[Onthebarricades] Ethnic and religious protests
Andy
ldxar1 at tesco.net
Mon Apr 14 18:04:55 PDT 2008
NOTE:
"Given word that potentially thousands of people from Serbia were heading
by bus to Mitrovica to join protesters Friday, police and troops closed the
border "for a short period of time," Bonneau said. That resulted in the
buses being turned back.
"When the situation was back to normal, people were able to cross on both
sides," he said. "We believe in freedom of movement, as long as we have
public order.""
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60240&archive=true
Which is EXACTLY the same as NOT believing in freedom of movement, which is
held hostage to "order"!
* SUDAN, PAKISTAN, BAHRAIN, AFGHANISTAN, THAILAND, UAE, OMAN, MOZAMBIQUE:
Protests over reprinting of Mohammed cartoons
* NIGERIA: Two dead in unrest over anti-Muslim leaflet
* US: Vietnamese rally for "Little Saigon"
* SERBIA: Mass unrest and protests over Kosovan independence in Belgrade,
Banja Luka (Bosnia), Mitrovica (Kosova); US embassy trashed, border posts
torched
Protests also held by Serbs in Canada, Austria, Belgium; in Melbourne a
police car was damaged
* CANADA: French language activists protest
* LEBANON: Eight shot in opposition protests; soldiers charged
Publicly Archived at Global Resistance:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7267732.stm
In pictures: Sudan cartoon protest
Thousands gathered in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, to protest against the
republication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad by Danish
newspapers.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C02%5C25%5Cstory_25-2-2008_pg7_34
School-going children stage anti-blasphemy protest
By Ali Waqar
LAHORE: A few dozens of schoolchildren held an anti-blasphemy demonstration
on the Multan Road to protest against the publishing of sketches of Prophet
Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) in Danish newspapers.
The protest, termed an awakening call for the students of a few private
schools, was arranged by Bazam-e-Pegham, an association working with the aim
to 'enlighten' students on Islam.
Some teachers and Bazam-e-Pegham society members also accompanied the
students in the protest. The students, wearing shrouds, posed as Ghazi
Ilamud Din Shaheed (the Muslim who killed Raj Pal on writing a blasphemous
book in the Subcontinent). The students of the Allama Iqbal High School and
Lahore Islamic Mission High School branches in the Canal View Housing
Society and on Wahdat Road participated in the protest.
A Bazam-e-Pegham spokesman told Daily Times that the protest was to send a
message to Denmark that the students of the city were ready to sacrifice
their lives for the love of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). "This is not extremism,
but our love for our Holy Prophet (PBUH)," said the spokesman. He said the
demonstration was also a call for rejecting European products.
Executive District Officer (Education) Chaudhry Zahid Hussain, commenting on
the issue, said no permission had been granted to public (government)
schools to hold such demonstrations.
He said it was surprising that some private schools and associations had
been engaging students in such activities (holding shroud-wearing rallies).
"Surely, we will take notice of this thing and seek an explanation from the
schools," he said. "There is no compromise on the dignity of the Holy
Prophet (PBUH), however, to propagate such issues through minor students is
also something 'strange'."
Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, an Islamic scholar and a member of the Council of
Islamic Ideology, stressed the need for resolving the issue in a civilised
manner. "The Muslims need to promote tolerance instead of encouraging
rallies and protests amongst minor students," he said, adding that the Holy
Prophet (PBUH) had never promoted violence and had always taught to deal
with problems in a peaceful manner.
Mufti Sarfaraz Ahmed Naeemi of Jamia Naeemia, however, had a different point
of view. He said the reaction to the cartoons could have been logical if
they had been printed in a book. "These cartoons have been printed in
newspapers and that is why the Pakistani Muslims want to stage protests to
highlight their sentiments through the media," he said.
He added that there was no harm in peaceful protests, even by students, as
the objective of such protests could be to create stir the emotions of the
youth and students.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=209679&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=30341
Protest over cartoons
HUNDREDS of people took to the streets yesterday in protest against the
reprinting of blasphemous cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed in the Danish
media.
The protest started from Al Qadam roundabout in Budaiya, moved towards Sehla
and ended at Al Hashimi Centre in Jidhafs.
It was organised by the Islamic Scholars Council and spearheaded by
organising committee head Sayed Mohammed.
"The citizens of Bahrain expressed their anger and disapproval of the
westerner's uncivilised behaviour towards the continuous insult of Prophet
Mohammed," he said.
"The Bahrain government should have a clear stance on such actions and take
our protests seriously.
"We are also expressing our disapproval to the careless Islamic governments,
who allow such atrocities and do not defend their prophet."
"We are shocked to see that these Islamic countries are ignoring these
continuous oppressions and that is why today we are calling upon all Islamic
countries to stand up and defend their religion."
MPs condemned the reprinting of blasphemous cartoons during a parliament
session on Tuesday.
However, they were divided on whether to form a temporary committee to
discuss their response or simply issue a statement.
In the end they did both, pledging to do all they could to fight those who
mock Islam.
The general-secretariat office assigned members to the committee and issued
a condemnation on Thursday.
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-02/2008-02-22-voa37.cfm?CFID=32317849&CFTOKEN=90809349
Hundreds of Pakistanis Protest Danish Cartoon
By VOA News
22 February 2008
Supporters of Pakistan's hardline fundamentalist party, Jamaat-e-Islami
shout anti-Danish slogans during protest in Karachi, 22 Feb 2008
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Pakistan's major cities Friday, to
protest the re-publication of a controversial Danish cartoon depicting the
Prophet Muhammed.
In the capital, Islamabad, more than 300 students rallied outside a mosque,
burning Danish flags and chanting slogans against Denmark. A similar
protest was also held in Pakistan's biggest city in the south, Karachi.
Danish newspapers re-printed a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammed wearing a
turban with a bomb in it last week. The papers said the publication was an
expression of freedom after police foiled a plot to murder the cartoonist.
The drawing caused bloody riots across the Muslim world when it was
originally published two years ago.
Islamic law generally prohibits any images or depiction of the Prophet.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030503169.html
Cartoon, Film Spark Protest In Afghanistan
Associated Press
Thursday, March 6, 2008; Page A15
KABUL, March 5 -- Hundreds of Afghan protesters burned the Dutch and Danish
flags Wednesday and demanded that their troops leave Afghanistan in the
latest outcry against the reprinting of a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad in
Denmark and an upcoming Dutch film criticizing the Koran.
The United Nations, meanwhile, called for a peaceful dialogue to overcome
the animosity caused by the cartoon and film.
More than 300 people gathered in central Logar province for a demonstration
organized by students, deputy provincial police chief Abdul Majid Latifi
said.
Protesters burned the Danish and Dutch flags and urged President Hamid
Karzai to issue a statement of condemnation, said Mohammad Shafiq Popal,
head of a Logar youth association.
Last month, in a gesture of solidarity, Denmark's leading newspapers
reprinted a cartoon of Muhammad after Danish police said they had uncovered
a plot to kill the artist, whose drawing helped spark deadly riots in 2006.
The reprinting triggered further protests.
The Afghan protesters were also angered by an upcoming Dutch short film that
reportedly portrays the Koran as a "fascist book."
Aleem Siddique, a U.N. official in Afghanistan, pressed for calm in
resolving the misunderstanding.
Criticism of Muhammad and the Koran carries the death sentence in
Afghanistan, a Muslim nation.
More than 200 Afghan lawmakers gathered Tuesday, urging the Danish and Dutch
governments to stop blasphemy against Islam.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southasia/news/article_1394495.php/Thousands_of_Afghans_protest_reprint_of_Danish_Mohammed_caricature
Thousands of Afghans protest reprint of Danish Mohammed caricature
Mar 8, 2008, 8:06 GMT
Kabul - Thousands of people in western Afghanistan gathered on Saturday to
protest the reprint of a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed in Denmark and
an upcoming film by a Dutch legislator that criticizes the Koran, officials
said.
The protesters gathered in the stadium of Herat city and were chanting
slogans against Denmark and the Netherlands, Noor Khan Nikzad, spokesman for
the provincial police chief, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
'More than 10,000 people, including scholars, school and university students
and local citizens of Herat city, have gathered in the stadium,' Nikzad
said.
The people were informed about the gathering though an announcement by
state-run television in the province, he said, adding that hundreds of
police officers were deployed around the centre of the city to provide
security and control the mob if they turned violent.
