on the backs of inhumane and even deadly conditions for thousands of workers, not to mention their mediocre (if improving) environmental record. How should the millions of consumers who’ve flocked to Apple’s devices in recent years respond to this reality?

One option being proposed is a boycott—stop buying the company’s products until it cleans up its supply chain. 
It’s an honorable idea, perhaps, but boycotts rarely generate momentum (think Exxon) and even more rarely affect corporate behavior—especially when a company’s products are seen as being irreplaceable, which is what the cult of Apple is all about.

And even if consumers were willing to switch to other products, are Apple’s competitors any better? Some more than others, perhaps, depending on what you’re looking at, but in general, not so much.

So to really take a stand on these issues, consumers would have to boycott not just Apple but all the makers of the devices that define our digital age. And of course this industry is no different than just about any other these days in its relentless global pursuit of low costs and high profits. It’s what the 21st century economy is largely built on. Can we boycott an entire economy?

And, some ask, should we? …” >>read more:

In the basement of the Indonesian embassy a 28-year-old woman we’ll call Susan sits on a mattress in her polyester pajamas. Asked how much money she made in the nine years she was a domestic worker in Egypt, she slapped her hands together.

“None at all,” she said.

“Year after year I asked for my wages, but my employer said, ‘later, later, later.’ For nine years. I feel sad and depressed because I came from Indonesia to work for my family. I am the bread-winner of my family,” Susan said.

Susan was locked inside an Egyptian house for most of the past decade. Sometimes her employers didn’t give her food. Sometimes they beat her. Without money or contacts, she was afraid to escape.

“My employers knew that I was here alone. They knew for nine years that I was heartbroken, they knew I was heartbroken,” she said.

But last September her employers took her on a trip with them to the beach, and she finally got the opportunity to run away.

Susan said she had been so isolated that when she first arrived at the embassy in Cairo that she didn’t know that there had been a revolution in Egypt. She thought Hosni Mubarak was still president. Now she’s one of five former domestic workers taking shelter while they seek their unpaid wages.

“When I got to the embassy I called my family,” Susan said. “They thought I was dead. My sister didn’t recognize my voice, my mother too. She didn’t recognize my voice.”

Susan laughed as she washed dishes with some of the other women in the embassy kitchen. Ironically, the revolution that Susan didn’t know had happened may turn out to be good for her.

Ali Andika Wardhana works for the Indonesian Embassy and said these days, he and his colleagues have more mobility within the Egyptian government to help workers like Susan prosecute their abusive employers.

“Now we are having direct access to the prosecutor’s office, only after the revolution. Before revolution we didn’t have contact, but now we coordinate on things that matter to the migrant workers,” Wardhana said.

But Susan and the others are getting help only because their cases are so egregious, and fall under Egypt’s new laws against human trafficking. The country’s labor law doesn’t recognize “domestic workers.”

In a villa in a wealthy suburb of Cairo, two Filipino women danced to childrens music with some toddlers. The toddlers’ father, a businessman who spoke on the condition he wouldn’t be named, employs three Filipinos to clean and care for the kids. They make about $400 a month, a lot of money in Egypt. Susan, had she gotten paid, would have only made $120.

The businessman said having foreign domestic help is an open secret in Egypt.

“I wouldn’t mind signing a contract but I cannot sign a contract with an illegal someone who is working illegally,” the man said, “because (they come with) it’s a student visa and they’re not allowed to work anyways.”

Their illegal status is why domestic workers are so susceptible to abuse, said Hossam Baghat. He’s the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and his group advocates changing Egypt’s discriminatory labor code.

“Effectively it removes this entire profession, this entire group of men and women, completely outside the realm of any legal protection,” Baghat said.

And no one knows how many foreign domestic workers actually live here. Estimates range anywhere from 5,000 to 80,000.

Back at the Indonesian embassy, Susan said while she’s sad about her experience in Egypt, she’s not desperate. She’s got a new lawyer and as soon as she gets her money, Susan hopes to return to Indonesia and get married. As for her former employers, if they’re not punished, she fears for the next Indonesian they might hire.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Aung San Suu Kyi during her visit to Myanmar in December.(Photo: State Department/Flickr)

In the past day, as the country’s most well-known political prisoners have been set free, that optimism has grown a little less cautious. “It is very significant,” said David Steinberg, a Myanmar expert at Georgetown University.

He says the fact that Khun Tun Oo, a leader of the country’s Shan ethnic minority was released will move the government a bit closer to reconciliation with the ethnic groups it has been fighting for decades. And the release of Khin Nyunt, a former military intelligence chief and Prime Minister who was imprisoned in 2004 after he made motions toward reform, could signal a lessening of infighting within the still hugely powerful military.

