[Onthebarricades] Anti-racist protests

[Andy]

*  SOUTH AFRICA:  Mass protests at university over racist video
*  US:  Clashes at skinhead rally in Calgary
*  HOLLAND:  Protests as Dutch singer who performed for Nazis takes stage
*  INDIGENOUS/AUSTRALIA:  Flag burned at Invasion Day protest
                                                    Hundreds rally to stop 
the intervention
                                                    Hundreds rally to 
support alleged Palm Island insurgent
                                                    Aboriginal people drown 
out opposition response to apology
*  UK/NEPAL:  Gurkhas hand back medals in protest over discrimination
*  CANADA:  York University students rally against racist graffiti
*  INDIA:  Indigenous protests after cop rapes girl
*  SOUTH AFRICA:  Zimbabweans protest police brutality, racism
*  NEPAL:  Madhesi minority stages strikes, protests, armed actions in Terai
*  GERMANY:  Immigrants rally against racist murder of Moroccan
*  US:  Indian workers march to White House in anti-slavery protest
*  INDIA:  Gandhis jailed in protest over sacking

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

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1582590/20080229/id_0.jhtml

Feb 29 2008 4:55 PM EST
South African University Erupts In Protest Over Racist Video
Students at a South African university staged protests this week after their 
campus was rocked by a video that depicted black university workers being 
tricked by white students into eating stew with urine in it.
The video — created in September 2007 by four white students in response to 
the University of the Free State's policy to integrate campus housing — 
sparked a rally on Wednesday in which approximately 600 black students 
marched on the university's management offices to deliver a memorandum 
demanding that officials expel the students in the video and ban them from 
attending all other universities in South Africa.
"I know that emotions are running very high," Free State Premier Beatrice 
Marshoff shouted into a megaphone to the crowd. "We are all very, very upset 
by what we have seen on those videos."
Although the university said in a statement the demonstration was a 
"peaceful protest," it did admit there were "sporadic instances of 
intimidation," property damage and five arrests.
Two of the white students behind the video apologized in a statement issued 
by their lawyer Thursday (the two other individuals involved in the video 
are no longer students at the university). The students, Roelof Malherbe and 
Schalk van der Merwe, said in the statement that they regretted making the 
film, which they said was intended as a "satirical slant" on the issue of 
racial integration at the university dormitories.
"If you see the video in context you'll see it's been ripped out of 
proportion," the lawyer, Nico Naude, told MTV News. Naude — who noted that 
the workers involved in the video were friends of the four men — said in the 
statement, "[Malherbe and Van der Merwe] claim they acted without any 
malicious intent, but apologize for any embarrassment they may, 
unintentionally, have caused." The two are "not racists and, most certainly, 
had no intention of humiliating or degrading the employees concerned or 
black people in general or of detrimentally affecting their dignity," the 
statement continued.
Tensions have simmered down on campus since Wednesday while students await a 
response from the university. If the response is not favorable another rally 
will take place, student and protest organizer Lonwabo MacFarlane, 20, told 
MTV News. "We felt humiliated," he said. "Those ladies in that video 
could've been our grandmothers, or our mothers for that matter."
The women in the video are also speaking out. "We feel pain," 40-year-old 
Emma Koko told the crowd at a press conference on Thursday, according to the 
AP. "It's something we were not expecting. We regard [the students] as our 
children."
In the video, the workers seem comfortable in the company of the students 
and are in high spirits throughout the "competition." A blond male, speaking 
in Afrikaans, even refers to the activities as "Reitz Fear Factor." Reitz is 
the name of the men's residence hall where two of the students lived.
The video opens in a dorm-room-type setting where one of the students 
appears to urinate into a beef stew mixture and puts it into a microwave. 
(The students said in the statement that a "harmless" liquid was used.) 
Later in the clip, three female residence workers and one male worker are 
seen on their knees drinking the stew from plastic cups, and then vomiting 
into buckets. The prize is a bottle of whiskey which one of the women gladly 
accepts as her friends cheer her on. The video ends with the words (in 
Afrikaans), "This is what integration looks like," superimposed against an 
image of one of the black women doing dishes.
The university "has condemned the video and gross violation of human rights 
that it portrays," Vice-Chancellor Frederick Fourie said in a press release. 
Classes were also canceled Wednesday "in a proactive step to allow the 
emotions of staff and students to calm down," he added.
According to the statement, the university also plans to press criminal 
charges against Malherbe, van der Merwe and former students Danie Grobler 
and Johnny Roberts. Malherbe and Van der Merwe will also be suspended.
Although apartheid in South Africa officially ended in 1994, Vice-Chancellor 
Fourie admitted that "the university is going through a difficult time with 
its efforts to racially integrate its residences and to create a new 
residence culture based on diversity, respect, human dignity and human 
rights."
The South African Human Rights Commission also issued a statement claiming 
the University has a "whites only" history. It also makes note of 
discriminatory events that have taken place at the school, such as a racist 
advertisement that was once posted on the school's Web site and a claim that 
new students are forced to visit all churches, regardless of their faith.
The University of the Free State is located in the city of Bloemfontein and 
is regarded as a bastion for Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch settlers who 
are often most closely linked with apartheid rule, according to AP.
On Friday (February 29), the South African magazine Drum reported that one 
of its black journalists covering the video story had been assaulted in what 
was apparently a racial attack at a restaurant in Bloemfontein. His attacker 
was a "burly white man" who followed him to the bathroom, where he assaulted 
him using racial slurs, the magazine reported in a statement.
Protest organizer Macfarlane said that although a majority of the students 
at the university are black, the racial climate at the school is 
"Afrikanerdom."
"We want no dominance of one culture over another," he said. "We just want 
equality."