Hundreds of schoolboys also tied black cloths around their heads with the
inscription 'God is great' and carried banners that condemned the reprint of
the cartoon and the making of the film.
'We want to show to the world that the Muslim people of Afghanistan can not
tolerate an insult to our religion or our holy prophet,' Aslam Mohammadi, a
scholar and one of the organizers of the demonstration, told dpa by phone.
The protesters were chanting slogans 'Death to Denmark and death to
Holland,' protester Gulab Shah said.
The demonstration in Herat followed a similar gathering in different parts
of the country in the past week. Several Afghan officials also condemned the
cartoons.
'For Afghanistan it is intolerable and unacceptable that the religious
belief and faith of 1 billion people is subjected to disrespect,' Afghan
Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta told a press conference on Wednesday.
'Those who print these kinds of insulting cartoons, they are pioneers in
cultural clashes ... and they are against peace and friendship of human
beings,' he said.
The protesters in Herat also asked the Afghan government to expel the Dutch
and Danish soldiers, who serve in the country as part of the NATO-led
peacekeeping forces.
There are over 1,600 Dutch soldiers in the volatile southern province of
Uruzgan, and nearly 800 Danish soldiers mostly stationed in neighbouring
Helmand province, where the Taliban-led insurgency is the most active.
The first publication of the Prophet Mohammed cartoons in a Danish newspaper
in 2006 sparked widespread condemnations and demonstrations throughout the
Islamic world.
Several people were killed in bloody demonstrations in Afghanistan after the
Afghan police opened fire on protesters.
A leading Danish newspaper reprinted the cartoons after the Danish police
discovered a plot to kill the artist.
Afghanistan is a conservative Islamic country that regards disrespect of the
Prophet Mohammed and the Koran as blasphemy, the punishment for which is
death.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0310/p25s01-wosc.html
Danish cartoons: one Afghan's peaceful protest
Muhammad Sediq Afghan's hunger strike has inspired dozens to join his
nonviolent efforts.
By Anand Gopal | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
from the March 10, 2008 edition
Kabul, Afghanistan - Hundreds of demonstrators marched the streets of Kabul
Sunday, calling for the eviction of Danish and Dutch troops, while in the
western city of Herat, thousands assembled and burned the nations' flags.
Yet even as angry protests sweep the country in response to the
republication of cartoon images of the prophet Muhammad, in one park in
Kabul, protesters are taking a different approach - one they say better
reflects their religion of peace.
Muhammad Sediq Afghan, a professor at the Kabul-based World Philosophical
Mathematics Research Center, is sitting in a small tent near the center of
town, where he has spent close to a week without food.
Mr. Afghan is leading a dozen others in a hunger strike to protest the
Danish cartoons and a film by a Dutch politician that compares the Koran to
Hitler's "Mein Kempf." "I will continue to fast until the authors
apologize," he says. "Others are burning flags and rioting. We don't like
this - we want to do things peacefully."
It is an unlikely tactic in a war-torn country with a history of violent
protests. Two years ago, a Danish newspaper printed cartoon images of
Muhammad that many Muslims considered offensive, sparking protests and riots
across the Muslim world. Last month, Danish newspapers republished the
images after police uncovered a plot to murder the cartoon's author. At the
same time, Dutch papers announced the March release of a film that contends
that the Koran is "an inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror."
Protests erupted again throughout the Muslim world, including in
Afghanistan. In the eastern city of Jalalabad, furious protesters torched
the Danish and Dutch flags, while more than 200 Afghan lawmakers shouted,
"Death to enemies of Islam," in a demonstration outside the parliament
building in Kabul.
But Afghan insists that the violent few do not represent most Muslims. When
two locals passed by his solitary tent last week, they were inspired to
plant tents of their own and join in the hunger strike.
"I was visiting from Kunduz [a distant province], when I saw Mr. Afghan's
tent," striker Bashir Ahmad says. "I agreed with his message, and I don't
think violence is the way to solve this issue. So I decided to join the
strike, and I've been here ever since."
The following day a few more joined. By Day 5, more than 60 people had
gathered in this small Kabul park, transforming one man's stand into a forum
where strikers give passionate speeches defending Islam.
The protests come at a time when many Afghans feel that the West judges them
unfairly, observers say. Local journalist Hamid Asir asks, "British
newspapers agreed not to publish stories about Prince Harry's stay in
Afghanistan. But when someone publishes something that is hurtful to over
one billion people, why does the West talk about press freedom?"
Analysts warn that the specter of continued violence still looms large,
especially if the Dutch film is released, and that some will seek to gain
from the events. "Violent protests are often orchestrated or manipulated by
powerful religious figures," says Nadim Shehadi, London-based analyst.
But Afghan and his fellow strikers hope their peaceful methods will strike a
chord. "Europe has spent billions on Afghanistan," says the mathematician,
pallid and emaciated from a week without food. "But we'd much rather just
have them respect our religion."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7285168.stm
Saturday, 8 March 2008, 14:31 GMT
Afghans protest against cartoons
Protesters are incensed at the reprinting of the cartoons
Thousands of people in Afghanistan have been protesting against the
reprinting of cartoons in Danish newspapers they say are insults to Islam.
At the scene of the biggest protest, in the western city of Herat, police
say more then 10,000 people took to the streets to denounce Denmark.
They also condemned the planned release of a Dutch film critical of the
Koran.
They burned Dutch and Danish flags, and called for their troops to be
removed from the Nato force in Afghanistan.
Saturday's protests have been the largest in the last two weeks in
Afghanistan.
Thousands of demonstrators walked to Herat's main sports stadium, shouting
angry slogans against Denmark and the Netherlands for alleged insults
against Islam.
One of the protesters, Mir Farooq Hussaini, blamed the US and its allies for
what he saw as blasphemy against Islam.
"We are here today to show our anger for what happened in Denmark, and to
all infidels in the leadership of criminal America for what is going on in
the world," he said.
"If next time our beliefs are insulted, we will give a lesson to America and
its allies the way we gave a lesson to Russia when they had occupied our
country."
Biggest protest
These protests are believed to be the biggest since 2006, when cartoons of
the Prophet Muhammad were published in a Danish newspaper, causing outrage
and sparking riots across the Muslim world.
Last month, Denmark's leading newspapers reprinted one of the cartoons,
after Danish police said they had uncovered a plot to kill the artist, whose
drawing was one of 12 cartoons that had angered many Muslims.
The reprinting triggered another wave of protests in Islamic countries.
Saturday's protesters in Herat were also angered by the forthcoming release
of a short film by a right-wing member of the Dutch parliament, Geert
Wilders, as the film reportedly portrays the Koran in a negative light.
Afghanistan is an Islamic republic where criticism of the Prophet Muhammad
and the Koran can carry the death sentence.
Last week, more than 200 Afghan MPs protested in parliament, and urged the
Danish and Dutch governments to prevent what they said was blasphemy against
Islam.
http://bangkokpundit.blogspot.com/2008/03/muslim-protest-outside-danish-embassy.html
Around 800 Thai Muslims claiming to represent the Bangkok Islamic community
burnt a Danish flag and marched on the country's embassy on Wednesday to
protest the reprinting of cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad by Danish
newspapers.
Members of the Thailand-based Muslims Group for Peace rallied outside the
embassy, shouting "Allah Akbar," (God is great"), burnt a flag and photos of
the Danish prime minister Anders Fosh Rasmussen and Danish cartoonist Kurt
Westergaard.
They called on all Thai Muslims to boycott Danish goods.
There also were demonstrations in Pakistan, where young people burnt tyres
and blocked roads in Multan to protest the reprinting of the cartoons.
In Bangkok, leaders of the group denied reports they were organised or
supported by the Iranian embassy in Bangkok.
They said that the protesters came from Nong Chok district in Minburi, a
Muslim neighbourhood in Bangkok, but were Sunni Muslims with no affiliation
to Iran.
They also denied any political motivation behind their demonstration, apart
from a protest against the Danish government's "disregard" of the offensive
cartoons.
"We should do something more violent than just protest, but today we are
keeping it peaceful," said Suloh Salaimad, a member of the Muslim group for
Peace.
The Bangkok protest followed a call last Friday in Teheran by prayer leader
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami for the Islamic world to cut ties with Denmark over
the cartoons, and hardline members of parliament echoed that call.
According to the Teheran media, Iran hopes to make the cartoons and "those
who desecrate Prophet Muhammad" a central issue at the summit of the
Organisation of the Islamic Conference which opens on Thursday in Dakar,
Senegal.
