Water theft? A phrase that seems incredible in the UK, but which is a real and pressing threat in some parts of the world. In an arid region of central Chile, Rodrigo Mundaca is defending community access to water and exposing its illegal extraction by politicians and businesses. He and his colleagues have received death threats, been physically attacked, and taken to court.
To mark World Water Day (22nd March), we sent a message of solidarity to Rodrigo, and wrote to the Chilean Embassy in the UK urging them to use their influence to allow Rodrigo and his organisation, MODATIMO, to be able to continue their human rights work on land, territory and environment issues.
We discussed AI Urgent Action cases in North Africa and in North Korea, and signed letters to the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of State Security on behalf of Koo Jeong-hwa, arrested with her four year old son when returned from illegally crossing into China to find work – something considered treasonous in North Korea.
We were updated on the desperate situation of the Rohingya people in Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma). What has been described as a ‘military land grab’ is taking place in the territory from which the Rohingya have fled. AI’s Crisis Response Director, Tirana Hassan, has written ‘What we are seeing in Rhakine State is a land grab by the military on a dramatic scale. New bases are being erected to house the very same security forces that have committed crimes against humanity against the Rohingya’.
We meet on the second Tuesday of the month at 7.30pm in the Friends’ Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton. At our April meeting Susan Mew of the Minehead Group will be speaking about AI’s Human Rights Defenders BRAVE campaign. All are welcome!
We were delighted to discover that Burmese student activist Phyoe Phyoe Aung, who was to have been the subject of our April Monthly Action, had already been released as part of a more general prisoner amnesty.
We were delighted to hear that the Unity 5 journalists, for whom we started working in September 2015, were released on 17th April; 
In Japan, Matsumoto Kenji could be hanged any day now, and he does not know why. He has been on death row for over 20 years. He was sentenced to death in the early nineties for robberies and murders committed with his brother (who killed himself in detention). Matsumoto has had a mental disability and low IQ from birth, allegedly caused by mercury poisoning. Despite this, he was ruled mentally competent and his sentence confirmed in 2000. 
Following the release of peaceful activist Dr Tun Aung earlier this year, our group now has new prisoners of conscience in Burma that we will be campaigning to have released. 
The meeting began with the Taunton Group’s AGM; we decided which of Amnesty’s campaigns we should focus on this year. These include Stop Torture and the Death Penalty, and a focus on country campaigns: a new Burmese prisoner of conscience now that Dr Tun Aung has been released, a new interest in China, and a continuation of our work for the Mansoura Three in Egypt (pictured). We signed letters to the Egyptian authorities on behalf of these three women who were caught up in protests in 2014 and face years behind bars.
Neil Guild, prospective Labour Parliamentary candidate for Taunton, was our speaker this month (Rebecca Pow, Conservative Parliamentary candidate, spoke in May). In a very interesting talk he sketched in his life so far: University, Army, service in Iraq, Civil Service, and then moved on to how these experiences had shaped his current concerns, with particular reference to those issues that concern Amnesty.
Amnesty International Taunton Local Group 