Steinberg sees changes coming about in part thanks to new leadership in Myanmar. “You have a different leader as head of government—a person who is approachable, who will willingly meet with other people, and with whom you can disagree. Which was not the case under the Senior General Than Shwe,” he said.

Despite the announcement that the US is beginning the process of restoring an ambassador to Myanmar, which they haven’t had since the late ‘80s, Steinberg thinks the US is unlikely to lift its sanctions against the country any time soon. But he says it could take some smaller steps like easing travel restrictions on members of the Burmese government.

There was joy on the streets of Rangoon, Myanmar’s biggest city, today, as throngs waited to greet prisoners being released from Insein Prison. But, despite this joy, and the strategic significance of these prisoner releases, people who have seen the Myanmar government up close and personal are skeptical.

Nyi Nyi Aung is a pro-democracy activist now living in the US He spent several months in jail in Myanmar in 1988 and again two years ago. He’s been talking to a lot of people in his home country over the past 24 hours and says that emotions are very mixed.

“One side is they are really happy,” he said, “because they see all the famous friends and comrades coming out from the prison-they are really free. So they are really happy about it. So one side is they worry—they are worrying for the future, next step.”

“We all have to note that we have been here before,” said Soe Aung, a spokesman for the Forum for Democracy in Burma, speaking to the BBC from Bangkok. “In 2004 and last year there have been mass release of prisoners, but there are still more than 1,100 political prisoners who remain in prisons. There must be a legal and institutional reform to ensure that our friends, our colleagues that have just been released today are not re-arrested and then put in prison again.”

Murray Hiebert, Deputy Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in D.C., agrees that a key test will be how much freedom these newly released political prisoners are actually given.

“I think the other thing to watch will be to see what these people just released are able to do now,” Hiebert said. “Are they able to participate in the political campaigns leading up to the bi-elections in April? Will they going to be very closely proscribed and basically not able to move around. So we have things to watch, surely.”

But, for today at least, there’s hope.

Wai Hnin Pwint Thon in the London studio of The World. (Photo: Rahul Joglekar)

Myanmar (Burma) has released the most prominent political dissidents of the country from jail.

One of the dissidents released is Mya Aye who had been serving a 65-year jail sentence for speaking out against the Burmese government.

His 23-year-old daughter is Wai Hnin Pwint Thon. She left Myanmar in 2006, because her father’s activism made it impossible for her to continue her studies there.

She lives in London now where she’s a pro-democracy activist herself.

Marco Werman talked with her about release of her father and other Burmese dissidents.

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Marco Werman: One of the dissidents released today was Mya Aye. He had been serving a 65-year jail sentence for speaking out against the Burmese government. His 23-year-old daughter is Wai Hnin. She left Myanmar in 2006 because her father’s activism made it impossible for her to continue her studies there. She lives in London now where she’s a pro-democracy activist herself. Wai Hnin says when she first heard that her dad might be released she didn’t believe it.

Wai Hnin: I can say I’m still in shock, you know. I’m really, really happy that he is released because until, well, yesterday when I heard the news about the amnesty I didn’t really want to keep my hope high. So until last night I didn’t really think that this would happen. So I had to ask my mom for three or four times to make sure that this is true and he is released. And when I got to talk to him it’s just over the moon. I’m very excited about it, yes.

Werman: So you spoke with him, that means he’s already out of prison.

Hnin: Yes, I spoke to him this morning briefly just to see how he is. It’s been four years that we haven’t spoken to each other, so.

Werman: Wow, so tell me the scene. Was he able to describe for you what the scene was when he was released from the jail? Were the other political dissidents that walked out with him?

Hnin: Yes, there were other 88 generation group members with him, so there were lots of supporter and also lots of people waiting for them outside the prison. And particularly, my father when I talked to him, he said that “Oh, you know, I’m very happy, but still we need to remember there’s political activists that still remain in prison and we still need to do something about them.” That’s what he told me.

Werman: Right, well, one thing that’s always shadowed political dissidents in Burma is that often when they’re released they get arrested again. Is that a concern for you?

Hnin: Yes, because now people say oh, you know, things are changing and moving gradually. I agree with that, but change doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s reform because you know, the laws which put my father and his friends in prison still remain in place. So you know, if my father speaks out critically against the government then the military backed government can put him back in prison anytime.

Werman: So when you were growing up in Burma, I mean what was it like living in the home of a dissident? Was it always kind of a sense of paranoia lurking?

Hnin: This is not the first time he was arrested. I mean he was arrested in 1989 for his role as a prominent student leader in 88 uprising. So I was five years old when he was arrested, so I didn’t know whether I had a father or not. So my mother you know, had to show me the photograph and say this is your father. So I grew up learning that I had a father through photograph. The first time I saw him it was in prison when I was four years old. So even when he was released there was a paranoia that oh, you know, the regime will take my father away again because he kept continuing his activities. So there was always a fear inside me that oh, there will be a knock on the door and they will take my father away. So it’s like every morning I had to check whether my father was still there or not. That was my childhood, that’s what I remember.

