[Onthebarricades] GLOBAL UNREST: Land rights, social cleansing resistance and Zapatistas

[Andy]

*  THAILAND:  Clashes over steel mill land grab turn deadly
*  INDONESIA:  Protest over price rises
*  INDIA:  Chengara land struggle in Kerala - dalits, adivasis and Muslims 
fight for land rights
*  INDIA:  Squat eviction in Hyderabad leads to protests, blocked road
*  MEXICO:  Border region battles for human rights, against gentrification
*  TRINIDAD:  Protest over closure of street market
*  UK:  Police "military siege" of squat party resisted inside and out
*  INDIA:  Chennai residents protest against eviction threat
*  CANADA:  OPAC interrupt council to protest cuts to homeless shelters
*  US:  Anti-poverty activists upstage politician in protest over attacks on 
the poor
*  UK:  British expatriates protest demolition drive
*  INDIA:  Christians protest "illegal sale" of YMCA grounds
*  INDIA:  Activists target Pune minister over broken promises to squatters
*  NIGER:  Critis, repression in Tuareg areas continues
*  CHIAPAS/TABASCO:  Tabasco Mayan community joins Zapatistas
*  CHIAPAS:  Protests, hunger strike secure release of political prisoners
*  OAXACA:  Direct actions and protests against prison over political 
prisoners
*  CHIAPAS:  Water shortages, crime crackdown hit highlands
*  CHIAPAS/GLOBAL:  EZLN anniversary prompts celebrations

Publicly Archived at Global Resistance: 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance


http://teakdoor.com/thailand-and-asia-news/24034-prachuap-khiri-khan-deadly-steel-mill.html

Prachuap Khiri Khan - Deadly steel mill protest
Deadly steel mill protest

Prachuap Khiri Khan - Clashes between supporters and opponents of a planned 
steel mill got out of hand on Thursday, leaving one protester dead and four 
wounded by gunfire.
By Chaiwat Satyaem

Local people resumed their protests against the construction of the mill 
Thursday at Mae Ram Phung swamp, where the company was digging drainage 
ditches.

Gunshots were heard during the confrontation and Raksak Kongtrakul, a 
supporter of the project, was later found shot in the chest.

He died at Bang Saphan hospital.

The violence came after a similar clash on Tuesday, which saw police and 
soldiers drafted in to restore order.

The giant steel firm was awarded a licence by local administrators in 
November to build the mill.

Within weeks opponents demanded the licence be suspended, arguing that the 
company had not prepared a flood-prevention plan.

The company later came up with a plan and the project was approved again.

Part of the plan is to dig drainage ditches on both sides of the mill site, 
to prevent flooding in surrounding communities.

Suwan Thongkroy, a lawyer with the provincial branch of the Lawyers Council, 
said police treated supporters of the development unfairly.

Officers searched supporters for weapons but did not do the same with 
opponents, he said.

Supoj Songsiang, a leader of the protesters, said he had asked the Bang 
Saphan district chief to search everyone involved in the stand-off for 
weapons, but the officer apparently did not follow his advice.

He said the gunshot which killed Raksak may have been fired by someone in 
the supporters group, rather than by an opponent of the mill.

The protesters were largely elderly people and women and were not carrying 
any deadly weapons, said Mr Supoj.

The Sahaviriya Group claimed in a statement Thursday that the protesters 
against the mill were carrying weapons and accused the mill's opponents of 
shooting Raksak dead.

Pairote Makkadara, the director of Sahaviriya Group's special project 
division, said he was extremely saddened by the incident.

"The company intends to help sort out flood problems by digging drainage 
ditches. We always use a peaceful approach," he said.

Pol Maj-Gen Wirat Watcharakachorn, the provincial police chief, admitted 
police may have been lax when searching protesters for weapons.

He said it was still not clear whether opponents or supporters of the 
development shot the man. The provincial police chief also did not rule out 
another party being involved.

Sahaviriya Group, the country's largest steel miller with a capacity of 9.5 
million tonnes a year, has been facing strong local opposition to its plan 
to expand capacity to 30 million tonnes by building the country's first 
smelter at the site.

Last month villagers filed a complaint with police, claiming they were 
attacked by the company's workers. Sahaviriya Group denied the allegation.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Earlier report:

Hua Hin - Clashes between supporters and opponents of a planned steel mill 
got out of hand on Thursday, leaving one protester dead and four wounded by 
gunfire.

Protesters clashed at the site of the Saha Viraya steel mill project in Bang 
Saphan district of Prachuab Khiri Khan province, despite the deployment of 
hundreds of police to keep the peace.

The red-shirted supporters of the plant rushed to the site after hearing 
that more than 200 opponents in green T-shirts had assembled to protest 
against plans to build the mill.

Rapsap Kongrakul, 36, a supporter of the steel project, was shot dead in the 
melee, police said.

"I think he was probably shot by his own people because most of the people 
opposed to the steel mill project are elderly," Suphot Songsiang, a leader 
of the project's opponents was quoted by the Thai media as saying.

Saha Viraya, one of Thailand's leading steel producers, has been trying to 
build a new mill in the area for years but opponents claim the mill will 
pollute the area.

http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1016&Itemid=32

Steel Mill Killing Mars Progress on Thai Industrial Disputes

Daniel Ten Kate
30 January 2008
Thailand's heavy industries have taken steps to engage local communities in 
recent years, but more work is needed

Raksak Kongtrakul was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time last week 
when a gunman shot him dead at the construction site of Thailand's first 
steel smelting plant in southern Prachuab Khiri Khan Province.
The 36-year-old male had taken a temporary job as a construction worker for 
Sahaviriya Steel Industries, Thailand's largest steel firm, to support his 
wife and eight-year-old daughter. Tragically, he was caught in the 
crosshairs of an ongoing battle between supporters and opponents of a huge 
five-phase $15.1 billion steel smelting project that had recently broken 
ground on the first phase.
Sahaviriya announced that it has video evidence implicating opponents of the 
project in the shooting, and provincial police fingered assistant village 
headman Bamrung Soodsawat as the gunman. He has denied the charges, claiming 
he wasn't even at the protest site, and has sought help from human rights 
groups to plead his case.
Nonetheless, the incident followed a series of violent clashes at the steel 
plant over the past month in which both sides used fists, knives, 
slingshots, guns and other weapons. No matter who is to blame for Raksak's 
death, the entire episode reflects the government's laissez-faire attitude 
towards disputes between industrialists and local leaders.
"I don't think any government has tried to deal with this issue seriously," 
said Jon Ungpakorn, a former senator and leading social activist. "Conflicts 
between communities and companies are simply allowed to take their course, 
which can have very dangerous consequences, as seen at the steel mill."
Killings associated with major construction projects are by no means 
unusual. According to the Bangkok Post, at least 15 community leaders in 
Thailand have been slain since 2001 mostly because they opposed industrial 
projects peddled by local crime bosses and politicians - sometimes one in 
the same.
To its credit, last year the military-appointed government took steps to try 
and ease tensions between local communities and industrial firms eager to 
expand, mostly through setting up various local development funds. Although 
critics say the new policies won't work and they will need time to bear 
fruit, executives and policymakers say the government has at least tried to 
instill a framework for villagers and industrialists to work together for 
mutual gain.
Last year the government passed an energy law that creates a fund for 
communities within a five-kilometer radius of the country's 109 power 
plants. The fund will total $54 million by the end of this year, and jump to 
more than $63 million by 2011. It's controlled by a board with a majority of 
locals, although it also includes representatives from power producers and 
the government, said Tawarath Sutabutr, director of the Energy Ministry's 
policy and strategy coordination office.
"It's not only the money, but the fund itself sets up a forum for people and 
power plant producers to share views," he said. "Through the forum people 
can meet and talk and get a better understanding of each other."
Similar efforts are afoot in the petrochemical industry. A major protest 
erupted in early 2007 after villagers blamed pollutants from Map Ta Phut in 
Rayong province - Thailand's largest industrial estate and a petrochemical 
hub for the region ­- for making people sick.
Former premier Surayud Chulanont's government immediately halted approvals 
of all environmental impact assessments until investigators could determine 
where the pollutants were coming from and what could be done to stop them. 
Before allowing approvals, the government raised emissions standards and 
created funds to help the local communities.
"We are doing our best to coordinate with 25 nearby communities to gain 
their trust, and that is now taking effect," said Supachai Watanangura, 
chairman of the petrochemical industry club of the Federation of Thai 
Industries, the country's leading business group. "The communities are not 
really blaming us for the problems, but they are working together with us 
and inspecting factories on a regular basis to gain a better understanding. 
The whole picture is looking better than it was a few years ago."
Supachai acknowledged that the protests forced the petrochemical companies, 
power plants and refiners in Map Ta Phut to do more to control pollution. He 
also said that most firms now understand that transparent operations, 
environmental protection and good communication with villagers are all good 
for the bottom line. That said, however, he added that local communities 
must understand the benefits of industrial investment.
"It's clear that we cannot go back to the year 1900 when we have no 
investment and we all live happily with nature," Supachai said. "The world 
moves forward. Industry moves forward. We now have the technology to invest 
in Thailand without spoiling the beauty of nature."
More investments are on the way. Capacity utilization in many sectors in 
Thailand is nearing 90 percent, and many firms are just waiting to expand 
once political stability returns. In 2007, net applications to the Board of 
Investment rose 32.7% year-on-year to 655.8 billion baht, with most heading 
to Rayong province and the petrochemical, utilities and automotive sectors.
"Industrialists know they cannot take advantage of natural resources now 
because it will backfire," Supachai said. "We need to be transparent and 
take care of communities. The problems are not gone, but hopefully we can 
all come together and talk things out to find solutions."
In the case of Sahaviriya's steel plant, the principles learned by the power 
and petrochemical sectors this year did not apply. The company has taken 
aggressive measures to defeat protesters, including lawsuits and refusing to 
participate in an investigation by the National Human Rights Commission on 
whether the plant is located on public land.
Moreover, Sahaviriya has proceeded with construction even though the 
environmental impact assessment has yet to be approved. Steel mill opponents 
blame the company escalating the tensions that led to Raksak's death last 
week. (A company spokesperson declined to comment.)
Part of the problem is that villagers near the smelting plant see the 
wetlands where it is being built as vital to the community's livelihood. 
Though Sahaviriya's executives say any huge project is bound to face major 
protests, some activists don't believe that's the case.
"I'm sure it's possible to choose areas where communities welcome the 
investment," said Jon. "They are probably more close to urban centers where 
people are looking for jobs."
Although petrochemical and power executives seem confident that community 
funds might help appease local opposition, critics fear the money may simply 
mask the underlying problems. Big company cash usually ensures that local 
authorities sign off on a project and environmental concerns are overlooked, 
but it may not be a panacea to dispel local opposition even with a council 
to oversee it.
"For opponents of a project, funds simply don't work," Jon said. "The 
reasons people oppose projects are because they want to preserve the old way 
of life, protect the environment and help small farmers. Compensation is not 
the answer. The answer is to find locations where communities will welcome 
the investment."
To ensure investments are placed in the correct locations, activists have 
urged the government to pass a proper law on public hearings so they are not 
rushed through with the end result already a foregone conclusion. Moreover, 
they say, authorities should enact zoning regulations and conduct community 
mapping to discover which villages prefer a more traditional way of life and 
which are more open to the jobs and other benefits industrial projects can 
offer.
Although Thailand has plenty of industrial estates that accommodate sector 
clusters, other projects like power plants and Sahaviriya's smelting plant 
are located in more rural areas.
Sourcing major projects will become increasingly important over the next few 
years. The new government must consider where to locate a planned new 
massive industrial estate complete with power plants, a deep seaport and 
other facilities that can support large-scale refining and petrochemical 
operations. Several studies have said it could be located in Nakhorn Si 
Thammarat on the Gulf of Thailand, while others have even tossed around the 
idea of putting it in the majority Malay-Muslim southernmost provinces, 
where an insurgency has killed more than 2,800 since January 2004.
Beyond that, the government must also find a site for a nuclear power plant 
scheduled to come online in 2020. The plant is essential for the country's 
energy security since Thailand depends too heavily on natural gas for 
electricity, but it's almost certain that protests will arise wherever it 
goes.
To ensure things stay peaceful, the next government would be wise to engage 
local villagers early and often.
"In the past decisions about locations for projects were made before the 
community even learned about the plans," Jon said. "A new approach to find 
amenable communities and start a dialogue with them would help alleviate 
some of the problems."