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20080227114203137C786319

 Riot police react against students

    February 27 2008 at 11:49AM

Police used a stun grenade to disperse a group of students protesting at the 
University of the Free State (UFS) on Wednesday during a protest march over 
a racial video.

The video, which was made at the hostel last year, surfaced on Tuesday.

Police spokesperson Captain Chaka Marope said a group of protesting 
student's broke away from the main group and rushed to the Reitz men's 
hostel where "some stones were thrown".

Marope said they were told that the gathering was illegal in terms of an 
interdict that was secured by the university's management during protest 
action last week.

Marope said he was not sure if the students were arrested or just taken away 
from the scene by police.

Once the group dispersed, a small group of students stayed behind at the 
main building of the campus in defiance against the removal of the 
protesters.

Marope said police would stay on campus to monitor the situation.

Some 500 students, workers and personnel protested against the video and 
unions handed memorandums over to management.

The video shows university employees on their knees eating food which had 
been urinated on.

It allegedly depicts a mock integration of five black staff members - four 
women and a man - into the hostel.

It was made by the Reitz men's residence and has added to an already tense 
situation at the UFS after student riots over the university's hostel 
integration policy last week. - Sapa

http://tinyurl.com/34l5jr

March 22, 2008
Skinhead rally causes clash
Neo-Nazi march downtown sparks anti-racism rally
By PABLO FERNANDEZ, SUN MEDIA

Tensions boiled to a fevered pitch when white supremacists and
anti-racist demonstrators clashed in the city's downtown core yesterday.

A group of neo-Nazis calling themselves the Aryan Guard staged a march
from Mewata Armouries down 8 Ave. to city hall, prompting anti-racism
activists to stage their own demonstration.

Activists, union leaders, anarchists, minority groups and passers-by
held their own rally as a counter-demonstration to the white supremacist
rally, said Anti-Racist Action Calgary's Jason Devine.

"Our message is that there's strength in numbers ... that the community
is united, that racism will not be tolerated, that it shouldn't be
tolerated and that we shouldn't just turn from it," he said.

Roughly 25 Aryan Guard members amassed at the Franklin LRT station, rode
the C-Train downtown and made their way down to Mewata Armouries, when
they were blocked by counter-demonstrators along 7 Ave., in front of the
Kerby Centre.

The animosity between the two groups reached an instant peak, prompting
police to set up a human barrier between the two groups.

An activist who asked to be identified only as Mike said he was saddened
by the fact the last time his group stood up against the Aryan Guard,
the neo-Nazis had a fraction of the numbers they bolstered yesterday.

"Calgary's the only city where they can go out in public, show their
faces and hand out leaflets," he said.

"They're cancerous and we have to fight them every time they show up in
our community."

Many of the anti-racist protesters covered their faces with bandanas,
explaining they need to protect their identities since at least two
fire-bombings in the city this year have been tied to possible neo-Nazi
activity, said Devine.

"If you're denouncing a group that likes to pose with guns and talks
about how much they love Adolf Hitler, I think it would be a little
foolish not to have a little bit of ... caution," said Devine.

>From the Kerby Centre and under police escort, Aryan Guard members made
their way down 7 Ave. taunted by anti-racism demonstrators, which by
this time had swollen to more than 200.

The two groups faced off again on the steps of city hall, with police
between the two.

After almost two hours, police brought in a school bus and escorted the
neo-Nazis -- one of whom launched at a female demonstrator but was
pulled back by officers -- onto the bus, which drove away with flags and
Nazi salutes flying out the windows.

The rally was particularly close to the heart of Bonnie Collins, the
victim of one of the city's Molotov attacks.

"Canada and Calgary were not built on hate or violence ... but on
equality and for humanity," she said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/954753.html

Last update - 21:37 16/02/2008

Dozens protest as Dutch singer who performed for Hitler takes stage By The 
Associated Press Tags: Johannes Heesters
Several dozen protesters gathered outside a theater in the Netherlands 
Saturday where a singer who once performed for Adolf Hitler was due to take 
the stage in his native country for the first time in four decades.

Johannes Heesters, 104, has been a popular figure in German-language cabaret 
since the 1930s, earning him the epithet "the Netherlands' most durable 
product."

He was never accused of being a propagandist or anything other than an actor 
who was willing to perform for the Nazis, and the Allies allowed him to 
continue his career after the war. But in his native country he is viewed by 
some as irredeemable.
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"He kept singing for the Nazi regime, for the Wehrmacht, and he earned 
millions," said Piet Schouten, representative of a committee formed to 
protest Heesters' performance.

"Those are facts and we have a problem with that on behalf of all the 
victims" he told national broadcaster NOS.

In Heesters' previous attempt to perform in the Netherlands, in 1964, he was 
booed off the stage in Amsterdam when he tried to appear as Nazi-hating 
Captain von Trapp in "The Sound of Music."

Around 50 demonstrators gathered outside De Flint theatre in Amersfoort, 
where Heesters was born in 1903. A handful of neo-Nazis turned up - 
uninvited - to support Heesters, and several were detained by police after 
throwing eggs at the demonstrators.

Concertgoers were forced to submit copies of their passports and undergo 
airport-style security scans before being allowed to enter the theater, 
which seats 800.

During the war Amersfoort housed a camp where Jews were interned before 
deportation to Germany during the occupation.
Many of Heesters' critics focus on a visit his theater company made to 
Dachau in 1941. He had never disclosed the visit, but it became known when 
photos of him with Nazi soldiers were published in 1973.