The protesters, some of them wearing T-shirts reading "Jihad" or "We Love
Mohammad," sat in the road in front of the embassy and listened to speeches
denouncing the Scandinavian country. Several demonstrators unfurled a banner
saying "Boycott Denmark."
The Bangkok protest was purportedly prompted by last month's reprinting of
12 cartoons that triggered an uproar in 2006 when they were first published
in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspapers, sparking violent protests in many
Muslim countries.
The cartoons were reprinted in February in several Danish newspapers after
police said they had foiled a murder plot against Danish newspaper
cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose cartoon of Muhammad with a bomb in his
turban was deemed especially offensive.
"We want the world to know that you can't fool with Islam," said Mureed
Teemasean, addressing the demonstration outside the Danish embassy in
Bangkok.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200803171117.htm
UAE, Oman boycott Danish products
Dubai (PTI): Supermarkets in the UAE and Oman have stopped selling Danish
products to protest against the new publication in Denmark of a
controversial newspaper cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.
In the UAE, the Union Co-operative Society in Dubai has withdrawn all Danish
products from its shelves as a mark of protest against the resurfacing of
the blasphemous cartoon controversy, representatives of the various branches
of the Society in the emirate said Monday.
The recent republication of the 2005 offensive cartoons by several Danish
newspapers has sparked a series of protests and anger among Muslims around
the world.
http://www.poptel.org.uk/mozambique-news/newsletter/aim315.html
Muslims march in protest at cartoons
More than a thousand Muslims marched in Maputo city on 25 February to
protest against the publication of the controversial cartoons of the Prophet
Mohamed by the independent weekly "Savana". The cartoons in question, which
caused a wave of demonstrations by Muslims around the world, were first
published in a Danish paper, in September 2005.
On 17 February "Savana" republished eight of the 12 cartoons on the founder
of Islam, the Prophet Mohammed, which first appeared in the Danish paper
"Jyllands-Posten". Among the cartoons which "Savana" chose to reprint is the
most polemical of all - which shows Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.
The march in Maputo started in the suburb of Alto Mae and ended in
Independence Square, where the demonstrators prayed for about three hours.
Some of the banners carried by the demonstrators demanded the sacking of
Savana's director, Kok Nam, and its editor, Fernando Goncalves.
Demonstrators wore T-shirts proclaiming that "Islam equals Peace and
Tolerance", and held banners with slogans such as "Danish papers please do
not offend us", "Prophet Mohamed, compassion to humankind, we repudiate all
those who offend prophet Mohamed, shoulder by shoulder we will win".
The "Savana" management has formally apologised to the Muslim community for
publishing the cartoons, and has stated that the publication of the cartoons
was only aimed at showing people what was the object of such a hot
controversy.
The cartoons were first published in Denmark, and elicited no reaction
beyond Denmark's borders. They were then republished in October in an
Egyptian paper - and, although the great majority of the Egyptian population
are Muslims, there was no reaction.
Only in late January, when a few Danish Imans hawked the cartoons round the
Middle East (plus three forged ones that did not appear in
"Jyllands-Posten"), was an artificial fury inflamed.
Islamic fundamentalists started issuing death threats, and boycotts of
Danish products were initiated. In solidarity with the Danes, newspapers in
several other European countries, starting with Norway, republished the
cartoons.
Mobs in Syria sacked the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus, and the
same fate overtook the Danish embassy in Beirut. The row has subsequently
spread across the Islamic world.
Muslims account for about 18 per cent of the Mozambican population,
according to the 1997 census.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/184708,riot-over-anti-moslem-leaflet-leaves-at-least-two-dead-in.html
Riot over anti-Moslem leaflet leaves at least two dead in Nigeria
Posted : Sat, 09 Feb 2008 12:28:05 GMT
Abuja - At least two people including a police inspector were reported
killed in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim North Saturday during a violent
protest over a leaflet allegedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed. A riot
broke out in Sumaila town in Kano state when a group of youths protested
circulation of a leaflet deemed slanderous to the Prophet Mohammed,
according to the chairman of Sumaila Council area in the state, Zubairu
Hamza.
Briefing the Deputy Governor of the State, Abdullahi Gwarzo, at the site of
the violence, Hamza said the Sumaila police outpost and vehicles parked
outside the building were also destroyed.
Hamza said a "mob" trailed one of a group of non-Muslim students of the
Government Secondary School suspected of being behind the distribution of
the leaflet to the police station where he was taking refuge.
The violence broke out when police refused to surrender the "suspect".
Deputy Governor Gwarzo described the incident as "unfortunate" and gave an
assurance that those responsible would be brought to book.
He stressed that no religion condoned slandering of a prophet and urged the
people of the town to expose any person who indulged in acts capable of
disturbing the peace.
Police Commissioner Mohammed Yesufu later confirmed the arrest of 25 persons
in connection with the riot, and added that two persons, not three as stated
in earlier reports, had been killed.
A similar riot occurred at Tudun Wada, headquarters of Tudun council area of
Kano state last October, during which several lives were lost.
And last Sunday, one person was killed and dozens wounded in religious
violence in the Shira council area of Bauchi State, also a predominantly
Muslim state in Nigeria's north-east.
The Bauchi protesters also burnt down a police station and places of worship
in the area because police officers on duty refused to hand over a woman
taking refuge in the station after being accused of desecrating the Koran.
A year ago 30 people were killed during a similar religious uprising
following the alleged desecration of the Koran by a female teacher in a
state-run secondary school in Bauchi. In 1991, about 200 people were killed
in sectarian violence in Bauchi state.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_8429927?nclick_check=1
'Little Saigon' protest draws 2,500 in advance of Tuesday's vote
By Joshua Molina
More than 2,500 people converged at San Jose City Hall on Sunday to demand
that the city name a Vietnamese retail area on Story Road "Little Saigon, as
new allegations emerged that Councilwoman Madison Nguyen had a "private
deal" with a developer to pick a different name.
The rally - the largest ever at City Hall - set the stage for a climactic
vote Tuesday night.
The spirited crowd waved the red and yellow flag of South Vietnam before the
1975 communist takeover, shouting "Little Saigon" in unison. Young families
with babies in strollers and seniors seemed united in their rage against the
city.
The huge turnout was the latest - and most vivid example - that the city
council has let the Little Saigon controversy spin wildly out of control.
Last November, by an 8-3 vote, the council approved "Saigon Business
District" as the name - a move that led to the extraordinary backlash.
"The whole city council spat in our face," said Thien Ho, a 23-year-old
bio-chemistry major at San Jose State University. "Even though we came out
and showed our support for Little Saigon, they didn't listen. It was like
they had already made up their mind."
While the official crowd estimate from City Hall security staff was 2,500,
Little Saigon supporters claimed several thousand more were in attendance.
The Little Saigon blowup has become the biggest political issue in San Jose,
sparking international interest that the council would gladly see go away.
Many
protesters believe that the council betrayed them and that Nguyen - who is
at the center of the firestorm - cooked up a deal behind the scenes nearly a
year ago with a developer, Lap Tang, to name the area "Vietnam Town Business
District."
Tang is building a new mall that he plans to call "Vietnam Town."
On Sunday, organizers announced to the crowd and presented e-mail
correspondence between Nguyen and the city's redevelopment agency, showing
that the councilwoman as far back as April was pushing for the name "Vietnam
Town" and that the developer was willing to pay for signage.
The e-mail exchange, her political opponents charge, is proof of a hidden
agenda and early dislike of the name "Little Saigon."
The "Vietnam Town" name fell through after the city attorney informed the
redevelopment agency staff that private outside dollars could not be used to
fund the project.
On Sunday, Nguyen dismissed the allegations.
She said that early on she contacted many of the property owners on Story
Road because she thought that naming the area "Vietnam Town" might be "cool"
because it was also the name of the private development. But, she said, once
the city attorney weighed in on the issue, she backed off - and began to
reach out to the public to decide on a name. At that point, Nguyen said, she
had no preference for a name.
"I have been accused of everything possible under the sun," Nguyen said.
"This is just another scheme to steer the public in the wrong direction.
This is just another mechanism or tactic to continue this charade."
Members of San Jose Voters For Democracy, the main group pushing for the
name Little Saigon, plan to focus on the e-mail exchange on Tuesday night as
another reason that the council should name the area Little Saigon.
