Moros Eros

2008-01-08T09:46:00.001-08:00

Mission of Burma

2008-01-06T14:53:00.001-08:00

Burma: Crackdown Bloodier Than Government Admits

Arrests Continue Amidst International Inaction

(New York, December 7, 2007) – Many more people were killed and detained in the violent government crackdown on monks and other peaceful protesters in September 2007 than the Burmese government has admitted, Human Rights Watch said today in a new report. Since the crackdown, the military regime has brought to bear the full force of its authoritarian apparatus to intimidate all opposition, hunting down protest leaders in night raids and defrocking monks.

The generals unleashed their civilian thugs, soldiers and police against monks and other peaceful protesters.
Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch

The 140-page report, "Crackdown: Repression of the 2007 Popular Protests in Burma," is based on more than 100 interviews with eyewitnesses in Burma and Thailand. It is the most complete account of the August and September events to date.

Human Rights Watch research determined that that the security forces shot into crowds using live ammunition and rubber bullets, beat marchers and monks before dragging them onto trucks, and arbitrarily detained thousands of people in official and unofficial places of detention. In addition to monks, many students and other civilians were killed, although without full and independent access to the country it is impossible to determine exact casualty figures.

"The crackdown in Burma is far from over," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Harsh repression continues, and the government is still lying about the extent of the deaths and detentions."

Human Rights Watch found that the crackdown was carried out in part by the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a "mass-based social welfare" organization with more than 23 million members that the Burmese military is grooming to lead a future civilian government. It operated alongside the Swan Arr Shin (Masters of Force) militia, soldiers and riot police in beating and detaining protesters.

The report documented the killing of 20 people in Rangoon, but Human Rights Watch believes that the death toll there was much higher, and that hundreds remain in detention. Human Rights Watch was unable to gather information on killings and detentions from other cities and towns where demonstrations took place.

At a news conference in the new capital at Naypidaw on December 3, National Police chief Major General Khin Ye stated that, "Ten people died and 14 were injured during the monk protests from 26 to 30 September. The security members handled the situation in accord with the procedures." Human Rights Watch has information that Khin Ye personally supervised the brutal arrests, beatings and killings of monks at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon on September 26.

The ruling State and Peace Development Council (SPDC) claims that overall 2,927 people, including 596 monks, were "interrogated,"and almost all have been released. It says that nine people have been sentenced to prison terms, while 59 lay people and 21 monks remain in detention.

Human Rights Watch said that hundreds of protesters, including monks and members of the '88 Generation students, who led protests until being arrested in late August, remain unaccounted for. Human Rights Watch noted that before the protests there were more than 1,200 political prisoners languishing in Burma's prisons and labor camps.

"The generals unleashed their civilian thugs, soldiers and police against monks and other peaceful protesters," said Adams. "Now they should account for those killed and shed light on the fate of the missing."

Human Rights Watch called for greater international action, including by the United Nations Security Council, to press the Burmese government to undertake major reforms. On December 11, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, will present his findings on the crackdown to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Human Rights Watch criticized the lack of action by countries with good relations and influence on Burma, such as China, India, Russia, Thailand, and other Association of Southeast Asian Nations members. China has made it clear that it will not allow the UN Security Council to take up Burma in any meaningful way. Despite the killing of a Japanese journalist by Burmese security forces, Japan has reacted timidly.

"It's time for the world to impose a UN arms embargo and financial sanctions, to hurt Burma's leaders until they make real changes," said Adams. "Countries like China, India and Thailand have the responsibility to take action to help hold the generals accountable and to end this long nightmare of military repression."

Selected Eyewitness Accounts from "Crackdown"

"The raid at the monastery was around 1 a.m. The soldiers shouted to open the monastery gates, and then broke the gate open by hitting it with their truck when no one came to open. Shouting loudly, they were throwing teargas and firing their automatic guns into the buildings of the monastery, and used their batons to beat the monks whenever they saw them. Many monks ran away, climbing into the trees nearby and escaping by hiding in the houses of the neighborhood. I was injured in the head when I was hit by baton charges. I saw pools of blood, shattered windows, and spent bullet casings on the floor when I came back to the monastery in the morning. We found about 100 monks missing out of 230 monks. They took our money and jewelry, and other valuable things they found at the monastery."
– U Khanda, a monk describing a raid on his monastery, September 27