Heesters says he didn't perform for the soldiers, and didn't know about 
conditions at the concentration camp.
After the war "I was ashamed of myself and I still haven't stopped feeling 
this way," Heesters wrote in his autobiography. "I am angry with myself for 
being gullible, credulous and naive."

In an editorial, Dutch newspaper Trouw wrote Saturday that "the stain will 
always remain, but Heesters is welcome home in the Netherlands - it's nice 
that he's appearing here 104 years after his birth."

"It's all too easy for people today, most of whom grew up after the war, to 
pass judgment on the collaborators then," the paper wrote. "What would we do 
under comparable circumstances?"

In a chapel near the theater, a counter-concert was being held to celebrate 
music composed by people who died in concentration camps.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23125398-1244,00.html

Australian flag burned in protest
January 29, 2008 08:56am
AN Australian flag was burned in Launceston by an Aboriginal man to mark 
what he called Invasion Day.
Adam Thompson burned the flag in protest against "the atrocities committed 
against my people under the colours of that flag".

He was watched by as many as 200 Aborigines.

"We burnt the Australian flag out of outrage at Australians celebrating 
invasion day - even after they know what it means to Aboriginal people," Mr 
Thompson said.

"Atrocities such as rape, murder and theft of land have all occurred under 
the banner . . . and people are waving it around proudly."

Police at the rally did not intervene.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/12/2160692.htm?section=australia

Thousands protest to 'stop the intervention'
By Penny McLintock
Posted Tue Feb 12, 2008 3:19pm AEDT
Updated Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:24pm AEDT
Slideshow: Photo 1 of 3

United: thousands march across the lawns of Paliament House. (ABC News: 
Penny McLintock)
Map: Canberra 2600
Related Story: G-G urges support for apology
Related Story: Parliament opens, new Speaker sworn in
Thousands of people have marched across the lawns of Parliament House to 
protest against the Federal Government's intervention in Northern Territory 
Aboriginal communities.
Aboriginal people from across the country and non-Indigenous supporters 
gathered at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy near Old Parliament House to hear 
leaders speak against the intervention.
They called for the intervention to be overturned and an end to quarantining 
of welfare payments and compulsory land acquisitions.
Members of the crowd threw leaves onto the sacred fire, chanting "Stop the 
intervention - human rights for all".
Mark Lord from near Bourke in north-west New South Wales was one of the 
Aboriginal dancers leading the march, which began just after midday.
He says the intervention order is not the Australian way of doing things.
"It's a racial act really. We want to be like white people, walk in [to 
shops] and pay for things with our own cash not half with Centrelink payment 
and the rest in vouchers," he said.
"We human people, we are not animals.
"If they don't listen to us, they are going to hear us. They can not listen 
to us all they want, but they will hear us today."
A group of school students travelled from southern Sydney to take part in 
the rally.
Teacher Mark Goudkamp from Kingsgrove High School says the intervention 
repeats a lot of mistakes made in the past and the students wanted to speak 
out.
"It's punitive, it punishes people who are doing the right thing with 
welfare quarantining," he said.
"The other thing Rudd should do to break with the Howard legacy, is to wind 
back the intervention."
Kingsgrove student Ross Bougoukas says it is important young people are 
involved.
"Other young people will see us and hopefully follow our lead. We can give a 
fresh approach to this," he said.
Surrounded by media, the group marched around Old Parliament House and up 
Federation Mall. Some Aboriginal elders were taken in a bus
Australian Federal Police lined the the ring road around Parliament House 
keeping an eye on the procession as they walked to the top of the lawns.
A large Aboriginal flag was laid on the lawns and protesters gathered to 
hear key speakers condemn the intervention.
Isabelle Coe from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy told the crowd, the 
intervention needs to stop.
"We're here to tell Kevin Rudd that he's gotta recognise our sovereignty and 
we want to get rid of the intervention laws, we've got to demand that the 
intervention laws be dropped straight away," she said.
Greens Leader Bob Brown also spoke, labelling the intervention "racist 
legislation".

http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news620.htm

In the build-up to the ‘sorry’ day, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy site, one of 
the longest continual protest camps in the world since 1972 (See SchNEWS 
339), grew to a tent city as Aboriginal groups camped after long treks from 
all around the country. On Tuesday thousands marched from the Tent Embassy 
to Parliament House against the Northern Territory National Emergency 
Response Act 2007 – a set of law enforcement and welfare tightening 
legislation aimed at Aboriginals, masquerading as a knee-jerk response to 
domestic abuse in remote communities. This law, commonly known as the 
‘intervention’ – and sent the army into 70 communities - broke international 
human rights conventions by suspending indigenous Land Rights claims in the 
NT, as well as ‘quarantining’ (withholding) benefit payments and introducing 
a voucher system, plus making it easier to enter remote communities without 
permits.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/protest-against-intervention/2008/02/12/1202760301388.html