"They know what the community wants, so why deny it?" said Martha Nguyen-Le
of Fremont, a Vietnamese emigre. "Here, it is supposed to be about
democracy."
In recent weeks, the council has faced allegations of breaking the Brown
Act, the state's open meeting law. Because of questions about whether Nguyen
spoke to a majority of the council prior to the November vote, the city
attorney said the perception alone is enough reason why the council should
reconsider its vote.
The controversy has also had its surreal moments.
Ly Tong, a 63-year-old anti-communist crusader, launched a hunger strike on
Feb. 15 and is camped out in front of City Hall. Tong has escaped from
several communist prisons, trekked 1,600 miles across Southeast Asia and
hijacked a Vietnam Airlines jet and dropped 50,000 leaflets over Ho Chi Minh
City, proclaiming himself the "commander in chief" of an anti-communist
revolution.
The stunt landed him six years in prison during the '90s.
Since the vote, the activists have also held weekly rallies outside City
Hall.
The issue has also soured relationships among city council members. Vice
Mayor Dave Cortese originally voted against Little Saigon but has since
broken ranks with Nguyen.
"This is an issue of freedom," said Cortese, who is running for county
supervisor. "This is an issue of human rights. This is an issue of
democracy. The people have spoken. I will do everything in my power to make
sure on Tuesday Little Saigon prevails."
Nguyen has maintained throughout the ordeal that a "silent majority" opposes
Little Saigon. And recently more than 500 people in the Vietnamese community
put their names on an open letter calling for a calm solution to the
controversy.
But for thousands of Vietnamese-Americans, who believe that Little Saigon
represents their homeland, the solution is simple.
"I support Little Saigon," said Dung Tran of San Jose. "It stands for my
country. I want that name back.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-madison22mar22,1,2845957.story
Vietnam echoes in a San Jose feud
Email Picture
Joanne Ho-Young Lee / San Jose Mercury News
PROTEST: Thousands of Vietnamese from all over California, including Le Tu,
left, of Orange County and Tuan Nguyen of San Bernardino, rally in front of
San Jose City Hall in support of the Little Saigon name earlier this month.
Selecting a name for a business district sparks emotional debate and tests
the mettle of a young councilwoman.
By My-Thuan Tran, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 22, 2008
SAN JOSE -- The protesters gathered outside City Hall, marking another day
of anger. They waved South Vietnamese flags, yelled into bullhorns and held
signs saying "No Democracy in San Jose." Down the street, a fellow activist
was on Day 19 of his hunger strike.
Eighteen floors above the spectacle, Madison Nguyen attended to city
business. From her office, the chants of "Down with Madison" or the placards
with a slash drawn across her smiling face couldn't be seen or heard. But
the repercussions can be felt everywhere in San Jose's Vietnamese community.
Only months earlier, Nguyen was embraced as the beloved daughter of the
ethnic community. Now, some constituents are calling her a traitor and
communist sympathizer.
"My only intent was to bring a positive image to the Vietnamese," said
Nguyen, 33. "I didn't know I was opening up a big can of worms."
San Jose's Vietnamese community has been torn for more than eight months
over what to name the city's first Vietnamese shopping district, a decision
that might seem mundane if not for the fact that it cuts to the deepest
sensibilities in one of the country's largest Vietnamese American
communities.
Nguyen's popularity began to plunge when she suggested the area be named
Saigon Business District rather than Little Saigon, a name that to many here
is a powerful symbol of defiance to the Vietnamese communist regime and one
that would link them arm and arm with other Vietnamese enclaves that have
adopted the name.
The councilwoman's position -- a compromise selected from half a dozen
suggestions -- was taken as an insult.
The street protests that followed underscored again that the rules of
politics are different for a Vietnamese American politician, who must
navigate the lingering emotions of a community still defined by the Vietnam
War.
Even business owners, reporters, and pop singers carefully tiptoe around
inferences and innuendo that can cast a person as being soft on communism.
A misstep can launch vocal protests and accusations; reputations can be
tarnished. Most bow to the pressure.
Madison Nguyen, however, has played her hand differently. She said she was
willing to risk votes and upset constituents to exert her political
independence.
It's a risky gambit in places such as San Jose and Orange County, where
Vietnamese American politicians rely on the ethnic community as their base
and where the mood is colored by the loudest voices.
Fled Vietnam
Like many of her critics, Nguyen escaped Vietnam in the late 1970s. She was
4.
Her family eventually migrated to Modesto, where Nguyen and her eight
siblings helped her parents pick cherries and apricots after school. While
attending UC Santa Cruz, Nguyen skipped classes to protest with farm workers
for higher wages.
Nguyen became a history major and changed her name from Phuong to Madison to
honor former president James Madison.
She started a doctoral program studying the evolution of the Vietnamese
American community. She won a seat on the Franklin-McKinley school board in
San Jose and became the city's first Vietnamese American councilwoman in
2005.
Her eagerness to be independent and to strike compromises has rubbed some
the wrong way.
She believes the Vietnamese community is going through "growing pains" and
at times lacks an understanding of how local government works, but some see
Nguyen as young, immature, failing to be deferential.
"I feel that when [Vietnamese] people look at me, they feel that I am their
daughter instead of an elected official," she said.
Naming choices
When Nguyen proposed naming the Vietnamese retail district along Story Road,
there was a push to incorporate the name of the fallen capital of South
Vietnam, as in Little Saigon or New Saigon. Other proposed names, including
Vietnamtown or Vietnamese Business District, were criticized as glorifying
the communist country.
Nguyen initially refused to choose sides but finally proposed a compromise:
Saigon Business District. She thought it would placate her constituents
because Saigon had been renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Her council colleagues
sided with her.
But the protests outside City Hall grew louder and bigger. One rally drew
2,500; a council hearing attracted more than 1,000. She wasn't invited to
the annual Tet festival, a snub in the Vietnamese community.
"A non-Vietnamese can have the excuse of misunderstanding the sentiment of
our community," said Tom Vuong, 63. "But she is one of us."
At the recent council meeting, Nguyen sat poker faced for 6 1/2 hours as
hundreds in the community chastised her. Many invoked the memories of war.
"My family lost everything. Everything!" said a young man wearing a Little
Saigon sticker.
Some council members apologized, saying they had misgauged the Vietnamese
community's fervor. But Nguyen refused to apologize.
"I can't just represent a small segment or the most vocal segment of the
community," she said.
In the past, Vietnamese American politicians who have failed to cater to the
vocal rallying calls have come under fire.
Tony Lam, the first Vietnamese American elected official, had his
Westminster restaurant picketed for two months when he failed to show up
during the massive 1999 protests against a store owner who displayed
communist icons.
Lam said he was following the advice of the city attorney, but the protests
continued.
Little seems to have changed in Vietnamese politics, said Caroline Kieu Linh
Valverde, a UC Davis professor who spoke in Nguyen's defense at the meeting.
Some of the hundreds who signed a petition disagreeing with the "tactics" of
the Little Saigon supporters say they have been castigated as communist
sympathizers.
"We need to change the way Vietnamese Americans have conducted politics in
the last 30 years through intimidation and tough tactics that silence so
many of us," said Valverde.
To Nguyen, the district naming is a test of whether the community is ready
to move forward.
"I look at the situation and I say, 'You can either bring down the
Vietnamese community or you can elevate the image of the Vietnamese
community.' That's always in the back of my mind."
But the daily gossip about Nguyen rages at the Vietnamese coffee houses,
where some accuse her of acting with with the communist government or
conducting "back door dealings" with a developer to name the area. Some
among them suggest it may not be too late for Nguyen to repair her
reputation.
"We want her to learn to be better," said Barry Hung Do, a Little Saigon
supporter. He suggests that the councilwoman hold a community meeting,
explain herself and ask for forgiveness.
Nguyen said she has lost sleep over the issue, but she bursts into chuckles
when she tells of community leaders wanting her to "get permission" before
proposing the district name.
"If I ask one person, I have to ask 96,000 other people," Nguyen said. "I
don't have the time or the energy to go ask for everyone's permission
whenever I want to do something."
Residents decide
Earlier this month, the City Council rejected naming the area Little Saigon
and gave business owners and residents the right to decide.
A week later, officials signed an agreement with protesters allowing a sign
to be erected in the area. "Welcome to Little Saigon," it will read, even
though the area will lack such an official designation.
Some called it a victory. The hunger striker immediately stopped his
protest.
