Free Republic

Tents set up in Central American jungle for sole purpose of raping migrant women, children who can't pay bribes to criminal gangs Most victims of rape on migrant journey to US are women, but children as young as 11 years old also sexually assaulted Men who tried to save women from rape were killed or beaten At least 400 women and children have been treated this year by Doctors Without Borders after they were raped in tents set up specifically to abuse migrants in the notorious Darien Gap, a bombshell new report has revealed. In October alone, 107 rape survivors,...

Colombian cops have pictured a 10-strong people trafficking gang called 'Without Borders' who charged migrants to help them on their journey to the US. Investigators there dismantled a people trafficking ring that helped migrant cross from Ecuador into Colombia and then ferried them north to Panama, where they made their way into Mexico before reaching the United States border. At least 10 members of the migrant smuggling network, know as ‘Without Borders,’ were taken into custody during a series of raid in the western department of Nariño, the Attorney General’s Office said Saturday... ...Depending on their place of origin, the...

Early in September, international news was awash with the claim that 87 elephants had been “killed by poachers” in Botswana. The story originated from the NGO Elephants Without Borders, which received massive publicity – and presumably donations – as a result. Even the beleaguered UK Prime Minister tweeted the story, while a petition calling for wildlife guards to be re-armed surpassed 150,000 signatures. I know a little of Botswana. A few years ago, I was declared “public enemy number one”, threatened by a government spokesman on television, and banned from the country. This was because Survival International was instrumental in...

If a rapist escapes justice for long enough, should the world hand him a get-out-of-jail-free card? If you're Roman Polanski, world-famous director, a lot of famous and gifted people think the answer is yes. Polanski, who drugged and anally raped a thirteen-year-old girl in 1977 in Los Angeles, pled guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sex with a minor and fled to Europe before sentencing. Now, 32 years later, he's been arrested in Switzerland on his way to the Zurich film Festival, prompting outrage from international culture stars: Salman Rushdie, Milan Kundera, Martin Scorsese, Pedro Almodavar, Woody Allen (insert...

The rule of law is disappearing in Venezuela Marcel Granier, President of Radio Caracas Television (Inter-American Press Agency) The reaction of President Chavez is verbally violent and crude each time someone dares to have a different opinion. ____________________________________________________ President Chavez verbally announced his decision to close Radio Caracas Television, a channel which for more than 53 years and with the best facilities draws the greater audience, moreover of being the television broadcaster that employs the most people in Venezuela. Thus culminates a long chain of aggressions against journalists, employees, managers, and shareholders of the independent media. He is trying to...

Millions of dollars are flowing into the coffers of major disaster relief organizations to help victims of the tsunami that ravaged countries on the Indian Ocean. A man walked into the Atlanta office of CARE USA, a branch of the international aid organization, and handed the receptionist a check for $10,000. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has allotted $3 million for food, water, shelter and health care, and organizations report that their Web sites are overwhelmed by people seeking to donate electronically. The money could not come at a better time, aid officials say. Many of the organizations that...

Doctors without Borders ... has pulled out of Afghanistan. ... The group cited two reasons.... First, it was distressed by the murder of five staff members, who were killed in northwestern Afghanistan in June. ... As they explained in their press conference, Doctors Without Borders take issue with the coalition's approach in Afghanistan. They bitterly resent the policy of using military units to also perform humanitarian and development tasks. In particular, they object to Provincial Reconstruction Teams, whose mixed assignment of security and economic development is anathema to them. Humanitarian aid, they believe, must be kept strictly separate from anything...

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) — A Dutch employee of the international medical aid group Doctors Without Borders was abducted in southern Russia, officials said Tuesday. The Dutch citizen, Arjan Erkel, was seized by three gunmen in the suburbs of Makhachkala late Monday, said Abdul Musayev, spokesman for the Interior Ministry in the Russian republic of Dagestan, which borders on Chechnya. A duty officer of the Federal Security Service in Dagestan said Erkel was abducted after leaving his translator's home. Doctors Without Borders, which goes by its French acronym MSF, said in a statement that Erkel was on his way home when...