Protest against intervention

United front … indigenous and other Australians march to Parliament House 
yesterday.
Photo: Glen Mccurtayne
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Yuko Narushima
February 13, 2008
AS A military marching band played on the forecourt of Parliament House to a 
thin crowd of tourists, a group of thousands gathered metres away to protest 
against the federal intervention in the Northern Territory.
About 20 police officers stood in a row to separate the dissenters from the 
formalities as indigenous leaders took the stage on a nearby lawn.
"God save the Queen 'cos nothing will save this parliament if they don't 
pull out of the Northern Territory," said the president of the National 
Aboriginal Alliance, Sol Bellear, borrowing from the former prime minister 
Gough Whitlam.
"We have people who have served in the world wars having their pensions 
quarantined. It's like the stolen wages all over again."
#It was Mr Bellear's group that organised the rally of thousands of 
indigenous and non-indigenous Australians in Canberra yesterday..
One woman, who identified herself as Aunty Valerie from Yuendemu, 300 
kilometres north-west of Alice Springs, vented her frustration with the 
intervention. "We know how to look after our kids," she said. "We don't want 
to be treated like animals. We want to be treated like human beings."
Frank Djirrimbilpilwuy, from Elcho Island, off Arnhem Land, was angry about 
the portrayal of indigenous people in the media. He spoke directly to 
reporters. "Get this down right," he said. "We came all the way to talk 
about what problems we are having out there because of the intervention."
Common complaints were the constraints put on indigenous welfare payments 
and the imposition of laws based on race.
The Greens senator Kerry Nettle said the Government needed to work with 
indigenous groups.
"You can't impose things," she said. "I don't want governments 10, 20 years 
from now having to say sorry again."
For Josie Agius, an Aboriginal woman who travelled from Port Adelaide in 
South Australia, the events of this week were worth the trip.
"It just makes you proud," she said, sitting in the afternoon sun.
Patricia Waria-Read, also from Port Adelaide, agreed. "It's a day we stand 
up and make changes for the better. When we say rights for one and all."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/05/2208856.htm

Hundreds rally to support Palm Is riot accused
Posted Sat Apr 5, 2008 5:00pm AEDT
Map: Melbourne 3000
Around 200 supporters of a Palm Island man accused of rioting have rallied 
in Melbourne today.
Forty-year-old Lex Wotton will face the District Court in Brisbane later 
this month over the 2004 riots on Palm Island, off the north Queensland 
coast.
Wotton has pleaded not guilty.
Indigenous Social Justice Association spokeswoman Alison Thorne says another 
rally is planned in Brisbane at the opening of Wotton's trial in the 
District Court later this month.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23206475-1702,00.html

Nelson broadcast cut in apology protest
February 13, 2008 10:33am
Article from: AAP
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A BROADCAST of Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson's reply to the Prime 
Minister's apology to indigenous Australians was cut in Perth as Aboriginal 
people clapped to drown him out.
More than 1000 people had gathered just before dawn on the Perth esplanade 
to hear Prime Minister Kevin Rudd say sorry.
But midway through Dr Nelson's reply in support of the apology an Aboriginal 
woman, Catherine Coomer, started yelling out that the Opposition leader was 
degrading Aboriginal people.
Ms Coomer stood up and turned her back to the screen showing the speech.
The crowd then began clapping loudly, and the broadcast was unplugged.
Premier Alan Carpenter said afterwards it was unfortunate that Dr Nelson had 
missed the mark.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/965075.html
Illegal immigrants' clinic closes in protest of state's inactivity By Ruth 
Sinai Tags: Israel, medicine, welfare
Thousands of illegal immigrants, many of whom suffer from tuberculosis and 
other contagious diseases, will be denied medical care next week when a 
medical clinic in Tel Aviv closes. The Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) 
organization Sunday announced that it will be closing its clinic to protest 
what it termed the Health Ministry's refusal to take responsibility for 
foreign migrants and homeless people in need of medical attention.

"A volunteer clinic, with a low budget, cannot, should not and is incapable 
of being a worthy substitute for a proper solution from the state," the PHR 
wrote Health Minister Yacov Ben Yizri. "We lack the means to diagnose and 
treat and lack the means available at hospitals."

Ministry officials, however, claim people staying in Israel illegally are 
not entitled to medical care and will receive it only in urgent cases at 
hospital emergency rooms. They added that illegal aliens may pay for health 
insurance for their children from the Meuhedet health maintenance 
organization.
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Last year, the number of patients at the PHR clinic in south Tel Aviv, which 
is home to Israel's largest population of foreign workers, grew by over 70 
percent, from 301 a month in 2006 to 504 in 2007. About 100 patients a night 
have been receiving treatment at the clinic in the past few months. The 
organization has handed out brochures to the clinic's patients, advising 
them how to receive medical treatment at emergency rooms after the clinic 
closes.

In recent weeks, the health bureau in Tel Aviv has enlisted the 
organization's help in finding illegal immigrants with chicken pox. A few of 
the women, who were also pregnant, received treatment paid by the state at 
the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv. The ministry, in tandem with the 
PHR, has been trying to locate illegal immigrants staying at shelters in Tel 
Aviv who carry tuberculosis.

"The situation in which the Health Ministry considers us a senior partner in 
preventing the outbreak of diseases among refugees is unacceptable," PHR 
director general Hadas Ziv said.

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5j4AxQYL1TiOkGldyzmpSsBI2TpDg

Gurkhas hand back medals in protest
Mar 19, 2008
Crowds of Gurkhas have descended on Parliament to watch 50 veterans hand 
back their medals in protest at their "immoral discrimination".
The 50 retired Gurkhas gave their Long Service and Good Conduct medals to 
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who will pass them on to Prime Minister 
Gordon Brown.
Nepalese Gurkhas have been part of the British Army for nearly 200 years, 
but they are unhappy that they receive lower pensions than UK soldiers.
If they retired before 1997, Gurkhas have no automatic right to remain in 
the UK.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg told the crowds: "When I tell people what 
you get from the Government in return for the years of brave, loyal, 
uncomplaining success people simply don't believe it. It is quite simply a 
national disgrace.
"I am simply saying you should be treated with the respect and honour you 
deserve as brave soldiers. I will do everything I can to end this 
unacceptable and immoral discrimination."
He said he would raise the matter personally with the Prime Minister.
Damber Ghaly, chief co-ordinator of the protest for the Gurkhas United 
Front, handed back his six medals, including his MBE.
The 50-year-old who served in the Gurkhas for 28 years, said: "It is very 
sad and emotional but I think it is the only thing we can do. I served in 
Kosovo and Bosnia where I was in charge of my troops. It is not a case of 
being angry but we feel very disappointed and let down."
He estimated more than 2,000 Gurkhas were protesting.