Nguyen said she hopes things can get back to normal so she can focus on
other problems in her district.
Little Saigon backers remain weary. They are now trying to remove her from
office.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/18/content_7620371.htm
Protests in Belgrade against Kosovo's independence turn into riots
BELGRADE, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- The protests against Kosovo's independence
in Serbian capital Belgrade turned into riots on Sunday, with two policemen
injured, local media reported.
Two riot police were hit when protests in front of the U.S. embassy
escalated into riots. Protesters destroyed cars, threw stones at and set
fire to the embassy building.
Riot police managed to keep protesters away from the embassy.
Protesters also smashed windows at the Slovenian Embassy in Belgrade,
and took the Slovenian and European Union flags away from the buildings.
Slovenia is the current holder of the EU presidency.
Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci declared independence at an
extraordinary session of the Kosovo parliament earlier on Sunday.
Kosovo was a southern autonomous province within Serbia before the
breakup of Yugoslavia. Among its population of 2 million, over 90 percent
are ethnic Albanians and about 7 percent are Serbs.
The independence-seeking province has been run by a UN mission since
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) drove the Serbian troops out there
in 1999.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/22/wbelgrade122.xml
Serb mob storm US embassy in Kosovo protest
By Alex Todorovic in Belgrade, and Harry de Quetteville in Pristina
Last Updated: 3:33am GMT 26/02/2008
Hundreds of Serbs have set fire to the American embassy in Belgrade as they
vented their outrage at the West's support for Kosovo's independence.
A group of 300 masked demonstrators broke away from a mass protest organised
by the government and smashed their way into the building as police looked
on.
Serb nationalists celebrate as flames rise from the US embassy after
protests in Belgrade turned violent
Fires were started on two floors of the building and the mob threw furniture
from an office window as they were egged on by hardline elements in the
crowd of 300,000 people. Flames quickly spread.
The building had been closed in advance of the protest and diplomatic staff
were told to stay at home.
However, images of an American embassy in flames in a European country will
provoke fury in Washington and stoke tensions between the US and Serbia.
With the rioters turning their attention to the neighbouring Croatian
embassy, the Belgrade government took action to quell the growing unrest and
sent paramilitary police armed with teargas to expel the intruders from the
two embassies. Firemen were then able to put out the blaze. The protesters
fled into side streets where they fought running battles with the police.
Sean McCormack, the US state department spokesman, said that while the
embassy had been empty, security officials and US marines were in a
different part of the mission's compound. The ambassador was at his
residence and in touch with Washington.
Mr McCormack said the Serb government had a responsibility to protect the
embassy.
The US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, said he was "outraged" by the
riot and he would seek condemnation by the UN Security Council.
The Turkish and Bosnian embassies also came under attack from protesters.
Earlier, the Serb prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, denounced the new
Kosovo government and its backers in America and the European Union.
"Kosovo belongs to Serbia," he said. "There is no force, no threat, no
punishment that is strong enough and bad enough for any Serb to say
differently."
The world's third-seeded men's tennis player, Novak Djokovic, addressed the
rally by video link. The vast protest was echoed by others across the
Balkans as incensed Serbs demonstrated from Bosnia to Kosovo itself.
Many Western embassies had closed their doors and warned their nationals to
stay away from the protest.
Despite the attack on the US embassy, most demonstrators remained calm as
darkness fell over Belgrade's parliament square, the rallying point where
bells rang out and prayer vigils were held.
The seething crowds cheered as Mr Kostunica thanked Vladimir Putin, the
Russian president, for Moscow's support.
Electronic signs displaying the message "Kosovo is Serbia" were flashed up
in Russian, as well as in Spanish - a reference to Spain's refusal to
recognise the new state amid its own fears about Catalonia and the Basque
country's aspirations for nationhood.
The hardline nationalist Tomislav Nikolic, who narrowly lost Serbia's
presidential election to the moderate Boris Tadic earlier this month,
compared the struggle over Kosovo to the Second World War.
He said: "Hitler could not take it away from us and we will not rest until
Kosovo is again under Serbia's control."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/22/wbelgrade222.xml
Western shops are targets for Serbian rioters
By Alex Todorovic in Belgrade
Last Updated: 3:33am GMT 26/02/2008
Western banks, shops and restaurants were targets for Serbian rioters last
night as protests against the independence of Kosovo turned into a cycle of
looting, vandalism and street brawls with police.
Foreign clothing shops were left looted and smashed, banks were damaged,
street furniture and signs were battered, while a bitter mix of smoke and
tear gas hung on the air.
Young men with scarves covering their faces loitered everywhere about the
city, by turns fighting with or running from the police.
advertisement
The two McDonald's restaurants in the city centre were smouldering ruins by
the end of the evening. Foreign banks, such as the French Societe Generale
or the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank, were damaged, with cash machines mangled in
heaps plastic and metal outside.
Clothing shops were picked clean before being demolished; the Levi's store
on Belgrade's central shopping street Terazije was barren, down to the last
garment, as was the Bennetton shop and any number of sports shops.
Two young men struggled to lift a sliding metal gate in front of a Sector
watch shop on Srspski Vladar ("Serbian Rulers") Street. One man finally
managed to hold the heavy sliding door while the other piled a dozen watches
in his shirt, which he used as a makeshift "shopping basket".
Police officers appeared from a side street, chasing dozens of young men who
fought back with stones and detritus from smashed shops.
The police responded with tear gas, and then the mass of hoodlums dispersed
into other streets.
The young men, many of them drunk on plastic-bottled beer, spent the evening
moving in circles along side streets, showing some resistance, looting, then
finding a new area.
The hooligans had tried to destroy the British embassy earlier in the
evening as they had the American, but the British compounds tall perimeter
iron fence prevented the attack.
The American embassy, with no fence and facing one of Belgrade's largest
thoroughfares, was particularly vulnerable and the the onslaught of hundreds
of hooligans had overwhelmed any defences.
Ostensibly, the young men were demonstrating Kosovo's declaration of
independence, but hardly any of these men know the first thing about Kosovo.
Though Kosovo was the heart of Serbia's medieval kingdom for 200 years until
the Battle of Kosovo joined it to the Ottoman Empire, most Serbs have never
visited.
As with the Los Angeles Riots in 1993, when the Rodney King verdict served
as a catalyst to express frustration over that city's intransigent economic
problems, Kosovo's independence seems to have served as an excuse for young
unemployed men to vent their rage over festering economic difficulties.
Serbia's average salary is just a few hundred euros per month, yet people
are lucky to even have a job.
Most young people are unemployed and the transition economy has been
particularly tough on young people with few job skills.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=f0242c89-be2f-4530-948a-5d612b4a63c2&k=46574
Prayer and protest on eve of Kosovo independence
Ivana Sekularac, Reuters Published: Saturday, February 16, 2008
MITROVICA, Serbia (Reuters) - Serbs held a day of prayer and protest on
Saturday on the eve of the secession of their cherished province Kosovo,
whose Albanian majority has struggled for its own state for almost two
decades.
"We are all expecting something difficult and horrible," Bishop Artemije,
the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo, told hundreds of Serbs at
the St Dimitrije church in the north Kosovo town of Mitrovica.
"Our message to you, all Serbs in Kosovo, is to remain in your homes and
around your monasteries, regardless of what God allows or our enemies do,"
he said.
Kosovo's parliament will declare independence on Sunday, almost nine years
since NATO went to war to save the province's 90-percent Albanian majority
from a wave of killings and ethnic cleansing by Serb forces trying to crush
a rebel insurgency.
The declaration will be made during a parliamentary session in the capital
Pristina due to begin at 3.00 p.m. (11 a.m EST), according to the schedule
of events leaked to media on Saturday.
In Belgrade, more than 1,000 people gathered with banners, flags and
religious icons to protest against the loss of land many consider their
religious heartland, steeped in history and the site of dozens of
centuries-old Orthodox monasteries.
"We're ready to fight for Kosovo," said protester Ivan Ivanovic. "Kosovo
will be returned to us, we'll never accept its independence."
They delivered a petition to the embassy of current European Union president
Slovenia, condemning the EU's support for Kosovo's "illegal" secession.
A full-page advertisement in Serbian dailies called for more demonstrations
against this "punishment and humiliation."
"Kosovo, the most precious part of Serbia, is being taken away," said the ad
by the unknown group "Active Centre."
"We must ... never give up the fight for its preservation."
