From: Rich Graves <llurch@networking.stanford.edu>
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 19:03:57 +0800
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: Bravo, mostly (Re: Banned Zambian newspaper now on the Web)
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.89.9602202013.A19576-0100000@well>
Message-ID: <Pine.ULT.3.91.960221010932.28798B-100000@Networking.Stanford.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


[Please forward along to fight-censorship if non-redundant]

I applaud your quick response. However, you should read more and consult
people with area expertise. At least do the five-minute AltaVista and 
DejaNews search I did; don't just trust the information that gets sent to 
you, or you're likely to be used. 

I think you're at least 95% right here, but it is worth noting that The
Post has ties to the former dictator of Zambia, who was replaced by the
more or less democratically elected Chiluba whose ouster you so
precipitously are demanding. First impressions and fast action are often
necessary, but it's not responsible to stop there. Life & death politics
isn't a toy. Chiluba is no saint, but he's no two-bit dictator, either.
I'd probably rate him a notch or two below Aristide, no worse. He's
certainly no Castro, Kim, or Idi Amin.Chiluba is pretty good by
Sub-Saharan African standards (which, unfortunately, isn't saying much). 

For informed opinion, you should start with the Association of Concerned
African Scholars: 

 http://www.prairienet.org/acas/

You might want to add Amnesty International's 1995 report on Sub-Saharan
Africa, which has some background on Zambia and Chiluba: 

 http://www.amnesty.org/Africa95/360195.AFR.txt

For those who read Swedish, this appears to be a more specific Amnesty 
report:

 http://www.everyday.se/amnesty/zambia2.html

See Chiluba's comments on Nigerian human rights violations:

 http://www.prairienet.org/acas/chiluba.html

Official statements of the Zambian government:

 http://www.zamnet.zm/zamnet/grz/govstate.html

Two trivial stylistic whines:

HTML bug:
You need to prepend mailto: to the link to fstuart@vetmed.auburn.edu

Graphical excess:
And as I'm sure you're aware, the lead graphic is a bit large for most 
browsers. It takes up the whole 13" screen I have at home.

-rich