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080124/racism_rally_080124/20080124?hub=TorontoHome

A rally was held at York University on Jan. 24, 2007 to protest racist 
graffiti.
York students rally to protest racist graffiti
toronto.ctv.ca
Several hundred students joined a rally at York University Thursday in 
protest of racist graffiti scrawled in the school's student centre.
The slurs targeted the school's black community and were written outside the 
offices of York University Black Students' Alliance (YUBSA).
The rally was also in protest of what some students called a slow response 
by university officials to call the incident a hate crime.
University President Mamdouh Shoukri tried to ease tensions by showing up at 
the rally and posting a note on the school's website condemning the act.
"I was dismayed to learn of the racist graffiti in the Student Centre 
earlier this week," he said in the posted statement. "These acts are 
deplorable and unacceptable anywhere and at any time.
"York is comprised of a community of communities; an attack on any group at 
York is an attack on our entire community" the letter continued. "That's why 
it's important that we all speak up loud and clear to condemn racism and 
oppression of every kind."
At the rally Shoukri said the school will conduct a review to see where 
improvements can be made.
"We are going to a third party evaluation of all our safety and all our 
security systems and it will be a very transparent process," he said. "The 
students will be part of selecting the third party to do that."
Programs will also be reviewed to see where improvements can be made with 
African-Canadian contributions, Shoukri said.
Students had called for a security review after a girl was sexually 
assaulted on campus last week.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Roger Petersen

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Constable_rapes_10-year-old_tribals_protest/articleshow/2733063.cms

Constable rapes 10-year-old, tribals protest
26 Jan 2008, 0259 hrs IST,Law Kumar Mishra,TNN

GIRIDIH: A 10-year-old tribal girl was raped by a cop in a remote village of 
Giridih districtin Jharkhand leading to protests by hundreds of tribals 
armed with bows and arrows at a police station. Arvind Kumar, 24, was 
arrested on Friday and district police chief M L Meena said he would be 
dismissed from service. The cops were in the village for an anti-Maoist 
operation.

According to the girl's elder brother, his sister had gone from their 
village Ganhar to collect firewood at Chandwa, 17 km from Giridih, along 
with her six-year-old brother when three policemen approached them. "Two of 
the policemen kept my brother in their custody while the other cop took my 
sister to the nearby jungle," he said in a complaint to the police. The 
girl's father had died a few years ago.

He said the three cops later gave Rs 500 to his younger brother and told him 
not to disclose the incident. When the girl didn't return home even after 
several hours, her mother went to the jungle with her neighbours and found 
the girl unconscious.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200802111706.html

South Africa: Zimbabweans Protest Police Brutality And Xenophobia

SW Radio Africa (London)
11 February 2008
Posted to the web 11 February 2008
Tererai Karimakwenda
A group of about 200 immigrants, the majority of them Zimbabweans, descended 
on the Central Police Station in Cape Town last Thursday to protest against 
police brutality and xenophobia. The demonstration was organized by People 
Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP), a rights 
group in South Africa that assists immigrants and refugees. The Treatment 
Action Campaign (TAC), a lobby group for people who are HIV-positive, also 
assisted with organising the demonstration.
Braam Hanekom from PASSOP, said the police raid on the Methodist church in 
Johannesburg at the end of January prompted the protest; "Frequently 
immigrants are beaten and even killed by local South Africans and for police 
to have engaged in such a manner was absolutely unacceptable." He was 
referring to the behavior of police during the church raid, where they 
assaulted Bishop Verryn and his staff and destroyed property belonging to 
the church and the refugees who shelter there. 1,500 people were arrested.
Last week Regis Matutu, projects officer for TAC, said it was important to 
protest this behaviour because so many of the people arrested had been 
denied access to medication while in police custody.
The police had denied permission for the demonstration last week, claiming 
there was not enough manpower to provide adequate security. The police 
suggested that the event be delayed by at least a week.

Hanekom said this did not stop them, saying; "We had no choice but to do it 
and we weren't going to let the police disallow our protest against their 
brutality." He explained that there were 15 people still in jail after the 
Johannesburg church raid and the message against police brutality and 
xenophobia could not wait.
The police have now retaliated against the organisers of the protest. 
Hanekom said they informed him that they had opened a docket for the 
gathering and he says they might be issuing a warrant of arrest for him.
On the positive side Hanekom said that it was encouraging to see Congolese, 
Burundis, South Africans and even American students join the protest in 
solidarity. The protestors marched to the Cape Town Central Police Station 
where they picketed and presented a memorandum against police hostilities 
towards foreign immigrants.

http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=136283

Madhesi, Limbuwan strikes cripple eastern Nepal
Kantipur Report

BIRATNAGAR, Feb 3 - Normal life across swaths of eastern Terai
plains and hills have been thrown out of gear due to general strikes
called by a number of agitating Madhesi and other ethnic groups.
Highways in the region were a deserted look while businesses and
educational institutions have been affected.

The Joint Madhesi Front comprising the Madhesi People's Rights
Forum, Nepal Sadbhavana Party led by Rajendra Mahato and a few other
groups has called a two-day banda in eastern Terai from Sunday.

A strike called by the Federal Limbuwan State Council in nine
districts in eastern Nepal entered third day Sunday.

Jhapa and Ilam districts have been affected due to the transport
strike called by the Limbuwan group to seek release of its activists
arrested by the police a few days back.

>From districts in the eastern region such as Ilam, Jhapa, Morang,
Sunsari, Saptari, Siraha, to those in central Nepal including
Rautahat and Bara in central Terai have been partially affected due
to the strikes.