It is unclear how strongly ordinary Serbs will vent their anger at the final
loss of a place that has been mainly Albanian for almost a century.
PROVOCATION
In Kosovo, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci prayed at the graves of the Jashari
family in the village of Prekaz, remembering the March 1998 massacre of more
than 50 people by Serb forces that swelled Albanian support for guerrilla
war.
"We are on the brink of making official the independence of Kosovo," he said
on the snow-swept hillside.
Albanian and U.S. flags flew from cars and shops across the U.N.-run
territory as its 2 million Albanians prepared to celebrate the culmination
of a decades-long drive for their own state.
Despite the backing of Russia, Belgrade can do nothing to stop independence
or Kosovo's recognition by the West. Serbia's uneasy coalition government is
split over whether to reject ties with the European Union over the bloc's
backing for Kosovo.
Brussels has approved the launch of a 2,000-strong police and justice
mission for Kosovo that will take over from the current U.N. administration
after a 120-day transition.
Commenting on the mission, Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic, an ally
of nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, said Serbia would "have to
question its ties" with the EU and states that recognize Kosovo's
independence.
The commander of NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo, French Lieutenant-General
Xavier de Marnhac, said the force, KFOR, "will react and oppose any
provocation that may happen during these days, whether from the Albanian or
the Serb side."
The United States and most EU members will recognize the new state, the last
to be carved from Yugoslavia. They say Serbia relinquished the moral right
to rule its people because of the brutality against them under the late
Slobodan Milosevic.
Serbia rejects the secession and has told Kosovo's 120,000 remaining Serbs
to do the same. Many of them live in the north adjacent to Serbia proper and
look set to cement a de facto partition that will weigh on the new state for
years.
(Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci and Ellie Tzortzi; writing by Matt
Robinson, edited by Richard Meares)
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gdGRegAVABp_IFgyG6NOP7Ntps3A
Belgrade 'Riot Girls' prove unlikely YouTube hit
Feb 22, 2008
BELGRADE (AFP) - Internet surfers in Serbia were aghast Friday at footage of
a pair of "Riot Girls" shamelessly taking advantage of riots in the capital
Belgrade to go on a looting spree.
The video clip, which has become an unlikely hit after being posted on the
videosharing website YouTube, shows the two young women going from shop to
shop and helping themselves to anything from chocolates to designer clothes.
The link www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VWZoKWBYXE had received well over 2,000
comments within 24 hours of being posted.
The video entitled "Kosovo for a pair of sneakers," was uploaded by a user
called "Gvantanamo" (eds:correct), who described it as "Belgrade chicks use
riots and shamelessly steal from smashed up boutiques."
"They are so greedy and even carry goods in their teeth," added
"Gvantanamo".
In the footage, the two blondes can be seen stealing from a ransacked
grocery store, picking up chocolates and drinks, before rushing into an
adidas shop that had been broken into, bagging shoes and jackets.
It was apparently filmed by someone on a mobile phone camera.
The unidentified cameramen kept asking them for their names, but one of the
girls only shouted "Go away, stop filming," as the other tried to pick up
stolen goods that had fallen out of her hands.
Serbian police said almost 200 people were detained after the rioting, which
broke out after a government-organised rally to show Serbia's opposition to
Kosovo's independence.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b7c94334-e0e8-11dc-b0d7-0000779fd2ac.html
Body found as riot hits US embassy
By Neil MacDonald in Belgrade and Daniel Dombey in,Washington
Published: February 22 2008 02:00 | Last updated: February 22 2008 02:00
The US branded Serbia's behaviour yesterday as "unacceptable" and condemned
the country's government for what it said was the incitement of violence
after scores of protesters broke into the US embassy in Belgrade and set
part of it ablaze.
A charred body was found in the embassy, which security personnel later
managed to secure. US officials said they believed it was probably a
protester rather than of an embassy employee.
The violence comes as a contrast to US and European Union hopes of a smooth
resolution to the long-running dispute over Kosovo, which declared
independence from Serbia at the weekend and which the US and leading EU
countries have recognised. It also underlines the obstacles facing
Washington and Brussels as they seek to strengthen Belgrade's ties with the
rest of Europe.
Nicholas Burns, the US undersecretary of state, who earlier this week
spelled out the US's ambition to "reach out" to Serbia, delivered a formal
protest yesterday to Vojislav Kostunica, Serbia's prime minister.
"The message was very clear: that the situation was intolerable, that they
needed to act immediately to provide the adequate security forces so that
our embassy compound and our personnel were not under attack," said Sean
McCormack, the state department's spokesman.
Mr Burns, who called Mr Kostunica under personal instructions from
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, told the Serbian prime minister
that no recurrence of yesterday's events was acceptable and obtained his
assurance that no repetition would occur.
Tens of thousands of protesters had converged on Belgrade to insist that
Kosovo remained part of Serbia. Government leaders joined with the hardline
nationalist Radical party for the huge rally.
Hundreds of buses and free transport on the national railways ensured that
citizens could come from all over Serbia, with turnout expectations running
as high as 1m.
One protester climbed up to the first floor of the building, ripped the US
flag off its pole and briefly put up a Serbian flag. Some protesters jumped
up and down on the embassy balcony, holding up a Serbian flag as the crowd
cheered them on. Additional reporting by agencies.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gOOd4tK30P-TqprIFsObWhnlglRw
Serbian-Canadians protest in four cities over Kosovo independence
Mar 1, 2008
TORONTO - To chants of "Kosovo is Serbia" hundreds of protesters gathered at
the Ontario legislature Saturday to urge Ottawa not to recognize Kosovo's
unilateral declaration of independence.
Ontario Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis joined organizers in exhorting
Serbian-Canadians to sign petitions to their local MPs, and call the prime
minister. He criticized what he called the international community's rush to
recognize Kosovo.
Scott Taylor, a former soldier who served in Bosnia, said Canada's
recognition of Kosovo as an independent province would be a mistake.
Taylor said UN Resolution 1244, which Canada signed as a NATO member, firmly
states that Kosovo remains Serbian sovereign territory.
The federal government has yet to announce its position.
Rallies were also planned for Ottawa, Winnipeg and Calgary.
Last weekend, thousands of Serbian-Canadians marched outside the U.S.
consulate in Toronto, and hundreds more past the U.S. consulate in Montreal,
saying Kosovo's independence declaration on Feb. 17 is illegal.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/26/europe/kosovo.php
Bosnian Serbs try to storm U.S. Consulate during Kosovo protest
Reuters, The Associated Press
Published: February 26, 2008
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia and Herzegovina: The police fired tear gas at Bosnian
Serb rioters Tuesday to prevent them from storming the U.S. Consulate during
a rally to protest Kosovo's declaration of independence.
Hundreds of protesters split away from the almost 10,000 peaceful protesters
in Banja Luka and headed toward the consulate, breaking shop windows and
throwing stones at police officers who blocked the streets leading to the
building with armored vehicles.
A rain of stones poured down on the police before they fired tear gas to
disperse the crowd. Several officers were seen limping.
The police were also seen detaining several demonstrators as they tried to
flee to a nearby park.
The latest violence came as Kosovo told Serbia on Tuesday that it would not
yield one inch of its territory.
Today in Europe
Responding to a pledge by Belgrade to rule Serb-dominated parts of Kosovo,
Hashim Thaci, the ethnic Albanian prime minister of Kosovo, said, "I am
constantly in contact with NATO to prevent anyone from touching even one
inch of Kosovo's territory."
About 120,000 Serbs remain in Kosovo, just under half in the north in a
slice of land that runs adjacent to Serbia and where Serbs seem intent on
cutting remaining ties with Pristina.
The attempt on the consulate on Tuesday follows a violent protest Thursday
in which hundreds of hooligans attacked the U.S. Embassy in central
Belgrade, setting part of it on fire and smashing windows. One person died
and hundreds were wounded and arrested.
The protest Tuesday began with participants gathering peacefully at the main
square in central Banja Luka, carrying Serbian flags, pictures of President
Vladimir Putin of Russia and banners reading "No America." At least one U.S.
flag had a swastika drawn on it.
Some bystanders returning from the peaceful part of the protest Tuesday
yelled "Shame on you!" at the rioters and one man, apparently a former
Bosnian Serb soldier, shouted, "This is not what I fought for!"
The incident occurred despite repeated calls by organizers to hold a
peaceful protest. The police secured diplomatic missions in the city ahead
of the rally and warned that it would use all legal means to prevent
violence.