Werman: Wai Hnin, when will you get to see your father? When will you get to hug him?

Hnin: I don’t know because as you know, I’m very you know, outspoken about the situation in Burma and I don’t know whether it’s safe for me to go back or not. And I know my father very well, if he wants me to continue my activities… Of course, I want to, I’m very jealous of the fact that all my family can see him and you know, have a meal with him and not me. And I wish I was there.

Werman: Wai Hnin is the daughter of Mya Aye, one of the Burmese dissidents who was released from jail today in Burma. Wai, we hope you get to see your father soon. Thank you so much for speaking with us.

Hnin: Yes, thank you very much.

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Amateur video appears to show hundreds of protesters clashing with Syrian forces on the streets in the Damascus suburb of Douma.

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman and this is the world. A delegation from the Arab league continues to tour Syria. The observers are monitoring Syrian compliance with a plan to end a crackdown on an anti government uprising. But the presense of the monitors seems if anything to have increased the violence. Activist groups in Syria say government forces killed up to 40 people today. Six of them are said to have died in the city of Hama where Arab league monitors arrived this afternoon. Activist Manhal Abubacker (that’s not his real name)is in Hama. He says people there have been waiting for 3 days on the Arab league monitors.

Manhal Abubacker: “In those 3 days we tried to go and demonstrate and gather in the city center square but we have been faced by security forces who prevented us from getting into the city center using tear gas and live ammunition.”

Werman: Have you tried to communicate with any of the monitors from the Arab league?

Abubacker: That’s the problem we are having now, the communication with the Arab league commission, the regime knows their movement but we don’t. We can’t coordinate with them though we are afraid to met them because the regime is watching them all the time and we don’t have a coordination or communication with them.

Werman: How do you know the regime of President Assad is watching the monitors? I thought monitors we supposed to be completely objective and independent.

Abubacker: They are accompanied , the day they were a raging security forces. they are wacthing them all the time so they knew their movement but we don’t know.

Werman: It does seem though that some of the activists are speaking with the monitors. Apparently there was a video posted on the internet in which the head of the monitor team, the Sudanese general Mustafa al-Dabi, is stopping to speak with people and he’s talking with a man who accuses the regime of Assad of killing his brother. So it sounds like people are connecting with these monitors. But you seem to feel that it’s not enough.

Abubacker: That has happened in homes but that person who talked to them is most wanted now. So the problem we have now I told you we don’t have communication with the commission and if we are to meet them we would be all the time afraid because those monitors are not walking freely. I would be watched if I talked to them and I would be afraid about my life.

Werman: What would you want to tell the monitors assuming there is no minder from President Assad’s government in the room? What would you want to tell the monitors from the Arab league?

Abubacker: I would take him to the check points and would like to make him see the machine guns the tanks that are in the city. I would present him the names of many activists who have been detained till now and accused of terrorists. I would make him see the violation that the regime is making. I would present him how he killed children, how he killed kids. How the hospital of the kids are being invaded by the security forces and should be had, those loyal thugs of the regime. I would present him the documentation I have how they shooted on us, how they killed activists of the peaceful demonstrations. I would present him the facts I got but that would be after the killing would stop. I can’t go to the street if the killing is still there.

Weman: And Manhal what you could present as testimony is first person because you were in fact arrested by government forces in the past. Tell us what happened to you during detention.

Abubacker: I have been detained and arrested under the background of the demonstrations. They got me to the place, I don’t know where, but it was in the Damascus, they tortured me, they got out my nail, I stayed without food even without toilet a little amount of water. We were forced 3 person in a 10 sq meter room for sixty days. It was really really bad times, they torturing all the time, they insulted us, all the time beating us. That was my problem, I was conducting media and filming and sending those pictures and videos to the media so they were very very angry of me.

Werman: Manhal what are you hoping for now?

Abubacker: Well what we want now is to stop the killing and free the detainees and pull out the army. Then we want the peaceful demonstration to be held without being shot. We have lost many friends. I have lost my friend Wohar. Yesterday Wohar was holding his camera and filming while a sniper shot him in his chest. I hope that would end and the regime would be down.

Werman: We have been speaking with Syrian human rights activist Manhal Abubacker(that’s not his real name). Manhal thank you for speaking with us.

Abubacker: Thank you very much

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The vote count is underway in Egypt after its landmark election, with the well-organized Muslim Brotherhood expected to make major gains.