Your reporter is far too sympathetic to these Neoliberal imperialists. : 
John Francis Lee
' "It's clear that we cannot go back to the year 1900 when we have no 
investment and we all live happily with nature," Supachai said.

' Sahaviriya has proceeded with construction even though the environmental 
impact assessment has yet to be approved... villagers near the smelting 
plant see the wetlands where it is being built as vital to the community's 
livelihood... petrochemical and power executives seem confident that 
community funds might help appease local opposition... big company cash 
usually ensures that local authorities sign off on a project and 
environmental concerns are overlooked...

' "The reasons people oppose projects are because they want to preserve the 
old way of life, protect the environment and help small farmers. 
Compensation is not the answer. The answer is to find locations where 
communities will welcome the investment." '

We cannot turn back the clock but we can, and must, live happily with 
nature. The Thai people stand only to be exploited by these industrial 
developments. While the rest of Asia, especially China, takes the fast track 
to environmental degradation Thailand ought to make its national project the 
restoration of paradise and the education of its rural people.

No one is more adept at pleasing foreign tourists than rural Thais and 
demand for the paradise on earth that Thailand could and ought to be will 
spiral upwards in coming years as Chinese environment, for example, is 
debased, polluted, and destroyed.

But the industrialists are Bangkok imperialists who care not a whit about 
Thailand. Thaksin is their archetype. Play the people for all they're worth 
and sell out the very ground beneath them.

Your reporter is far too sympathetic to these Neoliberal imperialists.
February 1, 2008

http://cempaka-nature.blogspot.com/2008/01/consumers-protest-commodity-price-rise.html

Sunday, January 27, 2008
Consumers protest commodity price rise
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Housewives have protested the soaring prices of basic commodities which have 
left traditional markets and shopping centers empty, nationwide.
Nurin Agustion, a 35-year-old mother of two young children in Pundak Payung, 
Semarang, said she could only afford 15 kilograms of rice where previously 
she could get 20. She said she has bought more local fish than meat or 
chicken and has reduced her usage of cooking oil because of the soaring 
prices of commodities including meat, palm oil, fruit and vegetables.
"I can not increase my daily budget because my husband's monthly income has 
not been raised. I have to manage our monthly budget carefully so that we 
can survive this difficult situation," she told The Jakarta Post.
Traditional markets and shopping centers, including department stores and 
malls in urban areas in Central Java, have substantially quietened since the 
2006 earthquake which shook the province and Yogyakarta.
"Following the quake many rice-belt areas in the two provinces could not 
meet their rice production targets," National Logistics Agency (Bulog) local 
office chief Indiarto said.
"This condition has been worsened by the soaring price of soybeans, the raw 
materials for tempeh and tofu, two primary foods in Java," he said.
Menik, A fishmonger at Depok Beach in Yogyakarta, said her sales had dropped 
by 50 percent over the past few weeks with the lack of buyers following the 
soaring prices of basic commodities in the province.
"Before the price increases, my sales were around Rp 1 million a day but 
recently it has dropped to around Rp 500,000. I could earn on the average of 
Rp 40,000 a day," she told the Post.
Depok fishermen said they had to increase fish prices by 20 percent due to 
the soaring price of rare fuels, especially kerosene.
They said the prices could be stabilized if the government guaranteed the 
distribution of fuel to rural areas in the province.
Darmi, another fish trader, said she could understand the quiet fish market 
on the beach with the increased prices of all commodities which had weakened 
people's purchasing power.
Sumarti, a rice vendor at Beringhardjo traditional market in Yogyakarta, 
said the market was crowded for only a few hours in the morning but then 
became silent in the afternoons.
The price of C-4 rice rose to from Rp 5,300 to Rp 5,600 per liter, while 
regular cooking oil rose from Rp 9,000 to almost Rp 12,000 a liter.
The price of wheat flour went from Rp 5,500 to Rp 7,000 per kilogram.
"The price hikes have a lot to do with increased cost of transportation and 
have been triggered by the soaring prices of rice, eggs, chickens and 
soybeans," Sumarti said.
The Post correspondent in Batam, Riau Islands, reported that the price of 
consumption commodities had continued to soar in line with price increases 
in other provinces, despite the island's status as free-trade zone.
Local trade and industry office chief Achmad Hijazi said the prices of basic 
commodities in the province were similar to other provinces because all 
consumption commodities were supplied to the island from regions under 
government supervision and regulation.
"Local authorities are not allowed to import rice or other basic commodities 
directly from Vietnam, to maintain the price of basic commodities and 
protect local products," he said, adding that the soaring prices had 
affected the livelihoods of low-income earners on the island.

www.thesouthasian.org/archives/2007/chengara_land_struggle_in_kera.html

Chengara Land Struggle in Kerala

Thousands of landless Dalits, Adviasis and Muslim groups in the Southern 
Indian state of Kerela, have been in struggle for the last 8 months in 
Chengara Harrison Malayalam Estate, (also called as Laha Estate) seeking 
ownership of cultivable land to all 5,000 struggling families. Land struggle 
in Chengara, Pathnamtitta district, Kerala started on 4 August 2007.

The movement is a fight to re-claim ownership of land that has been part of 
a long standing promise of the Government. At present nearly 5000 families, 
more than 20,000 people, have entered the Harrison Malayalam Private Ltd 
Estate, living in makeshift arrangements. The Chengara Land struggle demands 
permanent ownership of agricultural land through transfer of ownership from 
the Harrison Company to the Dalits and Adivasis. The Sadhu Jana Vimochana 
Samyuktha Vedi (SJVSV), the collective that leads the struggle, has opted 
for the land take-over as strategy remembering the tradition of the great 
leader Ayyankali, the militant dalit leader whose mission was to ensure 
liberation of dalits from various forms of slavery, right to agricultural 
land, as well as right to education in Kerala.

The movement salutes Ayyankali and Ambedkar whose role in rights movements 
in Kerala is disproportionately highlighted in the modern social literature 
on Kerala. Raising the names of Ayyankali and Ambedkar as sources of 
inspiration is a political challenge to the mainstream political left 
parties. There is a widespread popular belief in Kerala that the official 
left were the sole forces which ensured rights to Dalits, including land 
rights. Such misrepresentations are now globalised through some academic 
works as well.

Chengara Pledge: As Recited by Soumya Babu, an 11 Year old Girl who said she 
will go to school only after she gets land:
"I love my country. I will try to learn about the Constitution and laws of 
my country. I will work for fulfilling the pristine objective of the 
Constitution. I will take part in the nation building process in my own way. 
I will not discriminate against any Indian on the basis of religion or 
caste. I understand us as owners of a great tradition as well as protectors 
of a great democracy.

Country for the people (/Janangalkku Vendi Raashtram)/ People for the
country /(Raashtrathuinuvendi Janangal)."

The movement has till now survived attacks, threats, epidemics and hunger.

The families staying there have faced threats from local communist party 
(Marxist) members as well as workers of the estate. The rubber trees in the 
estate have become too old for tapping. However the allegation is that the 
land struggle affects plantation activities. Harrison's continued possession 
of land even after the land lease exhausted in 1996 itself is illegal. So is 
the case of immediate take over of land held in excess to the 1048 acres of 
land originally earmarked for Harrison Company. (According to laha Gopalan, 
President of the SJVSJ, the company got the land for lease for 99 years from 
a family to whom the local landlord had given for 34 years of lease for 
banana cultivation. This agreement was said to have been breeched when this 
family gave the land to the Harissons Company for 99 years.) The excess land 
occupied is expected to the tune of 6000 hectares.

The Sadhujana Vimochana Samyuktha Vedi (SJVSV) is a radical departure in 
people's initiative to attain land rights. It exposes the socio-cultural 
reasons for landlessness among dalits and adivasis in Kerala. It says that 
85% of the landless in Kerala are the Dalits, and Adviasis, who were also 
traditionally excluded from attaining wealth, power, titles and assets.

Various governments set up by different coalitions failed to address this 
social reality and avoided to eradicate it as priority. The SJVSV says that 
dalits and adivasis live in extremely uninhabitable slum like situations in 
Kerala. According to SJVSV there are 12,500 dalit colonies and 4083 adivasi 
colonies where tens of thousands of families live with extreme lack of basic 
amenities - facing civil, political, economic and cultural rights 
violations.

This condition - together with that of families living in temporary
hutments, pavements, and the homeless - was excluded from Kerala's social 
reality by the high tide of recent discussions on Kerala's world renowned 
achievements in the field of social development. Landlessness continues 
after a poorly formulated land reform Act (implemented after fifteen years 
after its creation) was implemented in 1972. Public sphere in Kerala is 
abuzz with a misinformation that land question has been solved in Kerala, 
addressing the needs of the landless communities. The SJVSV says that dalits 
and adivasis could not benefit from the land reform of 1970s since its major 
focus was on conferring land to the tenants. In Kerala's context the caste 
and cultural hierarchy, with strong oppressive segregation of these 
communities, did not allow them to be tenants; which is why many of them 
could not avail the benefits.