"We were so frightened. My two friends were crying loudly, and I was so frightened that the soldiers would find us. Then the informers pointed to the grass. Seven young people were hiding there. They got up and ran, but the soldiers started firing into their backs. They were only able to run six or seven steps before they fell. Three or four of the young boys aged around 20 to 22, were gunned down straight away. The others tried to run but were caught and taken away in the military cars."
– Thazin Aye, describing killings at Tamwe No.3 High School on September 27

"After the warnings, the soldiers in the first row shot teargas into the crowd. Five soldiers shot the teargas. They began shooting immediately after the announcement. People ran in all directions. Twenty soldiers came over the barricade, climbed over, and started beating the people. Two people died. … It was not like in the movies. When the soldiers beat those people, they were trying to kill them. They beat them on the head and the abdomen. The soldiers pulled them by their legs over the barricade … they put the two bodies next to their trucks."
– Zaw Zan Htike, describing an incident on September 27 in downtown Rangoon

"At the time, a girl wasn't sure whether to lie down or stand up. A riot police [officer] hit the girl on the side of her face with his baton. The girl collapsed. She was in her 20s – there was blood running down her face, and her skull might have been broken. I'm not sure if she died. No one was able to help her. If we put our heads up, they would hit us and kick us with their boots."
– Htun Kyaw Kyaw, describing arrests on September 27

Christmas(sacre)

2007-12-24T23:39:00.001-08:00

sorry. I had to. Let's see where we stand now....

Deej has decided to no longer be with us (sorry girls). the three of us spectacular dudes wish him well into whatever portal he passes through.

We'll have our friend greg filling in for some future localized shows (or maybe more?????) so that will be nice.

We have started working on new material as of late for our THIRD (count 'em) record. The music sounds pretty neat-o to me. It will most likely consist of about 30 two minute songs or probably around 10,11 or 12 songs. Get ready. This shit's hittin' digital wax by the end of the year one way or another.

After this trilogy we might start from the very beginning and put out some prequels like george lucas...except these won't suck...or maybe we'll just hang up the towel right after the third record opens up at the top of the charts.

Ps: we don't have a van. That's why we can't tour right now. More news on that laterrrrr.

*zachtipton*

MUSIC VIDEO UP

2007-11-29T21:19:00.001-08:00

on absolutepunk.net right now...should be on our myspace and youtube tomorrow or next week...hope everyone likes it!

*zachtipton*

Sorry...

2007-11-28T12:16:00.001-08:00

we can't do the hot rod tour...only one date is still on and that's atlanta.

Sorry guys...

: (

*zachtipton*

itunes.

2007-11-13T15:42:00.001-08:00

for some reason, the first song is misspelled. This was NOT my mistake.

Tour is going well. Tour starts with hot rod circuit in a few weeks, then an east coast with a very cool band called so many dynamos in jan.

Check them OUT.

MUSIC VIDEO for "on my side" directed by jesse ewles will be posted soon.

: )

*zachtipton*

Sad

2007-11-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

today is the last day with damiera and it sucks balls.

On the bright side, we're still on tour with stiletto formal until thanksgiving and the axe that chopped the cherry tree joins us in place of damiera.

Hellllloooo west coast.

*zachtipton*

i just don't understand...

2007-10-25T14:34:00.001-07:00

Abortion ban killing women

By Lance Lattig and Angela Heimburger

Published in Miami Herald

MANAGUA -- A year after elections in Nicaragua returned Daniel Ortega to power, scores of pregnant women have died, many as a consequence of a new law that prohibits doctors from providing lifesaving treatment.

Over Their Dead Bodies: Denial of Access to Emergency Obstetric Care and Therapeutic Abortion in Nicaragua
Report, October 2, 2007

Women's Rights: Abortion

In the run-up to the hotly contested elections last November, Sandinistas in the National Assembly helped to overturn a legal provision that had permitted lifesaving abortions since 1893. Nicaragua thus joined the handful of countries in which abortion is a crime punishable by prison for both a woman and her doctor -- even in cases of rape, incest or when a woman's life is at risk.

During the past year, the new law has had a devastating impact on women in Nicaragua.