A woman waters a field near the Je Yang Hka internally displaced peoples camp in Kachin State, Myanmar. (Photo: Ryan Libre)

On the long list of issues that Secretary Clinton will likely discuss with Myanmar’s government—human rights abuses, nuclear proliferation, political repression, prisoners of conscience—none is perhaps more fraught than the government’s relationship with the country’s ethnic minorities.

They make up over 30 percent of Myanmar’s population, and have been struggling with the government for decades. The latest front in these long-running battles opened up in Kachin State in northeastern Myanmar (also known as Burma).

In June, a 17-year cease-fire between the Burmese army and ethnic forces in Kachin State collapsed, essentially because of dams. A network of hydroelectric projects spread across Kachin territory close to the Chinese border had incensed locals.

On June 9th, Burmese Army and Kachin Independence Army forces amassed near one of the Chinese-run projects opened fire on each other.

The fighting has driven as many as 30,000 people out of their homes. Some have fled into makeshift camps scattered throughout Kachin and Shan States, some into mountainous jungle along the border with China, and some into China.

La Rip heads a network of groups organizing relief efforts for displaced Kachin. He’s based in Laiza, a town on the Myanmar/China Border. He says that, six months into the conflict, it’s hard to know what will happen if things don’t let up soon. “People will turn into chaos,” La Rip said, “and we even cannot predict what kind of things will happen–we cannot even imagine.”

Reports by humanitarian groups make it clear what people are fleeing from. Human Rights Watch cites instances of the Burmese Army destroying villages, killing civilians, and forcing innocents to work for them. David Mathieson, a Burma Researcher for Human Rights Watch, says that driving people from their homes is precisely the point.

“So it’s really about denying territory to the civilians in order to punish the insurgents, to make it more difficult for the insurgents to operate,” Mathieson said. “The Burmese military is not interested in killing large numbers of people, they just want the people to flee.”

Myanmar’s government, for its part, claims the opposite is the case. A recent article in the state run New Light of Myanmar newspaper says that the Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, has been “committing subversive acts using every trick in the book to undermine peace and stability and rule of law of the State, to kill, harm and panic the innocent civilians.”

At the Je Yang Hka internally displaced peoples camp in Kachin State, Myanmar. (Photo: Ryan Libre)

Beneath this conflict lies years of distrust. When the government was rewriting its constitution in 2008, it asked Kachin leaders for input. These leaders say their proposals were rejected. Kachin political parties made a bid to participate in last year’s elections and were denied. In Kachin State, voting in the election was heavily restricted.

Variations on this theme are playing out elsewhere in the ethnic-minority states that ring Myanmar. Southward in Karen State, a conflict that has been simmering for sixty years has displaced well over 100,000 people.

David Steinberg, a Myanmar expert at Georgetown University, says that these conflicts are basically about the balance of power. The ethnic minorities want their states to have more autonomy. Myanmar’s government, unsurprisingly, does not. “To them, federalism is the first step toward secession. And we will not allow it. I don’t think there’s any question about them feeling that way,” he said.

In recent weeks, the government has been holding talks with ethnic leaders about halting violence. On Tuesday, local media reported meetings between KIA and Myanmar government emissaries.

David Mathieson says it’s way too soon to get hopes up. “It’s important to recognize that these preliminary peace talks are just that: they’re preliminary. They’re really just talks about continuing to talk. People should believe in the peace process when they actually see a discernible reduction in the number of human rights abuses perpetrated by the Burmese military in these areas.”

The State Department said that Secretary Clinton will consult with ethnic minority leaders on her trip to Myanmar, and they say that there are Kachin on the list.

The move came at a summit of the 10-member group in Indonesia.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told the BBC the decision was unanimous.

He said member states believed that Burma had made significant progress down the path of democracy.

The announcement came as Burma’s pro-democracy party appeared poised to rejoin the country’s political process.

The leadership of the ASEAN regional grouping rotates on an annual basis, but Burma was not allowed to take the top position last time because of its human rights record.

Some critics say it is still too early to award the high-profile role to Burma, where between 600 and 1,000 political prisoners are thought to remain behind bars.

But Natalegawa said it was important to recognize that the situation had changed.

“It’s not about the past, it’s about the future, what leaders are doing now,” he said. “We’re trying to ensure the process of change continues.”

Anchor Marco Werman talks to Brian Joseph, of the National Endowment for Democracy, about the recent developments in Myanmar which are bringing the country out of its isolation.

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Marco Werman: Here’s one place where people power isn’t freely expressed — Myanmar. Power in the country, also known as Burma, has long been held in a tight grip by the military. The generals allowed a shift to civilian government a year ago with the country’s first elections in 20 years, but that civilian government is still backed by the military. Still, the ground seems to be shifting in Burma. To find out how much we’ve got Brian Joseph with us. He’s with the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington. So, Brian, today in Bali, ASEAN, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations, agreed to give Burma a significant role in the organization, and they’ve been kind of a pariah member in the group for years. Burma will be the chair of ASEAN’s next meeting in 2014. How significant is this for Burma and why now?