Also, the lower rates of social membership, founding institutions etc.
were essential factors which contributed to the concentration of
distributed land (under the Land Reform Act) to some caste group which had 
developed these `abilities'. There was also the lack of a strong land rights 
movement from among the ranks of the dalits and adivasis.

In the present day context, common resources including land are
monopolized by corporate agencies in flagrant violation of principles like 
'public trust'. Policies and laws in the past decade enabled monopolies to 
own land while the previous mode of relationship was in possession of land 
for long lease with abysmally low royalties. This was done at a time when 
the state had a constitutional obligation of ensuring social justice to all 
marginalised communities through the principle of positive discrimination, 
while dalits and adivasis remained landless and oppressed.

To explain the situation in Kerala's context, it is important to see that in 
1972 the State government had issued a government order allotting 1,43,000 
acres of land to Tatas. In comparison with this the total land distributed 
to thousands of families as part of land reforms was only between 3 and 4 
lakh acres (as per official figures in 1966, around 10 lakh acres of land 
was available for distribution).

Such facts clearly indicate where the state stands when it comes to
identifying the nature of land question and link it with the principle of 
right to live with dignity for the the dalits and adivasis. The demand for 
meaningful and dignified survival with sufficient area of agricultural land 
for dalit, adivasi communities is to be understood in this context. Together 
with this there is a need to examine the official understanding on the area 
of land required for dalit and adivasis. The earlier land rights movements 
in the 1990s have described how the dalit adivasi families were forced to 
bury their beloved inside their houses in many places. Even such families 
are considered as landed in official records. It was also observed that many 
dalit, adivasi families live in plots of a cent (one cent is one-hundredth 
of an acre) which is much less than the U.N..Habitat
estimates for healthy life in * Urban *environments. Considering that
contiguity of homestead and agricultural land is an essential condition for 
agrarian communities in Kerala, seeking refuge under technical definition is 
equal to avoiding responsibilities. So the acute landlessness among dalits 
and adivasis becomes an immediate human rights concern in Kerala. Kerala's 
land reform tells us how a state policy for land reforms overruled the 
objective of the Article 14 of the Indian Constitution through formulating 
eligibility stipulations disregarding the long standing socio-cultural 
segregations faced by the dalits and adivasis.

Kerala was a land of unknown land struggles till the historic land
agreement in 2001 October was signed between the protesting Dalits and
Adivasis of Kerala and the State government. Since then dalit and adivasi 
land struggles in Kerala attained a new order of practice. First ever, large 
scale mass reclamation of land happened in Muthanga, which also proved that 
the state response to militant struggles for land rights leads to extreme 
forms of state violence in Kerala like in other states in India. While we 
write this we are still unable to decide what would be the state response to 
such struggles in Sonbhadra ( U.P.), Rewa (M.P.) Khammam (A.P.) Kodaikanal 
(T.N) and many other known and unknown places where the people who for 
generations have tilled the lands have fallen to the ire of the state.

Coming back to the Chengara Land struggle since 4 August 2007, one of the 
core factors that influenced the making of the struggle was the
unjustifiable delay in responding to the rights of these communities by the 
state, in honoring the understanding between the state and the dalit-adivasi 
combine on distribution of fertile land as an immediate measure. Dalits and 
Adivasis in India are united in their experience of high forms of land 
alienation as well as the permanent forceful displacement from their natural 
habitats. Chengara explains to
the world a not-so-much discussed reality in Kerala. On the other side the 
land struggle that has passed over one hundred days and could face an 
eviction through an order from the Kerala High court.

The people are facing continuous threat from the ruling left front
activists - including one which is said to have appeared in the print
media that the CITU proposed to evict the people engaged in the land
struggle, if the police fail to do so. (Note: CITU is a trade union
organization, affiliated to CPI-M.) Another critical question is how the 
present state government will approach the land struggle in the context of 
an response to the Kerala High Court which the Government needs to submit on 
the modalities of vacating people from Chengara estate. So the question 
become more of what a peoples government could do in such situations where 
rights movements of historically alienated and oppressed communities are in 
an organic struggle united to defend their human rights. Also, how the law 
of the land could adopt a new turn to defend the peoples demand rather than 
branding the struggles as mere illegal, violent and anti-state militancy.

Another important factor is that how Chengara land struggle is understood in 
the Kerala society, considering the fact that the origin of this is 
connected to the historical struggle which Ayyankali had led in 1907 
demanding cultivable land to landless dalits and adivasis, and also to the 
dalit land rights movement of 1990s. While encoding these historical 
influences as major factors, it is also clear that Chengara movement has 
espoused a new politics of defining rights and achieving them through direct 
action.

Why solidarity visit
Chengara connects Kerala to the larger reality of land struggles across the 
world where landless oppressed have successfully mobilized to assert land 
rights. While the official, state version on these movements remained as 
anti-state consolidation for vested interests, such movements have realized 
land for people, whose generations never hand chance to own and cultivate 
land. Land rights movements in Brazil, many African countries and Australia 
have made such historic land marks. In India, as we see the right to own and 
preserve land as well as protect land from corporate and state-sponsored 
land acquisition led to death of hundreds of people, many who were killed 
still remain unknown. It is in this context, we see that state responses to 
peoples democratic rights to land become more aggressive.

The Solidarity Team had following objectives:
1.To assess the ground situation through exchanges with struggling people.
2.To discuss the politics of land movements in other parts of the country.
3.To facilitate solidarity for the Chengara movement outside Kerala.
4.To present a report concerning the demands of the struggle, factors that 
led to the struggle, as well as responses towards it.

The SJVSVS politics is based on few important interpretations of the
national and local political and social processes in the last few decades.

These processes, which the SJVSV believes have sustained the coercive
and non coercive forms of exclusion faced by the dalits and adivasis in 
India. One of the prominent landmarks in this connection is the historic 
Pune Pact between Gandhi and Ambedkar, which the SJVSV believes, was coerced 
upon the dalit leadership in order to facilitate a fictious national 
trans-caste unity.

Background
The Chengara struggle got a lot of inspiration from the land struggles of 
2001, led by a Dalit Adivasi combine. By 2001 land struggles in Kerala 
attained a new order of practice. First ever, large scale mass
reclamation of land was marked in the history of peoples struggles.
Muthanga firing in 2002 was an eye opener to the supporters of struggle 
movements in Kerala when it was shown that the state response to militant 
struggle for right to land could face extreme forms of state violence in 
Kerala. The chronology of events concerning the implementation of agreements 
reached between state and the land rights movement indicates:
Chengara explains a land question spanned in colonial and post colonial era. 
The welfare-ist democratic state has failed to address the illegality 
involved in the transfer of the land to the Harrison's or the illegal 
possession of land (raised by the descendant of the original owner of the 
land) as cited in the Kerala High Court Judgement on 24 September 2007. Such 
situations indicate the need for immediate positive obligations from the 
state to provide fertile agricultural land in sufficient quantities, which 
the families in struggle could use as assetas well as means of survival.

For any one who believes that the true function of social engagement is to 
expose realities and opening avenues for natural justice and Human Rights of 
oppressed sections, Chengara has many things to offer. At a time when the 
state Chief Minister has come out with an idea of second land reforms, it is 
important to see how the people of Kerala, the opinion makers and leaders 
perceive the demands raised by the Chengara movement.

The following are the observations of the Solidarity Team on what a
government, with intention to defend Human Rights of oppressed communities, 
could do in the context of Chengara Struggle.

* No bloodshed is the first demand from all those who support the
movement. This demand is very important since we have seen what land
rights movements in various parts in Kerala have faced with state and
non-state violence where people were killed and injured.

* Withdraw all cases against activists of the SJVSJ. The police and
district administration should examine the matters regarding atrocities 
against the dalits and adivasis considering the interpretations of atrocity 
as laid down in the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.

* Stop official as well as media projections of the movement as extremist 
and illegal. Rather the state and civil society of Kerala should declare 
solidarity and support to the movement so that Dalits and adivasis are freed 
of the historical injustice faced through generations. This is important and 
possible though meaningful dialogues between the communities in struggle and 
the state.

* Accepting the movement as a peoples movement is key to this. Such being 
the case there must be a halt to the efforts by the police, in the main, to 
portray the movement as a law and order problem. From experiences around 
India, such branding of peoples resistance for right to reclaim and protect 
land have been used as alibis for indiscriminate use of force to suppress 
movements.

* Since 4 August 2007, the arrests or illegal detentions are common in the 
area near the estate. Such acts indicate gross human rights violations 
including freedom of movement and freedom of assembly. Such acts of illegal 
detention are also alleged to be done by aggressive local cadre of the 
ruling party (CPI-M) misusing state power to suppress peoples movement. 
Subtle social boycott and denying freedom of movement result in loss of work 
and access to essential services for the already impoverished families, who 
are thus are facing great threat. All forms of violence result to threat to 
life and livelihoods and so this has to be stopped at the earliest.

* In the past, due to absence of strong articulations of landless and
marrginalised people about their right to own land, the state was adopting a 
go slow attitude to the needs. Considering that land ownership is key for 
all communities in Kerala to attain versatile economic and social 
potentials, such opportunity should be provided to the dalits and adivasis 
in a way they wish to materialise it.

* Considering that the movement has come up in the context of repeated
indifference from various governments; the solutions should be urgent, and 
must consider that the right to land is a human right to marginalised 
communities.

* Land rights movements like Chengara are suggesting methods for
meaningful elimination of landlessness. Chengara movement, quoting from the 
authentic data from the state as well as reputed agencies, says that there 
is enough land to be distributed to the landless. Such scientific options 
should be at the core when deciding on solutions, rather which adopting a 
charity or welfare approach.

* Dalits and adivasis are the people living in harmony with the land,
instead of an exploitative relationship. So it becomes the natural right of 
these communities to have possession of the lands since they were the people 
who always oriented their lives in a symbiotic relationship with the land.

* Landlessness among dalits and tribals is the highest among all social 
groups in Kerala according to a study by the Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad 
(KSSP). Average land possession by Dalit families' is 0.43 acres as against 
the state average of 0.86 acres. Reading this in the backdrop of social and 
cultural segregations, it is the duty of a democratic government to accept 
land rights by these communities as inalienable rights.