The Sunsari-Morang industrial corridor has come to a grinding halt.

This morning, the MPRF activists have taken 14 motorcycles under
their control in Biratnagar for defying the banda.

They said the bikes would be returned to their owners after the
strike ends.

Nasty turns

Limbuwan protestors have vandalised a truck at Birtamod in Jhapa.

Also this morning, cadres of an armed outfit called the Madhesi
Mukti Tigers torched a passenger bus at Nikuniya stretch of the East-
West Highway in Siraha.

A group of around a dozen MMT cadres forced the passengers to get
off the bus heading from Pokhara to Kakarvitta before setting it on
fire.

They have also looted cash and other good belonging to the
passengers.

The Madhesi activists are demanding implementation of 22-point
agreement sealed with the government a few months back while the
indigenous Limbuwan group wants its activists arrested

a republican Nepal and autonomy for the community before the
Constituent Assembly elections slated for April 10.

Almost regular strikes in eastern Nepal have only aggravated the
woes of the common people of the region.

http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/notes5/note431.html
Posted on: 2008-02-03 01:23:03 (Server Time)
Note No. 431 29-Feb-2008
NEPAL: Terai Agitation Ends- Update No. 152
By Dr. S.Chandrasekharan.

On the sixteenth day of agitation and loss of two more lives on the
27th, the Government and the Madhesi leaders signed an eight-point
agreement tht partially fulfilled their demands. Prime Minister
G.P.Koirala was personally present along with the two leaders of UML
and the Maoists ( Madhav Nepal and Prachanda) to sign the agreement
and on behalf of the Madhesi Movement, Mahanta Thakur, Upendra Yadav
and Ramchandra Mahato signed.

G.P.Koirala, after signing the agreement started in Hindi and then
switched to Nepali much to the delight of the Madhesis who had
assembled at the venue. Briefly the eight point agreement covered
the following aspects.

1. Those killed during the Madhesi movement will be declared as
martyrs and their families will be given one million rupees as
compensation. ( This is only a reiteration of what was agreed to in
the 22 point agreement though the list has grown longer with deaths
even a day before the agreement)

2. The structure of the Madhesi and other autonomous regions,
devolution, division of powers between the states and the centre and
sharing of resources will all be done through the Constituent
Assembly without any detriment to the sovereignty, unity and
integrity of the country. ( This is as vague as it could be, as no
interim government can promise something that it cannot accomplish
and it would now depend on the configuration of the elected
constituent assembly after April 10.)

3. The inclusive list is only for parties that file more than 30
percent of the total seats and not 20 percent as the Election Act
had declared before. ( This is a reasonable and a doable clause as
the Madhesis form 32 percent of the population and the parties
representing the Madhesis need not diffuse its representation to non
Madhesis so long as it is within the percentage limits of their
population.)

4. The government will ensure that proportional representation of
Madhesis, aboriginal people, indigenous nationalities, Dalit and
backward communities in all sections of governance including the
security organisations, in appointment, promotion and selection
process. (This again is a reiteration of what had been agreed to and
the civil service act has since been amended.)

5. Madhesis including the marginalised groups will be recruited
group wise in Nepal Army so as to ensure the principle of
inclusiveness (This was a tricky issue and an agreement was reached
only at the last minute. En masse recruitment as Madhesis wanted
would not have been possible, but so long as the govt. keeps in mind
the accepted policy of "Iinclusivess", group recruitment should go a
long way in redressing the balance)

6. Both the Government and the UMDF call on all armed groups in
Terai to come to the negotiating table, urging all to help conduct
the forthcoming CA Polls in a peaceful, violence free, impartial and
fearless manner. ( This by itself may not bring the armed groups to
the table. One suggestion was to give them amnesty just as has been
done for the Maoists and it is necessary for the people to persuade
them to come to the negotiating table and not disrupt the elections)

7. In pursuance of the 22 point agreement with the MJF, the
government will release all the MJF leaders and cadres from custody
and withdraw all lawsuits filed against them. ( The government was
dragging its feet after the 22 point agreement entered on August 30,
2007 and it is now being re stated.)

8. The UMDF has agreed to end all kinds of agitation immediately in
Terai (This should be a welcome relief to those residing in Terai
who were in constant fear amidst curfews and shortage of essential
goods.)

http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/383/Update/14401

Tackling the tarai
3.25PM NST | 18 January 2008
>From Issue #383 (18 January 08 - 24 January 08) | TABLE OF CONTENTS


A meeting of the high level taskforce advised the government on Wednesday to 
arrange for talks with madhesi militant groups, who have threatened to 
launch protests in the tarai from Saturday.

Talking to the press after the meeting at the Maoists HQ at Buddhanagar, the 
UML's Madhab Kumar Nepal said: “The meeting advised the government to talk 
to the dissatisfied groups in the tarai to create a suitable environment for 
the election.” The meeting also agreed that the integration of the PLA will 
be done as arranged by the interim constitution and according to the 
decision of a cabinet committee.

Meanwhile, the seven party will meet in Biratnagar on Saturday for their 
second joint assembly. Despite plans of protest by the various madhesi 
groups, organisers claim that the mass meeting will go ahead.

UML leader Madhab Kumar Nepal, Bimalendra Nidhi of NC, Maoist leader Baburam 
Bahttarai, Shyam Sundar Gupta of Anandadevi Sadvawana Party, Sunil 
Parajapati of the Communist Workers and Peasants Party and Bam Morcha leader 
C P Mainali are expected to address the assembly. According to the 
organiser, party workers in Jhapa, Sunsari, Saptari and Udayapur are 
preparing to participate in large numbers.