Brian Joseph: I mean it’s a rather significant move. The last year Burma was up for the chairmanship it was denied the chairmanship and passed on to other countries. I think it sort of indicates a shift in ASEAN that they’re willing to give the government the benefit of the doubt that the transition or the developments taking place in the country, if it’s not a transition in fact, warrant recognition by ASEAN.

Werman: Well, let’s get at the heart of what that change is in Burma. Also, we heard that Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy, is expected it’ll return to the political scene in Burma. Is that move kind of an accurate litmus test for you on how democracy is progressing there?

Joseph: I don’t really see it as sort of democracy progressing. I see it as an effort, and again, we really don’t know what’s driving the government to introduce these reforms. But yes, if the NLD decides to participate in these bi-elections, the decision is supposed to be this Friday, I believe, it does indicate at least that the NLD believes in Aung San Suu Kyi, that the government is engaged in some sort of reform effort and that it’s better served by participating in this election than sitting out on the sidelines. That said, I think everybody, those of us who’ve been watching it for a long time, understand that what we see now is promising, it’s hopeful, it’s change that we have never seen before, yet we’re nowhere near anything that looks like or feels like a transition to democracy. I would characterize it as a slight liberalization of one of the world’s most authoritarian government.

Werman: So we don’t know that much about what’s motivating the government. Do you have some theories?

Joseph: Yeah, I think a number of things: one is we really don’t know. I think if you looked at virtually anybody who’d written on or talked about Burma a year ago after these last elections, which were highly fraudulent, they would’ve expected the government to continue on the same path it had for the last 20 years, with civilian clothing, but with the same people running the show. So when it changed there’s been a lot of speculation what’s behind it. There’s some people who believe it’s an effort to move away from China. There are others who believe it’s sort of reformers or people in the government, some of who have traditionally been very opposed to working with Aung San Suu Kyi leaving the scene, and others who are open to working with her coming forward. And personally I also believe that you need to remember that it was only three years ago that the regime let hundreds of thousands of people suffer following Cyclone Nargis, and the previous year in 2007 when they had hundreds of thousands of monks and people out on the street and responded brutally. There’s no evidence behind this, but I really believe looking at sort of other transitions and movements in other countries, that how the government responded in those two situations probably introduced sort of tensions within the government. And then you had the tension following, sort of an effort to setup a civilian government after Than Shwe left the scene.

Werman: So does this moment, Brian, the series of the blips lately make you hopeful about change in Burma?

Joseph: Look, I’ve always been hopeful about change in Burma. For those of us who are interested in democracy and human rights in Burma, it has a credible opposition, it has an opposition dedicated to human rights and democracy. It’s an extremely resource rich country and I think all of these changes, whether or not you’re optimistic that they’ll lead to democracy, we all hope that they do and they’re certainly the most positive signs we’ve seen in a long, long time coming out of Burma. They should be encouraged to pursue these reforms. They should be pushed to pursue further reforms and they should continue to be held accountable for their continuing egregious human rights record. So I think we need to do both simultaneously.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Increasingly, the military has been called upon to keep order in the most dangerous locations. Recently, violence swept the touristy state of Veracruz.

And the area surrounding Acapulco has become one of the most murderous in the country, adding to the woes of the traditionally violent state of Guerrero.

The Mexican government has responded by launching military operations in both states.

While the army retains a fairly positive image in Mexico, it also stands accused thousands of human rights violations.

In the state of Guerrero, a few hours inland from Acapulco, one of these cases has torn six families apart.

It’s late afternoon as Laura Garcia Orozco arrives at a nightclub in the town of Iguala. Her brother, Francis Alejandro Garcia Orozco, used to run this club.

But on a Monday night in March last year, she arrived here, just as a military convoy was pulling away. She hasn’t seen her brother since.

“It’s incredibly sad to be in this place, to remember the disappearance, to remember his face, the last time he looked at me that day,” Orozco said. “It’s horrible, horrible. The only thing I want is that, in one way or another – that they bring him back.”

Francis — and five other men who worked there — disappeared from the club that night. According to checks done by the families, none had criminal records, nor were they under any official investigation.

After the men went missing, all six families say they went straight to military base 27 in Iguala. “Our sons have gone missing, they demanded,” “where are they?”

The soldier allegedly replied, “no tenemos los del disco” – “we don’t have those guys from the club.” The families looked at each other. They hadn’t said anything about the club.

35-year old Laura sits at her computer, reviewing footage taken that night by a security camera across from the club. The video appears to show the missing men as they’re taken from the club by a convoy that includes soldiers in military vehicles.