* Delay in ensuring fertile land in sufficient quantity must be looked
upon as a practice of segregation and discrimination against these
historically suppressed communities.

Solidarity Team Members
Bijulal M.V., Human Rights and Law Unit, Indian Social Institute.
Co-Convener, Delhi Support Group for people's movements.
Ashok Chaudhury, National Federation of Forest People and Forest
workers. Forest Rights Campaigner and Organiser, Uttar Pradesh.
Prakash Louis, Director, Bihar Social Institute, works on Peasant
Question in Bihar and Dalit Rights
Roma, Kaimur Kisan Mazdoor Mahila Sangharsh Samiti Activist. Working
with people's movement for land rights in Uttar Pradesh & Madhya Pradesh.
Shanta Bhattacharya, Kaimur Kisan Mazdoor Mahila Sangharsh Samiti
Activist. Working with people's movement for land rights in Uttar
Pradesh & Madhya Pradesh.
Vijayan MJ, Coordinator, Delhi Forum, New Delhi,

Source:
www.thesouthasian.org/archives/2007/chengara_land_struggle_in_kera.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Hyderabad/Demolition_drive_triggers_protest/articleshow/2770559.cms

Demolition drive triggers protest
10 Feb 2008, 0601 hrs IST,TNN

  Print Save EMail Write to Editor

HYDERABAD: Nearly 500 people squatted on the National Highway No. 9 
paralysing traffic for nearly an hour near Miyapur in protest against 
demolition of their huts on Saturday. The protesters, including the 
activists of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and locals, staged a 
rasta roko on NH-9 for demolishing their shelters in the wee hours of 
Saturday in Miyapur.

In a pre-dawn swoop, officials from Hyderabad Urban Development Authority 
(Huda), revenue and police descended on a colony at Miyapur and started 
removing encroachments on a land belonging to Huda. However, the squatters 
resisted their move.

The angry mob also tried to set fire to three poclains engaged for the 
demolition work. Seeing the surging mob, the poclains drivers fled from the 
scene. Later, the officials also left the place.

Cyberabad DCP Abraham Lincoln accompanied by about 200 policemen arrived on 
the spot and brought the situation under control.

"Huda has 445 acres in survey numbers 100 and 101 in Miyapur. But some local 
people and migrant labourers occupied the land illegally and erected 
temporary shelters like huts and one-room tenements.

On January 29, we went to Miyapur and removed some encroachments with police 
help. However some encroachments were left after people stopped our 
demolition work and staged a protest," Huda estate officer S Srinivas Reddy 
said to STOI.

On Saturday, Huda resumed the drive to remove the remaining encroachments. 
At 9.30 am, around 500 protesters started pelting the officials with stones. 
For sometime, the officials could not identify the source of the raining 
stones. Later, they realised that the missiles were being fired from behind 
the hillocks.

"The protesters also damaged two RTC buses. An RTC driver suffered minor 
injuries," Miyapur SI Y Narasimha Reddy said.

"We arrested 30 people and later shifted them to Miyapur police station. As 
a result of the protest, traffic was disrupted on the NH-9,"he added.

http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5142

Border Land Battle Pits Development against Human Rights
Kent Paterson | April 8, 2008

Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP) 
americas.irc-online.org

Not too long ago, the high desert community of Lomas de Poleo was considered 
a desolate, impoverished outpost of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Settled by 
working-class pioneers who landed jobs in the border city's maquiladora 
assembly plants, Lomas de Poleo was emblematic of the marginalization that 
existed on the edges of a booming town built on the export of legal and 
illegal products. When the sprawling, dusty settlement received attention it 
was usually for the wrong reasons, such as in the mid to late 1990s when the 
bodies of at least eight murdered young women were found dumped in the 
neighborhood.
Now, the several dozen families who still inhabit the upper mesa of Lomas de 
Poleo are at the center of a growing international battle that could define 
the nature of urban and community development in the Paso del Norte 
borderlands that cross Texas and New Mexico in the United States and 
Chihuahua in Mexico. Ringed in by mean guards and forbidding towers that 
evoke images of J.R. Tolkein's Mordor, long-settled families are locked in 
an ownership battle over hundreds of acres of land with members of the 
Zaragoza family, one of Ciudad Juarez's most powerful clans.
Once isolated, Lomas de Poleo's resisters are increasingly gaining support 
from international human rights organizations, New Mexico political leaders, 
and a host of activist groups in both Mexico and the United States. In a 
significant development, they've joined forces with the Paso del Sur 
organization that's fighting gentrification of the historic Chicano Segundo 
Barrio neighborhood across the border in El Paso, Texas.
On both sides of the border, elected officials and developers are busy 
razing old buildings, planning San Antonio-style river walks and binational 
arts corridors, trying to lure amusement parks, and hoping to snag the 21st 
Century factory.
"Residents are sending a message to local businessmen and transnational 
money that the poor of the border are no longer willing to permit the 
construction of big businesses at the expense of their own extermination," 
says Juan Carlos Martinez, an activist with the pro-Zapatista Other Campaign 
in Ciudad Juarez.
Backed by a Mexican court, lawyers for the Zaragozas lay claim to the land 
based on its supposed purchase in 1963 by Pedro Zaragoza Vizcarra, the 
father of current disputants Pedro and Jorge Zaragoza. However, settlers led 
by Luis Urbina petitioned Mexico's Institute for Agrarian Reform for titles 
in 1970, and have been waiting ever since then.
Locals attribute the aggressive efforts of the Zaragoza family to claim 
ownership of their neighborhood to the land's sudden industrial value in a 
fast-growing corridor of the Chihuahua-New Mexico border. Their homes lie 
close to a planned international port of entry at Anapra as well as the 
envisioned binational city of Jeronimo-Santa Teresa. Pedro Zaragoza was 
named a member of the New Mexico-Chihuahua Commission set up by former 
Chihuahua Governor Patricio Martinez and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson 
in 2003 to oversee mutual development, tourism, and environmental projects. 
Once a virtually worthless patch of wasteland, Lomas de Poleo is now a 
potentially hot piece of real estate.
In Ciudad Juarez, Jeronimo-Santa Teresa is a controversial issue. Many 
community leaders and activists oppose the development on the grounds that 
it will divert scarce water and financial resources away from the city. A 
2005 referendum campaign to condition development plans on approval by 
Ciudad Juarez's voters was shunted aside by the Chihuahua Supreme Court.
The land on the U.S. side of the development is controlled by the Verde 
Group, a border development outfit founded by wealthy businessman William 
Sanders. In a recent letter to Kent Evans, the chairman of New Mexico's Dona 
Ana County Commission, Verde Realty Co-Chairman Ronald Blankenship 
disassociated his company from the Lomas de Poleo and Jeronimo land 
controversies.
"There is no formal or informal relationship or coordination between Verde 
Realty's potential development in Santa Teresa and the potential development 
of the San Jeronimo project," Blankenship wrote.
Planned as a community of 100,000 people, Santa Teresa has also been an 
object of controversy in southern New Mexico. Last year, Verde Realty 
proposed the creation of a Tax Increment Development District to help fund 
two new industrial parks and a 5,000-lot development in Santa Teresa. Under 
the formula, a portion of sales taxes generated within the district would go 
to pay off bonds worth $113 million needed to finance the project. The 
proposal bogged down in the Dona Ana County Commission amid criticisms that 
the public till would suffer in order to benefit a private development. In a 
region facing long-term water shortages, the scope of the Jeronimo-Santa 
Teresa development, which could eventually house 500,000 people, is also a 
matter of concern.
Driving Out Local Residents
The conflict between Zaragoza and Lomas de Poleo's residents heated up in 
2003. Residents and supporters charge that street gang members employed by 
Zaragoza to guard the area are responsible for three violent deaths, 
including two young children who died in a house fire allegedly set by the 
guards to pressure residents out of their homes.
They have also been implicated in burning down the Jesus Nazaret Church, 
multiple attempts to destroy other properties, power cut-offs, and the 
ongoing harassment of people attempting to come and go in a fenced-off 
community monitored by guard patrols and watchtowers. At one point, an 
unknown individual or individuals defaced crosses that had been set up to 
commemorate the femicide victims.
Twice last fall, outside supporters of the land resisters who were 
attempting to enter the community for planned forums were halted by armed 
guards.
In one case, counter-demonstrators organized by an individual identified 
with Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) were allegedly 
rewarded with grocery bags full of goodies. According to the Lomas de Poleo 
support group, a pro-Zaragoza youth was heard to remark that it would be 
"cool to shoot some bullets into the crowd."
On Feb. 20, Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, an investigator for the official 
Chihuahua State Human Rights Commission, charged he was beaten and 
involuntarily detained by Zaragoza guards for 15 minutes.
On different occasions, members of Ciudad Juarez's municipal police force, 
who are currently under investigation by the Mexican army for alleged ties 
to drug trafficking and organized crime, reportedly stood by and watched as 
residents and supporters were threatened.
Responding to an international S.O.S., an international delegation including 
observers from Amnesty International, the International Civil Commission for 
the Observation of Human Rights, La Raza Centro Legal, National Lawyers 
Guild, and other organizations visited the Paso del Norte in late February. 
For eight days, the human rights observers toured the area, reviewed 
documents and photographs, spoke with residents and their supporters, and 
interviewed a handful of low and mid-level Mexican government officials. 
However, attempts to meet with Pedro and Jorge Zaragoza and higher-level 
Mexican authorities were unsuccessful. In a 20-page report, the delegation 
concluded that a pattern of harassment of residents existed.
"The majority of these actions constitute human and civil rights violations 
under the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the 
Mexican Constitution," the report stated. The documents mention violations 
of the guarantee to freedom of speech and assembly, the right to free 
transit, and the right to decent living conditions, among others. Police 
have stood idly by as these events unfolded and so far no prosecutions have 
taken place.
Due to its geographical proximity to planned border developments in New 
Mexico, Lomas de Poleo has recently become a political issue on the U.S. 
side. In 2008, activists succeeded in putting the land battle on the agenda 
of the Dona Ana County Commission, the local governing authority that helps 
regulate regional development.
A draft resolution that linked future border development to respect for the 
human rights of Lomas de Poleo's residents, removal of "private guards and 
militia" from the community, and a fair resolution of the land ownership 
conflict was presented to the County Commission earlier this year. At a Feb. 
26 County Commission meeting in Las Cruces, New Mexico, elected 
representatives heard firsthand testimonies from Lomas de Poleo residents 
and Father Bill Morton, the Catholic priest whose church was torched in the 
embattled community.
A Lomas de Poleo resident for almost 40 years, Alfredo Pinon told the 
meeting he had "the misfortune" of watching friends and neighbors killed.
"The hardest thing is to watch your friend killed in front of you, or hear 
two children scream but not be able to do anything about it," Pinon said. 
Taking the floor, Commissioner Oscar Vazquez-Butler sympathized with the 
residents' plight. "We have a human rights crisis going on in Lomas de 
Poleo," Butler said. "There's civil exploitation, there's civil injustice. 
There's a gated community with barbed wire and guard dogs and bats and guns 
and rifles ..."
At the County Commission meeting two weeks later, Zaragoza attorney Mario 
Chacon reiterated his client's contention that the land was legally 
purchased by Zaragoza's father in 1963. Contrary to residents' complaints of 
a violent atmosphere in the community, Chacon maintained that the situation 
was "not that serious."
The Dona Ana County Commission approved the resolution, and ordered copies 
sent to New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman and other officials. Quoted in the 
Las Cruces Sun-News, Dona Ana County Commissioner Kent Evans doubted his 
colleagues' action would have much effect. "We can express our 
dissatisfaction and hope they listen, but that's about it," Evans said.
In a subsequent meeting with Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora 
and Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan, Bingaman raised the 
Lomas de Poleo issue and passed along the Dona Ana County Commission's 
resolution to the two federal officials.
"I'm glad I was able to bring this issue to the attention of the Mexican 
attorney general, and that he committed to looking into the situation," 
Senator Bingaman said in a news release.
Until now, no agreement has been reached between Lomas de Poleo's resisters 
and the Zaragozas. Meanwhile, Ciudad Juarez's other residents are getting a 
taste of what life has been like in Lomas de Poleo. Since the beginning of 
the year, gang land gunfights, record levels of narco-related executions and 
the unearthing of mass, clandestine graves have jolted the border city. And 
more young women and men have disappeared.
On March 28, the Mexican army intervened in the bloody contest raging away 
for control of Ciudad Juarez's lucrative drug trade. Armed to the teeth, 
over 2,000 Mexican soldiers arrived as part of the Mexican government's 
Operación Conjunta Chihuahua and began patrolling the streets, stopping 
residents, and setting up checkpoints. Whirling Mexican military helicopters 
brought more war sounds to the border.
Living in the shadow of a police state has been a grim reality long familiar 
to Lomas de Poleo's residents but conveniently ignored by others in the Paso 
del Norte region. Now as turf battles for real estate and drug routes 
spread, other residents are getting a bitter taste of that reality. In this 
context of mounting violence, the struggle of Lomas residents for basic 
human rights has become an example for the rest of the borderlands.
Kent Paterson is a freelance journalist who covers the southwestern United 
States, Mexico, and Latin America, and an analyst for the Americas Policy 
Program at www.americaspolicy.org.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_business?id=161301533