Bosnia consists of two mini-states, one run by Bosnian Serbs, the other by
Bosnians and Croats. The Bosnian Serb Parliament has condemned Kosovo's
declaration of independence and said it would consider a referendum to
secede from Bosnia if more countries considered Kosovo independent.
The United States and major European Union powers have recognized Kosovo,
nine years after going to war to save its Albanian majority from ethnic
cleansing by Serbian forces.
Russia is Serbia's main ally in rejecting Kosovo's secession, promising
political and economic support.
A NATO peace force of 16,000 has stepped up security in the north of Kosovo,
particularly Mitrovica, where Serbs and Albanians are divided by the Ibar
River. The NATO force took control of two northern border crossings last
week after they were burned down by Serbian mobs.
The EU, which is deploying a 2,000-strong police and justice mission to
Kosovo, withdrew its small team from Mitrovica because of security concerns.
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60240&archive=true
Serbs continue Kosovo protest
By Kent Harris, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, February 26, 2008
More than a week after Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia,
protesters continue to march each day in the volatile northern city of
Kosovska Mitrovica.
Hundreds of protesters in the city have taken to marching each day beginning
at 12:44 p.m. - a reference to the U.N. Security Council resolution that
made Kosovo a protectorate in 1999 after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign.
French Navy Capt. Bernard Bonneau, the spokesman for Kosovo Force, said
about 500 demonstrators showed up each day over the weekend.
"It seems like the number of people is decreasing," he said in a telephone
interview Monday.
KFOR and the U.N. police had a role in that.
Given word that potentially thousands of people from Serbia were heading by
bus to Mitrovica to join protesters Friday, police and troops closed the
border "for a short period of time," Bonneau said. That resulted in the
buses being turned back.
"When the situation was back to normal, people were able to cross on both
sides," he said. "We believe in freedom of movement, as long as we have
public order."
By all accounts, that hasn't been a problem in the U.S. sector of Kosovo
that's set up in the southeast along the border with the Republic of
Macedonia. First Lt. Lamartine Station, a public affairs officer for Task
Force Falcon at Camp Bondsteel, said Monday that all remained quiet in the
sector.
"Today is the exact same as it was last Friday," Capt. Jeff Blowers,
commander of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 135th Infantry Regiment, said on
Friday.
Many of the soldiers in Task Force Bayonet - hailing from the 34th Infantry
Division of the Minnesota National Guard - were in Kosovo the last time that
problems in Mitrovica spiraled out of control.
Ethnic Serbs were blamed for the deaths of ethnic Albanian youths in March
2004, causing riots around the province - including the U.S. sector.
Hundreds of people were arrested.
Bonneau said that Mitrovica is a potential flash point for trouble because
of a few hard-liners living among its population. There are about 20,000
Serbs believed to be living in the city that's ethnically divided by a
bridge spanning the Ibar River. A larger ethnic Albanian population lives on
the other side of the river.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1203343706307&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Feb 19, 2008 18:25
Kosovo Serbs set border crossings on fire to protest independence
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo
Chanting "Kosovo is Serbia," thousands of Serbs marched Tuesday to a bridge
dividing them from ethnic Albanians while others torched UN border
checkpoints and cars to protest Kosovo's declaration of independence.
Smoke billowed from two checkpoints separating Kosovo from Serbia and flames
engulfed several UN vehicles set ablaze in protest against Kosovo's weekend
proclamation of independence and anger over international recognition of the
new nation.
For two days, Kosovo's Serbs have shown their determination to shun the
declaration by destroying UN and NATO property, setting off small bombs and
staging noisy rallies through the Serb stronghold of Kosovska Mitrovica.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iwqCJTu9VCkM7R8-AJca3Z9Pk9Mg
Russia slams US 'cynicism' on Kosovo, Serbs protest in Vienna
Feb 24, 2008
BELGRADE (AFP) - Russia accused the United States Sunday of seeking to
humiliate Serbia over Kosovo, while Serb protesters clashed with riot police
amid ugly scenes in Vienna.
Passions were high as up to 10,000 Serbs demonstrated in the Austrian
capital, going by police and organiser estimates. A mob of around 400
charged towards the US embassy after burning an American flag.
Stopped by police, they made for a neighbourhood with a high number of
immigrants from Kosovo and smashed store windows -- with separate scuffles
between youths from Serbia and Kosovo breaking out on the city's main
shopping street.
Police spokesman Manfred Simettinger said two officers were injured before
the crowd was dispersed around 6:30 pm (1730 GMT). Austria has recognised
Kosovo's independence declaration.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/25/content_7662268.htm
Serbs rally in Brussels to protest Belgian stance on Kosovo
BRUSSELS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Several hundred Serbs held a demonstration
in Brussels on Sunday to protest Belgium's plans to recognize Kosovo as an
independent state, Belgian public broadcaster VRT reported.
The protesters said last Sunday's unilateral declaration of independence
by the Kosovo's parliament contravenes international law, the report said.
One of the demonstration's organizers, Serbian historian Alexis Troude,
told journalists that the declaration of independence contravenes the United
Nations Charter, UN resolution 1244, the 1975 Helsinki Final Act and the
Serbian constitution.
The protesters said the recognition of Kosovo independence will have
consequences elsewhere in Europe.
"Today it's Kosovo, but tomorrow it could be the Basque Country,
Corsica, Sud-Tirol (Italy)," one of the protesters told Belgian press agency
Belga.
A majority of the 27 EU member states have officially recognized or plan
to recognize Kosovo's independence.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/19/content_7626910.htm
Protests staged against Kosovo independence in Belgrade, N Kosovo
Serbs hold a protest against Kosovo's declaration of independence in front
of the Embassy of the United States in Belgrade, capital of Serbia, Feb. 18,
2008. Kosovo Albanians declared independence on Sunday, drawing instant
condemnation from Serbia and triggering protest in Belgrade.
BELGRADE, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Belgraders and Serbs in northern Kosovo on
Monday staged protests against Kosovo's declaration of independence.
Thousands of people gathered in downtown Belgrade to protest the
unilateral independence of Kosovo.
The protest, organized by the Association of Citizens Active Center, was
later joined by students of the law faculty of Belgrade University.
Protesters waved Serbian national flags and banners, chanting "Kosovo is
the heart of Serbia."
Meanwhile, Serbs in the northern Kosovo city of Mitrovica voiced in a
peaceful protest their rejection of "the creation of anew quasi-Albanian
state in the territory of Serbia," Serbia's official Tanjug news agency
reported.
Protesters carried numerous Serbian flags and banners in the Serbian and
English languages, saying "Kosovo not for sale", "No giving up of
Kosovo,"...
Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci declared the independence of Kosovo
during an extraordinary session of Kosovo's parliament on Sunday. The
Serbian leadership annulled Kosovo's independence shortly afterwards.
Kosovo was a southern autonomous province within Serbia before the
breakup of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Albanian-dominated region
was plunged into ethnic conflicts in the1990s.
Kosovo has been under UN administration since mid-1999, after NATO air
strikes drove Serbian forces out of the province.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23238213-1702,00.html
Police car damaged as Serbs protest
February 19, 2008 04:09am
Article from: AAP
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A POLICE car was damaged in Melbourne last night during a small but vocal
protest against Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia.
A group of about 200 people described by police as Serbians gathered at
Melbourne's Federation Square about 9pm (AEDT) and marched along St Kilda
Road to the US consulate.
"A bottle was thrown through the back window of a police car, but apart from
being a bit vocal, they were OK," Victoria Police spokesman Senior Constable
Wayne Wilson said.
"They stayed outside the consulate for a while and went home.
Police and federal agencies kept watch on the demonstrators, he said.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership announced its independence from Serbia
on Monday, and suspense gripped the province as its citizens awaited key
backing from the US and key European powers.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5g7irEJbOC3guWLpF-pvA7yedmSOQ
Serbian Canadians protest Kosovo independence in weekend marches
Feb 25, 2008
TORONTO - Amid a sea of Serbian flags and passionate chants of ``Kosovo is
Serbia,'' about 2,000 demonstrators marched to the U.S. consulate in Toronto
late Saturday afternoon to protest what they call the ``illegal and
unilateral'' secession of Kosovo from Serbia.
The often-noisy but peaceful protest was the first of several
Serbian-Canadian demonstrations planned over the next couple of weeks. On
Sunday, protests are scheduled in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery and on
Montreal's McGill University campus.