* Pregnant women suffering from illnesses such as kidney failure have died because they were not allowed to interrupt their pregnancies to treat their conditions.

* A poor, single mother died of a heart attack after doctors refused to treat her severe hemorrhaging because the fetus was still alive. Neither the fetus nor the woman survived, and her 3-year-old son now lives with his indigent grandmother in precarious conditions.

Human-rights organizations have come under fire for addressing the issue of abortion, but many critics have simply missed the point. The issue isn't abortion per se but the human-rights violations that occur when access to safe and legal abortion is restricted. Freedom of religion is a basic right, but the Nicaraguan government should not use religious doctrine as a pretext for violating women's fundamental rights to life and health.

Untreated ectopic pregnancy

In many other countries, even Catholic hospitals perform therapeutic abortions necessary to save a woman's life. Although Nicaragua's health ministry issued protocols on emergency obstetric care, it has since failed to follow up by clarifying what other procedures could be considered therapeutic abortion.
Even according to the government's own figures, maternal mortality has shot up by 100 percent in the past year. One woman died in April from an untreated ectopic pregnancy -- that is, when a fertilized egg is implanted outside the uterus and has no chance of survival. Normally, doctors around the world intervene as soon as the ectopic pregnancy is detected. But Nicaraguan doctors are now reluctant to act out of fear that their interventions might be considered criminal.
Another reason women are dying in Nicaragua is that they are afraid to seek medical help. Women seeking abortions fear mistreatment and discrimination by medical personnel, as well as the threat of prosecution by the authorities. Human Rights Watch interviewed several women who were able to obtain safe but illegal abortions. None of them was able to obtain the procedure in the public sector, however, despite the medically certified risks to their health posed by their pregnancies.

Here, traffic intersections feature giant posters of Ortega with the slogan, ''Arise ye poor of the world!'' Under Ortega's government, however, the sad irony is that richer, better-informed women can fly to Miami or seek a costly and illegal abortion in Managua, while poor women often die preventable deaths after they are rejected from public health services or denied emergency obstetric care.
Ortega has made many promises to end the misery of the disenfranchised in Nicaragua. A good place to start would be to guarantee the state's obligation to ensure the health and lives of Nicaraguan women. The Sandinista government should inform women about their right to procure emergency obstetric care in the public-health sector and remind doctors of their obligation to treat them.
Nicaragua has a long history of struggle for social justice. But the total ban on abortion denies equality and protection to women in the poorest and most vulnerable sectors of Nicaraguan society.

Ha

2007-10-22T19:01:00.001-07:00

I love it when people think we're christian rock.

*zachtipton*

2007-10-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

this is for people who don't realize there are other things going on in this world.

WAKE UP

2007-10-19T20:09:00.001-07:00

THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING

Since early 2003, Sudanese government soldiers and their proxy militia, known as the Janjaweed, have fought rebel groups in the western region of Darfur. Initially, the government strategy largely involved systematic assaults against civilians from the same ethnic groups as the rebel forces. The targeted victims have been mostly from the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masaalit ethnic groups.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have died from violence, disease, and starvation, and thousands of women have been raped. More than 2.5 million civilians have been driven from their homes, their villages torched and property stolen. Thousands of villages have been systematically destroyed and more than 230,000 people have fled to neighboring Chad. But most of those displaced are trapped inside Darfur. Although large-scale government attacks against civilians have declined since 2005, millions remain at risk. Most of the displaced are not returning home for fear that their villages will be attacked again. The Sudanese government still bears primary responsibility for the danger to civilians, but the increasing fragmentation of the rebel groups and their use of violence have contributed to the high level of insecurity.

Darfur is home to more than 30 ethnic groups, all of which are Muslim. The Janjaweed militias—recruited, armed, trained, and supported by the Sudanese government—are drawn from several of the groups in Darfur who identify themselves as Arab. They have used racial slurs while attacking and raping the targeted groups, who are considered non-Arab. The ethnic and perceived racial basis of the violence has been well documented by the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, independent human rights organizations, and international journalists.