Charlotte St vendors ready to protest
Kimberly Castillo

Tuesday, April 1st 2008

VENDORS who have sold their goods on Charlotte Street, Port of Spain, for as 
many as five years, are gearing up to protest a decision to close down the 
Charlotte Street Heritage Programme today.
On Friday, Port of Spain Mayor Murchison Brown said that as of today, 
vendors will no longer be allowed to sell on Charlotte Street.
In a letter sent out to an estimated 150 vendors on Friday, Brown informed 
them of the end of the programme, which began in October 2006.
But on the eve of the end of the programme yesterday, vendors' feelings were 
as mixed as the fruits and produce they sell.
And while many of the few who turned out to sell on the holiday said they 
would support the protest action today, a few vendors said they would only 
be spectators.
"To put it simply, everyone of us is to blame for this programme closing 
down. Plenty of us look for this. You have vendors who are not registered 
coming on the street to sell and they are the ones that put us in this 
position today," said one vendor who did not want to be identified.
She explained that one of the conditions of the programme was that vendors 
sell only three days a week, Friday to Sunday, from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. on the 
western side of the street only.
A few feet away from her stood Momar Ngiya, who, for the past three months, 
has sold shoes on Charlotte Street.
Ngiya is from Senegal, West Africa. Like many of the other vendors, Ngiya 
said he has nowhere to turn to when the programme closes.
Ngiya worked as a construction worker on the Hyatt Regency Hotel, but since 
its completion has had trouble finding jobs.
"What am I to do? I came to the Caribbean because work back home is hard to 
find. I have a family to mind. I will have to pray to God that something 
works out," Ngiya said.
Pointing to the heavy presence of police and soldiers, who zig-zagged among 
vendors on Charlotte Street yesterday, Ngiya said, "The Mayor said that many 
people were complaining about the state of this street, but the same police 
that are here today should have been around to monitor the situation before 
it got out of control."
Many vendors feel protesting the closure of the programme is their only 
hope, since Brown said the Port of Spain City Corporation has nowhere else 
to relocate the vendors.
On Friday, Brown said that the move to clean up the street was necessary, as 
apart from the numerous complaints by members of the public of the 
congestion caused by the vendors, the corporation also had to clean up to 
city in preparation for the hosting of several regional and international 
conferences in the future.

http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news623.htm

TAA'rd with Same Brush
Squatters fought off police as they used 'military siege tactics' to 
surround a squatted fund-raising gig in Brighton last weekend. The benefit 
was for the forthcoming Brighton Temporary Autonomous Art (TAA) space. The 
old Sainsbury's on London Rd (empty for over a year) was squatted as avenue 
for live bands and a sound-system.
Police arrived in numbers just after midnight. One party-goer told us, 
"There were a 150 people inside the building but another 200 were kept 
outside by police lines, which was stupid as they managed to create a public 
order situation. They deployed vans, dog units and special ops units, and 
taped the area off, working side by side with private security.
"The Chief Super in charge actually admitted that we were in legal 
occupation - but that didn't stop them trying to shut the party down. We 
opened another entrance to allow people in and the police attacked with 
pepper spray and dogs. One 16-year-old girl was badly mauled by a police dog 
and had to go to hospital with nasty puncture wounds."
Police then tried to storm the original entrance but were held off by 
hand-to-hand fighting - and they lost some of their equipment to the 
protesters. They didn't manage to gain entry and so Police served a Section 
63 of the CJA 1994. Eventually people had living vehicles and equipment 
seized, and five arrests were made.
Brighton TAA: "We want the people of Brighton to come together to create a 
cultural, interactive autonomous space where people are free to be, free to 
create and free to express themselves."
2-5th April 2008 - venue TBA (of course) 
http://www.subterraneanartbrighton.org
* Call For Decentralized Days of Action for Squats and Autonomous Spaces - 
On the weekend of April 11th-12th there will be two days of demonstration, 
direct action, public information, street-party, squatting. in defence of 
free spaces and for an anti-capitalist popular culture. Linking and 
inspiring people and autonomous spaces, Europe wide. For updates and events 
see http://april2008.squat.net

http://www.hindu.com/2008/01/14/stories/2008011458820400.htm

Pallavaram residents protest against eviction notice
Staff Reporter
It has been served on them by the PWD

CHENNAI: Residents of several areas near the Pallavaram lake went on a fast 
on Friday in front of Government Guest House, Chepauk, protesting against 
eviction notice served on them.
Residents of Zamin Pallavaram said they were residing near the lake and had 
not encroached upon it.
They said most of the nearly 3,000 residents were residing in areas 
including Joseph Colony, Joy Nagar, Ganapathy Nagar and Sanjay Gandhi Nagar 
North for over three decades.
The residents have been served eviction notice by the Public Works 
Department as part of its drive to remove encroachments and restore lakes on 
the fringes of the city.
President of Human Care Human Rights Protection A. Joseph, who led the 
demonstration, said the water in the lake was polluted due to discharge from 
leather factories and not suitable for drinking.
The residents have also been provided with ration cards and voter 
identification cards, he pointed out.

http://www.ctvtoronto.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080304/OCAP_protest_080304/20080304/?site_codename=Toronto

OCAP interrupts council to protest shelter cuts
Updated: Tue Mar. 04 2008 3:00:59 PM

Poverty activists stormed city hall today, interrupting a council meeting to 
protest Toronto's services for the homeless.
Members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty planned the protest after a 
homeless man was found dead in a downtown stairwell on Feb. 27, reportedly 
as a result of freezing temperatures.
About a dozen Toronto police officers were on hand and ushered the 
protesters out of council chambers.
In a news release issued by the organization Monday, OCAP said the city 
needs to address a shortage in Toronto shelters.
"Over the last decade the city has refused to address the serious 
over-crowding and lack of beds that exist in the shelter system," the 
statement said. "We cannot bring this man back. But we can demand no further 
deaths occur."
The week before the homeless man died, city officials heard deputations from 
social service agencies as well as homeless people, advocating for more 
financial support to services.
OCAP member Gaetan Heroux was quoted in Monday's news release saying people 
who stay in hostels face dangerous conditions.
"Not only do crowded hostels create violence and psychological damage, but 
many people will face the bracing cold of February and could sustain cold 
injuries and even perish," he said.
According to OCAP, the city recently closed down five shelters in the 
downtown core, resulting in a total loss of 312 beds.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-mayor2apr02,1,3139211.story

Impromptu protest cuts in on mayor's skid row speech

As Villaraigosa attempts to highlight enhancements aimed at curtailing 
illegal activity, soup kitchen volunteers seize the moment to decry the 
treatment of the area's homeless.
By Duke Helfand, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 2, 2008
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is accustomed to being the center of 
attention when he holds news conferences.

On Tuesday morning, he got upstaged.

Villaraigosa traveled to downtown's skid row to announce the installation of 
100 light fixtures to discourage narcotics sales and other illegal activity.

But when he stepped to a portable lectern at the corner of 6th Street and 
Gladys Avenue, about five impromptu protesters appeared from a soup kitchen 
across the street, taking up position directly behind him and drowning out 
his news conference with chants of "Shame on you" and "Housing, not jails."

Not easily intimidated, Villaraigosa soldiered on -- delivering his prepared 
remarks even though reporters only a few feet away could barely hear him. 
City Council members Jan Perry and Jose Huizar, who represent downtown, 
stood at Villaraigosa's side -- looking mildly uncomfortable.

Two Los Angeles police officials kept a worried watch as the event hovered 
close to chaos. One of the mayor's press aides shook his head glumly.

As the event wound down, the disruption finally appeared to get at 
Villaraigosa. Briefly acknowledging the protesters, he said: "The folks 
behind me, almost none of them live on skid row."