“The families say the army originally admitted it had an operation there that night — then backtracked,” Orozco said. “Later, military officials told the families they’d launched an investigation. The families say they’ve yet to see any proof of that.”

Difficult to Prove

Most disappearance cases rely on hearsay, and are difficult to prove. This case stands out because there’s some formal evidence. But Laura’s older sister Rosario says it hasn’t helped.

“We’ve asked everyone,” Rosario Garcia Orozco said. “The federal prosecutor’s office, the defense department, the national human rights commission – all say they have no idea or that they are unable to help.”

In the last five years, more than 6,000 official complaints of human rights abuses have been filed against Mexico’s security forces. But according to Nik Steinberg, Mexico investigator for the group Human Rights Watch, convictions are rare.

“No matter whether the case is investigated in the military justice system, or the civilian justice system, there is almost never a solider or police officer held accountable for these crimes,” Steinberg said. “So no matter how much evidence there is, and how clear it is that security forces have perpetrated these horrific abuses, they’re never held to book.”

A Human Rights Watch report released this month says Mexico’s security forces enjoy ‘total immunity’ from a legal system that stops short of challenging military jurisdiction. Steniberg argues these injustices violate some key conditions governing US financial support for Mexico’s drug war.

“One of them, for example is that all soldiers, who commit human rights abuses, must be prosecuted in a civilian court, because the military justice system in Mexico has proven to be completely biased, and unable to punish soldiers who commit abuses,” Steinberg said. “Mexico, year after year, has failed to meet these conditions, and year after year the United States has given them these conditional funds anyways.”

On Patrol in Guerrero

This patrol is part of a new security operation in the state of Guerrero, where the six men from Iguala disappeared.

State Spokesman Arturo Martinez Nunez says an additional 2,000 soldiers and federal police have been deployed in the last few weeks to improve safety in Guerrero. And he says respecting people’s rights is a top priority.

“The Mexican Army is extremely attentive and respectful of the human rights of the local population,” Nunez said. “The proof of that is that during this operation we have not had a single complaint. If there was one, we would be the first to address it, because we need the people on our side.”

Back in Iguala, the Garcia Orozco family doesn’t feel entirely safe. They say they’ve been followed, intimidated, threatened and repeatedly told to stop pursuing the case of their son and brother. Four of the other five families involved have already given up.

But Rosario, echoing the rest of her family, says that for the sake of her brother and the other missing men, they will not stop, despite the risks.

“You know what, a lot of people are scared – I am also scared,” Rosario Garcia Orozco said. “But it makes me more scared to think that tomorrow it would be my kids, or my grandkids, that they take away, if I don’t open my mouth and say “today, this is happening, this is a reality, and that this is how they are hurting many families.”

Joshua Landis (Photo: University of Oklahoma)

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins, and this is The World, a coproduction of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. The killing of Muammar Gaddafi is Libya gave new energy to anti-government rallies in Syria today, but the response to those rallies was the same that it has been, brutal government repression. Unconfirmed reports from Syria say several demonstrators were killed by security forces. The United Nations estimates that more than 3,000 Syrians have died in the crackdown over the past seven months. Demonstrators have been calling for President Bashar al-Assad to step down since March. Joshua Landis is the Director of the Center For Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. He also publishes a blog that’s called Syria Comment. How worried, Joshua Landis, do you think that President Assad of Syria should be today?

JOSHUA LANDIS: Well, I’m sure he didn’t sleep well last night. The entire world will now be sharpening their knives for Syria. Syria, Yemen are the two authoritarian dictators yet to fall in this Arab Spring. Of course, the situation is very different, but it gave a big boost to the Syrian opposition. Amongst Alawites and others who defend the regime, of course, there was a great deal of anxiety. Friends of mine who saw the footage of Gaddafi being captured became very worried because this is the future for places like Syria.

MULLINS: Joshua, maybe you should mention more about the Alawites themselves and how this minority group, the same group as Bashar al-Assad is figuring into this. This is also Alawites make up most of the Syrian military. What’s the significance of this?

LANDIS: The Alawites, in general, are implicated in this regime in a big way because much of the officer class and the security, the intelligence are made up of Alawites, and they’re going to be targeted, and that’s the big worry. My wife is an Alloite, and she woke up at 5:00 in the morning tossing and turning and worried about her father and their village and so forth and how to get them out. They’re, of course, frightened to go to Damascus where they could get a VISA from the American Embassy because they don’t want to drive on the streets anymore.

MULLINS: Wait, do they have reason to feel frightened, especially right now?

LANDIS: That’s the big question is do they have… There have been a number of incidents of assassinations. When you look at Libya and you see entire towns of 30,000 emptied out because they helped Gaddafi, people aren’t asking questions. They’re shooting first, and that’s the anxiety about the future of a country like Syria where you have big religious differences and people are lining up supporting the regime or against the regime based on that religion.