The Khartoum-based government's use of ethnically and racially targeted violence in Darfur resembles similar actions in southern Sudan before a tenuous 2005 peace agreement ended conflict there. Government-sponsored actions in both regions have included:
INFLAMING ethnic conflict

IMPEDING international humanitarian access, resulting in deadly conditions of life for displaced civilians

BOMBING civilians from aircraft

MURDERING and RAPING civilians

Because of substantial evidence that "acts of genocide or related crimes against humanity were occurring or immediately threatened," in 2004 the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum declared a Genocide Emergency for Darfur. That same year, the U.S. government determined that genocide had been committed in Darfur. In January 2005, the UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that "crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed in Darfur and may be no less serious and heinous then genocide."

(our record doesn't really seem important anymore.)

~zach

Wow

2007-10-15T09:15:00.001-07:00

the new album comes out tomorrow. It seems like just yesterday when the last one came out....

*zachtipton*

Another new song is up

2007-10-02T13:46:00.001-07:00

on the myspace.
Check it out.

*zachtipton*

Posters! Crap!

2007-09-26T06:48:00.001-07:00

so...funny story. There's a misspelling on the posters that went out. Yikes. Sorry about that everyone. We didn't even see the final posters until yesterday after somebody had sent them out to all the people who asked for them. Oh, well. No biggie!

just laugh it off, zach..laugh it off.

: D

ps: a new song entitled "on my side" is up on our myspace. Expect a new song entitled "safety net" to go up soon...it's crazy! Well...crazy as we can be.

*zachtipton*

NEW SINGLE

2007-09-14T11:40:00.001-07:00

will be up on our myspace monday night!

*zachtipton*

Finally

2007-08-28T14:02:00.001-07:00

the masters are done.

Check out the album artwork on our space.

*zachtipton*

Tour this fall

2007-08-22T16:37:00.001-07:00

in support of out second album.

Check out the space for dates.

*zachtipton*

Superbad

2007-08-19T15:05:00.001-07:00

is the best movie ever.

*zachtipton*

A second beat!

2007-08-16T06:55:00.001-07:00

here is the link:

http://thescore.vh1.com/clip.aspx?key=F8B309AED0C3BAE8

read the one below if you don't know what i'm talking about...i like this one so much better!

Thank you!!!

*zachtipton*

HELP ME!!!

2007-08-15T16:47:00.001-07:00

seriously. This is my one chance to meet ?uestlove.

Vh1 is having a beat contest and I made a beat earlier today. Even if you don't like it, please rate it a 5, even though I think the judges are the only ones choosing the winner, but still, it couldn't hurt right?

Here's the link:

http://thescore.vh1.com/clip.aspx?key=59E6030FE0290B92&ctx=usrc

copy, paste, listen, rate!

Thank you so much!

I just want to meet ?uestlove!!

*zachtipton*

I Am Playing An Acoustic Show

2007-08-10T11:07:00.001-07:00

here is the show...

I'll have some merch with me too...

Wed. August 29th

Koo's Art Center
530 E. Broadway
Long Beach, CA 90802

6PM

be there and sing with me!

*zachtipton*

The record is mixed!

2007-07-30T20:27:00.001-07:00

now, it only needs mastering. How about that? I am now in a car for the 24 hours.

*zachtipton*

Madness seems so normal

2007-07-26T23:28:00.000-07:00

check out the video someone did for madness on our myspace..it kills!

*zachtipton*

Done recording...

2007-07-26T01:19:00.000-07:00

now mixing. It sounds wonderful. I still can't sleep. As usual, I feel like i'm in a dream most of the time. Pretty strange, huh? I bought two bjork tickets today(!) for september and now I have to find someone to go with. I hope people love this record as much as I do. If anyone wants to put up posters around your surrounding cities in return for free shows and merch, write us a message on myspace! My asthma (yes, I was born a nerd...ha) is killing me lately and I can't figure out why. I would like to be more personal on this, but I feel a little insecure about putting my deepest thoughts here. Maybe i'll make another one of these for me and people who are genuinely interested, yet I doubt there are. (i am so excited for bjork. Like lump in my throat excited. Someone come with me.)

*zachtipton*

I can't sleep

2007-07-21T18:34:00.001-07:00

and i'm taking nyquil in the daytime because i'm sick and there isn't any other kind of medicine. Haruki murakami is a god and I can't stop listening to blonde redhead and i'm watching robin williams play a 40 year old 10 year old. It's kind of creepy. Especially, when bill cosby is tickling him. J e l l o.

*zachtipton*