As it turned out, Villaraigosa was right. The protesters were volunteers at 
the Los Angeles Catholic Worker soup kitchen. Two of them live at a Catholic 
Worker home in Boyle Heights, another lives in West Covina. In addition to 
the "hippie kitchen," as the skid row site is known, the group runs a 
medical and dental clinic.

Their Catholic Worker protest emerged out of thin air.

The workers said they had been preparing beans for the soup kitchen crowd 
when they spotted people gathering on the street about 9 a.m.

The volunteers, who have protested at City Hall and elsewhere in the past, 
seized the opportunity to call attention to their cause -- what they say is 
harassment of skid row's homeless population by the Los Angeles Police 
Department.

Several grabbed ready-made signs used on other occasions, including a sit-in 
at the mayor's office a while back. One read "Antonio: Lighten up on the 
poor." Another said "The poor need more than street lights."

Soup kitchen volunteer Clare Bellefeuille-Rice kept up a steady drumbeat as 
Villaraigosa did his best to ignore the disruption.

"We are always prepared," she said. "We always have our signs ready."

After the news conference, a few longtime skid row residents condemned the 
dissenters, saying Villaraigosa and the city have made positive strides to 
reduce crime and clean up one of L.A.'s dirtiest pockets.

"You can't speak for me. I live here," Emanuel Compito, wearing a suit and a 
large cross, said loud enough for everyone to hear. "They're only here from 
9 to 5. They're gonna go home to their nice, comfortable conditions."

But the protesters were undaunted.

Michael Wisniewski followed Villaraigosa as he made his way to his GMC Yukon 
parked down the street. "Mayor," he said, "would Jesus incarcerate the 
poor?"

Villaraigosa ignored the question as one of his LAPD security personnel held 
Wisniewski off. The mayor hopped into the SUV and sped off down 6th Street.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/01/27/wexpat127.xml

Expatriates protest Spanish demolition plans

Last Updated: 5:01pm GMT 27/01/2008

Hundreds of British expatriates have taken to the streets in the small 
coastal town of Vera in southern Spain to challenge the Spanish government 
over plans to demolish their homes.
·  Telegraph Expats homepage
Leonard and Helen Prior, the retired British couple whose villa was the 
first to be torn down earlier this month, addressed a gathering in the 
town's main square. "I would like to look Senor Zapatero (the Spanish Prime 
Minister) in the eye and ask him how he feels about leading a government 
that has made two old-age pensioners homeless," she said before breaking 
down in tears.

Owners of Spanish villas are protesting over planned demolition
The Priors are now living in a caravan on the site of their three-bedroom 
villa which was demolished after the regional government of Andalusia 
revoked a building licence issued by the local mayor. The demolition caused 
shockwaves across the Spanish costas where many British expatriates have 
homes that have now been declared illegal.
In 2006 Antonio Vercher, the official in charge of protecting Spain's 
environment, ordered prosecutors throughout the country to be relentless in 
pursuing demolition orders and said that some 10,000 properties had been 
earmarked for destruction.
Another four houses in the same development as the Priors have demolition 
orders issued against them as have a further 11 properties in the nearby 
resort of Albox. But thousands of other property owners in the region have 
doubts about the legality of their own homes and are living in limbo.
"We did everything possible to ensure that the home we bought was legal," 
said Robert Old, who shares a beachfront home in Vera with his wife
"We hope that we are safe but after what happened to the Priors we just 
don't know. It has caused a lot of people a great deal of worry." The Olds 
were among the hundreds of concerned residents who have called for 
reassurance that the homes they had bought in good faith were safe from the 
wrecker's ball.
"This is an opportunity for people to stand together to support the Prior 
family - who are the first victims in all this - and to demand that this 
sort of thing never happens again," said Angel Medina, president of 
Ciudadanos Europeos, a political party formed to support foreign residents 
in the region.
"The authorities just can't go round knocking down houses as part of a 
political point scoring exercise," he told the crowd.
Paco Vazquez, the head of planning at Vera Town council, said everything was 
being done to persuade the regional authorities not to pursue further 
demolition orders but to seek other solutions to problem developments.
"We have asked that all demolitions are delayed at least until a new urban 
plan is in place," he said adding that the Priors had the full support of 
the town hall.
"They suffered an injustice and one that we hope will not be repeated. We 
welcome British people and are very proud that so many have chosen to come 
and live here," Mr Vazquez added.
The demolition of the Prior's home has also stunned the Spanish community.
"What has been done to this family is one of the cruellest things I have 
seen," said Herman Torne, a resident of Vera, who was one of many Spanish 
residents turning out to lend their support to the Priors.
"This is a problem that affects Spanish homes too but more than that we have 
to think of the message this sends to British people buying property in the 
region," he said.
"The last thing our economy needs is for buyers to abandon Spain and start 
looking elsewhere."

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C01%5C29%5Cstory_29-1-2008_pg12_8

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Christians to protest illegal 'sale' of YMCA sports ground
Staff Report

KARACHI: Hundreds of Christians have decided to hold a demonstration 
Wednesday protesting the alleged illegal sale of the YMCA Sports Ground, 
which is located near the Karachi Press Club.

The call was given by the Churches Property Welfare Association (CPWA), 
which has asked community members to gather at the press club and raise 
their voice against the officials who sold 10 acres of prime land owned by 
the YMCA.

CPWA President Chaudhry Patras told Daily Times that YMCA School Principal 
Henry Pillay and General Secretary Farrukh Harrison had allegedly illegally 
executed an agreement of tenancy with a private party for 10 years and Rs 
1.5 million in rent. "The principal and general secretary also obtained a 
huge sum from tenant Chaudhry Muhammad Amin, who had started illegal 
construction work on the sports ground, which is property that was inherited 
by the Christian community of Pakistan, and especially of Karachi," he 
claimed.

He also mentioned that the administration and board of directors of the YMCA 
had allegedly misused their powers in respect of the YMCA Karachi bye-laws. 
"The ground is only for sports and religious seminars but the tenant is 
converting this plot for commercial purposes, without any prior permission 
from the government departments concerned," he said.

Patras, on behalf of the Christians, demanded strict action be taken against 
the culprits involved and those who signed the tenancy agreement. He also 
demanded an impartial inquiry committee be formed to unearth the whole scam.

He accused the principal and general secretary of the YMCA of selling this 
property and then claiming that they have only given it on rent. "According 
to tenancy rules, the owner and tenant must sign an agreement for 11 months. 
Here they have signed an agreement for 10 years," he said.

He also mentioned that the litigation for its commercial use is pending 
before the Sindh High Court.

The CPWA president added that they approached various higher-ups so that 
they would intervene, but, so far not a single authority has taken this 
seriously.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pune/RPI_protest_against_Ajit_Pawar/articleshow/2850658.cms

RPI protest against Ajit Pawar
10 Mar 2008, 0257 hrs IST,TNN

PUNE: Around 200 workers of the Republican Party of India (RPI), Kasba Peth 
and Mangalwar Peth divisions, staged an agitation against the district 
guardian minister Ajit Pawar accusing him of not fulfilling the promises 
made to slum-dwellers prior to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) 
elections.

Led by RPI president of Mangalwar Peth-Kasba Peth division Datta Pol, the 
agitation was held outside the Shivaji Stadium, where a wrestling 
competition had been organised. Ajit Pawar was to give away the prizes after 
the competition.

Pol said, "The slum-dwellers were promised 500 sq.ft. hutments before the 
PMC elections by Ajit Pawar. Similarly, Congress leader Suresh Kalmadi had 
also promised 400 sq.ft. hutments for slum dwellers under the Slum 
Rehabilitation Scheme (SRS). However, all assurances were forgotten, once 
the elections were over. We want them to fulfil their promises."

Pol presented a written communication to Pawar, at the wrestling 
competition, which held a list of demands of the slum dwellers.

In his letter, Pol said that other than the 500 sq ft hutments, "all the 
hutments built before the year 2000, slums located beside railway lines and 
rivers should also be included under the SRS. Moreover, slum dwellers, and 
not corporators, should be part of the government's decision making team 
regarding slums."

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\02\25\story_25-2-2008_pg4_7

Niger extends state of alert in uranium-rich north

NIAMEY: Niger's President Mamadou Tandja extended a state of alert
in the desert north, home to some of the world's largest uranium
reserves, where security forces have been battling an uprising led
by Tuareg nomads. The announcement prolonged for a further three
months from Sunday extra powers of arrest first given to the
security forces in August in the region around the northern town of
Agadez. The rebel Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) has killed at
least 50 soldiers and taken dozens hostage since launching a revolt
a year ago to demand more autonomy and a greater share of mining
revenues. The unrest has threatened to disrupt activities by firms
including French nuclear group Areva, whose uranium production in
Niger has fuelled France's nuclear industry for decades, and Sino-U,
a unit of China's state-run nuclear firm which is preparing to start
production in Niger. "By a presidential decree, the state of alert
in the region of Agadez has been extended by three months from
February 24, 2008," said an official statement issued late on
Saturday. The emergency power were already extended once, in
November. Reuters

http://tinyurl.com/2hxgaa

Tabasco Maya community joins Zapatista movement
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Mon, 03/10/2008 - 02:05.

The Chontal Maya community of Villa Vicente Guerrero, in Centla
municipality of Mexico's oil-rich Gulf Coast state of Tabasco, has
declared itself an "autonomous municipality" in a letter to the Sixth
Commission, civil wing of the Zapatista rebel movement in neighboring
Chiapas state to the south. The declaration said Vicente Guerrero, in
remote swamplands of the Rio Grijalva delta, is withdrawing from all
government institutions in response "abandonment" by the official
authorities despite "the extraction of millions of barrels of petroleum
and natural gas" on local lands. The community also cited human rights
abuses, including the arrest of seven residents by federal police in
connection with a supposed attempt to illegally detain government
functionaries. The statement said the seven were "brutally tortured."
(La Jornada, March 3)

http://www.narconews.com/Issue51/article3045.html

Facing Escalating Protests, Chiapas Frees 30 Political Prisoners
With 17 prisoners still inside, the Other Campaign declares April 3 an 
International Day of Action

By Kristin Bricker
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
April 1, 2008
In what has been declared a stunning but partial victory for the Other 
Campaign, the Chiapas government freed thirty political prisoners last night 
in response to years of protests for their freedom, but not before giving 
some of them one last thorough beating. Seventeen prisoners remain 
incarcerated in Chiapas and Tabasco, thirteen of whom are on a hunger strike 
that has lasted 37 days so far. Prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families 
and supporters are gearing up for an increasingly tense battle for the 
freedom of the remaining political prisoners. Outside medical experts say 
that the symptoms the hunger strikers report and the amount of time they've 
gone without food has put their lives in danger, and that they may begin to 
die as early as Sunday. The state government, however, declared that it 
refuses to negotiate over the remaining prisoners.

