Floribert Chebeya Bahizire (pictured above) may be one of the most important human rights leaders you never heard of, but don't let the fact that his name didn't appear on your nightly news telecast fool you.
The Congolese leader of Voix des Sana Voix, or Voice of the Voiceless, was so effective in his work finding corruption in the nation's military and foreign support for militias, he made people in high places very nervous.
Chebeya's body was discovered in his car outside Kinshasa. He was apparently strangled. He was last heard from last Tuesday, after telling a family member he had met a senior police official.
The United Nations and human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have called on the government to investigate this death. Chebeya had been the subject of death threats for years.
But groups on the ground in Congo have pointed an early finger of blame at the inspector general of the National Police, John Numbi, whom they believe Chebeya had met in the hours before his death.
The family and U.N. representatives were initially given access to Chebeya's body, according to Human Rights Watch, which added that government investigations in to the death of three journalists and a human rights activist in recent years have been less than thorough.
Governments with questionable civil rights records like the Congo don't ever change without pressure, and like bullies on the playground, the only entities they respect are other governments and organizations that can smack them in the mouth with economic penalties.
That is why groups like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and others with the international reach to get stories in newspapers and on news programs are the ones to make the Chebeya killing the cause celebre of the journalistic world.
Only when world powers raise the specter of recalling their diplomats, economic boycotts and U.N. sanctions do the most corrupt nations take notice. And maybe even change.
27-May-2010 - CNN was a little embarrassed after accidentally playing a rap song with the N-word in it. The gaffe was part of a segment about a 103-year-old woman, Gladys Flamer, who still drives herself around and lives alone in Coatsville, Pa.
25-May-2010 - Mattel has launched a new line of Barbie dolls called "Back to Basics (pictured below)," which features several dolls, white and black, in (what I can only term) "after-5" wear: There are off-the-shoulder dresses, strapless minis and plunging necklines. The whole thing is absolutely freaky. It's like some odd soft porno featuring call-girl dolls.
24-May-2010 - The 21-year-old R&B sensation recently went on a Tweeting tirade against Atlanta-based celeb gossip blogger Sandra Rose. Reportedly, Brown resorted to attacking the blogger's complexion by using juvenile "you're so black" jokes.
23-May-2010 - If I'm blessed enough to live past my 10th decade on this planet, then 103-year-old Gladys Flamer is going to be my blueprint for how to behave after I pass the century mark.
21-May-10 - Its tough for a tiger to change its stripes. And in the case of the 70-year-old Julianna Farrait, wife of Frank Lucas, one of the most notorious drug kingpins in American history, prison stripes might again be a part of her wardrobe.
20-May-10 - A Memphis, Tenn., man was babysitting his girlfriend's toddler when she defecated on the floor. The man reacted to the accident by beating the 2-year-old toddler to death with a basketball shoe.
17-May-10 - Geoffrey Fieger, the attorney representing the family of Aiyana Jones, a 7-year old who was shot dead during a police raid, says police are trying to cover up the truth about what exactly happened.
18-May-10 - Vicki Valentine has had to live through the foreclosure nightmare that is affecting all of America. She recently watched a crew of men break the lock on her door and take possession of the home she owned for 30 years. Her father paid off the mortgage in 1984, only to see his daughter lose the home 26 years later over a $362 water bill.
18-May-10 - President Barack Obama's very colorful, very opinionated ex-pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is making headlines yet again, but this time it is in the form of the written word. The Associated Press came across an explosive, missive written by Wright that talks about the president in a very unflattering light.
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