MULLINS: One of the things, let me just say this, that was working in favor of those who wanted a NATO type intervention in Libya, which is what happened, was that the Arab League was very much in support of it. In fact, Arab countries were working alongside NATO countries for this. Is that a possibility with regard to Syria?

LANDIS: The Arabs have condemned Syria. Turkey has condemned Syria, but Syria is 23 million people. Syria does not have a Benghazi, no high defections. There’s nothing for the West to really latch onto and say this is going to win. This could prolong for years.

MULLINS: Why would the Arab League, for instance, come out against Gaddafi of Libya and call on him to leave power and not Assad of Syria?

LANDIS: Half of his country had fallen out of his control.

MULLINS: Libya.

LANDIS: There were major defections at every rank of the government. Everybody hated Gaddafi. He had tortured the Saudis, and in every Arab League meeting, he stood up and made fun of them. Bashar al-Assad is young. He’s provoked the Saudis, but he’s a key player in this region, and it’s an ethnic civil war potentially. Tat scares people because it’s right at their door and it’s a big country of 23 million people. There could be lots of refugees. There’s no oil money. The West has said we’re not going to come in and get militarily involved. This could be a long process, and it scares a lot of people.

MULLINS: Joshua Landis teaches modern Middle Eastern history and politics at the University of Oklahoma. He also blogs at Syria Comment. We’ll make a link at TheWorld.org. Thank you very much.

LANDIS: It’s a pleasure.

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Since February 2011, when the first demonstrations started, at least 35 people have died.

Bahraini security forces have detained many more protesters.

A few have been put on trial – like the doctors and hospital nurses accused of treating wounded protesters, but refusing treatment to government supporters.

Some protesters claim they have been tortured in detention.

Human rights groups say five people have died in government custody.

Anchor Lisa Mullins talks to the BBC’s Frank Gardner about the complex situation in Bahrain.

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Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. When the Arab Spring reached Bahrain the tiny Gulf kingdom cracked down hard. Since February when the first demonstrations began, at least 35 people have died. Bahraini security forces have detained many more protestors. A few of them have been put on trial, including the doctors and hospital nurses accused of treating wounded protestors, but refusing to treat government supporters. Some protestors claim that they have been tortured in detention. Human rights groups say five people have died in government custody. The BBC’s Frank Gardner was recently in Bahrain and he says what’s transpiring defies simple explanation.

Frank Gardner: The situation in Bahrain is quite complex. The international media have made the mistake I think of trying to apply the same rules having come straight from Egypt and Tunisia to Bahrain, thinking protest is good, government bad. It’s not quite as simple as that. The protestors do not speak for the whole country. They have legitimate grievances. The Shiites are under represented. They are discriminated against. There has been abuse. But there is a very sizable large part of the country who don’t sympathize with the protestors, who see them as troublemakers supported by Iran. And they fear that if the protestors got their way the Sunni lead monarchy would be overthrown and you’d have Tehran on the Arabian side of the Gulf. Now, that’s probably an exaggeration, but that is the fears of the Sunni community there. So set in that context there’s now an investigation going on order by the king, King Hamad, into all these thousands of alleged human rights abuses.

Mullins: Does that mean those people who are not showing up protesting, that they approve of or at least condone the government treatment of many of these protestors?

Gardner: All of the people who I spoke to who support the government don’t believe the alleged human rights abuses. They think that they have been invented or exaggerated by the opposition, which is a slightly head in the sound[? phrase 1:58] attitude because there’s no question in my mind, I’ve seen the bodies of some people who’ve died in police custody, or one person. You know, there has been abuse committed by often non-Bahrainis working for the Bahraini police, who the opposition call the mercenaries. These are Yemenis, Jordanians, Syrians. The king is essentially a good guy who is appalled by this. He’s not necessarily the most powerful person in the land anymore. There is a rather strong hard core within the ruling family who doesn’t really want any kind of concession to the protestors, and I think some of the policemen in the detention centers are getting a subliminal message from strong people in the government — do what you need to do.

Mullins: So, Frank, you were allowed to visit at least one of these detention centers where some of the alleged abuses of protestors occurred. Tell us what you saw.

Gardner: Well, I was allowed to visit what’s called al-Hurra police station, which is the largest police station in the capital. Rather as I suspected, it wasn’t exactly the belly of the beast. It was a squeaky clean, very modern police station. The prisoners that I met were nearly all common criminals convicted of things or accused of things nothing to do with the uprising. I did manage to speak with one man who said he’d been beaten. All the others said they’d been well-treated. But nevertheless this was the first time the international media had been allowed inside a detention center and it gave me a glimpse. We’re also able to get around the country unescorted. We went to a Shiite village and I interviewed one of the doctors on trial there, Dr. Fatima Haji. She says she was actually tortured, and intimidated and threatened by a female interrogator, one in prison.