D.R. 2008 Photos: Kristin Bricker
The liberated prisoners have declared that they will remain in the plantón 
(permanent protest encampment) outside the state government headquarters in 
Tuxtla until all of their compañeros are free. They maintain their fearless 
resolve despite the government's best efforts to keep them away, including 
threats and physical violence. Police refused to allow prisoners from the 
Cereso #17 prison in Catazaja to see the route they were taking to arrive at 
the government's press conference where it released the prisoners as part of 
a media stunt. According to the recently released prisoners, the police beat 
them on the way to the press conference until their heads and arms were 
purple and they were bleeding. Their wrists were bound tightly with tape, 
cutting off circulation to their hands. After the press conference, the 
police loaded them back into a government vehicle, beat some of them again, 
and told them they were going to be returned to jail, but then released 
them.
Their Crime: Being Indigenous and Poor
The prisoners belong to a variety of organizations, including EZLN bases of 
support, adherents to the Zapatistas' Other Campaign, an evangelical 
Christian organization, and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD in 
its Spanish initials). The amount of time they've spent in jail varies: the 
two Zapatista prisoners in Tabasco have been imprisoned for twelve years, 
other prisoners for one year.

The prisoners were incarcerated under a wide array of circumstances. 
Paramilitary organizations accused some Zapatista support bases of crimes 
the paramilitaries themselves committed. Antonio Garcia Flores, for example, 
is a member of the EZLN and participated in the Zapatista's 1994 uprising. 
He was arrested then in Ocosingo after members of the paramilitary 
organization Chinchulines turned him in, then later released under an 
amnesty law that freed all Zapatista prisoners. The Chinchulines later 
dissolved and integrated themselves into the Organization for the Defense of 
Indigenous and Campesino Rights (Oppdic in its Spanish initials), an 
anti-Zapatista paramilitary organization with a civilian face of legitimacy. 
In 1999, Oppdic members accused him of "robbery with violence," and in March 
2006 the government imprisoned him under those charges. After serving two 
years in prison for a crime he did not commit, he was released last night.
Other prisoners, such as Julio Cesar Perez Ruiz, who became an adherent to 
the Other Campaign in prison, were imprisoned because a crime was committed 
and the government needed to jail someone for it, and any poor indian would 
do. While Perez was working in his cornfield with his father, a homicide 
occurred 40 km away. Despite his alibi and witness accounts of other 
suspects entering the area of the homicide, the government, having no desire 
to do the necessary work to solve the murder of a poor campesino, decided to 
jail another poor campesino and wash its hands of the whole matter. Perez 
was not released last night and remains on hunger strike.
Most of the ex-prisoners report that they had inadequate legal defense and 
did not understand court proceedings because the government did not provide 
a translator into their native languages of Tsotsil and Tzetal. In this 
sense, the common thread that links all of the political prisoners is that 
they are poor indians.
Years of Struggle Inside and Outside the Prison Walls

According to Jose Perez Hernandez, father of Julio Cesar Perez Ruiz, the 
movement within the prison began when prisoners from various organizations 
began to talk to each other about how they were unjustly imprisoned. In this 
way they became aware of the epidemic of unjust imprisonment and their 
common willingness to do whatever it takes to win their freedom, so they 
decided to organize.
Two years ago, members of the prisoners organization "La Voz del Amate" in 
el Amate prison began a plantón within the prison. They camped out day and 
night on the prison grounds in a vocal protest of their unjust imprisonment, 
petitioned the state government for their release, and organized outside 
support through their families and activists who visited them in prison. 
Through their various organizational affiliations and outside support, they 
organized across four different prisons, including the Carcel Publica 
Municipal in Tacotalpa, Tabasco, where two Zapatistas are imprisoned. On 
February 12, 2008, Zacario Hernandez Hernandez, a member of La Voz del 
Amate, stepped up the protest and declared a hunger strike to demand their 
freedom. This sparked an escalation in the prisoners' tactics, and in the 
following weeks dozens more prisoners in the four jails joined the huger 
strike and plantónes. At its peak, 37 prisoners participated in the hunger 
strike with twelve more joining the plantón who couldn't hunger strike for 
health reasons. Many other prisoners supported the plantónistas and 
protected them from the prison guards.

On the March 24, the 29th day of the hunger strike, families and friends of 
the prisoners declared a planton outside the Palacio de Gobierno, the 
Chiapas state house in Tuxtla. They hung signs on the walls and windows of 
the Palacio and left coffins on the front steps under a banner that says, 
"This is how the government wants us to end up." A week later, on March 29, 
Other Campaign adherents from Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Mexico City marched on 
the Palacio de Gobierno and encircled it in protest. The following day 
dozens of supporters and family members attempted to visit the prisoners, 
but after taking their IDs and recording all of their personal information, 
the prison authorities suddenly declared Sunday a families-only visit day 
and turned away all but one non-family visitor.
On March 31 the government announced that it planned to release 137 
prisoners at a press conference that evening, including some of the hunger 
strikers and plantónistas. In a staged media spectacle called "Freedom to Do 
Justice," the government released the prisoners and unilaterally ended 
negotiations over the remaining prisoners due to its claim that all unjustly 
imprisoned Chiapans were now free. This contradicts Gov. Juan Sabines' 
position up until said press conference, wherein he denied that there were 
any political prisoners in Chiapas. In the press conference the government 
laid out fruit and yogurt for the prisoners, hoping that the media would 
snap pictures of hunger strikers accepting food and reconciliation from the 
government. Refusing to be pawns in the government's public relations 
strategy, the released hunger strikers refused all government food and only 
ate once they were released and joined the plantón. Family members of the 
prisoners protested the press conference, repeatedly interrupting government 
officials with chants of, "We're not all here! Other prisoners are missing!" 
and "Sabines! Listen up! The prisoners don't sell out!"
Journalists and activists want the list of all 137 pardoned prisoners 
because they suspect that the government used this opportunity to free many 
paramilitary members.
The Struggle Continues

When the family members declared their plantón outside the Palacio de 
Gobierno, they agreed that none of them would leave until all of the 
protesting prisoners were free, even if some individual family members were 
released. Upon learning that some but not all of them would be released, the 
prisoners met and agreed that prisoners inside the jails would continue the 
plantónes and hunger strike, and those on the outside would immediately join 
the plantón outside the Palacio de Gobierno.
The Other Campaign in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, has also vowed to 
continue their protests until all prisoners are freed. Given the striking 
prisoners' grave health situation and the notice that this might be the last 
week to act before prisoners begin to die of starvation, the Other Campaign 
will hold a march and procession of coffins to the central plaza in San 
Cristobal on Thursday, April 3. The Other Campaign declared Thursday, April 
3, an international day of action for the freedom of the striking prisoners 
and calls on activists outside Mexico to stage protests and actions at 
Mexican embassies and consulates.

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/meci323.html

LONDON - 7 April 2008 - 340 words
Catholic Church helps broker deal to free Mexican political prisoners
A total of 145 Mexican political prisoners, many of whom were held in 
appalling conditions for several years and forced to confess to fabricated 
crimes under torture, have been freed after the Catholic Church helped 
broker a deal with the Chiapas state government.
The prisoners ­ 43 of whom spent more than a month on hunger strike in 
protest against their detention ­ had been accused of being linked to the 
Zapatista revolutionary movement.
Earlier this week the Chiapas Minister of Justice, Amador Rodriguez Lozano, 
publicly acknowledged the inmates' innocence and said they had not had 
adequate legal representation. He also promised to prosecute those 
responsible for unlawfully imprisoning them.
Prominent bishops and The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Centre, 
which works in partnership with aid agency CAFOD, campaigned for the release 
of the hunger-strike prisoners for many weeks, which in turn led to cases of 
nearly 300 inmates being reviewed.
At the beginning of March the Chiapas state governor, congress and 
judiciary, set up a Reconciliation Commission. Some 100 lawyers were brought 
in to study cases from 1994 - 2006 and discovered the systematic use of 
torture and sexual abuse and the fabrication of evidence.
On March 18th Zacario Hernandez - who began the hunger-strike - was freed, 
followed by the remaining 143 men and one woman on March 31 and April 1.
However, 17 political prisoners who are supported by the Fray Bartolomé de 
las Casas Centre are still being held in Chiapas jails and continue to fast.
In 1994 the Zapatistas led an armed uprising ­ which gained massive public 
support ­ protesting against the poverty and deprivation of the indigenous 
communities and calling for greater political autonomy in Chiapas.
Since then, successive Mexican governments have favoured a policy of 
military force over negotiation and stationed large numbers of soldiers in 
the region to repress any further unrest.
The Mexican army and prison authorities have a brutal human rights record, 
with torture being used to extract forced confessions commonplace.
Sarah Smith-Pearse, from CAFOD's Latin American and Caribbean department, 
said: "This is a real breakthrough in the long-standing political conflict 
in Chiapas. The Mexican authorities haven't just freed a few prisoners; they 
are saying that torture and false imprisonment are unacceptable and that 
they are going to address the issue. It's a complete turn-around and a 
gesture of peace and reconciliation after so many years of military 
repression."