Upendra Yadav led MJF and Rajendra Mahato’s Sadhvawana Party have also 
called their party workers for an assembly in Lahan on the same day.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,532423,00.html

February 01, 2008
'WE'RE SITTING ON A POWDER KEG'
Immigrants Protest Death of Moroccan Teenager in Cologne
By Barbara Schmid and Andreas Ulrich

Following the violent death of a Moroccan teenager in Cologne,
hundreds of immigrants have taken to the streets in nightly
demonstrations to protest what they see as evidence of their second-
class status in Germany. Police warn the city could be ready to
explode.

The owner of an electronics shop on Cologne's Kalker Hauptstrasse
had rolled down the shutters on the windows in case there was
unrest. Now they have photos of a 17-year-old Moroccan boy taped to
them. The teenager, whose name was Salih, was killed in front of the
shop two weeks ago.

The sidewalk is a sea of candles as hundreds of people
chant: "Salih! Salih! We want justice!" They feel that Salih was one
of them -- a youth from an immigrant family.

For the police, the case is clear cut. According to their version of
events, Salih allegedly wanted to mug a 20-year-old German man, who
tried to defend himself. But he panicked and pulled out a
pocketknife that he plunged into Salih's heart with an unlucky stab.
Prosecutors said it was a clear case of self-defense, and there are
witnesses. But none of that matters any longer.

Every night last week, up to 300 protestors gathered at the spot
where Salih died to demand "justice" instead of letting his killer
walk free. They are protesting against "racism in Germany" -- but
since it appears clear that this case involves self-defense, it's
obviously about more than just the unfortunate Salih. It's more
about how immigrants and their children feel they are currently
being treated in Germany.

The incident has struck a chord with those who feel disenfranchised
from German society -- those without a proper education or
vocational training, those without a future. The frustration is
palpable. "We're sitting on a powder keg," warns former police
commissioner Winrich Granitzka, who is also head of the Christian
Democratic group in Cologne's city council. "There's the danger we
could see a situation like in the suburbs of Paris."

Cologne certainly isn't Paris and the district of Kalk can't be
compared with the high-rise suburban ghettoes surrounding the French
capital. But Kalk, which used to be home to a chemical plant, is
certainly depressing. The only bright spot is the large and colorful
new shopping center, which stands out from its gray surroundings.

Immigrants and people with at least one non-German parent make up
54.7 percent of Kalk's population. The amount of young people
between 15 and 18 living there is above average; education levels,
on the other hand, are below average. Some 90 percent of people
without a job in the area count as long-term unemployed.

"It seems to me as if they only send losers here," says Kemal
Düzardic, a 22-year-old friend of the dead teenager. He and the
others gather near the photos and candles even in the cold and the
rain. One question weighs heavily on their minds. What if a German
had died and the killer had been one of them?

A mere eight hours after the incident happened, the police announced
it had been a case of self-defense and no charges would be pressed.
The statement was "somewhat unfortunately formulated," admits
Cologne police officer Catherine Maus in hindsight.

The "unfortunate" wording came at a particularly unfortunate
time. "We have too many criminal foreigners," Roland Koch, the
conservative governor of the state of Hesse, said in late December.
In his re-election campaign, which many observers considered
xenophobic (more...), Koch made clear he thought immigrants should
assimilate and shouldn't expect Germans to accommodate their
cultural practices.

Of course, many of the Kalk youths who were born and raised within
sight of Cologne's towering cathedral and speak the local German
dialect don't consider themselves "foreigners." But Koch's populist
attacks still resonated throughout the immigrant community.

"Stop this Racist," was the headline in the Turkish newspaper
Hürriyet, accompanied by a caricature of the Christian Democrat
politician with an extra-long nose. The Social Democrats, the left-
wing Left party, the Greens and even a few Christian Democrats
distanced themselves from Koch. Only the mass circulation newspaper
Bild took his side and delighted in featuring new stories
about "foreign" repeat offenders with long criminal records on an
almost daily basis.

But the people with immigrant backgrounds in Kalk read Bild
too. "What's with this crap?" says one irritated young man. "We grew
up here, we aren't criminals. So why are we treated differently than
other Germans?"

'We Feel like Second-Class Citizens'

For more than 40 years, the German mainstream tried to assert that
Germany wasn't a "country of immigration." That attitude has had
repercussions. Around 72 percent of Germany's 1.7 million Turks -- 
the largest group of foreigners living in the country -- don't have
proper vocational qualifications. Some 40 percent of young people
from immigrant families neither study nor pursue a traineeship after
they leave school. They do odd jobs or hang around -- and they make
up a disproportionate amount of violent offenders.

"The city of Cologne does a lot for integration," says police
director Michael Temme, who has been keeping a careful eye on how
his officers have been policing the demonstrations. But he admits
there are "hot spots" in the city, including in Kalk. And so every
evening he finds himself wondering if this will be the night when a
spark finally ignites the powder keg, if this will be the night when
shop windows get shattered and cars go up in flames.

"We feel like second-class citizens," says a middle-aged Moroccan
man. "It will never stop, maybe it will even get worse," adds a
young man. A group of intimidating-looking youths chant: "Salih,
Salih!" They want a different kind of justice. It sounds more like a
call for revenge.

Part 2: The High Cost of Failed Integration

"Something needs to happen to shake up Germany," says Social
Democratic parliamentarian Lale Akgün, quoting a phrase made famous
by former President Roman Herzog. "We need, at long last, social
policies that are based on acceptance, and we need a fundamental
reform of both education and social policy," she says. Germans need
foreigners and foreigners need Germans, she says.