Dr. Fatima Haji: She was slapping me for 30 minutes right and left, right and left. Then they told me we know where your son is going, you think he is safe? He is not safe. We can get him anytime. And at that time I just broke down, told them please stop, I’ll do anything you want. Just stop.

Gardner: Well, not surprisingly, she signed the confession which she says was extracted under duress and she’s not really guilty of anything. Sunnis don’t believe that, Shiites do. It’s a sign of just how sectarian-ly divided Bahrain is. This human rights commission has heard of 8,800 complaints, some of which will be genuine, some of which will not be. They’ve had over 5,700 interviews and it’s headed by five commissioners with great experience of investigating human rights abuses in places like Iraq, the Balkans. They’re no fools. They’ve been pretty thorough. When they come out with their findings on October 30 this really is going to be a watershed. The US congress, for example, is going to be taking a very close look at this human rights report because that will impact on the US decision of whether or not to go ahead with $50 million plus worth of arm sales to Bahrain.

Mullins: That’s the BBC’s Frank Gardner in London speaking to us about what is a very complex situation in Bahrain right now. He was recently there and went to a police detention facility.

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The advocacy group claims it violates the human rights of transgender people. As it stands now, the law requires transgender people to take hormones to undergo surgery before they can have their gender legally recognized.

Human Rights Watch wants to see this law changed.

Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Boris Dittrich who is a former member of the Dutch parliament and currently an Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch.

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The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World.  The government of the Netherlands is under increased pressure today to change a law that affects transgender people.  The measure imposes serious restrictions on people who want to officially register their new gender with the government.  The advocacy group Human Rights Watch today issued a report calling on the law to be scrapped. Boris Dittrich used to be a member of the Dutch parliament.  He is now an advocacy director at Human Rights Watch in New York.  Dittrich told us the requirements imposed by the current Dutch law:

Dittrich: Transgender people in the Netherlands when they want to obtain a new identification document need to undergo sex reassignment surgery and hormone therapy.  And a lot of transgender people in the Netherlands do not want to have surgery because they live in a healthy body and they don’t want to be made infertile permanently.  So they’ve asked Human Rights Watch to do research and now we come with this report to put pressure on the Dutch government to change this law.

Mullins: The Dutch government as you well know, you used to be part of the government itself, is known for its liberal policies.  It was you who initiated the same sex marriage and adoption bills in the Netherlands.  Does the Dutch government, despite the changes that Human Rights Watch is calling for, still lead the way in those areas?

Dittrich: Well, not when we talk about transgender laws because for instance, a country like Portugal or the United Kingdom, they’ve done away with this sex reassignment surgery requirement, and the Netherlands is lagging behind.  So we hope that we will wake up the Dutch government and Dutch members of parliament and that they very soon will change the law.

Mullins: Just asking you as someone who used to be a member of parliament, how does it benefit a country to have said that you have to have surgery or not at least 20 years ago.

Dittrich: Well, the government was afraid that if you wouldn’t have been made infertile you could get children, and so then at the time, same sex marriage didn’t take place in the Netherlands, so you could end up with two men in a relationship with a child.  And so the Dutch laws said no, that’s impossible.  But of course, in 2001, when the same sex marriage law was introduced, this has changed.  And we see also in the perspective of people in society there is much more attention for transgender issues.  Also, the government has promised to change it starting with a first promise in 2009, but they haven’t delivered.  And transgender people are really tired of waiting and hearing empty promises.  They really want legal action now and the Human Rights Watch supports that ask.

Mullins: Why is this such an important issue from your perspective, from the human rights perspective?

Dittrich: Well, from the human rights perspective it’s very important that people really have the right of physical integrity and there is not a government and claiming that you need to undergo sex reassignment surgery, and that’s a very, very difficult, complicated surgery, simply to hand you a new identification document.  Other countries have done away with this requirement, so the Netherlands should follow suit.

Mullins: All right, Boris Dittrich, Advocacy Director in the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender rights program at Human Rights Watch, thanks.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Dozens of designers from around the globe are there to show off their latest creations. Gulnara Karimova was initially invited to show her colorful “Guli” fashion line.

We’d like you to name the country that Karimova is from, and which she highlights in her designs. She uses embroidered trims and traditional blends of cotton and silk to reflect her Central Asian culture.

But it’s Karimova’s family connections that are getting most of the attention in New York this week. That’s because the designer is also the president’s daughter and her father has been labeled a brutal dictator by human rights groups. Karimova is now out of Fashion Week.

So, which former Soviet republic in Central Asia are father and daughter from?

The answer is Uzbekistan.

Anchor Marco Werman talks with Human Rights Watch researcher Steve Swerdlow.