http://www.ww4report.com/node/5232

Chiapas: prisoners on hunger strike; land conflicts continue
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Mon, 03/10/2008 - 01:32.
Fourteen Toztzil and Tzeltal Maya prisoners at Social Readaption Center 
Number 14, known as El Amate, in Cintalapa, Chiapas, went on hunger strike 
Feb. 28, in protest of harsh conditions and to demand recognition as 
political prisoners. Eight are followers of the Zapatista rebels' "Other 
Campaign" political initiative. Most have been imprisoned five years, in 
connection with the Tres Cruces case involving land conflicts in the 
highland village of San Juan Chamula, which is ruled by notorious political 
bosses known as the caciques. The Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights 
Center has issued an urgent statement expressing concern for the men's 
health. (La Jornada, Feb. 29) On March 3, nine indigenous prisoners being 
held in the highland city of San Cristóbal de las Casas announced they were 
joining in a solidarity hunger strike with the Cintalapa 14. (La Jornada, 
March 4)
Land conflicts from highlands to rainforest
Land conflicts continue to dominate the news from Chiapas. Followers of the 
PRI political machine in communities around Huitepec, a mountain outside San 
Cristóbal which the Zapatistas have declared a rebel-administrated 
ecological reserve, appealed to the city's mayor, Mariano Díaz Ochoa, to 
expel the rebel presence. "We have been patient with this problem, but if we 
do not meet with a response, the affected communities will join together to 
take the necessary measures." (Cuarto Poder, Chiapas, March 4)
On Feb. 24, the Zapatistas hosted a national gathering of indigenous 
activists at the community of Betania, Ocosingo municipality, attended by 
hundreds, mostly Nahua, Mixtec and Triqui from Oaxaca. The gathering issued 
a statement protesting the "silent eviction" of indigenous communities from 
Las Cañadas, the region on the edge of the Chiapas rainforest that forms the 
Zapatistas' heartland. (La Jornada, Feb. 24; La Jornada, Feb. 24)
That same weekend, Chiapas state officials reported a disturbance at the 
conflicted community of Bolom Ajaw, in Tumbalá municipality near Agua Azul 
ecological reserve, in which a "reporter" was supposedly detained by 
Zapatista rebels. Hermann Bellinghausen later wrote for the national daily 
La Jornada that the "reporter" was actually an armed agent of the National 
Security Investigation Center (CISEN), Mexico's top intelligence agency, who 
had been filming a Zapatista encampment on contested lands without 
permission of the community. He was released, but disarmed and his weapons 
kept, Bellinghausen reported. He quoted unnamed "police sources" in nearby 
Palenque saying they were considering "an operation to recover the arms." 
(La Jornada, Feb. 24)
Defections reported-on both sides
Following a boycott of their coffee crops organized by Zapatista supporters, 
leaders of the Union of Ejidos of the Selva (UES), a PRI-aligned group that 
has been petitioning for eviction of Zapatista communities from Las Cañadas, 
called for dialogue with the rebels. UES leader Arturo Jiménez Hernández 
called for the Catholic dioceses of San Cristóbal to mediate the conflict. 
(La Jornada, Feb. 28)
In the rainforest community of Monte Líbano, more than 2,000 followers of 
the PRI-aligned Organization for the Defense of Indigenous and Campesino 
Rights (OPDDIC)-decried by the Zapatistas as a violent paramilitary 
group-announced they were leaving the organization to pursue their aims 
through "institutional" channels. At the "desertion" ceremony, they said the 
OPDDIC would dissolve into the National Campesino Confederation (CNC), 
Mexico's largest peasant union and an official arm of the PRI. (La Jornada, 
March 2; Cuarto Poder, March 1)
Reports of Zapatista desertions have also made it into the English-language 
media for the first time. Associated Press reports that nearly 200 families 
have abandoned the Zapatista movement at the highland community of Polhó, in 
order to receive government aid-which the rebels bar to their followers. AP 
said each family received an initial payment of $43 in a ceremony with 
Salvador Escobedo, a top official with the federal government's Social 
Development Department. The government is promising similar payments every 
two months, as well as a school and medical center. The AP report claims 
there were similar desertions at the Cañadas community of La Realidad in 
2004, leaving the settlement divided.
The report quoted Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos, upon declaring that 
he is withdrawing from the public spotlight in December, that national and 
international support for the Zapatistas has been "insignificant or null" 
recently. (AP, Feb. 7)

http://elenemigocomun.net/1412

Urban paramilitaries attack University
Today, January 15th, 2007,
before the beginning of a youth march for the liberation
of political prisoners, Urban Paramilitaries (porros) have initiated
a series of provocations to defame the social movement.
Known urban paramilitaries (identified as Aladin and Crusty)
have occupied and burned at least two buses
to provoke violence before the march, and other
urban paramilitaries have began to open fire at UABJO
 (Benito Juarez Autonomous University of Oaxaca).

Students are being force out of classrooms and clashes have ensued.
The youth march is scheduled for 4 pm and is beginning to get together.
Students and organizers are concerned for their safety, seeing as
how these tactics of provocation always lead to violence in peaceful 
actions.

Please post widely and remain vigilant.
The march went off with out a hitch.
There was a lot of graffiti and some property destruction.
It ended up at Ixcotel prison where several international
observers and video cameras watched over as the entrance
was graffittied, and chants were made against
appx. 50 heavily armed (militarized) riot police.
thanks for paying attention.

Simon Sedillo

http://www.ww4report.com/node/5018

Crime, water wars rock Chiapas Highlands
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Sat, 02/02/2008 - 02:52.
Mexico's federal Public Security Secretariat (SSP) announced the detention 
of 13 "delinquents" at Rancho San Isidro, in San Andrés Larráinzar, a 
highland municipality in conflicted Chiapas state Jan. 30. The SSP said 45 
stolen vehicles were confiscated, as well as two firearms and an "arsenal" 
of ten home-made bombs. (La Jornada, Jan. 31) Meanwhile, the Good Government 
Junta "Corazón Céntrico de los Zapatistas delante del Mundo," governing body 
of the Zapatista rebels for the Highland region, issued a statement 
protesting deprivation of water to Zapatista followers in Zinacantán 
municipality. Citing lack of action by the state or federal governments, the 
statement said Zapatista authorities would "directly resolve" the problem 
and restore water to Sokón hamlet. It blamed the caciques (political bosses) 
of Nachig hamlet for diverting the water, calling them 
"priístas-perredistas"-meaning they have collaborated with both parties that 
have held power in the state and municipality, the Institutional 
Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). (La 
Jornada, Jan. 28)
Also Jan. 30, two members of the Zapatista base community were convicted in 
the February 2002 slaying of two militants of the Organization for the 
Defense of Indigenous and Campesino Rights (OPDDIC) at Banavil, Ocosingo 
municipality. Alfredo Hernández Pérez, 48, and Fidelino Ruiz Hernández, 73, 
both received sentences of eight years. The Center for Political Analysis 
and Social & Economic Investigation (CAPISE) said the men were serving as 
"scapegoats" (chivos expiatorios) for internecine violence within the 
OPDDIC, which is said to be a PRI-linked paramilitary group. (La Jornada, 
Jan. 30)

http://www.narconews.com/Issue49/article2963.html

Over Three Thousand People From Five Continents Danced and Partied with the 
EZLN on its 14th Anniversary
Comandanta Rosalinda: "The reclaimed land was bought with the flesh and 
blood of compañeros. That blood hasn't disappeared; it sings and cries for 
joy over the years"

By Raúl Romero
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
January 17, 2008
The streams.when they run downstream.they can't turn back.just underground.
Old Antonio
LA GARRUCHA, CHIAPAS, January 1, 2008: As the final moments of 2007 wound 
down, over three thousand attendees of the Third Encuentro of the Zapatistas 
with the People of the World, named "Comandanta Ramona and the Zapatista 
women," came together in the center of the caracol of la Garrucha. Their 
faces were lost amongst the hundreds of bases of support that have come from 
different Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities (MAREZ in its Spanish 
initials) to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the public appearance of 
the EZLN.

Photos: D.R. 2008 Raúl Romero
Nationality, language, and skin color were not impediments as various people 
melted together in hugs, wishing each other the best in the new year. 
Neither was it an impediment that the majority had only known each other for 
three days; since the beginning of the encuentro "we share a dream of a 
different world and that has already made us brothers in the struggle," said 
one teenager as he hugged another.
Some members of the Indigenous Revolutionary Clandestine Committee-General 
Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (CCRI-CG-EZLN) appeared 
on the stage. Applause and cries of "viva!" got louder. However, many were 
surprised not to see Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos. Comandantes Tacho, 
David, and Zebedeo, the most widely known commanders, are also missing.
Somewhere in the crowd someone said, "The Zapatistas mean business. When 
they say something they follow through." A couple weeks earlier, on the 
final day of the four-day "International Discussion in Memory of Andres 
Aubry. Planet Earth: Anti-systemic Movements," Marcos had announced that 
they would no longer appear at public events as a measure of precaution in 
the face of the strong threats they've received over the past months. This 
decision has been interpreted by many as a "strategic retreat."
At ten minutes to midnight, Comandanta Rosalinda took the microphone and 
kicked off the EZLN's anniversary festivities. The Mexican national hymn was 
sung first, making it very clear that this is not a separatist movement and 
that they claim the tri-colored flag as their own, as well as the "great 
nation" called Mexico. Next, the same comandanta briefly recounted how the 
EZLN appeared and how it was betrayed by then-president of Mexico Ernesto 
Zedillo Ponce de León, when on February 9, 1995, "plain-clothed soldiers" 
violently showed up in some Zapatista communities. "Later, dressed as 
soldiers, they entered with tanks.they wanted to make us disappear, finish 
us off, but they didn't succeed."

Rosalinda said that the land reclaimed on January 1, 1994, "was bought with 
the flesh and blood of the compañeros." She also noted "that blood hasn't 
disappeared; it sings and cries for joy over the years." Now paramilitary 
organizations want to take these lands from them. But more than harboring 
feelings of rancor or rivalry towards these groups, who are also indigenous, 
the Zapatistas show understanding and know they are not the true enemies, 
they know that these paramilitaries are "indigenous brothers cheated by the 
bad government who bought off them with handouts of expired food." 
Comandanta Rosalinda concluded her remarks by naming each one of the EZLN 
members who have died since 1983 while attendees responded with "¡presente!" 
after each name.
Next to speak was Comandante Omar, who said that he felt happy because men 
could now participate. It should be mentioned that during the four days of 
the women's encuentro no man was able to use the microphone.
"After 14 years the party goes on," said Omar, who also mentioned that for 
the Zapatistas, it is important to "party with happiness in our hearts, 
without worrying about the bad government's threats, the bad government that 
imprisons us and beats us for defending what is originally and naturally 
ours." He also stressed that during those 14 years the Zapatistas have 
resisted "a shit-ton of provocations" and that the bad government has 
continued purchasing people's consciences.
The political parties are no longer an option for change, continued Omar, 
because as soon as they come to power their promises are forgotten, and 
"they only change their discourse when they need something from the people." 
He also said to those present: "Don't let them fool you, the parties aren't 
going to change if we the people don't demand that they do."

Comandante Omar concluded by making a call to all of the participants, 
inviting them to organize themselves and "struggle against the bad 
governments. So that one day things might change into a better world."
Then came the Zapatista hymn. Those who knew it well sang it out loud, while 
those who just learned it raised their voices when it got to a verse they 
had memorized already. One girl saluted like the comandantes do from the 
bandstand. Her compañera questioned her: "You're not in the militia." 
Blushing, she raised her left hand and made a "V" for victory with her 
fingers.
The hymn ended and the chants started, including some classics that the 
foreigners like so much.
And then came the dancing. The dancers formed a line that ran the length of 
the plaza and grew and grew, just like the streams - when they run 
downstream their flow increases and then they no longer have a way back nor 
a dam that holds them back.
Originally Published in Spanish on January 11