By Shaun Tandon (AFP) – 7 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The United States urged Myanmar to address what it called worsened ethnic violence and to accept international monitors to ensure the fairness of closely watched upcoming by-elections.

The Network for Human Rights Documentation - Burma (ND-Burma) includes 12 member organizations, collectively using the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to challenge the regime’s impunity for human rights violations through advocacy and to prepare for a peaceful democratic transition.

Martus supports global rights and social justice organizations by applying efficient, effective technology to the documentation and reporting of human rights abuses.

Martus is a secure software application designed to gather, organize and back up human rights information. Launched in 2003, Martus is a free and open source technology tool that supports effective collaboration within social justice organizations. Martus is the Greek word for witness.

Martus relies on existing infrastructure and the support of our partners. Martus uses available technology to support human rights. Benetech built the Martus information management system to run as client software that sits on your local computer. The Internet lets Martus users connect to off-site servers to back up data and download new releases.

Martus is not an activist organization or an urgent action network. It is a software tool that addresses the specific technological needs of the human rights community

The Martus system:
Uses strong, built-in encryption to safeguard data

• Permits searchable text-based bulletins about human rights violations to be created easily and quickly
• Securely backs up human rights information and replicates it in multiple locations to protect against loss
• Allows users to create folders and attach additional documents or other data to the bulletins
• Is free software and open source, encouraging easy code review to foster an atmosphere of transparency, trust and collaboration
• Provides grassroots groups with power over their own information, allowing them to decide what to make public and what should be kept securely private
• While the Martus Team administers a series of secure servers around the world, Martus users can choose to back their data up to a server of their choice. We cannot view the data which sits on the servers we administer.
• Offers consumers of human rights information access to the non-confidential portions of bulletins, allowing activists, prosecutors, press and the public to read the direct accounts of those affected by human rights violations

[[rokdownload menuitem="124" downloaditem="93" direct_download="false"]Download Martus User Guide - version 3.3[/rokdownload]]

“The combination of land confiscation, forced labour and tax extortion makes life difficult for the villagers of Wae Won and Wae Taw. They face a scarcity of land, and are unable to tend to their $elds because they must work for the battalions. They cannot afford to pay taxes or fees to the authorities or army. When these problems became severe, many villagers abandon their native villages and &ee to other areas.”