It's an opinion shared by demographers and labor market experts. If
people aren't given the opportunity to get vocational skills and
qualifications, there will be "mass unemployment with a simultaneous
dearth of skilled labor," according to the Institute for Employment
Research (IAB).

A study commissioned by the Bertelsmann Foundation has calculated
that a lack of integration of immigrants in Germany has already cost
the country €16 billion. Many immigrants are unemployed, earn less
and pay smaller amounts of tax and social security contributions.

The protesters in Cologne's Kalk district know this and that's what
makes the situation so explosive. There's a feeling of not getting a
fair chance and of being disenfranchised.

Around a fifth of foreign children see themselves as being "strongly
discriminated against" or "individually disadvantaged," according to
a survey by the Germany Youth Institute (DJI) in Munich. More than
half feel they are neither respected nor treated equally. "Those are
strong opinions that they have formed based on their own
experiences," says DJI researcher Jan Skrobanek.

"We're not welcome here," says 14-year-old Fatima from Kalk. She
ostentatiously pulls down her headscarf to cover her face as she
stands in front of Salih's photo. "After elementary school we all
get shoved into the Hauptschule," she says, referring to the lowest
level of Germany's three-tier high school system. "None of us go to
Realschule (apprenticeship-track high school), only Germans go
there," she says. Her three older siblings couldn't find a
traineeship after finishing high school. Fatima doesn't believe her
luck will be any better.

Experts agree that youth crime in Germany isn't an ethnic problem,
but rather a social one. Immigrant children from middle-class
families and those that do well in school generally aren't
troublemakers. Those that manage to find an apprenticeship or a job
have a "significantly smaller feeling of being disadvantaged,"
according to youth researcher Skrobanek.

"We have to do everything we can to lower the high proportion of 40
percent of young immigrants without vocational qualifications,"
Maria Böhmer, the German government's commissioner for integration
affairs, announced recently.

The federal government wants to spend €350 million over the next
three years to work toward that goal. An employer will receive a
subsidy of at least €4,000 if they give an apprenticeship to an
applicant that has already unsuccessfully applied for one. It's a
beginning.

"But immigrants have to do their part as well," insists Social
Democrat Lale Akgün. "They have to give up their attitude of
rejection and join society."

In a survey carried out by the Center for Turkish Studies in Essen,
one-third of immigrant parents admitted that they would have
problems with a German son-in-law. Hence, not much can be expected
from the older generation -- which makes the future prospects of the
children that much worse.

"Many children experience an inconsistency in the way that they are
raised which they find very challenging," says Haci-Halil Uslucan
from the University of Magdeburg. At home they might be raised in a
patriarchal fashion that puts an emphasis on obedience, while at
school they are taught self-responsibility, individual choice and
equality. "This disconnect is extremely difficult to deal with,"
says Uslucan.

Anyone interested in establishing equal opportunities and preventing
young immigrants from drifting into criminality has to start
promoting language development and education as early as
kindergarten, says economist and criminologist Horst Entorf.

Salih, the dead teen from Kalk, had never had any run-ins with the
police. "He wanted to get his high school diploma," says his 23-year-
old brother Abdallah, who is studying electronics. Abdallah was part
of the street protests last week. But the more radical protesters
made him uneasy.

A few days ago, the Moroccan consul general visited Abdallah and his
parents. He explained to them that the police investigation had been
carried out conscientiously. But Abdallah still wonders whether a
foreigner would have been released so quickly.

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14633535

Visa protest: Indian workers to march to White House Monday, 31 March , 
2008, 08:48
Washington: Nearly 100 Indian workers, who claim they were lured to move to 
the US by false promises of permanent jobs, will march up to the White House 
on Monday and return their H2B visas in a symbolic rejection of the guest 
worker programme used to traffic them here.
For more news, analysis click here>> | For more NRI news click here >>

The workers, who complain they underwent "slave-like treatment" at a 
Mississippi shipyard, will also demand a Congressional investigation of 
their former employer Signal International.
Signal, a Northrop Grumman subcontractor that held them as bonded labourers 
and is already the subject of a criminal human trafficking investigation by 
the Department of Justice, a statement issued on behalf of them by the 
organisers said.
Allies from 'Jobs With Justice', a national campaign for workers' rights in 
United States, will join the workers, who arrived in Washington last week 
after a nine-day satyagraha, or "journey for justice" from New Orleans to 
Washington DC.
The group is among over 500 Indian welders and pipe-fitters trafficked to 
the US to work for Signal International after Hurricane Katrina.
The workers have filed a major class action anti-racketeering suit against 
Signal and its US and Indian recruiters in federal court.
Last Thursday, the workers had staged a protest rally at Dupont Circle and 
then marched to the Indian Embassy on Massachussetts Avenue where they had a 
three-hour meeting with the Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen. They had also 
demanded a CBI probe into their case.
Sen gave the workers and their representatives a patient hearing at the 
embassy in which he promised to take up their grievances but only though 
appropriate and established channels.

 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mumbai/Arun_Gandhi_son_held_during_protest/articleshow/2817799.cmsArun Gandhi, son held during protest27 Feb 2008, 0204 hrs IST,AGENCIESMUMBAI: Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Arun Gandhi was arrested on Tuesday whiletrying to stage a demonstration, defying prohibitory orders, near the statesecretariat.Gandhi and his activist son, Tushar, were taken to the Marine Drive policestation along with over 20 others, who the police charged with unlawfulassembly. They were released on personal bonds.The protest was against the "unfair treatment" of Gandhi by Zionist groupsin the US. Gandhi was pressured to resign from the MK Gandhi Institute forNon-Violence, Rochester University after his piece on the Palestine-Israelconflict came in for criticism.