Organizers of the Toronto event urged the federal government not to
recognize the Kosovo declaration because they say it violates international
law and Canadian standards, and could have ramifications on this country's
unity.
``It would be contrary to Canada's national interests because we don't want
separatists in Quebec getting the precedent from Kosovo that it's OK to
secede unilaterally,'' said Bojan Ratkovic, a Brock University student who
led the event hosted by the University of Toronto Serbian Student
Association.
Under the Clarity Act which became law in 2000 in Canada, Quebec or any
other province wanting to secede would have to win a ``clear majority'' in a
referendum that is based on a clear question.
The Harper government has yet to take a public stance on Kosovo's
declaration. The U.S. and many European nations are recognizing Kosovo's
independence, while Serbia's ally Russia, China and Spain are among those
who have said they will not.
Kosovo, which is 90 per cent ethnic Albanian, has not been under Serbian
control since 1999, when NATO launched air strikes to halt a crackdown on
separatists.
A UN mission has governed Kosovo since, but Serbia - and Kosovo's Serbs, who
make up less than 10 per cent of the population - refuse to give up a
territory they consider to be the ancient cradle of the Serbian state and
religion.
``It's the heart of our culture, our history, our religion,'' said Olivia
Alaica, 18, who took part in the protest with her mother and two sisters.
``Kosovo is Serbia as in Toronto is Canadian,'' added her 20-year-old sister
Amanda.
Protest organizers also point to UN Security Council Resolution 1244 passed
in June 1999 to back their argument. It reaffirms ``the commitment of all
member states to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia and the other states of the region.''
Several hundred protesters led by bicycle-mounted police proceeded from near
the Ontario legislature to the consulate just down University Avenue, where
hundreds more greeted them. Many carried placards, including some reading
``Kosovo is the heart of Serbia'' and ``Kovoso (equals) Quebec.''
By that time, the crowd had swollen to over 2,000 by a police estimate. Rows
of officers, riot gear helmets attached to their hips, stood behind metal
barricades on the west side of University Avenue as others were mounted on
horseback, keeping demonstrators well away from the consulate building.
The concern for violence at the event was heightened by the attacks on the
U.S. Embassy in Belgrade Thursday night, which saw one man killed and 150
others hurt. As well, a violent protest in March 1999 saw the consulate
building damaged after it was firebombed.
No one was inside the consulate Saturday, which was closed.
After speeches from organizers, a moment of silence was held to remember
Serbian Orthodox churches burned in Kosovo since 1999. Police then allowed
seven children through the barricades to place a placard in front of the
consulate and light candles before the crowd marched back up University
Avenue.
Further protests are planned next weekend in Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=300b4996-dc9d-41f2-baf8-bb8b51f5eef1&k=48408
French-language activists stage protest
JAN RAVENSBERGEN, The Gazette
Published: Saturday, February 02
Young people predominated in a flag-waving crowd of about 60 that gathered
Saturday at 2 p.m. outside the downtown Montreal office of Quebec Premier
Jean Charest to condemn his government's language policies, complaining that
French is being given short shrift.
Among the slogans they most frequently shouted was "Charest vendu!" ---
which translates as "Charest sellout!"
Unless provincial authorities act on this "linguistic crisis," said François
Gendron, 25, spokesperson for protest organizer Jeunes Patriotes du Québec,
"we risk starting to speak Frenglish in Quebec in the next couple of years."
At 2:45 p.m., demonstrators started parading eastbound along Sherbrooke St.
W. from their rallying point near the corner of McGill College Ave., just
south of the main entrance of McGill University.
They called for the resignation of Culture Minister Christine St-Pierre and
of France Boucher, head of the Office québécois de la langue française.
A recently disclosed 2006 study concluded that people whose mother tongue is
French now are in the minority on Montreal Island.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2727791920080127
Eight shot dead in Beirut opposition protests
Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:38pm EST
By Laila Bassam
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Eight Lebanese opposition supporters were shot dead in
Beirut on Sunday in some of the worst street violence since Lebanon's
1975-90 civil war, raising tensions in a country gripped by political
conflict.
A senior opposition source said all the dead were members of Hezbollah or
Amal -- Shi'ite Muslim groups that have been locked in a power struggle with
the anti-Damascus governing coalition for more than a year. At least 29 more
people were wounded.
The violence spiraled after an Amal activist was shot dead when the army
moved to break up a protest over power cuts.
Security sources said the army, seen as neutral in the political crisis,
fired in the air to disperse the protest and that other gunman in civilian
clothes were nearby.
Most of the eight dead activists, all men, were killed in the same area, but
it was not clear who was responsible. The army said it was investigating who
was behind the shooting.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora urged calm and declared Monday a day of
mourning. Schools and universities were to be closed.
"In these moments, our country is passing through its most difficult and
dangerous times," he said in a statement. "What we have built during the
past years is in danger of crumbling."
Gunfire was heard into the night in Beirut, and the streets were deserted.
Gunmen were seen in Shi'ite and Christian areas near the scene of the
shooting in Mar Makhaeil.
In nearby Ain Roummaneh, the site of a massacre that had triggered Lebanon's
civil war, a hand grenade wounded seven people, security sources said. Cars
there were set ablaze.
The governing coalition and its Syrian-backed opponents have sought to
contain violence since clashes a year ago between their supporters. But
tensions are still high between Sunni Muslim followers of governing
coalition leader Saad al-Hariri and Shi'ites loyal to the opposition.
PROVOCATEURS?
Animosity also runs deep between rival Christian groups. Opposition and
governing coalition leaders last year accused each other of arming and
training followers.
"This is the work of agents provocateurs -- someone is in there stirring
trouble," political analyst Oussama Safa said, adding he expected rival
leaders to defuse the situation.
"I really think they want to get a hold of the situation. But someone,
somewhere is doing this."
Protesters used blazing tires to block several main roads, including the
highway to the airport. The protests spread beyond the capital to Shi'ite
villages in the south and the Bekaa Valley to the east.
Amal, led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, called on its followers to
leave the streets.
"We have no link to this action. We call on people not to react. We call on
them to pull out of the streets," senior Amal official Ali Hassan Khalil
told Reuters. Hezbollah, which leads the opposition alliance, used
loudspeakers to urge calm.
Arab foreign ministers backed an Arab League initiative to solve Lebanon's
political crisis, which has left Lebanon without a president since November,
the Cairo-based organization said.
At an emergency session in Cairo, the foreign ministers agreed that Arab
League Secretary-General Amr Moussa should press his efforts to help rival
parties reach an agreement on the make-up of a cabinet, the draft final
communique read.
Efforts to end the Lebanese crisis have been complicated by rivalry between
Syria and Saudi Arabia, which backs the governing coalition. U.S. rivalry
with Iran, which supports Hezbollah, is also partly to blame, analysts say.
Rival leaders have agreed that army chief General Michel Suleiman should be
the next president. But his election to the post has been held up by a
dispute over the make-up of a new government.
(Additional reporting by Nadim Ladki; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by
Elizabeth Piper)
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=88676
Judiciary charges 11 soldiers, six civilians over deaths at protest
Daily Star staff
Monday, February 04, 2008
Lebanon's Military Tribunal took custody on Sunday of 11 soldiers and six
civilians detained in connection with recent clashes that left eight people
dead in the Mar Mikhael-Shiyyah area. Protests deteriorated into riots on
January 27 after army troops opened fire, reportedly in response to gunfire
from unidentified assailants.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7240504.stm
Charges over Lebanon riot deaths
The deaths raised fears of conflict between the army and the opposition
Lebanese prosecutors have charged 19 soldiers, including three officers,
over the fatal shooting of opposition protesters during riots last month.
Seven protesters were killed on 27 January in a mainly Shia suburb during
protests over power cuts.
Correspondents say the shootings raised tensions in Lebanon, already in a
deep political crisis, to new levels.
The indictment says six victims were killed by army bullets. An enquiry is
ongoing to find who killed the seventh.
Lebanon has been without a president since 23 November due to divisions
between the pro-Western ruling majority and pro-Syrian opposition.
A parliamentary vote to elected a new leader was delayed for a 14th time on
Monday.
Rival Lebanese factions have agreed in principle to elect army chief Gen
Michel Suleiman, but have repeatedly disagreed over constitutional details
and the make-up of the cabinet.
The army has been seen as one of the country's most neutral institutions,
but a BBC correspondent in Beirut says the latest killings threaten to draw
it into the conflict
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